by Francine Klagsbrun

The Shame of Being Smart

I was lucky. I grew up in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood and attended a small all-girls Hebrew day school, where the teachers valued their students. I never saw myself as a stranger in that land.

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Writing from the Outside

The articles in this special section:

An Indigestible Childhood

by Lore Segal

A Jew Amid the Alien Corn

by Michelle Edwards

The Hobo Book Exchange

by Barbara Feinberg

Politics Make Her a Stranger

by Deborah Heiligman

The Shame of Being Smart

by Francine Klagsbrun

Inventing Rashi’s Granddaughter

by Sylvie Weil

Writing to Become Whole

by Miriam Stone

Growing Up Weird

by Ellen Kushner

Different from Other Boys

by James Howe

Uptown Jews, Downtown Jews

by Susan Goldman Rubin

At Last! I Didn’t Belong!

by Emily Nussbaum

What Would Be Sufficient?

by Pnina Moed Kass

Chicken?

by Carol Snyder

My Country is Judaism

by Susie Morgenstern

An Israeli Foster Mother

by Galila Ron-Feder-Amit

In Favor of Outsiderhood

by Rebecca Alban Hoffberger

An Adult Can Be Your Best Friend

by Kathy Walden Kaplan