Laura Abrams

Robyn Awend

Naomi Dean

Stacey Dinner-Levin

Tamar Fenton

Linda Fiterman

Shalva Gale

Robin Gale

Cathy Gasiorowicz

Julie Jacobs

Debbie Lieberman

Barb Weil

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Tickets are available right now! Get your tickets today by clicking right here.

About the show

An event by TC Jewfolk produced by Galit Breen, the original Minnesota Mammaleh and co-producer of Listen to Your Mother Twin Cities for the last decade+.

Stories from the Tribe features 12 women on the bima telling their true Jewish stories that have a thread to being a Mammaleh – whether that’s about their own Mammaleh or about being a Mammaleh – and includes all of the ups and downs, highs and lows, laughs and tears that come with the real-life experience of mammalehs in the Twin Cities.

During this time, it’s even more important for us Jews to gather and tell our stories – loud and proud!

So this is that!

The thor annual show will once again be emceed by the incredible Jordana Green, co-host of The Adam & Jordana Show on WCCO Radio and promises to be a stunning night of storytelling!

This show will be at Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park, and the show date is Monday, June 22 at 7 p.m. Seating is General Admission, and the doors will open at 6 p.m.

The post Introducing the Cast for the Third Annual Stories From The Tribe Show! appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Dear Readers,

Just *under* two years ago, I wrote 13 pieces of advice following my daughter’s bat mitzvah. Following my son’s bar mitzvah this past Shabbat, I planned to rewrite a bunch of details based on all the new things I learned this time around. 

But you know what? My advice really held up! I feel great about that for one thing, but I feel even better about having provided both of my kids with celebrations that matched their visions and personalities (and better still about never needing to plan another B’Mitzvah!). In the spirit of continuing to pay it forward, I am sharing my advice again, along with a few minor modifications.

1. Clarify your priorities. Knowing what really matters to you about your event will help dictate so many choices along the way. In the case of a B’Mitzvah, knowing what matters to your kid is crucial, and finding ways to discuss and understand each other’s priorities is arguably more important than what your final event actually looks like.
2. Make as many lists and schedules as far in advance as you can: guest lists, to-do items, questions for the rabbi, etc etc. Other people have done all of this before, so ask for their lists and schedules. No need to reinvent work that already exists! For the four or so weeks in advance, make a list of what needs to be done every day so no one day feels too overwhelming and nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Accept help. When people offer, most of the time they actually mean it, and you can’t do this alone. Having our simcha weekend begin less than 24 hours after Passover ended significantly complicated things this time around, and in order to make it all come together, we relied on the generosity of time of so many people.
4. The other side of this is paying people to help you. If at all possible, include paid help in your budget (I specifically recommended servers to set up and clear up kiddush). Use the moments where someone else is managing the logistics to be as fully present as possible.
5. Be as fully present as possible! Special events can pass in a flash, and grounding yourself in the moment will help those moments be more enjoyable and more memorable. Pick a couple of key moments to highlight in your mind, which will help you to remember them longterm. 
6. Wear what makes you feel your best, and support others in doing the same. In the case of a B’Mitzvah, help your kid find an outfit that makes them feel their best. Embrace this occasion as an opportunity for your kid to express who they are in all kinds of ways, including through clothes.
7. More about clothes: Do a dress rehearsal of all the outfits that everyone in your family will be wearing for all the related events. You will discover socks or belts that need to be purchased, items that need to be washed and put to the side so you know where they are day of, and, I promise, other things about clothes that will surprise you. A week before, those surprises are fine whereas the day of, they could cause a major panic.
8. Have a plan for leftovers. Even if you’ve ordered perfectly for your number of guests, you’re bound to have some food remaining. Bring takeout containers and/or freezer bags to pack things up. Make room in your fridge or freezer in advance, or ask to borrow space in a neighbor’s fridge. Offer leftovers to your friends, and know where you can donate food to a community fridge or shelter.
9. Build in downtime. You don’t need to program every minute of the weekend, for you or for your guests. This is another place where you need to know your kid and your family’s capacity for entertaining and plan accordingly, prioritizing the B’Mitzvah kid’s needs over anyone else’s.
10. Ask for advice. Other people have planned these events before and there is a tremendous amount of collective wisdom out there, but you often need to ask for it in order to access what other people have learned. 
11. Honor the people who are important to you. There are many ways to involve family members and friends in these occasions, and it’s worth thinking expansively and creatively to make space for special people to have a role. This is especially important for younger siblings of B’Mitzvah kids.
12. This one, I think, is vital, but it’s also something that has to start before you even know when your simcha is going to be, maybe even before you have kids or have met your significant other: Immerse yourself in community. Surround yourself with people you know will be there for you and your family no matter what, who can listen to your kid practice haftorah when you need a break, who can help you figure out how many cookies you need for kiddush, who will offer you encouragement, and who will even offer you their son’s suit that will never be worn again otherwise. Know who your people are, both so they are there for you and so your children learn the value of community. Be that person for other people, too, whenever you possibly can. This doesn’t happen overnight, and I know it’s not possible for everyone everywhere, but if it’s within reach, grab it.
13. For this last one, I asked my kid for his top advice for parents planning a B’Mitzvah. He says, “Don’t stress out. You have enough time.” His advice for kids getting ready for their B’Mitzvah is “you’ve got this.” I think that pretty much sums it up. 

