Where the heck I've been

And other stuff, too

Hello, hi, how are you?

It’s been a while. Two years to be exact.

Since October 7th, I don’t really know how to ask people how they are. So I’ll just say I hope you’re safe, I hope you’re with your loved ones, I hope you have what you need to take care of yourself.

Let me dive right in - I know I’ve pulled a disappearing act.

First, just from this newsletter - the outro of my podcast kept asking you to check out the newslettwer but it proved too challenging to update it regularly - and then, from the public stage in general.

I dive into it all on the new episode of Looks Like Work (which is back for season 2!) but let me give you the TL;DR version: I got divorced and my life imploded in ways I couldn’t have imagined in my worst, most vivid nightmares.

Does it have to be this way? No it does not (in fact, I believe divorce can be a gift - and so does my friend Olivia, the CEO and Co-founder of Fresh Starts Registry, who guest hosted this episode.) But getting divorced when you are part of a closed, religious community can be messy. I didn’t think it would, but it was - and I go into it on the episode, which is now out.

Basically, I learned that when gaslighting gets real, you start gaslighting yourself as well and find it hard to use your voice. Even if you’re a vocal piece of work like yours truly (she smiled through tears while typing.) So now that I’m back, divorced and so much better in all the ways that count - I’m committed to helping more people maintain and in fact, broadcast their voice.

Joining Nivcharot’s steering committee is one of the ways I’m doing this. Nivcharot is a feminist haredi (Jewish ultra orthodox) women’s movement, dedicated to helping women participate in decision making. I’ve been involved from the sidelines since its founding, and taking a more active part is giving me hope. I hope to also have the CEO on the podcast soon, so stay tuned!

I’ll share more about other initiatives that are giving me hope these days (like Smol Emuni - you can catch a glimpse here) and my upcoming book next time, but meanwhile: I’m so glad to be back here. I hope you enjoy the episode, and don’t miss next week’s episode as well, it’s a really special one.