Tasmania’s Mikvah on Ice by Mina Esther Gordon
Although we have been living in Melbourne, Australia for the past 41 years, my husband, Yossi Gordon, took responsibility for the religious needs of the Jews of Tasmania since 1983. Tasmania is an Australian state, an island the size of Israel, about one hour by plane from Melbourne. In the 2017 census only 248 people […]
Read MoreI am Not That Wife Yelling at Her Husband
This morning I was so furious at one of my kids I could have screamed! And then, while walking Yoni to gan, I noticed an older woman in a car screaming at her husband (who barely seemed to notice. Poor guy, looked like he was used to it…) And that reminded me of something I’ve […]
Read MoreA Fire Destroyed the Home of my Family and the Heart of our Community by Breindy Klawanksy
[This past Thursday, a gas-heater explosion burned down the family home of Johannesburg community rabbi and Rosh Kollel, Rabbi Yechezkel and Rebbetzin Hadassah Auerbach. B”H, there were no injuries. In this poem, daughter Breindy reminisces about what their home meant to the Auerbach’s 10 children and to their entire community]. I’m mourning for the walls. […]
Read MoreLickety-Split Bar Mitzvah Miracles
Yoel’s lickety-split aliya l’Torah this past Shabbat was beautiful. Yoel read his aliya nicely and we were all so happy to be able to celebrate afterward at a small kiddush with friends and neighbors. In my eyes, on the continuum between boy and man, this Shabbat seems to have moved Yoel a notch man-ward, b”H. […]
Read MoreYoel’s Lickety-Split Bar Mitzvah
Last August we reserved this coming Shabbat at the shul next door for Yoel’s bar mitzvah aliya l’Torah. Our first bar mitzvah after 4 bat mitzvahs. I’ve been dreaming about this event for years. Yoel being called up for his first aliya, reading from the Torah, and the celebratory kiddush with family and friends afterward. […]
Read MoreBack to School
Yesterday morning, on the last day of the 2-month-old Weisberg homeschool, my 5-year-old Yoni plopped himself down onto a fluffy pillow lying outside my bedroom. And then he luxuriously closed his eyes and exclaimed, “Eema, this pillow is so comfortable. It’s as comfortable as…you!” I laughed SO hard that my pillowy post-quarantine belly jiggled with […]
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