Related Blog Posts on COVID-19, Early Childhood Education, Engaging Families with Young Children, Parenting, and Summer Youth Experiences

Shabbat as Alternate Time, Especially During the Pandemic

Michele Braun

Friday’s sunset could be no different than Thursday’s, a time marker notching off another day or another week, but Shabbat requires us to mark a more substantial difference,  Regularity is key to keep track of our lives between other Jewish times and when days blur into each other.

Here's What It Was Like to Grow Up on a Kibbutz

Aron Hirt-Manheimer

What was it like to grow up in a communal children’s house on an Israeli kibbutz? Rachel Biale was born in 1952 and raised on Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin, overlooking the Jordan River. She is the author of the new memoir Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood.

The Power of Shabbat, Even Over the Loudspeaker

Cantor Laura Stein, LMSW

Even as structure and routine begin to crumble, ritual observances don’t stop for the virus. As did many generations of Jews before us, we must adapt ritual to this unprecedented way of life, and Shabbat services, a mainstay for nursing home residents, necessitated creative adaptation.

At a Good Hour: Awaiting a Grandchild in 2020

Margie Bogdanow

And at this moment, in the midst of the pandemic, we are witnessing a time of reckoning for the racial divide that has torn our society apart for so long. What does it mean to bring a baby into a world in desperate need of r’fuah sh’leimah, the full healing of body, heart, and soul?