Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
(JTA) — When Meredith Jacobs was taught the Purim story as a little girl in the 1970s and ’80s, Esther was made out to be its heroine, while Queen Vashti was its “evil queen.” According to the Book of Esther, Vashti was banished by her husband, the Persian King Ahasuerus, for refusing his order to…
(JTA) — The mother of a 14-year-old Jewish girl killed in a shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, has a heartbreaking but powerful message for President Donald Trump. Alyssa Alhadeff was among the 17 people killed when a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon and began shooting. At…
(JTA) — At Tsion Café in Harlem, visitors can order a vegetable injera, an Ethopian sourdough flatbread topped with vegetable, lentil and chickpea stews. There is traditional shakshuka, a dish common in Israel and the Middle East where eggs are cooked in a hearty tomato sauce. And then there’s the scrambled eggs with caramelized onions…
(JTA) — The letter Cy Golanski wrote to his grandmother last summer was short, to the point and a little different from the typical note home from sleepaway camp. “The food here is so good. Please ask my mom when the cookbook is coming out,” the 11-year-old wrote, adding a request that his grandmother make the…
(JTA) — Sawyer Goldsmith said he has always felt accepted as a a member of the LGBTQ community in United Synagogue Youth, the Conservative movement’s youth group. But the 16-year-old from suburban Chicago hopes his recent election to serve as religion/education vice president on the group’s international board, the first time an openly transgender person…
(JTA) — The Saturday evening event at a Jewish day school in western Massachusetts will in many ways look like a typical havdalah. There will be a musical ceremony marking the end of Shabbat with a braided candle, grape juice and spice bags. But the event at the Lander Grinspoon Academy in Northampton will also…
(JTA) — When Edna Levi looked through her mail on Sunday, she was shocked to find an envelope delivered from Buckingham Palace. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the soon-to-be-married British royal couple, had answered her letter. Levi, who lives outside Leeds and is in her 80s, had sent the couple a note of congratulations after their recent…
(JTA) — Medical professionals from Israel are helping to treat cholera victims in Zambia, which is battling an outbreak of the disease. A delegation of two physicians and one water engineer from the Sheba Medical Center, Israel’s largest hospital, arrived Friday in the southern African country. Over 60 people in Zambia have died of cholera…
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