Religion

Counting the Omer by Drawing

By Jacqueline Nicholls

This year’s project began with a scratch of an idea. In preparation for Sinai, the receiving of the Torah, I wanted to explore what it means to hold on to something.

Social Justice

Five years after Postville: Standing Up for Immigration Reform

By Rabbi Morris Allen and Vic Rosenthal

Five years ago one of the worst workplace raids in American history took place in Postville, Iowa — with 389 individuals detained, many deported and a town devastated. If ever there was an event that proved why comprehensive immigration reform and worker protections are needed, it was this raid.

However, for the two of us, the story in Postville started almost two years earlier, when we met with the owners of Agriprocessors, workers from the plant, and community and religious leaders.

Culture

The Bitter & the Sweet: Reflections on Motherhood

By Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Finding words for postpartum depression, Rabbi Rachel Barenblat bravely reflects on her difficult adjustment to motherhood, sharing a deeply personal journey and the poetry that helped her navigate this new terrain, ultimately savoring both the bitter and the sweet. This Mother’s Day, she tells struggling new moms: It gets better.

Fiction + Poetry

The Sacrifice of Abraham: Three Poems

By Alexander Nemser

Three poems from “The Sacrifice of Abraham,” a series of re-tellings of the biblical story of Isaac and Abraham. In each section, a group of rabbis gathers to re-tell and offer commentary on the story, and with each re-telling transforms it into a broader and broader vision encompassing Greek gods, revolutionaries, insurgents, love affairs, and photographic details from current events.

Social Justice

Damage by Watching: Domestic Drones & Privacy

By Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

As domestic drones become increasingly common (cheap, too) and more states build them into public safety strategies for law enforcement, we need to think not just about public safety, but about protecting privacy and creating safeguards against abuse.

Religion

Being Meir

By Rabbi Rachel Barenblat

Can spiritual growth be found in the “tension between one’s own cherished beliefs and someone else’s contradictory beliefs”? Absolutely.

Social Justice

Chicago's Young Jews Align Against Public School Shutdowns

By Chanel Dubofsky

“We are graduate students and organizers. We are Jewish folks and others who believe education is a Jewish value and a human right. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the CPS school board have proposed massive school closings throughout Chicago’s most struggling neighborhoods.”

Culture

Zeek <3 Boston

By Erica Brody

As we mourn for Boston, we share this small roundup of early Jewish responses.

Culture

Madness, Mindfulness & Judaism: Meet Sascha Altman DuBrul

By Jennifer Bleyer

The Icarus Project founder talks to an old punk pal, journalist Jennifer Bleyer, “about madness, social justice and his recently sparked Jewish identity on the eve of his cross-country book tour for Maps to the Other Side.”