My daughter, son-in-law, and two young children, who had made Aliyah a year earlier, left Israel days after October 7. They returned to Israel about six weeks later to resume their lives. Over this past year, I’ve struggled to live with the daily news from Israel, the intense resurfacing of antisemitism here and world-wide, and… Read more »

We each found ways of coping during this terrible year; these were my ways: I simplified my life.  I leaned into what I learned from my mother – how routine frees the mind to focus on bigger issues, how a mind unclogged with the mundane has agility, more easily focusing on the bigger picture. I… Read more »

As we approach our first Rosh HaShana just a month after getting married, we find ourselves reflecting on the many blessings that have brought us to this moment. Our journey together began with a simple act of kindness. After meeting at a post-Shabbat gathering, Isaac walked me home, and in that moment, I sensed a… Read more »

At the end of this heartbreaking year, I wrestle with grief. Sometimes, grief comes as a physical sensation, an outpouring. Sometimes, as a set of questions. What do we do with grief? How do we, as vulnerable humans, manage this predicament we are in? How should we, as Jews, live our lives in this unbearable… Read more »

On October 7th, the world shattered… and on October 13th my first nephew, little Dovid Shapiro, arrived. He was certainly one of the cutest, smartest and most angelic newborns ever, and being born to my 45-year-old brother and his wife, a long-awaited gift. But how could I possibly even feel a spark of joy, while… Read more »