Jenna Ashkenazi

When thinking about the brand Anna Augusta, people might think this bridal brand is like all the others, that may create beautiful dresses, but do not really care about their customers. Anna Augusta is different. Each customer is valued, no one is treated less than anyone else. That is to be expected with the one-on-one appointments with Anna herself (where she creates custom gowns to perfectly accentuate each bride). But customers who do not choose a one-on-one appointment can also see how much the staff at Anna August cares by looking at Anna Agusta’s store BUY GOWN.

BUY GOWN Offers Options

At BUY GOWN, customers have a chance to see the kinds of dresses Anna offers without needing the one-on-one appointment. Customers can see a select number of evening gowns, all custom made and couture. BUY GOWN offers evening gowns for many different occasions, available for purchase or rental. Speaking to Kamila, the sales manager at BUY GOWN, it’s easy to see how unique the store is, which is why so many people chose Anna Augusta and BUY GOWN.

“For us, it’s never just about the gown,” Kamila says. “It’s about trust, connection, and making sure every client feels beautiful and supported. When someone leaves happy and confident, that’s our greatest success.” That mindset is what makes BUY GOWN and the Anna Augusta brand stand out in the NYC market. “Our flexible business model is built around people. We don’t just sell gowns – we build long-term, family-like relationships with our clients, always aiming to make them feel cared for and satisfied,” Kamila stated.

Two Great Choices

Other than the trust that is built between the staff and clients, the store has unique features that make customers turn to BUY GOWN when looking for a gown for an event. Customers can choose to rent a gown from the store, instead of buying it. In fact, about 80 percent of customers rent their gowns at BUY GOWN, rather than buy them. Renting gives the customer the ability to wear a showstopping gown once, for a fraction of the price, and not have to worry about long term storage. For those who purchase gowns, there is more room to customize the gown to their liking, and they can wear it as many times as they’d like.

Jack Gindi

Every February, winter sets in. We spend more time indoors, but we don’t get more connected. In fact, research shows couples fight more during these cold months, not less. We talk about caring for our neighbor, but what about giving our family more grace first?

I’ve lived through enough winters to see a pattern: the cold brings couples closer physically but often pushes them apart emotionally. Research now confirms what many of us feel – relationship conflict increases during these months.

The Loneliness Epidemic

The U.S. Surgeon General has declared an epidemic of loneliness. Nearly half of all American adults feel isolated, and for one in three, that feeling hits them every single week. We’re more connected digitally than ever before, yet we’ve never been further apart. We’re losing the art of true connection, and it’s a structural problem in human relationships.

I think about my early days in real estate. You’d have all these guys in the office, all different backgrounds, different beliefs, all hustling hard. We’d argue about current events, share lunch, celebrate each other’s deals. Nobody scheduled “connection time.” It just happened because we showed up, in person, every day. Today, the average American has fewer than five close friends, and a staggering 17 percent report having none at all. We’ve traded job sites for social media feeds, and we’re paying the price in our well-being.

My son Shaun had a gift for this kind of connection. He didn’t ask, “How are you?” he’d say, “What’s going on in your world?” That small shift invited real conversation. He instinctively knew how to make people feel seen. It’s a lesson I carry with me every day.

The Foundation of Marriage

But there’s a load-bearing wall that continues to support the structure of our happiness: marriage. Study after study shows that married people are consistently, significantly happier than their unmarried peers. A recent Gallup poll found those who are married are far more likely to be thriving. It’s not the piece of paper that creates this happiness premium; it’s the daily, intentional act of building a life with someone else.

This is where the Balance pillar of L.I.F.E. Mapping becomes so critical. Balance isn’t about a perfect 50/50 split between work and life. It’s about the integration of all our parts – our Body, Being, Business – into a harmonious whole, supported by the relationships that give it all meaning. It’s about designing a life where connection is not an afterthought, but the central beam that holds everything up.

In my own marriage of over fifty years, I’ve learned that love isn’t a feeling; it’s a project. It requires daily maintenance, honest communication, and a shared blueprint. It’s about creating rituals, the “important little things” we’d say to our kids at bedtime, and the non-negotiable Sunday morning coffee together that reinforce the foundation of your connection. A staggering 78 percent of married people feel closer to their spouse than to any other adult. That’s not an accident; it’s the result of intentional design.

So this February, I invite you to look at the blueprint of your heart, at the structure of your bonds. Are you building a life of intentional relationships, or are you living in a house of digital isolation?

Rebuild Loving Connections

So how do we fix this? We need to set a new navigation strategy. Here are three simple ways to start rebuilding loving connections right now:

The Analog Dinner Hour: For one meal, all phones go in a basket.

The Living Room Time Capsule: One night a week, break out a board game or a deck of cards. The silence we now fill with scrolling used to be filled with conversation.

