Related Blog Posts on Engaging Families with Young Children, Family Activities, Father's Day, Interfaith Family, Mother's Day, Parenting, and Youth Engagement

How NASA Engineers Helped Me Become a Better Jewish Parent

Rabbi Sharon G. Forman
"Good Night Oppy," a documentary streaming on Amazon Prime about the two robotic rovers that NASA sent to Mars in 2003, grabbed me by the heart. What I did not expect to experience from this movie was a potent lesson in parenting from NASA engineers.

Antisemitism Finally Hits Home for Me

Melanie Grossman
In the many years (57 to be exact) that I have been in an interfaith marriage, I felt somehow removed from antisemitism. I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and, while there were a few comments from aunts and uncles when I got engaged, it was the 1960s, and I was in love. I believed we would figure it out as we went along.

Creation, Chaos, and Children

Dasee Berkowitz
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. God said: “Let there be light.” And there was light.

This Mother’s Day, Let’s Fight for Black Moms

Jena Prystowsky
When my husband and I learned that we were going to be parents, we wondered how the actual birth would go. We had heard some devastating statistics about the maternal mortality rate in the United States. Black women in the United States die from pregnancy-related causes at three to four times the rate of white women, regardless of education, income, or other socioeconomic factors.

My Black Son is a Baby, But He Won’t Always Be

AK Neer
Being Black in America is its own journey within the journey of just being human, living and discovering who you really are on a soul level. Then there’s being Black and Jewish. And then there’s being Black, Jewish, married to a white Jew, and having bi-ethnic Jewish kids. It’s another journey, not an easy one at times, and instead of getting easier as I get older, we seem to be facing more challenges.

Being a Mom in an All-Woman Family

Aron Hirt-Manheimer
June and her partner, Betsy, adopted two girls from Guatemala and raised them together until Betsy died of cancer four years ago. June talked with me about the great joy she felt in fulfilling her dream of becoming a mom and the challenges she and her teenage daughters faced after suffering such a tremendous loss.