“Turns out, the story of my body had a sequel. Here it is,” she writes in the introduction. I sat down with Wendy to discuss this “body, part two” that she’s about to release.

The Fat Girl’s Guide to Life came out in 2004, after you had been struggling with Wegener’s Disease for five years. Did you work on these two books simultaneously, or did the idea to chronicle your health struggles come later?

I wrote the first book, the first book got published, and it was just as it got published that I really got sick. So the timing was unfortunate, but I was determined not to let the two things get confused. I actually didn’t think that this [Are You My Guru?] was a book.

What exactly prompted you to write “the sequel to your body’s story”?

It never occurred to me that this was something people would want to hear about until after I wrote an article that came out a couple of years ago in Self magazine. I wrote an article about having an autoimmune disease, and it got a big response. I was like, “Huh, I guess people are interested in this stuff.” It wasn’t something I really planned on writing; I didn’t plan on documenting what was going on. The whole thing was so stressful and frustrating that I thought, “Let’s just get this over with.” But now looking back at it, I can say, “Okay, there’s that arc that’s interesting.” What I’m finding is that people relate to it.

If writing the article in Self prompted you to write the book, what prompted you to write the article?

I was talking to somebody about how weird it is to have an autoimmune disease, because it’s not like cancer or pneumonia, or something where something outside of you goes wrong and you get sick. When you have an autoimmune disease, what’s wrong with you is you. It’s a very strange feeling, that somehow it’s your fault that you’re not well… It felt like autoimmune disease was like a mean girl. It was so insidious and making you feel bad. It’s not your fault, you didn’t do anything wrong, but it’s not like there’s someone you can punch in the face and say, “Stop torturing me,” because you’re torturing yourself.

Then there’s this idea that is really prevalent right now, that comes from The Secret and new-age thinking and wellness, which is that you can think yourself healthy and you can think yourself sick. So there’s this idea that somehow, the only reason to be sick is because you don’t want to be healthy, and if you wanted it badly enough, you could be healthy. It kind of reminded me of how I felt about weight loss, like if I wanted it badly enough, I could be thin. Except I did want it really badly and I wasn’t thin, and I did want it really badly and I wasn’t healthy. That struck the interest of a friend of mine that’s an editor over there [at Self] and she said, “Let’s talk about that.” So that’s where it came from.

You mention that being fat and being sick have a lot of similarities. What are the major ones that you’ve noticed?

First thing was that somehow, you could prevent it or you could change it. And if you’re not changing it, you’re doing something wrong. The other similarity is this idea that your body is doing something you don’t want it to do. You want it to be one way, and yet you’re another way. You do all these things that don’t work, try to make it different, and they still don’t work, and then things get worse. You’re just lost between, “Wait, what’s really happening to me physically, and what’s happening to me emotionally?” and you get really confused about what those two things are.

How similar did you find it to be to write about being fat and being sick?

The Fat Girl’s Guide was like this low, rumbling guide that when it came out just [exploded]. I was writing from my perspective about my personal story, and also about why we are in this situation. Why are we in a situation where women all think they’re fat? So the book was written from those two perspectives. The new book, Are You My Guru? I think is much more personal. I definitely feel like I’m speaking on behalf of women with chronic illnesses, and on behalf of people who have explored a lot of alternative medicine and wellness, but it’s really a personal story about how I feel about the situation that I’m in. I do feel that they both address this idea of responsibility and that if you change your mind, you can change your body-my feeling about both of those things is not necessarily. You can definitely change your mind, but I don’t know if that leads to physiological change. Just like if you change your body, I don’t know if your brain, your mind and your heart will follow. So that’s sort of the cross-over.

What I think is useful about the two books and why someone who was interested in the first one would be interested in the second one if they’re not thinking about autoimmune and chronic and body stuff, I think they’re both about body image. They’re both empowering women to feel good about the choices that they make about their bodies. The idea is that you know your body better than anybody else ever could, and you might not realize that, but you are the expert on you. And when you want to change something about yourself, you find the other experts to work with you, but you come with the most expertise possible about you from head to toe. I hope that’s what people will take away from it. It’s really hard to stay very secure and confident about knowing what your body does and what your body’s been through. So I think and hope that people-especially women-will connect to that, no matter where you’re coming from.

You make a lot of reference to Madonna throughout the book, seeing her as an example of what you could be. How did this idolizing of Madonna come to be?

