Someone referred me to a person studying people who convert to Judaism. Excuse me? What made this referring person think that I would be a good person to interview? I thought about it. My internal self who thinks that if someone thinks something about me, I must be the cause, started… Continue reading Never a Part of the Tribe
Professor Donald Keene was one of the founders of Japanese Studies in the US and the larger western world and a cultural icon in Japan. He became a Japanese citizen in 2011 after the great earthquake and tsunami on March 11. English Wikipedia Japanese Wikipedia I had the incredible fortune to know him from the… Continue reading Goodbye, Professor Keene
The practice of mikvah feels nourishing. The way the water hugs and buoys me up just a little feels like the physical embodiment of “support.” When I enter the mikvah, the water envelops me completely, and gently touches every single part of my body. This feels both intimate and a little invasive. In my pursuit… Continue reading The Mikvah and Me
This site used to be called Notes of a Jewpanese Nomad. Today, I changed it to FrinJew. Why? I moved (again!) from urban California to a New England city where so many things about how people behave and relate to their Judaism and local Jewish people felt familiar. And then I realized our commonality: This… Continue reading Change of Name: Why FrinJew
Tonight, I don’t know what to say. But I will say this: Jews will be targeted as Jews, whether it’s in a synagogue or a temple, in a store, in a school, or on the streets. And no, it’s not for personal choices that we’ve made about what “religious path” or “religious practice” we have… Continue reading Tree of Life, Pittsburgh and Antisemitism
This is the shul I used to go to when I lived in Berkeley, California, and still visit when I go back to the area. This article provides a nice anthropological description of the place.
We did a huge cleaning today in anticipation of Pesach. This is one holiday that makes me particularly nostalgic, remembering how I used to celebrate it growing up. One of the huge gaps of celebrating Pesach at home in Japan and in places like New York was food. My association with Pesach is one of… Continue reading Pesach: Memories from Home
This is the first time that I am saying this in a semi-public space: I have endured harassment for a significant time during my adult life. I don’t want to get into the specifics of it right now, but this experience and talking about it with people has brought up issues that have convinced me that… Continue reading Myths about Sexual Harassment
Denominational lines were something foreign to me growing up in a place where there were too few Jews to draw distinctions between them. [This is in the past tense because now some seem to hold differently.] You could have different beliefs, different practices, different realities, etc. and it didn’t change the fact that we all… Continue reading Different kinds of Orthodoxies
When I log on to my ever-trusted Hebcal.com to check out exactly when candle lighting time is, I see the announcement that the first night of Chanukah is coming up. It made me smile. For one thing, Cappuccina (Leo’s younger sister) has been very excited about Chanukah and for another, it’s one of my… Continue reading Chanukah is coming!
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