Shabbat, Chronic Illness, & Radical Rest
“I have seen Jewish wisdom anchor chronically ill and disabled people amidst a society that is built, in many ways, to exclude us.”
Journalism by Jewish college students, for Jewish college students.
“I have seen Jewish wisdom anchor chronically ill and disabled people amidst a society that is built, in many ways, to exclude us.”
“It is true that we are formed from the ‘dust of the Earth’ – we are descendants of space stuff, whether your origin story starts with an apple or a bang.”
The Jewish performer’s new essay collection is “part exclusive backstage pass and part long-form literary striptease.”
“In declaring that the only way for Jews to be safe is for Israel to be safe, the safety of Jews everywhere else has effectively been compromised.”
“The Yiddish word haymishe comes to mind… It immediately made sense to me as an equal-parts ironic and sincere evocation of the joy and warmth of Midwestern Jewishness.”
“There’s this catharsis in getting to kill Nazis on stage, knowing they would have wanted to kill you.”
“By distancing myself from Christianity, I’ve distanced myself from a part of my mom’s life. I’m still trying to put together the pieces I’ve missed.”
“My beloved’s hair is the color of coffee /
And she drinks from the finest waters in Sefarad.”
“He just has so many bangers!” said another Jewish friend begrudgingly the same week, dismayed that we weren’t putting Ye West on the playlist for the rager that night.
“Zadie’s fork clatters on the table, startling me. So, he says, taking a breath to steady himself, I have been told that you are gay.”
I could see it all through a foggy haze, Kit and I forming a new life built up from the rotten wood and busted stone, broken pieces melded together to be whole again.
“Right at the moment when I felt the least aligned with Judaism, I was cast in the most Jewish musical in existence.”
A play written by Sholem Asch in 1906 hasn’t stopped being relevant to questions of Jewish identity – especially for queer Jews.
“When you pray the Lakota way, do you feel like you’re praying to the same God?”
“To my surprise, Shabbat dinners became a predictable and grounding occurrence every week. My mom cooked, I set the table, and my dad and brother cleaned up after the meal. Sometimes it was twenty minutes of near silence then everyone scurried off to their bedrooms again. Sometimes it ended in explosive arguments and someone finishing their plate an hour or two later in the kitchen. But sometimes it worked.”