I wept and wept without knowing why. I then had an epiphany: What I really desired was to have Jewish children, raised to know their rich heritage.

Jews spend the holiday of Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) praying, meditating, and abstaining from both food and liquid. At sunset, most people are so hungry they'd happily sit down to a nice bowl of carrots. But no Jewish mother would put up with that.

I come from a long line of Jewish mothers who equated food with love. My family used to joke that for my grandmother if you weren't "as big as a house," you were too thin. Find out how this stuck-at-home 60-something is re-writing that script.