I’m curious about a lot of things…
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The Non-Meditative Jew Tries a Havdalah Meditation
Last night I went to a Havdalah meditation. Late. I arrived damp from the second cold rain of the season, after going to the wrong location first. All of these lovely people sat in a circle, looking more beautiful than I…
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Design Updates!
Animated gifs, social media, logos, and infographics! Because it’s easier to add a few examples here than to constantly update my portfolio.
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Bring It On, Babylon
Designs for print magazine and optimized for digital viewing. Bring it ancient city style with contemporary commentary on ancient texts.
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So you want to oppose fascism…
Fascists have radicalized me. And they should radicalize you too.
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Egherman Does Design
A few examples of work done for clients who wanted clarity, joy, theatricality, sobriety or some combination thereof. Good for what ails you.
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Coaching Through Transitions
This is the place I am moored to. It holds the landscape that grips my soul and contains all that is me: the Jewish me, the American me, the optimistic and happy me, the pessimist me, and the me who is…
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How Can Our Communities Heal from Abuses of Power?
“The good news is that people are more loyal to sex than to taboo play.”
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Love will tear us apart … or not
With all the forces trying to tear us apart, including our own personal idiosyncrasies, it is a testament to our incredible hardheadedness that Kamran and I have remained together.
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“Trickster Crumb”
One day I woke up to discover that the imp in my story is a quantum being. It just occurred to me in a dream. The imp doesn’t travel in time. The imp is not measurable at times. When the imp…
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“Dina, it’s time we moved to America.”
My grandmother was six and was in the market with her good friend, also six, when strangers attacked the shtetl where she was born. They set angry pigs loose in the streets, killing her friend right in front of her. My…
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Tradition! Tradition! Who Has the Right to Ritual
The requirement for a hide used for the Torah is that it come from a kosher animal, not that it be ritually slaughtered. Dozens of hides are needed to create just one Torah. And kosher hunting is quite a challenge given…
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The Rhythm of Tragedy
There is a rhythm to tragedy—especially Jewish tragedy—that feels comic. It begins with a set-up and ends with a punchline.
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Using Personas to Gain Understanding and Focus
How Can Global Voices Use Personas to Move Forward? View this on Medium, please… Global Voices is asking its community to engage in defining its future path. Are we a community? Are we news? Are we media? All of the three? Something…
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Big announcement: I am writing a novel
I always wanted to be a writer, but I hated writing. So why am I writing a novel now? What changed?
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Who Has the Right to Ritual
Who has the right to ritual, to define what is and what isn’t appropriate or appropriated, to declare themselves as a member of the tribe? Mourning the more than 33,000 Jews executed at Babi Yar isn’t the only reason I am…
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Prayers for Mourning
Kaddish Kaddish is the Jewish prayer for mourners. It’s said every day for eleven months after the death of a family member. After that it is repeated yearly on the anniversary of the death. It marks a completion. Its meaning is…
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Iran Talks Give Peace a Chance
A perspective on the nuclear talks with Iran and what it means for Iranian people, human rights, and peace. This post originally appeared on Harry’s Place. “Nuclear energy is our indisputable right” Eight years ago when I last lived in Iran,…
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Trauma Can be Passed Down in Our Genes
Below is a post I wrote for TEDxAmsterdam. Reproduced in full: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is something we are now accustomed to attributing to the effects of war. We used to call it “shell shock.” Today we know that trauma is…
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#Recipe: My Grandmother’s Chocolate Cake
My grandmother was famous for her chocolate cake. Some relatives joked that the secret ingredient was cigarette ashes, but I’m here to tell you that’s not the case. When she died, many of her loved ones still had her cakes stowed…
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Prayer Goes Out; Food Goes In: Plum Chicken with Bibi Kasrai
The day I spoke with the author of The Spice Whisperer, Bibi Kasrai, she was busy with her new enterprise, a cooking camp for children. She had left a career as a corporate executive to do what she loves: cooking and…
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Iran Elections: Celebration Now, A Long and Unpredictable Path Ahead
Photo from Instagram user alirezamalihi of celebrations in Tehran This is an excerpt of my latest piece on Global Voices. In the past few days there have been threats against the families of BBC reporters. The Internet in Iran was slowed…
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Bare Bones Overview of Iran’s Election System
Here is a bare bones overview of the structure of Iran’s election system that I am presenting in Amsterdam on June 14, 2013. Hope you all enjoy it.
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Taste of Iran: Lari Kebab Made as a Stew
I loved the concise flavors of this dish, but learned that in order to replicate them I had to have the best ingredients. Taste of Iran: Lari kebab recipe Iranian student in Italy recreates a traditional dish – with a twist…
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Blast from the Past: Thoughts on Rafsanjani’s 2005 Campaign
I wrote this piece in 2005 when the elections for Iran’s next president were in full swing. During the campaigns, I walked through my neighborhood with my headscarf around my shoulders. Music blared from black SUVs. Change was in the air…
Got any book recommendations?