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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.
Close-up photo of computer code.

What a Coding Program Taught Me about Privilege

Ellie Klibaner-Schiff

As one of four white girls in my Girls Who Code Summer Immersion class of twenty, I was confronted by my privilege in a way that I'd never been before.

Topics: Activism, Technology
Lila Goldstein holding a sign that reads "For Sale: Marco Rubio"

Privilege after Parkland

Lila Goldstein

How many other teenagers around the state of Florida, around the country, shared my bitterness and anger, but didn’t have the tools to be where I was then?

Topics: Protests, Schools
Sunrise over the Kinneret in Israel. Figure in the foreground on rocks.

"A Light unto the Nations": The Power of our Words

Lilah Peck

My Judaism guides me to use my words in order to lead a mindful life of gratitude.

Topics: Prayer
DNA Double Helix

"Jewish DNA"

Belle Gage

My aunt sent a tube to the DNA analyzing company, 23andMe. The results she received identified her as 99% Ashkenazi Jew.

Topics: Activism, Religion
Open book with flipping pages. Black background.

Confronting White Privilege: A Reflection on Affirmative Action

Ari Fogel

As I learned more about what affirmative action really means for students, my worries turned into a sobering recognition of my privilege.

Pencil with sharpener resting on a notebook.

Magnet School

Maddy Pollack

If tikkun olam is something that we believe in fully, then our work will not be complete until every student is empowered with an equitable education.

Four Gadna participants in Sde Boker.

Gadna

Isabel Hoffman

I was en route to Gadna, a military simulation run by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for camp groups, gap year programs, and high school semesters abroad.

United States Capital, featuring Christmas tree in foreground.

A Culture of Christmas

Ellanora Lerner

What does it mean to live in a country that purports secularity but considers Christianity to be the default?

Checklist, checked boxes with a pink highlighter.

Checked Boxes

Shoshanna Hemley

I’ve been told that, because I’m not white and because I’m queer, I don’t have to stress about college applications.

Neima Fax reading from the Torah.

The Aliyah Situation

Neima Fax

That Simchat Torah, I saw the Torah not as something I had easy access to, but something generations of women had to fight to even touch.

Photograph of Persian Jewish man, sepia tone.

Airport Insecurity

Sasha Azizi Rosenfeld

Everything about me screamed American Ashkenazi Jew except the middle name on my passport.

Topics: Family, Israel
Talmud opened to seder zera'im.

"Lo Bashamayim Hi": Reconciling Feminism and Halakha

Dahlia Soussan

Talmud became a channel for me to develop and express my Jewish feminism.

Young woman standing next to brick wall, wearing ankle-length blue skirt with red striped pattern and a Vans shirt underneath a jean jacket. Signs photoshopped into the image next to the young woman in English and Hebrew read: "Please do not pass through our neighborhood in immodest clothes"

Wonder Woman's Hemline

Lilah Peck

The length of your hemline doesn’t matter as long as you choose it for yourself and you accept those who choose differently.

Painting with the outline of a human figure. Grey background with overlapping square shapes. One contains another small outlined face that faces the outlined figure.

A Trip to Crown Heights

Belle Gage

I was visiting Brooklyn, New York with a group of students in my Reform synagogue’s confirmation class. 

High school student standing in front of a brick wall. She is holding a protest sign that says "To forget a Holocaust is to be killed twice," attributed to Elie Wiesel.

On Emancipation Avenue

Madeline Canfield

My friend wanted to get arrested, one morning in July, on the curb of the sidewalk along a street east of downtown Houston.

Close-up of a parsley plant.

Parsing the Meaning of Parsley

Ella Plotkin-Oren

Parsley reminds me of my Judaism.

Topics: Activism, Food, Passover
Ilana Drake standing in a passageway on the Bell Tower of St. Paul's Church, Munich cityscape below.

Raising My Hand High

Ilana Drake

The teacher told us to raise our hands if we were Jewish. I didn’t know what to do.

Mezuzah mounted on wooden door frame. Scroll visible, in a test tube-like vial corked on light blue wood decorated with pomegranates and Star of Davids.

My Matriarchal Mezuzah

Eleanor Harris

Inhaling the sweet scents of Nachalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv, I searched for the perfect new mezuzah. 

Topics: Family, Israel, Ritual
souvenir name mugs featuring illustrated fish. Names "Eva" and "Hanna" are on the mug.

Learning to Love My Name

Ari Fogel

I always knew my name was about to be called when a teacher announced with an almost mocking grin, “I know I’m gonna butcher this one…”

Grandmother coloring on paper with her grandchildren. They sit on and around a red couch.

My Time on the Line

Neima Fax

ENFP. Extraversion, intuition, feeling, perception. Four words that, according to the Myers-Briggs personality test, define me as a person.

Camp counselor surrounded by campers, all wearing white. Sitting on benches during services.

In the Image of God?

Mica Maltzman

When I was younger, around the time of my consecration, my vision of God was simple.

Young woman wearing tefillin and holding a prayer book during a service. Surrounded by fellow campers.

On the Sanctity of My Tefillin

Hannah Landau

For two hours a day, three days a week, the Orthodox rabbi led us through the strict and meticulous process of tefillin-making.

Topics: Summer Camps, Prayer
A seder plate with the six traditional items and an orange.

The Orange on the Seder Plate

Ellanora Lerner

There are a few stories that you may have heard about the orange on the seder plate.

Shoshannah Hemley and another student stand in front of a crowd of students, shouting in protest. Someone in the crowd holds a sign that says "girls against guns."

“Too Loud” and "Too Jewish": Standing up for Gun Control

Shoshanna Hemley

We were at a school open mic about gun control in the weeks following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting.

Topics: Activism, Schools
Open Torah scroll with yad.

Leining: A Balancing Act

Ellie Klibaner-Schiff

Existing at the border between modern and traditional values often feels like teetering across a balance beam.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Rising Voices Blog Posts." (Viewed on March 28, 2024) <http://jwa.org/blog/risingvoices>.