Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage

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Winner of the Women in Psychology Jewish Caucus Award for 2000!Jewish Mothers Tell Their Stories: Acts of Love and Courage contains touching and personal essays written by contemporary Jewish mothers from different parts of the globe. Their stories reveal the choices that Jewish mothers make in our post-Holocaust, non-Jewish world--the many ways of being Jewish, the acts of loving, of preserving and celebrating Jewish traditions and spirituality, and of transmitting them to their children and families. The firsthand stories in this compelling book raises questions and provides you with insight into a variety of topics, including:

  • The 'Jewish mother'stereotype and its impact on real Jewish mothers
  • ethnic/historical connections between mothers and daughters
  • moving acts of love, courage, and sacrifice in response to illness, war, or conflicting ideologies
  • motherhood as a catalyst for personal evolutions of Jewish identity and values
  • Orthodox to secular expressions of spirituality
  • The impact of the 'Jewish motherhood imperative'
  • positive experiences of conversion and interfaith families
  • conveying Jewish history and tradition in a Christian worldJewish Mothers Tell Their Stories will draw you into an appreciation of the cultural, ethnic, and spiritual aspects of mothering. This remarkable collection explores the different meanings of today's concept of "Jewish mother" and "Jewish family."
 

Selected pages

Contents

From Generation to Generation
9
How I Learned to Be a Jewish Mother
15
Traditions
21
My Mother Is Greek
33
Mandelbrot Rugelach and a Family Quilt
41
Unbinding Love
51
How a Paper Clip Changed Our Lives
61
On Mourning for SoldierSons in Israel
71
Learning to Speak German
175
Washing Down the Chalk
187
While My SixteenYearOld Daughter Visits Auschwitz
191
A Long Circular Journey
193
A Life in Code
201
You Will Teach Your Children Diligently
211
Beresheet in the Beginning
213
On Carving a Life
217

On My Sons Induction into the Israeli Armed Forces A Feminist Mothers Prayer
83
Jewish Mother and Son The Feminist Version
87
If I Cant Tear the Toilet Paper Why Can I Flush the Toilet?
97
On the Other Hand
105
Old Clothes and Food from Afar
115
My Journey Toward Jewish Identification
119
Am I a Jewish Mother?
131
Conversion The Mother of Invention
137
A Wandering Mother
145
Jewish Mother from Scratch
159
How ModernDay Austria Made Me a Modern Jewish Mother
163
Integrating Feminism Judaism and Spirituality
223
Seeking Serenity As a Single Jewish Mother
233
Oranges and Cinnamon
239
Dealing with the Real World Our Children Ourselves
247
No More Family Secrets
257
If Id Known How to Be a Jewish Mother I Would Have Been One
267
Chopped Liver and Sour Grapes Jewish but Not a Mother
273
My Two Lives
281
Glossary
291
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