What Challah Taught Me About Life

“This is the 9th Shabbat that I am making Challah for Soldiers. I make it by hand, it’s a labor of love. It dictates my day…..So while they are fighting the physical war, we must nourish them and preserve the home as we battle the spiritual war.” Anat Ishai aka Challah Mom

Challah Mom, with 135K followers on Instagram, is a very inspiring Jewish woman. She uses her platform to amplify voices in Israel and Judaism.

Challah Mom along with her four children and husband made aliyah from Canada just 30 days before October 7th.

Living as a new immigrant in Israel, among the adventure, uncertainty and war, Challah Mom told her children:

“How did I merit to have children like you who came to Israel on the trust in the wings of their mother and father. To have you in Israel to be the future of this country. What did I do in my life to deserve children like you.”

Challah Mom spoke about “What Challah Taught Me About Life,” to mark International Women’s Day by supporting NA’AMAT scholarships for women in Israel. 

To hear Challah Mom speak about What Challah Taught Me About Life, please click on the audio link below.



A shidduch on an Egged Bus

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”

Lost and found 

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 “

 WHISPER FREEDOM: The Soviet Jewry Struggle premieres on Sunday, March 6 at the IASA Theater in Givat HaMassua.

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.”

Less Water, More Oreos

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”

Shpilkes

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”