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Half/Life
Jewish Tales from Interfaith
Homes
Edited
by Laurel Snyder
Published by Soft Skull Press
Written by authors born into the so-called "dilemma of intermarriage,"
the stories in Half/Life explore the experience of being raised in
a half-Jewish home. Though each essay is distinct, and the experiences
are vastly different, each describes growing up without a streamlined
identity, unsure of community or religious direction. From Jenny Traig,
whose experiences led her to extreme devotion in the form of religious-obsessive
compulsion (scrupulosity) to Thisbe Nissen, who finally felt Jewish
after discovering a rosary in her boyfriend’s sock drawer, these
authors examine the complicated relationships they felt with the Jewish
community and the world at large. By turns tragic and funny, religious
and heartbreaking, angry and surprisingly familiar, Half/Life represents
the altogether diverse memories and reflections of a handful of men
and women who have spent a lifetime grappling with how to define themselves,
or not. What results from that struggle is a complex exploration,
and some truly brilliant prose.
“[E]ngaging, funny and provocative… Half-Jews will see themselves
and their families in this book, and they will laugh, and maybe even
cry, while reading.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Half/Life is a beautiful collection of nonfiction from some
of our best writers, a book that doesn't shy from matters most difficult,
and one that captures mind, heart and ear with equal measure. The
stories here leave one feeling much gratitude for their resonance
and beauty.”
—Brad Land, author of Goat
“Half/Life is evocative, provocative and ultimately engrossing.
Because of the cumulative effect of the intense individual gazes of
each of its authors, it achieves breadth and depth on a subject that
resonates with all of us: identity. At turns hilarious and heart-wrenching,
Half/Life is so full of life the essays leap from the page and burrow
into the heart (and soul).”
—Julianna Baggott, author of Girl Talk
“A thoughtful, fun, and fabulous collection-not just for children
of interfaith marriages, but for anyone who has ever felt conflicted,
questioning, or caught in between. With her wide-ranging and compulsively
readable selections, Laurel Snyder makes a convincing case that living
a Half/Life is not about being half empty or half full, but whole
(and holy) in your in own way.”
—Peter Manseau, author of Vows and Killing the Buddha
Editor
Laurel Snyder (Atlanta GA) was raised in Baltimore, a practicing Jew
in an interfaith household. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa
Writers’ Workshop, and she has written for All Things Considered,
BUST, The Iowa Review, and the Utne Reader. Her online life can be
found at www.jewishyirishy.com, and she is an editor for the award-winning
magazine Killing the Buddha ( www./killingthebuddha.com). She has
sat on the Hillel (International Jewish Student Union) task force
on intermarriage and is an American correspondent for Jewish and Christian
Scene, the Australian interfaith newsletter.
Contributors
Margaret Schwartz * Rebecca Wolff * Dena Katzen Seidel * Danielle
Pafunda * Anthony Hecht * Maya Gottlfried * Thisbe Nissen * Matthew
Shindell * Daphne Gottlieb * Jennifer Traig * Terry Barr * Lee Klein
* Jeff Sharlet * Renee Kaplan * Joyce Maynard * Katharine Weber *
Emma Snyder * Georgiana Cohen * Dan Beachy-Quick
This
website: Copyright © 2006 Dream
World Media, LLC. / Urban Mozaik Magazine. All rights reserved.
The opinions expressed in Urban Mozaik Magazine are not necessarily
those of Urban Mozaik Magazine and the publisher cannot be held responsible
for them. This website/publication, in whole or in part, may not be
reproduced without written permission from the publisher.
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Tantrika: Traveling the Road of Divine Love
By
Asra Nomani
Published
by HarperSanFrancisco
A powerful account of one woman's search for religious and cultural
identity and meaning. Nomani, an Indian born Muslim, reconciles the
tension of her divergent traditions as she explores the fascinating
world of Tantra.
Tantrika is the story of a woman who sets out on the path to divine
Love and in the process comes face to face with all the dualities within
her. Born in India and raised in the foothills of West Virginia, Nomani
defies her Muslim upbringing to pursue a Hindu path - the Tantra.
Nomani begins her journey by returning to her ancestral home in India
and realizes there that the real task ahead of her is to seek reconciliation
- of East and West, of Muslim and Hindu, of traditional and modern,
and all the tensions that lie at the heart of a woman anywhere.
In her search for meaning of Tantra, and more broadly for the spiritual
meaning of her life, Nomani travels the globe - from a New Age Tantric
seminar in Santa Cruz to sitting at the feet of the Dalai Lama in India,
from meditation caves in Thailand, to crossing the Khyber Pass in Pakistan
with Muslim militants, and facing the eye of an AK47 by an Afghan militia
soldier. Nomani's journey unexpectedly climaxes in Pakistan where Asra,
accidentally pregnant, helps in the search along with Mariane Pearl
for her dear friend and fellow Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl.
The scene where this young woman sashays into Pakistan president Musharaff's
office is stunning, for as an unmarried pregnant Muslim woman, she could
be lashed forty times. What we end up with is a story of the search
for identity, love, and meaning, written as an unforgettable true-life
adventure story.
Asra Q. Nomani is a Wall Street Journal correspondent. She has also
written on the war in Afghanistan for Salon.com. A Muslim born in
India, Nomani grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia where her father
helped start Morgantown's only mosque. She first traveled to Pakistan
at age 18 to reconnect with her religion and culture.
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