Guilt-Free Mothering (11-Minute Mommy Peptalk)
This Shabbat, my children really needed me to be three places at once, and I failed. Here’s how I managed to stay guilt-free.
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25 Year Later: Hashem and the Crown Heights Riots by Tamar Stone
Last Friday, during our weekly Skype call, my mom mentioned Thanksgiving to my daughter. Afterwards, my daughter asked me what Thanksgiving is, and I told her it’s a really big holiday which means “Hodaya,” thanking Hashem. So, in honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a letter of heartfelt Hodaya which I received 2 years […]
Read MoreTsofia’s 1st Grade Interview
This morning I took my youngest daughter, 5-year-old Tsofia Bat-Tsion (AKA Tsoofy), to her interview for 1st grade. This is the 5th time I’ve sat with a daughter in that same principal’s office, in her nicest outfit with her ponytail high and pulled back tightly just so. Then it was on to the guidance counselor’s […]
Read MoreWho Else was Murdered with Ezra Schwartz?
The murder last week of 18-year-old American yeshiva student, Ezra Schwartz from Massachusetts, hit us close to home. My husband runs a program for 18-year-old Modern Orthodox American girls, many of whom knew Ezra or were his classmates at Maimonides in Boston. Ezra was a student at Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh, and was planning […]
Read MoreOn my Way Home from the Terror Attack
This morning, baby Yonatan and I went to the Machaneh Yehuda market to buy some patches for the fraying elbows of my husband’s favorite sweater. On the way home, I started seeing lots of siren-ning ambulances racing past me. Before I even knew what had happened, I SMSed my husband. “I hear a lot of […]
Read MorePrime Minister Netanyahu’s Shomer Nagiah Handshake
Someone I know who works with the Israeli government just shared a sweet secret with me. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu knows he is not allowed to shake the hand of his Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, religious JewishMOM Tzipi Hotovely-Alon. So how does he greet her? They extend their handshake hands, and, holding them a […]
Read MoreCalmer and Happier Short Fridays (15-Minute Mommy Peptalk)
A few ways to stay sane even when Shabbat starts early.
Read MoreWhat was HaRav Elyashiv Like as a Baby?
You know how much Yonatan (who will be a year old in two weeks, mazal tov!) loves his babysitter? Every morning, when I knock on the babysitter’s door, Yonatan turns to me with a big teethy “YAY” smile. This morning, though, the moment I put Yonatan on the ground to play, the babysitter’s son, 11-month-old […]
Read MoreMy Lost Purse
Last week I ran into Mazal, my old down-the-street neighbor from Nachlaot. “Jeeeny! We miss you! We miss seeing all of your kids! Now there are no kids left!” Let me explain…In the corner of Nachlaot where I lived for the last 13 years, among the 100 or so apartments in our courtyard, there were […]
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