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Jewish Journal •

Fresh voices to help harmonize community at Beverly’s B’nai Abraham - Jewish Journal

Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly recently hired Emma Mair of Middleton as the congregation’s new learning engagement coordinator and Melissa Baden of Newton as the new music director.
“They’re both committed, passionate, and both connected to all ages. And they both love Judaism and want to try things out,” temple Rabbi Alison Adler said. “The three of us are committed to more multigenerational things, helping people to get to know each other and have relationships across generations.”
Mair, who...
Jewish Journal •

How an unstoppable Black Jewish woman from Brookline became a voice for Israel - Jewish Journal

In a Tel Aviv mall sometime in 2017, Noa Fay saw a Black girl at the register, and a thought struck her: That person is probably Jewish.
That thought mattered because Fay herself is Black and Jewish. Growing up in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner, she knew she stood out from her white Jewish peers. Even in an explicitly Jewish space like synagogue, strangers never assumed she was Jewish like they did her white friends. Once at a shul event in Lexington, a woman tried to explain to her what a rabbi wa...
Jewish Journal •

New rabbi hopes to help Gloucester’s Temple Ahavat Achim grow - Jewish Journal

A few years ago, Naomi Gurt Lind was teaching an online Jewish education class for adults through Newton’s Hebrew College. One day, she got an email from one of her students, who mentioned that her temple would soon be in search of a new rabbi. She wondered if Gurt Lind would be interested in applying when that time came.
“I thought, ‘Oh, isn’t that nice, someone can imagine me as their rabbi!’ ” recalled Gurt Lind.
When she was applying for rabbinic internships, she noticed an opening at Temple...
Jewish Journal •

In Marblehead, Temple Sinai leaders sing praises of new cantor/spiritual leader Batya Ellinoy

Around age 10, her family began spending weekends in Palo Alto, Calif., to attend Shabbat services at Congregation Kol Emeth, about an hour and a half away from their home in Monterey. Some of her earliest role models were these rabbis and lay leaders.

“I would particularly look at a couple of the rabbis and be like, ‘I want to be like them when I grow up,’” she recalled. “And not necessarily in a rabbi way – they just embodied such chesed, such love, and patience. I was very inspired by them.”
Jewish Journal •

HBI to host Israeli leader in talk about gender-based violence on Oct. 7

“Such silence is not just deafening, it’s damning,” said Cochav Elkayam-Levy, international law and human rights expert, before the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. “It traces the haunting question: are Israeli women and girls protected under international law? Is there international law for them?” she asked. “I urge you not to look away.”

Elkayam-Levy recently founded the Civil Commission on Oct. 7th Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children. This
Jewish Journal •

Mayyim Hayyim takes modern approach to ancient Jewish practice

Mayyim Hayyim, Boston’s inclusive, open mikvah, is gearing up to offer a program to help participants wrestle with the controversial topic of niddah. Starting March 6, “Sacred Bodies, Sacred Spaces: Exploring Niddah in Our Jewish Tradition” will take place in-person and on Zoom at Mayyim Hayyim in Newton.

The program is cosponsored by Keshet, Hebrew College, Hadar, Kavod, the Hadassah Brandeis Institute, and BASE Boston. Participants will be asked to pay what they can on a sliding scale of $90
Jewish Journal •

Local actor showcases mix of humor, family, and the Holocaust in ‘2.5 Minute Ride’

Allie Wittner, who grew up in Marblehead and Salem, is starring in playwright Lisa Kron’s one-person show about her family’s history, “2.5 Minute Ride.” The performances, directed by Mary Beth Brooker, runs through Feb. 4 at the Academy of Music in Northampton.

Wittner, who uses they/them pronouns, first got into the performing arts while at Lisa’s Dance Studio in Marblehead. The theater bug really took hold in high school, thanks to their theater teacher Barbara Whitney, and since, Wittner has
Jewish Telegraphic Agency •

To welcome interfaith couples, this Conservative synagogue hired a cantor who's allowed to wed them

(Jewish Journal of Greater Boston via JTA) — Sarah Freudenberger has spent a lot of time being told “no.”

A year and a half out of college, the “no” came from cantorial schools when she applied for ordination. Months later, when she got engaged, it came from the three rabbis she had worked with at a Reform synagogue in Florida, when she asked if they would officiate her wedding.