The Front Porch Visit: Pick one person you care about and give them the gift of your undivided attention. A real phone call, a front-porch chat.

Loneliness is a crack in our national foundation, but it’s a crack we can repair, one relationship at a time. The data is clear: a deep, meaningful connection is the most powerful predictor of a thriving life. This month let’s not just celebrate family. Let’s prioritize the work of building the riches of feeling safe, appreciated, and seen. The blueprints are available to all of us. We just have to start building them together, right here, right now.

Because a life of balance isn’t about having it all. It’s about having the people who matter most, and building a world with them, for them, every single day.

Jack Gindi helps families navigate life’s challenges through the I Believe in Me Foundation. Contact: jack@ibelieveinmefoundation.com.

Michele Shrem

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often compared to the discovery of fire or the invention of electricity. This new technology is changing the path of civilization. Today, AI is no longer a futuristic concept confined to scientific laboratories. It is the silent engine behind our morning playlists, the ghostwriter in our office software, and the diagnostic eye in our hospitals.

However, as AI integrates into the intimate spaces of our homes and the high-stakes environments of our workplaces, a significant debate has emerged: is AI a helpful, good assistant or is AI a disruptive force that is harmful to us? Community members have different opinions about AI altogether and also concerning where we should draw the line. Let’s hear what different community members think. Included here are both men and women, some who work on site, others who work remotely. Included in this small survey are stay-at-home moms and dads as well.

Ezra M.

To me, AI is the ultimate force in productivity. From my perspective as a CEO, AI is the greatest gift to the modern workforce. By automating boring, repetitive tasks – data entry, scheduling, and basic reporting – AI frees my employees to engage in deeper work projects. At work, the line is drawn at routine. If a task is predictable, AI should handle it. This does not mean that you will be able to replace workers, but it changes them, allowing a single employee to produce the output of a ten-person team. This can potentially allow an employee to move up the ladder at a faster rate.

Jeannie T.

My worry is the fear of losing my job and being unemployed in the future. If AI can do my job better and faster than I can, this is a real concern, not just for me, but for many out there in the job force. If hundreds of employees are cut from a company, leaving a smaller work force, the companies will do better as they keep those salaries to mix into their revenue. The only losers in the whole thing are the employees. Not only that, but finding another job will be a tremendous problem, since many companies will be doing the same thing. The middle class who have jobs in certain fields such as coding, accounting, and research, will be replaced. We need to ensure that AI remains a tool used by people rather than as a substitute for employees.

Teddy A.

I feel like AI is an intrusive presence in my home. I feel that voice-activated assistants and predictive smart homes create a life that saps the human brain. If you need AI to decide the temperature of your room, the music you hear, and the grocery list you prepare, are you still the master of your own domain? We should be able to be ourselves and make our own decisions. AI can be helpful when it can execute a command, but harmful when it anticipates one without our consent.

Lori P.

Privacy is extremely important to me, and with AI, I feel that my entire life is on display for the whole world to see. To me it is like a hungry machine that keeps eating and eating my personal data. With every keystroke, AI is listening to everything and even tracks our sleep patterns. While AI should be helpful to us, I feel like I live under heavy surveillance. I have read books about dystopian worlds, but I never thought that the world I live in would be so similar. I don’t feel that AI should be allowed to eavesdrop and store intimate behavioral patterns and on top of that make money by selling the information to outside third parties. To me, AI is scary.

Michele S.

As a writer, my take on AI is very complex. On one hand, it can create a masterpiece in seconds. But to what end? It uses millions of works done by other people and without monetary compensation. It lacks the uniqueness of the human experience and threatens the livelihood of writers, artists, designers, and others. Nothing is original anymore. AI should be a canvas, not the painter. For myself, I am always torn between using it. Now, I have gained the experience that allows me to use AI as an assistant, and for me, this works. I can still be creative, but instead of taking an hour to think of a better way to say something, I can get the help I need in an instant, and still be able to not lose my train of thought.

Anonymous Community Doctor

In the medical field, the argument for AI is overwhelmingly positive. AI algorithms can detect Stage 1 lung cancer or rare retinal diseases with higher accuracy than human specialists. In the home, AI-powered wearables [for cardiac or other patients] can predict a heart attack before the wearer feels a chest pain. Here, AI can be a real asset to human life by using it as a diagnostic tool, but the responsibility of care is still the burden of the doctor. I feel that something that benefits my patients is a tool that I must use in order to keep them safe and live a longer life.

Judy T.

As a mother and a teacher, I feel a unique challenge. AI can provide personalized tutoring to a child at home, adapting to their specific learning pace. However, it also enables a culture of “shortcut learning” via tools like ChatGPT. The idea is that AI is helpful for supplementation but harmful for substitution. The development of critical thinking is a very important skill, which will be lost. AI should help a student understand a concept, not write the essay for them.

