Modern Jewish Mom

For all you DC/MD/VA parents -- I know the teachers for this series and they are amazing! Sign up now!!!

Foundations of Jewish Family Living: Values for Jewish Parents to Share with Their Children

What do you want to teach your child about being Jewish?

Foundations of Jewish Family Living is a new curriculum for parents that provides a thought-provoking encounter with the core values of Judaism. Developed by the renowned Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, a project of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the curriculum brings to life the master stories from our tradition and the profound messages they convey.

The rich learning experiences for adults will provide an opportunity for you to bring the Jewish conversation home to share with your young child. At a time in your family’s life when your child is beginning his or her own Jewish education, Foundations of Jewish Family Living provides you with the learning, the language, and the confidence to be a teacher to your own children.

The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning is sponsoring this course.

When: Fridays, 9:45-11:15 AM
Where: Ohr Kodesh Congregation

8300 Meadowbrook Ln
Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Dates: 10/23/09-2/26/10 (14 sessions)

(No class 12/18/09 – 1/8/10)

Faculty: JoHanna Potts and Aliza Sperling

Cost: $270.00 payable to PJLL. For more information, please contact 240-283-6229 or visit www.pjll.org.

Six innovating "Mamalahs" (including me) have teamed up to celebrate Jewish
women by contributing over $150 worth of gifts to give away.

To enter to win the Call-Your-Mother Gift Box Giveaway, visit the ModernTribe
blog at http://tinyurl.com/callmom and submit your answer to this question:

"Why does your mom, grandmother, sister, friend, cousin, aunt (any special woman in your life) or you deserve the 'Call-Your-Mother Gift Box?'"

A winner will be randomly chosen from the answers and announced on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 10th. (No purchase is required to enter. This contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.) Enter Now.

So my friend, Beth, hooked me up with the DVD of the first two episodes of TNT's new show TRUST ME. I cannot tell you how cool I feel having the official press only DVD. I am loving this gig. Plus it stars Eric McCormack, whom I really, really liked as Will from Will & Grace (gosh I miss that show!) and Tom Cavanagh, whom I love, love, love from Ed but especially that show he did where he was a executive or producer at a cool indie record label. Did you watch that show???? It maybe lasted half a season and then was pulled and I think I was the only one who watched it, but I loved it.

And...the show is about advertising--my very most favorite industry to feature as the back drop for a television show (although I also love shows about show--a la Gary Shandling and 30Rock).

But, I did say to Beth "What is it? A copy of MadMen?"

"No," she promised, "It's MadMen for our generation."

(She's in PR--I'll let that one go)

It's not really MadMen--not in the same caliber of show--not as innovative or compelling. But it is wonderful and fun (although not really a comedy) and expected but in a good, comforting way. Basically, I'll watch because I know I"m going to love the characters. And that's really, truly what good shows are--wonderful characters we want to spend time with. The show could be about an investment bank or a law firm...it doesn't matter...what we'll love about TrustMe is the people who populate that world--we'll want to root for them to navigate their friendship and work triumphantly. But, for me it is a bonus that it is about advertising. What I love about shows about advertising is that final reveal when they save the day with the completely creative campaign--I have always admired brilliant, creative advertising. And 30something was about advertising and was probably the reason I wanted a career in advertising.

I found so little last season to really excite me on television. MadMen, 30Rock, that's about it. Of course, The Wire (gone) and Entourage, but even HBO is disappointing me (although I did like that show about the Australian high school and have high hopes for Flight of the Conchords). But TrustMe...I'll stay up till 10 to watch.

So, check it out and let me know what you think. It begins Monday night (January 26th) at 10 pm EST on TNT.

I didn't realize "Barack" means blessing. And I can't help but think how it sounds like "Baruch" which means blessing.

Okay--this one sounds adorable:

From Executive Producer Ryan Seacrest:

Are you a mom looking to find love for your son?

NBC is seeking moms of eligible young men who are ready to help their sons pick the right woman.

Are you a mom who is frustrated that her son is not dating the right woman? Do you look forward to the day your son finds the love of his life and you get the wedding of your dreams?

Producers are looking for moms and their sons who are willing to work together as a team to find the perfect mate. You should be a mother with a strong opinion about whom your son should be dating.

If you're a mom looking to find love for your son and you are ready to be a great character America will love to watch in the process, we'd love to hear from you.

