We have this new game we’ve been playing called Snake Oil.  One person is the customer and chooses a card that provides this player with an identification or an occupation.  For example, she might be a tourist or a rock climber, a nurse, a camp counsellor, or a...

At about two or three-weeks-old, my daughter developed a hemangioma on her head.  This benign swelling of blood vessels grew over the course of her first year into a significant and noticeable bump at the very top of her forehead.  No matter how big and sparkling were...

They were 2 1/2 and 1 years old. The younger of the two was of more solid build, stronger, and not much smaller in size than the older. And she loved her big sister fiercely. One day, in this spirit of love and fun, she climbed onto her older sister and hugged her...

Deborah Abecassis Director of Jewish Life and Learning The story of Purim has all the components of a great fairy tale or Disney movie – a silly king and an evil villain, the beautiful Queen heroine and the wise old man. The kingdom’s wealth and the months-long...

When my daughter was 3-years-old, she chose to wear only skirts and dresses. It fit with her definition of pretty, princess, and fashionable. One Sunday afternoon, my husband asked her if she'd like to join him on an errand to the hardware store. "Yes!" She replied....

Deborah Abecassis Warshawsky.  Carb-free, fat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, meat-free.  Many of us, at some point, have resolved to drastically change the way we eat from one day to the next. Each Monday morning, people everywhere are cutting out...

Deborah Abecassis Warshawsky.  “Did we pay the mechanic for my car?” my husband asked me the other day, noting the invoice on the kitchen counter. We? What he was really asking was whether I had paid the mechanic.  It’s a matter of division of labour.  I am...

Deborah Abecassis Warshawsky.  Thirty minutes before Shabbat I asked the girls to tidy up the room they were sharing in Florida - pick up from the floor clothes and towels and books and tissues and discarded tags from new items, remove their electronics from their...