Both refusals were because – like 42% of married American Jews, according to a 2020 Pew study – Freudenberger’s spou
Jewish Journal •

Bnei mitzvah group celebrates deeper connection to faith

NEWBURYPORT – Wendy Leavitt didn’t read Torah at her bat mitzvah. It wasn’t common when she was bat mitzvahed in the ’70s – bat mitzvahs in her shul (for girls), unlike bar mitzvahs (for boys), generally happened on Friday nights, not on Saturdays when the Torah is read. It bothered her for decades.

“I didn’t know there was anything to do about it,” says Leavitt, now 60. For a while, there was nothing to be done: Leavitt felt a little on the outside of the Jewish community, and bothered by this
Jewish Journal •

Temple Emanu-El names Jenn Mangold as its new senior rabbi

MARBLEHEAD – Eight months after beginning its search process for a new senior rabbi, Temple Emanu-El has made a selection: Rabbi Jenn Mangold is set to start on July 1 – which will mark exactly a year after Rabbi David Meyer stepped down following 31 years of spiritual leadership at the Marblehead temple.

Since July, Temple Emanu-El has been led by interim Rabbi Darryl Crystal, who has helped the congregation in its transition from Rabbi Meyer to, now, Rabbi Mangold. On Aug. 1, the search comm
Jewish Journal •

Women learn their Jewish heritage at Shirat Hayam’s pop-up Mishnah gathering

SALEM – Faith Kramer opened the door – the front of which was adorned in big, colorful letters spelling her name – clad from head to toe in bright turquoise, white hair curling at her ears, and said, enthusiastically, “Welcome to my house!”

The greeting was clearly a courtesy because few, if any, introductions were needed among Kramer and the women who crowded into her Salem home. Most had been there before, and they skipped over apparently unnecessary pleasantries, launching into discussions o
Jewish Journal •

‘I was proud of myself that at age 73, I became a bat mitzvah’

Marcia Blonder never had a bat mitzvah. Her family practiced most holidays, and went to synagogue, but growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, bar mitzvahs were reserved for boys; her brother was bar mitzvahed, but she was not afforded that privilege.

Since August 2022, Blonder has been attending a once-a-month class taught by Raizel Schusterman of Chabad of Peabody, in preparation for the “Bat Mitzvah Milestone” celebration that occurred last Sunday. Schusterman initiated the program to teach Jewish
Jewish Journal •

Grandma’s Jewish recipes inspire Lynn chef’s rise to the top

A Jewish chef in Lynn has been shortlisted for the James Beard Foundation 2023 Outstanding Chef award.

Rachel Miller, executive chef of Nightshade Noodle Bar and owner of the neighboring Sin City Superette, has come a long way from working 80-hour weeks at a doughnut shop and a burger joint.

“All I’ve ever wanted is to be a semifinalist one day – in, like, a regional category,” she said. “Now being a finalist in the top five in the country? That’s insane! I’m over the moon.”

Seven years ago,
Litchfield Magazine •

Esther Thompson’s Memories

Esther H. Thompson’s (1851-1929) memories offer a key personal touch to recorded Litchfield history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thompson’s familial connection to the land dates back generations before her lifetime, when her great-grandparents began farming in Bethlehem. In the early 1800s, Thompson’s father moved to Litchfield, and built the house in which his daughter would spend her entire life. Thompson would go on to reflect her rich connection to Litchfield in her writing, do
Litchfield Magazine •

Adelaide Deming’s Visual Record of Litchfield

Adelaide Deming’s Impressionist Paintings Made Her Nationally Known for Her Depictions of Litchfield

Today, Litchfield’s breathtaking natural surroundings attract artists of all sorts. The same was true back in 1864, when Adelaide Deming (1864-1956) was born to William Deming and Mary Benton Deming, and went on to become a nationally recognized artist. Deming is known for her stunning oil landscapes, ensconcing the natural beauty of Litchfield on canvas for generations to come. Even before her

Rewriting the Nation: Dorothy Thompson on Women, Anti-Fascism and American Journalism in the 1930s

Throughout her life, Dorothy Thompson asserted that journalists, and women journalists in particular, had a responsibility to guide Americans towards the moral right. She embodied this responsibility herself, passionately so, and devoted her career in the 30s towards defending the U.S. from the threat of fascism, which she viewed as encroaching upon the world. This thesis explores how Thompson’s journalism contributed to a shifting journalistic paradigm and how she characterized journalists as moral guides in the U.S.; how Thompson’s feminist expressions, both lived and written characterized women journalists in the U.S.; how Thompson’s main through-line of anti-fascism and anti-isolationism shaped her characterization of Americans as morally obligated to oppose isolation; and how her reporting on Kristallnacht, and subsequent political activism, presented as a cohesive example of the culmination of her life's work, ideas and beliefs in the 1930s.

