JoinedApril 3, 2016
Articles33
Merri Ukraincik is a writer, artist, wife, and mother who talks to G-d all the time. Her essays have appeared on Tablet, The Forward, The Wisdom Daily, and Lilith, and in The New York Jewish Week and other publications. She is a columnist at the New Jersey Jewish News and the author of I Live. Send Help., a history of the Joint Distribution Committee. Find her on her personal website!
I am breathless, like a five-year-old leaving for Disney in the morning.
Reframing a moment when I lost faith in myself
Laundry means we are living our lives, stains and all.
As Jews, there's really only one place for us to go. My heart often reminds me I should be there.
My search for the answer as my eldest turns 21.
As if I never left, I find comfort in the familiar landscape of the sanctuary, reopening the siddur, which fits in my splayed palms like it was there all along.
Words can nurture, change, and heal. Stillness, too, can fill us up with love.
I found proof of God on the way out of the bathroom, not that my faith ever needed it.
I’m a wife, mother, and writer. A daughter of Israel, a believer in G-d, a traditional Orthodox keeper of the faith who doesn't long ritually for more, has never even been curious to try new ways or other places to pray. Is it possible that I’m also a feminist?
Talking to my grandmother is akin to talking to G-d, a one-sided conversation grounded in my faith that they are both listening, even though they cannot answer.
