Activism

The Real Housewives of the Lower East Side

One hundred and ten years ago today, something surprising happened. Jewish immigrant housewives in New York City—concerned and angry about a sharp rise in the price of kosher meat from 12 cents to 18 cents per pound—launched a kosher meat boycott that lasted nearly a month, spread to several other boroughs of New York, sparked violent riots and arrests, and attracted much media attention before ending with the successful lowering of meat prices.

May Day: Celebrating through protest

Happy May Day! Originally, May Day was a pagan springtime festival, roots of which survive in the traditions of flower-festooned maypoles and the crowning of the “Queen of the May.” Since the late 19th century, it has also been a workers’ holiday. Though in the US it has been officially replaced (and I would argue, coopted) by Labor Day in September, May Day remains an occasion for social protest of many kinds.

Jewish women and marijuana: Yay or nay?

If you listen closely, you may hear people wishing one another a "Happy 4/20" today. Why?

Sharon Brous: On honors and journeys

There’s been a lot of press about Rabbi Sharon Brous lately, since she became the first woman to crack the top 5 on the Newsweek America’s Top 50 Rabbis list. Of course, this wasn’t the first recognition of Brous for her work building IKAR, a vital and exciting Jewish community in Los Angeles; she’s already been recognized by the Forward, Jewish Women International, the Jewish Community Foundation of LA, and others, who herald her as a leader in reimagining Jewish life for the 21st century.

Will an apple join the orange on your seder plate?

This year, Hadassah Gross is asking you to put an apple on your seder plate.

A new name for "Jew Pond?"

I’ve been living in New Hampshire for more than a year now, but until recently, I’d never heard of Mont Vernon, N.H.

pJewishMisanthropy announces "Kosher Camera" that erases women in real time

Yesterday eJewish Philanthropy released a special, satirical Purim edition of their usual newsletter called http://pjewishmisanthropy.wordpres

Occupy (Working) Motherhood

Susan B. Anthony was born 192 years ago today; we share a birthday. I am 43. The late great suffragist once said: “Our job is not to make young women grateful.

Remembering Hanna Weinberg, pioneering advocate for domestic abuse victims

For women in the Orthodox Jewish community, domestic abuse is still too often suffered in silence.

Susan Rosenberg, An American Radical

I guess it’s inevitable, when you’re at a book talk by a 1970s radical political activist who was wanted by the FBI, went underground, got arrested, and spent 16 and a half years behind bars, that

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