My friends are all busy making plans for New Year’s Eve. But not me. I’m still savoring this year’s Jewish New Year, which was made especially sweet thanks to my non-Jewish husband. I had been feeling under the weather for a few days, and so was behind the curve in my holiday meal […]

I called my 30-year-old son the other day. His first words were, “What’s the matter? What’s wrong now?” Ouch! Does he perceive that I am always the bearer of bad news? Worse yet, am I always the bearer of bad news? Worst of all, is there only bad news to bear? Certainly, now that I’m

After 12 years of glittery Christmas trees, but no menorahs, no Shabbat candles and no Friday night services, I suddenly got religion. I wanted to become a bat mitzvah. And so, with no prior religious studies, but with all the zeal of a convert, I began my “speed” Torah and Hebrew studies for […]

The number 50 has symbolic and practical significance in Jewish thought. It spans the days between the Exodus from Egypt and Shavuot, when the Torah was revealed to us at Mount Sinai. The number, in the form of 50 shekels, even addresses the financial obligations of the ketubah, marriage contract. […]

A beloved neighborhood restaurant is closing. It happens all the time all across the country, but when it’s your neighborhood and your beloved restaurant, it makes you sad, doesn’t it? In this case, the one feeling sad and nostalgic is my husband — and apparently half of Reno, Nevada. The […]

I could kick myself. I pride myself as a writer with a knack for timing and clever ideas. Yet I’ve just missed out on a golden opportunity to pitch a winning TV show. It’s too late. The train has left the station. The boat has sailed. Pick your cliché. Whatever, I blew it. To think

Some children are precocious, spouting clever insights one after another. I wasn’t one of them. I had only one illuminating insight at the not-so-early age of 12. It came as I looked at my family sitting at the dinner table — all substantially older than me. My thought: I need to form a network […]

It’s that time of year. Not Thanksgiving. Not Hanukkah. Not even Christmas or New Year’s. Rather it’s that time of year when I’m asked about providing “perpetual” care for my grandparents’ cemetery plots. These annual cemetery solicitation letters cause profound rumination and […]

For many years now, people have questioned the meaning and legacy of the Columbus Day and Thanksgiving holidays. For me, the debate has been valid. The challenge, however, has been preserving the good part of my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving — the watching of the Macy’s parade, the gathering […]

Growing up, I chafed under three parental fashion edicts — no tattoos, no pierced ears and no jeans with frayed edges or holes. It wasn’t, I admit, as stringent as living under the Taliban, but as a teenager, it seemed harsh, unjust and unreasonable. Not quite grounds for running away from […]