Susan Reimer-Torn
By Susan Reimer-Torn
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Culture How a Talmud Class Helped Save My Marriage
After 36 years of fiercely devoted marriage, my husband and I are broke, anxious and disappointed. We hardly speak to each other, and when we do it is mostly to accuse and complain. Is it desperation, a search for solace or something more elusive that brings us to the most unlikely of places? One autumn…
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Life Sarah and Hagar’s ‘Bad Blood’ Is Feminism Gone Awry
The Days of Awe are rich in opportunity for Jewish feminists who see themselves as activists for transformation, both personal and collective. It is striking, even ironic, that on the first day of Rosh Hashana we read the story of a catastrophic feminist failure. Sarah and Hagar are rival wives; one has what the other…
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Life Taking Back Ownership of Women’s Sexuality in Judaism
Elana Sztokman is one of the most proactive Jewish feminist thinkers on the scene today. An award-winning author of three books on gender equality in the Jewish world, a PhD in sociology and a former executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Association (JOFA), Dr. Sztokman seeks the edge. This past spring, she inaugurated a…
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Life Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the Reluctant Feminists
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Image via Flickr/Creative Commons At the trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Lille, the brilliant, left-leaning economist, referred to as DSK and once considered a “world savior,” stood before the world accused of aggravated pimping. Although the charges are likely to be dismissed, the DSK scandal triggered the most significant shift of French consciousness…
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Life When Being Black Is a Family Secret
Lacey Schwartz at the age of 2 with her mother, Peggy, in an image from “Little White Lie.” When Lacey Schwartz was accepted at Georgetown University, it was a dream come true. It also blew the lid off a tightly-guarded secret. Along with her admission, the high school senior from Woodstock, New York received an…
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Life Helena Rubenstein, Me and the Beauty Paradox
Helena Rubinstein by Paul César Helleu, image via wikicommons Beauty is power and Madame Helena Rubinstein knew just what she was dispensing. Like all enchantments, beauty stirs up passions, its secrets can emancipate or enslave. Like power, beauty can be corrupting or creative; in the hands of an alchemist like Madame, it might even be…
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Life The Bible’s Other Child Sacrifice
Finally, after 3,000 years, the public is invited to the trial of the century: Forefather Abraham will be tried for endangerment of a minor and attempted murder in connection with the near sacrifice of his son Isaac at Temple Emanu-El’s Skirball Center on November 16th. The indomitable Alan Dershowitz is arguing the defense, while the…
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Life The Anti-Gezera Brigade on Rosh Hashana
Rachel Benaim Photo Sixty women sit in an ever-widening circle at B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue on the Upper West Side. We’ve come to explore a topic that has haunted me, particularly at this time of year, ever since I was a child. Rosh Hashanah is approaching and with it comes a reminder of our vulnerability to…
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