Storm of the century! This one will be worse than Hugo (chilling words for a South Carolinian)! The Carolinas have never seen one this bad! Anticipated to be the most expensive storm ever. Evacuate now before it’s too late! Hard to imagine you can joke about words like these but last night my friend said

The alarm goes off and the kids jump out of bed. They put on their uniforms, which are laid out carefully on their beds, eat breakfast while chatting with each other about what they are looking forward to that day and head out to the car excitedly, while holding onto their neatly packed backpacks. On

For many years, the gage of an Orthodox home was the observance of Shabbos, kashrus and Taharas HaMishpacha (Laws of Family Purity). Nowadays, with the growth of observance, there are often more telltale signs of an Orthodox home: modest clothes, sheitels, tzitzis, seforim (Jewish books) in the home, minyan and shiurim as part of the

I used to say that I lived on the Cross Bronx Expressway. For the first year and a half of my married life, I commuted from Washington Heights to the Five Towns and although without traffic the ride is an easy 45 minutes, most of the time, the trip home took closer to two hours.

Yom Kippur is my favorite day of the year (I know, I’m weird). The intensity, the single-minded focus that spending the day davening in shul allows, the steps of teshuva and self improvement which are spelled out already from Elul; all contribute to allowing me to leave the day feeling cleansed and spiritual. I literally

My friend’s father passed away recently. She is an incredibly outgoing and well-loved person who is approachable and easy to talk to and despite this, some expressed discomfort in reaching out. Both in my role as Rebbetzin and unfortunately in the cases of when my friends and husband lost a parent, I’ve seen many such

A friend told me this week that she plans to sever her relationship with her sister, a relationship which she feels has become toxic. While I understand why she is taking this course of action and don’t know that she’s wrong, the conversation left a pang. Maybe because I’ve seen, both in personal relationships and

Two weeks ago, the man who was reading the announcements at the shul we were visiting decided to have some fun: As he read through the various upcoming classes, he announced an upcoming women’s Seudah Shlishit with a well-known speaker who would speak about the following topic: “How to effect positive change in your slouch

  Accountability for our own actions is a concept not really discussed in today’s world. But it’s the key to stopping an endless downward spiral to disaster. Ariela Davis is the Director of Judaics at Addlestone Hebrew Academy and the Rebbetzin of Brith Sholom Beth Israel, the historic shul of downtown Charleston, South Carolina. She