As a nurse practitioner, Lisa Weiner’s favorite thing was patient education to help people make positive changes. When she and her husband, Andrew Cohen, had their first son, Ezra, 10 years ago, she decided to leave her practice to spend more time with her family. Now with Ezra and his younger brother, Reuben, 6, both…
When Lucy, the Cohn family’s dog, died suddenly of cancer two years ago, Lisa and her then 4-year-old son Michael wrote a story about their beloved pet to keep her alive forever. Lisa had started writing about their wonderful Lucy, a golden doodle, to deal with her grief, but when Michael heard what she was…
Dear Helen: Aaarghhh! What does one do with visitors who arrive early? I’m not talking about the occasional party guest who shows up while you’re still making hors d’oeuvres, but out- of-towners who announce that their schedule has changed and they’ll be showing up on a Thursday instead of a Friday! This happened last weekend,…
Socially minded teens eligible for $36,000 Tikkun Olam Awards alongside projects with broad impact, as can be seen at the awards program website. The Helen Diller Family Foundation is accepting nominations for the 2015 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. The program recognizes as many as 15 Jewish teens annually with awards of $36,000 each for…
“What a mensch!” When said about a boy or a girl, this compliment is guaranteed to make us feel like great parents. We all know what it means, but what does it really mean? An honorable and decent person (according to YiddishDictionaryOnline and my grandma z”l). Who doesn’t want a few of those at home?…
What an amazing world we live in, with more information and connections at our fingertips than we could ever imagine. This brave new world has come with a price, though, as we’ve gradually replaced human interaction with technological inter- action. We have many young people who are not fully equipped for college, the workforce or…
When I was growing up, money meant AUTHORITY. Dad made the money, so he also made the decisions. Our family lived by the Golden Rule as in: He who has the gold, rules. We were told at an early age that it wasn’t “polite” to talk about money, but it sure seemed to be the…
When I enrolled my sons in Portland Jewish Academy, I had no idea of the myriad benefits I would reap from that involvement. As both a woman and a journalist working in the Jewish press, the connections and experi- ences proved invaluable. Two of those benefits relate directly to the special sections in this edition…
You’ve spent years learning the alef bet, months studying your Torah portion and countless hours completing your mitzvah project … now you get to celebrate! For many freshly minted Jewish “adults,” that means a glamorous party full of glitz and glitter. Others want another shot at a favorite activity of their youth (which in reality…
“Horses have a huge impact on my life, so I thought it would be cool to have an impact on theirs,” says Audrey Minch of the trio of projects she and her twin, Abigail, undertook for their b’nai mitzvah. The twins first heard about the plight of the mustangs when they were in fourth…
