Chapter 5: Denial; Not Just a River in Egypt. The conversation that woke me up to how far I had fallen off the path. He called himself Rabbi E. He stood outside the store trying to convince people to sign up for Birthright. He had been doing so for several years now. I’ve walked by […]
Chapter 2: Elisha dies, Acher’s Inception And [Jesus] said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the son of man is also the Lord of the Sabbath.—Mark (2:26-7, NKJV). Washington Heights, Summer of 2002. People often wonder what caused me to become such a heretic. There […]
Genesis The following is the three chapters (1, 2 and 5) of my memoir, tentatively titled I Am Acher. Some of the material has already appeared on my blog, I Am Acher. While the market already is saturated with plenty of OTD memoirs, many of which are more interesting and gut-wrenching than my story, I still […]
Shana is in her forties, mother of five and lives with her partner in the tri-state area. She is a writer and an English teacher. Hi Shana. On your Twitter account (details below), you describe yourself as as “Survivor of ultra-orthodox Judaism, atheist, lesbian, liberal, author of The Sins of Our Daughters: A Memoir.” Which […]
Dan is a 28 year old single male who currently lives in Tel Aviv and is a student and archaeologist. I met Dan in Israel a few years ago during an OTD meetup, where he told me that he is learning under Professor Israel Finkelstein at the Tel Aviv University. Before we start, I would […]