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Orthodox gay rabbi speaks about religion, homosexuality
By Sheri Shefa, Staff Reporter for CJNNews
Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, was in Toronto to discuss the conflict between homosexuality and Judaism and to offer a “poetic” way to interpret the biblical texts that are understood to condemn same-sex relationships.
Queer? Trans? Female? Here’s How To Find Tefillin
Danna Lorch for The Forward
There are literally hundreds of different ways of choosing, wrapping, and storing a set of tefillin [phylacteries]. Eichler’s Judaica superstore offers more than 2,000 tefillin-related items for purchase online alone, from a Swarovski crystal adorned bag, to a military camouflage case, and a strangely economical set of blinged-out gold plastic storage boxes—all to compliment the numerous styles of tefillin available. The tefillin themselves vary in size, according to left or right-handed preference, as well as Sephardi or Ashkenazi affiliation.
Jewish Comedian Judy Gold Shares Her (Very Funny) Coming Out Story
Kveller Staff
Judy Gold is an Emmy-award winning comedian, host of the podcast Kill Me Now, writer and hysterical lesbian mom. She’s also this week’s guest on Kveller’s podcast, Call Your Mother. Co-hosts Jordana Horn and Shannon Sarna get real with Judy about ageism in the entertainment industry, anti-Semitism, her (very funny) coming out story and the deep family secret that impacted her identity.
Coming to America
By Marjorie Ingall for Tablet Magazine
Thirty years after making waves with her children’s book ‘Heather Has Two Mommies,’ author Lesléa Newman traces a young Jewish immigrant’s ‘Journey’
You wouldn’t think a sweet, celebratory picture book about a little girl’s first day of preschool would trigger such rage. Or maybe you would, if the little girl in question happened to have LGBT parents. When Heather Has Two Mommies debuted in 1989, it rocketed up the American Library Association’s list of most frequently banned and challenged books in the United States. In the 1990s, it was the ninth most contested book of the decade; it was burned, pooped on, returned to libraries with the pages glued together.
A Very Queer Shabbat Dinner
By Leah Koenig for Tablet Magazine
Food writer Jake Cohen cooks with soul at his monthly Friday night gatherings
On a recent Friday morning, Jake Cohen could be found chopping rainbow carrots, watermelon radishes, orange cauliflower, and a pile of other heirloom vegetables to serve as crudités alongside bowls of sweet potato hummus. A 16-quart (read: enormous) stock pot brimming with Persian bean and noodle stew called ash e reshteh rested in the fridge. Also prepped and chilling: many pounds of brisket, sweet noodle kugel, the elaborate makings of several cheese boards, and a sheet pan of his signature sumac and sea salt-spiked brownies.
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