urban adamah cover story for j. the jewish news weekly

Nurturing their roots: Fellows flock to Berkeley’s Jewish urban farm
It’s 9 a.m. on a brisk Monday morning and Aliza Gazek and Molly Fischman are happily plucking kale from the earth.

They laugh and chat about the day’s activities while harvesting the kale, along with chard and red-leaf lettuce, to donate to the LifeLong Medical Care Clinic. Beyond them, Berkeley’s morning commuters whiz past a chain-link fence [...]

yoni bloch for j. the jewish news weekly

Homegrown Israeli folk star is rising on high-tech scene
When Yoni Bloch performed his first Tel Aviv show nearly 10 years ago, a crowd of some 300 swarmed the club.

Then 20 years old, the Israeli singer-songwriter had expected a small audience and was shocked by the turnout. He later found out people had learned of the show thanks to his presence on the Internet. Bloch had been recording his own music since he was a teenager and uploading it to an Israeli social networking site, Bama Hadasha (“New Stage”), which predated Myspace as an online place for musicians and listeners to interact [...]

orphaned land for j. the jewish news weekly

Land of metal: Israeli hard rockers coming to S.F. club
When Kobi Farhi wore an Iron Maiden shirt to an Israeli synagogue in 1993, he suddenly realized what he needed to do.

At age 18, he was already two years into his journey as lead singer of metal band Orphaned Land. “Living in Israel, being Jewish, we should use Middle Eastern sounds in our music,” Farhi remembers thinking at that time. “If we were making American heavy metal we wouldn’t have done that.

“That’s how we became pioneers of Middle Eastern heavy metal.”

gimme shelter: the sonic sukkah for j. the jewish news weekly

JCCSF turns its sukkah into an art experience
Who could have predicted way back in 1969 that a Rolling Stones song title would one day be put to use to reinterpret a Jewish holiday?[...]

column for j. the jewish news weekly

Ooh, baby, baby: Jewish inspiration via a newborn sabra
There must be some sort of Jewish baby boom happening right now. Or at least it feels like there is in my insular world. There’s been an upswing of birth announcements in our Lifecycles section, and while I personally will not be having children for quite some time (I’ve yet to successfully raise a houseplant), I’m in awe of all my friends who’ve recently welcomed children into their lives [...]

music voyager for j. the jewish news weekly

Former S.F. man spans the globe for rhythmic adventures
During a journey to India last year, Jacob Edgar ate goat brain, learned how to play cricket and listened to a lot of local music [...]

bat mitzvah story for interfaithfamily.com

It Should Have Been Grandma's First Bat Mitzvah
Every time my endlessly sharp 90-something, Polish-Catholic Grandma Florence walks by one specific framed series of three photographs on her wall, she curses the memory. She grumbles and shakes her head at the disappointment--she should have been in this particular set of pictures [...]

macaroons for j. the jewish news weekly

Café du Nord going to the tots with Macaroons show
The upcoming Macaroons concert at Café du Nord may appear to be just another show at the hip San Francisco music venue — except that half the audience will most likely be under the age of 4, and they’ll receive complimentary juice boxes upon entry.

blog posts for j. the jewish news weekly

You can check my oft-updated blog posts for the j. weekly here: http://www.jweekly.com/blog/author/13/emily/

moose for j. the jewish news weekly

Fat-camp memoir is light without losing its weight