Hope Blecher, at The Blogs

Jan 24, 2025, 7:05 PM

A Tallit and Tefillin as a Breath of Oxygen

It begins in a hospital room. Beeps, tears, fears and more fill the air while the patient is receiving oxygen. Literally, my mom was receiving oxygen while I was figuratively breathing anew. For her, that oxygen was life. For her,...

Jul 27, 2024, 1:50 PM

Connections & Intersections: Henrietta, Emma, Golda, Oren, ReadM and Me

What do you do when you attend a virtual Hadassah session and take notes that get hidden under a pile of papers? What do you do when, once in a while, you get a nudge from your brain as...

Jan 31, 2024, 7:20 AM

First Silence, Then Hope

The first words of the article you are about to read were penned as a poem that I wrote over three months ago. I wrote because I had felt silenced into fear by the war. I wrote because that...

Aug 8, 2023, 5:59 AM

Daffodils, Hadassah and Holocaust Education

The Daffodil Project. Image courtesy of the author.

It started with a walk around my old neighborhood. As I continued along a busy main street, I passed by a small group of yellow flowers. Something was tugging at me to backtrack. This time, I listened to my...

Apr 5, 2023, 7:25 AM

Connecting Henrietta, Golda and Margaret: Who Would Dare to Censor Them?

Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher. Photo courtesy of Hadassah.

Can you imagine censoring Golda Meir or Margaret Thatcher? Oh, I would have liked to have been in the room if such a conversation had actually happened. Which makes me wonder, did these two leaders, these two women, these...

Apr 4, 2023, 1:49 AM

From Sweet Dessert to Desert

Plant Plant-based Plant-based butter Bought Dark Dark chocolate Dark chocolate chips Found Flour Flour and water Unleavened flour and water Boxed Pan Pan and parchment paper Pan, parchment paper and oven mitts Ready Bubbling Bubbling toffee Bubbling toffee flowing Poured Flowing Flowing voices Flowing voices of joy Heard Streaming Streaming lines Streaming lines of people Seen Seeing Seeing straight Seeing straight ahead and back again To watch To watch out To watch...

Jan 31, 2023, 9:58 PM

Hadassah ‘Women Who Do’: Educator Hope Blecher Tells Her Story

Once upon a time, a college student took an elective with her friend thinking it would be fun to be classmates. They took a few other courses together, too. While one of them graduated a year before the other,...

Dec 30, 2022, 5:18 AM

This Little Piggy Blanket Gets Donated

This is me keeping my promise. I promised myself that I would make a blanket. That is a first for me, making a “no sew” flannel blanket. It is going to be hard to give this away. It is a...

Dec 15, 2022, 10:48 PM

How a Menorah in the Catskills Lights the Way for an Entire Community

The author with the Parksville, NY Community Menorah. Photo courtesy of the author.

I know exactly where I will be in the hour prior to Havdalah this Saturday (December 17th) and that is exciting and nerve wracking. There are a few other emotions in the mix, too. You are invited to keep reading...

Nov 29, 2022, 10:04 PM

Just ask me: Inside America’s great teacher resignation

In response to The New York Times, Opinion Video, Nov. 18, 2022: Empty Classrooms, Abandoned Kids: Inside America's Great Teacher Resignation. Room 222, Welcome Back Kotter, and The Secret Life of an American Teenager were among the television shows I watched...

About Me

Dr. Hope Blecher, a member of the Hadassah Educators Council and the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, has been working in the field of education for 40 years. Recently, she incorporated those experiences with her volunteering, books, and artwork into www.DrHopesHub.org. At this site, visitors can explore the nonprofit fund she created, her consultancy, her poetry and books, and artwork. Hope looks forward to bringing Little Free Libraries and Creation Stations to local areas, and to continuing as an ambassador for The Daffodil Project, along with creating workshops for the Liberty Museum and Arts Center, and curating Voices of Survivors: Inspiring Hope, Sanctuary, Compassion and Community. Dr. Hope Blecher holds multiple standard NJDOE issued certifications that she has used by serving as an adjunct professor, a teacher of high school students with special needs, English Language Learners K-adult, and those in the elementary age level classrooms. She earned a BA in Sociology, an MA in Early Childhood Education, and an Ed.D. in Teacher Leadership. She has been a member of Hadassah for over a decade, first in the Southern NJ chapter and currently in the Lower New York State chapter.

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