We at Kveller recently brought you our favorite Jewish mom influencers — the people we love to follow on Instagram.
Now it’s time to turn the spotlight to some not-quite influencers — incredible women who may have less than 10,000 followers, but who are using their Instagram platforms in interesting and exciting ways.
Read about these 13 incredible Jewish moms, below, and follow them immediately!
1. Stephanie Wittels Wachs (@wittelstephanie)
The Jewish writer, activist, and mom-of-two is a joy to follow on Instagram. Her Instagram bio reads “too many pictures of my kids,” but we disagree: not enough pictures of her kids! Stephanie’s brother, the comedian Harris Wittels, died of a heroin overdose at age 30. Her memoir Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful: A Tragicomic Memoir of Genius, Heroin, Love and Loss tells how she coped with grief just as she became a mom.
Her son, Harrison, is named after her brother. Her daughter, Iris, was born with permanent hearing loss, and Stephanie worked to get a law passed in Texas for insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids for children.
(Read our interview with Stephanie here!)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvO9g_eA5Re/
What you’ll find: very cute kids, activism, raising a kid with a hearing impairment (just read this caption).
2. Daci Platt (@dacijaye)
Daci lives in Minneapolis, and draws about her life. She also writes; she’s written for our sister site, Alma. The Jewish mom caught our attention last year with 100 days of toddler quotes. Every day, she posted an illustration of something her toddler said. They were amazing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjoFlFnFlXN/
This year, her 100-day project is “100 days of awkward,” where she’s sketching about her awkwardness. It’s just as delightful as the toddler ones.
What you’ll find: adorable and relatable drawings
3. Rachel Sklar (@rachelsklar)
Feminist activist and single mom Rachel Sklar uses her platform to help her followers get more involved. Her Instagram story game is particularly strong, and her Instagram is a mix of activism and her daughter, which is just what you need in your feed.
What you’ll find: activism! her daughter!
Psst… Listen to Rachel on Call Your Mother, where she talks about being disrespected, political awakenings, and where “leaning in” falls short.
4. Marion Haberman (@MyJewishMommyLife)
If you are looking for a very Jewish mom blogger, look no further than Haberman’s Instagram: It’s literally in her handle. She talks about Shabbat, challah, and really everything Jewish. While she’s a YouTuber, her Instagram is still a delight to follow. (Fun fact: We found her account after she tagged us in some posts and commented on our Instagram posts over @kvellercom. You, too, can always interact with us on Instagram 😉!)
She also makes humorous posts around the holidays:
What you’ll find: all things Jewish family life.
5. Jamie (Aviva) Brown (@colorful_Jewish_mama / @avivabrown.author)
Jamie, whose Hebrew name is Aviva, runs two Instagram accounts: her personal, and her author account (she writes under her Hebrew name). We stumbled across Jamie’s Instagram just like we found Marion’s: She commented on our posts! (She wrote on our Instagram about Adam Sandler getting Adam Levine to perform at his daughter’s bat mitzvah: “Oy. I need famous parents.” Same, Jamie, same.)
On her personal account, her posts about her family are adorable, and on her author account, she shares about writing diverse children’s books. Her first book, Ezra’s BIG Shabbat Question, is a story about her younger son.
What you’ll find: reflections on her biracial Jewish family, self-publishing, and, obviously, cute kids.
6. Marti Kerner (@everydayjewishmom)
One more Instagrammer with “Jewish mom” in her handle! Marti posts about — can you guess? — being a Jewish mom. Her posts have a mix of quotes, jokes, and her family. She’s also more on YouTube than Instagram, where she makes videos about “fun, easy, and meaningful ways to squeeze a little Jewish into my family’s everyday life.”
What you’ll find: inspirational quotes and funny (Jewish) jokes
7. Sarah Tuttle-Singer (@tuttlesinger)
Sarah was born in California and now lives in Israel. She’s the author of Jerusalem, Drawn and Quartered: One Woman’s Year in the Heart of the Christian, Muslim, Armenian, and Jewish Quarters of Old Jerusalem, about what it’s really like to live in Jerusalem. (Plus, Sarah has written for Kveller!)
She has a large following on Twitter — but her Instagram is where it’s at. (Her bio reads, “I wouldn’t do everything for a Klondike bar, but I’d do some shady stuff for whisky and tacos 🥃🌮.”)
Her Instagram is a mix of photojournalism, selfies with her kids, and a few jokes/activist posts thrown in.
What you’ll find: gorgeous photos of Israel and her family.
8. Jessica Levinson (@jlevinsonrd)
Jessica is a dietitian and recipe developer who writes in her Instagram bio she is “helping families eat better.” She wrote 52 Week Meal Planner, a workbook to help you “master meal planning.” She’s also a mom of twins!
Her Instagram is a great place for inspiration for easy and healthy meals. And she shares photos of what she packs for her daughters’ lunches:
What you’ll find: recipes, healthy eating, and the occasional twin photo!
9. Gabi Moskowitz (@gabimoskowitz)
Did you ever watch Young & Hungry? It was a five-season sitcom that aired on Freeform about Gabi, a young woman who becomes a personal chef for a San Francisco tech entrepreneur. Welll.… it was based on the real life of SF food blogger Gabi Moskowitz! She is definitely worth a follow on Insta, and she doesn’t just post about food; she posts about being a mom (often humorously), like this video of her baby’s hand massaging her face:
What you’ll find: all the baby & food content you could want.
10. Brit & Sydney Sharon (@brrrit, @mrssydneysharon, and @thesharonmoms)
Three new Instagram accounts for the price of one? Yes, please. The Sharons’ joint Instagram account reads “Gay 🏳️🌈 Jewish ✡ Moms 👩👩👧” and that is exactly the type of content you will find. In a recent Instagram post, Brit wrote how they had their first kiss in Tel Aviv in 2007 when they were 18. (The photos of their wedding are also beautiful.)
Now, they’re proud moms of daughter Thea, born in December 2018. All their feeds are filled with amazing photographs:
What you’ll find: fantastic captions! They are open about being same sex parents and being Jewish. Plus, obviously, very cute baby photos (plus occasional appearances by their dog).
11. Brandie Itman (@Bella_Nava_Creations)
Brandie Itman, a mom of three, owns a kosher bakery in Minnesota. Her Instagram is mainly full of delicious treats (like this Wonder Woman cake or these Torah cookies), but we also love when she shares snippets of her own life, like this shot of her daughters and challah:
The origin story of her bakery comes from right after giving birth to her first daughter.
“When my eldest was born, I became a stay-at-home mom. Suddenly, I was tied to the house and had a kid on my hip all the time. So, I started baking and trying different things, cakes and cookies. My family really loved my cheesecake. My mother-in-law said, ‘You should sell these,’ and that put the idea in my head. I had a lot of encouragement and help from family and friends,” Brandie explained.
What you’ll find: mainly delicious desserts!
12. Shannon Sarna (@shasarna)
Last but certainly not least: our very own Kveller contributor and Call Your Mother podcast co-host! Shannon is the editor of the Nosher (Kveller and the Nosher share a parent company, 70 Faces Media) and her Insta is filled with delicious food, adorable photos of her kids, and a healthy mix of memes.
What you’ll find: great food, kids, kids with food, jokes, and occasionally a bunny.
