Dr. Nechumi Yaffe grew up in a “rebbish” Hasidic family. She is the first woman raised Hasidic in Israel to receive a PhD, and the first woman from Israel’s Hasidic community to achieve a post-doctoral position. After earning a PhD in political science from Hebrew University, she is now a research fellow with the Princeton […]

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 […]

In an unexpected turn of events, my life has become consumed with helping broken people heal, since the launching of Makom a few years ago. My original passion of making Jewish observance accessible and meaningful to non-Orthodox Jews expanded to a new area when I discovered a population that had been hurt by a skewed version of […]

The sun beats down on my head, warming my scalp. My hair feels hot to the touch. I sit in between traffic, the perfect vantage point to see cars, trucks, buses, taxis roaring by in both directions. The subway rumbles beneath my feet and the exhaust and heat rise to my nostrils. A warm breeze comes my way. […]