The Cantor’s Song: Are You Listening?
There is something else every cantor needs to do, the old blind cantor told us. But I can’t tell you, because you either know it—or you don’t.
Author Archive for Jenna Zark
Contributing writer Jenna Zark is a local Jewish playwright whose plays have been produced at Circle Repertory Company, Illusion Theater, History Theatre, Minnesota Jewish Theatre and elsewhere. She also provides communication services to businesses and nonprofits. More information is at www.jennazark.org.
Somewhere in the Light: A Father-Daughter Dance for Hanukkah
By the year 2050, Minnesota’s cases of Alzheimer’s are expected to grow to 200,000. Those who have it may be us. I would like us to see them, though we mostly ignore them. I would like us to see them differently. Maybe Hanukkah is a good way to start.
Dec 26, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
What the Torah Makes
Does Torah make you happy? Not a cynical question. But on Simchat Torah, shouldn’t we ask?
Oct 21, 2011 | 3 comments | View Post
Sukkah Delicious
There is something about a circle of close friends that makes you taller, more beautiful and stronger.You can be who you are, and all you have to do is walk in the door and fit like a puzzle piece into a world you own.
Before the Next Yom Kippur
I can’t remember when she started telling me the truth about what was happening at home. I just remember picking up the phone one day and going still, hearing words like “bruises” and “black and “blue.”
Oct 04, 2011 | 6 comments | View Post
New-Life Old-Life New Year
She stares at me, wondering why I don’t wear a scarf like her mom. Am I married? Of course I imagine this; we haven’t said a word.
Sep 26, 2011 | 2 comments | View Post
Crooked Lines on the Ninth of Av
I’m seeing a 1930s movie star, someone snarly like Bette Davis, saying “God has nothing to with it,” in the middle of a party on Park Avenue. How would she have written the book of Lamentations? I see her laughing when I ask.
Aug 07, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Week Out of Time: Shavuot
“Look at your hands,” John says to me one night, when I am sobbing that “I think we may really be alone down here.”
“Look how cool they are,” he says. “Who else could do that but God?”
Jun 07, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
Yom Ha’atzmaut: an Independence to Celebrate
He is holding his mother’s hand as they get out of the car, but his head swivels to catch sight of the protesters in front of him. As he approaches the door, they scream “Zionist pigs!” with little thought as to how this might be affecting him.
May 08, 2011 | 3 comments | View Post
Yom HaShoah: The Beggar is Waiting
My sister’s experience with antisemitism lead her to conclude it was easier not to be a Jew. I am still wrestling with her decision.
Apr 29, 2011 | 11 comments | View Post
Not My Uncle’s Seder
Watching Josh that evening, I finally understood the saying about all of us escaping from Egypt every time the story is told. Because very likely we are all trying to escape.
Apr 14, 2011 | 0 comments | View Post
One-Parent Purim
I know you’re out there—a single parent, newly minted and not expecting to be.
Mar 16, 2011 | 6 comments | View Post
Shabbat Shalom: Letter to a Gum Bandit
I don’t want to meet you; but for ten minutes, the ten minutes you were in my garage at least, I want to be you.
Feb 18, 2011 | 6 comments | View Post
What Doesn’t Kill you on Tu B’Shevat
There was no time to think, scream, blink, anything. Just trees, coming toward my windshield.
Jan 19, 2011 | 14 comments | View Post
Hanukkah, Mistletoe and the Hillel Rabbi
I circle around the room, thinking of The Gift of the Magi story by O. Henry and trying not to cast myself in an overly romanticized version of it (substituting holidays instead of gifts for the self-sacrificing lovers).
Dec 01, 2010 | 13 comments | View Post
