by Webmaster | Jan 25, 2018 | Identity
As the Jewish world — and much of the rest — mourns the passing of Julius Lester, I remember the man I met when his spiritual journey was not quite complete. Lester, 78, of Belchertown, Mass., passed away peacefully on Jan. 18, his daughter Lian Amaris posted on his...
by Webmaster | Jan 15, 2018 | Identity
Martin Luther King, Jr. felt uneasy as he and his wife, Coretta, landed in Jerusalem in the winter of 1959. They had come from Lebanon and were eager to see the Old City’s Christian holy sites. But it troubled King that Jerusalem was divided, the western part...
by Webmaster | Jan 10, 2018 | Holidays, Identity, Jewish Ritual
Ahava means love. My love of Judaism and my cultural identity as a Black Jew are at the core of who I am. Shabbat is the highlight of my week. It is a sacred time for me to consciously reflect and heal. It is a time when I take a meditation walk and think about my...
by Webmaster | Jan 4, 2018 | Identity
As we begin this new year, and the coldest months are still in front of us, I want to share with you a piece of my journey this year, and a personal moment of transformation. A moment which I could hear my ancestors, both my African and Eastern-European roots, singing...
by Webmaster | Dec 27, 2017 | Identity
As poet Aaron Samuels narrates in the video above, a new year is beginning. Looking back over the year that was, there is no single way to tell the story of our many experiences of 2017 so our first annual roundup of multicultural and racial perspectives on Jewish...
by Webmaster | Dec 14, 2017 | Arts & Culture, Holidays, Identity
Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, Francesca Aoki Biller found the combination of her Russian-Jewish and Japanese-Buddhist heritage challenging and inspiring. Both her grandmother’s and her struggles with identity and faith fueled her creativity. After...
