fiction by Michelle Brafman

Sylvia’s Spoon

Winner of the 2006 Lilith fiction contest

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I steal a sterling silver baby spoon from my great Aunt Sylvia, while her body, barely cold, rests under a blanket of disheveled earth at the Beth Shalom cemetery. I do it in the kitchen, on impulse, while I’m looking for a teaspoon to stir my chamomile, just before my family begins reciting the mourner’s kaddish in my aunt’s living room. Yisgadal ve yiskadash shema rahah, amen.

Winter 2006-2007

Stars of Yiddish stage who are still wooing audiences. Sex and suppression in ultra-Orthodox communities. How three grieving mothers became activists. Women rabbis speak their minds.

Yiddish Divas Take the Stage

by Joan Roth

Ordained

So Many Rules, So Little Protection

by Hella Winston

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

DNA secrets, hidden identities • Breast cancer and Jewish women • Tillie Olsen: feminist foremother • At her ritual haircut, she knew she was a girl • The first lady of lox

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.

Summer 2019

Jewish women and addiction. 1960s & 70s feminism roars back, trendy again. Transforming Jewish life in small-town Maine. Choosing to be Jewish–thus feeling perpetually “the stranger.” Food writing by women that changes the entire culture. She redefines the meaning of Jewish art.

Sylvia’s Spoon

Winner of the 2006 Lilith fiction contest

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