by Britni de la Cretaz When we were beginning to plan our wedding, Ben and I began researching Jewish wedding traditions to see which ones felt meaningful to us. We were both raised Jewish and we were both bar mitzvahed (or bat mitzvahed, in my case), but neither one of us consider ourselves to be […]
Continue Readingby Carrie Bornstein I never thought I was making a statement. And yet, as I watched Makers: Women Who Make America on PBS a few weeks ago, I was blown away. If you didn’t see it, Makers tells the story of women “asserting their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic […]
Continue Readingby Rabbi Pamela Jay Gottfried I was delighted when Rabbi Joe Brodie, the Dean of Student Life and father figure to many of us at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), agreed to officiate at my wedding. I was also anxious. Like my future spouse, Joe was fairly traditional about ritual observance, and I was embarrassed […]
Continue ReadingThis post originally appeared on JewishBoston.com, and was written by Sam Kaplan and Rachel Wilson on behalf of Reform Jewish Outreach Boston When I was introduced to Rachel by a mutual friend, I was told that she was my perfect match: cute, fun, and Jewish! Well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad! Given the topic […]
Continue Readingby Ali Kaufman Yares Prior to getting married in 2004, I did a ton of studying and reading about marriage, ketubah (marriage contract), niddah (monthly immersions), hair covering, and even divorce in halacha (Jewish ritual law). After all, I was a Talmud major taking more classes than I needed to because I truly enjoyed studying […]
Continue Readingby Tabitha May-Tolub From a young age, I have always loved church – the music, the holy space, and the community safety net it provided. I learned valuable lessons that I hoped to pass on to my children. Not only the big lessons about how best to serve G-d, and how to treat others, but […]
Continue Readingby Julia Becker Collins, Director of Community Engagement When I was 19, I moved from California to Massachusetts. While I moved primarily to transfer from one college to another, it was also motivated by my desire to move back to a place with four distinct seasons. Originally from New Jersey, I discovered after I moved […]
Continue Readingby Gaby Zwiebach My family roots stem both from Peru and from Mexico. The cultures of these two countries have always had a strong influence in my life and in the life of my two older sisters, and eventually in the lives of our respective children. The three of us were born in Mexico to […]
Continue ReadingBy Ron and Brian Olshansky-Lucero Mayyim Hayyim has been an important part of our lives for the last two years. Our connection to Mayyim Hayyim began with Ron’s beit din and immersion for his conversion. We were very blessed that Ron’s sponsoring rabbi knew about Mayyim Hayyim and that he chose this special place for […]
Continue ReadingBy Hannah White I have long dreamt of my first dip in the mikveh. When I interned at Mayyim Hayyim a few years ago, I often found myself pausing in the midst of a project to listen to the joyful sounds coming from downstairs. It was as if the singing floated up to the offices, […]
Continue ReadingBy Harry and Elaine Wayne When we were planning our wedding 63 years ago, an Orthodox Jewish girlfriend gave us an engagement gift: a book explaining mikveh. The obvious purpose of the author was to encourage use of the mikveh ritual, including instructions on building one’s own in-home mikveh from a TV cabinet. Contrary to […]
Continue ReadingWritten by Rabbi Daniel Brenner At a conference on a ridiculously sunny spring day at New York University, I met a Jewish guy in his thirties who was planning on getting hitched this summer. When he heard that I was the director of a project focused on the lives of boys and men in the […]
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