Blog of Author Jessie Atkin

ACE Explainer – Still Wanting Relationships

I’ve received a lot of great feedback on my most recent essay published in the Jewish Women’s Archive, “Asexuality: A Text Study,” as well as some really thoughtful clarifying questions. In the spirit in which those questions were asked, and the mission of continuing to educate, I’ve put together a few extra explainers below on

Alas, Hineni

What other group has to share their location and promise to text their loved ones hourly as a matter of safety because they are going to a peaceful protest? Well, apparently, I, as a Jew, must, because that’s how my day began. But I was lucky. I came in contact with nothing but peace and

A Time for Mourning

Tomorrow will mark the seventh day since Hamas massacred civilians in Israel. In Judaism, after a person passes away, a formal mourning period of seven days, known as shiva, is observed by the immediate family of the deceased. So, tomorrow, Shabbat will be the end of a sort of shiva period for the wider Jewish

Pondering Peace

Tonight I went to a vigil for Israel. Four days and the pain is still as constant as the numb feelings, the shock. New details every day highlight more horror. Kidnapped grandparents, decapitated babies, the sheer numbers. It seems too outlandish to even write as fiction. Despite the horror I’ve seen in the online discourse,

In Reality at the Supreme Court

I stood outside the Supreme Court yesterday after the news broke that the court has already voted to overturn Roe v Wade in a draft opinion. You may have seen pictures from me, you may have seen pictures from others, you may have seen pictures on the news. But those pictures may not have been

Actions vs. Words

What I remember from a year ago today is working. I remember answering emails with the January 6th insurrection on in the background. I remember being horrified and distracted, but still working. Even more than that, I remember getting up the next morning and still going to work as if everything was normal. My boss,

Rosh Hashanah Writing

Writing sometimes feels like the High Holy Days in Judaism (Rosh Hashanah – the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur – the day of atonement). Writing, just like the holidays, is something I have to fit in around “work” and the wider expectations of a society that doesn’t recognize the meaning of the act or the

Words Have Consequences

Sometimes you must be the voice you wish you were seeing online. The discourse (especially on social media) around what is happening in Israel and Gaza right now is taking the form of social justice clickbait. I’ve been posting some warnings and information over the past week, on my own social media channels, about how

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

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

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