Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am speaking with Gvira Milworm. Gvira is the CEO of Temech, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit dedicated to helping women from Israel’s Haredi community advance professionally while protecting and honoring Jewish values. Gvira was born in the Bronx and made aliya with her parents from Peoria, Illinois, and then was raised in Jerusalem’s Haredi center. She built a 25-year career as a trailblazing woman in technology across the government and private sectors, including 15 years in systems analysis and project management and over a decade as the founder of GMP Start, an international technology consulting business. She became the CEO of Temech in 2019 and in that role, is passionate about helping Jewish women build meaningful, sustainable careers without compromising their values. Also, she’s the mother of 11 children, so she’s running quite a crew at home as well. Gvira is a fascinating person and we had such a wonderful conversation. We speak about: -Her career and how she got to become the powerhouse leader that she is -How young girls today can become more assertive in asking for what they want and receiving it -What she did when life got honestly too overwhelming — how she got herself back and the routines and strategies she put in place to manage her big and beautiful life and make time for herself within that -How her relationship with Hashem has evolved over the years and how she connects now -The difference between resilience and strength -The power of imperfection …and so much more! To get in touch with Gvira, you can reach out at [email protected]. To learn more about what she does, visit Temech.org.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am speaking with Merissa Gross, a shadchan, or matchmaker, extraordinaire. Merissa is a ball of energy, just so much fun to be around with is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to dating. This is a full raw, real, tachlis conversation. We really get into it. Even though I’ve interviewed other dating experts on the podcasts, I think this one is the most insightful in terms of the behind-the-scenes aspect that happens for a matchmaker. She does not hold back — she shares it all with stories and details so even if you’re not currently in the dating scene, this is an interesting one to listen to. We speak about: -Her day-to-day schedule and what goes into working with a couple -How she sets parameters around who she sets up -How the payment system works with her and other shadchanim — this was really interesting to see how it’s evolved -How she decides who to pair up — if it really is a gut feeling or there is a system -Addressing mistakes matchmakers make and clearing up misconceptions about the reputation so many unfortunately get -Why you may feel frustrated with the matches that you’re getting -How to make the best impression at a meeting with a matchmaker -What to do if you feel like you’re not getting the best matches and how she has handled certain situations -Red flags to look out for in dating -The concept of settling versus not -How to know when you’re ready to get engaged and what that feels like ...and sooo much more. As you can see from that list, we cover A LOT of ground and even if you’re married, this is a super engaging conversation to listen in on just from a place of personal interest and as a way to help any single friends find THEIR match. If you'd like to get in touch with Merissa, you can email her at [email protected] When email is not possible: Israel work only number, which includes WhatsApp: 058.500.8820  Official work hours: 9am-3pm IST

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today, I am so happy to be back! Baruch Hashem, it was a beautiful Pesach holiday filled with a lot of great quality family time, cooking, decluttering, all the things we talk about on here and now it feels good to be back to the podcast! Coming off of Pesach, we just spend time looking inward, thinking about the excess chametz we want to get rid of in our own lives, the fluff that gets in the way of who we really are, what things maybe we want to free ourselves from and be free to do. This episode is all about self-awareness, going beneath the surface, getting more to the root of who you are and it’s a beautiful continuation of that work we can bring into this new time period on the Jewish calendar.  Dvora Henner, our guest this week, is the founder of MAXIMIZE, a home organization and life coaching business dedicated to helping women make the most of their space and time. She is passionate about self-awareness and personal growth as the foundation for stronger, healthier relationships. In the episode, we speak about: -Her journey from being a full-time stay at home mother to re-entering the out of the house work and finding what she wants to do -The importance of self-awareness, how we learn more about it throughout life as different triggers come up -How this is really the key to solving a lot of our relationship issues we may have with those close to us -What’s going on inside of us when our emotions are challenged in a new way -How to use the information to have a deeper, more vulnerable conversation with a loved one -How to improve our shalom bayit -What a woman’s needs are compared with a man’s needs and how that plays into all of this -How we can practice more self-acceptance ...and SO much more! This episode sounds simple on the surface but it is really so deep and thought-provoking and the perfect thing to listen to as we move through this next period. If you'd like to get in touch with Dvora, she can be reached at [email protected].

