CATANARCHY

“You can’t outright ask someone if they have a car or have kids. That’s technically illegal. But you need to know because sometimes they can be deal breakers. You can just say ‘Do you have reliable transportation?’ and ‘Do you have any current circumstances that could impede you from being successful at work?’

To which the last one most people fumble and would say, “Well I have kids, so sometimes they could get sick. But that’s not often.” But then your potential employer could mark it down on your interview notes nonetheless.

I thought that maybe it was just my own employer. But now I noticed that I am asked both of these almost every time I interview for a job.

Watch: Ibtihaj Muhammad is such an inspiration

It’s not all joy (the section on Ukraine’s remnants is incredibly depressing). All of these communities are shrinking as people leave for the U.S. or Israel, they may not exist in another fifty years, but for now here they are. The book has some typos and weird repetition, it doesn’t go into the details I’d like - the photos, tho - and I’m surprised by the groups it didn’t cover (where my Chinese mishpacha at?) but even so. The wonders of the diaspora.

Ending a legal case that has cost taxpayers $2 million, a suspended police officer who was accused of forcing a woman in custody into a sex act will retire and the city will drop disciplinary charges against him as part of a settlement.

Details of the disciplinary charges that had been filed against Avila were blacked out.

The agreement details “accrued money owed” to Avila, amounting to more than $85,000:

$36,475 for 720 terminal leave hours, a retirement benefit provided under the police union contract

$32,422 for 640 accumulated leave hours

$8,105 for 160 hours of suspension time. (For the first month after the charges were filed against Avila he was on unpaid suspension until the paid leave provisions of the contract kicked in.)

$4,052 for 80 hours for a two-week payroll holdback

$2,051 for 40.5 hours of comp time

$2,026 for 40 hours of personal time

This is so shocking. They protected him and sent a message to women that they aren’t safe from any of them.

The Trap (2016)  

“For 11 years, the bestselling author Linda Conrads has mystified fans by never setting foot outside her home. Haunted by the unsolved murder of her younger sister–who she discovered in a pool of blood–and the face of the man she saw fleeing the scene, Linda’s hermit existence helps her cope with debilitating anxiety. But the sanctity of her oasis is shattered when she sees her sister’s murderer on television. 

Hobbled by years of isolation, Linda resolves to use the plot of her next novel to lay an irresistible trap for the man. As the plan is set in motion and the past comes rushing back, Linda’s memories–and her very sanity–are called into question. Is this man a heartless killer or merely a helpless victim?“

By Melanie Raabe, translated by Imogen Taylor

Get it now here

Melanie Raabe was born in 1981 and grew up in a small village in former East Germany. After studying media and literature, she went on to become a magazine editor, freelance journalist, writer, and stage actor. While juggling several jobs by day, she wrote at night, crafting two plays and THE TRAP, which is her debut novel. Melanie Raabe currently lives in Cologne and loves the stage, traveling, cooking, bungee jumping, tattoos, indie rock, and cats.

you don’t need a jewish mother to be a legitimate jew

if you aren’t matrilineal, and you convert, it won’t change the fact that you aren’t matrilineal. you have to accept this about yourself. there’s nothing wrong with not having a jewish mother, or a 100% jewish family

if you chose to convert, no matter what denomination you convert with, there are folks who will doubt your jewishness

you deserve a full place in your jewish community. if you want that and can’t get that without conversion, consider it. (else, find a new community)

you have to ignore people outside of your community who doubt your jewishness if you ever want to feel at peace with your jewish identity. the kehilla and torah and acceptance you find in community with other jews (whether that be a synagogue, or online, or with friends, or a chavurah, or wherever jews come together) is so much more authentic, lively, beautiful, than whatever insecurity that they are taking out on you.

halakha means different things to different jews. dominant (ashkenazi) orthodox halakha is NOT the only legitimate halakha. traditions of sephardic, karaite, and other parts of global jewry are different in structure and practice, not to mention the halakhic tradition of conservative judaism. karaite and kaifung jews use the patrilineal line. sephardic rabbis have a tradition of mysticism surrounding “zera yisrael,” non-matrilineal descendents of jews, emphasizing the need to welcome them back to the jewish people.