Itta Werdiger Roth, a professional chef, founded The Hester, an underground, word-of-mouth music café/speakeasy/supper club in Brooklyn that fuses local food, music, and Jewish conversat
This July marks one year since choreographer, author, and innovator Liz Lerman parted ways with her dance company, formerly the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange (now just the Dance Exchange) to fly solo as an independent choreographer.
Joan Rivers: a woman of chutzpadik and chilarity. We either love her, or hate her. She’s either the talk of the town, or fades into red carpet oblivion . . . only to be resurrected again.
As our July 4th week comes to a close, we at JWA close the circle on our Celebrate Fiercely Independent Jewish Women call for submissions, which began last week and continues today with an announcement and related blog piece. The announcement: We at JWA enjoyed reading your submissions, and we were particularly moved by the tribute written by Jennifer Steinberg in honor of her grandmother, LTG. We invited Jennifer to write an expanded piece on LTG, which you will find below. We encourage you to read Jennifer's original 150-200 word submission, along with the other fine tributes. Though our country's indepence day has passed, let's continue to keep the FIJW energy and inspiration alive. . .
This beautiful, wise and not-so-organized woman [was] not only a superb organizer but also an inspiring teacher and a colleague who exemplified what it means to meet one’s obligations to the human family.
On July 2, 1965 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) began its work for women's equality, enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which among other things prohibited employment discrimination within labor unions. This week, we take a glimpse even farther back, to the turn of the century, to the roots of women organizing for fair prices.
We received wonderful tributes from the JWA community responding to our call for submissions on the Fiercely Independent Jewish Women that have inspired us in our lives. Today and tomorrow as we celebrate our country's independence, let us toast these fine women (and those in our thoughts not mentioned here) for the fierce independence they have sparked, kindled, and set ablaze in each of us.
Many of you may not know this, but there is a kind of rite that happens here at JWA for newbies such as myself: to be given an assignment with almost impossible challenges.
Perhaps what I love most about the Jewish tradition, about the dance of life and its cycles, is that wonderful interplay between tradition and innovation.
Rich’s commitment to social justice that characterized her sustained engagement in the world emerged from the provocation and the aspiration that was her Jewishness.
We are finally in Paris and you can see that the Americans took over the situation. Can you imagine—ME—with the “handle” that I’ve got using Hitler’s stationery?
Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown has become a new heroine of the pro-choice movement, and she achieved this status both by invoking her Judaism and by using the word “vagina” on the State House Floor, during a heated debate of an omnibus anti-abortion bill.
We are thrilled to share some exciting news: our very own, Online Communication Specialist and Blogger-in-Chief, Leah Berkenwald, earned a coveted 2011 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism. She won first place in Division A (with readership of 15,000 or more) for Excellence in Single Commentary for her piece, “Harry Potter: Four Progressive Lessons for the Jewish Community.” The adjudicators stated that Leah effectively made “connections between the themes of freedom and equality in the most widely read story of her generation to the movement for equal rights for women and resistance to bigotry in a clear, energetic and youthful voice.”