Mazel tov in advance, and be well,

Miriam

The post 13 Pieces Of Advice From A B’Mitzvah Weekend appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Violins of Hope, the result of the Weinsteins’ work, is being brought to Minnesota by the Minnesota JCC for more than four dozen events across the state (and South Dakota) from May 3-June 29. The program is made possible in part by the Zaidenweber and Eiger families as the Family Legacy Sponsors, as well as nearly 20 other foundations, organizations, and family funds. 

The two months of events have been programmed by the Minnesota JCC, in partnership with more than 50 community organizations. Many of the events are available at no cost to increase accessibility.

“This was an opportunity to partner with many different organizations to bring the story of resilience to our community,” said Alex Fisher, the chief programming officer at the Minnesota JCC. “It becomes much more relevant with the recent upheaval in Minnesota and with the rise in antisemitism [around the country], it just seems like an opportunity to come together and show our resilience. Right here in Minnesota is the perfect time for this.”

Efforts to bring Violins of Hope to Minnesota started more than two years ago, and in that time, the program has been at sites around the world. Those stops have given JCC programmers some examples to work with.

“I would say that each residency is very unique,” said Katie Kline, the senior director of Jewish arts and culture. “There are certain common denominators: Most of them include, broadly, some concerts, some documentary films, and an education component. But each one is also really rooted in the local community and local partnerships.”

Said Fisher: “The breadth of this program is like none other that I’ve seen.”

Fisher and Kline said the dates for this have been on their calendar for more than two years – before either of them were in their roles at the JCC. Kline said that the response to the project were overwhelming among the community partners. 

“Depending on which partner we’re referring to, some of them work really far in advance,” said Kline. “So like the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, we had to get on their calendar very early for these Ordway performances, because they have their calendars booked out months in advance. Others…don’t operate on such a long runway.”

The events in Minnesota start the evening of Sunday, May 3, with an opening reception, gallery opening, and JCC Symphony Performance at Minnesota JCC – Sabes Center, Minneapolis. There will be exhibits at both the Sabes Center and Capp Center in St. Paul for the entirety of the stay in Minnesota. There are also exhibitions at Orchestra Hall and the Museum of Russian Art, both in Minneapolis.

Instruments in mid-repair in Weinstein’s workshop.

One of the early highlights is celebrated violinist Itzchak Perlman’s visit to Temple Israel for the synagogue’s annual Voices: Ideas for our Time fundraiser. Kline said that Temple Israel wanted to participate in Violins of Hope in some way and was able to pair it with their annual fundraiser.