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, we have Debbie Sassen, business coach, money mentor and host of the Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast joining us. She helps established entrepreneurs scale from six to seven figures with high-ticket offers, leveraged business models, and smart CEO strategies—all in alignment with Jewish values. Debbie is the go-to expert for business owners ready to charge more, raise their prices, and sell high-ticket offers with confidence—without feeling pushy or sleazy. She believes that money is intimately woven into every part of business, and that clearing money blocks makes growth, marketing, and sales infinitely easier. Her signature coaching program, Wired for Wealth, helps entrepreneurs scale sustainably with her 10-step leverage plan, Power of 1 method, and Sacred Sales Conversation process. Through her coaching, clients master their CEO mindset, leverage their time, and implement simple systems to create consistent $20K-$50K months—without sacrificing their faith, family, or freedom. Debbie believes that no woman - or man - should undercharge, undersell, or dim their light to build financial sustainability for their family. She is also, the mother of eight children bli ayin hara, so she has a LOT to share with us. I was really excited to dig into a conversation about money because I feel like it’s a topic not often discussed. Even with close friends it can be awkward or weird to go into let alone people you know less well yet it’s such an important and vital part of our lives. It’s also one that a lot of people have a lot of feelings around. We all have attachment styles to money the same way we do with relationships and it’s something we have to manage and encounter multiple times a day. In the Jewish world, there are extra expenses — Shabbos, kosher food, Pesach of course which is rapidly on its way, two sets of dishes, tuition, generally having more kids and of course so much more. In this episode we speak about: -The relationship Debbie had growing up to money and how that has developed and changed into how it is now -Women taking time off of a career for motherhood and how that impacts her involvement in household finances -Re-entering the workforce during motherhood and how so many women often underestimate themselves and their skills -Money and marriage — how to speak about it with your husband, designate certain roles if you would like to and maintain and gauge that trust and partnership in the relationship -We talk about spirituality within all of this — how Hashem comes into the picture with work, money and giving and how that all can contribute to a more secure attachment with our finances …and SO MUCH MORE Debbie is a wealth of knowledge — pun intended — and honestly, we cover so much and also just skimmed the surface. She has a ton of additional resources available which are all included in the show notes if you’d like to learn more or get in touch with her. Website: https://debbiesassen.com/ Podcast: The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast https://debbiesassen.com/podcast/ Book, The $1K Investor: Simple Smart Steps to Start Investing with $1K or Less https://debbiesassen.com/book (links to Amazon) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbiesassen/ Instagram: @debbiesassen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debbiesassencoaching  Free resource: Your Money Mindset Workbook: https://debbiesassen.com/mindset/

I am so excited about today’s guest because it is Chanie Apfelbaum of Busy in Brooklyn. If you are not already familiar, Chanie is a food writer and photographer who has a really unique way of blending traditional Jewish foods with modern flavors. She started her blog, Busy in Brooklyn, in 2011 so it’s been giving us delicious recipe ideas for all occasions for nearly 15 years now. She is also the author of two cookbooks, Millennial Kosher and Totally Kosher where you can get even more recipe ideas from Chanie as well as tons of tips about cooking, how to stock your kitchen, plan a meal and more. As we all know, Pesach is a stressful time on the Jewish calendar, but the more I get into making and hosting Pesach, the more I’m determined to take the stress out of the process. This episode with Chanie will do that for you. It’s genuinely fun. I felt lighter and excited after recording it and had that same feeling after listening through again and editing it. It just got me actually excited to cook for Pesach and feeling blessed for the opportunity to do so versus overburdened with chores.  In the episode, we talk a bit about: -Chanie’s background and how her spirituality has evolved over the years especially throughout various challenges she has gone through -Then, about halfway through, the ideas start FLOWING when it comes to easy foods you can make this Pesach mainly out of fruits, vegetables nuts and seeds and it is both mouth-watering and easier than you think. -She also shares tips that can help you in the kitchen and streamline your cooking experience. -We go through how to plan a meal — whether it’s seder night or a third day lunch and it’s just so awesome to see how her brain works in that way. Her ideas are simplified yet do not skimp on the flavor. In fact, they are bursting with flavor and because so many of the ingredients are just fruits and vegetables or repurposing something you have, you will be saving tons of money not having to buy all the processed pantry products and too many extras because as we all know Pesach can get really expensive really quickly. To help you out further, I made a companion document where I typed up all the ideas for easy access — view it here! Wishing all of you a beautiful Pesach.