Raymond A.

I happen to work in a technical field, and I feel that AI is only as good as the data being fed into it. How is AI making decisions and reaching conclusions? We need to make our own decisions and not leave it to AI. This is a very dangerous road to go down. The information can certainly be biased, based on so many factors. I think this can be very harmful, especially for children and young adults who may not fully understand how to use AI properly as an assist, and not as a resource to provide a full-blown answer for important matters. Whether it is used to figure out a homework problem, peer issue, medical problem, or anything else, if the information entered is not accurate, and a young person sees it on there, they may then factualize the information, and then we have a big problem.

Nathan C.

AI is a double-edged sword. It hardens our cyber defenses but also accelerates the spread of false information and market-manipulating disinformation. The challenge isn’t just about authenticating the source – it’s about data integrity. When bad actors inject fraudulent data into the training loop, the AI becomes a megaphone for deception. We don’t just need to know who wrote it, we also need to ensure the underlying data hasn’t been corrupted.

Goldy R.

Is anyone going to actually think on their own? If AI doesour work, manages our homes, and solves our problems, do we lose the very challenges that give life meaning? I think AI can be harmful, since it is removing the need for a person to think and to expend effort to think outside of the box. Creativity will lessen over time, and to me this is very sad.

In conclusion, it seems that most of our community members do not like AI for home or work, based on a variety of reasons. Many feel that the line between helpful and harmful AI is a moving target that requires constant monitoring. The consensus is that at work AI should be used as a co-pilot to assist us, while leaving the final decisions to people. At home, the line should be drawn when it infringes on our privacy or our ability to be present for those around us. Our homes should remain a sanctuary where people are allowed to live without the constant gaze of Big Brother. Ultimately, AI is a mirror of its creators. If we value efficiency above all else, AI will be a cold, efficient master. If we value empathy, creativity, and privacy, we can steer this technology to be the most helpful assistant humanity has ever known.

Michele

By Simha Mental Health Series

At SIMHA, our mission has always been to bridge the gap between our community members and the vital mental health support they need. Often, the calls we receive involve the heavy burden of cognitive decline, families struggling to understand why a parent is acting differently, or spouses feeling the weight of a changing relationship. To shed light on this sensitive topic, we recently sat down with Adina Segel, LCSW, the Jewish Community Outreach Social Worker at Caring Kind.

Dementia: More Than Just Memory Loss

One of the most common misconceptions Adina encounters is the confusion between “Dementia” and “Alzheimer’s.”

“Dementia is an umbrella term,” Adina explains. “It’s a syndrome that impacts memory, judgment, and behavior. Alzheimer’s is simply the most common cause of that syndrome.”

During our interview, Adina highlighted that different forms of dementia require different types of understanding:

Vascular Dementia: Often caused by mini-strokes, this form doesn’t always show a straight decline but rather “plateaus” where a person stays stable before another drop.

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD): This often hits younger individuals (in their 40s or 50s) and presents as drastic personality shifts or language struggles rather than simple forgetfulness.

Taking the Brain Off “Autopilot”

While genetics play a role, Adina is a firm believer in the power of prevention. “We want to take the brain off autopilot,” she says. Her advice is practical and accessible:

Physical and Dietary Health: Adopting a Mediterranean diet and maintaining daily movement are foundational.

Cognitive Novelty: Challenge your brain by doing everyday tasks differently. Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, take a new route home, or change your watch to military time.

Social Connection: For our community, staying active in shul or local social groups is not just a mitzvah, it is essential brain health. Social isolation is one of the leading contributors to rapid decline.

The Heart of Caregiving: Validation Over Logic

Perhaps the most moving part of our conversation centered on the “ambiguous loss” caregivers feel, the grief of losing the person you knew while they are still physically present.

Adina teaches a “gold standard” approach for when a loved one becomes paranoid or confused. If a parent insists a caregiver has stolen their wallet, for example, Adina advises against arguing with logic. Instead, use validation and redirection.

“Validate the feeling,” Adina suggests. “Say, ‘It must be so upsetting to lose your wallet. I would be upset, too.’ Then, redirect them. Say, ‘Let’s look for it together,’ and then pivot to a different activity like looking at old photos or having a cup of tea.”

A Resource for Our Community

At SIMHA, we know that mental health is a family affair. Caring Kind provides a 24-hour helpline and support groups tailored specifically for the Orthodox and broader Jewish community.

“We don’t want people to come to us only when they are in crisis,” Adina says. “Whether you are looking for preventative tips or are in the thick of caregiving, there is support available.”