It came from a few places. Part of it was about trying to internalize the Madonna attitude in thinking about my health and my body. With all that she represents in terms of strength ad confidence and defiance and sexual power and self-empowerment, to try to bring some of that attitude to me and my health and finding practitioners to help me with my health. I think, “What would Madonna do in this situation? I don’t think she’d let that man talk to her that way. I don’t think she’d let that woman say those things to her.” It just felt like I could look to Madonna for tips.

Also, I went to a couple of concerts where I was at a real emotional crossroads and somehow through her music, she gave me clarification. So there was literally, I’m an insane Madonna fan, and I thought, maybe if I just pay attention, when in doubt, Madonna will lead the way.

Some people are dismayed by the way that she switches from yoga to Kabbalah to disco, but to me, that’s very interesting. To me, it’s like she tries this and goes in one direction with it, the yoga stuff, and then she switches gears and goes spiritual with Kabbalah and then she switches gears and goes to Africa. To me, that makes sense in terms of these evolutionary steps in your personality. In all these areas that she’s explored, she finds something to pull out and take with her. That felt, to me, very similar to my journey. It’s like, okay, I’m going to go to the Chinese medicine guy and take this away from my experience with him, then I’m going to go to the Indian medicine guy and take this away from that, and then I’m going to go to the rabbi and talk to him. So that sort of piecing together of different areas of life is a very Madonna thing to do. And that’s how she became sort of a motif.

You wrote, “I’m a believer, but I prefer not to put a label on it.” Do you think studying other spiritual paths has taken away from your Judaism?

I actually think it’s a very Jewish way to think, even though all the things that I’m pursuing aren’t Jewish things. There’s Buddhism and there’s Hinduism and there’s Zen, and as religious or spiritual practices, they’re different from Judaism, but I think that the nature of questioning and wondering and asking and trying to assimilate these different pieces, and having the kind of intellectual process of taking something in and dismissing it and trying the next one and dismissing it, I think that’s a very Jewish way to go. I think what I’m doing is a study. It’s a study of all these different physical and spiritual areas, but to me, the quest for answers fits a Jewish model. Also, the disagreement seems kind of Jewish to me. To be like, nope, get in a fight about it and move on to the next thing. And to me, that’s kind of the nature of my people, to disagree. And the patching together, a little piece of this and a little piece of that, it makes life a kugel. Everyone’s got a little of a different one, and everybody’s is their favorite. So I think it fits. And people who say only Jews can think about Jewish things? It doesn’t make sense to me. Like, people are mad that Madonna studies Kaballah. What’s to be mad about? So she studies Kabballah. I study Buddhism. So what? Buddha doesn’t care. It’s just opening your mind. I think it’s interesting that there are so many Jewish people who are into Buddhism, and so many Jewish people who are interested in yoga. Clearly, there’s something that calls out to Jewish people in those spiritual paths, and I think it is that yearning and that curiosity, I think that just kind of fits the mold.

Did your experiences with every imaginable type of healing, including many varied spiritual and religious ones, change or morph your religious beliefs or feelings about being a Jew?

I think it’s pushed me toward Judaism. I think by looking at all these other practices, it made me go back to my practice and ask, “What are the equivalents?” Meditation, for example. Well, Judaism has meditation. Actually, meditation was part of Jewish culture for a long time. My dad lays tefillin every day. To me, that’s not much different than sitting down and meditating for twenty minutes, he just does tefillin for twenty minutes. I think I ended up looking for equivalent things, and I ended up appreciating the custom ritual of Judaism more, and the meaning of prayer more, definitely, and could I take prayer and feel a little bit more sense of ownership from it in a Jewish perspective, which I do. … So I think if anything, I feel more strongly about Judaism and more proud about Judaism and I wouldn’t identify as anything else besides Jewish, but I do love having these other spiritual arenas in my life. I’m fascinated by it on an intellectual and emotional level. I don’t think it takes away from Judaism; I think it adds to it.

What do you think is the significance of finally “getting it” about faith with the Rabbi’s final call, and not through other means?

