This week has been a whirlwind! As always, I am so thankful for the hard work my team has put in. We made so many hamantaschen, and we’re still filling orders!
We’ve been catering events at Bader Philanthropies, Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Congregation Beth Jehudah, and more. Hamantaschen orders have gone out to Congregation Shalom, Own Your Judaism, the Hillel Foundation, and on and on. Everywhere I go in the community, I love hearing from people about how much they enjoyed a meal, hamantaschen, or another treat we’ve sent out.
One of the blessings of having a larger team now is that I can focus more on the details—fine-tuning each event and connecting with more people across the community. At the café, we had many people stopping in for hamantaschen and other Purim treats. Connecting with them, hearing their stories, and sharing what we do at Mosaic is always such a joy.
Often when I meet new members of the community, the conversation turns to how I got into this work. It’s a story that reminds me how you never quite know where life will lead you. But what I always come back to is how much I truly love what I do. Even on the hard days—the exhausting ones, when it feels like there’s no break—I still feel grateful for this path.
Lately, I’ve been trying to recenter my focus and spend more time at event setups so I can connect directly with our customers. Earlier this week, while overseeing setup at the Purim seudah at Congregation Beth Jehudah, I felt grateful that I could be there to help get everything ready and then step away once it was set.
Then I reminded myself of something important. When my kids were younger, it wasn’t that I didn’t care about being present—it was that I simply couldn’t always make that time work. As a single mom, I was juggling kids, schedules, and finding someone to watch them. So, as I often encourage others to do, I gave myself a little grace.
Another part of Purim that I love is receiving mishloach manot. It’s such a joyful tradition. But I realized that I rarely make the time to prepare my own because I’m so busy filling orders and preparing events for everyone else. It made me start thinking about how I might create space for that in the future.
Jewish holidays often come with a whirlwind of preparation. By the time I’m kashering my kitchen for Passover, I’m already exhausted from the work leading up to it. Rosh Hashanah can feel rushed by the time the first Yom Tov meal begins. Even going into Yom Kippur, when things should theoretically slow down, I still feel the pressure of getting my kids fed and ready before Kol Nidre.
All of this has made me reflect on how much I love helping our community celebrate holidays, simchas, and life’s meaningful moments. At the same time, I’m realizing how important it is to make space for my own traditions and family moments too.
As my kids grow older, I find myself missing some of the little things we used to do together—making apple stamps for our Rosh Hashanah cards, building paper chains for the sukkah, and all the simple traditions that filled our home.
This week also reminded me of something else that matters deeply: showing up for friends and community in difficult moments. Yesterday I had the honor of attending the funeral of Robin Zaks, whose daughter is my friend and whose grandson is in Miriam’s class. Being there, listening to stories about Robin, hearing how loved she was, and seeing how many lives she touched reminded me how powerful community truly is.
Later, sitting shiva and meeting Dayna’s friends from different parts of her life, I was reminded how meaningful it is to simply show up and support each other in real ways.
As we move into Shabbat, I hope we can all take a moment to pause, reflect, breathe, and appreciate the community around us—family, friends, neighbors, and the many people who make up our shared lives.
We are all pieces of a much bigger puzzle. Appreciating our differences and respecting the roles we each play is what helps hold it all together.
As we move into Shabbat, I also want to take a moment to invite everyone to another opportunity for our community to gather around the table. On March 8th, we’ll be hosting our Israeli Brunch at CAFA B Data by Mosaic, and these brunches have become one of my favorite ways to see people connect. Friends come together, families sit side by side, new faces meet each other, and the room fills with conversation over great food.
Moments like these remind me why sharing food matters so much — it builds community in the most natural way.
If you haven’t reserved your spot yet, we’d love to have you join us.
RSVP here: https://cateringbymosaic.com/israeli-brunch/
Shabbat Shalom.
