by Shekhiynah Larks | Feb 3, 2015 | Identity, Jewish Ritual
L’chaim, to life, but to celebrate without knowing, would merely divert those from seeing my true being. You see, what you see is nothing short of brilliance, of strength, of success and triumph. But that is something that took decades to discover. My entire life has...
by Shekhiynah Larks | Jan 28, 2015 | Identity, Jewish Ritual
“He (Moses) said: “If you will listen diligently to the voice of HaShem, your God, and you will do what is just in His eyes, and you will give ear to His commandments and observe all His statues, then any of the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not place upon...
by Webmaster | Jan 27, 2015 | Arts & Culture, Identity, Jewish Ritual
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past…” When William Faulkner wrote these words in Requiem for a Nun, I’m pretty certain he didn’t have a formerly opera-singing African-American performer of Yiddish in mind. Nonetheless, for me Faulkner’s words still manage to...
by Webmaster | Jan 22, 2015 | Arts & Culture, Identity
There is a myth that Jewish music is “always in a minor key,” and often echoes themes of pieces like “Hava Nagila” and “Kol Nidrei.” So last spring when I met with Judi Lamble, the coordinator and Michael Olsen, the conductor of the Twin Cities Jewish Choral, we knew...
by Webmaster | Jan 20, 2015 | Identity
When I was in Israel this fall, I ended up going to a Sephardic synagogue one Shabbat morning, and served as the impromptu teacher for the rest of my group who very clearly had never been to a non-Ashkenazic synagogue and were unfamiliar with the unique and different...
by Webmaster | Jan 14, 2015 | Identity, Jewish Ritual
During my childhood, I never understood why I found myself needing to adapt differently depending on which parent I was walking with: my black mother, or my white father. But then the stares grew longer, the presumptuous comments and questions never seemed to...
