Jewish Mothers

One recent summer weekend, my life—or my awareness of its imperatives—underwent a radical shift. My 28-year-old son was away at the beach with friends.

Thank goodness, it’s almost Father’s Day! Which means the pressure is off, at least for a day, to please mom. Whew!

In a video clip posted on the new website for MAKERS: Women Who Make America, writer Judy Blume remembers embarrassing her mother when she discussed female masturbation on Dr. Ruth’s talk show. “My mother was horrified,” Blume recalls many years later.

Judaism is rooted in our people’s ability to tell a good story.

I am a lucky girl. I have two women who I call mom. Well, one I call mommie and the other emma (Hebrew for mother), but that’s just semantics.

What does it mean to be a Jewish mother?

My mom is not famous, like her sister, Lea Nikel, who is included in JWA's online encyclopedia of Jewish women.

I sometimes direct tourists toward 'the HP garage,' which is marked with a plaque and gets photographed a lot. It is three blocks down the street from my house.

Ever dream of making a film about someone you wanted the world to know more about?

It's a tradition for players in the Super Bowl to wear a patch with the Roman numerals of the game's year on the left side of their chests (46, or XLVI, this year). On Sunday in I