Your Kids Are Ready to Talk About Israel. Are You?

By Sivan Zakai & Miriam Heller Stern for Raising Kvell

Our children are listening. When we pore over news sources and incessantly check our Facebook feeds to find out the latest from Israel and Gaza, our children are watching. When we whisper in muted voices or cry out in protest about the situation in the Middle East and the resurgence of anti-Semitism around the world, our children are hearing.

How do we talk to young children living far away from Israel about the current situation when they are not yet old enough to understand terms like “Zionism” or “anti-Semitism” or “terrorism” or “occupation”?

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Living the Value of Hiddur P’nei Zaken (Honoring the Elderly)

By Brandi Lerner, jkidphilly parent

My own, personal connection started with the Abramson Center for Jewish Life when, in the mid-90’s I began going to the Philadelphia Geriatric Center (the former Abramson located next to Einstein Hospital) monthly to celebrate Shabbat. This mitzvah was something that I looked forward to, and continued for six years before leaving for college. Now, as a parent, it is amazing to give my son the same experiences that I cherished.

I began bringing my son Ethan, now 2, to Abramson when he was about 4 months old through a jkidphilly program that was held there. His face lit up when entering the sun-filled atrium to the residents being serenaded by Cantor Buzzy Walters. The warm welcome of the residents and the immediate smile on my son’s face confirmed that this was the right decision. I am glad that I have this wonderful environment to teach my son Hiddur Penei Zaken, honoring the elderly – a mitzvah dear to my heart.

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Talking with Zach Braff, Kate Hudson & Mandy Patinkin of “Wish I Was Here”

By Molly Tolsky for Raising Kvell

As we’ve mentioned before, Zach Braff’s new movie “Wish I Was Here” gives us plenty to talk about here at Kveller. I sat down with three of the film’s stars, Zach Braff, Kate Hudson, and Mandy Patinkin, to talk about their Jewish connection to the movie, being a child no matter how old you are, and the hardest part about playing the role of a dying man.

On the role Judaism plays in the film:

Zach Braff:

My brother Adam and I wrote this, and he’s 10 years older than me. When he was a kid, my parents put him in Yeshiva. By the time they got to me, they downshifted to Conservative and kosher. Both of us have grown up to be adults who organized religion does not work for. We love the jokes, we love the humor, we love the culture, we love the fun of the family gathering.

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Should a Mom Be Jailed for Her Own Stillbirth?

By Rabbi Jill Jacobs for Raising Kvell

As I enter my final few weeks of pregnancy, I sometimes worry about ordering a cup of coffee. Too often, the barista responds, “Decaf?” or a stranger within earshot wonders aloud whether I’m “allowed” to drink that.

It’s not just coffee. When I was pregnant with my daughter, a waitress balked at my husband and my order of labneh, and a co-worker expressed shock that I was eating sushi (never mind that I’m vegetarian, and the sushi in question involved avocados and cucumbers).

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Prayers for Preemie With The Help of Google

By Elisheva Blumberg for Raising Kvell

The last thing I told her before it happened was, “Oh my goodness, Aliza, you’re so tiny! You’re barely showing!”

My oldest childhood friend was starting her sixth month of pregnancy, and she had the cutest baby belly I had ever seen. I couldn’t wait to see how enormous she would grow in the months ahead, and neither could she. But neither of us got the chance.


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In Favor of Letting Toddlers Run Wild At Temple

By Justin Sakofs for Raising Kvell

This past Shabbat, my wife, son and I visited another shul. For the record, we went to this shul not because we were unhappy with our current one, but because there was a guest speaking and friends had invited us to join them. It was during Kedusha that our 2.5-year-old son began to do what he does best: explore.


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Breaking From Hasidism, Online

Exploring the Internet led me to knowledge, questions, and, ultimately, leaving the Hasidism I’d grown up with

By F. Vizel

In my Hasidic community, people knew me as the young newlywed, mother of one, daughter of so-and-so, and married to such-and-such, with a scarf over my head and an apartment in the new development. But on the Internet, I was anonymous. I was anyone. I was everyone. I was a mystery, and I was hidden. I was whoever I wanted to be, and I could say whatever I wanted to say without fear.

I didn’t intend to create this dual identity. I hadn’t been prepared for what could happen to Hasidic life in the Internet age, because no one knew. My husband purchased a laptop with Internet access for some business ventures, and when I used it I chanced upon some blogs by fellow Hasidim and soon after created my own. It was an impulsive act. The topics of conversation online were enthralling and broke every taboo. It broke the prohibition of men and women conversing and shmoozing, it broke the barriers that divide those who left from those who are in the community. It gave anyone a space to be heretical and outrageous without the social repercussions that usually come with it: ostracization, having your children expelled from the Hasidic schools or even worse, your parents sitting shiva over you.

The social environment online was diverse and gritty, and I was there anonymously. I could finally say things, express my opinions and confusion and use my own voice, which had been trained to be silent. No one knew or would ever know that indeed I was so-and-so’s daughter, the pious-looking woman who swayed to and fro in prayer like everyone else in synagogue. Under the guise of an authorial pseudonym, I commented, posted, and debated. Not for many months after I began blogging did I realized that my little literary adventures on the Internet—on those dawns while the challah was rising and my Hasidic family was still fast asleep—were life-changing acts.

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