Genie Milgrom knew something was terribly wrong. Even as a little girl, she had always struggled with her family’s Catholic faith and identity, she explained in a recent interview with Ami. Born in 1956 into...

In 1994, I started gathering stories about Shlomo Carlebach for my first book, Holy Brother. One of the themes that continuously crept up was his proclivity to ply people with genuine, heartfelt compliments, some...

“Don’t call my wife yet,” Yossi told his boss at the meat processing plant where he was employed. Meat was Yossi’s specialty, having worked in the industry for the past seven years, ever since he’d...

Keeping kosher was not a priority in my childhood home in Shaker Heights, Ohio. My parents’ priorities included raising us to pursue a university education (Dad chaired one of the departments in the School...

Gitty called me at 11:00 p.m., an hour before she had to head to the airport to catch her flight. “Chanchy, I’ve changed my mind,” she blurted out. “I’m staying home. And no, you...

It started with a random text message from my editor early one afternoon. “Want to go to Kentucky tomorrow?” I chuckled at the way the message was worded. What kind of question is that? I...

For most kosher consumers, the extent of their contact with the kashrus industry is when they check packages of food at the grocery store for a kashrus symbol or see a mashgiach at their...

Sixty-five-year-old Betty Huart was dying of liver cancer. If she was lucky, in a few months she would turn 66—the age her father had been when he died of the same disease. While her...

Last week the prime ministers of Lebanon and Iraq were forced to resign in the face of widespread popular protests. The people said they had taken to the streets to put an end to...

Today in Israel, words like “exclusion of women” ring very loudly, even when it comes to a musical performance held to help the sick. And that’s what happened this week to Rabbi Elimelech Firer,...