JEWISH WOMEN'S STORIES, SPIRITUALITY, & WELL-BEING

I’m not going to show you that video. I’m not going to tell you the details of the news. The situation in Sydney at Bondi Beach is evolving; the injured, the de*d. A mass casualty event at a Chanukah event - Jews running for their lives, bodies and bl**d everywhere… It’s too familiar. Too sickening. Too outrageous. Too expected. I wish that people believed those who say they are going to k*ll us. But I don’t want to talk about the failings of governments and politicians and t

Whoever saves one life is considered as if they saved an entire world.” - Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5 This verse is often used when we stand in awe of lifesaving events. When even just one person saved we consider it to be miraculous. Thus is the Jewish sancitity of each of us, we choose life, always. Only now, after seeing the live h*stages return home, am I learning what this phrase truly means. Here is Alon Ohel. He is a classical-jazz pianist with bright dreams and music that m

We're watching these two come back to life. In February of last year, we saw these two, emaciated and imprisoned. Pale and so far gone. In our hearts we knew there was a chance that we would never get them out alive. They were forced to watch other h*stages be released while they we kept behind. We prayed and wept and screamed and the months kept passing. By Tisha Ba'av we saw Evyatar David, barely able to stand, being forced to "dig his own grave" by H*mas. It didn't look li

Sasha and I spent the morning together on the day I interviewed him. We gathered food for breakfast and sat outside overlooking the sea. Every few moments, another therapist approached him; telling him how often they thought of him when he was in captivity in G*za, how they prayed for him. One woman told him how surreal it was to see him in real life, after a poster of him sat on her couch for a year and half. Most people said, "I'm sure you get sick of hearing this, but..."

There is one last h*stage in G*za. He is not a symbol. Leverage. Or forgotten. He is a man by the name of Ran Gvili z”l. A man who is beloved by his family and his people. On Oct 7th he was 24 years old, and his shoulder had been broken for ten days and he was awaiting surgery. When he heard what was happening in the south, he donned his special police uniform and saved 100 people that day before he was captured. His actions mirror the man his mother Talik describes when she

I want to talk about working with your friends. I think most people are afraid to take their friendships to the next level. In many ways, true work collaboration is more intimate and vulnerable than friendship. We are afraid to mix "business and pleasure"- worry that things will get messy. And it totally can. But I want to make a plug for finding your people. Those whom you trust implicitly, who you have lived life with. I think that your closest friends can make the best wor

Yesterday, I sat with former h*stage Sasha Trufanov on Zoom. We connected because I will be interviewing him at the Get Help Israel   conference on Monday, and we wanted to talk about what he wanted to share, what he believes clinicians treating trauma in Israel need to know, and about his experiences with healing. He's a brilliant and sweet guy who has a tremendous amount to offer. I was left with a lot of strong feelings and an eagerness to have our conversation on stage, b

I remember seeing Dror's children being released back into Israel after being taken h*stage in G*za. I recognize their faces from the clips that I saw, way back on November 25, 2023. That means that they waited for two years to the day for their father's body to be returned home. Noam and Alma's parents sent them through the window, and then they followed. They all split up. Their mother, Yonat, was m*rdered on that fateful first day in Be'eri. Dror too was k*lled, but his bo

The world is living within the realms of its own lies. Telling stories that it thinks are so convincing that the truth doesn't even have a chance. Who is the oppressor and who is the victim? Who is good and who is evil? Who is the winner and who is the loser? I think it's about the speaker's volume. Whoever speaks loudest gets heard. It's about how it looks. What are the optics? Who is aligned with whom? What movements or ideas can you leech onto even if you bleed it dry and

Mamdani doesn't get to disavow h*teful chants when the same messages have come out of his mouth. And though he protests mildly, he also stated that the Nefesh B' Nefesh event at the Park East Synagogue on the Upper East Side was "an inappropriate use of a sacred space.” I have so much to say, but for now I'll just say this. I'm enraged, and I can't imagine anything more sacred than a discussion about aliyah and living in Israel. Our ancient land, which is the cornerstone of o