“We certainly offered the opportunity to every synagogue in town, and the vast majority took us up on the offer, and are creating some kind of programming around it, which has been really gratifying to see,” Kline said of the local synagogue participation. “In the same way that each residency is unique, each synagogue’s approach to how they want to present these instruments to their congregation is unique, and sort of just speaks to their unique personalities and takes on the residency and the initiative.”

While a 16-time Grammy winner like Perlman is an easy highlight, Kline said, picking a favorite event is “like picking a favorite child.”

One of the events that Kline said is meaningful to her is a May 13 event at Walker West, a historically Black music school in St. Paul’s Selby-Dale neighborhood.

“It’s an incredible school with just an amazing history, and we’ll be lifting up some of the common struggles of the Black and Jewish experiences at that event,” Kline said. “Events like that are really, I think, going to be impactful, even though they might be the less splashy ones.”

Educating about musical heritage

Avshi Weinstein said that about 70 instruments will be part of the exhibition in Minnesota, with about 60 still playable. Getting them to the playable stage is a journey.

“Anything from a month or two to two years,” Weinstein said. “You can restore almost everything, really. The question is, is it worth it?

“The value is not the money. The value is not in the instrument. The value is the story.”

Weinstein said there’s a violin in the collection of a girl who played in the Alma Rose orchestra in Birkenau.

“I would have never made a single dollar for this violin, let alone restore it and dare to sell it,” he said. “But that’s the violin that she learned how to play, and that’s why she was alive this way. She could go into the orchestra and stay alive.”

Weinstein learned the art from his father. Amnon studied to be a luthier in Cremona, Italy, at a violin-making school, followed by an apprenticeship in Paris. Avshi said that his father started playing violin and viola at a young age, but gave it up as he became more interested in the construction of the instruments. Avshi also played a little bit, but the mission of Violins of Hope hit very close to his family, as he is a third-generation survivor on his mother’s side.

“This was something that we lived very close to all our lives,” he said.

A significant component of Violins of Hope is Holocaust education. 

“Usually people don’t realize how much music was there” during the Holocaust, Weinstein said. “And to have those instruments which were there and that you actually know their stories, it’s very strong emotionally.

Amnon Weinstein z’l is working on rehabilitating a violin.

“We knew that they were musicians. Everybody knew that there was music, but we never knew the amount. And more intimate stuff: Pinchas Zukerman said his father got an extra piece of bread a week because he played in the orchestra.” 

Susie Greenberg, the director of Holocaust education at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, said that music took on different roles and meanings. In some concentration camps, prisoners were forced to play in ”orchestras” for the entertainment of the Nazis, as well as when new prisoners arrived in the camps. These “orchestras” were often used as a means of propaganda to deceitfully show the broader public that Jewish prisoners were being treated humanely.

The musical performances were censored by the Nazis as a means of control and dehumanization, Greenberg said. Alternatively, singing and composing music was often done in private by Jewish prisoners as a means of self-determination and resistance- ultimately a symbol of freedom and expression.

“These violins are pieces that survived the Holocaust through different means and were played or were kept during that time,” Greenberg said. “And so each one of these violins and other instruments has a personal story.”

Said Weinstein: “The people who bring them [tell the stories]. There’s no other way, really.”

Weinstein said the children or grandchildren of survivors are the ones bringing him the instrument.

“This is family artifacts, much more than anything else,” he said. “The instruments themselves, these are not great stuff. The great stuff was confiscated, never to be seen again. But these are instruments that played in so many different places.”

Kline said there is one violin that was thrown off a train heading for a concentration camp.

“They shouted out the window, ‘Where I’m going, I won’t need this,’ and tossed it out, and a random villager finds it,” she said. “There are so many stories here, and bringing those stories to life is really, you know, the whole point of all of this. There are amazing stories, heartbreaking as well as resilient.”

The JCRC is one of the organizations sponsoring the exhibition; Greenberg said the organization was creating educational lessons around the music in the camps and its significance.  

“We will…bring this component of history into the classroom,” Greenberg said. “So some of these might be Holocaust speakers talking about their family history, and then we incorporate a tangible component of history that people can touch and hear and see and smell and feel that is related to what we already do.”

