On July 13, 1999, Caroline Essig interviewed Charlotte Chipman about her upbringing in a Jewish immigrant family in Chelsea, Massachusetts, her work as a secretary and office manager, her involvement in the founding of Temple Reyim, her lifelong volunteerism and community engagement, and her reflections on Jewish life, family, travel, education, and civic participation across the twentieth century.
Joelle Maxx Milman is a writer, artist, activist, and translator whose new book, Repartings: Poems of Haftara, includes original translations of prophetic texts alongside her own poetic responses.
Gella Sänger (née Hirsch) was a Neo-Orthodox author, editor, and bookseller living in Fürth in Bayern, Germany. She was the first woman affiliated with (Neo-)Orthodoxy to write a guide to Jewish law and practice for women and girls.
This interview with Marc Maxwell documents his life as a Jewish architect and community leader, focusing on his decades of LGBTQ+ activism, volunteerism, and leadership within Boston’s Jewish institutions, and how personal relationships, privilege, and lived experience shaped his approach to advocacy and inclusion.
Rabbi Israel J. Kazis and Bernice Kazis reflect on Rabbi Kazis’s life and career in Boston’s Jewish community, including his leadership at Temple Mishkan Tefila, his interfaith and civic engagement, his wartime service, and their shared roles in religious, educational, and community initiatives.
These two interviews trace Anita Winer’s life from her early-20th-century Jewish upbringing in Boston through marriage, family life, and mid-century social change, reflecting on identity, gender roles, religion, and the evolution of American Jewish and domestic life.
I left Cozumel with a newfound appreciation for my synagogue, our female clergy, and the people who have so graciously accepted my family as part of the community.
Across Jewish history, women mourners have played a central ritual role in expressions of grief—from Hebrew Bible and rabbinic literature through medieval, early modern, and modern Jewish communities.
