“He’s not coming,” I said, and threw my finished cigarette on the ground. I moved my shoe over the remnants of the butt, about to be extinguished by my ballet flat. I took a deep breath and exhaled as the…
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“He’s not coming,” I said, and threw my finished cigarette on the ground. I moved my shoe over the remnants of the butt, about to be extinguished by my ballet flat. I took a deep breath and exhaled as the…
As a teenager I read an article in Cosmo about how guys with stubble like the red they can bring to a woman’s cheeks during kissing: It’s a she’s-so-tender-I’m-so-tough type of thing. The first time I saw a Chasid, his beard looked vaguely terrifying. I’ve always hated beards, macho like my Dad’s, like Hulk...
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They come, they clean, they leave. Occasionally they’ll be given a few Ostreicher’s chocolate chip cookies and some apple juice in a plastic cup. (“Chas v’shulem, not from my dishes!”) But here’s the human side (and a bit…
He reminded me of myself, back when I’d never been inside a bar, hardly even to a restaurant. It was a spontaneous meetup. He’d been a fan for years, and we corresponded on and off. My identity was…
Yeshiva boys turning into druglords; a new book advises that attacks on non-Jews will "curb their evil inclination;" a $3 million lawsuit over a beard; and a tefillin bomb-scare causes an emergency landing.
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At first glance it might seem like the Shabbos table of any Chasidic home. The candles are lit. At the edge of the table lies a colored parsha page from a pre-school child and a list of farher questions for the seven-year-old. The smell of steaming cholent wafts in from the kitchen. But some...
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I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. But I’m more damned if I don’t, so I will. I will talk about race. And racism. And how our frum world is afflicted by it, ingrained as it is…
Overheard at Masbia Borough Park:
Chasidish man with clipboard to a buddy: S’iz geferlich. Far yede ein yid, hub ich gehat nein goyim.
So much for the kindness extended to all. It’s a new definition of geferlich, though. My grandmonther…