Helpful Things

Here are some websites, books, movies, and podcast I’ve found useful along my journey to learn what it means to be Jewish (and an NPE).

Websites

http://www.jewfaq.org/index.shtml
https://jstreet.org/
http://www.myjewishlearning.comhttps://www.sefaria.org/
https://www.jewishlives.org/
https://reformjudaism.org/
http://severencemag.com
Matrilineal Descent: https://www.interfaithfamily.com

Articles

Fundamentally Freud: Welcome Home to the Jewish People, Gwyneth Paltrow! by Michael Freund, 18 Sept 2014. Great short read about DNA testing and Jewish ancestry.

Identity and DNA Surprises by Kara Rubinstein Deyerin. https://medium.com/@karadeyerin/identity-and-dna-surprises-4bbd312da0f. This is short synopsis on dealing with my DNA surprise and change in ethnicity.

Books

  • The 100 Most Jewish Foods by Alana Newhouse. I love this book. The stories accompanying each item answers why this thing, this food made the Jewish food list.
  • The Bedside Torah by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson. About every other night a read an entry from this book. There are short Torah snippets with three different modern-day interpretations of the reading.
  • Cooking in America by Joan Nathan. The recipes in this book are fabulous and the stories interspersed throughout bring to life the dishes and Jewish culture.
  • Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life – in Judaism by Sarah Hurwitz. The author delves into everything about WHY I love about Judaism and then some.
  • Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love by Dani Shapiro. As an adult, Dani learned she was donor-conceived and therefore half Jewish. This is an exploration of her NPE story.
  • Jewish American Paradox by Robert Mnookin. The author tackles that sticky question—who is a Jew as well as concerns facing modern Jews.
  • Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. This is my go-to book when I have a question about a Jewish holiday, values, history, or anything else.
  • Judaism’s Ten Best Ideas by Dr. Arthur Green
  • Living a Jewish Life by Anita Diamant. This is an easy read about what it means to live as a reform Jew in today’s world.
  • The Survivors: A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing by Adam P. Frankel. I picked up this book to learn about how holocaust trauma can be passed from generation to generation only to discover it’s also an NPE story as well.

Movies & Documentaries 

  • Annie Hall
  • The Chosen
  • Fiddler on the Roof. A classic movie that supplies the best answer as to why a Jew might do something a specific way—”It’s tradition!”
  • Holy Rollers
  • Little White Lie. An amazing documentary about a woman raised Jewish (and white) who discovers her biological father is African American.
  • The Other Son. A French movie about two babies, one Jewish and one Palestinian switched at birth. The movie tells the story of both families’ struggle to come to terms with the impacts of the truth of the boys’ birth.
  • On the Doorposts of My House
  • The Tale of Love and Darkness
  • Trembling Before G-d
  • Woman in Gold

PodCasts

Israel Story: https://israelstory.org/episodes/. Curious about Isreal? Listen to stories about ordinary Israelis doing normal and sometimes extraordinary things.

The Joy of Text: http://jpmedia.co/podcasts/joy-of-text/. Judaism and sex, need I say more.

Ronna & Beverly: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/earwolf/ronna-beverly. Hysterical interaction between two 50+ ladies chatting about life, marriage, and anything in between.

Unorthodox: https://www.tabletmag.com/author/unorthodox. Funny interaction between three Jews: Stephanie, Mark, and Liel answering questions about all things Jewish.

Wholly Jewish: https://reformjudaism.org/learning/podcasts. Listen to a myriad of stories about Jewish identity.