The James Logan Courier

By Silvia Henriquez (MCT)

Mother's Day is about more than just flowers and cards. It's also about reproductive freedom.

Three months ago, I became the mother of a little girl. It was a planned and very wanted pregnancy, which is a privilege. More than half of pregnancies in the United States are not planned.

Few women have information on birth control, abortion, prenatal care or gynecological care. Even fewer can access these services. Many women simply find out they are pregnant and make the difficult decision either to have an abortion or continue with their pregnancy. Sadly, for many women, there is no such thing as reproductive "rights" or "freedom."

From the website of Dr. Kate Maurer of the University of Minnesota - Duluth:

Sholom Aleichem (March 2, 1859 – May 13, 1916), the pseudonym of Sholom Yakov Rabinowitz, whose name is actually a conventional Yiddish greeting meaning "Peace be with you," was born in the Ukraine to a wealthy father who was a religious scholar. At age 12 Sholom Aleichem's family met with hard times and a reversal of fortune, shortly after which his mother died of cholera. He began his writing career in the early 1880s when Jews in western Russia were coming increasingly under attack and the hateful word "pogrom" (an oftentimes governmentally dictated persecution or even massacre) became more and common. As a result of the increasingly frequent pogroms and the restrictive laws associated with them, Jews in Western Europe became increasingly dislocated.

Read "Reading Sholem Aleichem from Left to Right" by Prof. Jeffrey Shandler, free from the Sholem Aleichem Network.