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

Accountability is uncomfortable in a way that almost nothing else is. It asks you to stay in the room with truths you would rather not know. It asks you to let go of the story you’ve been holding — the one where the adults were in control, the systems were sound, the guardrails were real. It asks you to see what you didn’t want to see. And the body reacts first. Not the mind. A quiet instinct to look away, scroll, distract, explain, soften. Because accountability means: If th

The body of Omer Neutra has been returned to Israel. I want to pause there — before the metaphors, before the collective language we reach for automatically. His body was returned, his life and potential interrupted. Omer was twenty-two. He grew up in New York in a family that held Israel close. There are people for whom Israel is a concept, and there are people for whom Israel is a gravitational field. Omer felt the pull. He chose to enlist here. That kind of choice means so

I want to say something clearly: Zohran Mamdani is politically and ideologically aligned with Linda Sarsour. She endorsed his candidacy. She is someone who has built an entire public career on aggr*ssive, expl*cit, and unapologetic anti-Jewish rhetoric. She has d*monized Israel as a “settler colonial project,” defended openly v*olent anti-Israel organizations, and repeatedly dismissed Jewish identity and trauma as political inconvenience. This is a person who stood on stages

Every last hostage from Nir Oz, alive or de*d, has now come home. It is a sentence too heavy to hold, and yet it is also a promise kept. Nir Oz was shattered on October 7th. A community uprooted. Families torn open. Children, parents, grandparents, neighbors stolen from their doorsteps and from their lives. The silence that followed was unbearable. How well we know their names. Their faces. Their stories. And today, even in grief that has no bottom, something sacred has happe

I don't want to discuss the politics of the Charedi anti-draft protest. I want to talk about how it makes me feel. When we say that "Kol yisrael arevim zeh laze" - all the Jewish people are responsible for each other... "K'ish echad b'lev echad"- we are like one more with one heart... It's hard to process this reality that is contrasted so strongly in this picture. Jews are not meant to believe that one Jew is better than another. We believe there are 70 ways to the Torah- al

Here is a message to those who are considering aliyah to Israel: This week in the Israeli school system, we celebrate aliyah, and this weekend we read Parshat Lech Lecha. So here is what is on my mind. When I was younger, when people talked about aliyah, what came to mind were the flight videos where there was music and dancing and emotional speeches and friends clinging to each other as they said goodbye, and (if you were lucky) parents who gave you one last blessing, hands

Ham*s did not “return a body” last night. They staged a performance of cruelty. They dug a hole, placed part of Ofir Tzarfati’s remains inside, and filmed themselves “discovering” him - in front of the Red Cross -as if this were the first time he had been "found." As if this was an act of cooperation. As if this was humanity. But Ofir’s body had already been brought home earlier in the w*r. His family had already buried him. This is the third time. They had already begun the

It’s hard to describe how my heart is filling with both sadness and pride right now. Life in Israel is when your bar mitzvah teacher, a newly wed who grew up around the corner from your new home, is stationed far away for his miluim, and you still learn together. Your bar mitzvah is coming up and time goes on and even though there are those who say “the w*r is over” you learn to read your parsha on WhatsApp video with your teacher who is currently in Lebanon. He warns you abo

My incredible neighbor asked me to write a tefillah for her today, as she stands beneath the chuppah, watching her son and his bride begin their new life together. This is what I sent her: “We are living in a miraculous moment Where we have seen the final return of the last of our living hostages We have witnessed reunions of ecstasy and gratitude Welcoming home our brothers whom we were afraid we would never see again. Now we have the privilege to see the beginning of their

I know it looks bad. All the news coming out of London, NYC, and all the parts of the world where Jews aren't welcomed to be Jewish. Where we can’t look Jewish, act Jewish, or even carry an Israeli passport. Where we’re told to hide our stars, silence our songs, and stay small so we don’t “provoke.” Where our visible presence can cause a r*ot - and somehow we are the problem. I know it feels scary. I know it feels too familiar - like an echo our ancestors left in our bones. O