The post Violins of Hope Exhibit Brings Message of Resilience to Minnesota appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Fortunately for Neiman, a Minnesota native who now lives in Connecticut, he didn’t have to dig too deep into his memory for the details; he had to revisit the blog that he used as a trip journal.

“When I got on the trail, it was a daily journal,” Neiman said. “I wanted to share it with family who weren’t there with me, and I knew in the back of my mind that I was probably going to want to write a book about this experience. I’d read a bunch of other ones, and there’s no way I was going to remember it all.”

Neiman had been planning the hike since 2002, something he said he didn’t want to divulge when he spoke with TC Jewfolk before he started the hike. 

“I probably downplayed it in real time because that makes me sound like a crazy person,” he said. “And if, like, after a week, I decided I didn’t like it and came home with my tail tucked between my legs. I didn’t want to overplay it at first. But the reality is, I really have been spending most of my adult life around thinking, planning, and building towards it. It was almost like every year I thought I was going to do it, and then a reason came not to do it. And so it just built up until we got to that moment.”

For all of the years of planning that Neiman put into the trip, he learned quickly that nothing goes to plan.

“You’ll see I had built out whole daily agendas, like every place I was going to stop along the way,” he said. There were a few reasons for this, in no small part because he wanted to know everything he was going to do along the route. But also, there were family considerations: His father was joining him on a pre-determined place on the trail to hike a section, he had to meet his wife at a wedding, and he had to be back in Los Angeles because he and his wife were moving to the East Coast. 

“The very first day, it all got thrown out the window because I’m sitting at LAX airport, and I was supposed to have a flight early in the morning that would drop me out there early afternoon,” he said. “I’d be able to get to the trail. I’d be able to have dinner with people; all these things I had planned. And my flight was delayed eight hours.”

Neiman’s pacing on the trail also got quickly thrown off.

“One of the things I really wanted was this community of hikers that was going to become your trail family,” he said. “And so I met with this group right away, and we became a family. We were hiking week over week, like every day together, and it was awesome, but they had a slower plan than I did, and I kept on getting further and further behind what I thought I needed to do.”

He then realized that, about four days before he was meeting his father, he was 150 miles away.

“There’s no chance,” he said. 

Neiman’s book details the steps taken to meet his dad on the trail, when he flew home, and making up missing ground.

The book also strikes a middle ground between memoir and how-to guide.

“I tried to find a really cool balance,” he said. “I’ve read a lot of these books in the past, and they typically follow one of two paths: self-realization and personal emotional transformation, or the other ones are like Wild or A Walk in the Woods, which is just overly dramatic, all these horrible things that could happen.

“I did not have this, like, life-changing perspective or problems emotionally that I was working through. I just love hiking.”

Neiman hasn’t done a hike quite like the Appalachian Trail since having two young children makes it hard to take four or five months away from home. But yearly, two of his friends he grew up with in Minneapolis, Adam Rosen and Max Puchtel, do a one-week hike each summer to national parks like Yosemite, the Grand Tetons, or Denali.

“I think what I want people to know most of all is, if there’s something that you’ve always wanted to do, don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen yourself,” he said. “I waited 15 years to do this, which is a long time. A lot could have happened in those 15 years. And I never want to regret that I didn’t get to do something I wanted because life got too much in the way. You have to make it happen.”

The post Minnesota Native Michael Neiman Details Appalachian Trail Journey in New Book appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Mike Frisch breaks the stereotype.

A Twin Cities native and St. Louis Park resident, Frisch has been helping build and rehab houses with Habitat for Humanity for 17 years. For many of them, he’s been the coordinator – the leader of his crew – which is sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Frisch didn’t organize the crew, which started in the mid-2000s with Stan Alexander from Bet Shalom took the lead. At one point, most of the crew was Jewish, but now there are only two Jewish regulars and one other who helps out whenever she’s available.

The JCRC Habitat crew puts in six or seven hours every Friday wherever they’re sent. Frisch got involved because he was looking for an active project in retirement and learned about Stan’s Habitat crew. He approached Stan and the rest is history.

