Beshert | Really Glad We Didn’t Skip That Party
That we met on February 22, my Grandma Clara’s birthday, my parents’ wedding day and my Bar Mitzvah day on my mom’s and dad’s 22nd anniversary, must be pure coincidence, right? We chose our wedding day, June 10th, randomly; it turned out to be my grandparents’ wedding day nearly 70 years earlier. Another coincidence… unless one accepts that beshert operates in strange and mysterious ways.
Beshert | The Eight Months Of (Well, After) Hanukkah
I met Laurie at a Hanukkah party in Fort Collins, Colorado, a small town that had almost no other single Jews my age. Our mutual...
Beshert | A Real ‘Fun Run’
I moved from Cleveland to the woods of Connecticut in 1981 to start a new job as an engineer for Uniroyal. It was February and...
Beshert | Open Book Finds Editor
The truth is, we are an odd couple, Gidon and I. He is from the Czech Republic, I am from California, I like cats, him...
Beshert | Wait, No Drama?
He once asked me, “Does it bother you that I spend so much time inside my head?” And hand to G-d, my answer was, “I’m sorry, what did you say? I wasn’t listening.” Now if that isn’t beshert…
Beshert | ‘April Fool’s!’—The Prank That Made Them Partners
We settled on his idea to prank mobile users into thinking they were getting a call from Ashton Kutcher himself. And for the next week or so, the two of us “partnered” on a project that would go on to garner media attention from national publications large and small; an April Fools’ Day prank that did, in fact, fool millions of people over the course of one, silly day that spring.
Beshert | A Life of Adventures and Surprises
Most of our adventures have been wonderful. We’ve met and become friends with great people, seen beautiful things, and have become part of people’s lives. (Some adventures weren’t so good; accidents, hospital stays, illnesses, and sometimes boredom and culture shock.)
Beshert | Meant to Be?
For the first hour or so, it seemed like he was putting on airs, so I didn't feel particularly interested. But at some point, he suddenly dropped the act. In retrospect, he remembers feeling that he was too tired to keep it going. He told me his mother's memorial service was the next day, and he showed me the eulogy he had written. It was not a normal date. And I've never gotten to know someone so quickly. I don't remember how I felt or how I reacted to the news of his mother's death, but Tom remembers I took his hand.
“An Uneasy Union” Update: Couple to Marry Thanks to Rabbinate’s Change of Heart
Photo and story by Eetta Prince-Gibson.
Our November/December cover story “An Uneasy Union” explained why, in Israel’s thriving democracy, marriage and divorce remain under the authority...
Thousands of Little Pharaohs: The Plight of the Agunah
By Martin Berman-Gorvine
In this Passover season, consider the plight of Jewish women whose marriages have ended but whose (former) husbands refuse them a get (bill...
The Jew With Two “Beards”
By Steven Philp
To their neighbors they look like every other Orthodox Jewish couple, a man and woman married for five years with two children in...
The Jew With Two "Beards"
By Steven Philp
To their neighbors they look like every other Orthodox Jewish couple, a man and woman married for five years with two children in...