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Commemoration and Revitalization at Babyn Yar

Eighty years after it was the site of a noto-

rious Holocaust massacre, Babyn Yar—a wooded ravine near Kiev, Ukraine—witnessed the birth of something unexpected and beautiful: a synagogue. Unveiled in 2021, the wooden structure marks the re-establishment of a Jewish presence at the mass grave of an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 people who were shot by the Nazis in a two-year period beginning with the murder of nearly the entire Jewish population of the city on September 29 and 30, 1941. Now, with Yom

The ‘pop-up’ synagogue at Babyn Yar is intended as a gathering place for visiting Jews.

Hashoah—Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day—beginning on April 27, the splendor of the synagogue provides a stark contrast to the blood-soaked history of the land.

“This is a site not only of commemoration, but of revitalization,” noted Robert Jan van Pelt, a Holocaust historian and University of Waterloo architecture professor. Indeed, it is

Confidence and High Fashion as Beauty Enhancers

If Queens Esther and Vashti

had opted to hire a fashion designer, they might have picked Donna Leah Goldstein of Miami,

Donna Leah Goldstein models three of her dresses, including the gold ensemble (right) that she says befits Queen Esther. whose one-of-a-kind gowns, lounge and evening wear glitter with outrageous individuality.

Conversely, the 58-year-old Modern Orthodox founder of Donna Leah Designs knows exactly how she would dress each queen, whom we celebrate on Purim, beginning this year the evening of March 16. She would swathe Esther in the same gold gown of stretch silk and satin that she designed for her own birthday celebration last year, she said, an ensemble featuring a goldembroidered top and layers of gold fringe. Vashti, she said, would shine in a metallic silver gown festooned with appliqués.

Goldstein, who grew up in Queens, N.Y., is a graduate of Columbia University and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She designed her first gown only eight years ago—a head-turning white dress that glistened with blue and green rhinestones and crystals that she wore to Shabbat morning services. The response was so positive that after decades of dreaming about starting her own fashion line, she launched Donna Leah Designs in 2019.

Though not intentionally created with modesty in mind, much of her line features long sleeves and low hemlines. Now, congregants at her Chabad synagogue in Miami look forward to the dramatic outfits she wears every Shabbat.

“I just want to make myself happy,” Goldstein said, “and my clothing is an expression of who I am.”

Initially, Goldstein had hoped to tap the celebrity market with her gowns, but the pandemic and its stay-at-home ethos motivated her to create a casual line of hoodies, tops and leggings in vibrant shades from lime green to fuchsia. But now that red-carpet events are resuming, she has created a number of striking dresses for the likes of American singer-songwriter Tanya Tucker and, on the younger spectrum, Instagram

hoped that Jews visiting the site will use the synagogue as a gathering space.

Van Pelt is the author of An Atlas of Jewish Space, the first of two volumes in the book set How Beautiful Are Your Dwelling Places, Jacob: Documenting the Babyn Yar Synagogue Project, which is scheduled for release in the United States this spring. He also serves on the architectural advisory board of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, which commissioned the synagogue to inaugurate a complex that will include a library, archives and an educational center.

“We want to invite the world to think with us about what should and can happen here, where the soil is so burdened with history— quite literally,” van Pelt reflected.

Built on a wooden platform, architect Manu-

A rendering of the night sky over Kiev on September 29, 1941 is painted on the ceiling.

el Herz’s synagogue design deliberately hovers above this sacred ground, its every detail resonant of traditional Eastern European wooden shuls. Inside, the walls are decorated with Jewish prayers such as the Shema and Kaddish. Colorful motifs inspired by classic Ukrainian synagogue interiors include a painted ceiling that depicts the night sky that was visible over Kiev on September 29, 1941.

But the most unusual element is the synagogue’s “pop-up” design, in which the vertical structure unfolds like a book to reveal the sanctuary. German-born Herz has said the process of cranking open the temple with a manual winch is intended as a collective ritual, referencing not only the symbolic reopening of Babyn Yar and Kiev Jewry, but also the Jews’ identity as the People of the Book.

“Being in the open air makes it very inviting,” noted van Pelt. “There’s a lightness about the design that makes us all smile.” —Hilary Danailova

influencer Alexandra Dieck, who wore a coral-colored evening dress designed by Goldstein to the Latin Grammy Awards in 2021.

“I want to help women feel comfortable with themselves,” Goldstein said, “because confidence enhances beauty and appearance. My goal is to empower women.” —Rahel Musleah

Publishing Through a Jewish and Female Lens

When Angela Engel founded the Collective Book Studio four

years ago in Oakland, Calif., she envisioned a publishing space where Jewish women’s voices are amplified every day and with every new release—not only in March during Women’s History Month. With a lineup of largely nonfiction, Jewish-authored books, Engel, a publishing veteran of 20 years, is proud to be considered a disrupter of the corporate publishing industry by championing a new way to do business—partnership publishing. “It’s interesting in this moment to think about what and how stories should be published,” reflected Engel, 44, a life member of Hadassah

Angela Engel who acknowledges that Jewish and especially Israeli perspectives today can struggle to find support in the mainstream book world. In the Collective’s partnership model, authors invest their own money upfront to help fund the production of their book and receive 20 to 50 percent of sales revenue—rates far higher than in traditional trade publishing, where authors typically pay nothing upfront. The studio handles all the editorial, design, distribution and promotion and keeps the rest of the profits.

Engel said her publishing vision is inspired by her three young daughters and by her family’s diverse background. Her mother, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, immigrated to New York from Germany after a stop in Israel; her husband, Dan Engel, is an Israeli with roots in Iraq.

“I am looking at all of my books through a Jewish lens,” Engel noted. The result is an eclectic lineup of adult and children’s titles that includes the newly released cookbook 52 Shabbats: Friday Night Dinners Inspired by a Global Jewish Kitchen by Faith Kramer; Dear White Women, the book version of Sara Blanchard and Misasha Suzuki Graham’s popular antiracism podcast; and Malkah’s Notebook: A Journey Into the Mystical Aleph-Bet by Mira Z. Amiras, a lyrical book with illustrations that reframes the Genesis story around a young Jewish girl’s coming of age.

“Women,” Engel observed, “bring their experiences to everything they do in a way that creates change.” —Hilary Danailova