Author page: MaNishtana

To our readership at TribeHerald: The measure of journalistic integrity is often not insisting that the story a publication produces is flawless, but making space to consider or admit that some information, even despite due diligence, did not paint an accurate picture. This is one of those times for TribeHerald. In November, we published a…

In a little over a week, the holiday of Sukkot will be upon us, part and parcel of which is observing a kabbalistic custom to invite one of seven exalted guests--or ushpizin, in Aramaic--into the sukkah for each night, each one being one of the seven "shepherds of Israel": Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph,…

“Don’t break the law and you can breathe easy.”­ “Keep your hands where police can see them and you’ll have no problem.” “Don’t be disrespectful to cops, otherwise you’re just asking for trouble.” “Just follow the law and you won’t get shot.” “If you’re not guilty, then you don’t have to run.” This is the…

A group of three friends from college decided to meet at a cafe one day to catch up on each other's lives and new jobs. "I'm the new librarian at my neighborhood library and I couldn't be happier," the first one said. "They told me that'd I'd already nailed the position in the interview when…

There's a scene in the 1995 movie Batman Forever, where Batman and his prospective love interest, Dr. Chase Meridian, have their first exchange. "Well, let's just say I could write a hell of a paper on a grown man who dresses like a flying rodent." "Bats aren't rodents, Dr. Meridian." "Really? I didn't know that."…

I've written before on how sinat chinam, the "baseless hatred" that is cited as the cause for the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, does not only refer to raw hatred, but also apathy and a lack of concern for the pain of one’s fellow. It is a rhetoric that has sadly been increasingly…

Hi. I’d like to introduce myself. My name is MaNishtana. I've spent the past decade writing and speaking on racial and religious identity and how that intersection and perception manifests in America, in both the mainstream Jewish community and the Black American community, from racism to anti-Semitism, and how both affect Jews of Color. And…

The Three Weeks, are one of the most morose periods of the Jewish calendar. In Hebrew, this nearly month-long stint is called "Bein HaMetzarim", which translates to "between the straits [of distress]", commemorating the tragic bookends of the 17th of the Jewish month of Tammuz--on which the walls of Jerusalem were breached by first the…

Starting this Thursday with the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz, we are about to enter the period of the Bein Metzarim, or the Three Weeks, the period of mourning commemorating the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples the ends with the Fast of the Ninth of Av. In Yoma 9b, the Sages discuss…

If American Zionist Jews want that seat, then now is the chance.

No one has ever, in the entire discussion of white privilege, ever asked for an apology for possessing white privilege or to apologize for being white.

The old saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” is one of my favorites. I sometimes sit in amazement and think about how much power adults have over who their children grow to be. Whether our children decide to learn religiously all day or to become explorers of outer space, we have the…