The Shopping Trip: Showing Up Is Its Own Reward
Roberta Israeloff • 3/7/2019
Sometimes you learn your most important life lessons from the person who most frustrates and disappoints you.
Magazine Article
A Family Dinner Leads to Reflecting on a Legacy
Roberta Israeloff • 11/16/2018
By Roberta Israeloff - To my mother, who inherited the holiday after my grandmother's death, producing the seder was nothing short of a colossal chore—a feeling she'd communicate with every pot she slammed on the stove. Now, it's my turn.
Daily Blog
A Personal Essay from our Family Matters Department
Roberta Israeloff • 10/17/2016
By Roberta Israeloff - Our son was 30, the new girlfriend just a few years younger. They continued to date. She was funny and smart. They moved in together. “Is there some kind of family ring?” my son finally asked. Soon after, my mother-in-law took a turn for the worse. She wouldn’t get out of bed in the rehab center, and she’d lie instead curled up like a fetus. When we’d call, all she’d want to talk about were her things: her dishes and cups, jewelry, and the gifts and mementos she’d accrued over her lifetime. “Every single one of them has a story,” she’d say.
Daily Blog
The Unassignables: What Really Gets Handed Down in a Family?
Roberta Israeloff • 8/30/2016
A son’s decision to get married is a rite of passage for the entire family.
Magazine Article
Reading the Lake: After 30 Years, a Sanctuary is Threatened
Roberta Israeloff • 3/7/2014
Our heads may tell us that we need to embrace inevitable changes as we grow older, but our hearts often tell a different story.
Magazine Article
Mozart Redux: Not All Families are Related by Blood
Roberta Israeloff • 7/1/2012
Not all families are related by blood.
Magazine Article
The Fundamental Things
Roberta Israeloff • 11/1/2011
The times and tides of 33 years of marriage
Magazine Article
Lost, and Found: Rediscovering a Subterranean Kingdom of Memories
Roberta Israeloff • 5/1/2011
Reconnecting with old memories in a father's special place.
Magazine Article
Swept Away: Discovering the world of the senses
Roberta Israeloff • 1/1/2010
A young woman discovers the world of the senses.
Magazine Article
Timelines: Rituals Bond the Past to the Future
Roberta Israeloff • 5/5/2009
From generation to generation, much about family rituals changes and much remains the same.
Magazine Article