Culinary Pluralism; or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Olive
I was once what adults called a picky eater. There were only certain colors I would eat. The beige family is the most reliable, and it also encompasses most bread-based breakfast foods (rainbow-colored food coloring foods are also safe). There were only certain textures I would eat: melted cheese and bread-based foods. Anything extreme, like [...]
Statehood, Selfhood, and the Importance of Boundaries
A few years ago I was going through a very hard time. I said to my father, “I just want my dignity back!” My father, a Navy survival instructor, replied, “Jenny, no one can take away your dignity! Even if you are hanging by your toes in a prisoner of war camp, your dignity is [...]
Praying at the Wishing Wall of Jerusalem
The first thing I noticed about the Western Wall is that everybody was crying. I had been lost in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, and when I rounded the gate above the Wall (the Kotel) the first thing I saw was the sun bouncing off the Dome of the Rock, blinding me in [...]
Being the Change You Wish to See in the Middle East
Today is the first full day in Israel. Jet lag woke me up at 5:45am and I grew restless waiting out the dawn in my twin bed, so I pulled on running shoes and trotted out into the indigo chill. The Sea of Galilee, black then silver then blue, reflected the slowly brightening sky as [...]
Seeking Freedom Behind the Partition
I arrived at Gate 6 in Terminal 3 at JFK an hour before departure to Tel Aviv. It was technically yesterday, but due to the flight and the travel I’ve only scraped together some shallow dozes, and the day has gone far past its expiration hour. At the gate there were lots of Orthodox families, [...]
Erev Israel
I lived in Indonesia during the summer of 2010. When Indonesians meet someone new, they ask two questions: What is your name? and What is your religion? I was startled one day when a wizened Indonesian grandmother pushed her way up to me and asked these two questions: “Nama Anda siapa? Apa agama Anda?” I [...]
Love and Weight Loss
Weight. The very word is heavy, overweighted. Weight on my plate. Weight in my gut. Weight in my heart. Weight of the world. Heavy, heavy, heavy…it’s such a bad word. It’s something none of us want to be. We are all eager to divest ourselves of heaviness. We want to defy gravity and float up [...]
Life Is Still Freakin’ Awesome, Y’all
I was just looking at this website of people who are the 99% of the American people, the ones hurting because of the wanton ways of the 1%. I am part of that 99%. I could make a list of my grievances, as we all could. My list would be legit, and it would be [...]
On Greed and Giving Up the Boots I Cannot Live Without
I am on the planning committee of the International Political Camp at Agape Centro Ecumenico in the Italian Alps. Because I am always at a loss to describe exactly what Agape is to the uninitiated—and there is no way to truly grasp this ecumenical collective until one has visited—I will reference Agape’s description of itself [...]
Zen and the Art of Bicycle Commuting
I started bicycle commuting for my health. I quickly realized that biking around in the city of Boston is a huge threat to my health. I live in the quaint flowery suburb of Jamaica Plain. I bike to my job in the South End, then ride along the Charles River out to Belmont to tutor [...]
Jenn Lindsay
Jenn Lindsay is a PhD student in Boston University's Division of Religious and Theological Studies, where she studies how religion affects personal relationships, particularly interreligious relationships. She earned her Masters Degree at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where her program focus was Interfaith Relations and she served as co-chair of the Interfaith Caucus and the student senate Minister of Fun. She hails from San Diego and is Jewish, and worked for a decade as an independent musician and filmmaker.
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Contributing Scholars
Tiffany PuettTiffany Puett is a PhD candidate at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on religious diversity and multiculturalism in North America, the ongoing construction of ‘religion’ in a liberal democratic society and the politics embedded in these processes. She’s especially interested in the intersections of religion with education, citizenship, and religious freedom.
Bryan ParysBryan Parys, M.F.A., is working on a memoir of faith and mortality called, "Wake, Sleeper." His work revolves around the idea that art is an attempt to recover what is lost. http://wakesleeper.wordpress.com/
Michael VanZandt CollinsMike, 28, is a community organizer working in Boston's underserved communities on green and environmental initiatives. He holds a Master's from Boston College in Social Ethics and is preparing applications for Islamic Studies with the aspiration of one day becoming a professor of Comparative Ethics.