Lonnie Sussman, special to the WJN How do you mark time? I’ve been thinking a lot about how I mark time. I’ve just returned from a trip to Morocco, a trip that was more than three years in the planning and flew by in a minute. If you have children, do you constantly think of…
By Meg Bernstein Michal Raucher is an associate professor of Jewish Studies and the undergraduate director for the department at Rutgers University. She holds a PhD from Northwestern in Religious Studies, as well as a master’s degree in Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2020, Dr. Raucher published a book on her ethnographic studies…
Ken Wachsberger, special to the WJN The calamitous withdrawal of U.S. troops after twenty years in Afghanistan provoked a frenzied flight of refugees from the Taliban-ruled country. Now, the United States is gearing up to accept an influx of over 90,000 Afghan refugees in the next 12 months. Michigan alone has agreed to take in…
Hannah Davis interviews Andrew Lapin and Andy Kirshner It may be something in the air. Two local creators are releasing pieces of media profiling prominent figures, who were also antisemites, in American history from the early 1900s. Andy Kirshner is an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design and the…
By Shifra Epstein Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, it had taken my partner Miriam and me more than sixteen months to venture into downtown Ann Arbor on a Saturday night. During our first venture in on May 10, we enjoyed the closure to traffic of the downtown streets, which made strolling very pleasant. The first…
Gabrielle Pescador, special to the WJN Rabbi Miriam Geronimus, who grew up and lived in Ann Arbor until graduating high school, became a rabbi on May 23 at the 49th commencement ceremony of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College outside Philadelphia. In her early years Geronimus attended the Jewish Cultural Society, the Secular Humanistic Jewish congregation in…
Sinister Wisdom 119 reviewed by Molly Kraus-Steinmetz What does it mean to be a Jewish dyke, a Jewish lesbian, a queer Jewish woman, right now? It’s not a question any one person can answer. Who would be the authority on such a subject, and who would claim to speak for such a notoriously argumentative crowd?…
Art Review by Idelle Hammond-Sass During Passover I had an opportunity to go to Detroit to view a temporary art installation at MOCAD (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit) by Detroit artist Olivia Guterson. Her piece, “At Our Table,” was one of the installations for REBOOT’s “Plastover: An Exodus from Plastic Waste” initiative and was installed…
Emily Eisbruch, special to the WJN Sam Bagenstos and Margo Schlanger recently had a major transition in their lives as they relocated, for the time being, from Ann Arbor to Washington, D.C. Sam is serving as general counsel for the Office and Management and Budget in the new Biden/Harris administration. Margo continues her work, remotely,…