As we continue to navigate these challenges together, remember that knowledge is the first step toward compassion. We are grateful to Adina Segal for her expertise and her dedication to the well-being of our community.

If you or a loved one are seeking mental health support or a referral, contact SIMHA at (718) 675-3000. For specific dementia-related support, reach out to the Caring Kind helpline at (646) 744-2900.

Since President Trump’s January 2025 inauguration to a second term, the president’s policies have been met with both applause and criticism. His intention is to recalibrate American power abroad and security at home, in ways that many argue are directly relevant to Jewish safety, U.S.-Israel ties, and the fight against anti-Semitic violence and terror.

American Jews are not the only ones watching this second Trump term with a wary eye and a running tally. In Israel, the conversations regarding Trump’s actions are strikingly similar.

Tal Rabina Weighs In

“Trump is the one who brought the hostages [home] alive, and for that he has a place of honor in Israeli history,” noted Tal Rabina, who has a reputation as one of Israel’s most reliable media professionals. Rabina is the Strategic Director for the American Middle East Press Association and is the Strategic Director and head of the Israel office of EJA, the European Jewish Association.

“In Israel, of course, they cherish his [Trump’s] determined fight against pro-Palestinian incitement on campuses, but beyond that, and only after that, do they wonder who he really is, what his motivations are, and especially what he will demand from Bibi in exchange for his personal support. Why does he embrace (Turkey’s) Erdogan so much, and to what extent will his business interests in Qatar – the instigator of institutionalized incitement against Israel in the world – demand prices from Israel that will be difficult for us to pay? I assume that, as in any other place in the world, when it comes to Trump, there are many more questions than answers.”

Focus on Results

Those questions about motives and high price tags for Trump’s programs sit alongside a debate over the president’s performance. Putting aside questions about Trump’s character and his intentions some choose to focus on whether the president has made good on his promises.

“If twenty years in the business sector have taught me anything, it’s that what separates the winners and the losers is execution,” Hillel Fuld told Community. Fuld is a former New Yorker, in Israel many years. He is a strategic business consultant and is an online political advocate. “Trump’s first year brought with it an unprecedented number of accomplishments and, unlike previous presidents, Trump doesn’t just talk, he puts his money where his mouth is and executes.”

Agricultural Trade with Israel

In December 2025, Trump signed a proclamation titled “To Implement the United States-Israel Agreement on Trade in Agricultural Products and for Other Purposes,” implementing a bilateral arrangement to expand agricultural trade with Israel. The move deepens sectorspecific economic integration, giving Israeli producers preferential access to the vast U.S. market while offering American consumers and kosher food chains more Israeli products on American shelves.

For Jews and for Israel, this kind of trade policy is not just about chickpeas; it is a statement that the U.S.-Israel relationship is incorporated into everyday commercial ties.

Combatting Terror Groups

In November 2025, Trump issued an action designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). The order directs U.S. authorities to treat specified Brotherhood entities as part of the global terror infrastructure, tightening sanctions, travel restrictions, and financial controls against them.

For Jews who have watched Brotherhoodlinked movements traffic in anti-Semitic rhetoric and incitement against Israel, this step signals that ideological hostility crossing into operational support for violence will face real costs.

TikTok

In September 2025, the White House unveiled a policy framed as “Saving TikTok While Protecting National Security,” an attempt to keep the wildly popular platform operating in the United States while imposing new safeguards on data, ownership, and algorithmic control. The action pairs pressure on foreign owners and data flows with a message to young Americans that Washington is not seeking a blanket ban but rather seeks to promote a secure, Americancontrolled version of the app.

TikTok is known for virulent anti-Semitic content, tropes, and rhetoric. For Jewish users, particularly teens and campus activists who rely on TikTok for advocacy around anti-Semitism and Israel, the new policy raises a dual set of stakes. On the one hand, tightening foreign influence over the platform could reduce hostile information operations and disinformation campaigns that have fueled harassment and conspiracy theories about Jews. On the other hand, any restructuring of content moderation and recommendation systems will shape how Jewish stories, from October 7 to synagogue life, are surfaced or buried in the digital square.

Focus on Threats on U.S. Soil and UN Organizations

By June 2025, Trump followed his January immigration security moves with a proclamation titled “Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” issued June 3, 2025. Building on an earlier executive order, this action narrows visa eligibility and travel for categories of foreign nationals deemed highrisk, instructing agencies to reassess visa programs, screening, and derogatory information sharing.

