25 Jul These Are Not the Families We Imagined, But…
When I married in 1974 and started to have our children (1,2,3,4) we went down a pretty conventional and predictable Jewish path ...
03 May Recipes for Memories
[caption id="attachment_1990" align="alignright" width="190"] Bubbie Ida[/caption]Our Bubbie Ida Paperny, lived in the kitchen. Seriously. She also “loved” in the kitchen. She loved when her four daughters helped her cook up a huge family Shabbat or holiday meal. Our mothers too, excellent cooks both, worked for...
02 Mar Learning From Challenges, Past and Present
The eminent psychologist Marshall Duke speaks of our “intergenerational sense of self,” in which the family narratives of our past gird our psyche with the emotional resilience to face challenges and difficulties. By sharing with our children and grandchildren our families’ and our own stories—of...
02 Mar The COVID-19 Crisis: A Catalyst for Change
As vaccinations advance and new COVID-19 cases diminish, we can begin to look beyond the difficulties and heartbreaks of these past months to imagine brighter times ahead. Through our research and conversations with grandparenting experts, and grandparents and their family members across the country, we...
01 Feb Thoughts on Grandparenting During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Interview with Dr. Renee Cherow-O’Leary
Can you share a bit about your experience during the COVID-19 pandemic?As grandparents, my husband and I have tried to keep enthusiasm high, find new books and activities to share on Face Time, talk and listen, laugh at silly things, celebrate birthdays and Seders,...
24 Dec New Jewish Grandparents Network Findings: Grandparenting during COVID
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the crucial role grandparents play. In many families, grandparents have stepped up and stepped in to help exhausted parents with remote learning, everyday chores, and basic childcare.There is, of course, another difficult side of the Covid experience for grandparents. We...
09 Dec Counting Latkes
There are fifty latkes on this tray,” my 95-year-old mother says.I nod and continue peeling potatoes. My sister is frying. My niece is chopping onions. My mother spreads another paper towel on a cookie sheet, and continues counting.It’s that time of year. Where the women...
04 Nov Connecting with Your Grandchildren in Pandemic Times and Beyond
If the Corona Virus teaches us anything, it is that our relationships matter and that our relationships won’t last forever. We know this. Yet, the current pandemic has heightened our awareness of life’s preciousness in a far greater scope than most of us have ever...
04 Nov Freedom’s Feast
Thanksgiving will be here in a few weeks. For many of us it will not be the Thanksgiving of years past. Even as that saddens us, we yearn for greater connection with those we love and a more meaningful celebration of the holiday’s purpose. We invite...
03 Nov Multi-Generational Families and the Covid-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted every family, and every family differently. So too has it affected grandparents. Since the onset of the pandemic, the Jewish Grandparents Network has gathered significant anecdotal information about how the crisis has impacted intergenerational relationships and the roles that grandparents...