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Motherhood

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Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder's Family

Let’s Get Real About Marriage and Parenting

Rabbi Ruth Abusch-Magder PhD

“Being a diplomat is no career for a woman who wants to have a family,” said the consul.

“By the time you’re ready to get married he’ll be married,” said my mother.

“Don’t put off having children,” said the prominent professor.

"The Guilt Trip"

A Brighter Side to “Jewish Mothering”: A Review of “The Guilt Trip”

Evelyn Becker

The Guilt Trip begins by introducing Andy Brewster (Seth Rogen), a thirty— something inventor about to embark on a road trip to sell his innovative organic cleaning product. Andy makes a quick stop at his mom’s (Barbara Streisand) house, and spontaneously invites her to come along for the ride. Their journey cross-country turns into an exploration of the ties that bind (Jewish) mother and son.

Topics: Motherhood, Film
Princess Merida from Disney/Pixar's "Brave"

Braving a Botoxed World: A Mother's Tale

Evelyn Becker

In the recent Disney/Pixar film, Brave, a young princess defies an age-old custom and fights to make her mother understand that she is not ready for marriage. I know you’d rather not think of the Disney princesses at all, but we live and breathe, and shop at Target, so I contend---if forced to choose among that whole pastel-clad, sugary lot, you’d want your daughter to be more independent, courageous Merida, less Cinderella waiting for her prince to come, right?

Topics: Children, Motherhood
Lit Candles

May Their Memory Be for a Blessing

Evelyn Becker

On the front page of this morning’s Denver Post a picture of Veronique Pozner, mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School victim Noah Pozner, at Noah’s gravesite at B’nai Israel Cemetery in Monroe, Connecticut, assaults me as I sit down to drink my morning coffee. Veronique stands next to her rabbi, and my eyes are drawn to his kippah. And I’d thought, that perhaps, I was going to be able to start this day without crying.

Topics: Children, Motherhood, Law
Image of Exit by G. Orcha

Leaving In Order To Return

Gabrielle Orcha

Though still in the month of Elul, we are approaching Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. We are leaving 5772 behind and will soon enter 5773.

Salomé by Gustave Moreau, 1874-1876

Sarah's Choice

Susan Reimer-Torn

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.

Leah Wolff-Pellingra's Daughters, 2012

Sustenance

Leah Wolff-Pellingra

So, it’s an educators’ conference. You can imagine, we are caught in our business casual pastel prints and scarves, pencil skirts and ballet flats.

Kasten Family

Be Fruitful and Recognize

Rachel Kasten

Despite being a Jewish educator, I have never felt a strong, personal connection to our sacred texts.

Topics: Motherhood, Bible
Mollie Weinstein in France, July 1945

War, Motherhood, & A Little Cheesecake

Cyndee Schaffer

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to work with your mother and learn about her life and in doing so discover a completely different person?

Father and Daughter in Prayer

Where have all the Jewish fathers gone?

Gabrielle Orcha

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

Embarrassed and Embarrassing Mothers

Ellen K. Rothman

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.

Topics: Motherhood
Emily Kadar with her mother, Miriam Kadar, and sister Dorothy

My mother, the storyteller

Emily Kadar

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

Topics: Motherhood
Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez Hugs her Mother

My two moms: Jewesses with a different kind of attitude

Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez

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.

Batsheva (Shevi) Salberg with Sara Bock

Sara Bock: A Jewish mother with attitude

Batsheva (Shevi) Salberg

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

Topics: Motherhood, Israel
"More Precious Than Pearls: A Prayer for the Women of Valor in Our Lives"

Rereading Eishet Chayil for Mother's Day with Sinai Live's "More Precious Than Pearls"

Leah Berkenwald

Mother's Day always makes me wonder: How do we convey the love, respect and gratitude we feel for the women in our lives – and for the fortitude and accomplishments of women everywhere?

Esther Wojcicki: A Jewish mother of the tech revolution

Preeva Tramiel

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.

Lucy Kramer Cohen, around Age 17

Lucy Kramer Cohen: A public-spirited woman/a private inner life

Nancy Kramer Bickel

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

Topics: Family, Motherhood, Film
United States Postal Service

Passover Postage: Sending matzah to China

Linda Frank

Two things I don’t understand about the US Postal Service: Why it’s the workers, not customers, who go “postal.” Secondly, how it could be in trouble when it has me.

Susan B. Anthony circa 1855

Occupy (Working) Motherhood

Deborah Siegel

Susan B. Anthony was born 192 years ago today; we share a birthday. I am 43. The late great suffragist once said: “Our job is not to make young women grateful.

Topics: Children, Motherhood
Roslyn Bernstein's Daughter Julia at the Educational Alliance Coop Nursery School

The Hanukkah bush: Raising Jewish kids in downtown NYC

Roslyn Bernstein

For those of you not around New York City in the 1970s, raising children was a challenge. City parks were infested with drug dealers and street crime was high.

Isabella Karp in a Tallit by Miriam Karp

The story of creation: Artist Miriam Karp on making her daughter's bat mitzvah tallit

Leah Berkenwald

Miriam Karp is an artist who has been creating hundreds of one-of-a-kind ketubot since 1976.

One Jewish mother's approach to vaccinating her sons for HPV

Preeva Tramiel

Two people I know have had run-ins with HPV, the Human Papilloma Virus. One was a man my age that got a mouth cancer which was viral in origin.

Etta King and Her Mom, Yael

Righteously bouncing back: What baking challah means to me

Etta King Heisler

The first thing you should know about making challah is this: DO NOT BE AFRAID! I find that many people are intimidated by the thought of making their own challah.

"The Debt," 2010

"The Debt": Mothers and daughters, secrets and truths

Susan Reimer-Torn

When is the last time you saw an action-packed film with a mature woman who must reckon with her own history as the main protagonist? This sort of screenwriting doesn’t come around too often.

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