Over our brutal cancer year, my daughter Orli has documented herself for TikTok. It is a flipbook of her treatment & recovery & setbacks, a primer on how a middle schooler fathoms the unfathomable, and how she created a bridge to the outside world.
"My name is Dr Robinson" -- Dr Yashica Robinson after Chip Roy calls her "Ms Robinson"
Roy then talks over her before Robinson fires back by telling him "I am a physician and a proud abortion provider"
It’s nearly impossible to describe the pain in losing
@orlihalpern
but I’ve tried. My heart, z”l. My teacher. My child. My Daughter Was So Alive. How Can She Now Be Gone?
Sitting w/ Orli in the prayer room (doubling as isolation for immune compromised) b4 pre-op. If you’re a believer in prayer or good energy, humbly asking once again for some sent her way as she heads into a new surgerical procedure today. Or a poem. We could use some poetry.
Oh my god
@WajahatAli
I love your kids so so so much. My girls love having Nusayba and her siblings in their lives. God willing we will all celebrate them soon. Crying.
#wearamask
#hugyourkids
In this year of tumult — navigating Orli’s
#cancer
rollercoaster & her sister’s needs for us to be together — we found comfort in Stars Hollow. “Binge-Watching ‘Gilmore Girls’ Got My Family Through an Epically Bad Year”
The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, and the myth of silence. A story I never thought I'd write -- on how intimately I'm aware of how a system can fail women.
Want a piece of nice news for Shabbat? My kid Orli just took (virtual) dance. After 7 rounds of chemo, 10 months of fighting liver cancer, a liver transplant, & lots more than tweetable. She worried would the teacher think she wasn't good enough. I promised her she was amazing.
If you're the praying sort, or simply believe in good energy, pls send some of either toward my Orli, heading to a biopsy this a.m. to investigate some wonky numbers. We're hopeful the path will be clear, and culprit is pharmacological.
#ChildhoodCancerAwarenessMonth
#transplant
Want a pick-me-up? Check out my kid getting her entire team to learn a TikTok dance before a transfusion.
#Stayhome
for her. And for her friend, Nusayba,
@WajahatAli
's daughter.
COVID 19 will not take away the smiles from underneath our masks, & it certainly will never stop us from dancing🎗💛 Orli was pumped to get her medical team into her TikTok before treatment started.
Turn up the volume and feel the JOY💛🎶
These are the moments we need & love.
I really struggled reading the stories for this one. With Dobbs coming this week and Texas’ abortion law standing it’s time to look at the women whose lives have been lost due to restrictive abortion laws.
“The thing I worry about in the United States is that the rallying cry won’t happen until women die, and that’s so unnecessary and unfortunate,” Kathryn Kolbert, who argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the Supreme Court, told
@SarahAWildman
.
As the parent of an immunocompromised child I have spent a lot of time thinking about vulnerability - how we see it, how we don’t see it and how we might embrace empathy and inclusion in this moment W/ thanks to
@thrasherxy
@NussbaumMartha
@Dorry_Segev
@Boghuma
@alice_macl
In Opinion
"Society has rarely taken the most vulnerable into account when it comes to how daily life is navigated. Not during this pandemic, and certainly not before it,"
@SarahAWildman
writes.
Today is the 1 year mark of Orli’s liver transplant. It’s been a tough cancer year (dayenu, pandemic!)that isn’t over yet. We spent this harrowing last week in hospital. But the gift of her life is one we are continuously in awe of. It is a 2nd birthday. שהחינו וקימנו והגענו
I have spent a lot of time thinking about the economic strain of being a cancer parent and how it can ruin families emotionally and financially. Very grateful for
@KFILE
for writing this for us today.
Each day Francesca battled cancer was horrific. But truth is, we were among the lucky ones. Many families also battle extreme financial strain after their kids’ diagnosis.
My amazing husband
@KFILE
in the
@nytimes
today on how to fix this injustice:
As
#COVID19
cases grow, it’s helpful to remember why wearing a mask is so important. I bet you can think of 3 people you know who inspire you to wear a mask. Here’s mine: Orli, 11, fighting like a champ. Lauren, 35, mom of 2, living with CF. And Blakey, 1, son of
@Rene_MarshCNN
.
Yesterday we stopped to say hi to the barber who shaved Orli’s head at the beginning of chemo. She brought us in after hours. Alone. On a Saturday eve. Refused payment. We showed her Orli’s hair is coming back. We’re stronger. Sometimes people are just good. She was just ...good.
Rosh Hashana liturgy asks, this year: "Who will be at rest, and who will wander?"Over the last 3 yrs wandering with my family through my daughter's cancer & pandemic, I've come to look for places to rest, though we wander, in the quiet, in-between moments
This is the best birthday ever. I ofc could barely say happy birthday without weeping but Orli is v excited to get Nusayba a birthday present. best present of all is seeing what a true warrior princess she is, after the year she has had. 🙏🙏
We just celebrated Queen Nusayba's 4th birthday w/ a My Little Pony theme. Last year, she was Elsa w/ a NG tube, losing hair to chemo & waiting for a liver transplant. This year, she shaved her head to be in solidarity with Orli,
@SarahAWildman
's daughter recovering from cancer.