I like that it happened with the rabbi, because one thing I talk about in this book is that in order to get some of the spiritual “download,” it has to come to you in a language that you understand. So, I had a lot of great epiphany moments, and I hope they keep coming, because every time I get one it’s pretty awesome, but I really like that that particular one came out of an interaction with a rabbi, because I’m Jewish! So it’s cool if I was in a church and I had a great moment, or if I was in a meeting with a Tibetan nun and had a great moment, like that’s really awesome, but this is mine. Even if the rabbi who I talked about in the book is a Lubavitcher, very Orthodox, very observant Jew, and probably considers my Judaism different from his Judaism-I know I consider his Judaism different from mine-like, hello! Same blood, same shtetl, same family tree, same tribe. So I like that it came from him, because I did feel a sense of ownership about it. And it was also really nice because my dad is such a believer and that is his faith, so it was a nice connecting thing with my dad, who just was like, “Why are you going to all these other crazy people, just go to the rabbi!”

I think that’s really great for people that are looking and wondering and feeling disenchanted with Judaism, which a lot of my friends do, to say “You can find it here. It’s in here. You just have to find the right people to help you figure it out.” …There is also a sense to me where I can borrow other people’s things: I can borrow yoga and meditation and acupressure, but the one that I own and the one that’s mine is Jewish… So I was kind of psyched.

Do you think being a Jew has influenced your outlook on weight, illness and life in general?

I do. The thing, to me, is that there’s such an intense emotional component to Judaism and to being Jewish. I think with each step of Jewish practice, and each step of self-assessment around Judaism, it embraces the emotional part of all that decision making. It’s bigger than just a rulebook. Also, if you look at Judaism as a religion that’s genetic, your body literally is a representation of Judaism. If you’re born with that bloodline in you, it’s hard to separate out your body from your mind and your spirit. This is literally a Jewish body. I feel like there’s a Jewish struggle with weight. There’s a predisposition of a lot of Jewish women to be overweight, and so, in a way, overweight feels Jewish to me. And there are all kinds of diseases, Ashkenazi genetically-linked diseases, and breast cancer, and tays-sachs disease… I feel like your physical body is a symbol of Judaism in a way, so when you’re trying to fix it or change it or heal it, you’re also trying to fix or change or heal Judaism a little bit.

And there’s a physical look that’s Jewish. It’s a stereotyped look, but I can look at somebody and say, “Hmm, I think that’s a Jew.” The funny thing is that a lot of Jewish girls complain about their noses being too big, and I always really liked my nose. Then, when I got sick with this disease, one of the problems that occurred was I lost the cartilage in my face, literally the bone that makes your nose a triangle, so my nose was flat. So last summer, I had surgery where they took a rib out of my ribcage and used it to make a nose for my face. And having that happen to my nose? I took it personally. I was a Jewish girl who didn’t want a nose job. And that felt awesome, because I’m not gonna feel bad about my nose: I’m Jewish and it’s great! And then I had to have a nose job anyway! So even that somehow felt like it was involved in my Judaism. As my doctor said, “It’s gonna look like a little goyische nose.” And it does. So you know, so it’s another way this Wegeners took another little cut out of my Judaism too.

In Are You My Guru?, you writes, “Jewish people prefer to go to Jewish doctors. Occasionally we’ll make an exception for an Indian guy in an emergency room… It’s a ghetto mentality based on the (not altogether) unjustified conviction that everyone wants to see us dead, combined with the deep-seated Jewish belief that somehow we are “chosen” above all others, plus some residual “Are you really going to leave your life in the hands of someone who was WASPy enough to be a cheerleader in high school?” doubt. We thrive on fatalism.” Talk to me about Jews and healthcare.

I think Judaism and health is such a funny thing. I feel like Jews have a certain ownership feeling around health-maybe not health, but sickness. Like, “We own sickness. We got it.” We get the bad sicknesses, our whole life is “Oh God, please don’t let that happen to me,” and then it does, and what are we going to do about it? We’ve got to find the guy to fix it, and the guy is inevitably a Jewish guy. So I think that there’s a funny sense of possession that Jewish people have around sickness. And I joke about it, but avoiding that big horrible thing is kind of like the Woody Allen part of our culture. It’s hypochondria and waiting for the worst to happen. Jewish people get worried because if things are going well, that means something bad is going to happen. So I feel like it’s kind of Jewish to be sick. It’s Jewish to try to get well, it’s Jewish for someone to try to fix you, it’s Jewish to try to fix other people.

You reference some statistics in your book, including one that says one in nine women of childbearing age is diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, whereas one in 69 women under 50 is diagnosed with breast cancer. The public doesn’t seem to hear nearly as much about autoimmune diseases, especially relative to the rate of diagnosis. What do you think is the reason for that?

