Judaism Archives

I'm not much of a television watcher. I get easily bored with serials, find most comedies unfunny, and have no stomach for horror or violence. Most of my television entertainment comes from watching… couples, mostly with champagne tastes on ginger-ale budgets, choose from three houses on reality TV. But a few months ago with nighttime activities over early in our home, I flipped the channel to the popular family sitcom "Black-ish." The episode that happened to be on explored the tension created by different generations questioning religion and… >> Read More

Interfaith

What My Mom Said When I Told Her I’m a Jewish Buddhist

Michelle Dickstein

Vintage Green Phone on a Wooden Background

The same day my “I’m a Jewish Buddhist” blog was posted here at Kveller, I thought, “OK, I need to tell my mom," and I felt really anxious. I was basically going to share my new identity with… my mom who thought of me a certain way my whole life: as Jewish and nothing different. My mom is old-school. She is a Polish/Ukrainian immigrant by way of Israel. She had a life plan set out for me in utero. It was a life plan I did not exactly follow. The fact I am… >> Read More

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik: Yes, It’s Possible to Believe in Science & Be Religious

Joanna C. Valente

Everyone knows that Mayim Bialik is an actress--she’s currently a star on the CBS show “The Big Bang Theory,” and was formely a child actress on "Blossom," a popular '90s TV show. But the… polymath is also a scientist (she has a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA, NBD) and a pretty religious Jew! For some people, being religious and believing in science are contradictory--since religion is based in faith, while science is based in proven fact. This is why Mayim made a video about how she reconciles these two parts of her… >> Read More

conversion

Why Choosing Love Didn’t Mean Choosing Conversion for Me

Emily Mace

Although I am the half that’s not Jewish in an interfaith marriage, my husband never put conversion on the table–not until I brought the question up on my own, three years after we got… married. Shortly after my husband and I first started dating, Ben brought me to Friday night Shabbat services at a large Reform synagogue in Boston. A cantor with a guitar led the congregation in a wordless melody at the beginning of the service, and as the service progressed into as-yet-unfamiliar Hebrew phrases, I appreciated his… >> Read More

christianity

Don’t Use ‘Christian’ as an Adjective Around Me Anymore

Judy L. Mandel

Recently a commentator on a major cable news show (okay it was MSNBC) was criticizing the proposed new healthcare bill, itemizing that 24 million Americans may lose their healthcare coverage, that… premiums were likely to rise at least for the next 10 years and scores of Medicaid recipients would be thrown off the rosters. Then she said, “It doesn’t seem to be a very Christian plan.” Really? As a noun, Christian refers to someone who follows the teachings of Christ, which makes perfect sense to me.… >> Read More

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