children

Bruce Springsteen Would Be Proud (Or Maybe Scratch His Head in Confusion)

Two weeks ago, I joined thousands of families around Israel for a time-honored ritual: the Saturday night grand finale of ...

Chayla on the Balcony

Looking at the award-winning photograph “Chayla in Shul” I wonder:What is Chayla thinking? Here she is. Alone in this cavernous ...

Defusing the Racial Timebomb

Over the last few weeks, as America waited for the Grand Jury decisions in the deaths of Michael Brown and ...

How the Tragedy of an Infant’s Death Can Bring About Mitzvot

Today will be a difficult day for my family. And for me. We should be celebrating the first birthday of ...

Why I Loved Those Jewish Mice

The stereotype that “Jews run Hollywood” didn’t come up much when I was a little kid; I doubt it comes up for most kids. ...

Lot, the Subjective Stranger: A Call for Diversity

 “Is she converting?”“Clearly, she is not from around here, I wonder if she is even Jewish.”“She must be someone’s nanny…”These ...

Dr. Seuss, Rashi and Sydney Taylor: A Study of Creating Ritual

In my mind, the definitive tale of sisterhood was not the conventionally chosen classic, Little Women , but rather the ...

Body Talk – Our Bodies, Our Sukkah Posters

When we received our JOFA sukkah poster last week, I excitedly showed my daughters, ages five and ten, the poster ...

Cross-Cultural Parenting: Materialism vs Relationship

My daughter is wise beyond her years. She teaches me. Recently a family with older children handed down to us ...

World Traveler Becomes World Musician

  What makes a secular Israeli connect to his Jewish identity, roots and spirituality? What makes secular Jew from Jerusalem ...