Children laughing, a baby’s muffled cry, the peaceful sounds of a Saturday afternoon, drift through the open window. This is New York – one of the liveliest, most turbulent cities in the world…
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Children laughing, a baby’s muffled cry, the peaceful sounds of a Saturday afternoon, drift through the open window. This is New York – one of the liveliest, most turbulent cities in the world…
I had four children when I managed to leap off the train mid-journey to Doomsville. Sweet innocent children that I love dearly, but I had to leave them. It was too dangerous for…
Put away the book. Put it away and listen to Kiddush. Stand up, your father’s waiting. Shhh. Come on. Nu. Nu! We don’t talk before grape juice, you’re a…
Rievi and I sit on rocks near the shallow stream, the water cascading over tangles of rocks, branches, and fallen tree trunks, seeking its way, as water always does, to the lowest…
In June of 2003, I met with a writer for The Village Voice in a kosher café in Midtown Manhattan. Over a diet coke, with the writer’s recorder on the table between us, I spoke about my blog, my views on religion, and Chasidic society. I’d been hesitant, apprehensive about the inevitable publicity following...
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I come
to my daughter’s place
invitation in my purse
among my to-do lists, my half-read book,
my nibbled-on snack, my nearly-gone drink.
A Jewish tradition
A superstition
inviting the dead to…
The phone calls started when I was thirteen. My mother said no, no and no. By the time I was seventeen it was calls every night, my mother carrying the cordless into her…
Sholom Rubashkin gave a tearful apology in court at his sentencing hearing this week over the criminal charges on which he’s been convicted. Prosecutors in the case have asked for…
A young man wears his shtreimel on a brisk walk with his daughter so that her afternoon nap be a peaceful one. I look away, I want to be alone. I walk on…
My cell phone vibrates. Nuchem taught me how to set it on vibrate when I’m in shul or, as I am now, at a simcha. Breindy wanted me to look around to…