Last night, my daughters spent several hours acting out an ancient Jewish tradition, completely of their own accord. They gathered up ritual objects, recited brachot, bandied about Yiddish and Hebrew terminology, and mimicked practices described in the Talmud. When I interrupted their play to send them off to bed, they begged me to allow them…

Summer is here in all its humid glory (at least in my neck of the woods.) The ceiling fans are on overdrive, we’re gobbling up strawberries and sugar snap peas by the quart, and we’ve hit the local reservoir almost every day this week for late afternoon swims. School’s over for all of us –…

Written for The PJ Library July e-newsletter  Abby was in tears. Her mother and father were in tears. And so was Grandma….There were hugs and kisses and all too soon they said their good-byes. And Grandma went home. Alone. Thus opens First Rain, July’s PJ Library offering about a young girl who moves to Israel…

In a few hours, my husband will be opening his Father’s Day gift – a set of four Henckels steak knives (Did you click on the link? Such a bargain, right?) I imagine that steak knives are a fairly typical Father’s Day gift, and in most families would not be considered terribly meaningful. Dads like steak,…

Homeshuling
about

ameltzer

I'm a mother of two girls, raised in suburban Baltimore, and transplanted to a small New England town. I teach, write, and try to create a vibrant Jewish home for my family while spending very little time in synagogue. I guess you could say we're home-shuling.

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