Family

Content type
Collection
Valentina Vaysfeld at an October Revolution celebration, 1937
July 9, 2020

How a Trip to Ukraine Helped Me Decide to Have Children

Zhanna Slor

A trip to Ukraine helped this writer decide to have children.

Topics: Children, Soviet Jewry
Bride and groom lifted in chairs at their wedding
July 2, 2020

Getting Married during a Pandemic: Interview with 'A Practical Wedding' Founder, Meg Keene

Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler

We talk to Meg Keene, owner of 'A Practical Wedding,' about how the pandemic is changing the culture of getting married.

Topics: Marriage

Inés of Herrera

Inés of Herrera was a twelve-year-old prophetess whose message of salvation appealed to the conversos of Castile at the end of the fifteenth century. The Inquisition was anxious to quickly deal with this threat, trying many girls and women as heretics as of 1500; their confessions reveal details about this movement.

Person signing a document
May 12, 2020

I Can Be a Jewish Feminist and Change My Name

Rebecca Brenner Graham

Changing your name upon marriage, especially as a Jewish person and a woman, is a loaded decision.

Topics: Marriage
Are You There God? It's Me Margaret Covers

Episode 41: Coming of Age with Judy Blume

Listen Now

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Judy Blume's classic teen novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, a story that normalizes the experiences of teenage girls: what it’s like to have your first period, your first bra, your first kiss… what it’s like to feel uncomfortable in your own body and confused about who you are. Margaret, who comes from an interfaith home, with one Jewish parent, goes through these teen rites of passage and also grapples with her religious identity. Judith Rosenbaum and Nahanni Rous recently re-read the book with their own pre-teen daughters, Ma'ayan and Shalvah.

Stuffed Grape Leaves
April 30, 2020

On Rolling Grape Leaves

Maddie Solomon

Traditions live on in places and foods, which have the unique ability to root people in their heritage.

Topics: Family, Food
Oil painting depicting the Brooklyn Bridge
April 21, 2020

On Survival: My Grandma and I Are Both High-Risk

Julia Métraux

My grandma has thrived despite the odds. I’m afraid she won’t survive this.

Topics: Family, Writing
Detective stock photo
March 18, 2020

A JWA Scavenger Hunt

Dina Adelsky

Participate in JWA's virtual scavenger hunt, and explore the stories of Jewish women from history.

Topics: Education, Family
Rebecca Lubetkin Holding Grandchild Ilana Drake
March 6, 2020

My Grandma's Fight for Equitable Education

Ilana Drake

My grandmother, Rebecca Lubetkin, has genuinely transformed society, giving young people opportunities that have revolutionized education and, as a result, the workplace.

Topics: Women's Rights, Family
Photograph of Persian Jewish man, sepia tone.
December 9, 2019

Airport Insecurity

Sasha Azizi Rosenfeld

Everything about me screamed American Ashkenazi Jew except the middle name on my passport.

Topics: Family, Israel
Ilana Drake standing in a passageway on the Bell Tower of St. Paul's Church, Munich cityscape below.
November 15, 2019

Raising My Hand High

Ilana Drake

The teacher told us to raise our hands if we were Jewish. I didn’t know what to do.

Topics: Family, Antisemitism, Holocaust
Mezuzah mounted on wooden door frame. Scroll visible, in a test tube-like vial corked on light blue wood decorated with pomegranates and Star of Davids.
November 11, 2019

My Matriarchal Mezuzah

Eleanor Harris

Inhaling the sweet scents of Nachalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv, I searched for the perfect new mezuzah. 

Topics: Family, Israel, Ritual
Grandmother coloring on paper with her grandchildren. They sit on and around a red couch.
November 6, 2019

My Time on the Line

Neima Fax

ENFP. Extraversion, intuition, feeling, perception. Four words that, according to the Myers-Briggs personality test, define me as a person.

Topics: Summer Camps, Family, Philosophy
Rachel Schinderman and her mother
October 16, 2019

Feed Your Child

Rachel Zients Schinderman

Not having a bar mitzvah for my son felt like the kind thing to do. It felt Jewish.

Topics: Family, Jewish Law

Episode 14: Making a Family (Transcript)

Episode 14: Making a Family (Transcript)

Rising Voices Fellow Emma Cohn with father
June 19, 2019

How Jewish Are You?

Emma Cohn

I have spent the last year learning that we are all at different places in our Jewish education; we have all had different sets of experiences. And they are all valid.

Topics: Jewish Education, Family, Ritual, Spirituality and Religious Life
Irma Gershkowitz in a Pussy Hat CROP
May 9, 2019

A Century of Hats and Spirit

Leann Shamash

A new mother/daughter photo project encourages viewers to challenge ageism and value the experiences of the elderly.

Topics: Activism, Photography, Family
Sister Mary Siena Schmitt, O.P. CROP
May 7, 2019

The Women Who Organize

Jeannie Appleman

Jeannie Appleman, Senior Trainer and Organizer for JOIN for Justice, shares five tips for organizing and honors the women who inspired her. Fearless women, presente!

Topics: Activism, Family

Episode 31: Single Mothers By Choice (Transcript)

Episode 31: Single Mothers By Choice (Transcript)

Naomi and Dinknesh

Episode 31: Single Mothers By Choice

Listen Now
In this special Mother’s Day episode of Can We Talk?, host Nahanni Rous speaks with three single mothers by choice: Lizzie Skurnick, Naomi, and Wendy Shanker. These women felt motherhood should not be contingent on partnership and instead started families by themselves. More and more women are deciding not to wait for the perfect partner, and are happily having babies on their own via adoption, intrauterine insemination, and in vitro fertilization.
Sondra Helene and her sister Margie
April 30, 2019

Writing Through Grief

Sondra Helene

Author Sondra Helene describes how her sister’s death led her to write a memoir, Appearances.

Topics: Family, Memoirs
Rising Voices Fellow Lila Zinner in Fifth Grade
April 15, 2019

American Education: Classrooms, Competition, and Corruption

Lila Zinner

This education system, this one-sided method of teaching, this constant competition, is not working.

Topics: Schools, Children
Still Photo from "Working Woman" (2018)
March 27, 2019

Film Review: "Working Woman"

Karen Davis

Exclusively for JWA, film critic Karen Davis reviews Working Woman, a film about one woman’s #MeToo story in Israel.

Topics: Feminism, Women's Rights, Family, Film
Wherever we live is our homeland
March 13, 2019

Aunt Bev and Me: Jewish Women at a Women’s College

Sophie Hurwitz

This Friday, as I host a social justice-themed Shabbat dinner, I’ll be thinking of Aunt Bev.

Topics: Education, Family
Ruby Russell in First Grade
February 11, 2019

Who Gets To Choose

Ruby Russell

In 2007, with long chestnut pigtails sprouting from the sides of my head, I attended my first day of kindergarten at a public school just outside of Boston. I was enrolled in what was called the Choice Program, an institution that four years later would implode with scandal.

Topics: Schools, Children

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