Have you ever been in a place in your life where you don’t know if you are just starting the journey somewhere in the middle or near the end? I’m sure that has been a theme in many people’s lives – so it was in mine on my journey to become a mother.

“Where am I in the story” is the title of one of the songs that is part of a multidisciplinary devided theater performance piece I co-created with another Lab/Shul family member, Jon Adam Ross. The piece is called TRYmester: Jewish Fertility Journeys Out Loud, and was crafted in collaboration between an organization I serve on the board called Uprooted, a Jewish Response to Fertility Journeys, and the In[HEIR]itance Project. This project was funded by the UJA Federation of New York, and involved live interviews with folks in New York City who have struggled with fertility journeys. We shaped their interviews into a performance piece based on the cycle of emotions one often goes through on a fertility journey, which is not unlike any challenging journey in someone’s life. The hope of this piece is to garner attention, build more sensitivity, and ask the question, what are we as a community doing to help support those who are struggling with fertility – emotionally, spiritually, financially and medically.

I made a vow after being on this journey for a couple of years, that I would help those who are struggling even after I finally became a mother, because I saw there was so little support out in the NYC Jewish community. I was lucky because of the work I do I have access to my Lab/Shul community and incredible spiritual leaders, but everybody is not so lucky.

My journey, which took seven years, (a very special number in Judaism, cycles and cycles of seven, a week, years,) has a happy ending. Many of you have had the opportunity to meet our daughter, Marlo, but that doesn’t take away the years of despair, struggle, hope, fear, grief, many different cycles of emotions we went through. And this is the case for so many – perhaps even you?

So I do hope you will join me on Wednesday evening to witness this piece come to life at the JCC Manhattan, co-sponsored by Lab/Shul.

Help to de-stigmatize this issue, help yourself build sensitivity around folks who are struggling, because we all know somebody who has struggled with fertility whether in our family or friendship circles.

Tickets are available at www.ujafedny.org/TRYmester

– Naomi Less, Associate Director and Founding Ritual Leader