Tag Archives: Judaism

September 14, 2026 · 7:30 am

To My Best Knowledge, Judaism Is

by Claudine Nash (New York, NY)

an ancient thread

dyed in modern colors

woven into our every action

and outlook,             

to my best knowledge, Judaism is

the comforting cloth

that warms me upon waking,

the string that ties me

to every Jew who ever

stood at the footpath

of the mountain. To

my best knowledge,

Judaism is the fabric

of my family, it is

the holiness laced into

our everyday moments,

our rituals, meals, music,

worship and sacred

times and seasons, to my

best knowledge, it is

the stranger welcomed into

our tent, it is a quilt

of blessings.

Claudine Nash is an award-winning poet who lives and writes in New York.  She has authored five poetry collections, most notably Beginner’s Guide to Loss in the Multiverse (Blue Light Press, 2020) which won the 2020 Blue Light Book Award.  She has also edited three poetry collections and is a practicing psychologist. Widely published, her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer, Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes and briefly travelled through space as part of the Writers on the Moon time capsule of contemporary writing. 

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June 12, 2023 · 6:59 am

Skater’s Waltz

by Mel Glenn (Brooklyn, NY)

I freely admit I skate
on the surface of Judaism, 
content to glide through life
with minimum knowledge of
Jewish lore and wisdom below.

I do not possess the right tools
to fish for deeper meanings
among the school of books
that explores the depths of
man and meaning.

But it does raise a question:
Am I less of a Jew because 
I skim over the pages 
of books I don’t understand?

I don’t think, while skating,
I am capable of falling into
the cracks of knowledge
in the pages of sacred scrolls
that live below the surface,
out of my flailing reach.

Can a man be righteous
without the study of religion,
with only the trappings of it? 
Can he be a good man, even
if he decides to keep on skating?

In my own fashion, 
with my own skates,
and at my own pace,
I will continue my dialogue
with my religion while
humming a skater’s waltz.

Mel Glenn, the author of twelve books for young adults, is working on a poetry book about the pandemic tentatively titled Pandemic, Poetry, and People. He has lived nearly all his life in Brooklyn, NY, where he taught English at A. Lincoln High School for thirty-one years. You can find his most recent poems in the YA anthology, This Family Is Driving Me Crazy, edited by M. Jerry Weiss. If you’d like to learn more about his work, visit: http://www.melglenn.com/

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