Hadassah Magazine Nov/Dec 2021

LEARNING LADINO ONLINE | OUR NEW CEO | KIDNEY COLLABORATORS

NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2021

THE POWEROF PURPOSE WOMEN EFFECTING CHANGE

Happy Hanukkah!

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Thanksgiving-Hanukkah Nexus Latkes and Cake Our Annual Gift Guide Books for the Kids

“HONEST, COMPELLING, INTRIGUING.” —DAN W. LUFKIN, Founder, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette

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TOGETHER, WE CAN HELP

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 | VOL. 103 NO. 2

36

DEPARTMENTS 12 COMMENTARY 12

IN EVERY ISSUE 4 President’s Column 6 The Editor’s Turn 8 Letters to the Editor 10 Cut & Post 32 Hadassah Medicine

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT) PAIGE THATCHER; JOY ART GALLERY (JOYART-GALLERY.CO.IL); DONNA GRETHEN

36 Hadassah News 47 Crossword Puzzle 67 About Hebrew 68 Question & Answer On the Cover

Invited panelists for Hadassah’s “The Power of Purpose” national women’s conference include (clockwise, from bottom right) Tamar Manasseh, Marcy Syms, Joy Bauer, Rachel Fish and Noa Tishby. Profiles begin on page 22; Tishby Q&A is on page 68.

Join the Conversation facebook.com/hadassahmag @HadassahMag @hadassahmagazine

18 LIVING ON THE EDGE OF FOOD INSECURITY

By Cathryn J. Prince In the United States, 40 million people face food insecurity.

Of those, 12.9 million are children. Across the country, Jewish food programs serve all demographics, including single mothers, the working poor and an increasing number of older Americans. Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center, the number of affected people aged 60 and over has increased more than 30 percent since 2008.

22 THE POWER OF PURPOSE: WOMEN EFFECTING CHANGE

Some top names in America and Israel—women known for making the greatest impact in social justice, women’s health, advocacy, innovation and more—will speak at Hadassah’s national virtual conference in January. Among the trailblazers are Tamar Manasseh, Rachel Fish, Joy Bauer and Marcy Syms, all of whom we profile in this issue.

24 A PERFECT MATCH

When Thanksgiving and Hanukkah connect

14 ESSAY The Ladino Zoom boom

38 TRAVEL Vibrant Sofia, Bulgaria

40 FOOD Latkes and a sweet treat

42 ARTS

• Mined-in-Israel rare gems • Broadcasting Jewish 24/7 44 HANUKKAH GIFT GUIDE 48 BOOKS

• Top picks for children • Two first-time novelists take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

• Complicated love stories out of Israel

By Martha Gershun “I first read about Debra Porter Gill’s need for a kidney in a December 2017 article in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle,” writes the author. “At the time, Gill was a stranger, but I felt drawn to her.” So begins the story of one woman’s journey to donate her kidney and save the life of someone she’d never met. Last year, only one-third of organs donations in America were from living donors. The story is different in Israel, which ranks third worldwide in live organ donation, as reported by Wendy Elliman in “Transplantation and Rebirth” on page 32.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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46 44

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Consider the Big Picture Being thankful and finding perspective | By Rhoda Smolow

Y

ou are approaching the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the first time—or maybe the first time in a long while. Do you stop immediately on your initial glimpse to take a picture or do you walk around and savor every corner before deciding which angles to photograph? I’d say it’s fine to take that first-impression shot, but essential to do the 360-degree tour, too.

That’s what I think is missing in the way we measure progress, abetted by news reports that too often depart from the fullness of the day in favor of a single narrative, equivalent to the first impression.

When we do the full tour of the Kotel plaza, we see the beauty and history. We walk in step with the generations, but we also see the essential mixed with the quotidian: A dozen minyanim, including one with a bar mitzvah; men and women separating as they approach the Wall; children playing games; beggars begging; one guide speaking to a tour group in Spanish, another in Japanese; Israelis carrying groceries and foreigners carrying souvenirs. It’s the cavalcade of life—not the single arc of today’s version of history but many arcs crisscrossing.

As the secular year nears an end, I am struck by the need for context.

Big problems, from America’s position in the world to Israeli-Palestinian peace, from political polarization to global warming, seem intractable.

We are approaching the end of our second year dominated by Covid19, a period detached from normal existence that has taken on wartime duration.

I don’t pretend that putting all these issues into broader context will solve them. But I do believe that context is crucial—for citizens and leaders—to create the perspective and inspiration that make solutions more possible.

Look at what the world has already accomplished with Covid: A vaccine in less than a year, using medical technology that will pay dividends far into the future. Many deaths, sadly, but also many acts

AS THE SECULAR YEAR NEARS AN END, I AM STRUCK BY THE NEED FOR CONTEXT. of heroism and genius. Israel has become a world leader in Covid treatment and research and the Hadassah Medical Organization— the flagship project of Jewish women driven by purpose—a pillar of Israel’s efforts. And in a year of violence on Israel’s borders and in its cities, more examples at our medical center of Arab-Jewish cooperation that is both routine and extraordinary.

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onsider the arc of jewish history over the past century: Israel has flourished for 73 years, longer than the modern Zionist campaign to bring about its birth.

Peace with Egypt has reigned for 42 years, longer than the seemingly endless state of war that preceded it. The last major captive Jewish

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

communities—from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union—have been free for more than 30 years.

We have much to be thankful for, including some of the milestones that mark this holiday season. Both the 1947 United Nations vote that created the Jewish state and the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s 1977 landmark visit to the Knesset took place during the week of Thanksgiving.

