Author: Ann Koffsky

What I Created in Lockdown

But then, miraculously, I actually had an idea. It wasn’t a grand series of paintings, or a book idea or a majestic mural. It was the rocks.

Living A Double Life

About a year ago, my life changed. Shockingly, my kids weren’t babies anymore, and I went back to work. Well, that’s not quite accurate. I worked when I was home too—but it was freelance. I was an author/illustrator combined with stay-at-home mom. So my life was something like this: carpool, write, paint, make dinner, write, […]

Frogs Were Everywhere. But Where Was Shirley?

One morning King Pharaoh woke in his bed / There were frogs in his bed and frogs on his head / Frogs on his nose and frogs on his toes / Frogs here, frogs there, frogs just jumping everywhere! If you’ve been to any Seder with children in attendance in the past twenty-five years, you’ve […]

Story Time

We all know the midrash: Once upon a time, many, many Rosh Hashanahs ago, Hashem looked into the Torah and used it as a blueprint to make the world—to make us.

Please Put the Women Back In

I am an artist. Dealing with images is my stock and trade, and I know their value. That is why when I see the glaring omission of female images from many Jewish publications and dinner advertisements, my heart sinks. I worry that we are following in the chukkat hagoyim of the most radical in the […]

Taking the Plunge

Ah, summer. Barbeques. Sun. Long Shabbatot, beaches and blue skies. And the kids? They’re in day camp, having a blast. They bounce from baseball to hockey, from arts and crafts to learning, to music, to dance . . . until they finally come home exhilarated and exhausted. Of course we all know the best part […]