LGBTQ youth face terrifying new threats. How should the Jewish community respond?
Anti-LGBTQ legislation is often billed as defending religion. But Judaism has long supported the idea of a spectrum of sexual and gender identities.
Anti-LGBTQ legislation is often billed as defending religion. But Judaism has long supported the idea of a spectrum of sexual and gender identities.
In Jewish life, the Hebrew word kehillah, meaning congregation or community, bears immeasurable significance. So much of Jewish practice is based on coming together as a kehillah, and connecting in a meaningful way with family and friends in both good and bad times. Central to any kehillah are three foundational pillars – family, education and…
Read this article in Yiddish. When my family and hundreds of others got the email from SAR Academy back in March, telling us that all classes were cancelled after a student tested positive for Covid-19, most of us were just excited that we were getting a day off of school. Little did we know that…
From its start in 1906, A Bintel Brief was a pillar of the Forward, helping generations of Jewish immigrants learn how to be American. Now our columnists are helping people navigate the complexities of being Jewish in 2020. Send questions to [email protected]. Turbulence ahead Dear Bintel, I am a mother of two. My daughter is…
Teenage summers are transformative times. Between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next, adolescents take on new roles at camp, become temporary members of the workforce, and enjoy evening cruises down back roads. They cement friendships, escape parents’ watchful eyes, and break the rules — just a little. “This is…
Your kids are fighting over a toy. You know, the toy they’ve fought over every single day since shelter-in-place began. You’re worried that someone is going to end up with a bloody nose, and you’re also desperate for a few quiet moments to get some work done. You yell at them. They yell back. Soon…
Like many grandmothers, I’ve been trying to find a way to connect with my grandkids in this pandemic. I penned a poem for my granddaughter Livia who lives in Hollywood, Florida — the other side of the globe from me in Israel; we now visit on Facetime. My daughter, Miriam, a self-taught painter, took it…
“What happens to a dream deferred?” With this question, Langston Hughes began his poem “Harlem,” inquiring what happens to a person who discovers their long-sought dream to be unobtainable. Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Does it linger and fester? Or does it, as Hughes suggests in his allusion to the…
100% of profits support our journalism