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.

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Informed predictions for the uncertain future • Farewell to shopping • Growing up Persian • Vivian Gornick & Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz revisited • 1930s feminist fiction — in Yiddish! • Unetaneh Tokef for Black Lives

Spring 2020

Hair and all its complications • Raising feminist boys today • Tipping, service work and our changing world • A hot new Yiddish star • Taking off my wedding ring

Winter 2019-2020

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Fall 2019

#MeToo stories • Jewish women and breast cancer: crisis, intimacy, recovery • Jennifer Weiner on “chick lit’s” power • Suddenly, period positivity • A feminist Jew’s tough search for holiness in community.

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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