Jewish organizations have long walked a fine line on such policies: keenly aware that many jihadist plotters and extremist preachers arrive via legal travel channels, but also mindful of the Jewish experience as refugees and migrants. For some, these orders represent overdue rigor in keeping out those who preach anti-Semitic hatred or glorify attacks on Jews. For others, they require tight oversight to ensure that lifesaving asylum and family reunification are not collateral damage.​

In February 2025, Trump signed an action titled, “Withdrawing the United States from and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations.” The measure directs the administration to pull out of and defund the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Council), UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) and UNWRA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East). These organizations have been recognized as structurally biased against the United States and its allies, including Israel. After decades of onesided resolutions against Israel at the UN Human Rights Council and other bodies, this measure is longawaited.

White House Faith Office

In February 2025, the president announced appointments to a renewed White House Faith Office, designed to systematize engagement with religious communities, including Jewish organizations. The appointments signal an intent to consult faith leaders on issues from anti-Semitism policy to school safety and international religious freedom, embedding religious perspectives inside the policymaking process.

Jewish groups often struggle to have their concerns about hate crimes, campus harassment, or threats to synagogues translated into federal action. So, for many the renewed Faith Office was welcome, and those in favor believe that the new office can be a crucial conduit. It also sends a broader cultural signal that Judaism is recognized within the American tapestry not only as an ethnic or national identity, but as a religious voice that deserves a seat at the table when Washington debates morality, security, and freedom.​

Houthis Labeled as Terrorists

On January 22, 2025, Trump issued Executive Order 14175, “Designation of Ansar Allah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” initiating a process that led the State Department to redesignate the Houthis as an FTO and sanction key leaders. The order cites Houthi attacks that threaten American personnel and international shipping, as well as the group’s ties to Iran and their targeting of civilians.

Houthi missiles and drones have been fired toward Israel, and the group explicitly calls for death to Jews. By restoring terror designations Trump framed the move as aligning U.S. law with the reality of a group whose ideology and actions directly menace Israel and Jewish lives.

Restricting Entry to the US

Two related documents in January 2025 – an executive order “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats” dated January 20, 2025, and the subsequent June 3rd entryrestriction proclamation define an overarching security doctrine at the border. The January order instructs agencies to reassess grounds of inadmissibility, toughen refugee and visa vetting, reviews deficient countries, and led to travel bans on nationals from a number of specific countries including Afghanistan, Iran, and Yemen.

For many Jews, whose synagogues and community centers have increasingly become targets, the focus on keeping out foreign extremists is welcome.

One Big Beautiful Bill Act

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law July 4^th, 2025, contains an enormous defense and national security package, including roughly $150 billion in new defense spending including billions for shipbuilding, munitions, a proposed Golden Dome missile defense system, nuclear deterrence, IndoPacific operations, and military innovation in drones and artificial intelligence. For the Jewish community many were concerned by the bill’s massive cuts to Medicare ($1 trillion), projected to remove health coverage from 78 million Americans, and make millions more uninsured. But the bill also includes defense expenditures that can prove important for us including missile defense research, the deterrence of Iran and its proxies, and keeping vital sea lanes open whose closure might otherwise threaten Israeli security.

At the border, the law injects roughly $170 billion into security: wall construction, detention capacity, technology, and a dramatic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aimed at deporting up to one million people each year and making ICE the single most heavily funded law enforcement agency. For voters who prioritize strong borders as a defense against terrorists and transnational terrorist networks, these are welcome commitments.​ Others find the measures draconian.

Israel-Iran War

The brief Iran-Israel war of June 2025 began when Israel launched a large, coordinated air operation against key Iranian nuclear and missile facilities that posed an imminent existential threat. Iran responded with more than 500 ballistic missiles and approximately 1,000 attack drones directed at Israeli cities, energy infrastructure, and military bases. Tehran’s strikes also threatened U.S. assets and wider regional stability, raising fears in Washington, Gulf capitals, and European governments of a wider regional war.

The United States intervened directly, using stealth bombers and cruise missiles to hit deeply buried Iranian nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow, and around Isfahan. U.S. forces also helped intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, effectively backstopping Israel’s defenses and signaling that Washington would not allow Iran to reset the strategic balance in its favor through missile terror or nuclear brinkmanship. The combined IsraeliU.S. strikes badly damaged parts of Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure and triggered retaliatory fire on a U.S. base in Qatar before a U.S.brokered ceasefire halted the war after twelve days.

Defense and Security

For Jews, one of the most striking elements is the embrace of advanced missile defense concepts like a Golden Dome, echoing Israel’s Iron Dome and signaling that lessons from Israel’s layered defense are feeding back into U.S. doctrine. The strategy’s emphasis on deterring Iran, hardening alliances, and rejecting “fruitless ‘nationbuilding’ wars” reflects a worldview in which American power is meant to be sharp, targeted, and overwhelming – an approach that many proIsrael advocates see as essential to containing regimes and militias openly dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Taken together, these actions and doctrines describe a presidency that has invested heavily in a particular version of security: tougher borders, louder deterrence, deeper skepticism of hostile international bodies, and more explicit alignment with Israel’s security concerns. For American Jews, the stakes are immediate – from terror designations that constrain groups firing missiles at Israel, to UN funding cuts that challenge institutions long accused of antiIsrael bias, to trade deals and faithoffice appointments that pull Jewish life and Israeli partnership closer into the American mainstream.