I would never take away from the progress that we’ve made in advanced research on all these other diseases, but I think part of the problem is that autoimmune is really vague, and there are so many different manifestations of it. Two people have the same disease and it works out completely different ways, and so it’s really mysterious. It’s a little easier to go, “Boobs! We’ve got to fix breast cancer! Breasts, we know what they are, we know where they are, we know what happens, let’s fix this.” Autoimmune is kind of all over the place. Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, but so is Hashimoto’s Syndrome.

The other part [of the problem] is that it’s difficult to diagnose, and often a lot of the initial symptoms are really vague stuff like, “I’m tired, I’m sore, I don’t feel good,” and it’s hard to make a determination from that. Doctors say, “Well, get some more sleep. Eat a better diet. Exercise.” It’s hard for them to realize that maybe there’s something more serious going on here.

To me, there is an epidemic amount of autoimmune disease happening. There are 50 million people in the United States with autoimmune diseases, over 30 million of them are women and a lot of them are young women, women going through puberty, child-bearing age, menopause. You see some connection between hormonal fluctuations and evidence of some kinds of these diseases, like Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and things like that. You’re much more likely to end up with something like this than breast cancer and ovarian cancer. So I think just having more awareness and more definition and more connecting the dots between all these things so that we understand what it is, why your body is designed to protect you from harm, but every once in a while, it misreads the signals and it harms itself. So that’s what we’re trying to figure out.

It’s just hard to pinpoint, and somehow it feels like it’s your fault. It didn’t come from this outside place: your body screwed up. Your body is hurting your body. It’s kind of hard to detach from that and say, “Okay, there is a system misfire and let’s go back in and fix it, as opposed to, “This is a virus that you got from blank, let’s go in and kill the virus.” It’s a little less pristine, but it’s all over the place, so I think the more awareness, the more we do to change it and make it better.

Have you observed progress when it comes to autoimmune diseases?

Yes. I see major progress in terms of research; I see major progress in terms of identifying. A few years ago, people were like, “Lupus?” And now people are saying, “Yeah, Lady Gaga’s aunt had lupus.” Thank you Lady Gaga for, in addition to all the other cooky great things you do, helping raise awareness of this disease that affects millions of women.

Do you try to change people’s minds about the notion that autoimmune disease is their fault, when there are no environmental or physical changes they could have made to keep themselves healthy?

Yeah. Because that’s the change I had to make. I was coming from a place of, “I’m sick, I’m trying to get better, I’m not getting better, ergo, I am doing something wrong,” to “I’m sick, I’m trying to get better, I’m not getting better, what are the other options out there that I can bring into the picture so that I can stop blaming myself?” Because, what a waste! What a waste of time, what a waste of energy, blaming yourself… Instead of blaming my body and being mad and frustrated with my body, I can step back and say, “Hey body, thanks for doing such a good job with processing all that chemo-therapy drug that I’m putting into you right now. I appreciate it. You really took a hit on that one and I can tell.” Instead of seeing what’s wrong, [it’s important] to be able to see what’s right, and then say, okay, how can I help things along, what can I do to support my system? I do believe that a positive outlook helps things, but I don’t believe that happy people are healthy people and sad people are sick people. Stuff happens. So to take the fault and blame out of it and put the respect, admiration and problem-solving into it is a lot better use of your energy, especially when you don’t have very much because you’re not feeling well.

Do you hope to increase awareness about autoimmune disorders with Are You My Guru?

Yes. Absolutely. It’s to encourage people and assure people and help people continue in this way of thinking, that your body is inherently wise, that you know it really well and that if you could just trust yourself to make good decisions, you will make them. That’s the hope: to trust yourself, to believe in yourself. That’s all in there. Your job isn’t to fix everything, but it’s to be in the pursuit of trying to get it right.

Did you ever set out to be an author, or have things just fallen into place?

It was just very lucky that that’s the format that [The Fat Girl’s Guide and Are You My Guru?] came out in. I encourage people who are thinking about writing books to do so, but also, I do think that there are a million great venues and a million Web sites: you can really express yourself in so many different formats. I’m very lucky not only to have been able to write and publish a book but to write and publish two. That’s pretty good. But I love that there’s all these different ways that people can express themselves and reach a huge audience and get feedback from that audience. I’m grateful to have the chance that people can not only read this, but let me know what they think about it. I’m excited to hear what they think.

