Ours is a mixed marriage, the type rabbis and many mamas decry. We are admittedly not two of a kind. He is the son of devout Catholics. I am the daughter of ultra-Reform Jews who mostly remember religion when it comes to weddings, bar mitzvahs, and funerals. And that’s not where the mishmash mix ends.…
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Jewish Life
First Person
I’m an Orthodox rabbi, and I officiate at LGBTQ weddings
A queer friend of mine from a haredi Orthodox background had posed a query publicly on social media. She had attended a conference on LGBTQ inclusion.…
Organic Epicure
New pizza place offers square meal in SoMa
It’s the rare Jewish food professional who offers without prompting that he was his temple’s youth group president, and that after his bar mitzvah, the…
Talking With ...
Q&A: She gives Oakland youth a place to share their truths
Janet Heller is the co-founder of Chapter 510, a youth writing center in Oakland. The nonprofit, part of the 826 Valencia national network, offers free…
Unions
While caring for others, they learned to care for each other
Janice Brenner’s mother was nearing the end of her life when she made one thing clear to her caretaker daughter: She should return to the Bay Area and…
Opinion
The Chabad Rebbe died 25 years ago, but his impact lives on
When the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died in July 1994, I was one of many journalists in the Jewish media who did not see how the…
Opinion
Intermarriage is not a 'second Holocaust'
Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz’s recent tone-deaf declaration that intermarriage is akin to a “second Holocaust” was shocking and shameful, and…
Torah
Brave refugees reflect the Divine. They deserve our greatest care.
The Torah column is supported by a generous donation from Eve Gordon-Ramek. Chukat Numbers 19:1–22:1 The toddler was wearing red pants and dark shoes, and…
Trailblazers
Tad Taube, proud philanthropist and builder of Jewish life in Poland
Part of Trailblazers, a series of profiles of Jewish men and women who build and sustain our Jewish community, supported by a generous donation from Carol…