Reprinted from Mishpacha Magazine After I got married, I didn’t fall in love with my mother-in-law — at least not at first. I was suspicious of her sweetness, of the presents she gave for every occasion, and … just because. When she came to visit — after calling days beforehand to make sure it was [… Read More »

This week marks the one year anniversary of the launching of the new JewishMOM.com. So, in honor of this auspicious occasion, I thought it would be fun to pull out the 10 most popular JewishMOM.com posts of all time! Here they are, JewishMOMs… 1. What Rabbi Lau Told Itamar Orphan Ro’ee Fogel 2. The Wedding [… Read More »

Instead of our regular Rav Arush reading for the week, I’ve chosen to feature this fantastic emuna-building video by Charlie Harrary of Aish.com. Enjoy! Image courtesy of Flickr. Read More »

GIGGLE GIGGLE GIGGLE My 14 and 11-year-old daughters, Hadas and Hallel, were discussing the hot topic of the year: high school acceptances for Hadas. And they were putting themselves into hysterics envisioning the worst possible thing that Hadas could possibly say while being interviewed by the principal of her dream high school. Read More »

“But the Weisberg’s house is SO messy, Eema, we’ll never find it!” This was the despairing plea of our 6-year-old guest who lost a bracelet while playing at our house one afternoon about 5 years ago. And our young guest was right. 5 Pesachs have come and gone, but we Weisbergs have still never managed [… Read More »

This is a brief introduction about how homeopathy can help your family break out of the cycle of sickness written by my homeopath, Vera Resnick. Enjoy! We’ve all been there – one child gets sick and we know they are all going to catch it. And probably we’re going to catch it as well. We [… Read More »

Last week singer Matisyahu performed a duet with a very special onstage guest– young Camp Simcha cancer patient Luke Weber. It appears that Chai Lifeline organized this dream-come-true for young Luke. Read More »

I’ve noticed time and time again that survivors and their children CARE more about other Jews. They are the most dedicated teachers, the most determined tikkun olam-niks. While another person might tend to think, “Everyone else is doing fine, what does it really matter if one person falls between the cracks?” the survivors and their [… Read More »

Despite the title, boy did this make me cry. Just what I needed to watch today with my heart so full of pain on account of all the pain-filled hearts surrounding me here in Yerushalayim…At the end of the video, I imagined the young Nachlaot victims and Hagit bat Leah’s 5 orphans walking behind Yaakov [… Read More »

The pedophile crisis in my neighborhood has torn off my blinders, flesh and all. And it hurts. It hurts terribly to realize how evil people can be. How people can purposefully hurt children so horrifically and feel zero regret for what they did. But, at the same time, realizing how evil people can be has [… Read More »

This week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated an entire episode of her new show to America’s “Hidden Culture,” in other words, the culture of American Chassidim. In these short clips below, Oprah meets with 4 Chassidic women in order to discuss holes in sheets and the role of the Orthodox women and separation between the sexes. She [… Read More »

The average American child spends 40% of his/her waking hours in front of a TV! This important TED talk by a leading pediatrician and medical researcher describes the dangers of exposure to television for children. Here’s some of his scary findings: -Each hour spent daily by a child in front of TV raises his/her chance [… Read More »

A yellow school bus pulling up to the street corner while still-drowsy, backpack-bearing children climb aboard. In my mind, there are few images that feel safer than that one. So I guess that is why news of an attack on parents or children while travelling to or home from school shocks me and feels somehow [… Read More »

Why my mom was the true star of her 50th high school reunion–because she doesn’t only care about being an American, she cares about being a good Jew. Read More »

Yep, things are continuing to be quite crazy here in Nachlaot. This quotation from Rav Arush about Divine punishment of evil people really hit the spot this week: Maybe you’re wondering how there are dishonest, cruel, and tyrannical people who are also fabulously wealthy. Don’t be impressed: An old Hebrew expression says “sof ganav letliya,” [… Read More »

I love Oprah! So it really touched my heart and got me all teary-eyed to hear how much Oprah loves me and all of us JewishMOMs back… Here’s an 11-minute interview Chabad.org conducted with Oprah following her day-long visit to Chassidic Brooklyn. How moving to see the beauty of the frum world through an admiring [… Read More »

4 months ago, 27-year old JewishMOM Puah Palmer endured every mother’s worst nightmare. In a single day, this young wife lost her husband, Yehonatan, and her year-old son Asher in a terror attack when they were driving towards their home in Kiryat Arba. B”H, last week Puah gave birth to a baby girl whom she [… Read More »

I was trying to put my 4-year-old son Avi to sleep. And he was trying to jump around and do anything but sit with me on his bed. “Avi”, I ventured, “Come here so that I can give you a kiss. When I kiss you, can you tell that I love you?” “No!” He wasn’t [… Read More »

A beautiful song just in time for Tu B’Shvat from my neighbor Anaelia ben David. Anaelia writes, composes, arranges and performs original texts and melodies, along with traditional songs in Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino. Click here to hear more songs by Anaelia Or visit her on facebook. Read More »

Until Purim, every week I will be featuring a new quotation from Rabbi Shalom Arush about overcoming despair and emotional distress through emuna. Enjoy! Things are crazy here in Nachlaot this week. Far too intense for me to write an update about what’s going on (and far more intense, even, than when I wrote the [… Read More »