This episode originally aired April 8, 2024. Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and I am so excited about this conversation with Rebbetzin Yehudis Golshevsky. We’re in a difficult time for the Jewish people. We just marked 180 days since October 7 — six whole months since Israel and the Jewish people were attacked on Simchat Torah. It’s hard to believe. It’s so hard to know that every single day, 134 hostages still remain in captivity, our soldiers are still fighting and our people are at risk There is increased antisemitism around us. Incredible gaslighting about what Israel is doing in self-defense and just to survive and protect its people, our people. It’s truly a painful moment and it can be confusing to know where to turn or where to find hope. This conversation with Rebbetzin Golshevsky, I hope will help you find some comfort. In our conversation, we speak about: -Rebbetzin Golshevsky's path to becoming a profound Torah teacher -How to connect to Nisan and Pesach during this unique time we're in and how we can extract so much meaning out of it -How to become joyful at this time -Why things may look so gross and ugly on the outside right now and what that means for the Jewish people -The process of redemption — what we can look to for hope -How to free yourself from something personal you're working on ...and so much more!   If you would like to learn more about Rebbetzin Golshevsky and SHIVITI and get on the school's mailing list for classes, visit https://shiviti.org.il/. To reach out to Rebbetzin Golshevsky directly, you can email her at [email protected].   More about Rebbetzin Golshevsky: Rebbetzin Golshevsky founded and is the director of SHIVITI, a school in Jerusalem for women. She holds primary and secondary teaching certifications from Yavne Teacher's College in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as a BA from SUNY Buffalo in Classics-Judaic Studies. Rebbetzin Golshevsky has been a well-known Torah educator in Jerusalem and abroad for twenty-five years, with students all over the world. She is also published author, editor, and translator.   To nominate a woman for the podcast, please send me an email at [email protected] or send me a DM on Instagram at @chaionlifemag. Thanks for listening!  

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today, I am so excited to welcome Atara Weisberger to the podcast. Atara is a trailblazing health and wellness coach, personal development mentor, and co-author of the transformative book How to Soul: Navigate Your Life Path with Clarity, Inner Peace, and Joy. With a unique ability to blend ancient wisdom with actionable strategies, Atara empowers individuals to break free from emotional blocks, rediscover their inner strength, and cultivate lives rooted in authenticity and joy. She of course, has her own personal journey to getting where she is today. Her own baal yeshiva story has shaped her mission to help others find meaning and connection in today's fast- paced, often overwhelming world. As the founder of The Tribe, a holistic wellness community, Atara leads a growing movement where spiritual growth meets modern self-care. She is very active herself and is a runner, yogi and loves to explore healthy cooking. In the episode, we’re talking all about her new book that she wrote with Rabbi Dov Lipman which is all about reconnecting to your soul, your real inner essence which can so easily get lost in today’s world. You know the feeling you get when you go to a really good shiur? It’s like everything just clicks and makes sense and you feel aligned with who you are really meant to be. That is this book. Anxieties, insecurities, awkward social interactions, social media, meetings, family dynamics and more can easily make us feel like we’re not enough and can throw us off balance from knowing who we really are. The goal of this book is to remind you of your inner essence, to give you tools to always be able to get back to your soul and to feel like you’re really living a connected life in the true meaning of the word — not the 2025 version. In the episode, we speak about  -Atara’s journey to writing this book -Her main goal that she wants readers to take away from it -How to connect more deeply to your soul and how to get back to it when you feel like you’ve strayed -How to find balance and meaning in religious halacha and how that goes hand in hand with spirituality and a real relationship with Hashem -Why the struggle and the process of growth is the way and why growth is never linear -Practical tools to utilize in this world to get you back to a more spiritual place -How we can make peace with social media and living a life in a technological world without making it black and white -Cultivating more emunah and bitachon with the wisdom that she shares ..and so much more! If you want more from Atara, visit Howtosoulbook.com — at the bottom you can get two free heart-opener meditations. To get in touch, you can email Atara at [email protected].

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today I have Gila Levitt on the show.  Gila is aTorah Marriage and Intimacy Specialist with over 20 years of experience empowering Jewish women to create emotionally connected, deeply fulfilling marriages. As the creator of Heart of Marriage: Soul Satisfying Oneness, she blends timeless Torah values with the latest research in emotional intelligence, brain science, and relational well-being. Gila’s work is grounded, warm, and deeply respectful on each woman’s inner world. She offers not just guidance—but clarity, chizuk, and a path forward for the woman who wants to become her best, most authentic self in her marriage. Through mindset shifts, emotional insight, and practical tools, she helps women align with who they truly want to be—in marriage and in life.   This episode was one I wasn’t sure I wanted to do to be totally honest. It covers a really vulnerable topic and one that isn’t often spoken about publicly. That being said, it’s an important one, one that affects every marriage and every woman in some way so when Gila reached out, I really thought it through and it felt like a good opportunity to delve into things a little more. Because intimacy is such a private thing, it can be one women don’t really feel comfortable getting help on or seeking support if they need it and I’m hoping this episode will help break a little bit of that stigma. In the episode we cover a lot — from what intimacy actually looks like in a Torah marriage — the mindset around it and the body-soul relationship to practical ways to achieve more connection to it if it’s something that’s hard for you. We speak about the differences between men and women in general and in this space that could be coming up and realistic expectations to have around its impact on your marriage. For more from Gila, visit heartofmarriage.org or reach out to Gila at [email protected]. For more classes from Gila on Kol Halashon, click here. -- If there is someone you want to see on The Chai on Life Podcast, email me at [email protected] or send me a DM @chaionlifemag.

