Salt and Honey: Jewish Teens on Feminism, Creativity, and Tradition

"Jewish teens share their experiences, loves, hopes, and fears in this
anthology of essays, poems, and artwork from the online publication jGirls
Magazine.

Split into six chapters, the works trace the young people's experiences
through triumphs and tragedies. "We Always Seem To Return" brings meditations
on memory and inheritance, highlighting how Jewish joy and sorrow often walk
hand in hand. "When We Were Small" tells stories of childhood and growing up,
interrogating such themes as gender identity, substance abuse, and
antisemitism. "A Healthy Collection of Blessings and Hardships" tells of the
body and the mind, exploring the sacred nature of the self while making space
for struggles in mental health. "Traditions, Interpretations, and
Imperfections" dives into spirituality and tradition, celebrating the rich
variety of the Jewish community. "Where Is the Peace?" confronts ignorance,
including experiences of racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and sexist violence.
Finally, in "Carving Our Own Footsteps," the artists of a new generation set
out to continue the battle for justice and freedom.

The offerings in this book
are emphatically and unapologetically Jewish, but the stories they tell will
resonate broadly. Contributors include Jews who are Black and Asian, Sephardic
and Ashkenazi, and who reflect diversity in gender identity, sexuality, and
ability. The young artists and writers featured here bring an appetite for life
as well as the teeth necessary to enjoy the meal.

Raw, vibrant, and full of love." (artist statements, reader's guide,
resources, about jGirls Magazine, about the contributors) (Anthology.
13-18) --Kirkus Reviews

"Salt & Honey teems with the smells and images, pains and joys, memories and longings that prove that our Jewish identity is already held in spectacular trust by these voices of our future." --Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor, Slate

"Some of the works in this book will haunt you, some will surprise you, and others will buoy you. All will galvanize you." --Leora Tanenbaum, author of I Am Not a Slut: Slut Shaming in the Age of the Internet.

"This powerful work . . . is a celebration of what it truly means to be eishet chayil, a woman of valor: for to speak in one's authentic voice is valor in action." --Marra B. Gad, writer, producer, and award-winning author of The Color of Love: A Story of a Mixed-Race Jewish Girl

"Deep and powerful, sometimes disruptive and disturbing, but most often hopeful and life-affirming . . . Don't miss this." --Ruth W. Messinger, social justice consultant

"In this col-lec-tion of per-son-al essays, poet-ry, and visu-al
art-work, Jew-ish young adults from the online pub-li-ca-tion jGirls Mag-a-zine con-front
dif-fi-cult truths in a chang-ing world. Many of the pieces are unfil-tered,
seek-ing to con-nect with oth-er teens rather than defend-ing their points of
view to adults. The result is a mov-ing work that encour-ages sol-i-dar-i-ty.
Non-bi-na-ry and LGBTQ+ teens speak out, as do bira-cial Jews, dis-abled
Jews, and oth-er mar-gin-al-ized Jews who refuse to accept the lim-i-ta-tions
of tra-di-tion-al Judaism and aim to cre-ate viable new Jew-ish communities.

Search-ing for mean-ing, the works reflect on race, gen-der,
fam-i-ly, reli-gious prac-tice, and cul-ture. In the sec-tion "A Healthy
Col-lec-tion of Hard-ships and Bless-ings," Abi-gael Good writes of try-ing to
find "The Right Words" to artic-u-late how anx-i-ety has been a con-stant
pres-ence in her life. Emanuelle Sippy's poem, ​"The Menu is Over-whelm-ing,"
uses metaphor to describe the uni-ver-sal-ly dif-fi-cult yet nec-es-sary
process of mak-ing deci-sions. Bold truth-telling char-ac-ter-izes many selec-tions
in ​"Tra-di-tions, Inter-pre-ta-tions, and Imper-fec-tions," where writ-ers
come to terms with rigid bar-ri-ers that have lim-it-ed their Jew-ish iden-ti-ties.
Emma Rosman's strong con-vic-tions answer the ques-tion, "Asian Jew or
Jew-ish Asian?" and Lau-ren Alexander's ​"My Ver-sion of Prac-tic-ing
Judaism" dis-cuss-es the inac-ces-si-bil-i-ty of some Jew-ish rit-u-als, which
abled Jews may take for granted.

