We'd like to be festive. We're not sure we can let go for a second though or the whole place will unravel. My father used to say the only thing he could be sure of was the sun would come up in the morning. Now I
Interview by Gloria Abella Ballen How To Be An Urban Cowgirl & Find Your Inner West by Corinne Joy Brown has just been published, and we are delighted to share this interview excerpt conducted by Gloria Abella Ballen. TO ORDER: HOW TO BE AN URBAN COWGIRL Gloria Abella Ballen: Corinne,
Antisemitism
By Judith Fein Photos by Paul Ross When someone asks me why I became a travel journalist, I say it’s because I love learning. Every day I try to learn something new, and traveling is the best way to learn many new things at the same time. What I
Traveling while Jewish
By Jackie Wald We are all part of the worldwide Diaspora. Some places have little pockets of Jews, others large concentrations—think New York, Los Angeles, London… If you’re like me, it feels as though we are always looking at those around us, thinking hmmm, I wonder if s/
Awards
New Mexico Jewish Journal, in its second year, just took home 9 awards by 8 contributors – including 4 first-place wins – from the regional Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies contest. Among 2,000 entries from 100 newsrooms across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico, NMJJ competed in the
NMPW Awards
NM Jewish Journal Sweeps 2026 77th Annual NM Press Women Communications Contest. Wins FIRST PRIZE Publication with Ten First Place Awards and Forty Awards Total
by Dianne R. Layden, Ph.D. Janet Bond Brill spent 37 years with her mother-in-law Edna before losing her — and she refused to let Edna’s story disappear with her. The result is Little Edna’s War, a Warsaw memoir written in Edna’s own voice as a child, with
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\by Karen Wentworth When I worked as a journalist many years ago for KOAT I covered the activities of many non-profit organizations. One of the most boring was the League of Women Voters. Year after year, they did the same things – put out Voter Guides with candidate questions and answers,
OUR CURRENT ISSUE War: A Mirror to Ourselves · New Awards · To Be a Jew Is a Verb: A Las Cruces Family’s Century of Showing Up. · Concert: Joni and Leonard at the KiMo · Yom HaShoah at the Roundhouse with the Mayor of Santa Fe and both Majority and Minority Democratic
By Ron Duncan Hart In 1901, shortly before becoming the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican, famously said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far.” He went on to say, “If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick
By the New Mexico Jewish Journal Debra Wechter Friedman grew up watching her parents build a synagogue from scratch in southern New Mexico. Now she’s asking what the next generation of Jewish giving looks like in a state that rarely makes the philanthropic map. Debra Wechter Friedman remembers exactly
By Ellen Futterman For Danielle Wertz and Robbie Schaefer, the paths that led them to each other—and to their intimate cabaret show, “Both Sides Now: The Music and Lives of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen”—are as layered and lyrical as the music they perform. Wertz, 31, a Brooklyn-based
Photos by Ron Duncan Hart As has been the custom for many years, Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was commemorated at the state capital in Santa Fe this year. The event was attended by Santa Fe Mayor Michael Garcia and by Democratic and Republican representatives: Majority Floor Leader Rep. Reena
By Merilee Dannemann If New Mexico legislators were paid a salary, what would you expect them to do that they have not been doing up till now? New Mexico is the only state legislature where legislators are not paid something like a salary, though they do receive per diem and
Happy Passover and Chag Sameach! Seven new stories! Our new series, New Mexico Jewish voices across the Spectrum, is introduced with three articles. The first Spectrum profile, by Ron Duncan Hart, highlights the work of Mikey Weinstein, Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder, whose battle against religious coercion in the U.
By Ron Duncan Hart I first learned about “Mikey” Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation from a Harper’s Magazine article entitled, “Jesus Killed Mohammed: The Crusade for a Christian Military.” In that 2009 article the author Jeff Sharlet wrote about an American military squadron in Iraq that had
Editor's Letter by Diane Joy Schmidt Preparing for presenting the article about Jeffrey Haas that appears in this issue was difficult for me on both a personal and political level. His life had cast a shadow on mine twice before, though we never met until this year. I
By Ellen Marks If it’s noon on Wednesday, you’re sure to find Jeffrey Haas at the corner of Paseo de Peralta and Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe, protesting on behalf of Palestinians. The 83-year-old Jewish co-founder of the group now called Santa Feans for Justice in
by Judith Fein When I met an affable local guide in Catalunya, I innocently asked if anything unusual was happening during the current Semana Santa or Holy Week, which included both Easter and Passover. “Well,” she began, “perhaps you have heard of the Catalonian desserts called brunyols, which are fried