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On my first visit to and first stop in Morocco: Marrakesh, the bustling, dusty, overwhelming tourist center—and home to Jewish sights and sites in a Muslim Land ?
I lived in Europe in Summer 2017, a whirlwind of experiences and attempted-expat life (not meant-to-be at the time) that often seems like a three-month, 10-country dream.
It was that summer I first visited Berlin, some 25 years after first trip to Europe. That summer, 1997, I landed in Frankfurt and …
Thinking of all in Narrow Places this Pesach, and a lovely piece by Rabbi Sharon Brous of Ikar
Just because you’ve found a new way to justify murdering Jews doesn’t mean this time it’s any different. Stop Killing Us.
From the Right and the Left, Rewriting History and Antisemitism Amid Russia’s Rush to Ignite WWIII
My heart breaks for Ukraine right now. A reckless, lying dictator trying to hold onto power and restore a Soviet empire has invaded a beautiful, independent country—one with a long history of violence, specifically antisemitic.
Putin’s …
Shabbat Is About Pausing For Connection With Your Loved Ones and With Your Judaism. So What If You Can’t Connect? Try this.
Shabbat is a time to break free of technology and connect with ourselves and others. Now why is that so damn hard?
My First Christmas as a Jew was in lockdown in the pandemic epicenter: Loving Christmas doesn’t just go away when you convert
On our road trip and 3-month sojourn in Mexico, we now found ourselves in the American South: New Orleans, my birthplace, and new home to both the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience (5 Star!) and an Airbnb called Synagogue, in a former synagogue, with all history removed and in …
Happy Hanukkah from the Nathans in Miami! Slideshow: Hanukah fun and gear, and a bit on the holiday and letting the light shine in the dark
Support Nefesh of Los Angeles and Doing Jewish with some fun holiday shopping for Hanukkah!
Our friends at At the Well Project shared this beautiful entry today for the first day of the new moon and Hebrew month of Kislev
Music, Monsters, and More from Jewish Makers: November Edition
Three years ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Shabbat and in the security of their synagogue, 11 members of the Tree of Life community lost their lives. We must do better in how we react.
Y’all there’s only 37 days until Chanukkah starts, and it’s super early this year. Here’s some shopping fun, and you can support this site as you do it!
A year ago* this month, I joined the Jewish people. I highly recommend it.
Jews have been in Mexico a long time. I know, right? But Jews have lived in nearly every corner of the globe, often seeking refuge from persecution, famine, and poverty. Here is no different, and here’s my thoughts and experiences so far after a month in central Mexico.
Life is strange. A meandering vine of choices, chances, and changes. Welcome to The Wandering Jew, and I write from Mexico on an extended stay.
It’s Rosh Hashanah, a new year! As we bring in 5782, here are some things we can do without.
It’s Elul, the High Holy Days are nearly here, and it’s been awhile since we’ve posted. We’re back! Some jokes to get you through until 5782
If you pop over to Alma, you’ll see this lovely feature (Rachel Levin, July 1) about Raviv, a study buddy of mine back during our in-person days at American Jewish University in Intro to Judaism
Throwback: My May 2021 experience in my new city.
Torah for pride during this and each month
Today and every day, #fuckantisemitism. And because you can’t even say that without hostility in response, also fuck: occupation, nationalism, racism, Hamas, rockets, and Netanyahu.
Shabbat Shalom. Peace. Stay safe.
T-shirt by Noah McBride.
https://www.facebook.com/doingjewish/posts/319948876167337
Part of a series on my Jewish Journey, by Bobby Apperson
Nefesh of Los Angeles and the Nefesh Band; our spring fundraiser includes funding for our DEBUT ALBUM of beloved music and you can help make that happen! TAP THE IMAGE TO DONATE
In 2019 I wrote on picking a Jewish community …
On Shavuot, we are reminded of our ongoing obligation to lead lives of compassion and justice.
Earth Day: We are all stewards. Happy Earth Day, and take care of her, not just because Torah says to.