Harley Lippman

Long Island-raised Harley Lippman is the founder and CEO of Genesis 10, a consulting firm. He serves on the boards of many businesses, educational, and cultural organizations and is an Executive Committee Member of AIPAC. Lippman believes that President Trump has brought a blanket of security and assistance to Israel.

“I would give President Trump very high marks in the first-year presidency,” Lippman said, citing tangible real results, including the hostage deal and brokering a ceasefire with Hamas, and secondly, Iran. “Not only did the United States give Israel the green light to attack Iran,” Lippman said, “but more importantly, America jumped in with Israel, to bomb the nuclear reactors. That’s extremely important.” Lippman also noted Iranians were able to stage a new revolution of late partly because they were emboldened by the U.S. and Israel’s actions.

Look to the Future

“What to watch out for?” Lippman asked. “Trump has to stay in the game. He has to make sure he continues to execute and to guarantee that his initiatives are ultimately successful. He needs to stay focused and disciplined… But Trump is feared. Trump is respected,” Lippman said.

Since his swearingin last January, Trump’s secondterm record reflects an effort to craft policies that include defending Israel’s security, confronting anti-Semitism, confronting terror, and building a military and border posture intended to keep Jews – and Americans – safer at home and abroad. Whatever one’s politics, the Jewish community will need to study, understand, and be aware of how these policies affect them, because the president’s policies will influence Jewish security, sovereignty, and moral debates in the years to come.

Ellen Geller Kamaras

“What lights me up? As a nurse, helping people especially in their hardest moments.  Personally, staying grounded and supporting friends and family, raising a family that can add to our amazing community, and supporting my husband, a rabbi, in his awesome work.  It’s a kiddush Hashem, being a successful hard-working Jewish mom in a mostly non-Jewish environment.”  –  Renee

Please meet Renee Tawil, nurse, wife, mother, and a dedicated community member.  Renee is also the sister-in-law of Rachel Tawil Abraham who was featured in this column in July 2021.   

Roots 

Born to Rozie Shamah and David Steinberg, Renee grew up in Brooklyn as the third of four children. The siblings are still very close. 

The Steinberg family followed Sephardic traditions as Rozie is Syrian-Sephardic and David is one half-Ashkenaz but grew up in the Syrian community.  

A very social and creative child, Renee studied at Magen David Yeshiva from elementary through high school.  She became a serious student in 11^th grade when she set her sights on becoming a nurse.   

Although she wasn’t interested in academics in her early years, Renee loved being in the spotlight and overseeing science and dance projects.  As a sixth grader, she won the National Young Inventors Competition.   Renee would get tired carrying luggage on family vacations and she created a suitcase with a chair that folds back.  

As teenagers, Renee and her friends ran dance classes and plays for younger children.   This experience, organizing children’s programming for pay, demonstrated Renee’s early business acumen. 

Intro to Medicine

During eleventh grade, Renee loved training for her EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) certification.  “I was always interested in medicine and thought: how can I turn the EMT into a career?”  Renee researched nursing and decided that being a nurse would fulfill her interest in medicine and would satisfy her desire to help the community and positively impact society. 

“I also love being different and creating my own path and nursing was a great way to do this.”  And, this career path would make her parents proud.  Once Renee chose nursing, she buckled down with her studies. She was very driven, focused, and determined to achieve her goal. 

Staying close to home, Renee enrolled in the Kingsborough College nursing program and received her Associate Degree in Applied Science and her Registered Nurse (RN) license.  She obtained her bachelor’s degree online from Chamberlain College and her master’s in nursing from the University of Phoenix. 

Then Came Marriage 

Renee met her naseeb at an MDY Shabbaton. David Tawil, three years older, was an alumni, and Renee was a senior advisor at the event.  David was also friends with Renee’s brother.  

On their first date, David told Renee that he remembered that she had won the Young Inventors Competition. He was at the contest as his younger brother was Renee’s age. “David was enamored by the idea of my becoming a nurse and called me ‘Renee RN.’” 

The two were married the following year after Renee completed her freshman year of college.  Their first child was born during her second year at Kingsborough during winter break. David, her parents, and in-laws were very supportive of Renee’s nursing career. This gave her hizuk, keeping her motivated. 

