infertility

This Israeli Lawmaker Opens Up About Choosing to Be a Single Mom

Merav Ben Ari, 42, has one of the hardest jobs in Israel: she’s a politician! But the most important thing in her life is being a mother. She made history by becoming the first member of the… Knesset (the Israeli parliament) to ever have a baby using in-vitro fertilization, or IVF. Ben Ari, who has been very public about her journey to motherhood, says she wants to “be a model to other women, to know that they can do it and keep their career” and look for love, but be more relaxed… >> Read More

infertility

This Amazing Jewish Mom Is Donating Her Embryos So Other Couples Can Conceive

Joanna C. Valente

You've probably heard about the recent malfunction at a fertility clinic in Cleveland. Due to a storage tank failure, some 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos have been lost at the University Hospitals… Fertility Center . In a crushing blow, the hospital notified nearly 1,000 patients that it's unlikely that any of the eggs or embryos are viable. But one Jewish mom-of-two, Niki Schaefer, who has been through fertility treatments herself, is trying to help families whose dreams of having a baby may have ended as a result of the malfunction.… >> Read More

sisters

When This Woman Couldn’t Get Pregnant, Her Sister Became Her Surrogate

Joanna C. Valente

There's no love like sister love. For one pair of sisters, Randi Fishman and Erin Silverman, their bond is unbreakable: the two are joined by a baby! When Maryland resident Fishman was 28 in… 2011, she received horrific news: She had breast cancer. Her diagnosis happened right after she got married and was about to start a family, crushing her pregnancy dreams. At the time, Fishman was able to her freeze her eggs and started the expensive, time-consuming process to find a surrogate. They found one and she gave… >> Read More

infertility

The High Holidays Can Be Tough If You’re Struggling With Infertility

Kate Lauzar

I'm 29, it’s Rosh Hashanah and I’m sitting in my grandmother’s shul with my family, listening to the story of Abraham's wife Sarah—still named Sarai at this point—who cannot conceive a… child with her husband. I sit next to my beloved grandmother, surrounded by parents, siblings, uncles and cousins. They are fidgeting, whispering, bored—adults and kids alike. Amidst their fidgeting, I am still: breathless, riveted, listening intently to Sarai’s story of barrenness, struggling to hold back my tears. That word—barren—hits me with a thud, a kick… >> Read More

kveller q&a

The Photographer Creating a Space for Jewish Women

Joanna C. Valente

Shira Lankin is a photographer and writer whose work explores the lives of Jewish women--oftentimes, women open up to her about their traumas, insecurities, and joys. Lankin recently founded The… Layers Project, which raises awareness about issues like infertility, chronic illness, and mental health. On the site, Lankin writes that the project is "an opportunity to help other people begin to embrace the nuance and complexity in their lives." Recently, for instance, she focused in on infertility, a project we wrote about here. Besides being a photographer and… >> Read More

Load More Articles