World War II

My travels in Europe helped me reconcile some of the tensions in my Jewish identity.

In learning the rich history of Jews in Asia, I finally found a sense of belonging.

With each handcrafted pierogi, my grandma honors her husband's traditions while holding on to her strong Jewish identity. 

The Posen Library shares a WAAF poster from 1943 from their archive.

Like during World War I and II, many of us have turned to gardening for comfort and control during the pandemic.

Jewish partisans are far more compelling than any revenge fantasy cooked up by Quentin Tarantino because they were real.

It is the accomplishments of everyday women that shape our world and change our collective future. Let’s tell their stories, too.

Over the past 106 years, 48 women have been honored with the Nobel Prize. Amalie Emmy Noether, a German Jewish mathematician who is now known as the “mother of abstract algebra,” is not one of them.

JWA’s June Book Club pick isThe Fortunate Ones, a debut novel by author Ellen Umansky that tells the story of two women, one an older Holocaust survivor, the other a young woman living in Los Angeles, and the stolen painting that binds them together. We talked to Umansky about intergenerational friendship, becoming a writer, and the meaning of the word “fortunate.”

With the wonders of social media, I have a place to ponder the fate of Jimmy Hoffa and share anecdotes that I find in the archives. In 1921, a group of women with curious minds found a different method to uncover and share stories: The Saturday Luncheon Club (SLC).

In my journal is a piece of paper that’s older than I am. I’ve been carrying it around for some time and reading it at almost every available opportunity, though at this point, I know it almost by heart.

I should be able to tour the neighborhoods that sheltered hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees in New York, Chicago, Boston, Montreal and Toronto, London and Manchester. But thanks to xenophobia, inaction, and fear, these neighborhoods never existed.