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Rising Voices Blog Posts

Rising Voices

Learn more about the Rising Voices Fellowship, JWA's thought-leadership program for young Jewish women and non-binary teens.
Image of girls playing soccer over collage of a green field and torn paper

Athletic Like a Jew

Jessica Primus

Being surrounded by Jewish women molded me into a little girl who knew that Judaism was a strength. 

Topics: Athletes
Collage of hand holding pen to paper on blue to orange gradient background

Writing as a Jewish Woman: Recording, Communicating, Counting

Samantha Berk

Being a Jewish woman means writing about what matters to me, and what I hope could matter to you. 

Topics: Writing, Family
Collage of torn magazine photographs and flowers

To My Fellow RVF Fellows

Aviva Schilowitz

On the surface, our Rising Voices Fellowship has been about Jewish feminism, thought, and writing. But, to me, it was also about the power of words.

Topics: Writing, Feminism
Line drawing of woman holding up a baby on blue and white background

Confronting the Jewish Mother Stereotype

Clara Sorkin

Is my over-reliance on my mother and her eagerness to support me subconsciously preserving the stereotype that has continually shaped our community in a negative light?

Topics: Motherhood, Children
Line drawings of two faces on red and white watercolor wash background

My Complicated Relationship with Passing

Noa Karidi

If people choose not to actively “come out” to the world, they are not accepted as their full selves. To be ”known” they have to make their marginalized identities known too. But that is difficult.

Blue record player on black background with white Jewish stars

My Search for Meaningful Mainstream Jewish Music

Sonia Freedman

While I can bop to a prayer in the right setting, my playlists have a dismal lack of casual English music that reflects my Judaism. 

Silhouette of women raising their graduation caps collaged on pale orange background

Confronting Elitism at My Future Elite College

Irene Y. Raich

I am beyond excited to start at Yale, but understanding its history as a bastion of exclusion and elitism has been paramount in shaping my opinions towards this new chapter in my life.

Outline of a woman sitting on the ground on pale yellow background

The Warning Light

Olivia Gnad

The problem with Jews distancing ourselves from anxiety is that it doesn’t go away when we do.

Line drawings of Jewish symbols on background of stylized women's faces

The Beauty of Female Friendships

Leila Nuri

There's always that reassuring idea that in a time of need, another woman will be there to support you.

Topics: Feminism
Collage of kippah and other clothing on patterned green background

The Gendered Dimensions of Choosing to Wear a Kippah

Miriam Stodolsky

For some reason, wearing kippot gave me that same itchy, wrong feeling I had experienced from feminine clothing in elementary school or masculine clothing in middle school

Stack of books against collage of the Ukrainian and Russian flags

The Enemy is Putin, Not Pushkin: Literature and Free Expression during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Nora Auburn

Masha Gessen’s departure from PEN is about artist versus art institution, colonial power versus subject, and the paradoxical notion of uplifting some voices by silencing others.

Avatar the Last Airbender logo over purple background with Jewish stars

The Surprising Jewishness of Avatar the Last Airbender

Sam Mezrich

ATLA's Air Nomads are based on Tibetan Buddhism, according to the show’s creators. Yet I also feel that there are also a lot of similarities between the Air Nomads and the Jewish people.

 

Topics: Television, Children
Collage of Jewish queer movie characters on pink background of movie tickets

The Future of Jewish Queer Cinema

Judy Ruden

Like all kinds of media that seek to portray underrepresented perspectives, there is good representation and bad representation.

Topics: Film, LGBTQIA Rights
Collage of three women with their arms around each other on blue and white background

A Conversation on the Future of Jewish Feminism

Miriam Niestat

I realized that in our seventeen years of knowing each other, I could count on one hand the number of times the three of us had talked about our places as women in Judaism.

Israeli singer Noa Kireal against sparkly blue background

Empowerment at Eurovision

Maya Viswanathan

No matter how silly the school tests and projects that stress me out are, listening to music that tells me that I have “all the power of a unicorn” makes me feel empowered.

Arms holding up a protest sign with 3 power fists on it on yellow background

Toward A Besere Velt (A Better World)

Ava Weinstein

The more I learn about the world and the society we live in, the more dissatisfied I feel and the more eager I am to change it.

Bookshelves collaged on orange patterned background

The Future of the Jewish-American Literary Canon

Irene Y. Raich

The Jewish-American literary canon is not only dismissive of women but hostile to them, and this is insidious and damaging to the narrative we tell as Jews and women.

Topics: Publishing, Fiction
Collage of waves, hamsa, and woman's face on pink orange background

Dancing Into a Feminist Future

Adina Gerwin

The idea that Miriam will dance with us to repair the broken world paints an image of a world in which change is actually achievable. How beautiful is the thought that we can advocate for a world that swirls with gender equality?

Topics: Prayer, Ritual, Dance
Collage of newspapers clippings

The Future of Judaism in Journalism

Rosie Yanowitch

When I look at my American Jewish identity, I find that news from the Jewish community, and in particular, the Jewish feminist movement, continue to be underrepresented and under-publicized.

Topics: Journalism, Writing
Collage of drawings of skirts and pants on periwinkle background

Is the Future of Modern Orthodox Women In Pants?

Aviva Schilowitz

For some Modern Orthodox Jewish women, skirts versus pants gets tricky.

Collage of Alicia Jo Rabins and a river on purple background

Finding Meaning in Midrash Through Song

Olivia Gnad

When I heard Alicia Jo Rabins' performance of “River So Wide,” it brought the world of the Torah close to me in a way it had never been before.

Gold line drawings of woman, mask, and tambourine on blue and gold background

The Megillah's Two Models of Leadership

Maya Viswanathan

Megillat Esther reminds us of a different way to lead, a different way to change the world.

Actresses from early 2000s films on blue patterned background

The Makeover of the Media

Leila Nuri

These fun movies from the early 2000s are still watched frequently as they are thought to be timeless classics, but the awkward and problematic comments have yet to be addressed.

Topics: Film, Comedy, Media
Green and gold watercolor next to line drawing of smartphone

It-Girls, God, and Me

Sonia Freedman

Just as the it-girls online promised, working through my issues by connecting to a feminine God works, even if it is extremely different than what they envisioned.

Red and orange Hebrew letters on yellow background

The Future of Gendered Hebrew

Sam Mezrich

Grammatical gender in Hebrew fosters a culture of exclusion and denies people safety and belonging in our religious spaces. It's time for that to change. 

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Rising Voices Blog Posts." (Viewed on March 19, 2024) <http://jwa.org/blog/risingvoices>.