Recently, my dad asked me if I could pull up all of our first day of school pictures through the years. We actually have them framed together in the house, but I haven’t presented them all in one place like this before. So here you are, dad. The days really are long when you have… Read More The End of an Era
August can be a really hard month as a parent in Israel. The country loves its children. And the country has a very high percentage of families who rely on two incomes. And yet, for some reason that I have yet to understand after 19 years, there are very few camp choices for kids in… Read More The Sussmans Take August
My Aliyah baby left the house today for life’s next stage. After graduating high school, it’s time for him to spread his wings a bit and enjoy learning further afield. He thinks, as the third child, that the change is no big deal to us. That we’ve done this already with two others and we… Read More And He’s Off
It’s obvious that Israel is in a time of transition – that we are experiencing growing pains, deep divides and complicated issues. And while I’m well aware of the news reports and current events, I’ve decided to focus my energy on another side of Israel. Two weeks ago, my second son earned his army… Read More My Israel Through the Prism of a Beret
We’ve got problems in our teeny country. Upon this, we can probably all agree. I read the news and feel like I’m drowning in strife, infighting, hatred and despair. We are attacking each other internally and being attacked, seemingly all the time, by those who want to annihilate us. This builds a feeling of hopelessness,… Read More A Glimmer of Hope
I’ve written before about the accordion of my life. With six kids, two of whom are in the army and three of whom dorm during the week, there is always someone coming or going. The house tends to fill, fill, fill on Friday and then empty, empty, empty for a bit on Sunday. The steadies… Read More A Nurturing Night
I’ve read a few absolutely stunning books recently and it inspired me to blog about them. I love to share my book recommendations, particularly when I find stories that I love (and that often bring me to tears). I’ve also thrown a lot of books aside unfinished so far in 2023…showing that I’m either getting… Read More Ten Terrific Titles
A few years ago, my family of 8 started hiking the Israel Trail together. But we aren’t doing it in the traditional way, taking off for a few months at a time and hiking from one end to the other. Rather, we are using vacation time to hike as a family, starting at the very… Read More The Beauty of the Boring Trail
This first appeared on the Times of Israel blog. It’s almost impossible to put into words what our community of Gush Etzion (and Efrat more specifically) is experiencing at the moment with the murder of Maia, Rina and Lucy Dee. We live one town over from where the Dee family lives and we don’t know… Read More Life Today In the Shadow of Murder
On the top of my bucket list is a visit to Iceland. And while I’m there, I hope to find Haraldur Thorleifsson at his new restaurant, enjoying his latest success. I’d like to meet a role model like him. In a world gone mad these days, where it’s commonplace to mock the disabled, to dismiss… Read More 4 Lessons Elon Musk (and the rest of us) can Learn from Haraldur Thorleifsson
