April 14, 2026

Parenting and Politics: How to Talk to Kids about War

Parenting and politics have always been intertwined, but in moments of global conflict, that connection becomes unavoidable. For Jewish families in particular, conversations about war are rarely abstract. Since Oct. 7, 2023 our experiences remind us that what happens in the world matters deeply and personally.

War has a way of entering our homes through headlines, overheard conversations, social media or playground chatter. Even if we try to shield our children, they will hear something. And eventually, many will come to us with questions that feel impossibly big: “Why is America bombing Iran?” “Are we safe?” “Is a war coming here?”

Our instinct may be to immediately explain or reassure. But the first and most important step is actually much simpler: pause and ask, “What have you heard?”

This question gives us a window into what our child already believes, which may be incomplete or inaccurate. It also communicates respect. It tells our children that their voice matters, and that this is a conversation not a lecture.

According to parenting expert Betsy Brown Braun, a parent’s role is to act as a “container” for our child’s feelings. We hold the emotional weight so they don’t have to carry it alone. Especially in Jewish homes, where open dialogue and questioning are part of our tradition, this approach feels natural. We sit with discomfort, we ask questions, and we seek understanding together.

Once we know what our child has heard, we can begin to respond in an age-appropriate way. With younger children, simplicity is key. One helpful analogy is the playground: if you see a child being bullied, you don’t just stand by as a bystander, you step in, you get help, you do something. In the same way, countries have a responsibility to stand up when others are being hurt.

For older children and teens, this is an opportunity to go deeper. You can explain the history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and how the Islamic Republic has, over decades, brutally suppressed dissent including the killing of over 45,000 of its own people in January. That’s a powerful contrast to our lives here in America, where the right to speak out is protected by the First Amendment.

These are important conversations that remind our children that the freedoms we enjoy as Americans are not guaranteed everywhere and should never be taken for granted. They also open the door to discussing responsibility: that as Jewish Americans, living in one of the most powerful nations on earth, we have a duty to help others and to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. In Judaism we call this “Tikkun Olam,” meaning repairing the world by standing up for justice, helping others and doing good beyond just your immediate circle.

As parents, we can use these moments to share our values as a Jewish family. We can teach our children that no one wants war. Peace is always the goal. But courage sometimes means standing up to the bully, even when it’s difficult. Our tradition calls on us to pursue justice and to be people who do what is right, not what is easy.

At the same time, we must tend to the emotional layer beneath our children’s questions. When they ask about war, they are often really asking, “Am I safe?” Reassurance should be honest but grounding. Let them know they are protected, that there are people working to keep them safe, and that they are not alone.

We also need to be mindful of our own reactions. Children absorb not just our words, but our tone and energy. If we respond with panic or anger, they will feel that intensity. Instead, we can model steadiness: “This is something I think about too, but we can talk about it together.”

In today’s hyperconnected world, older children may also encounter misinformation or disturbing images online. Rather than trying to block everything, which is nearly impossible, we can guide them. Teach them to question sources, to seek truth and to think critically. Show them how countries like Iran export propaganda online and in schools to fuel anti-Western beliefs. You can use examples of college campuses after Oct. 7 and how quickly students were brainwashed to support terrorists.

Above all, these conversations should not happen just once. They should evolve as our children grow and as the world changes. Keep the door open. Let them know they can always come back with questions, doubts or fears.

Parenting in times of conflict is never simple. But it is also an opportunity to raise thoughtful, compassionate and courageous children with a strong moral compass. Children who understand that with freedom comes responsibility. Children who know that standing by is not enough. And children who, rooted in Jewish values, will grow up ready to stand up, speak out and do what is right.

Shirin Yadegar is the founder of www.lamommagazine.com.

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‘Survival seeped through me’: Honored at the California State Capitol for Yom HaShoah

Community / Solvej Schou

In the California State Capitol’s Senate Chamber, with its red patterned rug and high beige walls — chandeliers dangling, above — I gripped the hand of George Elbaum to the left of me and Eva Brettler to the right.

Both Holocaust survivors in their 90s, they were there, like me, to be honored by members of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus for Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, and based in the San Gabriel Valley, I had never been to Sacramento, much less to the State Capitol. The Jewish Federation of the Greater San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys had recommended me as an honoree to State Senator Rubio’s office.

As the Jewish American grandchild of Holocaust survivors, that day I felt the power of George and Eva’s survival seep through me. The heat and dampness of their palms. The rise and fall of their breath. It is difficult to describe. I was flanked by survival. I was and am the product of Jewish survival.

