The quick answer is that Independence Day may be the most Jewish US Civic Holiday we celebrate. For a longer answer, check out the four principles below. Principle 1: How Jews and Americans Live with Canon We basically do it the same way. We debate and interpret the meaning...
Shavuot, which begins at sundown on May 16, 2021 and ends at sunset on May 18, is a major Jewish holiday celebrated forty-nine days after the second day of Passover. It was originally a harvest festival, but now also commemorates the giving of the Torah....
[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...
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...
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...
When I was age eight my maternal grandfather Max, passed away. My grandmother Bessie, known as "Gram", moved into our two-bedroom apartment in a Bronx city housing authority building. She and my grandfather, immigrants from Romania and Russia, came to America in the early 1900's seeking...
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,...
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...
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...
How to have a meaningful and fun COVID-19 Thanksgiving celebration! 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...
