In 2017, a bubbe and a zayde met for a meal in Baltimore. David Raphael, the zayde in question, was visiting from Atlanta, eagerly awaiting the birth of his first granddaughter. He asked his friend Lee Hendler, a six-times-over grandmother (known to her grandchildren as "Gromzy"), to lunch. "Lee and I have known each other for 20 years," Raphael told me. He's a former executive director of Hillel, with four decades of Jewish communal leadership gigs under his belt; she's a philanthropist who's served on multiple nonprofit boards. "We started talking about our frustrations with the Jewish community's ignoring of grandparents' role in Jewish continuity," Raphael said. Hendler went on, "Grandparents today have a very different role from grandparents 40 years ago. Our institutions are struggling in a changing environment, and we are, too."
Modern Jewish grandparents are way more likely than previous generations of bubbes and zaydes, sabas and savtas to have grandkids in multifaith, multicultural households. Their grandkids are more likely to be growing up with LGBTQ parents. They may live in less financially stable circumstances than their boomer grandparents. They may be more geographically far-flung than previous generations.
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