At Hanukkah, as we celebrate the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and the rededication of the Temple, we recall how many labored and sacrificed through the millennia so that we could exercise our free will to continue their work.

The work of purpose-driven women continues. On January 9, 2022, Hadassah will convene a virtual national women’s conference entitled “The Power of Purpose.” It is natural that Hadassah, nurtured

by Henrietta Szold’s vision, is the convener of such a conference, which will bring together women for a day of inspiration and empowerment.

The event will include American and Israeli women making the greatest impact today in social justice, women’s health, advocacy and innovation. (Find profiles of some of the slated speakers beginning on page 22.) You will not want to miss this conference!

My best wishes to all of you for a happy and meaningful holiday season. And in 2022, may we all have our own vision come true: Rounding a corner and seeing Jerusalem as if for the first time.

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ISRAEL IS FACING A CRITICAL HOSPITAL BED SHORTAGE — YOU HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL. For Jerusalem’s skyrocketing population, more hospital beds are essential to prevent overcrowding and save lives.

With the addition of new, modern patient rooms in the iconic Round Building at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, our medical teams can take patient care to the next level: ° 200 more beds to serve a growing number of patients ° State-of-the-art equipment and technology for medical teams ° Safe and smart design to provide efficient patient care ° Spacious rooms to give patients more privacy and reduce infection Support our 360-degree vision of healing and bring lifesaving, world-class care to the people of Israel and around the world.

IT’S ABOUT COMPASSION. IT’S ABOUT HEALING. IT’S ABOUT LIFE.

360°of HEALING

DONATE TODAY.

hadassah.org/360degrees 800.928.0685

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©2021 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah and the H logo are registered trademarks of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

THE EDITOR’S TURN

CHAIR Marlene Post EXECUTIVE EDITOR Lisa Hostein DEPUTY EDITOR Libby Barnea SENIOR EDITOR Leah Finkelshteyn DIGITAL EDITOR Talia Liben Yarmush EDITOR EMERITUS Alan M. Tigay DESIGN/PRODUCTION Smash Studio, Inc. EDITORIAL BOARD Roselyn Bell Ruth G. Cole Nancy Falchuk Gloria Goldreich Blu Greenberg Dara Horn

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Use of any products or services advertised in Hadassah Magazine is solely at the user’s risk and Hadassah accepts no responsibility or liability in connection therewith.

From Inspiration to Empowerment

What we learn from role models | By Lisa Hostein

I

t’s not unusual to read about inspiring and powerful women in the pages of Hadassah Magazine.

Profiling women making their mark in the world—in fields as diverse as medicine, politics, the arts and Jewish life—is a big part of what we do and who we are. So when I learned that Hadassah was planning a major national conference, “The Power of Purpose,” on January 9, I knew this was a great opportunity to add to the magazine’s body of work about women. I wanted to feature some of the stars invited to speak at the virtual conference, which is focused on women’s empowerment through the lens of advocacy, women’s health and Israel. (Profiles of Tamar Manasseh, Rachel Fish, Joy Bauer and Marcy Syms begin on page 22; a Q&A with Noa Tishby is on page 68.)

The inspiring stories found in this issue don’t stop there. You’ll find moving accounts of what it means to be a kidney donor—and recipient—in “A Perfect Match” by Martha Gershun, who shares her donation journey (page 28). And in “Transplantation and Rebirth,” Wendy Elliman recounts poignant organ donation stories at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem (page 32).

A different sort of inspiration comes from essayist Hannah Pressman, who describes in “Ladino as Sephardi Cultural Bedrock” (page 14) what it means to connect with a different part of her heritage as she takes on a new language in this era of online learning.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

All this inspiration comes as we embark on two of our favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, each of which includes its own themes of empowerment. The proximity of the two celebrations this year—Thanksgiving is on November 25 and Hanukkah’s first candle will be lit three days later, on November 28—prompts Rabbi Yael Buechler to ask: How can we infuse more holiness into both holidays to ensure neither one is eclipsed by the other (page 12)?

Even as we prepare for our own bountiful festivities, it’s important to remember that many Americans aren’t as fortunate. To that end, Cathryn J. Prince’s story on food insecurity—and the many Jewish efforts to address it throughout the country—is an important read (page 18).

And of course we have lots of holiday treats for you, including our food columnist Adeena Sussman’s Green Latkes packed with garden goodness and Olive Oil Semolina Cake (page 40). Our annual gift guide once again brims with unusual and enticing selections (page 44).

And in the books section, you’ll find our yearly children’s roundup as well as some thought-provoking reviews of new works by Israeli authors (page 48). Even our ever-popular crossword has a Hanukkah theme (page 47).

However you plan to celebrate, all of us at the magazine wish you a happy, safe and inspiring holiday season!

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

WORTHY OF A BIOGRAPHY I want to commend Gloria Goldreich for her outstanding book review in the September/October 2021 issue of From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind All-of-a-Kind Family by June Cummins with Alexandra Dunietz.

As June’s aunt, I was amazed that she continued writing the book while suffering from ALS. I consulted with Dr. Rachel Schonberger, then chair of the Hadassah Medical Organization, about the research Hadassah was doing to treat this dreadful disease.

To further these efforts, my late husband, Allan, and I established the June Cummins Lewis Fund for ALS Research at Hadassah.

Along with her husband, Jonathan Lewis, June had three children. A tenured professor at San Diego State University, she is worthy of her own biography.

Gail Ripans Atlanta, Ga.

