On Monday, June 9, Debra S. Weinberg — known to everyone as Debs — was heading home to Baltimore from Washington. She and her husband had celebrated his birthday at a restaurant with their family. It was a joyous event, and Debs had made sure not to drink, knowing she would be the one driving.
But just a minute before they reached home, the accident happened.
“I fell asleep at the wheel. I hadn’t been drinking — I was wide awake when I got in the car — but it had been a long drive,” Weinberg said in a phone interview with The Journal.
The car crashed into a wall, the airbags deployed, and miraculously, the couple walked away unharmed.
“Physically I was fine, but the next day I kept wondering: What is my purpose? Why did God allow me to live?” she recalled. “I kept thinking about what was missing in my life, and I realized how much I missed the sacred work of serving the Jewish community and helping others. I felt this was a calling — a sign — that I’m meant to help people who truly want to play an essential role in the lives of their grandchildren.”
The Jewish Grandparents Network (JGN) has announced that Debra S. Weinberg will serve as Executive Director beginning Sept. 1, and Richard N. Bernstein will take on the role of co-president. With these leadership additions and a growing base of supporters, JGN is well positioned for long-term sustainability as it continues to engage more families in meaningful and accessible Jewish experiences and content.
Weinberg learned about the organization’s impactful outreach from her next-door neighbor. “I didn’t know her very well, but we went for a walk, and I asked how her grandchildren were doing,” Weinberg recalled. “She said, ‘I wish I knew. I’m very estranged from my children and grandchildren.’” The neighbor then shared how much support she had received from the Jewish Grandparents Network. “She thought she was alone,” Weinberg said, “but she discovered that others are struggling with the same challenge.”
This is just one example of the many vital services JGN offers Jewish grandparents — from helping them reconnect with estranged children and grandchildren, to facilitating meaningful conversations about topics like the war in Israel and antisemitism, to enriching their Jewish lives through shared games, storytelling and multigenerational dialogue.
“I was on the board for about a year, and I became interested in taking on a bigger role because I have four grandchildren and play a very active social role in our family life and Jewish traditions,” said Weinberg. “The conversations I’ve had over the past few years with friends about the role we play in our grandchildren’s lives inspired me to get involved in the network.”
Research has shown that grandparents play a significant and integral role in family life. As such, they have a major influence in strengthening their grandchildren’s Jewish identity. A visit to the organization’s website reveals a wide array of activities, events and suggestions to help grandparents build strong, meaningful connections with their grandchildren — connections rooted in Jewish values.
These offerings include lectures on how to connect with teen grandchildren in the age of social media, how to prepare your home and heart for the Jewish New Year, recreating Shabbat dinners, sharing family stories and tips from a globe-trotting grandfather on how to turn time with your grandkids into a shared adventure.
“One of my initiatives is an online Grandparent Jewish Learning Fest that we are hoping to hold this winter, that will help us build a community that is much broader across the world,” said Weinberg. “We will hear from experts and presenters nationwide and abroad.”
Thanks to the website, Jewish grandparents from all over the world can learn the best ways to interact and play with their young grandchildren and have more serious talks about death, something that grandparents often struggle to bring up with their grandchildren.
Despite the name: — Jewish Grandparents — there are also non-Jewish grandparents who have Jewish grandchildren. They joined the community with the hopes of learning more about Judaism so they can connect better to their grandchildren. “One of the things we hope to address is the growing number of grandparents who are starting a new chapter in their 60s and 70s by relocating to be closer to their grandchildren,” said Weinberg.
Indeed, many grandparents are uprooting their lives — moving from the West Coast to the East Coast or vice versa — in order to be near children and grandchildren who have moved away.
Weinberg’s long-term vision for the organization is to expand its reach and bring its programs to more families. “We also want to build a network for professionals who can join us, and to inspire more people to celebrate and engage meaningfully in Jewish family life. There’s so much potential to support grandparents in doing their best to help raise the next generation of Jews,” she said.
More than anything, Weinberg said, she wants grandparents to experience and share the joy of Judaism with their grandchildren.
To learn more, visit: https://jewishgrandparentsnetwork.org
