Many young couples choose to begin their married lives in Eretz Yisrael. I was curious about how and why they do that and what the experience is like for them. Although it seems clear that the best time to move is as newlyweds, when couples do not have to worry as much about expenses and children, most of those I asked did not cite those factors. Instead, they responded incredulously. They assumed it would be obvious that Eretz Yisrael is the land of the Jews and one does not need a specific reason to want to live there.

I only spoke to the wives, so these words are from their perspective.

Sarah Bickford is a young member of our community, a former Bais Yaakov student and former teacher at the JCC and Khal Chasidim childcare programs. Tamar Schulman, director of Khal Chassidim daycare said that Sarah is a much beloved, creative, and thrifty teacher.

Unfortunately, Sarah cannot work anymore. After a severe illness, her kidneys no longer function properly, and she must spend most of her time taking care of her health. Sarah’s diet is very restricted, and she is often very tired and weak. To stay alive, she must go to dialysis three times a week for three-and-a-half hours each time. If the kidneys are not working properly, the dialysis machine does the kidneys’ job of filtering the blood and removing waste products from the body.

Sarah has been accepted into a program at John Hopkins Hospital Transplant Center, which means she will be able to receive kidney if one becomes available. This could take from two to seven years according to the doctors. She must always be prepared to receive a kidney if a suitable donor is found. She works with a nurse transplant coordinator to make sure she is prepared.

Beth Abraham shul, affectionally known as “Hertzberg’s,” is tucked away on a small side street, a simple brick-faced building set back on a green lawn. You could pass it by without ever guessing its history and unique personality among the shuls of Baltimore.

I had the opportunity to interview Mrs. Chava Rosenfeld, the daughter of its first rav, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech, zt”l, and Mrs. Nechama Shifra, a”h, Hertzberg. I was interested to hear from Mrs. Rosenfeld about her parents, her shul, and how life has changed since she was a girl growing up in Forest Park.

Tamar and Rochel are both planning an evening out. They are going to the same place, meeting the same person, and spending the same amount of time there. Tamar is looking forward to the event, and Rochel is dreading it. How could the same event bring such different reactions? The answer, of course, is they are going to a PTA meeting. Tamar knows that her child is doing well in school and looks forward to getting a “nachas report.” Rochel is not looking forward to hearing about all the trouble her child is having.

PTA meetings are a longstanding ritual for parents of school-age children – at least they were in my day. Now, though the ritual is the same, the more up-to-date term seems to be PTC, for parent-teacher conferences. Whatever…

Since I enjoy talking to people and collecting their experiences, I thought it would be interesting to survey some parents, as well as children, for their thoughts. It can be difficult to reach people, however, so imagine my joy when I found myself in the JCC locker room with representatives of three schools. I had a great conversation opener and soon found that they had definite opinions about PTA meetings.

The overwhelming majority of the children in our community go to school; it is an expected part of life. But Baltimore also has a strong contingent of homeschoolers. A large part of the homeschooling community transfers to regular school for high school, so I thought it would be interesting to hear about that transition from the perspective of some former homeschoolers. This article is about three girls who are all now attending traditional schools.

Naami

Naami* just started going to school this year. As more of her homeschooling friends have started to go to school she wanted to go too, and her main reason is for the social life. Here are her words comparing regular school to homeschool:

“In school, you follow a curriculum, and there is a lot of pressure to stay at the same pace as your classmates. Homeschool lets you go at your own pace and learn pretty much whatever you want.

“There are many, many more social opportunities in school, as opposed to homeschool, where you have a small social life. With school, you get home late, and you also must study a lot. I sometimes feel like I don’t have enough time to myself, and I really wish the school day was a little shorter. In homeschool, I never had to study, but I still learned.”

When Naami was asked if she would homeschool her own children, she answered, “I personally don’t feel like I had the best experience homeschooling, but that was really toward the end, after my siblings and friends started going to school. I think it’s important to consider this if you are planning on homeschooling. Your child will probably have a much better experience if she/he is homeschooled with siblings or other children. I don’t think I will homeschool my own children, because I want them to have the experience I didn’t have. However, it depends very much on the needs of the child.”

Summer is over, but the memories are still fresh. As a grandmother of several campers, I have a sort of panoramic view of the contemporary camp landscape – a landscape that has changed quite a bit since we, or even our children, went to camp in the 1960s through the early 2000s. Some of my grandchildren ran their own camps, some worked with special needs children, some were regular campers, and one traveled to an exotic location. I will use pseudonyms so as not to embarrass my grandchildren. After all, it is quite a burden to have a grandmother who thinks every experience of theirs is an idea for an article!

Waitressing

Sora spent her summer in Migdal, a camp for special needs children. I remember from my teenage years that it was considered a privilege to go to a camp like that and work directly with children who are sick or who have special needs. I was curious what the draw is to be spending your summer doing this special work.