Judith Weinstein

Election judge Jada Lodge, 17, from Evanston Township High School, directs a voter at O'Keeffe School in Chicago's 5th Ward on Election Day on April 4, 2023.

Judith Weinstein: Working as an election judge allowed me to see democracy in action

May 19, 2023 at 10:00 a.m.

Democracy is a verb! Abner Mikva, the late federal judge and Illinois congressman, declared this as he challenged youth across the nation to participate in the election process and use...

I could have worn a T-shirt that read, "I just lost my mother," to explain the pain I was sure I emitted. In the weeks following her father's death, my friend Libby referred to herself as a menace to society. "My old friends knew me well enough to know that I am usually an optimistic, even cheerful person, and so they could tread lightly around me, forgive me for my gloom and impatience with everyone," she said.

What not to say in times of loss

January 22, 2020 at 3:25 p.m.

My father's death when I was 23 was the first major upset in my world. But it also revealed the truly humane ways people can provide consolation and primed me...

Share something positive the bereaved might not know about their loved one.

Commentary: ‘She’s in a better place,’ and other things you shouldn’t say when someone dies

January 21, 2020 at 4:12 p.m.

I am writing a lot of sympathy cards these days. If you are middle-aged like me, chances are you are too. And even if you're not, you may have experienced...

Interpreting the silences

June 24, 2024 at 6:05 p.m.

I first met Paul in the winter of 2005, on my first day volunteering as a French-English interpreter at the Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture....

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