Each of the cre-ative respons-es to con-tem-po-rary Jew-ish
life is unique. Ele-na Eisenstadt's clever vari-a-tion on bar/​bat mitz-vah cul-ture, "My
Jew-ish-Themed Bat Mitz-vah," inverts a soci-etal norm by offer-ing
a seem-ing-ly obvi-ous alter-na-tive. In Ofek Preis's inter-pre-ta-tion of
Jew-ish social jus-tice val-ues, ​"The Pow-er of Jew-ish Youth," she
address-es Jew-ish teens' involve-ment in the fight against gun vio-lence. Oth-er
pieces engage with the mitz-vah of pray-ing with tefill-in, a prac-tice
from which women are gen-er-al-ly exclud-ed in the Ortho-dox world. Alyx
Bernstein's "L'hitateif V'l'hani'ach (To Don and to Wrap)" exam-ines the
seem-ing con-tra-dic-tions of this spir-i-tu-al expe-ri-ence for a trans-gen-der
person.

The visu-al artists' inter-pre-ta-tions of Jew-ish life are
rich-ly var-ied, and each work rewards repeat-ed view-ing. Whit-ney Cohen's Eva
is an insight-ful por-trait of old age; Alexa Druyanoff's Held depicts
a moth-er and child and draws atten-tion to their sim-i-lar-i-ties; and
Dina Ocken's vision-ary Kotel of My Dreams imag-ines a place where bar-ri-ers
of reli-gious dif-fer-ence and gen-der have been replaced by har-mo-ny. Ocken's
paint-ing sum-ma-rizes the first chapter's intro-duc-to-ry remark: ​"We
are inher-i-tors and authors of mem-o-ry; it's the most pow-er-ful heir-loom
entrust-ed to us." --Emily Schneider, The Jewish Book Council

"Making jGirls voices heard

Adults often look back at their youth through rose-colored
glasses. But life is not always easy for the teenagers, something that becomes
clear in the poems, stories, essays and artwork by Jewish teens that appear in
"Salt and Honey: Jewish Teens on Feminism, Creativity, and Tradition" edited by
Elizabeth Mandel with jGirls Magazine (Behrman House/jGirls Magazine.) The
preface notes that the teens, ages 13-19, are "self-identifying Jewish girls,
young women, and nonbinary teens." The magazine jGirl gave them the space to
explore different aspects of their lives, including difficult subjects and
joyous ones. The work is titled "Salt and Honey" because the writers "embrace
the salt and the honey, the sting and the sweetness" of their lives.

It's difficult to pick out specific works to talk about
because they all offer something of interest, but a few that stood out include:

• "Seeing Beyond" by Leah Bogatie that speaks about the
  author's disabled sister, whose example taught her to acknowledge everyone's
  humanity.
• The painful and moving "Dad" by Denae (whose last name was
  not given), who is unable to make peace with her feelings about her father and
  forgive him his sins.
• Audrey Honig's two wonderful poems, "Almost Thirteen" and
  "Seventeen," about antisemitism and the joys of being Jewish.
• An excellent and beautiful prayer/poem "21st Century Amidah"
  by Jamie Klinger.
• Elena Eisenstadt's "My Jewish-Themed Bat Mitzvah" that
  captures the true meaning of the ceremony.
• The moving "My Version of Practicing Judaism," in which
  Lauren Alexander writes of how her illness impacts her Jewish practice.
• Lily Pazner's poem "You Have Not Walked the Same Streets As
  Me," which talks about how women are not safe from harm, even when simply
  walking down the street.
• A class visit to the Holocaust Museum that caused Samara
  Haynes to ponder the reactions of her classmates in "What You See."
• Sarah Young's poem "Kyke Dyke," where she writes of
  discovering other Jewish lesbians who helped reaffirm her identity.

Although "Salt and Honey" was written by teens for teens,
this work will also resonate with adults. Parents of teenagers may want to read
this book and discuss it with them in order to better understand how they view
the world. The work includes artist statement's about the drawings and
paintings featured, and questions to stimulate discussion. jGirls is to be
commended for publishing the thoughts of these Jewish teens. --Rachel Esserman, Executive Editor, The Reporter Group, Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton.