Bronya Shaffer

"I had a bad feeling," he tells me, "I saw in their eyes the sudden realization: this is real. This is thighs shattered, limbs detached...this is war."

Precious as Jewish education is, they'd just enrolled their children in the local public school. The cost was just too great, and in the economic crunch, sacrifices had to be made.

Here I was, rows and rows of soldiers before me, and I found myself in front of one, looking into his eyes, the words from my heart. "Thank you." "For what?" he asks. I hesitate for a moment... "For the uniform you wear, thank you."

I know I have to be happy with my husband as he is, but I always feel that I want him to learn more, be more religious, grow in his spirituality, etc. How can I change my attitude?

Shaya and I feel we're really suited for each other, but his children are very unhappy about his getting married. His teenage daughter is especially angry. She won't even talk to me, and told her father that if I move into the house, she's moving out.

Question: My husband is very hard to deal with. We have a kosher home, and he learned to keep the kitchen kosher, and we have Friday-night dinner and Shabbat lunch together. He does the kiddush, and the children overall enjoy the atmosphere. But after the...

I see her beautiful and content... but she says it's no more than her facade. There on that ground, soaked through with tears of joy and despair, she adds her own

Having discovered, finally, her Jewish identity, she could not abandon it. Yet, he never had thought to, nor was he now willing to, commit himself to the laws and practices governing Jewish life. How could she choose between the love of her life and the l...

She grew up to the sights of women studying, teaching, arguing law and pedagogy; the women in his family awoke to prepare the lavish breakfast for their men. She was appalled at their apparent submissiveness to their men folk...

Question: I have been studying Judaism for a number of years and have spoken to my rabbi about my choice to convert. Everything was going well until my rabbi found out I was dating a non-Jew. My rabbi was quite concerned and pretty much halted any encoura...