Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
Sharon Resnick grew up in the small, tight-knit Venezuelan Jewish community. She is proud of her heritage, but she said that Venezuela provided a much different upbringing than the one her kids are experiencing in Philadelphia.
When it came time for Resnick to raise her own family, she craved a place that was safe and diverse. She wanted a community that had more walkability, more activities and more Jews. In Graduate Hospital, she found that.
“Where we are in our life right now, we need spaces for young kids — that’s our priority,” she said.
Resnick is raising three boys and works as a parent ambassador for jkidphilly, an organization that connects Jewish parents of young children in the Delaware Valley. In that role, she oversees Center City and South Philadelphia, working to create and bring people to programs around the region. She said that, in the City of Brotherly Love, the opportunities are endless, which makes her job easier.
“We try to spend as much time as we can outside in the city — we like going to parks and using strollers or scooters to get there. We go on runs by the river, we go to playgrounds and, when the weather is colder, we go to museums,” she said.
Resnick and her husband, Jeff, are raising three sons, ages 5, 3 and two months. She said each of her boys are different, which provides a lot of variety for her and her husband. The family doesn’t belong to a particular synagogue, but they attend Mamash Chabad and the South Philadelphia Shtiebel on a regular basis.
For the Resnicks, being Jewish isn’t a part of life — it is life.
“We wear our Judaism as a badge of honor. Everything we do identifies us as Jews. We are very vocal,” she said. “We are outwardly Jewish!”
The Resnicks observe holidays and keep kosher, and Sharon said that they are always happy to explain their customs to other families. The Resnick boys do not attend a Jewish school, which means that they are often representing Jews to other communities. Whether they are spinning a dreidel on Chanukah or planting a tree on Tu BiShvat, the family makes sure to get into the spirit of whatever Jewish holiday is coming that time of year.
For Resnick, the opportunity to work with jkidphilly was one that she couldn’t pass up.
“[Director] Molly Wernick posted an opportunity to be a part of jkidphilly working with new parents, and reaching out to community members who receive PJ library books,” she said.
Resnick — who was pregnant with her third son then — knew right away that she wanted to be a part of this. Her kids enjoyed PJ library books, but most important in her decision was the fact that her first pregnancy came in 2020.
“My first son was born in July 2020 in the pandemic. We didn’t have that [dynamic] of building community or getting that ‘village’ around you,” she said. “So whatever experience I could bring as a third-time parent, I wanted to bring to help new parents.”
That would have worked in any capacity, Resnick said, but it mattered to her to do it in a Jewish one. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, Resnick decided that she needed to do more to help build Jewish community. One program that jkidphilly offers does just that, she said.
“It’s called New Beginnings, and it’s a five-week program for expecting parents. We have practitioners or guest speakers talk to the expecting parents,” she said. “We try to calm a lot of the questions that parents might have.”
The program has brought in a lactation expert, postnatal expert, someone to speak to postpartum depression and anxiety, people to discuss home birth or C-sections, physical therapists and more.
“All of the moms were in that similar stage in pregnancy, and so [we shared] not only symptoms of pregnancy, but questions about after the babies are here — ‘What do I do if my baby has this rash?’” she said. “[It’s about] being there for each other.”
Resnick said that it has taken work to create the life she and her husband want for their children, but that she knew early on during her time at Drexel University that Philadelphia was for her.
“Trying to find community — that’s what brought me to Philadelphia, and I stayed,” she said.