Inspired by Hacham Ovadia Yosef, zt”l.  David became a rabbi. He serves as the Head Rabbi of Bet Rachel Synagogue (Larchwood Avenue Shul) and teaches Humash, Navi, and Gemara at Hillel Yeshiva High School.

The Tawils live in West Long Branch and have six children, ranging from two to fourteen.  

Renee’s Essence 

Renee is both a take-charge and hard-working person. She is positive, organized, passionate, and is a team player.  Personality-wise Renee is outgoing, friendly, creative, bright, and super energetic. In her current role as Cath Lab nurse manager, her leadership and team building skills shine through. 

Role Models 

Renee credits her parents for modeling good middot and helping her grow into the woman she is today. 

“My father is hard working, driven, always helping others, thoughtful, and has strong emunah.  My mother is hospitable, caring, loving, and warm, always helping others, and she is dedicated to tradition.” 

Linda Kacher was Renee’s first boss in nursing. Linda, a working mom at NYU Brooklyn Endoscopy, provided Renee with nursing and life lessons, amazing guidance, and inspiration.  Linda encouraged Renee to go for her master’s degree and to invest in herself. Linda believed that Renee had a bright professional future ahead of her.  

Career Trajectory 

Renee’s nursing career was launched at NYU Langone Brooklyn Endoscopy and Ambulatory Surgery Center. She spent seven years there, learned a tremendous amount, and loved her job. Renee’s work-life balance was just right at NYU.  “I thought I would be there forever.”    

Renee’s life changed dramatically when the Tawil family moved from Brooklyn to NJ eight years ago.  David took a founding rabbi position at Bet Rachel Synagogue.  The shul was initially open on weekends only and then a year later it had daily minyamin.  A new building was erected, and last March a mikvah was built. 

Both Renee and David took a leap of faith when they moved to Deal.  David jumped in as Head Rabbi of a new shul in a new town and state and Renee now served as a nurse in a medical center where most of the staff knew nothing about Yiddishkeit and Shabbat.   

Renee emphasized how her faith guided her career decisions, including a move to a new hospital where she had to educate her colleagues about her religious observance and work-life balance. 

Renee started out doing endoscopy work at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, JSUMC,  and within four years had earned the trust of the hospital administration.   

Despite having a limited cardiac background, Renee took on the interim leadership of a cath (catheterization) lab after a previous nurse manager’s departure.  Notwithstanding initial doubts about balancing this new role with her responsibilities as a mother of five, Renee trusted her boss and embraced the challenge. Over the past four years, she led the construction and opening of a state-of-the-art $45 million cardiac unit with 11 procedure rooms, which has since seen a 40 percent increase in volume and become a leading heart care facility in NJ. 

Renee oversees a team of 150 staff members including nurses, technologists, and nurse practitioners. She appreciates the flexibility of her managerial position, but at the same time she has constant responsibilities and occasionally emergencies require her attention even when she is not physically at work. 

“Eric Coyle, my current manager, urged me to take on this new role even though I would never have predicted I would be here today.”  

Thorns and Roses  

 Renee’s roses are watching the amazing talent of her staff, literally saving lives every day, creating a good name for Jews, and debunking some stigmas. “Making a difference one patient at a time.” 

Her challenges include work life balance, juggling Shabbat and holidays, and ensuring that everyone on her staff feels seen and heard.  

Accomplishments 

Personally, Renee is so proud of her amazing children, running an organized home, teaching kallah classes, hosting bnot sherut for Hillel Yeshiva, and modeling good middot for her kids. Renee and David have two teenage girls living with them.   

On a professional level, Renee values her nursing certification and her position as Cardiac Cath Lab Nurse Manager at JSUMC.  

Rebbetzin and Community Leader 

Renee is passionately dedicated to her community, especially Hillel Yeshiva and Bet Rachel. As a rebbetzin, she thrives on teaching kallah classes from both a halachic and medical viewpoint.   

Her key to success?  She is super organized and believes in the “Let Them” philosophy of Mel Robbins.  The “Let Them Theory” is a guide on how to stop letting other people’s opinions, drama, and judgment impact your life.  

Renee believes in talking to the people [connected to certain issues], not about the people, taking a positive spin on everything, keeping everything in perspective, and maintaining religion/Hashem at the center of everything.  

Parenting and Balance 

“We are a great team! Our parenting style is to lead by example and foster independence.” 

Renee and David parent as a team and support each other. Renee can usually break away from work for her children’s special school events.  Renee is grateful for her husband, her leadership team at work, and her parents’ and in-laws’ support. 

Her work-life balance tools include cooking on Sundays for Monday through Thursday’s meals, taking Thursdays off for Shabbat preparation, using a written planner, asking for help when needed, and being nice to herself. 

 “I couldn’t be luckier, even with leaving at 6am and late nights, David and the children always cheer me on.”  

