Few personal letters still arrive by “snail-mail,” but the pile of catalogs, announcements and requests for donations seems to be growing. Who is sending those solicitation envelopes, and how should… Read more
Opinion
Torah “R” Us: Are Too Many Toys Bad for Our Children?
“Can we stop by the dollar store?” my nine-year-old pleads as we drive home from school. “I really need something for Ari’s party tomorrow, and I also need a police hat and a new gun for Purim.” When… Read more
The Making of a Mensch: Lessons from Tiger Mom
Psychologist Ivan Lerner argues that “Tiger Mom” may have a point after all As an educator and a clinical psychologist for the past thirty-five years, I found the debate generated by the publication… Read more
Of Cholent and Queens
OK, I’ll admit it: Royalty these days is nothing but a puff of smoke and mirrors. But there I was, in the holy city of Jerusalem, a grandmother and retired community rebbetzin, glued to a small,… Read more
Back to the Beit Midrash
On the far left side of the beit midrash, three rows from the back of the room, one seat in at a narrow wooden table, is my makom kavua, my accustomed place to sit. Once a year. With few exceptions,… Read more
Handle With Care
My mother used to admonish us with her favorite saying: “Not everything that one thinks should be spoken, and not everything one speaks should be written.” She tried, not always successfully, to teach… Read more
Is Orthodoxy Unhealthy?
About a decade ago, a short time after I arrived in Oak Park, Michigan, I visited a doctor for a checkup. I already knew the drill. He’d come in, examine me, draw blood and adjust my medications… Read more
Confessions of a BT Émigré
I was born in America, yet I consider myself a refugee. As a young adult, I fled the secular world for one truer to my soul. Although I am forever grateful for that decision, I sometimes feel like a… Read more
NCSY President Visits the White House
Miriam inside the gates of the White House. Courtesy of Miriam Shapiro The invitation finally came, but unfortunately it was on Shabbat. I’ve never had such anxiety about opening a… Read more
Rosh Hashanah Thoughts: Absent Neighborhoods, Absent Tears
In my childhood, a half-century ago in Buffalo’s North Park neighborhood that served as a passage point between the East Side of Eastern European immigrants (mostly Orthodox) and the Amherst-… Read more















