I no longer consider myself an academic. I have a Ph.D. in rabbinic literature and I use the tools I got from academia every day in my teaching and writing about Torah texts, but I am no longer an academic. I grew up in a Modern Orthodox home and community. My father loved Torah, and
On Leaving Academia and Embracing Torah Read More »
Drisha opened its doors in September 1979. Brochures had been distributed listing classes from morning till evening, Monday through Thursday. Women could come to a single class or could come to learn full-time. We were to hold classes in a rented space in a synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan—in the upper story,
“I hope you don’t resent.…” That’s what my boss said to me in the course of the discussion in which I was fired while still new on the job. She agreed that my performance had clearly been affected by my pregnancy. Positive feedback had gone down during my second trimester but up when I hit
Career and Kinder: The Choices We Make, the Challenges We Face Read More »
I have three rambunctious and adorable boys whom I love more than life itself. All were born via the miracle of in vitro fertilization (IVF), or, as my husband calls it, “test tube babies.” Technically, my husband is right because, like it or not, that little glass tube or dish is where the magic happens.
Getting Personal About Infertility Read More »
Publishing this issue of the JOFA Journal, which focuses on women’s health and reproductive issues, might seem out of touch amid a global pandemic, heightened racial tension, an increasingly polarized society, and rising antisemitism. And still, supporting women’s health and reproductive rights and exploring these fundamental human values through the lens of personal, halakhic, educational,
Message from the Executive Director Read More »
In March 2016, I decided to “go public” with my fertility journey. This decision was born mostly out of a lurking feeling of dishonesty. Ohev Sholom, the National Synagogue, in Washington, D.C., where I have served since 2013, had been invited to participate in Yesh Tikva’s Infertility Awareness Shabbat, which is now an annual event.
A Maharat Speaks of Her Fertility Journey Read More »
I am perplexed. I am amazed. I am also pleasantly moved by the degree to which I read and hear so many people lamenting the difficulties they have faced this past year and a half. Why pleasantly? To sum it up in one sentence: Welcome to my world. Although many people believe they have been
Welcome to My World Read More »
On the last day of Passover, the Yizkor prayer helps us memorialize our dead. On Pesaḥ 2020 I recited the prayer in the solitude of my living room, slowly mouthing the words. Ostensibly I was reciting the Yizkor prayers for my father, a Holocaust survivor who died twenty years ago, and for all his family
From one step on a ladder to heaven, I dreamed I was seen and seeing her, far beyond my locked down horizon. Yet underway back I tarried on a thoughtful mountain to wrestle a muscled angel, all night long, or was it my angry twin, until dawn, belatedly to realize how one-sided her end meanwhile
Rebecca’s Unwritten Passing Read More »
Let me start by acknowledging my privilege. I am lucky to live in a temperate climate, where outdoor gatherings have not been out of the question for most of the COVID-19 era. The shul I belong to has a large campus, so finding space for outdoor meetings has not been difficult. And I am extremely