The sons must be at least 21 years or older.

Please email Michelle Dela Cuesta in the Casting Department at NBCdating2@gmail.com for more information or to apply.

Check out the Jew and the Carrot for a yummy seasonal treat inspired by this week's parsha.

And, check out ModernJewishMom.com in the weeks ahead for my interview with Jew and the Carrot editor Leah Koenig.


(Plus, I love that she titled the post "Yid.Dish" ha!

I was driving by Buy Buy Baby today and was truly wowed by the cool stuff in their windows. I'm not quite sure what it was I saw (I WAS driving after all). Some kind of cool baby carrier in a very funky mod stroller contraption (is my best guess). Time has flown since I was there on a daily basis. I was a stay-at-home mom, the kids were babies and we had no where else to really go so to get out of the house I'd schlep them to Starbucks ('cause I was tired and needed caffeine) and they could throw muffin crumbs to the birds as we sat outside. In fact, to this day, we refer to those little sparrows as "Starbucks Birds". Then we'd stroll down to Buy Buy Baby just to walk around and usually there was SOMETHING I could find that I really needed to buy buy.

Those days are gone. I don't even have friends having babies now. But, you know how it always seems that the maternity clothes are so much cuter when you're NOT pregnant? Well, the baby stuff is so much cooler now too. Like cute, hip stuff. That we totally don't need. But is sooooo cute and you never know when you will be very glad that you bought that wipe box cover that makes it looks more like a Filofax than a wipey box.

Here's the thing though. I just heard that there is now a line of baby hair care products. "What's wrong with that?" you ask. Well, nothing if we're talking shampoo and conditioner. But, this is baby hair styling products. Like baby mousse and baby mud and baby hair spray! Seriously...who buys this stuff.

Look, my kids both went through the funny baby hair phase. And, my mother told me I couldn't cut their hair until they were one (some kind of superstition thing and who was I to argue). For my son, there was just nothing to do. For my daughter, I tried barrettes and bows which either slid off because her hair was too thin (I mean "baby fine") or she pulled it out (and then put the barrette in her mouth! Always great to see in the rear view mirror!)

And whatever...it's cute...how the hair sticks out and goes all funny. Why do we need baby wax to style it into place? And what does it say about us????? How can we rant about society placing too much emphasis on looks and worry about the pressure it places on our tweens and teens if we're STYLING OUR BABIES' HAIR! There's a disconnect here.

Honestly, I don't care f that's how Katie gets Suri's hair to look so perfect--give me crazy baby hair (and healthy self image) any day.

By Sue Fishkoff Published: 05/07/2008

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- The stereotypical portrait of a seder table with the man of the house leading the service may look out of place to the next generation of liberal Jews.

This is because outside the Orthodox world, men are becoming less and less engaged in every aspect of Jewish life,
from the home to the synagogue to communal organizations.

Numerous studies show that fewer boys than girls go to non-Orthodox youth groups, religious schools or summer camps, fewer go into the rabbinate and cantorate, and fewer serve on synagogue or federation committees.

This comes as women and girls in the liberal movements are benefiting from a host of programs and initiatives aimed at increasing their Jewish involvement, from gender-neutral prayer books to the popular Jewish identity-building program for teenage girls, “Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing.”

Some are calling it the feminization of liberal Judaism -- but few say so out loud.

“It’s not politically correct,” says Brandeis University sociologist Sylvia Barack Fishman, whose new report “The Growing Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life” gives statistical muscle to anecdotal evidence that has been piling up for several years in liberal Jewish circles.

The report will be published later in May, and will be available online June 1 at www.brandeis.edu/hbi.

Fishman notes that some experts reject the notion of a “boy crisis” in liberal Judaism. It’s a particularly touchy topic for feminist scholars.

“Thirty-five years ago -- when women were not ordained as rabbis, when girls in the Conservative movement celebrated a bat mitzvah on Friday night, when Orthodox girls did not receive an education remotely comparable to that of their brothers, when women were not called to the Torah for aliyot or allowed on the bimah at all -- where were the headlines proclaiming a girl crisis?” wrote Rabbi Rona Shapiro, senior associate at Ma’ayan: The Jewish Women’s Project, a program of the JCC in Manhattan, in a Jan. 2007 op-ed.