WHEN CONTEXT IS NOT KING Dara Horn’s excellent article, “Is This Our Old/New Normal?” (September/ October issue), is among the best I’ve read on the recent antisemitic violence in the United States. Her analysis of the gaslighting and blaming of Jews as part of the now routine explanation of “context” is brilliant.

However, as with many similar articles, there are no suggestions of what Jewish communities, synagogues and families can do given this new/old normal. I think community centers and synagogues should invest in

state-of-the-art security systems, including internet and cell phone links to all members alerting them of danger. Each group should train willing members to know what to do in case of emergencies. Professional security guards should be hired.

This country is susceptible to a virus much older than Covid-19— Jew hatred. Denial and hesitation left our families totally abandoned in World War II. The illusion of safety crumbles very fast when conditions are ripe for social disintegration.

Janet Abramson East Lansing, Mich.

I deeply appreciated Dara Horn’s article on the rise of antisemitic violence in the United States. Like Horn, I live close to where the 2019 Jersey City grocery store attack occurred. I am shocked to discover how little I learned from the news reports that followed. I did not know the store was underneath a school whose Jewish students were likely the original targets of the attack. I do not recall hearing about the huge cache of weapons that the attackers had. And in retrospect, yes, journalistic coverage and commentary disappeared very quickly. Thank you for pointing out the insidious ways in which “context” is used to rationalize antisemitic violence.

Pamela Erens Maplewood, N.J.

ALL JEWS, EVERYWHERE Reading the profile of Rabbi Sandra Lawson in the September/October issue (“Expanding the Jewish Beat”) reminded me how, growing up in Detroit, I learned in Sunday school that I am united with Jews everywhere. Back then, my everywhere would sometimes extend to Chicago,

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

where we went on holiday and would see other Jews and their synagogues.

When I lived in Israel, my “everywhere” and “all Jews” changed.

Not all Jews resembled me or my Ashkenazi relatives. I knew I was acclimating when I assumed that everyone—the police, bus drivers, house cleaners, professors and nurses—was Jewish.

Now I understand that if, in any Jewish setting, I don’t immediately acknowledge someone as Jewish, I have a problem. I may ask Lawson why she became a rabbi; I may not ask her if, how or why she is Jewish.

My goal for 5782 is to continue to address my myopia and refrain from asking other Jews inappropriate questions.

Naomi Revzin Potomac, Md.

A CLUSTER OF SYMPTOMS As an ovarian cancer survivor, I was disappointed at one of Dr. Shani Breuer’s comments in “Battling Cancer at Hadassah” in the September/October issue. She stated that the failure to identify ovarian cancer early on is because “it is not usually detected until it’s advanced, because in its early stage, it rarely causes symptoms.”

But there are a cluster of symptoms that have been identified, and they include bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full quickly, increase in urinary frequency, pain during sex, back pain, extraordinary fatigue, menstrual changes, upset stomach, heartburn and constipation. What is critical is that this cluster of symptoms (a woman may have one, some or all) reflects a change from her normal experience and lasts over a period of six weeks or more.

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I had been experiencing all these symptoms for over two years but didn’t know to investigate them.

During my annual exam, my gynecologist found that my ovaries were enlarged. He ordered a transvaginal ultrasound and then a blood test, which confirmed my cancer diagnosis.

Women seeking more information should contact the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (1-888-Ovarian; ovarian.org).

Michele S. Banker Wellington, Fla.

NOTES ON FORGIVING I take exception to the description of Yom Kippur as the “saddest day of the Jewish calendar,” to quote Susan Shapiro in Amy Klein’s essay “How to Forgive” (September/October issue). That sorrowful distinction is reserved for Tisha B’Av. Yom Kippur is the holiest and the most solemn day of the Jewish year, but it is not devoid of joy. It might even be argued that it is the happiest day since it is when we come closest to God and are forgiven.

Melissa B. Milgram Kibbutz Gezer, Israel

science there are many differing opinions and approaches. Science is never “settled,” and one ought not to set oneself up as the arbiter of disinformation.

Gertrude Donchin Chityat Boca Raton, Fla.

HADASSAH CAPE COD

from the entire Cape with chapters throughout Southern New England and across the United States as well as with Hadassah’s work around the world. Hadassah Cape Cod welcomes summer friends as well as full timers!

Margi Loyer President, Hadassah Cape Cod Hyannis, Mass.

I was so pleased to read the travel story “Cape Cod’s Midcentury Moment” in the July/August 2021 issue. Members are very proud of our Hadassah Cape Cod chapter, which has been active since the 1950s and offers year-round events. During the pandemic, we successfully pivoted to Zoom and hosted two terrific cooking programs. We connect women

In the essay “How to Forgive,” the author asks, “But what should we feel for people who refused to observe quarantine mandates or wear masks, who won’t vaccinate (for nonmedical reasons) or who spread disinformation about Covid-19?”

Many people refuse to observe quarantine or to wear masks. I believe that lots of them have good reasons. Their thinking may or may not be flawed, but the same can be said about thinking that quarantine and mask wearing should be observed unquestioningly.

In the world of medicine and NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! We value your interest in Hadassah Magazine and welcome hearing from you about the content of the magazine. Please email letters to the editor to letters@ hadassah.org. To read more letters, visit us online at hadassahmagazine.org.

CUT

POST

Crossing the Generational Divide on TikTok around three million likes and 250,000 followers.

Her social media success has garnered all kinds of attention, including an appearance on Dr. Phil and a feature story in the Los Angeles Times.

