Category archive for ‘LIFE’ 
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Fifteen Christmases and an Eitz Moed
Last December, on a Jewish journey and with my possessions in storage, I celebrated my first tree-free holiday season. This year, officially Jewish and back in my own apartment, I’m finally faced with the December Dilemma. Jews don’t put up Christmas trees, and there’s no such thing as a Chanukah bush. And then I got an idea.
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Counting to Ten
Ten years after 9/11, to the older but wiser, blogging Jewish Chicagoan that I’ve become, about the only thing that still resonates for me is the sense of loss. It’s still there. It always will be, but life goes on. And so do we, God willing.
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God Was on the Brown Line and I, I Did Not Know
One year ago today, I got on the Chicago ‘L’ feeling spiritually homeless and got off knowing I would spend the rest of my life living Jewishly. God’s whisper comes in many forms. For me, it came on the Brown Line.
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Life, the Universe, and Everything Jewish: Six Years of Chicago Carless
Three months after officially joining the Jewish people, things make sense in a way I never expected. Some say Jewish converts are born with a Jewish spark waiting to be realized. Now I realize how the past six years of my blog–and the past 41 years of my life–have led me to my Jewish self.
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“They think they’re the only ones up here.”
Which of these commonly held assumptions about Orthodox Judaism in America is true? A.) Orthodoxy is an unchanged, ancient tradition. B.) Orthodoxy has always been stringently observant. C.) Conservative and Reform Judaism emerged out of Orthodoxy as increasingly less “authentic” versions of Judaism. Actually, none of the above.
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Unwritten
There are very few times one is able to say that an event is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and not be exaggerating. Tomorrow morning will be the most important morning of my life. What are you supposed to feel the evening before you become a Jew?
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Perfect
Could my biggest problem be thinking that there’s something wrong with everything not being perfect? Nine months of my Jewish conversion journey didn’t get me any closer to things being perfect–but got me a lot closer to things being right.
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Become a Jew in 28 Easy Books: My Conversion Reading List
Study is a central part of every decision to join the Jewish people. How central? How about 7,000 pages? Here is a list of the 28 books I read during the nine months of my conversion journey to become a Reform Jew.
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Now how much would you pay?
As I learned staying with friends during my nine months of near-homelessness last year, misery really doesn’t love company.
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Reprising the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
I am officially a big, fat hypocrite. A big, fat hypocrite who’s moving back home…to Marina City.
