Tag: Jewish
My Hidden Inheritance by Heidi Neumark
Adapted from Heidi’s book Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory and Faith, published by Abingdon Press and available on Amazon. I’ve recently been on my own “Who Do You Think You Are?â€... Read More
A Lonely Atonement: Yom Kippur in the Islamic Studies Reading Rooom
It’s Erev Yom Kippur. Perhaps the holiest night of the Jewish year. I’m sitting in the Islamic Studies Reading Room at Columbia’s Butler Library, reading through Shi’a manifest... Read More
The Only Terrorist in Israel
The only terrorist in Israel is one of Arab descent. At least, that is how it is portrayed by the media and dominant ideologues to the impressionable public either in a willful or extremely irresponsi... Read More
Arab Like Me: Rachel Dolezal and My Anxious Jewish Mask
Am I the Jewish Rachel Dolezal? I was sitting in my East Jerusalem apartment in a Moroccan djellaba, Abdel Halim Hafez warbling from the stereo, sipping mint tea and reading a New Yorker article about... Read More
The Self-Hating Jew/The Islamophobe
I haven’t written publicly about my life in Israel since I moved here. The truth is I’m scared to face the inevitable backlash that follows any time you write anything about this country. ... Read More
Sanctifying Black Lives
Our nation is in spiritual crisis. As a nation, we have profaned the holiness of God as it is manifest in black lives. There are not sufficient words to describe the pain and injustice that is present... Read More
The Waste Land
What is that noise? The wind under the door. What is that noise now? What is the wind doing? nothing again nothing. I’ve been having the oddest response to the latest Israel/Palestine crisis: al... Read More
Mourning Our Way to the World to Come
One of the things I love most about Judaism is how we mourn. We do keriya, a physical tearing of our clothes to materially represent our pain. We recite kaddish yatom, a prayer that requires a group o... Read More