Morrison edits and posts the videos because Korzen said that she herself “doesn’t understand all the technical stuff.” The octogenarian describes TikTok content as mostly clips of “some young girl shaking her booty or putting on makeup. I think I’m one of the few who use it as a platform for ideas.”

Those ideas are typically humorous observations accompanied by a subtle message.

Highlights include her philosophy on fashion and shopping, from her love of .99-cent stores to the maxim that “I don’t buy anything unless it’s worth more money than I paid for it.” Other uploads show her interacting with

Annie Korzen

much younger friends—even teenagers—in her Los Angeles neighborhood, asking them embarrassing questions (“Who do you love more, me or your mom?”) that endear Korzen to her TikTok followers, and presumably to the bemused guests.

Her direct yet loving manner extends to

Farm-to-Table Israel Philanthropy

COURTESY OF MY TREE IN ISRAEL

Making the desert bloom by planting a tree in Israel? Classic. Adopting an olive tree and savoring its oil on salads all winter? Very 2021.

While American Jews have long cherished the tradition of sponsoring a tree in Israel— most notably through the Jewish National Fund—a new olive tree program, My Tree in

Personalized and edible donor recognition

Israel, personalizes the concept for the farm-totable era. For $220, My Tree in Israel facilitates the one-year adoption of a mature olive tree in a grove near the Jezreel Valley and, in return, the sponsor receives six bottles of customlabeled kosher oil from the fall harvest.

“It’s a more personal way to connect people who love Israel with the land,” said Yishai Gelb, who founded the company (mytree.org.il) a year ago with the father-and-son team of Yaakov and Ofir Asaf.

For oenophiles, there is a similar initiative that promotes the sponsorship of grape vines in Israel. Depending on the level of giving, Wine on the Vine (wineonthevine.org), a project of the Israel Innovation Fund, sends donors a certain number of bottles of wine produced from grapes sponsored by their gift.

By September 2021, the Haifa-based My Tree in Israel had brokered more than 500 tree adoptions. Gifts and memorials are popular motives for tree investment, as is the desire to counteract the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, according to Gelb. He especially includes in that group

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

My Tree in Israel operates olive groves near the Jezreel Valley.

religious Zionists—both Jews and evangelical Christians.

Modern opportunities for tree sponsorship in Israel foster personal engagement with the land and offer something beyond a certificate.

My Tree in Israel encourages sponsors to visit their trees and is rolling out a program for North American Jewish day schools that emphasizes Israeli agriculture, geography and environmentalism. Already, school tours of

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COURTESY OF ANNIE KORZEN

Despite roles in over 50 movies and television shows, including a recurring gig on Seinfeld where she played Doris Klompus, the irritating neighbor of Jerry’s parents in their Florida condo complex, it is on TikTok where Annie Korzen may be enjoying her most enthusiastic audience yet. Indeed, the accomplished actress, writer and professional storyteller is something of a sensation on the short-form video app popular among tweens, teens and young adults.

And she owes all the recent press to her 7-year-old grandson, Maxwell, who introduced her to TikTok, and her 30-year-old-friend, Mackenzie Morrison, who convinced her to use the platform to find a larger viewership for her quirky humor. Almost six months and nearly 200 TikTok videos later, Korzen (@akorzen) has

the olive groves have been conducted over Zoom during the pandemic, and Gelb says in-person visits are scheduled for this winter.

Olive oil is, of course, a popular food and a Hanukkah staple. But Gelb points to greater resonance. “Olive trees are indigenous to Israel. They’re mentioned in the Bible,” he explained. “The olive branch is an emblem of peace worldwide. It’s a tree that symbolizes so much about Israel.” —Hilary Danailova

Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel

Food for Thought at New Cultural Center in Tel Aviv Safaa Ibrahim, a Syrian Druze Israeli cook, and Sigi Mantel, a Syrian Jewish Israeli cook, twinned their culinary traditions in a recent conversation and cooking event at Asif: Culinary Institute of Israel. The event was a prime example of the how the new cultural center in Tel Aviv encourages discourse around food and identity.

Housed at Tel Aviv’s Start-Up Nation Central—a nonprofit connecting international thinkers and investors with Israeli innovation—Asif opened in July as a joint venture with the Manhattan-based Jewish Food Society, an initiative that is working to preserve myriad Jewish culinary traditions. Asif’s facilities include a test kitchen, library, rooftop farm, gallery, cafe and deli.

“In Hebrew, asif means harvest, but it also denotes a gathering of people, curation and collection,” said New York-based Naama Shefi, founder of both the Jewish Food Society and Asif. “It’s not just our name; it stands for what’s important to us.”

For the Syrian cooking event, which was NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

not kosher, Asif’s test kitchen prepared a 10-course meal with dishes such as shish barak (meat-and-walnut dumplings), purslane salad and kataif (cheese pancakes flavored with rosewater).

Asif offers popup dinners, tours, dialogues, storytelling, lectures and classes. For example, in September, Adeena Sussman, the author of Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen and Hadassah Magazine’s longtime food columnist, led “Flavors From the Library,” an event about her favorite cookbooks and High Holiday menus.

Can’t get to Israel yet? Find food for thought on Asif’s website (asif.org), including a tutorial on growing the herbs with which to make the za’atar spice blend at home; a reminiscence about freekeh, the smoked green wheat popular in Palestinian cuisine; and recipes for dishes such as sayadieh, Jaffa-style spiced fish. You can also take a virtual tour of Asif’s inaugural exhibition exploring the kitchen of Israel’s late first lady and culinary icon Nechama Rivlin. —Jordana Benami

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AMIT GERON

her own family. She candidly relates on TikTok how her husband of more than 50 years, artist and film producer Benni Korzen, is a fashion disaster. She also explains how she came to have a Black grandson, the aforementioned Maxwell, who was adopted and is “the best, the brightest, the most beautiful child in the history of the universe.”

