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Shavuot

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Loolwa Khazzoom and her Bandmates: woman with mouth open as if screaming, man on either side of her

Loolwa Khazzoom on her new single, "The Convert's Quest"

Sarah Jae Leiber

JWA talks to Loolwa Khazzoom, frontwoman of the rock band Iraqis in Pajamas, about the inspiration for her new single.

A charcuterie board with cheese and fruit

Charcuterie: More Jewish Than You Think!

Catherine Horowitz

Here’s how to put a distinctly Jewish spin on the charcuterie trend.

Colorful Illustration of Women Leaning on Each other

Jewish Summer Camp and The Book of Ruth: The Power of a Jewish Woman's Support

Ilah

While my first go at standing up to a man in a position of power may not have gone as planned, I've recognized in the events that followed the power of Jewish women, like Ruth and Naomi, to lift each other back up.

Illustration of woman working from home

On Shavuot, I'm Rewriting My Commandments for Post-Pandemic Life

Dani Pinkus

Shavuot commemorates the giving of the ten commandments. This year, I'm rewriting my own.

Topics: Shavuot
Naomi entreating Ruth and Orpah to return to the land of Moab

Why Don't Americans Celebrate Shavuot?

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

Americans all but ignore the holiday. How come?

Topics: Shavuot
Ruth swearing her allegiance to Naomi

"Wherever You Go, I Go": Queerness in the Book of Ruth

Elana Spivack

This Book of Ruth is a clarion call for women loving women.

Orpah leaving Ruth and Naomi CROP

Orpah’s Story: A Midrash

Rabbi Rachel Bearman
Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Rabbis Rachel Bearman and Paul Kipnes retell the story of Orpah in her own voice in this “Midrashic Monologue.”

Topics: Shavuot
Fritter Final Plating Photo

Espresso Ricotta Fritters for Shavuot

Lisa Yelsey

In this recipe, I’ve mixed espresso into a dairy Ricotta Fritter recipe to blend the caffeine sometimes needed for the all-night studying with the traditional Shavuot practice of eating a lot of dairy.

Topics: Recipes, Shavuot
Lena Horne in the kitchen, cropped

This Shavuot, I’m Ditching the Cheesy Recipes

Tara Metal

I feel a certain amount of discomfort in posting on JWA’s blog the glowing, cheerful recipes so common this time of year. As a Jewish organization that focuses on women’s history and feminism, what does it mean to fill our blog with recipes for baked goods and brisket? Though we boast an increasingly robust number of male readers, JWA reaches mainly women. Do I want to bombard them with tips for cooking for a large family during the holidays? No, not really.

Topics: Recipes, Shavuot
Ruth in Boaz's Field by Julius Schnorr von Carlosfeld,  1828

An Un-Love Song

Dana

An Un-Love Song is written as a psalm to Shavuot, which is associated with one of the most beautiful, celebratory poems in history, the Song of Songs. However, it’s written in the style of a Lamentation, as a response to heartbreaking acts of aggression towards women and children in the misappropriated name of religion. The poem addresses current events against a backdrop of Biblical recounting, including the Mount Sinai experience, the sin of worshipping the golden calf, the subsequent breaking of the original Tablets, and the story of Ruth and Naomi. It is a decidedly feminist poem.

Topics: Shavuot, Poetry
Sutlach (Aromatic Milk Pudding)

Eating Jewish: Sutlach (Aromatic Milk Pudding)

Katherine Romanow

It was a busy weekend here for me in Montreal.

Topics: Food, Recipes, Shavuot

May Podcast: A Conversion Story for Shavuot

Jordan Namerow

Tomorrow starts the festival of Shavuot, a time of spiritual liberation that commemorates the ancient Israelites receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai. The holiday is also linked to the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman, and her relationship with her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi. As recounted in the Book of Ruth, traditionally read on Shavuot, after Naomi and her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah all become widows, Naomi urges the two younger women to leave her and find new husbands.

Topics: Shavuot

Festivals and Holy Days

According to halakhah, women are responsible for obeying all of Judaism’s negative commandments and for observing most of the positive ones, including the Sabbath and all of the festivals and holy days of the Jewish year. In some instances, however, male and female obligations on these days differ.

Leah Bergstein

Leah Bergstein was the first of the choreographers in Palestine who, at the beginning of the 1930s, created festival dances at kibbutzim that depicted life in pre-state Israel and on agricultural settlements. The unique festival pageants she created, often with poet-composer Mattityahu Shelem, contributed to the development of rural Israeli festivals and holiday celebrations and the creation of the first Israeli dances.

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