from the Jewish Press column: Impact of Women on Jewish History by Professor Livia Biton Jackson

Chana Jenny Weisberg's Secrets of Jewish Motherhood

When my first baby was born, I badly missed guidance for life with this new wonder. Where were the written instructions that I should have delivered together with the infant? How I wished for a handbook of what to do and feel, of when, why and how -- a book to pat me on the shoulder and steady my hand!

Finally such a book came off the print. Chana Jenny Weisberg did the writing, and Urim Pubications did the printing. Although, believe it or not, my first baby is a grandfather, I find the volume, One Baby Step at a Time: Seven Secrets of Jewish Motherhood, the handbook I have been waiting for.

Chana (Jenny) Weisberg, the Internet’s “Jewish Pregnancy Lady” confides the seven timeless secrets of Jewish wisdom that have enabled women throughout Jewish history to enrich their lives and those of their families with spiritual harmony. Chana Weisberg’s revelations serve as a practical guide for young mothers groping in the fog of inexperience.

One Baby Step at a Time serves as a virtual sequel to the author’s first book, Expecting Miracles; Finding Meaning and Spirituality in Pregnancy Through Judaism, in itself a portrait of the world of miracles, of faith, of G-d-intoxication, that Chana Weisberg so subtly and masterfully paints.

This later work, in addition to historical secrets of Jewish motherhood, is an anthology composed of Chana Weisberg’s own trials, tribulations and delights of motherhood; autobiographical essays about “the joys and hardships” of “abrupt transition from being a full-time student” to becoming a full-time mother, peppered with wise tidbits gleaned from the teachings of professional educators. The closing section -- interviews done with seven young mothers who reveal their parenting experiences, the lessons they learned and the conclusions they drew from them -- serves as an apt finale to this volume.

Chana Weisberg’s popular website www.JewishPregnancy.org is receiving as many as 110,000 visitors a month. She started the website as a young mother, five years after her marriage to Rabbi Joshua Weisberg, director of the Post-High-School program at Nishmat: the Jerusalem Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women.

“We met in Jerusalem, and married here as well, in 1996,” Chana reveals. Now she is the mother of five: the oldest, ten-year old Hadas is a fourth-grader, seven-year old Hallel is in the second grade, five-year old Maayan is in kindergarten and two-year old Moriah is followed by ten months-old Yoel.

How did it happen that Jenny Freedman, who was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, receiving her elementary education at “Friends’ School” and her higher education at Bowdoin College in Maine, embarked on a voyage to the spiritual radiance of Judaism?

As with many other young Jews, Jenny’s journey to the Torah began with a trip to the Land, and it was the impact of Israel’s magic that prompted her process of teshuva, “return” to the faith, simultaneously with her aliya, “ascent” to the Land -- making her home in Israel. Israel the Land is an integral part of the indivisible “triple cord” (chut ha-meshulash) of our existential entity as Jews -- the Torah of Israel, the Land of Israel and the People of Israel. Membership in the congregation of the People obliges embracing the other two aspects of our existence.

Motherhood is undoubtedly a holy task: this is the secret revealed in Chana Weisberg’s work. Besides her unique book, her series of two-minute films called "The Real Jewish Moms Film Series" on her website www.JewishMom.com, help mothers sense spiritual bliss in the midst of their demanding, all-absorbing and often difficult responsibilities.

“By the time you put down this book, I pray that you will be able to smile at the truth of the statement: ‘Mothers are changing the world one diaper at a time,’" Rebbetzin Weisberg remarks. “May this book validate our experiences at the same time that it inspires us and empowers us to make Jewish motherhood a bit easier and smoother, infusing our mothering lives with more happiness and holiness,” Chana Weisberg writes in conclusion.

Having read her book, I wish to reassure the author that her aspirations have been admirably achieved.
-Professor Livia Bitton-Jackson
The Jewish Press