by Angela Himsel

Belly-Button Bliss Pierced at 40!

When Rabbi Akiva, the great Torah scholar, turned 40, he began studying Jewish texts. As I approached 40, I was thinking not of re-claiming my spiritual heritage but rather of repossessing my body. I wanted a belly–button ring.

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For years I’d harbored this desire. However, I’d resisted the urge out of consideration for my children’s tender feelings. They were even humiliated when I talked to strangers in the grocery store.

Summer 2002

Jewish identity in Diaspora lives: women in Greece, India, Latin America and the United States. The Halakhic skinny on piercing and tattoos. Class and privilege in the Jewish world.

Is the Hope for Peace a Delusion?

by Laura Blumenfeld

Homeland / Diaspora

A Nose Ring of Her Own

by Rachel Kranson

Spring 2019

“Unfaithful,” the theme of 3 prize-winning short stories • Israel’s little-known School for Peace and the woman who created it • The new questions those male policy-makers didn’t know to ask

Winter 2018-9

Money and meaning, from teaching Hebrew school to funding abortion. Three miscarriages and a crisis of faith. Candidates who didn’t win. When your family breaks up with you (or vice versa).

Fall 2018

Latinx, Jewish, running for office • Alleged victims of a pediatrician find each other • Is motherhood new again? • A second chance at an old relationship • How to care for children without parents •

Summer 2018

Jewish women running for office. When food endangered Jews. The challenge of raising liberal kids in Israel. A Moroccan Jew finds common ground with Muslim feminists in Tangier. The proud history of midwives?

Belly-Button Bliss Pierced at 40!

When Rabbi Akiva, the great Torah scholar, turned 40, he began studying Jewish texts. As I approached 40, I was thinking not of re-claiming my spiritual heritage but rather of repossessing my body. I wanted a belly–button ring.

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