What’s next? The ‘Wendy Shanker Show,’ like you mentioned as a dream in your book?

My hope is really to talk to as many people as I can talk to. The one thing that I realized in the process of trying to deal with the Wegener’s was this mystical element of stress that people are talking about. I was always like, “That’s an imaginary thing, stress.” Now I know that stress is not an imaginary thing and it really affects my system significantly. So I’m trying to find low stress ways for me to be able to express myself and connect with people in ways that don’t involve throwing cups of coffee across the room and stuff-which I used to really enjoy; it sucks that I can’t do that anymore. If that’s creating a TV show, that would be awesome. If that’s getting to travel around and talk to people in groups, going to seminars and teaching classes, all that stuff would be welcome. I’m just open to seeing what comes next, but I know I have to take really good care of myself.

So of course people are like, “So what’s the next book?” I hope there is no next book. I just want to have the most boring, uninspiring, stable life, not-book-worthy life that I can imagine. That would be great.

“I feel like I had started on the wrong foot: the goyishe foot. Why hadn’t I called in the Jewish cavalry to tell me who all the Best Guys were? When the whole thing started, I had no idea how many Best Guys would need to get involved.”

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A proponent of a new way of teaching Jewish ideas, Sarah Lefton describes herself in five words as, "OMG-D lemme show you something!" Which is exactly that you’ll say when you visit G-dcast, a tool that uses short videos with funny songs and animation to "crack into our great shared story," she said. Working with an animator, she has worked to educate members of the Jewish community who haven’t attended day school or aren’t members of synagogues in Jewish topics everyone should be aware of. "We believe that a frail Jewish literacy is the greatest problem facing the modern Jewish people," she said. "We call ourselves ‘the People of the Book,’ but we are facing serious communal illiteracy of our foundational texts." G-dcast began with the Bible and has already made it through the first five books, with no intentions of winding down any time soon. And it’s not just for Jews-"I hear all the time from Christians that they love G-dcast and have so much to learn about what they call ‘The Old Testament’ by watching G-dcast and hearing Jewish points of view about the Bible. Awesome!" she said.

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As his alter ego on the JTA blog, The Fundermentalist, Jacob Berkman gives us all the dirt on Jews who get and give money to other Jews. We like to think of him as the Page Six of the Jewish non-profit world, except a little classier.

Why do you think The Fundermentalist is important to the Jewish (and non-Jewish) community?

Covering the Jewish nonprofit world is something like writing about the inner workings of one big crazy family. Each member of the family really, really wants to do whatever he or she can to either keep the family healthy in the present, or to make sure that the family lives on in good health for generations to come. The problem is that despite a fairly large family fortune there isn’t quite enough cash to allow for each and every family member to carry out his or her good intention. So, the desire to save the family leaves a good number of family members wishing the others were dead.

Don’t get me wrong. There are some absolutely wonderful Jewish nonprofits out there that really do a lot of good. There are also some really lousy Jewish nonprofits out there that waste a lot of money. And they are all fighting for the same money, which can create a pretty ugly underbelly. The Fundermentalist doesn’t really seek to expose the underbelly. We prefer to write about the kishkes – what makes this whole thing work.   

Why is this important for the broader world?

It just so happens that this little family counts among its members some of the world’s most philanthropic citizens. Giving USA estimates that Americans gave just more than $300 billion to charity last year. Of that, we can safely assume that at least $4 billion went to overtly Jewish causes. And once we start talking about Jews who give money to the "outside world" the numbers are absolutely astounding. To put it in perspective. Three Jews – Stanley Druckenmiller, George Soros and Michael Bloomberg – gave away more than $1 billion between the three of them last year.

If you had to define yourself in just one word, what would it be? 

Fundermentalated.

How about five words?

I’d like a VW microbus.

How did you get involved as JTA’s chief philanthropy correspondent? The backstory of the Fundermentalist is a lot like that of Superman… Without the foreign planet, the allergy to kryptonite and the super powers. Oh, and my Fortress of Solitude is in a walkup in Park Slope, and my real parents are alive and well and living in Miami.

But in seriousness – and sorry in advance for mixing comic book metaphors – my editor, Ami Eden, likes to say that he is my Stan Lee. And it’s pretty much true. Before he got to JTA, I was more of a general assignment reporter who had a knack for writing about the Jewish federation system. Ami thought we should scrap everything else, hyper focus on the federations and Jewish nonprofits and turn me into an expert on Jewish philanthropy – and that we should try to tell the story of the Jewish nonprofit world in a way that was really readable and kinda fun. That became The Fundermentalist.