Thrilled to be joining the politics team
@nytopinion
- a group of some of the smartest and most generous editors I’ve ever met — not to mention a stellar slate of writers. Send me ideas.
Orli & I are back
@ChildrensNatl
waiting for yet another small biopsy this a.m. We're hopeful, we've got to be. But we would also appreciate you sending all the good energy and prayer you can muster her/our way.
Something I learned this year: it is impossible to overestimate how much notes of encouragement have helped, especially in the pandemic. if you think you're too late to write someone, you're wrong. If you have something nice to say, say it. About anything.
My daughter Orli is recovering from chemo & cancer and thus has (I think super chic) short short short hair - but she was devastated yesterday when a kid casually told her she looked like a boy - this tiktok by
@chinamcclain
picked her back up.
Midsummer & a good time to pitch me opinion essays in politics -culture-foreign policy - or the intersection of any of the above. Looking for strongly argued pieces, unexpected ideas, new voices and - of course- great writing. happy to dm to discuss.
For pediatric
#cancer
families like ours, milestones are enormous. My joy is indescribable - Orli became a Bat Mitzvah last Shabbat. But it was just as Colleyville's hostage crisis was unfolding. Here’s my effort to process parenting through uncertainty:
Jewish clergy across Missouri opposed in-person voting rules, arguing that religious freedom insists on protecting life - & voting absentee. Maharat Rori Picker Neiss explains religious and civic observance in a pandemic
@roripn
@TheRaDR
@truahrabbis
@RabbiDoubleA
@JMOlitzky
It is a hardship to be alone, but we understand that our faith not only allows for it, it insists upon it, writes Maharat Rori Picker Neiss.
Missouri's old in-person voting rules risks lives. My Jewish religion supports life — and absentee voting:
The Holocaust Stole My Youth. Covid-19 Is Stealing My Last Years. "what is getting me down is that I am losing a year. And this bothers me terribly. I’m 87 years old, and I lost almost a full year."
@tobylevyshoah
Knowing Nunu
@WajahatAli
gives my daughter such enormous joy. This kids have already fought so incredibly hard, and come so far. Stay home for them both.
.
@SarahAWildman
's daughter had a liver transplant. She was briefly Nusayba's floormate. We face time them & she shows off her dance moves. Nunu usually joins but she was watching cartoons. Two young girls who survived cancer, both immuno compromised, ask you to
#FlattenTheCurve
.
Second-grader raises hands, unmutes. "Why did the women have to gather berries and watch the kids while the men hunted? Why couldn't the women hunt and the men gather berries and watch the kids?"
❤️❤️🙏She requested balloons, pancakes (& electronics). Jan. 13, 2020 was b/tw chemo cycles & her wish was to be away from the hospital w/ 2 friends. We are grateful, painfully knowing nothing is promised.Hug your kids.Send someone love. Her Tuesday clinic crowd brought cupcakes.
Orli turns 12 today. Sometimes it’s good to think about the triumphs - and I always think about Orli.
🎂🎉🎂🎉🎂🎉🎂🎉🎂🎉🎂
(also, way to go, Mom
@SarahAWildman
😘)
Orli joined me to talk about
#cancer
, family, the pandemic and social media
@NYTopinion
on Instagram live. “I wouldn’t recommend cancer to learn stuff,” she told me. “But I’ve learned a lot.” Honestly - I learned a few things about what this has been like for her.
What’s it like to be a middle schooler undergoing cancer treatment during the pandemic? Watch Orli Halpern’s conversation with her mom,
@sarahawildman
, on Instagram.
Knowing people like
@WajahatAli
and his warrior princess cancer-fighter Nunu, her siblings, and her incredible mom Sarah, also lifted us up, again and again, and gave us hope.
Something I learned this year: it is impossible to overestimate how much notes of encouragement have helped, especially in the pandemic. if you think you're too late to write someone, you're wrong. If you have something nice to say, say it. About anything.
On the First Person podcast:
@chefjoseandres
sits down with
@sarahawildman
to explain the work of
@wckitchen
, how food is political, and argues that the country needs shorter walls—and longer tables.
Former Obama admin official
@ColinKahl
was targeted by Black Cube, the same company Harvey Weinstein hired to discredit his accusers. Kahl talked to us this week for the
@ForeignPolicy
podcast - the E.R.- listen in!
We need others to support us in so many ways. In my family that’s more profoundly evident than in others. But it’s clear none of us feel quite right these days: self sufficiency is over rated.