“I always tried to recruit volunteers who showed up at sites for the first time to work with Habitat,” Frisch said of his time as coordinator. “I also tried to encourage others to join who I met elsewhere (synagogues, other Jewish places), particularly Jewish people. My standing joke to encourage them was to say if they knew which end of the hammer to pound with or which end of the paintbrush to paint with, they were eligible to work with Habitat. There, they would be taught what skills they needed to do the work by friendly site supervisors who are used to volunteers with all levels of skills from beginners to advanced people.”

Frisch said he was handy around the house before he started volunteering with Habitat, but he learned a lot about actual construction from his Habitat experience. But building a new house or rehabbing a dilapidated one is different from changing a washer on the kitchen faucet.

“One of the most difficult things to do in my Habitat work has been to put up drywall on a ceiling. You have to work overhead putting enough screws in to hold it up and then finish with the rest later. Luckily, almost all the time, we can use lifts, which positions the panels right up to where we have to start putting in screws. Occasionally, we have to work in a small space where a lift won’t fit, and then it’s harder because we have to manually hold the panels in place before starting the screws. The thing about Habitat is that you learn to do a LOT of things!”

Frisch’s favorite project – although he never worked on it himself – was one done by the “Brush with Kindness” unit of Habitat, which does small jobs for elderly or homebound people who just need a little help to meet the landlord or City’s standards. He recalled a 2012 call for help at a familiar address: 1634 Upton Ave. N. in Minneapolis.

“I was amazed because it was the house I grew up in for the first 24 years and hadn’t been there in 45 years,” Frisch said, but he wasn’t able to volunteer that days because he was out of town for a wedding. “I called [the homeowners] and arranged a tour sometime later. The one thing I most remembered about my visit was the upstairs flooring. It was still the vinyl tile that was there originally when my parents had two bedrooms and a half bath built to house.”

Before becoming involved with Habitat in retirement (he was a computer programmer at the U of M for years), he volunteered locally with Nechama: The Jewish Response to Disaster. He’s always been active in the Jewish community through his membership at Beth El synagogue, along with his wife Bernice. You often can run into them at a Lake Harriet concert or while walking at most of the local lakes. Their daughter, Flip, lives in Portland, Ore., with her daughter and is a cantorial assistant at the shul across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Wash. Frisch’s son Tom also lives in Portland, combining work in videography and building new homes – especially smaller ones.

Frisch says he believes in the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, repairing the world. Habitat for Humanity represents that concept by making housing available to working families at a reduced price by providing volunteer labor.

Mike’s put down the scepter of JCRC Crew Coordinator, but still is looking for other local MOTs who’d like to join the crew. Contact him at frisc007@alumni.umn.edu or call his cell at 612-805-0287, and he’ll put you in touch with the JCRC Habitat Crew who can get you on board.

The post Mike the Builder appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

“It has absolutely met our expectations,” Weisberg said of the first year of JMatchmaking. “We’ve learned a lot” from the experience.

JMatchmaking is a program open to singles 65 and over who would like to be fixed up. Freshly retired from careers in the business world and looking to give back to the community, Cohodes and Weisberg co-founded what started as Old School Jewish Matchmaking as a labor of – and for – love. 

“I feel like we’re successful with what we have,” Weisberg said. “I’m proud of ourselves for what we’re doing, given our database, given where we’re at thus far. I’m proud of how we’ve conducted it.”

Being both thoughtful and careful in their approach has been by design. 

“People come to us with so much positive anticipation, and we try to kind of coach them through this and say it’s a long-term game we’re playing here,” Weisberg said. “We’re new, even though now we’re one year old. But there’s more time ahead, and time is our friend in terms of getting the word out there and having more people know about us and join.”

Their roster is now open to Jewfolk of a certain age, as well as those they call “Jewish-adjacent,” people with ties to the community. Seniors looking for a match, or those helping an interested senior, should join our new Facebook Group, Old School Jewish Matchmaking, or email matchmaking@jewfolk.com. 