(And just to clarify, The Fundermentalist is the blog, Jacob Berkman is the Fundermentalist, and I rarely refer to myself in the third person.)

What is one thing (summary, anecdote, project result, success, failure, or whatever else comes to mind) that you feel has defined your life and/or career so far?

In the middle of a pretty heated interview about how some big money may have been mis-spent, the top lay leader of a major Jewish organization yelled at me, "Who the fuck do you think you are, the White Knight?" What makes you Jewcy?

I am not the White Knight. I’m the Fundermentalist. I can read your IRS 990 Tax Form….. with my mind.

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Jesse Spostato, who describes herself in just one word as "sassy," involves herself in anything she can that leads to a sense of empowerment and strikes a balance between physical and mental stimulation. She launched Sadie Magazine and runs it with a few friends, because, she said, "there are so many strong women (and some men too) I admire that I want to interview and talk to, and I basically created my own platform in order to do so." She calls the site her "permission slip" to tell the stories she wants to tell. "The first time I asked for an interview that I thought was a stretch and then got it, it made me feel like you can do whatever you want. It was pretty amazing," she said. She said she’s Jewcy because "I always thought my nose was my best feature until my best friend pointed out that I have ‘a nose nose,’ meaning a big Jew nose," but also because she’s "pretty outgoing and doesn’tmind putting it out there," and said her experiences have taught her to "go for whatever it is you most want, because you may get lots of nos, but you might get that one yes, and you often do."

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Maurice Appelbaum wasn’t always certain he wanted to be a rabbi, but he knew he wanted to be a teacher and a psychologist while incorporating his passion for Judaism. "I put the three together and it equals rabbi," he said. But that’s just the short answer. "It was just something that it took me a long time to realize but it was something that I felt like I needed to do and I wanted to do." Not only did he choose to become a rabbi, he also chose to become a rabbi at a truly unique and historic synagogue: The Greenpoint Shul in Brooklyn.

Erected in 1903, Greenpoint Shul has always been an Orthodox shul, and one of four in the neighborhood, but as the other three shut their doors, it has taken the challenge of catering to a broader religious community in stride. Appelbaum said his goal is to "create a community that can hold everyone at the same time, which is a challenge, but a beautiful challenge to have." Not only is the shul involved in reaching out to all sorts of Jews, but Rabbi Appelbaum is also committed to "working together to solve the problem of poverty, homelessness and feeding the poor," working in tandem with the Greenpoint Islamic Center and a local church. The shul’s involvement in the soup kitchen is really hands-on, too-community members plant crops in their garden and harvest them for use at the soup kitchen, and Appelbaum says it’s a great way of "reconnecting with nature, which is a value within Judaism."

More than anything, he invites people to come out and "be active in our community. I want to expand the role of the shul beyond more than just prayer. If doesn’t have to only be prayer. If we engage people and give them the opportunity, they may take [us] up on something that’s not prayer." To that end, he encourages those who might be intimidated by services to come to other programs the shul puts on instead, and to engage in personal conversations with the rabbi himself and others in the community, to build strong relationships.

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Joshua Lambert, who finished his Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Michigan last year, has dedicated himself to the study Jews and obscenity and the transformative roles Jews played in 20^th century American culture. "In general, people should be informed and thoughtful about where their culture comes from… understanding the crucial roles Jews have played in American media, comedy, pornography, music and literature is important for that reason, at least," he said. He’s doing this by working with modern and postmodern Jewish literature, having published a JPS guide to American Jewish Fiction and reviewing Jewish books for Tablet Magazine and The Forward, among others. Why is this important? "To my mind, contributing to [the longest-running textual tradition in world history] through innovations in the European and American forms of the novel, comic book and stand-up comedy bit is every bit as valuable and interesting as doing so by reciting tehillim or analyzing a Talmudic makhloket," Lambert said.

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In mid-April, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb deemed the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional because "its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function…" Despite the ruling, just 15 days later, President Obama made the customary proclamation for observance of the day:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 6, 2010, as a National Day of Prayer.  I call upon the citizens of our Nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God’s continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us.  

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I don’t know, I don’t remember any sexy drama in Genesis, except a lot of people sleeping with their sisters (and daughters–thanks for that, Lot), so maybe it’s a New Testament thing. Which might be why it seems like only Christians were protesting.

