On March 28, 1944, six-year-old Tatiana and her four-year-old sister Andra were roused from their sleep and arrested by German and Italian soldiers. With their grandmother, mother, aunt, and cousin, they were deported to Auschwitz, where Joseph Mengele performed deadly experiments on children. More than 230,000 children were deported to the camp, of whom only a few dozen survived.

Determined to keep track of her girls, their mother Mira, whose barrack was on the other side of Birkenau, managed, somehow, to visit them several times in the camp, each time repeating their names and telling them to “always remember your name.” By keeping this promise to their mother, the sisters were eventually reunited with their parents after the war.

by Shani, Dena and Daniella

 I have wanted to go to shul for as long as I can remember. Sitting in the row, with my mother on one side of me and my sisters on the other, listening to my father davening for the amud, I felt so connected and accomplished as I moved through the Machzor and poured my heart out. I want to go to shul.

But the past few years have been different (for good reason, baruch Hashem). Instead of being in shul this Rosh Hashanah, I will be home with my young children, while my husband davens on behalf of our whole family. I want to go to shul, yet, in the same way that it is my husband’s avodah to daven, it is mine to take care of our kiddies. So I won’t be going this year, and since there are many other young mothers like me adjusting to this new Yom Tov reality, I want to focus on what we can do and think about to bring meaning to our Rosh Hashanah.

The stores are hosting their annual school supplies’ sales; the children are (hopefully) finishing up their summer work. Last-day-of-camp parties are complete, final vacation plans are settled, and preparation for a month of Yamim Tovim has begun. This year, Baltimore will be joined by a new school, Binyan Yisroel. Meet Alana Weinberg, the founder and executive director of this new, revolutionary school.

 Elaine Berkowitz

 Soon, many of us will share our Rosh Hashanah tables with the head of a fish. And that is not so strange; Jews and fish have a long acquaintance with each other.

In fact, Jews have been compared to fish. A Roman asked Rabbi Akiva why the Jews risked death by studying the Torah when the Romans outlawed it. Rabbi Akiva answered with a parable: A fox, seeing the fish in a stream scurrying here and there to avoid the fishermen’s nets, beckoned them to come ashore. He had ulterior motives, of course. But the fish were not taken in. They said, if we are at risk of death by the fisherman, we will certainly die if we come ashore. And so it is with the Jews, who must be immersed in the waters of Torah to survive.

In previous issues of the Where What When, we discussed three common money mistakes. The first is not having a budget, the second is living above your means, and the third is not having an emergency fund. Let’s look at two more common money mistakes: needing more retirement funds and not having enough insurance.

For some time, I have been a subscriber to an email group called “Avira d’Eretz Yisroel” (loosely translated as “the holy atmosphere of the Land of Israel”). There, and on his website, www.aviraderetzyisroel.org, Yoel Berman promotes successful “chareidi” aliyah from North America by educating and informing his readership about communities, old and new, that are appropriate for American bnei Torah and their families – a goal that he shows to be practical, attainable, and worth striving for. If you’re a regular reader of the Where What When, you’ve probably seen some of his articles featured in these pages.

Believe it or not, September – and a new school year – is just a few weeks away. As children and teachers get ready to enter their classrooms and meet each other for the first time, a sensitive question often comes up: How much the teacher should know about each student’s previous year’s school performance and current home environment in preparation for the new school year.

In their striving to create an environment of success for each child, teachers often want to hear if there is a family issue, like a simcha, a divorce, or an illness in the family, or, perhaps, a social, emotional, or behavioral issue the child is struggling with, such as a diagnosis of ADHD. Was the child affected by bullying, whether as the bully or the bullied? In all these matters, it can be helpful for teachers to know about them. Of course, the focus of information should always be to ensure that the teacher is well-prepared to create the best possible environment for each child.

Have you ever wondered why some people invest so much time and effort into tracing their family roots? The answer lies in the integral connection between our identity and our ancestral past. In fact, genealogy is not only a pursuit of personal curiosity but also a way to understand our place in the world, forge connections with our relatives, and, sometimes, gain a sense of belonging.

The significance of genealogy can be found in the Torah. It repeatedly emphasizes the importance of understanding our lineage, exemplified by the stories of our ancestors. Take, for instance, the tale of Rus and Dovid Hamelech, which beautifully illustrates the profound connection between individuals across generations. 

As most people are well aware, the state of Maryland legalized recreational cannabis use on July 1, 2023. This new legislation means that adults (21 years or older) can purchase cannabis at licensed dispensaries, ingest cannabis in private settings, and even grow cannabis in their backyard. An excellent summary of this legislation can be found at: mmcc.maryland.gov.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to consider how this law might affect cannabis use in our state and possibly develop hypotheses based on the experience of other states that have already legalized recreational use.

We are in the midst of an epidemic that is hurting our children but that no one seems to be talking about. It’s not caused by a virus, bite, or bacteria. It’s caused by food. The standard American diet, aptly known as SAD, is a diet filled with sugar, seed oils (foreign to the human body), and refined carbohydrates, all packaged in an abundance of highly processed concoctions. This diet is the mainstay of what most American children eat. And it’s making them sick.

Today, 20% of American children are obese or overweight, a number projected to reach 30% by 2030. Ten percent of children aged two-to-five are already fat. The incidence of Type II diabetes and ”pre-diabetes” has risen sharply in children, and 25% have fatty liver disease, a condition previously associated with alcoholics and unheard of in children pre-1980. It’s a new phenomenon in medical literature called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).