Copyright © 2022 by Gavi Klien
Women's eNews •

Climate Feminism: Where Compassion and Justice Meet

Senator Joe Manchin made his name as a climate justice villain. It’s the campaign message he ran on in 2010, defying President Obama’s climate legislation, and it’s the reason he has taken up so much space in our news feeds lately— Manchin has made it his mission to shut down attempts at environmental reforms aimed to mend the climate crisis.

He’s an easy bad guy to hate. Manchin embodies the conservative climate denier that so many of us have come to see on the oppositional side of the climate
Women's eNews •

Working with the Taliban for Women’s Rights: It's Like Speaking to Fish about Land!

A short time ago, activist, artist and former Afghan refugee, Nahid Shahalimi, had a win. The all-women’s school she has been working to establish in Afghanistan was approved by the current Afghan government— the Taliban.

Shahalimi has been working on the project for nearly six years, even before the Taliban arrived on the streets of Kabul in August. When the takeover occurred, Shahalimi was initially concerned about getting the most at-risk people out of the country— public activists, outspoke
Women's eNews •

Saying Goodbye to Safety: All-Female Mills College Turns Co-ed

When Kate Valente packed for college, she did not pack pepper spray. Although the lists she consulted online for female college students always included pepper spray or mace for walking around campus alone, she said to herself, “That was not something I was worried about… I feel safe here.”

“Here” is the historically all-women’s Mills College in Oakland, California. Since its founding in 1852, Mills has prided itself as a pioneer for all-women’s higher education, and has attracted women seeking

Jewish Women Passing During the Holocaust

Editor’s note: The HBI Research Award program awards grants annually to support research or artistic projects in Jewish women’s and gender studies across a range of disciplines. In 2021, HBI gave out 16 awards totaling $62,000. This is one in an occasional series on past research award recipients and their ongoing work.

Most known stories about Jews hiding during the Holocaust focus on the physical act of hiding. Hana Green, 2019 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Research Award recipient, finds the n
Ms. Magazine •

Citizen Science: First Women to Overwinter in the Arctic Return for Second Time

Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Fålun Strøm have returned to overwinter in the high Arctic for the second time, bringing groundbreaking scientific research to prestigious institutions while raising awareness about climate change.

Quarantine these past (seemingly endless) months has been challenging for everyone—at the very least because being stuck at home alone or with the same few family members can get old very quickly.

Here to shatter your understanding of a hardcore quarantine are Sunniva Sorby o
Ms. Magazine •

Restless Is the Social Media Platform Fighting Sexual Assault

“I knew I had to find a way to empower myself again within the circumstances I couldn’t change. I thought that maybe if I couldn’t tell my own story, I could at least facilitate the stories of other women. That maybe I could speak indirectly through them, and feel like I was reclaiming my narrative, even if indirectly.”

In the fall of 2014, a U.S. college student named Olivia DeRamus was sexually assaulted.

Upon reporting her assaulter to the school, he sued her for millions of dollars—a tacti
Ms. Magazine •

Film "I Am Woman" Tells The Story Behind Helen Reddy's Feminist Anthem

In December of 1972, Helen Reddy’s song, I Am Woman, hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Perhaps more significantly—for the Ms. perspective—is that it also became the anthem of the women’s liberation movement.

Now, over 50 years later, we finally get to hear the inspiring story of the woman behind it.

I Am Woman—a new feature film by Australian director Unjoo Moon, premiering in the U.S. on demand and in theaters on September 11—is the first biopic about the Australian musical icon who so p
Ms. Magazine •

Tools of the Patriarchy: The Money Tool, and the Persistent Wage Gap

Tools of the Patriarchy is a biweekly column on the tools that establish men’s dominance in society, or, in other words, uphold the patriarchy. Whether or not these tools are used intentionally, they contribute to a world in which women are not equal to men.

The wage gap has plagued the U.S. since women entered the workforce.

The Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, and since then, the gap has been closing very slowly. In fact, in 1963, full-time working women only made 0.59 cents to the working
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