Category: Israel Life

Photo by Zdeněk Macháček on Unsplash

Galya Kalfa was born and raised in Toronto and made Aliyah to Yerushalayim with her family. She is a Wingate Institute certified Health and Fitness Coach, as well as a Hydrotherapist. She studied in Shiras Sarah, a Teacher’s Training Fellowship, under the guidance of Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum.  Continue reading “The Baal Teshuva Parrot”

At the top of Har Tzion in Jerusalem you will discover a remarkable woman. Rebbetzin Shoshana Goldstein, who is the mother of 16 wonderful children, with another on the way, believes: “Raising a large family is a privilege.” She has successfully turned her beautiful family into a women’s choir. Her 12 precious daughters make up her choir.  Continue reading “The Goldstein Girls’ Choir”

Ms. Galya Kalfa was born and raised in Toronto and made Aliyah to Yerushalayim at the age of 12 with her family. She is a Wingate Institute certified Health and Fitness Coach, as well as a Hydrotherapist. She studied in Shiras Sarah, a Teacher’s Training Fellowship, under the guidance of Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum as well as Master Class, under the guidance of Melinda French Gates. Continue reading “A shidduch on an Egged Bus”

Author’s note: 22 years since Koby zt”l was murdered, and my heart still breaks for his mother Sherri Mandell and the extended family. This is a blog that I wrote years ago about what meeting Koby meant for me and the impact he had on my life. Please take a few minutes to remember him, and learn about the important work the Koby Mandell Foundation does for the surviving families. They are currently fundraising and I would be honored if you would join me in supporting their important work. Photo of Koby Mandell z”l with his parents at his bar mitzvah (M. Lottner) Continue reading “Lost and found “

Two years ago, our theater company, The Women’s Performance Community of Jerusalem had planned to hold auditions for a new musical, written by myself and the talented Avital Macales. This historical musical, “WHISPER FREEDOM: The Soviet Jewry Struggle”, transports us to 1970s Moscow. Displeased that Jews are rediscovering their connections to Israel and the Jewish people, the Soviet regime and the KGB are tightening their grip on the Jewish community – preventing them from living as Jews, or leaving as Jews. Continue reading ” WHISPER FREEDOM: The Soviet Jewry Struggle premieres on Sunday, March 6 at the IASA Theater in Givat HaMassua.”

I’ve taken to watering my plants when I am worried about my children. I listen carefully to the instructions when buying the plants. I nod with every intention of cooperating as the guy at the nursery says, “Not more than twice a week.” And then I go home, I see my kids sprawled out on the couch in front of their screens in the midst of an under-programmed summer, and I take the hose to the backyard to water my anxieties away.  Continue reading “Less Water, More Oreos”

We have worked hard to transcend the loss of a son murdered by terrorists, but the bull’s eye of grief and trauma at the center of everything never goes away. Continue reading “Twenty years on”

Shpilkes is one of those piquant and now quite translatable Yiddish words. Derived from the word siztn, which means to sit, its literal meaning is “I’m sitting on pins,” the cumbersome English phrase “sitting on pins and needles” contracted into one emphatic word. Continue reading “Shpilkes”

Many of us are missing our grandchildren, and sometimes those weekly conversations are just a little repetitive. Can we overcome the restrictions of shielding, and not being able to visit with the kids, by strengthening our relationships and finding more meaningful topics to talk about? Continue reading “Meaningful Conversations with Grandchildren”

Back in March, when the pandemic had not yet lost its terrifying novelty, a couple of aging boomers posted a YouTube parody of the old Simon and Garfunkel hit “Homeward Bound.” Continue reading “Thank G-d for the Vaccine”