Growing up as one of few Jews in a small Ohio town drew my brother and me closer. It also much later became part of what drew me closer to my own faith. This essay, a winner in the 2010 Moment Magazine Memoir Contest, is an excerpt from my memoir, Two Trees for Kevin, A Woman’s Journey from Grief to Faith. Continue reading
Author Linda Cohen becomes the conscience for us all in her new book, 1,000 Mitzvahs, about the acts of goodness she performed and logged in memory of her father. She reminds us that even changing a roll of toilet paper in a public restroom is a good dead. Read about her project in this wide-ranging interview. Continue reading
Playing the flute with my temple klezmer band for a one-day community service event gave me pause. Was I giving myself an easy out from regular volunteering by jumping to participate in a one-day event? It’s a dilemma for those of us who want to volunteer regularly, but struggle to find the time. Continue reading
Building a sukkah taught lessons about communicating as a couple. It reminded my family of the importance of always making our child feel included even if it means slowing up a project. It showed us, too, something we already knew: how better life is when we take the time to build something as a family and with friends Continue reading
September 28, 2011
Rush, rush, rush. Husband has a new job. I have a new job. Our toddler goes to day-care three instead of two days a week. To top it all off, the High Holy Days are upon us.
I’m trying, really, really trying to get into a High Holy Day state of mind.
Rosh Hashanah was not an automatic day off at either mine or my husband’s workplaces. He began his new job less than two weeks ago. I started mine, a part-time teaching gig, three weeks ago. … Continue reading
Summary: To many students and faculty, new Brandeis President Fred Lawrence has practically achieved rock star status. A former dean of The George Washington University Law School, he became president in January 2011 of a university that had been hamstrung by financial difficulties and embroiled in controversy. My article about Lawrence and the challenges he will face is now online in The Forward, a national Jewish newspaper, and will appear in its print editions on Sept. 30, 2011.
August 29, 2011
Mihrab. Wudu. Minaret.
Those words have been foreign to me most of my life. I have been like most Americans, woefully ignorant about other religions besides my own. For that matter, until the last decade, I knew little even about my Jewish faith.
Recently, I shadowed a Wellesley Middle School sixth-grade class as the students learned about world religions. The purpose was research for my article about how one Boston-area school teaches about religion … Continue reading
Summary: During the latter half of the 2010-11 school year, I shadowed a sixth-grade Wellesley Middle School class as students learned about world religions. The class had been under scrutiny because of a past field trip to a mosque, where a handful of boys ended up praying. Click on the link below to read my Aug. 28, 2011 article in The Boston Globe Magazine about the school’s experiences teaching about religion.
Reaction: The article drew extensive reader reaction. Dozens of readers wrote letters to the editor, and at least 100 … Continue reading
Taking young children to Shabbat services is a tricky endeavor. How does a parent juggle a desire to experience a full Shabbat service with the realization that a young child may not be able to sit through the whole thing? Compromise. Continue reading
Summary: A baby boom was on in my son’s day-care, and a neighbor came over with the news that she was expecting her third child. Simon began to wonder when his baby brother or sister was coming. I wrote about my family’s decision to have one child in an article for Kveller.com, a New York-based parenting website.
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