Lilith Magazine

03/03/2022

Black People in Color

"I have come out in many ways since then: Mother, Black, Kohenet, Fat, Disabled, Queer, Jewish Leader, Femme, Feminist, Liberal, Psychologist, Professor, Proud Jew by Choice—and then some. Oh and single... just saying! I’d always planned to get another tattoo, one day...as the needle buzzed against flesh, I felt the pain of all that had been lost to Covid rush to the surface of my skin and become filled in with ink and love."

Hear more from Harriette Wimms about the power of tattoos at Lilith's Winter Launch Party on March 8.

“The idea that Black people can’t is based in the institutional racism of tattoo history.” Who knew? I have an amazing technicolor Ocean cresting on my shoulder.

03/02/2022

Fiction: Vocabulary for Fruit

New on the Lilith blog: A mango-sweet story by Maya Afilalo!

https://lilith.org/2022/03/fiction-vocabulary-for-fruit/

“I wanted to tell her about the look on my father’s face when I refused to accompany him to the Kol Nidre service…”

03/02/2022

What Banning Maus Means for the Generation of Artists It Inspired

"Maus was the first book I read that articulated this feature of my Jewish life so precisely. The murky inheritance of Holocaust stories, their responsibility and their burden and the cruel meta-consciousness of turning trauma into coherent narrative and saleable art is the most moving aspect of Maus for me." Amy Kurzweil

My friend, a poet and professor, was telling her nine-year-old daughter last week about the banning of Maus. She explained that Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holoc…

03/02/2022

"Love Is Blind" Season 2 Shows Us The Depressing Reality Of Dating As A Woman Of Color

"Women of color sometimes don’t get our intended happy endings, not because of chance or our own shortcomings, but because of what society has decided we deserve. We have to carve out something different." Nylah Addison Burton

Season 2 of "Love Is Blind" seemed to be a fantasy for everyone except the women of color searching for their happily ever after.

03/01/2022

One week until Lilith's Winter Launch Party!

On Tuesday, March 8, 8-9 pm ET, join Lilith's staff, contributors, readers, & fans to celebrate Lilith's Winter 2022 Issue with a virtual happy hour. Get ready to design your very own Jewish tattoos — don't worry, it's completely optional whether you get them tattooed permanently.

RSVP HERE: bit.ly/jewishtattoos

03/01/2022

The new Golden Girls: Baby boomers are moving in together to save money

We want to celebrate community...but also horrified by the economic insecurity and lack of care for seniors in the US.

Retirement insecurity and rising housing costs prompt more older adults to move in together.

02/28/2022

Transplant: Art By Mail

Artists Aya Rosen (Brooklyn) and Yaara Eshet (Toronto) have never met in person but they know each other very well through their artwork. Over the last three years, these two Israeli Jewish illustrators have been sending one another sketchbooks through the mail and taking turns adorning the pages with lush, vibrant illustrations. Nearly one hundred pieces traveled by mail across the border to create the latest exhibition in the @fentster_gallery.

For Lilith, Eshet and Rosen extend their correspondence — this time sending each other questions to answer instead of works of art. In this second interview, Rosen responds to Eshet's questions.

https://lilith.org/2022/02/transplant-art-by-mail/

The window gallery exhibition, TRANSPLANT, explores what it is like to be transplants to North America (where they’ve both lived for over a decade) from a place with a different culture, climate an…

02/28/2022

TOMORROW! Susan Weidman Schneider joins Carolivia Herron on her radio show for a lively conversation about being a founding mother and editor in chief of Lilith for 45 years.

On Tuesday, March 1 Susan Weidman Schneider will join Carolivia Herron for a live radio conversation about Susan's work founding and managing Lilith Magazine, the Jewish feminist magazine. The conversation will be on Epic City, Carolivia's radio program on WOWD-LP. Listen from 4-5pm at 94.3FM or streaming worldwide at TakomaRadio.org.

02/28/2022

The Evolving Situation in Ukraine & in Ukraine’s Jewish Community: A Conversation with Karyn Gershon, CEO of Project Kesher – SAJ – Judaism That Stands For All

We're looking forward to hearing from Project Kesher CEO Karyn Grossman Gershon at this SAJ-Judaism that Stands for All event:

Meeting Online only, Join via Zoom Meeting ID: 895 0719 8217 Passcode: 102314 All participants in SAJ’s online hosted meetings must be logged into a registered (free) Zoom account. You may have downloaded the app and participated in Zoom meetings but did not actually register for an account. To re...

02/28/2022

Houses of faith are building affordable housing on their properties

Very curious to hear about synagogues that are building affordable housing...

(RNS) — The national nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners on Wednesday (Feb. 23) announced $8.5 million in grants from the Wells Fargo Foundation to help houses of worship convert underutilized land into affordable homes and community facilities.

