Editorial & Commentary

If, when we awaken, we marvel at the fact that we are alive, then we know that while we slept, it was G‑d who gave rest to our soul, who renewed that spark within it. And since our soul has been returned, we are beginning the day with a soul that has not only seen, but has spent quality time with Him...

Despite the distance of a few feet between us, we are worlds apart. A few meters away, ominous even at rest, sits a parked bulldozer. It casts an enormous shadow over the playground. I look at the mother, the bulldozer. The mother. The bulldozer...

I took families out of their homes forever, I put them on buses that took them to nowhere. I remember every picture that I took down from the walls of their homes in Gush Katif. I remember every girl, every young woman and mother who I instructed to leave her home forever. On the third anniversary of the evacuation of Gush Katif, I want to ask forgiveness...

Watching him navigate the course of his life made me realize that I, too, am deaf, a different kind of deaf. Actually, we all are, to a certain degree. I am deaf to G-d's "strange movements." His actions puzzle me...

We are each alone as we prepare our thoughts. Soon we will disembark from the bus to spend a precious half-hour in prayer at this sacred holy site...

I was frustrated that there was little, if anything, specifically geared for the Jewish woman. There was plenty for women, and plenty about Judaism, but somehow the two had yet to find themselves working together...

To be united with other Jewish female souls in this virtual world makes me feel more Jewish, more confident and more spiritual...

I feel I am part of a community of healing and hope. Because those of us reading and writing for The Jewish Woman can be honest with one another, we truly understand, and learn from each other...

My journey has often been marked by sharp, uneven pebbles, other times lined with blooming flowers; the wisdom I have acquired along the way may be useful to some of you...

It was back to basics. Actually, it was back to much less than basics. It was back to virtually nothing...

I often find myself at odds with a culture that holds us to a standard of slickness, of airbrushed images and perfect lives. As an artist, I'm on the lookout for the shadows between the light...

The women grabbed my hands and joyously led me into the circle. It was one of my final Shabbat's in Israel after spending my Junior year abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. I had decided prior to that year to become a rabbi...

We all know the dangers that alcohol can bring about. But nonetheless, a non violent person doesn’t suddenly hit, and a gentle and loving person doesn’t suddenly spew hateful remarks. For only what is in the mind and heart can come out through the mouth...

Israeli consular officials in New York have hired one of the most popular Men's magazines for the tricky task of revamping Israel's image...

I'm not going to make a Pollyannaish claim that taking four kids to the Middle East was a smooth, simple, and stress-free undertaking. But it was also indescribably beautiful and perfectly life-changing...

I see little children dressed up like adults, and made to sit quiet for way too long. I watch people risk their lives by walking against a red light to save a whole minute. And I ask myself, "Where are we rushing to?"

Like the multiplication tables we memorized, just like the laundry we never seem to stop doing, just like the seemingly unimportant passages in our daily prayers from the siddur, they are our reminders that nothing, zero, nada, gornisht, is for nothing...

During those many years, when asked who I was, or when being introduced to others, there was that long list of roles from which to select and identify the woman I had become. As a widow now, the list of the roles I play has become shorter and shorter...

Four years ago, the school decided to organize a girls' basketball team, and name it after their unorthodox uniforms...They call themselves the BCA Skirts. BCA – for Beth Chana Academy, a private Orthodox Jewish school in Orange, Connecticut. And Skirts for the traditional long dress the girls wear off the court...and on

The following words, as painful as they might be for you to hear, are coming from a place of love. I wish that I did not have to say anything, but I feel that I have no choice...