For a Sweet New Year: Meet Some Jewish Lesbian Moms

challah_200Today is Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, so I’m honoring the occasion not only by baking (and eating) ridiculous amounts of challah and honey cake (a low-carb people we are not), but also by rounding up a few recent stories about Jewish lesbian moms.

  • Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell of the Union for Reform Judaism spoke with Keshet as part of its “Queer Clergy In Action” series. Elwell is not only the mother of two grown daughters, but also a grandmother. (Also check out Keshet’s slightly older interviews with lesbian mom rabbis Denise Eger of Congregation Kol Ami in Los Angeles and Sharon Kleinbaum, senior rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, the largest LGBT congregation in the world.)
  • Zehorit Shorek, a lesbian mom in Israel, spoke with Laisha magazine about her experience coming from an Orthodox home, marrying a man and having children, and then falling in love with a woman and coming out. A Wider Bridge has the English translation.
  • Comedian Judy Gold (also an Emmy-winning writer for Rosie O’Donnell and host of  Nickelodeon’s new comedy show, NickMom Night Out) was profiled at BroadwayWorld.com about her one-woman show, The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom. (You can also read an earlier LA Times interview with her about why she wants a sitcom about a lesbian-headed family.)

A very sweet New Year to all of you who are celebrating, living with someone who is celebrating, or simply want an excuse to make Harvest Apple Challah. (Mine pictured. Recipe at the link. My only tweak is to tent it with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking so the top doesn’t burn.)

L’Shana tova! For a good year!

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