My husband was once describing what Shabbat is to his Protestant co-worker. Shabbat in our home is twenty five hours between sundown on Friday and nightfall on Saturday where we do not turn on the television set, we do not answer the phone, we do not turn on and off lights and we do not drive. Shabbat is something different in everyone's home, but hopefully people are taking this time to be with their family, to be in the synagogue, to be with friends, and most importantly... more

What I'm reading today -

China is tightening their requirements of prospective parents looking to adopt babies from their country. It looks like the changes will go into effect May 1, 2007, but is good to know about now. China is a very popular country among those who adopt internationally, and has historically been popular among Jewish couples as well. An article appeared in today's New York Times and can be found here.

Also in today's New York Times, a great article on life books for children in foster care or adopted from foster... more

Unlike other major Jewish holidays, Chanukkah doesn't have a whole lot of traditions associated with it, or many specific rituals for the holiday. Chanukkah is a holiday that celebrates two miracles - that the Maccabees, a small band of Jews, won the war against the Syrian Greeks, and that the small amount of oil that was found in the desecrated Temple lasted for eight days instead of one. Here's my list of things to do on Chanukkah.

1. See how many ways you can possibly spell Chanukkah in English while having the word still phonetically resemble what you are trying to say.

2. Light Chanukkah candles. Consider looking into getting an oil burning menorah instead of one with... more

Alright. It is time for me have a soap box moment. Chanukkah (Hanukkah, Chanukah, Hanukah or however else you can manage to spell it) is not a major Jewish holiday. Sorry. It's just not. It is a wonderful, fun, exciting, and definately important holiday to celebrate, but it's not up there on the list of what I'd call the top five holidays.

I am not a huge buff on the Christian religion, but I do know that Christmas and Easter are the major holidays in the calendar, with scattered more minor holidays. My very religious Christian friends actually feel that Easter is more of a major holiday than Christmas.

It is due to the over commercialization of Christmas that Chanukkah too... more

This came across my desk - thought I'd pass it along....it looks like a conference for parents and professionals as well as separate classes/ sessions geared for professionals.

Ametz Annual Conference - March 11, 2007 Infertility, Adoption and the Family, held at UJA - Federation 130 E. 59th St., New York City. For registration information, call 212-558-9949 or email ametz@jccany.org

Expected to attract several hundred prospective and current parents, as well as professionals working in the adoption field, the all day conference will offer a range of workshop sessions. This year's keynote speaker is noted... more

Here are two "classic" latkes - potato pancake recipes for Chanukah. It's traditional to serve food fried in oil to commemorate the miracle from the story, where the oil for the Temple's menorah lasted eight days instead of one. I'd give you my recipe, but since I don't really follow one, you'd have to come to my kitchen and watch me cook. The first recipe is from epicurious.com and looks close-ish to mine, except I use matzo meal instead of flour, and all oil to fry the latkes in.

CLASSIC POTATO PANCAKES

This is the classic latke, made with little more than grated potatoes and... more

"Hey, when is Chanukah?" It's only when I get asked that question by a non-Jewish friend that I mumble something and then remind myself that I must look at a calendar. Christmas is December 25th, year in and out, because Christian holidays are based off the Gregorian calendar. July 4th never fails to come out between the 3rd and the 5th. But the Jewish calendar is on the lunar year, which means that holidays always come out on the same day on the Jewish calendar, but seem to move without rhyme or reason on the Gregorian calendar.

There is actually... more

Sorry I haven't been blogging - just got home from a nice stay at the hospital for some respiratory issues. Hope to get back in the game soon.

Anna was never one of those kids to be scared at the doctors. We - thankfully - have an amazing pediatrician's practice, with a great play area in the waiting room and fantastic doctors. You can totally see why these individuals chose to go into kid's medicine rather than something more lucrative like plastic surgery. And they're one of the few practices around that basically take any insurance including Medicaid - important when dealing with foster kids. The receptionists know my kids' names - and they must see a tremendous number of children. They are... more

I came across this article today, the text of which can be found at the Jerusalem Post. I was going to give an excerpt here as I usually do, but I really couldn't find parts of the article that I wanted to cut out. What to do with the issue of intermarried families, and how to do outreach so that we maintain a sustainable Jewish population are topics that need to be addressed. Often times people only start to discuss religious matters when the topic of having children comes up. Food for thought on one of the major issues facing American Jewry today:

VIEW FROM AMERICA:... more