Articles written by Jane Eisner

Jane Eisner, Jewish Daily Forward|Oct 11, 2013

This article originally appeared at forward.com, Oct. 1, 2013, reprinted with permission. There’s a classic story in my family about the time many years ago when we sat around the table at Aunt Sarah’s house loudly debating what it meant to be a Jew in America. Bubbe Esther, my husband’s grandmother, sat quietly in the corner until someone thought to ask her. How do you define being a Jew, Bubbe? I’ll never forget her answer: A Jew is what a Jew does. For the religiously observant, Yiddish-speaking immigrants of her generation, the outline...