The inimitable
@bessbell
wrote a combined pregnancy announcement and a scathing entreaty to pass a comprehensive paid leave package that underscores just how much is at stake for American parents (and humans). Very glad I had a chance to work on this -
Today marks 75 years since Nuremberg - In 2018 I had the privilege to sit down with
@BenFerencz
the last living Nuremberg prosecutor on the
@foreignpolicy
podcast
#firstperson
- he describes the Allied trials against Nazi leaders. and lessons for today -
Yes another great
#feminist
@ForeignPolicy
piece: Rachel Vogelstein
@rvogelstein
& Alexandra Bro
@CFR_org
argue Sweden's emphasis on gender equality is critical to Sweden’s broader FP objectives, including economic development, prosperity, and security.
Not going to lie this year has been so heavy. Caring for a child with liver cancer. Transplant. Pandemic. Isolation. Etc etc etc. as a result - Elul feels particularly elusive to me. I found some insight in Hebrew.
Read
@JillFilipovic
on Rush Limbaugh’s misogyny in
@nytopinion
: “His belligerent chauvinism was key in making the Republican Party the party of anti-feminism.”
Clarification: women were shackled as they came to make their plea. 1 father, Chandler told me, asked if his 6 year old would be shackled too. The defendants were shackled entering court rooms. The judge asked for shackled to be removed. Reminder: they are facing a misdemeanor.
On the
#FirstPerson
podcast: I sat down with Former Pakistani Ambassador
@HusainHaqqani
on America’s endgame in Afghanistan, Pakistan's position, and partition.
I'd be remiss if I didn't say: We are incredibly fortunate to be in the care of the amazing teams at
@BostonChildrens
&
@DanaFarber
&
@childrensntl
the scene of many of Orli's TikToks. Back-up dancers include surgeons, oncology fellows, nurses, techs & child life specialists.
Something I learned this year: it is impossible to overestimate how much notes of encouragement have helped, especially in the pandemic. if you think you're too late to write someone, you're wrong. If you have something nice to say, say it. About anything.
"Ensuring that I am never again complicit in an institution that tolerates sexual harassment means embracing a world in which I lose some of my undeserved advantage."
@PeterBeinart
gives both a heshbon ha'nefesh (accounting of the soul)--and a window into what might allow change
For
@jdforward
"After Corona" series I wrote on how collective responsibility will (or should) be reconsidered post pandemic - the symbol? the mask, worn to protect our neighbors as much as ourselves. We are our sister's keeper -
Breaking News: The FDA authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If the CDC signs off, the vaccinations could begin next week.
The news doesn’t tell the human story of the Syrian genocide enough. Please watch this on
@ForeignPolicy
’s photo feature on displaced children with
@SarahAWildman
and see her piece:
ICYMI: On the first episode of the new
#FirstPerson
podcast:
@Manal_alsharif
challenged the Saudi regime by getting behind the wheel of a car. Now in exile, she's challenging the regime from afar.
Facing Orli's need for a new liver redefined terror for us. But the thought of the families still waiting, full of uncertainty, cracks my heart into a million tiny pieces. "Organ transplants from deceased donors plummet amid coronavirus crisis"
@nbcnews
In this year of tumult — navigating Orli’s
#cancer
rollercoaster & her sister’s needs for us to be together — we found comfort in Stars Hollow. “Binge-Watching ‘Gilmore Girls’ Got My Family Through an Epically Bad Year”
The location of U.S. Embassy in Israel has a long - political - back story. Listen to my conversation with
@martin_Indyk
on the
@foreignpolicy
E.R. podcast for the history of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995.
All of this strange and brutal year, Orli filmed herself - at home, in the halls of
@BostonChildrens
(in March, doing the Renegade with her
#transplant
surgeon), dancing w/ nurses & doctors
@ChildrensNatl
)- & narrating her story. TikTok got her moving, kept her motivated.
TikTok has allowed
@SarahAWildman
's 11-year-old daughter Orli to document her cancer story. The result is "a flip-book of a grueling year, a documentary of illness and recovery, persistence, silliness and, yes, even joy."
I also want to say that today's
@nytopinion
piece was my first working with new editor,
@SarahAWildman
. Who amazed me with her respect & tenacity, and her understanding of what I was trying to do. A
@wesleyan_u
alum!
WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
I just learned that the inimitable Justus Rosenberg died today at 100. The last remaining member of the Varian Fry gang, witness to the Holocaust - I had the privilege of sitting with Justus to learn about his life as a resistance fighter and intellect z”l
I spoke with
#HongKong
democracy activist Bonnie Leung for
@ForeignPolicy
#firstperson
podcast -she describes how the demonstrations got underway, the escalation, and where they go from here.
Icymi: I had the chance to speak to
@KHayhoe
on
@ForeignPolicy
‘s First Person podcast: On faith and science and climate change and why all those things exist perfectly well in the same sentence