02/27/2022

On Tuesday, March 8, 8-9 pm ET, join Lilith’s staff, contributors, readers & fans to celebrate Lilith’s Winter 2022 Issue with a virtual happy hour. Whether it’s a full sleeve of biblical figures or a small flower on an ankle, every tattoo has a story to tell. We'll be exploring Jews & tattoos—in all their complex glory—with Joey Ramona, Harriette Wimms Harriette Wimms, and Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth.

RSVP: Bit.ly/jewishtattoos

02/26/2022

Jewish Art Salon Open Studios: The Feminist Voice in Jewish Art

For all our Helene Aylon fans (which definitely includes us). Explore with the Jewish Art Salon how feminist voices have influenced Jewish art— and how those voices have resonated both within the art world at large and within their respective artistic communities and practices.

Sunday, February 27, 12 PM ET, 11 AM CT, 9 AM PT, 7 PM Israel JEWISH ART SALON is excited to invite you to The Feminist Voice in Jewish Art, the next live session of our successful online series, O…

02/26/2022

Colombia’s Highest Court Rules to Decriminalize Abortion | Center for Reproductive Rights

As we're losing our access to abortion in the US, other countries are making great strides. On February 21st, the Constitutional Court of Colombia ruled to decriminalize abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation. Colombia is now the eighth country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize abortion during initial stages of pregnancy.

Landmark ruling in “Causa Justa” lawsuit will help remove barriers to abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation.

02/25/2022

When I Grow Up

In early 2017, almost 180,000 pages of lost Yiddish documents were discovered, mothballed and hidden in a Lithuanian church. Poignantly, these were pieces from a YIVO Institute for Jewish Research writing contest for Jewish teens in Europe, written and submitted before the Nazi incursion started. These young people, documenting their lives, had no idea of what was to come.

In the summer of 2018, Ken Krimstein traveled to Vilnius/Vilna to bring six anonymous pre-WWII teenage autobiographies to life— using their words and my pictures. Here’s a snapshot of one of them, a middle-school Vilna girl he dubbed “The Rule Breaker.”

Before the Holocaust loomed, Jewish teens in Europe entered an essay contest. Here’s one girl’s life we can recognize.

02/25/2022

Live Updates: Ketanji Brown Jackson Is Biden’s Supreme Court Pick

In a time of war and pandemic, a spot of joy—President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Judge Jackson would be the first Black woman on the highest court in the US.

President Biden’s choice ended a monthlong search to replace Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who is retiring. Few Republicans are expected to back her nomination.

02/25/2022

Shabbat shalom.

Pray for Peace

02/25/2022

Transplant: Two Artists Connect Across Borders

Artists Aya Rosen (Brooklyn) and Yaara Eshet (Toronto) have never met in person but they know each other very well through their artwork. Over the last three years, these two Israeli Jewish illustrators have been sending one another sketchbooks through the mail and taking turns adorning the pages with lush, vibrant illustrations. Nearly one hundred pieces traveled by mail across the border to create the latest exhibition in the @fentster_gallery.

For Lilith, Eshet and Rosen extend their correspondence—this time sending each other questions to answer instead of works of art. In this first interview, Eshet answers Rosen’s questions.

https://lilith.org/2022/02/transplant-two-artists-connect-across-borders/

Nearly one hundred pieces by Aya Rosen and Yaara Eshet traveled by mail across the border to create the latest exhibition in the FENTSTER window gallery in Toronto.

02/25/2022

How I Make Black Jews Visible Through the Magic of TikTok | Jewish Women's Archive

"I know representation is not the solution to all our woes. Still, it’s so important that we see ourselves in every space. Black Jews deserve to be visible." Raven Schwam-Curtis via Jewish Women's Archive

My TikToks educate, validate, and celebrate Black Jewish identity.

02/24/2022

Texas governor calls on citizens to report parents of transgender kids for abuse

The continued attack on trans people in the US is a disgrace.

Gov. Greg Abbott said those who fail to report instances of minors receiving gender-affirming medical care could face “criminal penalties.”

02/24/2022

Sky as Offering: For Canada in the Wake of Domestic Terror and Ottawa Siege

Really appreciating this offering from Devon Spier

By Devon Spier there is a space between flags and fireworks try though we might to fill and be filled we must not forget the sky or this yearning in the corners we don’t see “From Sea to Sea” A Different Source cries back —sip from me ‭but you must make passage‬ ‭to the very bottom of ...

02/21/2022

Abortion Access in Your State: A Quiz

Do you know the state of abortion in your state?

Take the quiz in our winter issue to see where your community stands--and how you can help!

