Nobody knows if they will get to come home each night. None of us knows if our kids will come home tonight. Lately, it’s been on my mind even more. The rise in anti-Semitic attacks, in my neighborhood synagogues, eateries that my teenagers often go get lunch from, or just randomly on the streets of […]

My fourth child was born 6 weeks early, but otherwise healthy. Or so we thought. In the moments after delivery, the OBGYN and neonatologist exclaimed over the baby’s umbilical cord. Part of it was a normal tube, but part of it looked like a thick, flat pancake. “Is that a problem?” I asked. “Doesn’t seem […]

Growing up as a child, I had an idyllic life. The oldest of (then) three boys, we were a rambunctious bunch. My mother was nurturing, singing songs to us every night as we tried to fall asleep. My father was super smart. He was a fountain of knowledge on wide range of topics, including the […]

When I reached out to Makom several years ago, I was in a severe spiritual crisis. I grew up in a Hasidic household and also had my share of abuse which included emotional, sexual and religious abuse. I so badly felt a need to belong but never had that feeling. My father abandoned me and […]

While getting my degree in Education, I took a social studies course where we learned about the concept of historical perspective. We often bring a “presentist” approach to our understanding of the past, using our current values and beliefs to judge people. We forget that they lived in different eras, faced different dilemmas, and had […]

I grew up in an anti-zionist Hasidic community in NYC. I studied in an anti-Zionist cheder (boys school) and yeshiva until I got married at the age of 20. Fast forward to today, I still live and raise my family in a predominantly anti-Zionist Hasidic community. Like in all other Jewish communities, our community has many […]