Lonye Debra Rasch, at The Blogs

Apr 8, 2025, 1:57 AM

Inviting Children’s Hearts into the Passover Story

When my granddaughters grew from toddlers into little girls who could read, I decided it was time to involve them more directly in our Passover seder. As you might guess, in previous years, they were in charge of returning...

Mar 1, 2025, 8:49 AM

Haunted by Inescapable Truths After the Recent Hostage Exchanges

As I continue to process President Trump’s startling pronouncement that the US should take over Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” I am simultaneously haunted by so many of the facts on the ground...

Feb 11, 2025, 7:24 PM

Weighed Down by New Year’s Resolutions? How About Another Option?

How’s your February everyone? Did you make New Year’s resolutions this time around? If so, how is that going? If the answer is, “Not too well,” I have another approach to offer. Those of you who, like me, chose not...

Dec 19, 2024, 3:10 AM

Pondering Priorities as 2024 Draws to a Close

As once again the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (a day of self-reflection and repentance) recedes into a distant memory, I suspect many of us Jews are left with an inner promise to become a better version of ourselves....

Nov 20, 2024, 12:08 AM

Who Started Giving Tuesday? What Is True Generosity Anyway?

Giving Tuesday, celebrated annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, is approaching and I’ve been wondering how it got started in the first place. So I did some research. Learning its origins put a broad smile on my face because, it...

Sep 9, 2024, 7:19 AM

Grandparenting: The Exhilaration, the Responsibility and the Tricky Parts

The author and her husband Steve with their two daughters, two sons-in-law and grandchildren. Photo courtesy of the author.

With Grandparents’ Day 2024 on Sunday, September 8, I’ve been mulling over the dynamics of grandparenting --a phenomenon I’ve been lucky to have in my life for over seven years now. My three grandchildren—two girls, age 7 and one boy,...

Aug 7, 2024, 9:55 PM

Why are eyewitness accounts of Hamas’ brutality not enough?

I was privileged to be at a showing of Sheryl Sandberg’s documentary, Screams Before Silence, which, through multiple interviews, reveals the extreme sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, and beyond. The showing was hosted by Hadassah...

Jul 22, 2024, 11:50 PM

Confessions of a Baby Boomer Zionist

The author (left) with her cousin Yael (right) and Yael's daughters Ariel and Ravid (center) on the Tel Aviv Boardwalk. Photo courtesy of the author.

Though I attended New Jersey’s Yeshiva of Hudson County through eighth grade, I didn’t fall in love with Israel until I joined the Young Judaea youth movement while in high school. When I danced the Israeli folk dances and sang...

Jun 28, 2024, 12:57 AM

Bearing Witness to Joy in Israel and Savoring It

The author with her husband Stephen with cousin Doron and his wife Ronit. Photo courtesy of the author.

Many people—you may be one of them-- have traveled to Israel to bear witness to the atrocities of October 7th and its aftermath. I admire the courage it took to bear witness to this continuing nightmare and I very...

Apr 17, 2024, 1:18 AM

It’s Surreal to See a Certain Big Birthday on My Horizon

I’m approaching a “big birthday” that will make it impossible for me to think of myself as not-yet old. Which big birthday? I’d rather not say since, to be honest, some people I know may think I am younger than...

About Me

Lonye Debra Rasch is a member of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America’s National Assembly and editor of the Hadassah Writers' Circle. Married to an international attorney, she is the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three small children. She is a big advocate of practicing yoga, being a member of a book club group with smart, kind women, and spending time laughing and sharing life’s little sagas with family and friends. She lives Short Hills, NJ, and New York City and is the past president of Hadassah Northern New Jersey.