My Shakespeare Crush #1

The Actors Shakespeare Project is a Boston-area theater company that mounts its productions in venues hither (Brighton High School), thither (Cambridge Multicultural Center), and yon (Church of the Covenant). I’ve seen many of their productions, support the company, and read their emails for news about upcoming plays. A few months ago, the ASP message line read, “Join…

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Remembering Moshe Triwaks

I met Moshe Triwaks in Jerusalem in 2000. I was in Israel to visit my daughter who was in Israel for a semester-long high school program. Moshe Triwaks’s company, Matar, had just published the Israeli translation of my first novel, The Red Tent, and when he heard I was in the country, he drove from…

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What I’ve been doing

Walking the neighborhood with Toby, sweet dog, mine since August. #rescuelove Updating the first book I ever wrote (The New Jewish Wedding, 1984, updated 2004) which is now called THE JEWISH WEDDING NOW. This isn’t a revision so much as a rewrite. Love the cover. Going to live performances (theater, music, dance) to keep my heart beating. Limiting…

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The Morning After

I am sitting in Terminal E at Logan Airport waiting for my flight to Toronto, trying to think about how to explain or describe or understand. The election has knocked me down and broken my heart. I will survive this. America will survive and someday, make amends. I know this is a historic swing. Nativism…

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It is forbidden to despair

“It is forbidden to despair,” said Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, a 19th century Hasidic teacher who suffered from depression. I imagine him pounding his fist on a table in a dimly lit room, shouting those words to his demons. Fifty years ago, TV screens flickered with images of policemen unleashing dogs on peaceful civil rights…

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I (Heart) Public Art

The disappearance of the mural on the John Hancock Tower is bumming me out. The first time I saw the vinyl “pasting,” I was driving and had a hard time keeping my eyes on the road. As weeks passed, the image became a welcome surprise every time I was driving east on the Mass Pike…

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Gifts from readers

I recently cleaned out my attic and in the process found letters from readers dating back to the 1970s, when I started writing for newspapers and magazines. Each one had felt like an unexpected gift so I never threw away any of them, not even the occasional furious screed. Once email became a way of…

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My Buddy, R.I.P.

I am dogless. Again. Buddy was the third dog love of my life. A miniature Schnauzer of regal bearing (he walked on his toes) and a mellow soul, he accompanied me and mine for the past 13 years. I have been down this sad and lonely road twice before: first with Bartholemew the Beagle, who…

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The Boston Girl, between you and me

The thrill of having a book published never gets old. The Boston Girl is my twelfth and I felt just as excited and nervous as when my first came out; that was The New Jewish Wedding in 1985. The “nervous” is because I only know whether I’ve hit the mark when I hear from readers.…

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