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

I've noticed a trend over the last few weeks since our last live h*stages came home. It's been like this for a while, since they started coming home in the beginning, but it's much more pronounced now. As our former h*stages are coming back into their personal lives and adjusting to the new level of notoriety and exposure from their ordeal, there has been a lot of criticism and conversation. Whether it's strong statements about controversial topics made from emotional places,

You know what I think is so fascinating about the Abraham Accords? I don't want to talk about the politics of this agreement. What I want to talk about is the spiritual process of it. Time is moving so aggressively. Systems are breaking down in various degrees across the world. In the last ten years, so much of politics, technology, business, communication, has bucked the status quo. As we, the Jews, are fulfilling the ingathering of the exiles, we are also bringing other for

Let's talk about the small acts of resistance that can sustain a life in the harshest of circumstances. This week Avitanan Or, a former hostage and partner of Noa Argamani, spoke in Washington at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly about his experience in G*za. He described digging for weeks through sandbags and a collapsed tunnel, saying, "I made myself work to change my own destiny." He continued and said, “One day, as I was digging, I hit the root of a

Last week I wrote about how stress from the w*r has affected me, somatically and mentally, and hundreds of you agreed with me and shared your stories about how you were coping in this strange lull of c*asefire that we are in. Here's a snapshot of a corner of my Israel today: Scott and I went to a spa together to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary. What I really needed was quiet. Internally and externally. To shut off my brain and just recalibrate. It was very freeing to b

Across Israel, we're catching our breath and realizing how much we've been holding. These last few weeks have been a whirlwind of closing chapters. H*stages we were worried we would never see again like Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Alon Ohel, Rom Braslavski, Matan Angrest, the Cunio brothers, the Berman brothers, and more- they were returned home, were brought back to their families, their communities, and began the healing process. H*stages that had been k*lled were a

Kristallnacht is a date that has been burned into my memory. Seared into my DNA; a building block of my sense of where I come from and what my people have been through. When I was small, my Oma used to tell my sister and me stories about that horrible day and night- the 9th and 10th of November. Even into my adulthood, I've had nightmares about broken glass and the smell of smoke, br*tal men, the barking of dogs, and the h*rror of it all. Her stories laced our childhood with

UPDATE: it’s official. Hadar Goldin is home!!!! ********* Hadar, are you really coming home? We’ve seen your beautiful smile plastered on bumper stickers and banners, signs and signposts for almost ten years. You have been this light- a life full of potential; your sweet fiance, your family, your community- you were stolen so long ago during that horrible summer of Tzuk Eitan. G*za back then was like a black hole. From the Jewish imagination, whatever was sucked into its dark

Rom showed us something holy yesterday. He came to hostage square for the first time- saying that he had dreamed of this moment in G*za. When he spontaneously got up to speak, he asked us if we had watched his interview- if we knew the things we all now know about what he went through — things that wound the soul just to hear them. The kind of harm meant to shatter a person from the inside out. No one should ever bear what he bore. No one. But in Hostage Square, what we saw w

Yesterday I was called a list of names so vile I can’t even repeat them. The comments on my post were so gross it’s hard to believe these are real people. Sometimes it’s bots, sure. But there are actually real people who kiss their moms with those mouths. I need to say this plainly: The antisemitism online right now is not accidental and it is not only organic. It is being cultivated. Amplified. Incentivized. Platforms thrive on outrage, and the Jewish story is being used as

I’m not surprised, but I am heartbroken. I love New York City. Where my grandparents settled after they escaped the Shoah and started a new chapter for our family. Where I went every weekend growing up, the bastion of culture, of opportunity. The site of 9/11, which shaped my adolescence. Where I went to college, fell in love, and pursued graduate school. Where we lived as newlyweds and where my daughter was born. I can still feel the rattle of the subway lines and the woosh