Offscreen, Korzen loves live theater and has performed one of her solo shows, Yenta Unplugged, on three continents. She is a member of the Braid, a Jewish women’s theater company based in Santa Monica, Calif., where her last show, Annie Korzen Famous Actress, ran for five months. Korzen has also entertained numerous Hadassah chapters and Jewish federations across the country.

“I’m 82 years old and I’m busier than I’ve ever been,” said the actress. “I’m having more fun professionally at this age than I ever have in my life.” —Jennifer Finer Lovy

COMMENTARY

Leftovers or Prime Time?

When Thanksgiving spills into Hanukkah

By Rabbi Yael Buechler

DONNA GRETHEN

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n apology to the hundreds Who Were Turned Away on Thanksgiving,” read a 1920 advertisement for Garfein’s, a kosher restaurant in New York City. Placed in The Hebrew Standard, the ad explained that the restaurant had so many patrons on Thanksgiving that it ran out of food. The solution was simple: The Thanksgiving menu would be repeated at a reduced price of $1.75 on Hanukkah, which began 10 days later that year.

Thanksgiving has long captured both the hearts and stomachs of Jewish Americans, akin to a patriotic fall seder. Indeed, when the Garfein’s ad ran 100 years ago, it highlighted the centrality of the American holiday over Hanukkah, which at the time seemed more of an afterthought.

As early as 1857, Jewish newspapers carried proclamations from government officials with their good wishes for Thanksgiving. In 1888, St. Louis’s B’nai El Ladies’ Aid Society hosted a “Grand Thanksgiving Ball,” which evolved into an annual event.

The late 1800s saw ads in Jewish periodicals for Thanksgiving décor— from tablecloths to chafing dishes. By the early 1900s, Thanksgiving had earned a sacred place on the Jewish American calendar, well before Hanukkah’s surge in popularity in the 1930s and the post-war years.

This year, we encounter a rare phenomenon: Hanukkah begins on November 28, the Sunday night after

Thanksgiving. How will our observance of Hanukkah be impacted by its proximity to Thanksgiving?

This holiday duality reminds me of the Talmudic debate between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai about how to light the Hanukkah candles. Beit Shammai advocates for lighting eight candles on the first night and lighting one fewer candle each subsequent night. Beit Hillel suggests that we start with one candle on the first night and add an additional candle each night. The halacha, Jewish law, is in accordance with Beit Hillel, as the Talmud explains, “ma’alin ba’kodesh v’ain moridin,” (“we go up in [matters of] holiness and we do not go down,”) (Shabbat 21b). We add joy to and never diminish our celebrations.

By adding candles each night, we are reminded that we can always aspire to bring more kedushah, holiness, into our homes. This year, while we might be exhausted after our grand Thanksgiving feast, my hope is that we can extend the Talmudic dictate of “ma’alin ba’kodesh” to begin at Thanksgiving itself.

The most recent Thanksgiving/ Hanukkah overlap, in 2013, is a great example of a modern “ma’alin ba’kodesh” moment. Dubbed Thanksgivukkah by Dana Reichman Gitell, a marketing specialist in Massachusetts, the coinciding holidays featured not only a combined festival but also a slew of Jewish “fast fashion” products—from commemorative T-shirts to a “menur-

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

key,” a turkey-shaped menorah.

The merging of the two observances elevated both.

How can we bring more holiness into this year’s Thanksgiving/Hanukkah proximity? As we’ve learned through the pandemic, Jewish rituals observed in the home are thriving.

Indeed, many of us have boosted these rituals through a new kind of DIY Judaism, from creative holiday baking to crafting holiday décor.

Still, after a year-and-a-half of pandemic-inspired improvising, fatigue is setting in. Can we muster the energy to elevate each night leading up to—and during—Hanukkah?

If it’s safe to do so, we can invite family members who usually join us for Thanksgiving to stay through Sunday evening, so we can usher in Hanukkah together. The weekend could be centered around Thanksgiving/Shabbat/Hanukkah activities, from making gelt-stuffed pumpkin-flavored challah to a special havdalah surprise—pumpkin spice in the besamim holders (spice boxes).

Saturday evening could feature a family latke-frying competition.

Let’s use the proximity of the holidays as a springboard to strengthen our identities as Jews in America. If the past century of American acculturation has taught us anything, it’s that we can have our pumpkin spice latkes and eat them, too.

Rabbi Yael Buechler is the lower school rabbi and outreach coordinator at the Leffell School in Westchester, N.Y., and founder of midrashmanicures.com.

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THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY

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ESSAY

Ladino as Sephardi Cultural Bedrock A nearly extinct language experiences a Zoom boom

By Hannah Pressman

COURTESY OF HANNAH PRESSMAN

F

our years ago, during a period of intense work on a family memoir, I had a mysterious dream: I enter a bustling cafeteria where people are conversing loudly in a language I don’t understand. Judging by their apparel, it appears to be the 1920s or 1930s. I head upstairs to the quieter level and sit at a table for two. Soon an older woman with dark hair braided around her head sits down at my table. She looks like my maternal great-grandmother, Estrella. The woman starts to speak to me, and I realize that the language coming out of her mouth is Ladino.

Though I don’t understand what she’s saying, I nod and listen. The noise of the other customers fades away. I don’t want to leave until I can understand her words.

