Esther

My mother, Esther, was born in Romania in the aftermath of the Holocaust to parents who were survivors of the Nazi atrocities. My mother came to this country as a young child, when her family made the choice to escape communism.

My mother was raised in the hasidic community of Boro Park, Brooklyn, NY, attended religious schools, and married her husband thru an arranged marriage (a shidduch) at 17.

My mother has 5 children and 16 grandchildren, and still lives an orthodox (although much more modern than how she raised us) lifestyle in NJ.

My mother went back to school to earn a teaching degree, and even finished a masters degree after we were all grown. She teaches science at a public high school, and manages to navigate her own way within the secular and religious world.