As the Jewish American grandchild of Holocaust survivors, that day I felt the power of George and Eva’s survival seep through me. The heat and dampness of their palms. The rise and fall of their breath. It is difficult to describe. I was flanked by survival. I was and am the product of Jewish survival.

Each of us wore yellow roses pinned to our clothes. My outfit was a black high-necked dress with small blue and green flowers, paired with a white acrylic Star of David necklace and blue Star of David earrings, decorated with a glittering evil eye, for protection. George wore a black suit and dark blue tie. Eva wore all black — shirt, sweater, skirt — with a long gold necklace.

We sat at the back of the Senate Chamber on red velvet seats, with two other Holocaust survivors seated behind us.

One by one, during a roll call, each member of the California State Senate — both Democrats and Republicans, with three State Senators absent — raised their hand and voted “aye” on California bill SCR46, proclaiming April 24, 2025 as California Holocaust Memorial Day.

Continuing to clasp George and Eva’s hands, I started to weep.

At one point, George leaned towards me, and whispered, “Can you imagine this happening in Germany in the 1940s?”

The story of Holocaust survival is a story of Jewish survival.

With only 0.2% of the world’s population Jewish, and only 2.4% of the U.S. population Jewish, I have always been a proud Jewish American shaped by that history of survival, deep in my soul.

My Jewish Polish grandma and zaide miraculously survived the Shoah and endured deep trauma and loss, from the murder of their 6-year-old son to the massacre of their siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces.

My grandma was put out three times to be shot and chosen three times to be sent to the crematorium at the Polish forced labor ammunitions camp where she was imprisoned. When the camp was liberated in 1945, she had no shoes or clothes and could hardly walk.

Born in a displaced persons camp in Germany after World War II, my late mom came with my grandparents as refugees and immigrants to the United States in 1949. When they arrived, they had just two bags of belongings. My mom was three months old. They first arrived in New York and then settled in Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood.

My late grandma’s strength as a survivor pored through everything she said and did, from her fiercely tight hugs to her Yiddish-accented voice telling me, when I was a kid and teenager, to savor health and independence.

George was a year old, living in Warsaw, Poland, when Nazi Germany invaded in 1939. Over the span of three years being forced to live in the Warsaw Ghetto, 10 members of his family perished, and George and his mom survived.

After his mom smuggled them out in 1942, George lived by hiding with Polish Catholic families, and his mother worked as a domestic laborer. At age 11, in 1949, he and his mom came to the U.S. After decades of silence about the Holocaust, he wrote the 2010 book “Neither Yesterdays Nor Tomorrows: Vignettes of a Holocaust Childhood,” and speaks at schools across the country.

Born in Romania in 1936, Eva was taken with her mom to Germany’s Ravensbrück concentration camp when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. Her mom did not survive the journey, and Eva was later sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After World War II, she reunited with her father. Amid growing antisemitism in Hungary, she escaped to Vienna, then to the U.S., and California. Her father and stepbrother came three months later.

That day, for Holocaust Remembrance Day, in the California Senate Chamber, flanked by George and Eva, I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, thinking of these stories of trauma and survival.

Then, when my name, as an honoree, was called by State Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) — filling in for Rubio, who was unable to make the ceremony — I joined him on the Senate Chamber floor, with a black and white photo of my grandma.

I held up the photo to the State Senators seated on either of the Chamber, feeling tears ready to burst out of me.

In the photo, my grandma stares straight at the camera — a slight smile on her lips — and sits on a motorcycle, wearing knee-high black boots.

It’s the only photo I have of her in Europe, before she came to the U.S.

“On behalf of Senator Rubio, I am proud to introduce her honoree Solvej Schou,” Senator Weiner said on the Chamber floor, before giving me a Yom HaShoah ceremony plaque bearing my name.

“Solvej is a San Gabriel Valley based writer and musician, and the proud Jewish American granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,” he said. “Her late grandmother Ethel, a Jewish Polish Holocaust survivor, came as a refugee to the United States in 1949 with Solvej’s grandfather and then three-month-old mother, who was born in a displaced persons camp.

“Unfortunately, other members of her family did not survive the Nazi atrocities of World War II. Her grandmother was the strongest person she’d ever known. She brings to the Senate floor today a portrait of her late grandmother, which she is holding.

“Solvej is a testament to her grandmother’s strength, and her legacy lives on particularly in her recent song ‘This Is My Jewish Heart,’ which is in part about her grandmother being a Holocaust survivor, and about Jewish resilience.

