Jewesses With Attitude - Where Jewish women tell it like it is

Rethinking the question: "Why are there so few women in comedy?"

Leah — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:10:50 +0000

In a recent interview with Lisa Leingang in the New York Times, Melena Ryzik asks the question: "Why are there so few women in comedy?" To answer it, you have to approach it the way Bill Clinton did during the Monica Lewinsky period. We have to deconstruct the terms.

"Girls in Trouble": Indie rock as midrash

Leah — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:20:31 +0000

Photo courtesy of Tablet

I tend to be wary of educational musical acts, especially those that sound like they were written by teachers trying to be "cool." But after a quick lis

Conversion, culinary memoir, and a Jewish woman for President? Link Roundup - Nov. 4, 2009

Leah — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:42:55 +0000

Yesterday's gay marriage defeat in Maine reminds us that civil rights should not necessarily be decided by a majority vote. [The Daily Beast] [Choices Campus]
Rumors of a Jewish woman for President? Could Debbie Wasserman Schultz be the first?

Milestones for Jewesses in politics

Leah — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:04:04 +0000

Today is the first Tuesday in November, which means that for those of us freezing our toes off up north, it's finally time to turn on the heat! It also means it is Election Day, and since we're not electing a President this year, we have the luxury to relax and reflect on the trailblazing Jewish women in politics who have made history on this historic day.

You Might As Well Call It Feminism, Joanne Lipman

Leah — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:33:02 +0000

The blogosphere and my inbox, have been buzzing with response to former Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman’s rather bizarre piece on modern womanhood in The New York Times, “The Mismeasure of Woman,” which has spent several days floating around on the paper’

The good, the bad, the bizarre - Link Roundup, Oct. 30, 2009

Leah — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:46:49 +0000

The Good:

When divorce is a reason to celebrate. [Sisterhood]
"If you're happy and you know it..." Ellen Goodman refutes the results of the so-called "Happiness Survey." [Boston Globe]
Cory Kahaney (one of the hosts of Making Trouble) hits the borscht belt with her new play. [TheJewishWeek]
"New Jews" are doin' it for themselves. The post-baby-boom Jews embrace new approaches to Jewish culture and faith, which include praying in the desert, webcasting bible stories, organizing for non-Jewish causes, Jew-tattoos and punk rock. [CNN]
With the emergence of women scholars in the Orthodox community, women are starting to talk about sex. [Forward]

A victory in the fight to make hate crimes history!

Leah — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:54:07 +0000

Yesterday, Oct. 28, 2009, heralded a historic moment for human rights as President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act into law. This act expands the already existing hate crime protection to include crimes based on one's sexual orientation, gender, disability, or gender identity, and also allows federal authorities to support local investigations, as well as step in when local authorities unable or unwilling to investigate. For the first time in our nation's history, GLBT people and people with disabilities have the legal right to safety from hate violence.

To Life! Celebrating Vermont's Jewish women

Leah — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:55 +0000

Karen Pike Photography

Ann Zinn Buffum came to JWA through “midnight web searches” for family history. She was surprised to discover that Madeleine May Kunin, the first woman Governor of Vermont, was the only Vermonter to be featured on jwa.org. “Surely there were other women in our state, small as it is, who had interesting and accomplished lives,” she writes in To Life!, the book that accompanies the gallery exhibit. With her mission in mind, she enlisted Sandra Stillman Gartner, a writer, actor, and active member of the Rutland Jewish Center community, to create DAVAR: The Jewish Women’s History Project.

What is Jewish hair?

Leah — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:41:53 +0000

Photo: "Great Jewish Hair" by Sashinka-uk

The buzz about Good Hair, Chris Rock's new documentary about Black hair, has got me thinking about "Jewish hair": what it is, what it means, and where I -- a straight-haired woman -- fit into this curious piece of Jewish identity.

Doing the "work" of identity

Judith — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:06:53 +0000

"Who am I, anyway?" That's a question most of us ask at various points throughout our lives -- usually most noisily as adolescents but with piercing power as we grow older, too.