The Front Porch
The front porch is a liminal space — both public and private. It faces the street, making it far more open to the world than a secluded back deck. It also invites visitors into the front hall — the most public of spaces inside the home. Like the chuppah, the porch is covered from above and open on the sides; it protects and welcomes.
The Kitchen
When imagining a Jewish kitchen, it would be easy to just picture comforting, nourishing images: chicken soup, gefilte fish, a warm gathering place… But the Jewish kitchen is also a place of rupture. We’re several generations past assuming it’s a kosher kitchen, and many of us could not even replicate our grandmother’s recipes if we tried.
The Refrigerator Door
My portrait—and this refrigerator door—examines the complex realities of a multiracial, multiethnic society — “the slipperiness of identity” that is my own autobiography.
Welcome to Shma.com
- Each month the journal Sh’ma posts a couple of essays from the print publication. To read all of the essays—which create a “conversation-in-print” —click on “Subscription” above. We conclude our editorial year in June — Sh’ma does not publish in July and August — with a rather unusual issue devoted to the Jewish house. In the issue you’ll meander through a house, taking in its smells and sounds, its adornments, and the interplay between Jewish and more general features. What is it that makes rooms Jewish? How — beyond distinct culinary features — do they represent the diversity of Jewish experience, and how do they offer glimpses of what changes and what remains the same in the traditions of a Jewish family? Home is the private space of intimate living, and also where we welcome others. We try to distinguish ourselves through our homes — how we decorate, how we serve meals, how we welcome guests. Just like families, homes are different — some large, others small; some joyous, others miserable. With what attention do we set our houses apart? What manifestations of Jewish life are noted, day-to-day, moment-by-moment? For the full issue-or for bulk copies of the issue for your board or organization-contact MARKETING.
Featured Post
Lisa Colton
We all know how pervasive technology has become in our lives, but the impact of “technology” is much more pervasive than merely the arrival of a new widget or gadget. How are you negotiating these boundaries in your life, with your family, in your home? How do Jewish values inform your thinking and decisions about how you use technology in your home?
Stephen Julius Stein
Yesterday at one of our food pantries, the 18 year-old teen, with a beauty befitting a star on “90210,” lay against the stone wall, her boyfriend comforting her as a case manager phoned 911, and I offered words of support to a dehydrated, vomiting, two-monthspregnant homeless woman.
Discussion Guide
What makes a home Jewish? What books are essential to a Jewish home? When you travel, what Jewish things do you bring with you from home?
Current Articles
Lisa Grant
The front porch is a liminal space — both public and private. It faces the street, making it far more open to the world than a secluded back deck. It also invites visitors into the front hall — the most public of spaces inside the home. Like the chuppah, the porch is covered from above and open on the sides; it protects and welcomes.
Rachel Kahn-Troster
When imagining a Jewish kitchen, it would be easy to just picture comforting, nourishing images: chicken soup, gefilte fish, a warm gathering place… But the Jewish kitchen is also a place of rupture. We’re several generations past assuming it’s a kosher kitchen, and many of us could not even replicate our grandmother’s recipes if we tried.
Laura Kina
My portrait—and this refrigerator door—examines the complex realities of a multiracial, multiethnic society — “the slipperiness of identity” that is my own autobiography.
Aryeh Cohen
The first real furniture my partner and I bought after we moved into our house ten years ago was a beautiful cherry-wood dining room table. The table came with dreams of Shabbat meals, sederim, family gatherings, communal festivities, teaching classes, and studying Torah.
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