My stepdaughter Megan often chronicles her thoughts, ideas, art projects, fashion statements, dating conundrums and other intricacies of her 34-year-old life on Instagram to entertain family and friends. A month or so ago (who can keep track of time anymore?),...

The dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic has entered a new and, for many, an even more frustrating phase. While an uncertain future unfolds, some parts of our nation, state and local community are beginning to allow certain businesses to reopen while others...

To help people cope during this time of social distancing, Jan Nykin, a licensed clinical social worker, suggests that people could “say a morning prayer such as Modeh Ani or the Shema or words of prayer from your heart.”Nykin and Sylvia Nissenboim,...

These days, Rabbi James Stone Goodman spends a whole lot of time checking in with folks. “I make myself carry my 50-pound phone around and I call more people every day to see how they are doing,” said Goodman, who is affiliated with Central Reform...

In our strange new reality, working at home has become not just an option but a mandate for many. That is particularly challenging in some professions. Consider the plight of professional musicians. Their bread and butter is performing before a live...

At our slab ranch in Olivette, it’s just my husband and me right now. We’re empty nesters and have gotten used to the perks it affords, namely a relatively clean house and the knowledge that all lids to plastic containers in our refrigerator are screwed...

Mommy shaming, as it’s currently called, is nothing new. During this period of self-quarantine, a term that is sort of up for individual interpretation, mommy shaming has become a sport of Olympic proportions. And you don’t have to be a mommy to take...

Pondering my situationIn the early 1940s my late husband and his family, eventual Holocaust survivors, were incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto for 11 months. They escaped and were then hidden in a straw-lined hole under a Polish farmer’s barn, two miles...

CHICAGO (JTA) — As the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, we’re all tasked with slowing its spread through social isolation. That’s not necessarily a big ask for someone like me. I can deal with people in short bursts but, for the most...

Surreal.My most vivid surreal experience was on Sept. 12, 2001, or 9/12. We then lived on Long Island, about 45 minutes from the World Trade Towers in Manhattan. We saw the news the day before — an airplane had hit one of the buildings. What happened?...