After Teaneck: An Example For American Jewish Communities
The call from the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County intended to send a “strong message” ahead of a...
Unique Support Group Forming In KGH For Single Women
Dr. Naomi Saar, LCSW, PhD, saw a need in our community and she stepped up to fill it with compassion and sensitivity. Dr. Saar is using her vast social work expertise and background to start a support group for single women, ages 25-50, which will be divided into age groups. She noted that “An older single in our community has to deal with so many sensitive issues. There is dealing with shadchanim, choosing whom to date, and choosing which events to attend; for some there is the issue of being able to bear one’s own children, seeing friends marry, bitachon versus emunah, staying positive, self-care, continuing with life, the challenges of living at home with parents as an older single and the challenges of living alone as an older single, the challenges of staying connected with good friends who marry, and the challenges of younger siblings marrying.” Yom Tov itself presents challenges. Will the single woman or man be expected to do more of the work because she is single? Another Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur approaches and something singles have davened for so fervently for all year has still not come to fruition, and it’s another year with no spouse. It could be painful for single women to see many women who are contemporaries or younger women married with children coming for t’kias shofar with their children. A single man is in shul still without a talis. There is the difficulty of planning meals, not having to eat alone or being home with married siblings. Sometimes women living at home have to change their room when married siblings come home, or they are expected to do a lot of childcare because they are single.
