Research

Judaism After Orthodoxy: Insights into the “OTD” Movement

Many of us have read some of the recent memoirs written by people who have left their Orthodox community of ...

On Trailing the Life of Helena Rubinstein

Helena Rubinstein wrote—or rather commissioned—two autobiographies that merely serve to perpetuate her legend, and therefore cannot really be trusted… But ...

Research and the Power of Bashert

I’m not a great believer in fate, but I certainly have encountered more than a few instances of bashert—that lovely Hebrew ...

The Journey Back

Little did I know what I was getting myself into when one day I decided to delve back into my ...

Connect, and They Will Come

This past Shabbat I hosted the last in the three-part set of gatherings that had been planned, designed and implemented ...

The Pew Study: What the stats can and can’t teach us

It’s probably one of the first things that I learned from my time as a social science researcher – the ...

Is Gentile “Genteel”? (Or, What Should We Call People Who Aren’t Jewish?)

The other day, we had an extended discussion around the office about the proper term to use to refer to ...

Researching and Reimagining Margot Frank

In my novel,  Margot , I reimagine Margot Frank, Anne’s older sister, having survived the war and come to Philadelphia where ...

The Jewish Connection to Art

People ask me how much research I had to do on art forgery for my new book  A Nearly Perfect ...

The Jewish Organization Equality Index Launches!

A new report on LGBT inclusion in the Jewish community was just released and it’s already making waves. The Jewish Organization ...