Dear Aviva, I am a married woman with kids. We live near my parents who are extremely helpful, yet sometimes it crosses into overbearing territory. I have grown up with their overbearing ways my whole life, and it never bothered me until now. Now I feel like they are meddling too much in our business, giving us their own (right!) opinions on matters. It’s starting to grate on us. How can I work on being an independent wife and mother yet a respectful daughter as well? -DaughterWifeMother more

Letters to the Editor more

We gawked and stalked. We punned and had fun. In shock, we asked “how?” and then acted holier than thou. Some didn’t care, others pointed with indignation, while colleagues joined with foes demanding resignation. more

"Go big or go home.” Those were words Cedarhurst resident Avi Newmark heard often growing up in Hillcrest, Queens, as his parents encouraged him to strive for excellence. Newmark, 33, took his parents’ advice to heart, as his recently released seventh album, Nagila V’Nismicha featuring superstar Benny Friedman, sold out its first printing in just two weeks. more

There is a feeling when you’re so exhausted, so sick of slaving away at whatever work you need to do, that light becomes sharp. You look around your room and at your computer screen, and the light’s flare burns and stings your eyes. And all you want is to shut your eyes, to black-out the pains that at that moment are consuming your life-force. You want to crawl into bed but meanwhile fear the moment when you will inevitably need to crawl back out. more

Some days I love my job more than others. The days I don’t love usually come in sporadic bursts when something akin to journalistic integrity pricks at my consciousness and forces me to address a food item that I desperately do not want to try. In this case a probiotic red tea called Kombucha. more

In times when Jews were the only people circumcising themselves (Islam did not yet exist, and ancient Egypt was a memory of the past) tyrannical governments and anti-Semitic regimes made themselves the police over Judaism’s oldest practice. The first commandment G-d gave to Abraham was to circumcise himself and all the males of his household. The climax of this commandment came when Yitzchak was born, and Abraham was able to circumcise his baby at the mandated hour, the eighth day of life. more

As college campuses throughout the United States continue to be accused of anti-Jewish/Israel behavior, Yale University, with a legacy of anti-Semitism, joins the contemporary ranks of insensitivity to the Jewish people. more

Many children want to professionally dance or fight fires. For West Hempstead resident Ann Koffsky, the childhood dream has always been to become an artist, which led to her work as a children’s book illustrator. In turn, this led to her becoming an author of the same books. “I realized I wanted to control the whole story,” said Koffsky. “So I started writing some stories.” more

When a family walks down the street in the Five Towns and sees a child with a disability, a slightly different appearance, voice, or personality, how does the parent explain to the child that this slightly different child is also special, and an important member of the community? more