Susannah Dainow

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Dec 2, 2024, 12:07 AM

The inside of the brown and white shell is a sheer, shining purple that catches the light and reflects it like a glaze. Next to it lie two pieces of wood worn smooth with water and time, one straight...

Oct 27, 2024, 4:44 PM

Sukkot Adventures in Joy

Sukkot, coming on the heels of sombre Yom Kippur, is meant to be “the holiday of our joy.” It is characteristic of the Jewish calendar to balance seriousness with fun, intensity with levity. This year, in a new home...

Oct 1, 2024, 3:59 PM

The necessary art of gentleness on the High Holidays

(iStock)

Self-forgiveness is especially important and especially difficult in a year when we have perhaps sometimes acted rashly under stress

Aug 17, 2024, 10:38 PM

The Boons of Cultural Blending: Gong Fu & Shabbat

For the past couple of months, my husband and I have been practicing the art of Shabbat Gong Fu. Gong Fu is a Chinese tea ritual dating from around 1000 CE, which we learned, of all places, in the...

Jul 24, 2024, 3:50 AM

From 'The Sabbath,' by Marc Chagall, 1910. (public domain)

Shabbat replaces our regularly scheduled programs with mandated downtime, which provides recuperative rest, even when we fumble for something to do

Jun 9, 2024, 7:02 AM

Shavuot: In Celebration of Interpretation

This year, for the first time, I joined the oldest book club in the world and made a mostly successful attempt to read the parsha every week. I was a little late to the party: I started well after...

Apr 18, 2024, 11:37 PM

Freeing Ourselves from Mitzrayim: Pesach 5784

Pesach, with its ritual-dinner-party-meets-timeless-story setup, has been my favourite holiday since childhood. This time of year always takes me back to my great aunt’s epic seders, where I experienced the presence of God as a social thing: the raucousness...

Mar 6, 2024, 6:57 PM

On loving anti-Israel artists

Excerpt from an open letter by Writers Against the War on Gaza juxtaposed against view of the destruction caused by Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel, seen on October 15, 2023. (Edi Israel/Flash90) (Juxtaposition by Times of Israel)

In the midst of all this loss – lives, ideals, friends – I cannot bear losing work I connect with, too

Feb 4, 2024, 6:15 PM

The War Made My Husband, a Jew by Choice, Even More Jewish

In Judaism, it is forbidden to remind converts that they’ve converted; once they’ve been to the Beit Din (the multi-rabbi body that makes decisions about conversions and other matters of halacha) and the mikveh, they are as Jewish as...

Jan 1, 2024, 3:40 AM

On the unexpected side of the generational divide

My father's moral interrogation makes me confront difficult questions: Is Israel doing all it can for Gazan civilians?

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About Me

Susannah Dainow is a writer and recovering lawyer based in Niagara region, Ontario, Canada. She writes fiction, essays, and poetry, often with a Jewish lens. She is seeking literary representation.