Whenever I am learning a language on a deep level, it permeates my dreams. I have studied enough languages in my life that I now recognize this as a sign. It first happened in college when I studied abroad at the University of Haifa. After a few weeks of ulpan and speaking Hebrew with Israeli friends, I began to dream in Hebrew—whole conversations happening in a foreign language that I could somehow understand.

The same thing occurred when I studied Yiddish while earning my Ph.D. in modern Hebrew literature.

In 2003, I took the enhabers (beginners) level at YIVO. Before long, I

was singing Yiddish folksongs during the day and speaking mamaloshen in my dreams at night.

But I needed to master a different Jewish language to connect with my great-grandmother and truly understand the cultural bedrock of my Sephardi ancestry. And so, this past year, I began formal study of my third Jewish language, Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish and Djudezmo.

Based on medieval Castilian, Ladino is central to the heritage of Sephardi Jews. In the centuries after the Jews’ expulsion in 1492 and the Spanish Inquisition, Ladino traveled with Sephardim as they settled in the lands of the Ottoman Empire and points beyond (including in Bulgaria, the focus of the travel story on page 38). My mother’s maternal grandparents, born in Turkey and the island of Rhodes in the late 19th century, spoke Ladino as their native language while participating in the multilingual societies around them. When my great-grandmother emigrated from Rhodes to Zimbabwe in the 1920s, she learned English, too, but continued speaking Ladino within the Sephardi community in Zimbabwe’s capital city, Harare.

In some ways, my experience learning Ladino—first in an intensive course I took in January of this year and then in two classes over the summer—was similar to other language courses I’ve taken: There were verb charts and worksheets,

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Seeking Connection The author at her computer learning Ladino, the native language of her great-grandmother Estrella (right)

group work and listening exercises.

We explored everyday topics like the weather, professions and food shopping.

In one important way, though, my Ladino experience has been vastly different because I have studied entirely online, viewing my teacher and fellow students through a screen (ekran). I took part in the widely reported phenomenon dubbed the “Ladino Zoom Boom,” part of the profusion of online learning during pandemic-induced stay-at-home orders. Fueled by eager students with extra time on their hands (manos), this global virtual movement has involved hundreds of students of varying backgrounds, ages and religions. Our goal? To learn enough of muestro spanyol—“our Spanish,” one of Ladino’s traditional nicknames—to actually call it our own.

My platform of choice was the Ladino Linguist website run by Bryan Kirschen, a Binghamton University professor of romance languages and

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time of profound social isolation.

Virtual Ladino classes have been “a gamechanger,” said Ryuki, a Japanese Ph.D. student in comparative literature who has chosen to focus on Jewish writing and who had tried unsuccessfully to study Ladino on his own. Buoyed by the joy of learning with others this summer, he woke up at 3 a.m. to attend moabet (conversation) class. Ryuki, who asked that his full name not be used, is one of about half a dozen Japanese academics who are studying Ladino.

Kirschen, who began his efforts to revive Ladino as a University of California, Los Angeles, graduate student, calls this virtual community “Ladino 2.0.” He views the social connections as an exciting aspect of the online-learning era. “It’s creating opportunities that would have never existed before. We’re connecting people around the world who are creating their own friendships and relationships outside of class…. It’s going to continue to be important in the years to come.”

Indeed. In the bigger calculus of Ladino’s continued existence, speakers will need each other as much as the language needs us. linguistics. Classmates logged on from a farm in England, apartments in Istanbul and Tel Aviv, homes in Japan, Germany and California.

With Kirschen’s encouragement, we chatted about movies and conducted impromptu debates in Ladino.

Additionally, each week we explored Sephardi folk culture through refranes (sayings), konsejikas (little stories) and kantikas (songs).

Soon, many classmates became friends—grateful not only for the chance to study such a historically important language, but also for the space to gather as a group during a

I

f typical linguistic scales are any indication, Ladino is at a critical inflection point. Estimates vary, but the Jewish Language Project surmises that there are around 100,000 Ladino speakers, with the largest concentrations in Israel, Turkey and the United States.

Based on the dwindling number of native speakers, Ladino is classified as “highly endangered,” “moribund” or “nearly extinct.” Frequently in nonacademic circles and in the media, Ladino is labeled “a dying language.”

“Can we expand beyond that?” asked Ignacio Montoya, a linguist at

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

the University of Nevada, Reno, who ended up in one of my Zoom courses over the summer. Raised Catholic in southern New Mexico, Montoya converted to Judaism over a decade ago after years of feeling drawn to Judaism’s history, culture and rituals.

Today, he specializes in endangered languages and revitalization, and is currently working with tribal communities that speak Paiute, an indigenous language of the Great Basin region of the United States.

Montoya suggests—and others in his field prefer—the terms “sleeping” or “dormant” over “extinct” to describe a language without native speakers.

“The idea is that there can be an awakening,” he told me.

For an example of linguistic reawakening, we need only look to the success of modern Hebrew, an astonishing feat of language revival.

Indeed, immersive ulpan was the model I had in mind when I enrolled in Ladino classes this summer. From my home office overlooking a sliver of Lake Washington in Seattle, I haltingly spoke, joked and listened in muestro spanyol multiple days per week. As I did so, I imagined myself back in the places where my Sephardi relatives would have spoken Ladino: chatting over a pot of fasulia (stewed green beans) in someone’s kitchen in Harare; whispered in the women’s balcony at the Kahal Shalom synagogue on Rhodes; shopping at the confectionary owned by Ottoman Jewish immigrants in Seattle’s Central District. As my comprehension skills improved week to week, it began to feel reasonable to think I might one day be able to read Ladino texts and incorporate more of this evocative language into my writing projects.