Over at the Instagram: give us a follow there if you haven’t yet!
View this post on Instagram …
Let’s talk about sex, Bubbe: Porking, bacon bits, and the tattoo taboo in Judaism
Heschel, action over words, Psalms, and slogging through the mud to get to the other side
The Queer community should take care of each other, writes Eli
American Genocides:
Native American genocide (continual, unacknowledged)African slave trade and Black oppression (unacknowledged, as of yet atoned)Unnecessary nuclear bombings of Japan used solely as tests and a warning to Russia, 1945D*n*ld Tr*mp’s ignoring a pandemic to let it kill his political enemies, then actively spreading it, 2020 (emphasis on highly disproportionate …
Shalom! Welcome to Newish Jewish, formerly Gay Goy Doing Jewish, with a renewed focus on wider social justice as well as personal Jewish journeys.
A look book to one year ago, before economic and medical injustice reached a new height in America
My First Christmas as a Jew was in lockdown in the pandemic epicenter: Loving Christmas doesn’t just go away when you convert
Things are beyond difficult for millions. A week from tonight, we begin to light the lights to guide us into a better chapter
I’m loving this piece by Rebecca Solnit at Literary Hub. Let’s look at violence and the political divide in America right now.
We need this reminder right now: Post-Election Slow-Motion Coup Madness
Trump’s face says it all here. Not only couldn’t he make eye contact 4 years ago, he’s making “apology face” and pursing his lips. He’s ashamed, and he knows what he really is. Obama, meanwhile, looked him in the eye and …
Some things you can do to help me mark my milestone, including giving to some good causes, my budding Jewish community that’s doing great, fresh, necessary things and is in startup mode, or sending me a little something.
I’m now legally, spiritually Jewish and dripping wet with emotions. Here’s what happened.
On Tuesday, October 6, 2020: I go to the mikvah today to become Jewish. Here are my thoughts the night before.
Well, I did it! I had my Beit Din a couple weeks ago. I’ve been slammed since with these High Holy Days and all the work that entails with Nefesh, my buoyant, vibrant, supportive eastside Los Angeles community.
After being slightly anxious way back in March to do this thing only …
The final leg in this unpredictable path is both exciting and daunting
Passover is one of the highlights of the Jewish calendar and nearing the home stretch of my Jewish journey to conversion, I was truly looking forward to experiencing it for the first time as an adult. The banter, the torah, the weird foods—the gathering is the biggest thing American Jews …
This week as I marked my first Tisha B’av as part of the community, booms filled the sky. Smoke filled the air in Portland and beyond, and I thought of all the atrocities that befell Israel over time and how we’re now seeing it again in America.
A special Shabbat greeting and some learning and action resources to share
The far-right takeover of the mainstream GOP, a call for mass violence, and anti-semitism
It’s peak Netflix in general, but also for Jewish and Haredi content. Here’s what I learned.
One of Us
Netflix, 2017 (Yiddish, English)
Netflix documentary One of Us highlights the plights of ultraorthodox Jews who fled the community and like Esty in Unorthodox (below), didn’t exactly leave easily. One lives in a camper …
Etsy is a wonderful place to support Jewish artists and other small businesses as you’re able; inside: My first mezuzah, first Star of David, and some fun finds
Realizing and Actualizing My Newfound Jewish Identity Was Easier Thanks to Coming Out 20 Years Ago
Tikkan Olam Means Black Lives Matter and how to take action
A great activist I know on another great activist’s passing. I feel so much this even as a not-quite-officially Jew, but a practicing one on the cusp of making it official.
Shabbat shalom, article link below.
https://twitter.com/doingjewish/status/1266106245880016897?s=20
A little torah (study) for Shavuot follows; Shavuot is the Jewish holiday that once was a harvest festival and now is an all-night, dairy-binging, torah-studying celebration of Sinai, learning, and Jewish converts. That’s me! And this will complete a full year’s cycle of Jewish holidays for me. Conversion date: TBD!
