This past weekend at a shabbaton I was informed of my next book. My friends Nancy and Wendy let me know that it will be called “I Love You More Than a Suitcase” (see the podcast page for that thought) and it will be about the most powerful relationship tools I know.
Hey OOTOB readers,
A little while ago, Chana Deutsch from Israel contacted me. She runs a program to help Jewish women in their relationships, and asked if she could interview me. Fun, because I’ve done a number of interviews here, and now I get to be the interviewee. It’s an audio interview, and it’s going to air on January 30th right here.
Exactly two years ago, at the close of 2014, I wrote a post about that year. It was a gut-wrenching year full of bad news and sad moods. Since that time, I find myself getting especially reflective this time of year, looking back on the year and deciding what I want to say about it.
In my neighborhood, there used to be four large Orthodox congregations: Heights Jewish Center, Young Israel, Green Rd. Synagogue, and Chabad. There was also an ad hoc congregation that had begun in a home, called “Zichron Chaim.” It was commonly referred to as “the shteeble,” which is a Yiddish word for “little house” and refers to a small, organic, grass roots congregation, loosely formed and typically without a rabbi, that meets in a home and then sometimes, if it grows, migrates to a more spacious space.
I’ve been doing more traveling, speaking, teaching. Selling my book. I love to travel and I love to see new places and meet new people. I also love to sniff out new communities and get a feel for the similarities and differences each Jewish community has.
But there’s one thing that is constant. Jewish women.
By Elissa Felder
Twenty-six years ago a group of my friends gathered to wash the body of my little baby that had died that same day during open-heart surgery. His death was a shock of the most traumatic proportions.
So Donald Trump is president and half of America is mourning. And plenty are elated. My Facebook feed, mostly non-Orthodox Jews, is dominated by mourning. People lamenting the loss of normalcy, of values, of shattering the glass ceiling once and for all. People describing the emotions like losing a loved one.
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