Eli Reiter is a teacher and writer living in New York. He hosts and produces the long-form storytelling show “Long Story Long.” Comments can be emailed to the author directly.
Eli Reiter
By Eli Reiter
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Life Roy Moore’s Defeat Was Definitely Not A Hanukkah Miracle
As the internet celebrated the victory of a non-alleged pedophile in Alabama, many on social media reveled in the idea of the election as a Hanukkah miracle. Sure, it was a triumph of good over evil. And yes, the victory of Doug Jones was a small repudiation of our assaulter-in-chief. I am more reluctant to…
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Opinion Growing Up Poor, Hanukkah Was A Fraught Time
I was six when I first felt guilty for receiving a gift. I didn’t know what money was, but I was pretty sure we didn’t have it. Although I didn’t grow up feeling inadequate, I somehow knew we had less. Nevertheless, Hanukkah was a festive occasion in my house. My parents made an abundance of…
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Opinion Growing Up Ultra-Orthodox, There Was No Shame In Being Poor
This essay is part of our ongoing series, Outside the Bubble: Class and Inequality in the Jewish Community. It explores the class divides in Jewish communities of all denominations, and the financial struggles belonging to these communities can incur. Please email your thoughts and essays to [email protected]. In the ultra-Orthodox community in which I grew…
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Life Yes, The Orthodox Are Exclusive – But That Doesn’t Mean You Should Be
A follow-up to an essay published last week, “Do Pluralistic Jewish Organizations Stop At The Orthodox?” A few months ago, I attended a lecture by an acclaimed academic, an Orthodox Jewish female leader. She recounted a story: Highly credentialed with degrees from Ivy League institutions, she was invited to be on a panel discussion at…
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Life Do Pluralistic Jewish Organizations Stop At The Orthodox?
My first venture into nondenominational spaces was, like most young Jews, at my college Hillel. I grew up Haredi, so I was interested in meeting other types of Jews and other kinds of Jewish ritual and practice. But I didn’t meet anyone like me. Since then, I have participated in many non-denominational spaces and events,…
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Opinion Rubber Band Experiment Taught Me How Wrong Gay Conversion Therapy Is
“And Thou Shalt Love” disturbed me. It’s about Ohad (Uri Lachmi), an Israeli Yeshiva student who struggles with his homosexuality. Released in 2008, the film uses few words and many strong images. A young man immerses himself in the mikveh, the ritual bath; He says psalms, hoping for a cure, while hiding it from his…
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Opinion From Black Hats to Egalitarian Prayer — and Back?
Growing up in an Orthodox environment, there was a word I kept hearing. It was dirty. Worse, it was said with derision. It signified weird people who were non-traditional. Or worse, non-observant. Egalitarian. But I eventually left yeshiva and entered college. I was observant, but I started getting a crash course in Judaism-that’s-not-like-my-Judaism. It was…
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Opinion Losing in the ‘Knockout’ Game
I’m not used to feeling this scared. My body is stuck in a tug of war. On one hand, it wants to go for a walk. It’s an unseasonably warm winter day out that offers a small reprieve from the arctic chill. I have no excuses. But on the other hand, the streets look so…
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