“Given the history of women’s exclusion within the Jewish community, approaching equality should be something to celebrate, not a crisis in the making,” she wrote.

For Fishman, “As soon as you say that women dominate certain aspects of Jewish life, it sounds as if you’re saying, 'Let’s go back to the way things were.' That’s not the point of my research, but we need to look at what’s happening and be honest about it.”

Fishman goes further: As Jewish men outside the Orthodox fold become increasingly estranged from religious and communal life, the more likely they are to marry non-Jewish women, her report suggests. And because women usually set a home’s religious tone, even if non-Jewish women are open to raising Jewish children, they will rarely do so because they are not encouraged by husbands who are “ambivalent at best, if not downright hostile to” Jewish tradition, she says.

She concludes that the boy crisis in liberal Judaism is leading to a continuity crisis that will not be resolved until liberal Judaism finds a way to engage its boys and men.

Using hundreds of interviews she conducted for the American Jewish Committee and two of her previous books, as well as data from the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Study, Fishman and her student co-author Daniel Parmer describe an American Jewish life increasingly populated by women.

Ironically, this increased involvement of women in liberal Jewish life does not extend to the highest levels of Jewish organizational leadership, where top professionals remain overwhelmingly male.

The dominance of women is especially apparent within the Reform movement, where decreasing numbers of boys in its post-bar mitzvah religious schools, youth groups and summer camps has caused concern. This absence goes all the way to the top levels of religious leadership: More than half of the recently ordained Reform rabbis are women, as are all this year’s entering cantorial students.

To help re-engage Reform men in religious life, the Men of Reform Judaism has sponsored men’s worship services at the last few movement biennials, and published a “Men’s Haggadah” that more than 250 congregations ordered for Passover.

“We have women’s Seders, we have Rosh Hodesh groups. When do we create safe space for men to talk about their fathers, their sons, their brothers, their lives?” asks Doug Barden, the executive director of Men of Reform Judaism who is spearheading many of these initiatives.

But waiting until adulthood isn’t good enough, Fishman says. Efforts must begin in early adolescence. Whereas Orthodox boys go through “rites of passage where they feel better and better about their Jewish engagement -- that furniture is not being installed in the minds of non-Orthodox Jewish males,” she says.

Liberal Jewish teenage boys don’t have models of adult male commitment to Jewish life as do their Orthodox peers. This sets up a vicious cycle that repeats from generation to generation.

Some groups are more successful than others at attracting Jewish boys. One is B'nai Brith Youth Organization, BBYO, which claims that 47 percent of its 23,000 teen participants are male.

The group's director, Matt Grossman, says this is because BBYO chapters have always been single-sex. This model is gaining ground in liberal circles, although not without criticism.

“We can target programs to boys without throwing fake stuff out there,” Grossman says. While most other non-Orthodox Jewish youth groups report declining membership, he says that BBYO has been growing by 20 percent a year.

“We tell them, we need you guys to help strengthen the Jewish world. And that resonates with them. We have guys doing what guys like, and girls doing what girls like.”

Jason Wachs, BBYO’s 18-year-old international president for the boys’ chapters, says the concept works. “It’s not cool for boys to be in touch with their emotions or care about the environment or religion when girls are around,” he says. “BBYO allows them to open up.”

The Orthodox world has always promoted single-sex group activities. It may be time, some adolescent experts suggest, to revisit the notion.

Moving Traditions, the non-profit that runs Rosh Hodesh: It’s a Girl Thing, has launched “Where Have All The Young Men Gone,” a three-year research and action campaign that is studying the groups that have been most successful at attracting and holding young men, from BBYO to Boy Scouts.

Many of those groups are for boys only, notes Deborah Meyer, the executive director of Moving Traditions, which is based in suburban Philadelphia.

“Seeing what Rosh Hodesh has done for girls, hearing the feedback from the girls and their parents and educators, why not do something like it for Jewish guys, who are dropping out from Jewish life more than girls, and are less satisfied with Jewish life than girls?” says Meyer.

Fishman’s report notes that “a disproportionate number” of young Jewish men doing cutting-edge innovation in Jewish cultural and religious fields has come from Orthodox backgrounds. “This illustrates the power of these environments to prove intellectually and spiritually compelling to men, even when men reject their patriarchal premise,” she notes.