According to the UTSA Paisano student newspaper, the club collected roughly ten religious texts on Monday–Qurans, Torahs and Bibles–in exchange for issues of Playboy, Penthouse and other adult-oriented magazines. Why? Because the Bible advocates the mistreatment of women, and pornography is mistreatment of women, therefore Bible = porn. Obviously.

University officials, who are clearly not products of Fordham University, are apparently fine with it, saying it’s an issue of free speech. I’d love to see what my Jesuit dean, who already hates me for writing articles about Fordham’s Catholic problem, would have to say about a campaign like this one. I feel like expulsion would be in the cards. But alas, the UTSA club has done it before and will likely do it again: the campaign was first launched in 2005, propelling former president Thomas Jackson to go head-to-head with conservative pundit Tucker Carlson on MSNBC.

Carlos Morales, the current president of The Atheist Agenda, told The Paisano, "It’s an ancient text that condones violence, genocide, misogyny towards women and is almost completely fictional. The Jews were never held by the Egyptians; Noah’s ark never happened. All these things are completely fictional."

Fiction is one thing. I tend to agree with The Friendly Atheist: Purdue’s Society of Non-Theists‘ "Fiction for Fiction" campaign seemed a lot more legitimate. 

But still, if it’s all fictional, how come we Jews have so many holidays centered around "They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat!"? Silly atheists.

Here’s the thing: regardless of what you believe about the legitimacy of the Bible, it’s the basis of so much of our culture, both religious and secular, around the world. We have weekends because of the commandment to keep the Sabbath. But maybe we should get rid of Saturdays and Sundays, too. And the constitution, because, don’t forget, the U.S. was founded on Judeo-Christian values. No big.

You don’t have to take the Bible at its word (as God’s word) to recognize that there are positive messages to be shared. Take, for instance: "Love thy neighbor as thyself" (Romans 13:9) or "Eat, drink, and be merry" (Ecclesiastes 8:15) or "Great men are not always wise" (Job 32:9) or "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). I can go on.

As for those who think it’s all fiction, that’s cool too: Biblical themes are the staple for so much of well-respected modern literature. Think C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, John Steinbeck, Jeanette Winterson, John Milton, Joseph Conrad, Flannery O’Connor, and yes, even J.K. Rowling. Are you really going to try to tell me that the Chronicles of Narnia was smut? I think not.

I’m all about being a little controversial to spark conversation, but equating the Book of Psalms with Hustler just doesn’t make any sense. It’s these kinds of college students that give the rest of us a bad name. Even if you’re not religious or you don’t believe in the legitimacy of the Bible, there is something to be taken from the text. You can be a liberal academic without reducing the Bible to porn. I promise.

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Okay, so that’s not what the studies say. It’s a really loose interpretation. Here are the facts:

The Millennial Generation (18-29) overwhelmingly supports interracial dating and marriage. In fact, 85 percent of all groups asked say they would be fine with a family member’s marriage to somebody of another ethnic group. Meanwhile, among the parents of the Millennials, the 50-64 age bracket, that number drops to 55 percent. And forget about our grandparents–they’re at 38 percent. Granted, this study refers to ethnicity and race, not religion, but I think it’s fair to say that it speaks to a general trend of acceptance within the young adult generation. Read the rest of the study, published last week, here.

This week, there’s even more devastating news for Bubbe. Apparently, American Millennials are considerably less active in religious institutions than our older counterparts. Currently, 26 percent of those 18-29 claim they do not affiliate with any religion (or consider themselves "atheist" or "agnostic"), up from 20 percent of those 30-45. So we’re all a bunch of heathens, right?

Actually, no. Just because more than half of us approve of the Supreme Court ban on prayer in public schools doesn’t mean we’re less spiritual or against prayer. Apparently, nearly half of all Millennials still claim to pray on a daily basis, and claim a roughly consistent rate of absolute belief in God as did previous generations–64 percent. Also, two percent of the total population of those 18-29 identify religiously as Jewish, (Yes, I know, this doesn’t sound like a lot. Stay with me.) whereas only 1 percent of those 30-49 claim to be Jews. So hey, look at us, young Jews are still coming out on top!