Quiz and resource list by Rhian Lews & Ariella Messing.
Photos by Joan Roth.

Here’s news you’ve been fearing. It’s a matter of when, not if, Roe v. Wade will be overturned.

02/21/2022

After the Fall

Last week, the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) released the full Ethics Report, detailing the independent investigation by Debevoise & Plimpton into systemic sexual harassment, abuse, and misconduct in the Reform Jewish spaces, places, and organizations.

But for the past 30 years, Karla Goldman has been quite familiar with the coercion of silence. In 1991, she became the first tenure-track woman faculty member on Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religions (HUC’s) Cincinnati campus. When, nine years later, she was told that she would not be reappointed, she was also advised not to upset students by telling them about the misogynistic process she'd had just endured.

Read her testimonial now on Lilith's blog.

(Re)telling the story of American Reform Judaism.

02/21/2022

A Hug of Comfort Food

It's Sunday night. Two years into a pandemic. In the middle of February. Give yourself some comfort through these four delicious recipes from Susan Barocas.

If ever there was a time for comfort food, it’s now.

02/20/2022

Would Whoopi Goldberg Have Been Punished If…?

With Whoopi Goldberg’s comments, we missed a crucial opportunity...

Race in the United States is most certainly real. But just because something is constructed to be a social reality, does not mean it is true or based on facts and science.

02/20/2022

Reclaiming Personhood

When tattoos are another step in reclaiming my power and personhood.

She placed a cutting of pansies (representing love, thoughtfulness and remembrance) on my lower back—done in public, it was another step in reclaiming my power and personhood.

02/19/2022

Whoopi Goldberg in the Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Amy Stone on why the conversation Whoopi Goldberg opened left so much room for more. And we can find plenty in “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis”—an iconic story of Jewish self-delusion in the face of Naziism—that serves as a warning, regardless of our feelings on the matter.

The Finzi-Contini enchanted garden doesn’t even give them the protection of a ghetto. They are rounded up and shipped out along with the lower-class Jews they disdained.

02/19/2022

A Hug of Comfort Food

Comfort food lives in our memories, sparked by nostalgia and sentimental feelings. For each of us, our comfort food is connected to people, places, events and experiences in our lives.

Chef Susan Barocas shares four of her personal favorite recipes for soothing the soul—mushroom barley soup, kugel, and sutlach.

If ever there was a time for comfort food, it’s now.

02/18/2022

Fiction: Knit. Purl. Repeat.

"Rochell sputtered, knew she’d been totally out-played. Defeated. She couldn’t even think of a good comeback about Karen’s obvious problems."

What better way to kick off the weekend than with some some short fiction? Read Beth Kanell's story in our winter issue!

Art: 'Domestic Interior' by Janet Morton

Fiction by Beth Kanell.

02/18/2022

Would Whoopi Goldberg Have Been Punished If…?

"How many members of the white and Ashkenazi American Jewish population have been equally so inculcated into the American racial caste system, that they cannot conceive of themselves as being racialized as anything other than white? How many American Jews think that the Holocaust was merely about hatred of Jews for being Jewish and being different, and have no concept of the structural racialization their ancestors were oppressed by?

And why did I need to be the one to inform white Jews about this?"

Zohara Armstrong asks the tough questions in the wake of Whoppi Goldberg's suspension.

Race in the United States is most certainly real. But just because something is constructed to be a social reality, does not mean it is true or based on facts and science.

02/17/2022

How to Be a Writer, With Susan Shapiro

Susan Shapiro is a prolific author and a well-loved teacher of both fledgling and experienced writers. Recently, Lynn Brown Rosenberg took her one-shot online essay seminar, and after Susan’s critique, she made changes and sold my piece a week later.

After publishing her own memoir last year, she has just released a new book, The Book Bible, on how to sell your manuscript without going broke or insane.

Q & A on Sue Shapiros novel “The Book Bible” and her advice to future authors.

02/16/2022

Would a Ban on Abortion Curtail Jews’ Religious Freedom?

Sounds like a great event, featuring two former-Lilith superstars, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg and Rachel Kranson (among so many other wonderful Jewish feminists)!

Would a ban on abortion curtail Jews’ religious freedom? Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg and Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody weigh in on the question.

02/16/2022

A Punk Rock Jewish Tattooer

"One of the reasons I love tattooing so much is, to me, it does feel like a reclamation of something that was done to us that we now have the power to control, take back and use for our liberation."

Arielle Silver talks to Jewish feminist tattoo artist Joey Ramona (@joeyramonatattooer) in Lilith's Winter 2021-2022 Issue.

One of the reasons I love tattooing so much is, to me, it does feel like a reclamation of something that was done to us that we now have the power to control, take back and use for our liberation.