Learning words like karpuz (watermelon), bavajadas (nonsense) and fitijo (naughty child), I found ways to

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ESSAY

incorporate Ladino into my everyday life. Imagine my surprise, then, upon discovering that Ladino was entering my children’s lives, too. One spring day, when schools were operating remotely, I overheard my third grader participating in a discussion about heritage languages spoken at home.

(His school includes speakers of Mongolian, Korean, Amharic, Arabic, Spanish and more.) My son chose to record a Ladino expression for his class: “Bivas, kreskas, enfloreskas!”

This expression, like gesundheit or labriut, is typically said when someone sneezes. It translates as “Live, grow, thrive!” and can be followed by a second phrase, “komo un peshiko en aguas freskas, amen!,” which means “like a little fish in fresh water, amen!” I had started saying bivas

around the house when I learned it in January, and by May it had become a piece of Sephardi heritage that my son could teach his class.

Another of my favorite Ladino phrases is “Kon bien amaneskas,” which, like bivas, is formed using the subjunctive mood. This goodnight expression can be translated as “may you dawn well” or “may you arise well.” How lovely to part with someone at nighttime by wishing them a pleasant morning.

As I think about my journey into Ladino, and the journeys of my fellow travelers, the verb amaneser, “to dawn” or “to rise,” is an apt symbol.

“There’s something that awakens in me when I hear Ladino,” said Robin, who preferred not to share her last name. The resident of Cape

Town, South Africa, has studied with Kirschen the past two summers. Her Ladino classes have inspired her to investigate the legends passed down from her Sephardi relatives, Berbers from Morocco who lived for a time in Portugal.

Likewise, the language has deeply impacted Montoya, the linguist in Nevada. When he studied for his conversion, Judaism was taught through an essentially Ashkenazi lens. “When I discovered Ladino,” he said, “it drew me in.” Montoya appreciates the language as a portal into more diverse perspectives on Jewish culture.

R

ecognizing the shift wrought by the latest flowering of virtual students, some commentators are starting to use the words “revival” and “renaissance” to refer to Ladino. Is it too soon to tell if this language will survive and possibly even thrive at the dawn of a new, technologically aided era? Can the growing community of online learners sustain this centuries-old source of Sephardi pride? Asked about Ladino’s future, Kirschen is both pragmatic and optimistic.

“Ladino will be endangered, but it can still live on,” he told me. “There is so much potential.”

As intense and rewarding as my Ladino studies have been, I haven’t repeated the pleasure of dreaming in muestro spanyol. I will continue to work hard while holding onto one hope above all—that the next time I see my Sephardi great-grandmother in a dream, we will be able to speak her language, our Spanish, together.

Hannah S. Pressman is currently at work on Galante’s Daughter, a memoir connecting her Sephardi family history to explorations of American Jewish identity. She lives in Seattle with her husband and three children.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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‘I Never Thought I’d Be Needing This’ Living on the edge of food insecurity | By Cathryn J. Prince

LISI WOLF/COURTESY OF POLACK FOOD BANK

S

teve drove a bus for new York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority for 20 years until a work-related injury forced him onto disability insurance in 2013. His life crumbled.

He didn’t have enough money for rent or groceries, and he and his fiancé broke up. He moved to Florida, but the fresh start he’d hoped for never materialized.

“Between $1,000 in rent a month and other bills, there was little left. I was barely making it. In fact, I wasn’t making it,” said the unmarried, Jewish 63-year-old, who asked that his last name not be used.

Eventually, Steve, who scrapes by on odd jobs along with government assistance, heard about WECARE Food Pantry, located on the campus of the Soref Jewish Community Center in Plantation, Fla., near his Deerfield Beach home. Like many other Jewish-run food charities, the pantry is supported through a mix of

private donations, federation funds and local food drives.

“It helps me make it through the month. I get the basics. Non-perishables. I’m eating hamburger, not filet mignon,” he said of the prepackaged food bags he picks up curbside each month.

Susan Baigelman, WECARE’s director for nearly two decades, said she’s seen all sorts of people walk through the pantry’s doors: senior citizens on fixed incomes, survivors of natural disasters, single mothers, working families and people like Steve.

“The number one thing I notice is that people don’t want to be here,” Baigelman said, chatting on the phone while driving to pick up kosher food for the pantry. “Sometimes, like after [Hurricane] Wilma, there are people who say, ‘I used to be a donor. I never thought I’d be needing this.’ The people look like you and me. The face of hunger is everybody.”

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In the United States, 40 million people face food insecurity, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Of those, 12.9 million are children. Although initial reports indicated that the number of food insecure doubled to 80 million during the pandemic, more recent data from the USDA showed that federal Covid relief funding averted a more severe hunger crisis, according to Abby Leibman, president and CEO of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

Even if the numbers were lower than expected, Leibman said, “the fact that more than 10 percent of this country still faces food insecurity is a national disgrace, and it underscores the urgent need for legislative action on lasting policy solutions.”

Although there are no precise numbers on how many Jewish-run organizations help the food insecure or how many Jewish people rely on either government assistance or charity, Jewish groups are involved

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LISI WOLF/COURTESY OF POLACK FOOD BANK

on all levels. That includes organizations like the Los Angeles-based MAZON, which pushes for policy changes on the federal level, and scores of charitable organizations, some more well-known than others, like Jewish Family Services, that run food banks and soup kitchens on the local level. These programs, which provide kosher food, and in some cases non-kosher food as well, serve everyone in need, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity.

