Jodi's Blog (154)

Over Shabbat I read a book: “Doublelife" written by my friends Harold and Gayle Berman and their journey as intermarried couple. I have been following Harold's blog and I was intrigued. I am not intermarried or from an intermarried family so I was not sure how relevant the book would be but we have developed a good friendship with Gayle and Howard over the past few years and was interested to learn more about their lives. I was captivated from the first page.

Gayle and Harold now live…

Stress equals perspective

I was looking at a photo from my sons 3 year old birthday party. Temira (8) commented that I looked so young and pretty in the photo. So of course that made we wonder what I look like now - 8 years later. She said "old and tired". Not exactly what I was hoping to hear.

Stress can do that to you.........

For the last 6 months I have been overwhelmed with stress on many levels. I simply have bitten off more than I can chew. In the last few weeks I…

This past Shabbat we took a group of JICNY people to Riverdale, beautiful and warm community 15 minutes north of the Upper West Side of Manhattan. One of the inspirational Rabbi's in the community Avi Weiss spoke to our group about "perfection vs excellence". He connected the theme of the sefirat ha-omer - days of counting between Pesach and Shavout. We count 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot. Forty-nine is seven times seven where seven represents the maximum human effort which is by…

I recently read an article that really shocked me and shook me to the core. A mom who publicly wrote in a national newspaper in the UK that having her children were her biggest regret in life. The article is peppered with horrific quotes such as “I resented the time my children consumed” and “Like parasites, they took from me and didn't give back”. I suggest everyone reads the article…

I lead a crazy life running a business, volunteering 30+ hours a week for my organization - the Jewish International Connection NY – and the CEO of Caila’s intervention team. I am also mom and wife, hostess and I even find time, to work out 4 hrs a week. Everyone asks me how I do it. It’s simple math - I sleep on average 4 hours a night except Friday nights.

Let’s assume each night I sleep 3 hours less than the average person getting 8 hours of sleep a night. Four hours a night equals…

If you follow my bog you know that our family are adventurous travelers and use every school break to get away and usually to interesting and intrepid places.   We are spending Pesach in San Francisco, Yosemite and Lake Tahoe.   While Gavin travels so much for work and it makes our NY life stressful the upside is copious frequent flyer miles and hotel points making low cost travel for a family of 5 possible.   This Pesach is simply the cost of car hire.  We get to see amazing places. My eyes…

I am very scared

I was sitting at a Shabbat dinner in a densely religious neighborhood a few weeks ago and people were openly talking about how they scam a government program. These were middle class people discussing how they access an assistance program for low income New Yorkers. They proudly told me how easy it is to do – there is a person in the community who for a mere $75 has a tried and tested way of completing the application forms in such a way that approval was virtually…

I attended the AIPAC conference in Washington DC this week. 10,000 Jews in one place coming together to proudly and unequivocally voice their support for Israel. The atmosphere is electrifying and the speakers are inspiring and amazing. Keynote speakers include Vice President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Minister Ehud Barak. There are also hundreds of breakout sessions with top thought leaders, politicians, academics and journalists.

I know so many more people who…

Caily turned 5 on February 25. Her birthday is always a time for deep introspection. I still feel like I have a mild case of post traumatic disorder as 5 years later I still have flash backs to that moment on day 2 of Caily’s life when the pediatrician asked “Mrs. Samuels did you have genetic testing?” I…

We have just returned from a fantastic cruise in the Caribbean. It was my parents’ 40th birthday gift to me - they treated the whole family.

If you have ever been on a cruise then you certainly know that food is a major attraction. Copious amounts of food, all day buffets, free room service, 24 hour ice cream and pizza, fancy dining and midnight carvery - just in case one’s blood sugar dropped dangerously low 15 minutes after that umpteenth slice of pizza.

Food, food and more…

According to our Sages: "You can recognize a person's real character by how a person acts b'koso (when his own money is concerned), koso (his glass, his ... of alcohol) and ka'aso (his anger, how the person behaves when he is angry)."



This past Shabbat I had an interesting dilemma.  There was a blizzard in NYC.  I had eagerly been watching the weather.  I had a big Shabbat dinner for 100 people scheduled, a kiddush Saturday morning in honor or Caila's birthday and…

If the mind is blind the eyes cannot see

I recently read a blog post of a mom who had a baby with Down syndrome. While researching the condition she became aware of the atrocious conditions under which children with special needs kids in many countries…

Last Friday night, after services, I attended a small kiddush. A tall, somewhat socially inept man came to me and asked if I was Jodi. He introduced himself as someone who is active in Jewish social media and said that he was aware of the many community activities and business ventures that I am involved in.

He…

My child was bullied

On a recent Friday I picked Meron up from school. As he saw me, the tears started streaming down his face. As soon as we were in the car he started sobbing. Despite much coaxing, he refused to tell me what was wrong. I was obviously very concerned. This was not like him at all.

I emailed his teachers who were equally surprised and had no clue as to what had led to his tears. Over the weekend he kept crying. Finally, he told me that “something had happened…

I hate New Year’s resolutions. In fact I hate making promises that I know I will never keep. For those of you who recall Jodi’s weight loss challenge and my pledge to reclaim my body by my 40th birthday. Well that one failed badly. My intentions were good and I thought by making my resolution public it would…

What is Down syndrome?

We are away at the moment with good friends. We have kids of the same ages and they spend hours playing with each other as they have for many years. There is a Youtube video circulating about an…

A Jewish birthday can be considered in some ways to be "a mini-Rosh Hashanah”. The Talmud informs us that on our Jewish birthdays our mazal (good fortune) is dominant. The Jewish birthday is the perfect day for reflection about our lives as Jews and is an auspicious time to make new resolutions to perform…

The bad news is that time flies. The good news is that you are the pilot – I love this quote. I wish I could wear it as a sign with flash neon lights. As parents we are all too aware of just how quickly time flies when we see how quickly our kids grow up and can hardly recall those baby moments. Do you remember when you were in school how long it would take to pass the last 5 minutes of a math class and now as an adult each hour of our work days fly by so quickly with little decrease in our…

I would like to know from all of you, when you host a party do you like to have premade cocktails available? Or do you prefer to have different ingredients out so that guests can create their own masterpieces? I would like to put it out to MetroImma: to create or to wait?

I’m still undecided over there. I enjoy preparing for a party but I do know that there are occasions when I can run out of time in the preparation stage and all of a sudden everyone has arrived and I’m still…