Torah …
Listening to people steeped in privilege complain of their oppression and compare it to slavery is particularly hard if you’re a person of color. It’s difficult to process, too, as a queer person, or a Jewish or Muslim person.
Freedom ends when you harm others. “Freedom” means something radically different to …
What does Judaism traditionally believe about the big man? For starters, not a man.
Check out this piece over at Jewish Telegraphic Agency, I have a brief quote and photo.
Today marks 40 days in quarantine for me give or take Trader Joe’s visits, a small work move, a big house move to a different county, and a couple clients at the very start. And like many I’m anxious, angry, tired all the time, and trying to accept the new …
Just about the last big in-person event I went to PC / BC* was Purim with my Nefesh community. What is Purim? I’m glad you asked!
PC / BC Pre-/Before Corona
Purim is the springtime festival celebrating the story in the Torah’s Book of Esther about the near destruction of the Jewish …
Our Pharaoh is shrugging at the plagues, telling us to go back to work on the Pyramids, and Christian Bale is nowhere to be found.
Looking for somewhere to “go” for Pesach? Maybe you’ve heard of Nefesh in LA but it was too far? It’s my amazing community and I’m glad and honored to be helping them out with social media and support.
We come together a week from tonight on Zoom. Kids Jam 5pm, Seder …
https://twitter.com/HillelIntl/status/1243247079755075586?s=20
Link: https://www.heyalma.com/how-to-make-your-quarantine-as-jewish-as-possible/
Uncertainty. We’re all united in it right now, are we not?
My Rabbi Susan Goldberg spoke so well of it from our recent Nefesh community Zoom call. Uncertainty is bewildering and draining and we’re all going through it right now, for a very long period of time. We don’t know the …
Land of Feta & Dates: Wrestling with my thoughts on Israel is hard. But planning a solo Hebrew honeymoon to study and immerse? Easy!
Things keeping me sane include Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
Torah. Echad. Tikkun. Halakha. Shabbat. Judaism’s Best Ideas IMHO (in my Hebrew opinion)
Post from 2019, way back yonder before we nearly had WW3 with Iran and a President was impeached but nothing happened
Community Mikveh at American Jewish University
Highlights!
Toured the mikvah where I convert in March, the day after my 40thLots of feels about itFinished my required Intro to Judaism class in JanuaryStarted …
The messages of the civil rights movement of economic and social justice are needed now as we enter fascism and a new robber-baron era
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! So they say, and it was a Jew who wrote that
No pork. Dairy. Gluten. No bagels, no bacon. No Christmas trees.
Nimoy’s contributions, a Jewess astronaut, and the Moon landing as a spiritual experience
This week’s parshah, a song, and venturing out
I was shocked to learn Miller is Jewish
I visited a new synagogue: Ikar, the mid-city progressive-yet-conservative-denomination that I’ve heard a lot about
Sukkot obsession, fun while learning, and things I got wrong
At Sukkot, the fall harvest festival, it’s a mitzvah to be happy. I’m not happy.
I made new friends including creators I admire while learning my Rabbi had already been teaching me this whole time
I survived my first YK and all I got was this spirituality, connection, wonder, yearning, belonging, insights, new friends, and a dash of dizziness
A beautiful ceremony on the LA river about letting go
My longest services yet and a great start to 5880. (5779 was trash)
Forging a Jewish Identity: How I chose a Rabbi, a community, and a Hebrew name—with love–while being very pissed off at the state of the world.
Evangelical Christian support for Donald Trump, the antithesis of a Mensch, explained
Kintsugi, kintsukuroi, and instant conversion and repair!
I was nervous about my first temple experience
Danielle: Wait so, are you converting? Yes. Eat this giant picnic.
A lovely Sunday stroll on the westside resulted in a series of serendipitous events
So I embarked on a journey.
I jumped right into Jewish learning and rigorous, late-night googling
I awoke suddenly again before my alarm, early on a June morning. Judaism popped into my head.
I decided to convert and quickly had the realization that maybe I’ve been a lapsed Jew all along—and that I owed it to myself to document my strange, new, unexpected journey.
