Author: Jessie
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Watching Live
In the last hour my brother has called me. My mother has called me. My grandmother has called me. It is not my birthday. It is not because I won the lottery. It is not New Years or Hanukkah. They are all calling to make sure I am safe. They are worried because I live… Read more
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The Jewish New Year on Zoom
Waiting for the moment you are allowed to sit down during a Yom Kippur zoom service highlights how much we depend on one another for our customs, cues, and daily actions. Without the old guard sitting down around me I’m very alone and don’t always know what to do, when to rise and when to… Read more
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How The Pandemic Has Changed Me
I pay attention to how much toilet paper I use and how many times I have to go during the day. I check my hold list at the library as often as I check my email. I have paid for nothing but rent, insurance, and food since social distancing began. Over 60% of my necessities… Read more
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I Am A Millennial
March of 2020 has seen a lot of us glued to our Twitter feeds or 24 hours news cycle, as a pandemic becomes the headline of the day. While a lot of the news coverage has been problematic, one particular type of article has been making the rounds recently due to the yearly celebration of… Read more
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Happy Birthday Jackie Robinson
Today would have been Jackie Robinson’s 100th birthday. He passed away almost twenty years before I was born, and yet, I’ve been an obsessive fan all my life. I don’t remember ever not knowing who Jackie Robinson was, thanks to my grandfather who grew up in Brooklyn and shared both his knowledge and love of the… Read more
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I Work Where a White Supremacist Might Find Me
“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” – Rabbi A.Y. Kook Today I must speak, once again, in solidarity with other victimized groups across our country. The tragic and heinous events this morning at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh… Read more
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I Thought Wisdom Came with Age
Today I watched the senate judiciary committee hear testimony from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the doctor who has accused him of sexual assault, PhD Christine Blasey Ford. There is a lot I could say. There is a lot I have said. I believe Dr. Ford is a hero. I believe Brett Kavanaugh was… Read more
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Timing and Age: The New Voices from Parkland Florida
I remember where I was when I heard about Sandy Hook. I was in a cubicle working my first job out of college. When I heard about Parkland it was almost the same, still a cubicle just a different office. I always think of Sandy Hook’s Noah Pozner because he was a twin, like me.… Read more
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The Silence of Small Things
When I was in high school I had a teacher who told me that the swastika was not a symbol I should find upsetting. When my sister was in middle school a boy drew a swastika on her notebook and the principal said that the boy didn’t mean anything by it and it was only… Read more
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The Ten Plagues: Science Not Silence
A week ago today I was still refraining from eating most carbs, as it was the Jewish holiday of Passover. A holiday where Jews across the world come together to remember the exodus from Egypt. One of the better known elements of the Passover seder, the holiday’s ritual meal, is the recitation of the 10… Read more