Hi everyone! Welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal, and today I’m speaking with Shira Fruchter, a social worker and Internal Family Systems certified psychotherapist who holds a private practice in Jerusalem.  Shira counsels couples and individual women specializing in relational trauma and interpersonal conflict. She also runs IFS mini workshops for personal development and growth. Shira also released a book at the end of last year all about IFS, speaking about the therapy through the lens of Torah and helping others in the observant world connect more deeply to the modality. In our conversation, we speak about: -What IFS is and how it works -Why Shira wanted to write a book for the Jewish community about it and how it makes the modality more accessible -What parts we are all made up of and how to use those to better understand yourself and how to heal -How this all connects to Judaism and Torah...and more! To demonstrate the work of IFS, we actually go through a real simulation where I am the patient and share a little bit about one of my parts and she walks us through how I can understand that in a different way and not feel threatened by it. Instead, she taught me how certain questions you can ask yourself can change the way you look at it and treat both yourself and certain situations with more compassion, ultimately approaching life in a healthier way. Full disclosure, I have really felt a change in myself since our conversation. It sounds crazy but I have begun to question my insecurities or overthinking tendencies since going through the modality with her a little bit more in the simulation and it’s changed the way I think about certain situations. Instead of ruminating. I’m really amazed by what just a little bit of IFS work can do and so grateful that I have this tool now in my back pocket. Shira can be contacted through email at [email protected] or WhatsApp at 347-255-3514. You can get her book on Amazon here. Thanks for listening, see you next week!

Hi everyone, welcome back to another episode of The Chai on Life Podcast. I’m Alex Segal and today I am so excited to have Rebbetzin, Author and Speaker, Sara Yoheved Rigler, on the podcast. In this episode, we are talking all about her incredible book, Holy Woman, the woman who inspired it — Rebbetzin Chaya Sara Kramer, and some Shavuot lessons we can all take to enter the holiday in the best mindset we can. Rebbetzin Rigler has become someone I’ve really learned a lot from in my own Jewish journey. I am a member of her weekly marriage webinar run through Jewish Workshops, where she helps women around the world work on themselves and improve their marriages; and I’m also someone who has really benefitted from her books. Even though Holy Woman is technically a biography, it reads like a novel and you become riveted from early on. Plus, Rebbetzin Rigler writes it with takeaways along the way so you can think about your own struggles and choices in life and become more prepared to tackle them. In the episode, we speak about: -Chaya Sara Kramer’s life — the prophetic nature she was born with and how she nurtured that  -The immense challenges she encountered along the way -How Rebbetzin Rigler met Rebbetzin Kramer and the relationship they developed following -What defines being in a good place versus a bad place in life — this was really life-changing -What we can learn from Rebbetzin Kramer about passing our own tests in life -How Rebbetzin Kramer lived every day with true simcha and what we can all learn from that -Creating more of a Oneness between us and Hashem -What it’s like to live with bitachon versus just living with emunah -What Judaism really says about guilt -The main lesson Rebbetzin Rigler applies to her life daily that she learned from Rebbetzin Kramer …and SO MUCH MORE. The reason we are doing this episode now is because it is the 20th yahtzeit of Rebbetzin Kramer and because she didn’t have any biological children — something you’ll learn more about — she was always concerned no one would light a candle for her.  So the goal with this is that all those listening will learn more about her and light a candle for her on her upcoming yahrzeit — gimmel Sivan, which starts on the night of 29th of May and goes into the following day, May 30. The full name for prayer is Chaya Sara bas Mendel Yosef. More about Sara Yoheved Rigler: Sara Yoheved Rigler is the author of seven books on Jewish spirituality: Holy Woman; Lights from Jerusalem; Battle Plans: How to Fight the Yetzer Hara (with Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller); G-d Winked: Tales and Lessons from My Spiritual Adventures; Heavenprints; and Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup: The Story of Rebbetzin Henny Machlis, the Brooklyn-born Girl who became a Jerusalem Legend. Her newest book, I’ve Been Here Before: When Souls of the Holocaust Return, is the product of 8 years of research into reincarnated souls from the Holocaust. She gives a weekly Marriage Webinar for Jewish women on a spiritual approach to marriage, with hundreds of members throughout the world. She lives in Jerusalem. Her website is: sararigler.com. Her YouTube channel is "From Within the Walls of Jerusalem", where she relates stories, presents gems of Jewish wisdom, and teaches practical life tools.