The challenge to the liberal Jewish world, she says, is to provide the same compelling stimulus to its young men without sacrificing egalitarianism.

“Over the ages, men felt very involved in Judaism,” she says. “It was their responsibility. This is gone today, except in the Orthodox world. We need to look at how we are raising our Jewish sons.”

I was just reading some new entries over at Jewcy.com (oh, to be young and smart again) and I seriously laughed out loud (see--I didn't even type lol, I typed the words out all the way--that's just how funny it was). Back and forth entries between Elizabeth Wurtzel (she wrote Prozac Nation among others) and Ben Karlin (he of The Daily Show fame and now working on three cool new HBO shows (oooh, should I type out Home Box Office just to illustrate how much in esteem I place the network?) and also a new funny book about failed relationships). Wow--that was a lot of parenthentical information. And, according to my computer's red underlining feature, I have spelled parenthentical incorrectly, but I'm feeling too lazy to click on the spell check button to correct. Wow! how lazy must I be do not even want to highlight and click! It's not like I have to actually get off my ass and find a dictionary!

But I digress. Anyway, I love these funny, clever, smart people and their writing and I imagine them being all cool and smart and clever living in NY (one even lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn where I lived 20 years ago after college--and it wasn't cool then--I guess I am pre-cool). Can suburban, Jewish moms be funny? Let me narrow it down even more--can we be funny without the subject being our kids or our husbands or other mom type things (although Wurtzel was funny when writing about her lust for a Birkin bag which I can totally identify with!)

hmmm, maybe I should just blog more. But, I tend to think of great blog topics while driving my car (which is where I am most of the day). They should really invent some sort of brain-to-blog device. I can't tell you how many funny, clever, smart entries I have THOUGHT of, that I then forget about when I am home and have access to my computer.

Oh well. Gotta go finish making salmon croquettes. This is how lame I actually am--tomorrow is Grandparent's Day at my son's school. My in-laws are going (very nice of them to schlep in just to sit and watch him learn). But, they will all have lunch together and I am feeling compelled to make a kinda fancy lunch for my son to show them what an awesome mom I am. My husband just rolled his eyes and commented that yes, they would have thought I was horrible if I had sent him with an egg salad sandwich. Okay--I know it's ridiculous. But, is that stopping me from doing it anyway? No. The kid's going to have the best lunch of his school career tomorrow.

play by play of tonight's American Idol

sorry, Jason Castro-- I like ya, but not quite Neil

oooh, I love David Cook (well, not love, love, but you know what I mean..I'm rooting for him) and I love this song (I'm Alive), but, have to say, he's not killing. Hopefully, his next song will be better.

Brooke White. I liked her in the beginning of the season, but maybe the Post's calling her "Nanny Brooke" the passive-aggressive nanny, kinda killed her for me (too funny--funny 'cause it's true). Anyway, have to love that she's singing a Monkee's song (I'm a Believer). Did you know the Monkee's was the first album (yes, ALBUM, not CD) was the first record album I bought? And, yes, I had a crush on Davey Jones (oooh--trivia--David Bowie's real name is David Jones). Anyway, she didn't do a good job.

David Archuletta. Maybe I'm too old, but I don't likey him. Let's hear how he does (Sweet Caroline). HATE THE SHIRT--looks like some kind of weird French mime thing. And, I think it's creepy that Neil said this song is about Caroline Kennedy. I wouldn't want someone singing about reaching out and touching my daughter (but that's just me). Seriously, other than the fact that he's young, I don't get why kids like this David Archuletta, but I'll bet it comes down to David v. David in the finals.

Syesha. So pretty. She really should act. Probably after last week she has a future on Broadway. But, she is probably leaving this week. HEEEELLLLO--sounds weird--needs to be breathier--like you're drunk calling in the middle of the night. I don't think she understands what she's singing.

Why does Randy like Archuletta?
Paula??? You thought they sang twice already? Seriously?
Simon--says it like it is. Totally agrees with everything I just wrote. I should be a judge!

Round two coming up!

Sorry--promised my son could use my laptop! Maybe more later when he finishes on Webkinz

I'm back...kind of disappointing--I don't know what I expected. Oh well, still think Cook is best and just don't see what's so great about Archuletta. Definitely think the judges are trying to get rid of some and push others. And, while I think this is the best season (performers), the show has def jumped the shark.