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March 28, 2019 by Nylah Burton
“Commanded to Repair the World:” A Young Writer Confronts Climate Change
I’ll be 24 next week. And in ten years, I’ll probably be buying my first house. I might be celebrating a wedding anniversary that’s not even in the double-digits yet. I may be ready to have a child, or I may already have one or two. I should not be thinking of en years as a period at the end of a sentence. It should be an ellipse… a bridge to a continued narrative of my life.
And yet, in the wake of the climate report, ten years has come to mean something entirely different. In the context of climate change, ten years means a point of no return. Hence, my crippling fear.
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March 27, 2019 by Eleanor J. Bader
Standing Up for Immigrant Families, One Case at a Time
When New York Law School professor Lenni B. Benson created the Safe Passage Project in 2006, she did not anticipate that the number of unaccompanied minors trying to find asylum in the United States would skyrocket, going from 16,067 in 2011 to 41,456 in 2017.
But it has, causing tens of thousands of children to be taken into federal facilities where they will face formal removal proceeding that require them to appear before a judge and explain why they left home.
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March 22, 2019 by Eleanor J. Bader
Disability Rights Activist Emily Ladau on How to Make Feminism Include Everyone
While sipping tea in a funky, independently owned café in Babylon, New York, disability justice activist-writer Emily Ladau suddenly makes an unexpected confession: “I have a fraught relationship with feminism,” she says.
It’s not ideological.
Ladau is pro-choice, pro-ERA, pro-LGBTQ equality, and supports equal pay for work of equal value. But as someone who uses a wheelchair, she has frequently felt excluded. “I don’t think feminists who are not disabled identify with me, even though I identify with them,” she explains. “Feminist groups often ignore the fact that disability intersects with every other marginalized identity.”
Changing this—not just within the women’s movement but in the world at large—is Ladau’s passion and, as editor of Rooted in Rights (rootedinrights.org), she and other writers work tirelessly to expose—and push back against—the many ways in which the disabled are belittled, condescended to and all too often completely ignored.
Ladau and Lilith’s Eleanor J. Bader met in late February to discuss how she became an outspoken advocate and educator.
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March 22, 2019 by Yona Zeldis McDonough
A Breathtaking Novel Set on the Eve of World War I
Set in the years before and just leading into World War I, House of Gold is a vast, enthralling tapestry of a novel. The story moves seamlessly from character to character and place to place, all the while picking up speed and momentum as the war looms ever closer.
Fiction Editor Yona Zeldis McDonough chats with author Natasha Solomons to ask her about what drew her to the subject and what she learned along the way.
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March 19, 2019 by Tara Mendola
The Chelsea Clinton Uproar and the Public Perception of Pregnancy
It’s not a great look to berate pregnant folks. It’s especially not a good look when the person you’ve chosen to yell at has only the most tangential connection to what you’re upset about. We can argue with Chelsea Clinton’s ill-considered phrasing in her Twitter criticism of Ilhan Omar, but to accuse her of being the primary agent “stoking hatred” for Muslims on social media and inciting the Christchurch massacre is…well, the kind of thing a grieving undergraduate student activist might do in the heat of the moment after 50 people have been slaughtered by a white nationalist while they pray. It’s understandable.
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March 19, 2019 Yona Zeldis McDonough
The Jewish Doctor Writing About Medieval Christian Spirituality
I met Melodie Winawer in a Brooklyn synagogue; so when I learned that she had written a novel steeped in Christian imagery and ritual, I just had to know why!
Equally interesting was Winawer’s background—she holds degrees in biological psychology, medicine and epidemiology. Below, Winawer talks to Lilith about her fascinating dual life as doctor/novelist, her attraction to history and so much more.
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March 14, 2019 by Joan Roth
Women of the Wall Turns 30: Stunning Photos from the Scene
Last week, Women of the Wall celebrated its 30th anniversary of standing up in favor of egalitarian prayer at the Kotel, facing physical intimidation from ultra-religious protesters.
Lilith’s Joan Roth was on the scene, documenting vivid Torah readings, massive crowds, and even the paratroopers who helped capture the wall for Israel in 1967 who showed up to support the women.
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March 8, 2019 by Sara Fredman
Luke Perry and the Mishna: A Love Story
Close to two decades ago, I sat with my cousin on the concrete structure separating Rockaway Beach from the street our grandparents lived on. It was September and we were waiting for Rosh Hashanah to begin. Now that I’m a parent, I can’t imagine letting a nine-year-old hang out at a deserted Rockaway Beach entry without adult supervision but the 90s were special—and I’m sure the adults were glad to have us out of their hair while they prepared for the holiday. Meanwhile, we were doing the essential work of engaging in the great debate of our time: Dylan vs. Brandon.
Neither of us can remember who took which side but looking back, I understand that this was my first time actively participating in pop culture, having the same conversation as many other people, at the same time. That participation was hard-fought and delicately-brokered. My modern Orthodox parents weren’t enthused by the idea of a show about teenagers and sex, so we made a deal. I, a nine-year-old child, would be allowed to watch this show featuring adults playing teenagers, as long as I attended the children’s Mishna class at our shul on Shabbat afternoons.
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March 8, 2019 by Amy Stone
When Women Make Holocaust Movies—And Take On God, Moses & Exodus
Just when you thought no unexplored nook or cranny remains for any more Holocaust films, along come two challenging documentaries by women directors and two good tries, also by women filmmakers.
All four – three documentaries and one docudrama — were screened at the 2019 New York Jewish Film Festival, presented in January by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which had far better representation of female filmmakers than in previous years,
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March 6, 2019 by Chanel Dubofsky
Abortion is Good for Children. You Heard Right.
As you inevitably consume the news cycle (and try not to get consumed by it), keep this in mind: Nearly 60% of people who have abortions are already parents. This statistic challenges anti-choice portrayals about who has abortions, and it also prompts the question: what do we know about the children of women who have had abortions? And conversely, what about the kids born to women who weren’t able to access abortion?
In 2016, Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) released the results of the Turnaway Study. All of the 1,000 women who participated in the study were seeking abortion, but only some were able to access them. Those who were denied abortion care indicated decreased states of mental health, including the presence of anxiety and depression. The women who were able to get the abortion care they sought had positive mental health outcomes. In short, getting an abortion didn’t negatively impact subjects’ mental health, but if a woman couldn’t get the abortion she wanted, her mental health did suffer. (If you’re keeping track, that’s a direct refutation of the anti-choice claim that abortion causes harm to women’s mental health).
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