The Great Lie

My father died a little over a month ago, on Yom Kippur. They say to write what you know, and what I know now, at least for the time being, is grief. So I wrote a piece about grieving and loss and all the things they never tell you about it. You can read it here at the Jewish Journal.

Above is a photo of my husband and I, and some of our friends and family, laughing and toasting as my dad gives a speech ending with a request for a grandchild. He got one ten months later, his first grandson.

Intersectionality and Anti-Semitism

So I wrote this thing about intersectionality, BDS, and anti-Semitism over at the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. It's actually the cover story of the issue this week. It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever written--even more difficult than my dissertation, or my book on trauma (and by the way, I mean, check out that price--what a steal!). I have a lot of opinions about the topic, and honestly I talk about it all the time. But I almost never write about it. But when I was asked to review Cary Nelson's outstanding new book Israel Denial, there was no way I could say no. And so it morphed into this whole calling out of intersectionality and the ways in which it has devolved into something to be used against Jews.

There's a reason I almost never write about Israel (I wrote one piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education and I think that's it). It's challenging to avoid saying what's already been said, repeating the same lines over and over, preaching to the choir. I have no interest in that. What's the purpose? But I think I did something a little different here. I've gotten some amazing feedback for the most part. I've also gotten two nasty comments/messages from people in my field, and a few people on Twitter accusing me of saying things I never said. But that's the thing--people want to be outraged, don't they? All I know is that I'm trying not to be. I'm trying to see both sides of every issue, and I'm always trying to do the right thing. It's never easy.

Descent Into Trauma, Madness, and Meaning

I wrote a review of Ruby Namdar's brilliant novel The Ruined House over at the Jewish Journal. Read it here!

The Power of Community

People always say that having kids teaches you things. I think it would be more accurate to say that having a child forces you to learn or realize things. It's a subtle but important difference, and honestly I'm forced to learn things all the time in this regard. Here's my piece on one lesson I learned from my son on the importance of community (at the Jewish Journal).

Little More Than Pariah's: On David Shrayer-Petrov's "Doctor Levitin"

I was recently asked to review David Shrayer-Petrov's novel Doctor Levitin for the Los Angeles Review of Books. The novel was written secretly in Russia during Shrayer-Petrov's time as a refusenik, and has only now been translated into English. Read the review here!