Cohodes and Weisberg view their efforts as part of their personal commitment to tikkun olam, repairing or improving the world. They observed an unmet need in the community, noting that often, seniors view dating websites and apps as unappealing or unsafe.

“We need time for some successes to reverberate,” Cohodes said, adding that having more men in their pool of potential matches would be helpful, although she’s hopeful that as people are back in Minnesota after being away in the winter, those successes will increase. 

“What’s stood out is the strong desire for companionship, having it in their back pocket that they know what they’re doing for dinner Saturday night,” Cohodes said. “I feel like that has been the prevailing message. And there’s certainly ones that are looking for a deeper and more romantic [relationship], and it probably everything in between. For me, the possibility they leave with after they’ve talked to us, that’s the real reward and what stands out when I think about meeting with people.”

The post Reflecting on 1 Year of JMatchmaking appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Listen to “Leah Temkin” on Spreaker.

Please subscribe to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and more, and don’t forget to rate and review. Check out the show page where you can catch up on previous episodes. And of course, if you have suggestions of others who would be great subjects, let us know!

The post Who The Folk?! Leah Temkin appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

Come by the Minnesota JCC – Capp Center St. Paul on Sunday, April 19, between 2-4 p.m. for a drop-in collage workshop and art materials swap. This hands-on meetup is free of charge and the third in a series sponsored by TC Jewfolk and the Jewish Arts Collective (JAC).

“The Art Materials Swap + Collage Workshop series is open to everyone!” said Robyn Awend, director of arts engagement at the Minnesota JCC. 

“We especially encourage artists, makers, and anyone with a creative spark — whether you’re a seasoned professional, a casual hobbyist, or someone simply curious to try something new,” Awend said. “It’s a space to share, exchange, and explore together. All are welcome and encouraged to join in.”

Jewish. Arts. Collective.

“JAC is a community of artists, where making, sharing, and reflecting are all grounded in Jewish wisdom and a feeling of collective identity,” said Awend. 

These are challenging times, making it critical for Jewish artists to have spaces to connect, support, and uplift each other. 

“At its heart, the Collective creates a sense of belonging, resilience, and hope, reminding us that art can be a powerful force for healing, processing and deep connection,” Awend said.

Lucy Marshall is the featured artist for the April meet-up.

“It is going to be such a sweet gathering!” Marshall said. “We will have loads of amazing art supplies for participants to bring home, and folks will have the opportunity to create collage art in our shared workshop space. I am so looking forward to what wisdom and beauty we’ll co-create together!”

Marshall has a meaningful theme planned.

“The event takes place during the Omer, a period of counting days between Pesach and Shavuot, marking the Israelites’ journey from Mitzrayim (Egypt/the narrow place) to revelation at Mount Sinai,” she explained. “In our collaborative collage project, participants will be invited to reflect on their own journeys, both personal and communal — Where have you been? Where are you going?” 

Based on her experience both in her personal life and as an educator, Marshall said: “I know people are most creative when they feel a sense of belonging. JAC has been a generative, meaningful space where everyone is both a teacher and a learner. I am in awe of the boundless creativity and wisdom within our local Jewish artist community.”

While each artist brings a unique perspective, the shared Jewish lens remains vital. 

“[It] cultivates my own feeling of belonging by providing a shared grounding of stories, values, and traditions with the other participants,” Marshall said. “It’s exciting to explore how Jewishness shapes our artistic works in such unique ways. I believe art is not passive; by co-creating in a decidedly Jewish space, our art actively shapes Judaism and our Jewish community. This mutuality really nourishes me.”

Vibrant Featured Artist

Just like spring, Marshall’s creative endeavors are varied and rich with the cycle of life.

“Mainly, I am a writer,” she said. “I love to write ritual, poetry, and personal narrative. I consider Jewish tradition to be my artistic ‘raw material’ that I am inheriting, responding to, reshaping, and offering as a contribution to new Jewish futures. I also play with other mediums like collage, songwriting, and, very recently, linocut.”

