The dream of a beautiful bat mitzvah — but whose dream would it fulfill?
When I look at my daughters, I see their faces as both azoy shayne and uruwashii, \”so beautiful\” in Yiddish and in Japanese.
When I look at my daughters, I see their faces as both azoy shayne and uruwashii, \”so beautiful\” in Yiddish and in Japanese.
A summer without camp? The thought was incomprehensible. I had my life ahead to travel and explore the world, yet only childhood for camp. Soon, I would be inundated with the stresses of being an adult, and it felt as if I was being forced away from my youth. I wanted to be in Malibu; I wanted to be a Jewish camper.
These days, more American families are adopting from China than any other foreign country, and a large number of those families are Jewish. A wave of girls is now coming of age, starting to face challenging issues of identity.
Honestly, I\’m glad that the recent vote of the Conservative movement has opened the door a bit toward acceptance of gay and lesbian Jews. Now that this teshuvah, or legal interpretation, was one of two that received a majority vote, I know that this helps some of my gay \”friends and family\” squeeze sideways through the now partially open door. I nevertheless remain sad and disappointed that the door has only opened a little, and the idea that it is a qualified acceptance is troubling to me.
For so many Jewish men, it always comes back to fathers and sons, despite what Philip Roth might think. Look at the films of Daniel Burman, the rising young star of the New Argentine Cinema.
\”I\’m a colorful person,\” Tochterman said. \”I like color; I like texture; I like mixing things together. I think my customer is a sophisticated, ageless, confident woman.\”
Billed as \”Jewish Literacy: A Learned Community and a Community of Learners,\” CAJE 31 was a raw, messy, creative affair, with 20 sessions held every hour for five days on such wide-reaching topics as \”God Shopping,\” \”The Jews of Sing-Sing,\” \”Assessing Our Relationship to Israel\” and \”Jews as Global Citizens.\”
\”It\’s like a temple,\” the painter says of his artist\’s studio.
A lonely temple, that is.
\”I\’m the rabbi and congregation all in one,\” he says with a laugh.