 To unwind, Renee takes a day off, has date night with her husband on Thursdays, schedules “me time,” does meditation, reads, and spends time with friends. 

Connect with Renee at ReneeTawil@gmail.com.

  ​

Ellen Geller Kamaras, CPA/MBA, is an International Coach Federation (ICF) Associate Certified Coach.  Her coaching specialties include life, career, and dating coaching.  Ellen can be contacted at ellen@lifecoachellen.com.

What Do My Kidneys Do?

The answer is, quite a lot! The kidneys, which are part of the urinary system, are two bean-shaped organs, each about five inches long and three inches wide – about the size of a fist. They are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of the spine. The kidneys play an important role in keeping the body functioning properly. Some of their important jobs include making hormones that help control your blood pressure; making red blood cells; and keeping your bones strong and healthy.

Perhaps the kidneys’ most important job, though, is to filter your blood and help get rid of waste products from your body. As blood flows past cells and through tissues, it collects more than a hundred different types of waste, as well as any excess sodium, blood sugar, and water in the body. Carrying all these waste products, the blood then travels to the two kidneys, where the wastes and excess substances are made into a liquid called urine. The urine passes through two tubes called ureters, one extending from each kidney, until it reaches a kind of “storage bag,” called the bladder. From there the urine leaves the body.

The average person has one to one and a half gallons of blood circulating through his or her body. The kidneys filter that blood about forty times a day!

Filter System

The blood vessels entering your kidneys divide into smaller and smaller branches. These lead to tiny filtering units called nephrons , which are so small that you can only see them with a high-powered microscope. There are more than one million nephrons inside each kidney! Tiny as they are, these nephrons catch all the stuff your body doesn’t need, and they send it all out as waste.

Food for Thought

The kidney bean is named for its resemblance in both shape and color to a kidney.

Facts & Figures

Although the weight of the kidneys is less than 0.5 percent of the total body weight, they actually receive a lot more blood than the other organs in the body. Almost 25 percent of the blood pumped by the heart goes to the kidneys!

The Great Balancing Act

Another important function the kidneys perform is monitoring the amount of fluid in the body. If someone does not drink enough, and/or loses fluid through sweating, his blood contains less fluid than normal. When this blood passes through a certain part of the brain, special receptors detect the drop in water level, and the pituitary gland (housed in the brain) is stimulated to release a special hormone into the blood. When this hormone reaches the kidneys, it causes these wonder organs to increase the amount of water they absorb from the liquid they are filtering. Thus, more water is retained, and less water is sent out through waste.

Similarly, if someone drinks a lot of water, this extra fluid finds its way into the person’s bloodstream, and tells the brain receptors of the increased water level. This, in turn, informs the pituitary gland to release less of the special hormone. When the kidneys receive this message, they re-absorb less fluid back into the system, and more water is sent out through waste.

It’s pretty incredible that each little kidney, weighing just six ounces, is so complex and so advanced that some of its functions are beyond human comprehension. Surely, whatever we do know about the kidneys is enough to make us recognize the greatness and wisdom of the One Who created them.

What Are Kidney Stones?

If you ever heard someone complain that he was in pain because he had kidney stones, you probably wondered: What exactly are kidney stones, and how do they get inside the body?

Kidney stones are hard collections of minerals and salts that form inside the kidneys when too much of certain minerals, such as calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus, accumulate in the urine. These minerals are normally found in urine and do not cause problems. However, under certain conditions, these minerals can become too concentrated, and then they separate out as crystals. When these crystals in the urine attach to one another, they accumulate into a small mass, or stone. That is called a kidney stone.

Kidney stones vary in size. They can be small, like a tiny pebble, or they can be a few inches wide, or even bigger.

Most kidney stones pass out of the body on their own, without causing any harm. The smaller the kidney stone, the more likely it will pass by itself. If a stone is too large to pass on its own, several treatment options are available. Pain medicine and plenty of fluids help most people with kidney stones get better.

Staying Hydrated

Kidney stones often have no definite, single cause, although several factors may increase the risk of them. The leading cause of kidney stones is a lack of water. Kidney stones are more commonly found in people who drink less than the recommended eight to ten glasses of water a day. When you aren’t well hydrated, your urine becomes more concentrated, with higher levels of certain minerals, and when mineral levels are higher, it’s more likely that a kidney stone will form.

A Busy Bean

Kidneys pump around 400 gallons of recycled blood every day!

Fact or Fiction??

Drinking milk causes kidney stones.

This is not true. Drinking milk, which contains calcium, does not cause painful kidney stones to form. As a matter of fact, some research suggests that drinking milk is associated with loweringone’s chances of having kidney stones. According to this research, it is not too much calcium that can cause trouble, but having too little of it.