She’s currently creating new rituals for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences.

“I am leading a project called ‘Seeking Shleimut: A Postpartum Deck of Jewish Wisdom,’ which will be a deck of 40 beautifully illustrated kavanah (intention) cards and an accompanying guidebook to support new parents on a spiritual journey towards hope and wholeness (shleimut).”

Nature and Judaism nourish Marshall’s creativity.

“I’m always inspired by working with the Seven Species, which feels really resonant with springtime,” she said. “Connecting with the earth’s cycles helps me find balance and meaning in my daily rhythms. The Jewish calendar is very important to me, and I orient around its four New Years, including Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the new moon of the current Hebrew month, which includes the Passover holiday. During Nissan, I consider which practices and patterns I am ready to let go of, and which ways of being might bring more openness and freedom into my life and the world around me.”

Marshall will encourage participants at the April meet-up to reflect and bring intentionality to the process.

“As adrienne maree brown writes, ‘What we pay attention to grows.’ During this springtime of renewal and growth, I’m planting new seeds of my attention to prioritize relationships, nurture my artistic self, and co-create spaces of Jewish belonging,” she said.

The event remains a “come as you are” and welcoming opportunity for all, and Marshall understands from personal experience the demands of daily living and the impact on one’s artistic expression.

“In this season of my life as a busy parent with young children, I will take any opportunity I get to be creative!” she said. “There is no wrong way to show up in this space.”

All materials will be provided, and participants can also bring and take gently used artistic supplies.

“Grab something new that catches your eye, swap with old supplies from home if you have them, and, if you’d like, cut, paste, and co-create with others in a shared collage,” Marshall said. “Art supplies can be an unexpectedly effective source of creative inspiration! Come join this warm, welcoming, and non-judgmental community just as you are.”

The post Spring Into Creativity with TC Jewfolk and the Jewish Arts Collective appeared first on TC Jewfolk.

My girls don’t get paid to make their beds. They don’t negotiate for money to clear their dishes after dinner. These are simply things they do because they live here, eat here, play here, and benefit from a functioning home.  Routines aren’t optional; they are the default. They’re just part of normal life.

The Morning Rule: Don’t Leave Your Room Until It’s Made

Most mornings, neither Charli nor Andi comes downstairs until their bed is made. Not perfectly, but blankets straightened, pillows in place, stuffed animals arranged the way they like. Sometimes one asks for help. Sometimes one offers to make the other’s bed. Both are fine. The goal isn’t perfection; it is ownership.

Starting the day by putting your space in order teaches structure and follow-through. It teaches that presentation matters, even when no one else sees it. This is how my mom raised me, and it’s what I’m passing on. Most importantly, it teaches that routine responsibilities don’t require applause, rewards, or incentives. They simply get done.

Take Your Plate to the Sink Is Courtesy, Not a Chore

In our house, plates go to the sink automatically after dinner. No reminders, no bargaining. Kids eat food prepared by someone else, sit at a table someone else cleaned, and use dishes someone else washed. Returning a plate isn’t labor, it’s respect. It communicates: I acknowledge what goes into making life run smoothly, and I won’t expect others to clean up after me. I am a contributor, not a consumer.

When payment is attached to actions like these, we unintentionally teach the opposite: I only help when compensated, or worse, it’s someone else’s job unless I’m earning from it.

The Playroom: Shared Space, Shared Accountability

The playroom is my sore spot. Once a week, it gets reset. Sometimes they divide the work. Sometimes one does more because the other helped the day before. Sometimes they argue or negotiate. There’s no payment, no stickers, no points, just responsibility. They made the mess, so they clean it up. This is the room you enjoy, so clean it up, or Barbies will be missing tomorrow when you want to play with them. Keeping it nice is part of enjoying it.

The Dog: Caring Without Reward

Charli feeds our dog regularly. She doesn’t treat it like a job or expect a bonus. She does it because the dog exists and needs care. She did this long before sleep-away camp introduced chore charts, but camp reinforced the lesson that living in a shared environment means participating in its upkeep. I know no counselor paid her for helping because helping is part of community.