“Please join me in welcoming and honoring Solvej Schou.”

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Saying Yes at SXSW: Signing BRAVE-ish and Finding Gratitude in Austin

Blogs, Commentary, Travel / Lisa Ellen Niver

From The Female Quotient BookSHElf to a riverfront oasis at the Four Seasons, my first SXSW was filled with connection, storytelling, and gratitude at every turn

My first time at South by Southwest in Austin began with one clear intention: to show up fully, share my story, and say yes to every moment.

I arrived as an author, honored to sign my memoir, BRAVE-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, at the The Female Quotient Lounge. From the very first day, it became clear that this experience would be defined not just by events, but by connection.

The Female Quotient: Where Stories Meet Community

At the heart of my SXSW experience was the Female Quotient BookSHElf, a space alive with conversation, curiosity, and collaboration. I spent hours signing books, meeting readers, and engaging in the kinds of conversations that remind you why stories matter. There is something powerful about handing someone your book and seeing their reaction—recognition, excitement, and sometimes even emotion.

I am deeply grateful to Shelley Zalis and the entire Female Quotient team—Talia, Paige, Nikki, Hamsa, Erika, Fleming, and so many others—who created a seamless, welcoming, and thoughtfully curated environment where every detail felt intentional and every voice valued.

Moments That Define SXSW

SXSW is known for its energy, but what stayed with me most were the people. Meeting Emma Grede, celebrating her upcoming book Start With Yourself, and watching her connect with the Broadlines podcast team was a powerful example of women supporting women. Connecting with Rae Williams felt equally meaningful; our shared background in storytelling made the moment feel both grounded and full of possibility.

Hearing Ilona Maher speak was another highlight. Her presence—strong, confident, and fully authentic—captured the spirit of showing up as your whole self.

A Riverfront Oasis: Four Seasons Austin

In the middle of SXSW’s nonstop pace, the Four Seasons Hotel Austin became both my home and my reset. Set along the water near the Austin Rowing Club, the hotel offers a rare balance of vibrant city energy and natural calm. The riverfront setting, framed by trees and skyline views, creates a sense of space that feels both grounded and expansive.

My day started with breakfast at Ciclo, and the hotel offered so many spaces and moments to pause—whether at the pool, with a margarita in hand, or simply taking in the view before returning to the energy of SXSW.

The Honey Rose spa ritual was a standout experience, combining grapefruit and rose oils with a decadent honey foot scrub and pressure-point massage. It offered a restorative pause that balanced the pace of the festival with a sense of calm and renewal.

Dining at Ciclo: Flavor and Experience

My dinner at Ciclo was a highlight of the stay, where the meal felt both elevated and inviting. From heirloom tomato and burrata to sweet corn empanadas, braised short ribs, and a perfectly cooked filet, the menu showcased bold flavors and thoughtful preparation. Signature moments—like a flaming Tomahawk steak and a dessert presented with dramatic dry ice—added a sense of theater that made the experience as memorable as it was delicious.

My thanks to Chef Juan Mateo and the entire team—Liz, Fernando, and Sophia—for creating a dining experience that felt both refined and personal.

Details That Make a Stay Unforgettable

What makes a stay truly memorable often comes down to the details.

Waiting in my room was a custom cookie featuring the cover of BRAVE-ish, alongside an SXSW-themed cookie, delicate macarons, and thoughtful touches that made the welcome feel entirely personal. Combined with a balcony overlooking downtown Austin and the soft glow of the hotel along the river at night, these moments created a sense of place that lingered long after the stay.

Gratitude—and Momentum

This experience was about more than attending SXSW—it was about showing up, sharing my story, and connecting with people who reminded me why that story matters.

I am deeply grateful to The Female Quotient for the opportunity to be part of the BookSHElf and sign BRAVE-ish, and to the Four Seasons Hotel Austin for creating a space that balanced energy with calm throughout the experience.

Most of all, I am grateful for the conversations, the connections, and the reminder that when we share our stories, we create something far bigger than ourselves—and open the door to what comes next.

✨ Say yes. Share your story. And keep going.

See all my social media and articles from SXSW here.

WATCH all my videos from SXSW and Four Seasons Austin here:

SXSW and The Female Quotient

SXSW’s 40th edition is going back to its roots: a campus-style event at venues across downtown Austin. From March 12–18, 2026 the city will be buzzing with visitors hopping from film screenings and technology workshops to panel discussions where innovators will discuss the future of every industry under the sun.