Instead of using the poem the way a husband would honor his wife for taking care of the entire family, I chose to use Eshet Chayil as my way of thanking and expressing the awe that I have for these female role models in my family.

When it came time for my parents to acquire a tallit for me, my mother thought back to her past for inspiration.

In the same way I have an obligation to my Jewish ancestors to continue the fight for social justice and equity, I have an obligation to my queer ancestors as well.

When my bubbe gave me this yad, I felt like I finally didn’t have to hide some parts about my Jewish identity.

The British Library shares a fifteenth-century prayer book commissioned by a father to his daughter, Maraviglia, a testament to women’s participation in fifteenth-century Italian Jewish ritual life.

My parents explicitly educated me in social justice issues, but not everyone learned these things as a child. What was the difference between my parents and my friends’ parents that had shaped the way we were raised?

Thanks to this beautiful drawing of the biblical story of Ruth in my house, I was able to develop an appreciation for Ruth and how her journey connects to mine.

I often overlook how lucky I am that this necklace was passed down to me. My great-aunt gave it to me when I was born. Now I feel connected to my great-grandmother, despite having never met her.  

Slowly, I have come to understand that my connection to Judaism doesn’t need to be a linear path. I experience days of doubt, times of radiant joy, and moments of deep guilt.

Jwitter, or Jewish Twitter, helped me reshape how I viewed my place in a Jewish community.

I wanted my bat mitzvah to be a very public statement of my commitment to gender equality within Orthodox Judaism.

Every day I find new books to read, and I know that they will continue to help expand my understanding of my own identity, and of the world around me.

When the topic of my bat mitzvah surfaced in my two households, it became evident that my bat mitzvah was not going to be like the ones my friends were having.

Reading A Brief History of Feminism with my camp friends acted almost as a shared secret or understanding between us. All of us were realizing together that this was a movement we cared deeply about.

I’ve uncovered a thread, in the form of a chain of paintings by my great-grandfather that stretches across the United States and links me to my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, who live hundreds of miles away.

Across the country, efforts to ban books have been increasing in number and effectiveness, hitting school and public libraries especially hard. These are the places that made me who I am, so it's been an emotional experience, to say the least, to see books taken off the shelves.