In the past, my husband and I would rush out after Yom Kippur services to break the fast with friends, either at their house or at ours. The transition always felt jarring, a stark contrast with the immersive, meditative day. So one year, we decided to stay put and attend the Temple-sponsored Break-the-Fast. I’d always…
As a kid, I didn’t know much about charity beyond the blue-and-white rectangular boxes that my father kept at the cash register in his retail store in Berkeley. The boxes jiggled heavily, satisfyingly, as loose change piled up inside to help make the faraway land of Israel green with trees. Charity was a matter of…
On a dreary January morning in 1986, I sat in my hospital bed weeping, trying to pretend to my husband, Mark, that it was the hormones. It should have been a joyous day. The night before last, I’d given birth to a beautiful, healthy baby boy. This morning was the circumcision. Mark and I are…
On Sunday, May 1st, I gave a presentation on Celebrating Brit Shalom, the first comprehensive resource for Jewish families questioning, and opting out of, circumcision. The event took place at Temple Sinai in Oakland, and the video is now available (attached below; scroll down). I only wish my Floridian co-author, Rebecca Wald, had been able…
“Another essay about that? Aren’t multiple articles and a novel enough, already?” “All the ills in the world, and this is what you focus on?” [Attempt to keep a straight face] “You’re attacking a sacred tradition. And you’re making me feel very uncomfortable.” “But it’s an AIDS cure! Don’t you realize that in Africa, men…
We’ve all chuckled over the “rotten rejections” writers have endured on the way to fame. “I’m sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” Well, I seem to rack up “rotten acceptances.” Maybe it’s the price I pay for choosing a controversial religious subject to write about. First I…