Julia Métraux, now 24, first started having severe fatigue and chronic pain about six years ago — symptoms that led to her eventual diagnosis with vasculitis, which involves inflammation of the blood vessels, in January 2018. She was hospitalized for a week and then bedridden for six months. Her medical needs made it necessary for…
When Rabbi Michael Goldman sat shiva for his mother last April, friends and relatives brought over noshes like chickpea kale stew and Israeli sweets. Goldman, who coordinates senior programs at Westchester Jewish Community Services, found himself crying and crying, he said, falling apart in front of guests — including some who he hadn’t known well…
Shiva, the traditional Jewish mourning period for close relatives, is normally seven days long. It makes sense that shiva should be seven days. Seven (shiva in Hebrew) is a number with special significance in Judaism. The seven-branched menorah, a symbol of Judaism since ancient times. The seven times a bride circles the groom at the…
Like many families, I go into the Jewish holiday season with some sense of sorrow and regret. There is nothing sad about these holidays themselves — even Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and forgiveness is pervaded with a sense of hopefulness and expectation that God will forgive us and inscribe us in the “book…
I am not a Jew who prays three times a day, in the morning, afternoon and evening as proscribed by Jewish law. Not like my wife’s four religious cousins who live with their large families in Israel. Not even like my Modern Orthodox brother in Jerusalem, who often dons a baseball cap and finds time…
Like so many people, I was born. My parents decided to have me, and take care of me, and buy me everything I wanted and needed. They changed my diapers, funded my education and invested in over a decade of orthodontia. They read all seven “Harry Potter” books out loud to me from start to…
Today is the first yartzeit (anniversary of the Hebrew date of one’s death) of a beloved teacher, mentor, writer, reluctant modern prophet and a unique voice for humanity that can’t be replaced. It’s the first yartzeit of Professor Elie Wiesel of blessed memory. Our hearts are aching today. Last night I was privileged to participate…
The headline on a recent Forward interview with Sheryl Sandberg asks if Sandberg can help Americans learn to grieve. Sandberg has certainly done all of us a great service by opening up a conversation about the way American do –- and don’t –- deal with death, dying and grief. In the essay that follows this…
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