Thirty-seven percent of religiously-affiliated Millennials consider themselves strong members of their religious groups, which is consistent with Generation X, the 30-45 crowd. Though the report doesn’t specify how many of these "strong members" identify as Jewish, I would venture to say institutions like Hillel, the Jewish Federation Young Leadership, and other national and regional organizations are still churning out the next Jewish leaders, not to mention rabbinical and cantorial schools across the country. Though many of them are looking for new ways to get young Jews involved, and young Jews are engaging in the Jewish dialogue differently than they did in the past, strong members of the Jewish community in its various forms have yet to go extinct.

Not surprisingly, nearly three-quarters of Milennials believe that there is more than one true way to interpret their own religion. This might even be more predominant in the Jewish world. Think Bu-Jews. Um, or maybe Jews for Jesus, but we’re pretty sure they don’t actually count. But they think they do, and that’s all that really matters, right? Even within Jews for Judaism, there are obviously different accepted traditions, not limited to just the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements. Independent minyans are popping up places, like Brooklyn’s Altshul, and there are places like Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the traditionally LGBT synagogue of New York City. (Millennials also tend, across the board, to be more accepting of homosexuality, as well as abortion, evolution and pornography. They also support bigger government, because clearly that is related to religious beliefs.)

Oddly, the only specific reported beliefs that are stronger in the 18-29 crowd than in 30+ is that of life after death and, more notably, in Hell. Sixty-two percent of Millennials believe in Hell; only 59 percent of Generation Xers share that belief.

So Bubbe might be kvetching that us crazy young kids are okay with intermarriage and we don’t go to shul every Friday night and Saturday morning, but you can tell her to rest assured, because the Nonnas and Lolas and Yayas and Abuelas are facing the same issues. Don’t worry, just because we’re eating cheeseburgers and dating Catholics doesn’t mean Judaism is dying. We’re just taking it upon ourselves as a generation to redefine our religious and cultural affiliations, and deciding what matters most for Millennials.

For more analysis the study, click here, or download the full report here. 

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When I was applying to colleges three years ago, I had no intentions of becoming so invested in my own Jewishness. In fact, I was unawareI even had any Jewishness to call my own. So it’s no surprise that I didn’t really mind the Jesuit tradition when I sent my intent form to Fordham University.

Actually, being at a traditionally religious University got me thinking more about religion in general-not just Catholicism. In fact, mythology class was a persistent reminder of why I never really liked being a part of the Catholic Church. Having Catholicism thrust upon me, even in the subtle way Fordham likes to think it does so, was probably a big part of whatpushed me toward Judaism. That, and an English professor who let us write a term paper about whatever we wanted. I chose Jewish intermarriage and conversion.

Actually studying Judaism at a Catholic university, however, was going to take more than holding my own while being fed Catholicism. It’snot that Fordham wants all of its graduates to be baptized by the time we arehanded our diplomas. It’s just that they tend to expect we all grew up going to Catholic schools. And let’s be honest, many of my classmates did.

Once I got involved in the Jewish community in the middle ofmy freshman year, I started taking classes outside of school and startedreading on my own. That is, until I realized a full credit load in college doesn’t lend itself well to, you know… free time. So I decided the only way I would be able to continue studying would be to find a way to incorporate Judaism into my course load.

So, I took up a minor in Jewish Studies. I wish I could capture and collect the looks on peoples’ faces when they hear this, and without fail look back at me and say, "Fordham has Jewish Studies?" No, it absolutely does not. I’m inventing it.

Luckily, as a Catholic institution, we have a thriving department of theology. So, officially, I am a religious studies minor. I just happen to be taking all of my classes in what my school refers to as the "Old Testament." I was taught the Hebrew Bible by a nun. Thankfully, I am being taught The Torah by a rabbi, so I guess it balances out. For lack of classes beyond "Introduction to the Old Testament," "The Torah," and "Classic JewishTexts," I’m fulfilling one of my requirements by taking "Introduction to MiddleEastern History." It’s, err… close, right? Round it out with "Faith and Critical Reason" and "Women in the Bible" and somehow, I’ve managed to finish a religious studies minor with a focus in Judaism. Of course, I’d be stuck if Iwanted to make it a double major, since I’d have four classes left and only "The Holocaust" to choose from, but I’ll take what I can get for now and take it up with our president (a priest) and our dean (also a priest) so that others have to chance to learn about Jewish texts and traditions at Fordham, too.

Next step: getting a Fordham University Hillel. Wish us alot of luck with that one, we’re going to need it.

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