Beth Kissileff is co-editor of Bound in the Bond of Life: Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree of Life Tragedy and author of the novel Questioning Return. She is at work on a book about Jewish wisdom on healing from trauma and grief and lives in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her family.
Beth Kissileff
By Beth Kissileff
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The Schmooze How Do You Ask The Four Questions In Swahili?
Over recent years, a curious tradition has cropped up in many traditional Jewish family seders: The recitation of the Four Questions in a variety of languages. “Jewish children have been reciting the Ma Nishtana for about a hundred generations and…in many different countries,” writes Ilana Kurshan in her book, “Why Is This Night Different from…
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Opinion Why I ‘Thank’ The Anti-Semitic Thugs Who Vandalize Jewish Cemeteries
It actually had the opposite effect. The toppled headstones, shattered on the ground, divided the letters of the names commemorated there so that they could not be read. Actually, they brought greater attention to the lives of those buried in the hallowed ground. Images of haphazard destruction, of wanton vandalism, knocking over some and not…
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Life Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom Co-Founder Sheryl Olitzky Offers Lesson in Bridge-Building
In 2010, Sheryl Olitzky, a marketing professional, who had worked in marketing throughout her career, decided to start an interfaith dialogue group for Jewish and Muslim women. She sought advice from various people who had experience with putting together these types of groups. One of them, Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Core, told her…
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Breaking News How Are Rabbis Consoling Congregants Following Trump’s Triumph?
How are rabbis communicating with their congregants about an election whose result has left many of them terrified? Based on his campaign statements and conduct, many see Donald Trump’s ascension to the White House not as a disappointment or even a bitter defeat, but as a mortal threat: to constitutional protections; to a society based…
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News How Will Rabbis Lead Congregations Through Post-Election America?
Birth and death, marriage and coming-of-age. These are the kind of life-changing events in which congregants look to rabbis to provide guidance and consolation. But what about an election whose result has shocked many Jews down to their souls? Here is what some rabbis have been telling their congregants since Donald Trump emerged clearly with…
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Life Charming and Inspiring Stories from Hillary Clinton’s Oldest Supporters
Some women born before women in the United States got the right to vote, in 1920, are now casting their votes for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Like the symbolism Michelle Obama spoke of about being a black family waking up in a White House built by slaves each morning, the thought of women born into a…
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Culture Orly Castel-Bloom Scoops Always Controversial Sapir Prize
The judges for the Sapir Prize — widely considered to be Israel’s equivalent of the Man Booker prize — are not afraid of controversy. Last year, the award went to a Ruby Namdar’s “A Ruined House,” a novel written in Hebrew in New York, arousing such controversy that a rule was passed stating winners must…
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Life Remembering Bonna Devora Haberman’s Joy
I’m looking at the lines in my notebook “Bonna Devora Haberman bonnadev@gmail.com” written carefully in neat precise handwriting. I had never imagined that only a few weeks after she gave me her email, Rabbi Haberman would no longer be in this world. Although she apparently had cancer for a while, in my blindness she didn’t…
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