Why I Don’t Pay for These Things

The message I want my children to internalize is simple: You help because you belong, not because you profit.

In adult life, very little works the way chore charts suggest. No one pays you to make your bed, put groceries away, or clear your plate at a friend’s house. Real life requires unmonitored contribution.

When chores become income-based, accountability shifts from self-respect, empathy, and shared responsibility to money. Helping shifts from instinctive to transactional. Parents become employers, children become employees, and the home becomes an economy, not a family.

What I Do Believe Kids Should Be Paid For

I don’t think compensation is wrong. I think categories matter. Paying for babysitting, mowing someone else’s lawn, or selling bracelets makes sense. Those are services beyond standard household responsibilities. They mirror real-world earnings. Maintaining the home you live in does not.

Teaching Internal Satisfaction

I want my kids to experience adult satisfaction, walking into a tidy room, resetting a chaotic space, and doing something because it should be done. No clapping, no payout, just competence.

One day, my kids will live with roommates or partners. or alone. and realize the tooth fairy doesn’t have a cousin named the laundry fairy. I want them to know how to function before that moment arrives.

Helping at home isn’t extra; it is called living. The goal isn’t to raise employees. It’s to raise responsible, aware, capable humans who can go out into the world. 

And sometimes the best way to teach that is simply to say: “You live here.” You help here. And that is enough.

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You’re working with a stripped-down Airbnb kitchen, improvising ingredients, googling “is this technically kosher for Passover?” while standing in a grocery aisle that definitely does not have a kosher section. You’re not doing it “right.” You know that.

And still – you do something.

Not everything. Not perfectly. But something.

Because Passover has never really been about perfection.

Passover is the story of leaving – not in ideal conditions, not with everything neatly packed, not with time to let the bread rise. It is the story of movement, of urgency, of doing what you can with what you have because the moment calls for it. In many ways, cobbling together a seder on vacation is more Pesach-like than the days or weeks of preparation that many do in their own homes today.

So I find myself making some effort, even here, even now.

And I think about the people who came before me.

The ones who kept Passover in places far less convenient than a vacation rental. The ones who carried memory across continents, who whispered the story when it wasn’t safe to say it out loud, who made matzah out of necessity and ritual out of whatever scraps they could gather. The ones who did it despite everything.

And I think, too, about those who couldn’t.

The ones who lost the ability, or the access, or the safety, or the knowledge to do it at all. The ones whose chains, literal or metaphorical, didn’t break in time. The ones whose stories didn’t get passed down neatly around a seder table.

Passover asks us to hold both.

To remember that we were slaves – and that we are free.

To honor the effort – and the absence.

Because the truth is, the freedom we celebrate isn’t just the leaving Egypt part.

It’s what comes after.

It’s the choosing.

Choosing to remember.

Choosing to show up, even imperfectly.

Choosing to tell the story again, even if the table looks different this year.

Choosing to carry something forward – not because we have to, but because we can.

That’s the part that feels especially real to me right now.

No one is making me do this. No one is checking if I did it correctly. There is no gold star for vacation Passover observance – and if you know me, you know I’m a first-born, type A, achiever who loves a gold star.

But there is something deeply grounding about opting in.

About saying: this matters to me. This story is still mine. These people – both the ones who made it through and the ones who didn’t – are still part of how I understand myself in the world.

Passover is often called zman cheiruteinu: the season of our freedom.

And I think, this year, I understand that a little differently.

Freedom isn’t just the absence of constraint.

It’s the presence of choice.

And sometimes, it looks like a makeshift seder plate, a not-quite-right meal, and a quiet, stubborn decision to keep going anyway. It looks like running to the shelter with every red alert but still efforting a complete seder. It looks like the resilience we are seeing in Israelis and in Jews around the world who are still choosing to observe and to gather and to find joy no matter the challenges in front of us.

For them.

For those who did.

For those who couldn’t.

And for the version of us who gets to choose.

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