About Tamar Fox

Tamar Fox has an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but she still doesn't like sweet tea. Born and raised in Chicago, she's also lived in Iowa City, Dublin, Oxford, and Jerusalem. When she's not rocking out at honky tonks she teaches text study, cooks elaborate meals, and volunteers for a hospice. When she grows up she wants to be a professional whiskey taster.

Assisted Loving: Because Your Parents (and Grandparents, and Great Grandparents) Need Love, Too

By June 26, 2008

I like to whine about the trials and tribulations of the dating scene for young observant Jews. Besides the innumerable suggestions (read: pressure) to join JDate, there’s the never-ending parental push towards marriage and the intolerable Jewish singles events. But … Read More

5 Jewish Wedding Mistakes (And How To Avoid Them)

By June 25, 2008

Ah, wedding season: Weekends fill up with nuptials as our friends and relatives (and maybe even a few of us) march down the aisle and get hoisted up on chairs to wave napkins and hope they don't get dropped. Weddings … Read More

How Many Atheists Does it Take to Believe in God?

By June 24, 2008

A newly released survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reveals all kinds of things we already knew—lots of American are religious, Pentecostalism is on the rise, faith and politics are closely linked—and a few fairly shocking … Read More

Pointing Fingers and Awarding Holocaust Heroics—What’s the Big Deal?

By June 23, 2008

I was struck last week by several Holocaust-related stories in the news, and specifically how they all have the typical tunnel vision we’ve come to expect from anything vaguely related to the Holocaust.  The first covered a former suburban Cleveland … Read More

Mapping Exhibit Too Controversial for Chicago’s Jewish Museum

By June 20, 2008

Chicago’s Jewish museum, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, is currently showing an exhibit called Imaginary Coordinates that focuses on maps of Israel and the Middle East. The Spertus website has this to say about Imaginary Coordinates: Imaginary Coordinates is … Read More

How To: Help Flood Victims from Iowa to China

By June 17, 2008

Jews are used to a flood story with a happy ending: The animals march onto the ark two by two, and after forty days and forty nights of rain, things begin to ease up. The dove brings back an olive … Read More

The Problem with Charity

By June 16, 2008

When Zimbabwe recently cracked down on CARE—a leading humanitarian organization focused on global poverty which has spent more than $100 million in Zimbabwe in the last 16 years—I started thinking about how some charities do amazing work, but somehow don’t … Read More

Meet Your Meat: Rubashkin Scandal Grows Ever-More Rancid

By June 12, 2008

Since federal agents conducted an immigration raid on the Postville, IA, AgriProcessors meatpacking plant on May 12th, the Jewish community has been in a furor over everything from worker’s rights, to accusations of sexual harassment, to the possibility of a … Read More