“The issue of hunger in America is a matter of political will. We have the capacity to feed people,” Leibman said. “Ending hunger in America isn’t a supply issue and ending hunger doesn’t mean no one goes hungry.

What it means is more people moving off government assistance.”

Until that can be achieved, she added, federal subsidy programs are needed to reduce food insecurity. One step toward that goal was the recent 25 percent expansion of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program previously known as the Food Stamp Program. The increase, which took effect in October, translates to just over $36 a month per person. In addition to SNAP, the National School Lunch Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC, help address food deficits. According to the USDA, 58 percent of food-insecure households participated in one of these three programs in the past two years.

In addition to advocating for the expansion of federal food assistance programs, MAZON pushes for policies that address the underlying causes of food insecurity and poverty, including systemic issues like low wages that contribute to hunger among military families and households headed by

single mothers. Even with added assistance, people will still go hungry because of unexpected crises like job losses, steep medical bills or natural disasters, Leibman said. Charities help address the need, but because they rely on volunteers and donations— both monetary and food items—they will never be able to feed every hungry person in their community.

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hen jewish family Service in Salt Lake City opened its pantry in 2008, with “six of the wobbliest shelves built by Eagle Scouts,” recalled Ellen Silver, the pantry director, it began serving 85 households every month. That figure has grown to 3,000 a month, an uptick Silver attributes to the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on individual retirement funds and, more recently, high unemployment during the Covid pandemic.

“I have found that an extraordi-

nary number of people live on the edge,” said Silver, who works with a team of volunteers. “There will be one little extra expense, maybe a tire repair or a health issue, and suddenly there isn’t enough money to feed your family.”

While Jewish food programs serve all demographics, older Americans are increasingly in need of their services. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of people aged 60 and over experiencing

Serving a Need At the Jewish Family Service’s Polack Food Bank in Seattle, volunteers fill bags with groceries (opposite page) and sort and shelve various food items (above). Pre-Covid, clients were able to fill their own carts (top). The center is the only kosher food bank in Washington State.

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COURTESY OF JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF GREATER NEW HAVEN

food insecurity has increased more than 30 percent since 2008.

On the West Coast, in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Seattle, the Jewish Family Service’s Polack Food Bank distributes bags filled with groceries to some 800 households and makes deliveries to nearly 400 other households each month. The sole kosher food bank in Washington State, it primarily serves Jewish senior citizens from Eastern Europe and immigrants from China.

“Of those we serve, only a minute portion are homeless; 97 percent are housed and working,” said Brian Sindel, the food bank’s manager.

One longtime client, Eliora Jablow, suffers from a seizure disorder. The 60-year-old former social worker relies on an annual income of $11,000 from government benefits, including disability insurance and social security. She estimates that she has between $8,000 and $9,000 in annual medical expenses.

“It doesn’t leave me very much for food, telephone, internet and electricity,” she said. “If it weren’t for the food bank, I’d starve.”

Because the food bank partners with local farms who donate crops, clients like Jablow can complement their meals with fresh produce. She recently got fresh cherries, which she ate for dessert, put on oatmeal for breakfast and dried to use later for tea.

“We learn to cook with what we have instead of what we might choose in a grocery store,” Jablow said. “I’ve learned to dehydrate, freeze and can fresh produce. I’ll make soups and stews out of it so I will have it when it’s not available.”

It wasn’t easy admitting she needed help. Raised in a middle-class household outside of Chicago, her family members were social activists.

“I was always someone who gave, not

Stocking the Shelves Sandy Hagan, director of Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven Food Pantry, says some clients never stop needing help and others never thought they’d need it.

who got. When I was working, I was always thinking of ways to advocate for my clients,” said Jablow, who is active in her local synagogue. “When I became disabled, I had to ask for help for myself and that was hard. I was embarrassed at first, but the food bank never made me feel ashamed or that I was asking for too much.”

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lfred, who declined to share his last name, lives in Washington Heights on the northern tip of Manhattan.

He is one of 1.1 million New York State residents who are food insecure, according to the USDA. Each week, he drives to the Council House on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where the National Council of Jewish Women’s New York section operates a food pantry and hot-meal program.

“I come here for help because my family needs it. The situation is very dire. There are five of us and I have no job. Who is going to hire me? I’m 75. I make do with what I get,” he said, tugging down his blue baseball cap as the thunder rumbled and the rain came down. While the pantry officially opens at 9:30 a.m., Alfred

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

had arrived at 7 a.m. sharp. He wanted to be first in line when volunteers began handing out prepackaged bags from just inside the entrance.

Before Covid, he went inside the Council House building and “tabletop shopped,” choosing his own food.

Now a dozen masked and gloved volunteers move in companionable silence, packing bags and bringing up dairy products from the basement’s newly installed walk-in cooler.

Three bags finally in hand, Alfred loaded them into the trunk of his blue car. One held dry goods like oats and beans. Fruits and greens filled a second bag, and the third bulged with milk, cottage cheese and sour cream.

Before Covid, Council House served between 100 and 200 households weekly. It now serves between 300 and 350 households, said Andrea Kopel, executive director of NCJW’s New York section.

“I see the FedEx guy here picking up food and the busboys from the restaurant next door,” said Kopel.

“Those folks should be making a true living wage. They shouldn’t need emergency food assistance. The pandemic has shown us just how close to the edge many New Yorkers live.”

Other New Yorkers find help at Masbia, which Alexander Rapaport founded in 2005. With locations in Flatbush and Borough Park, Brooklyn, and Forest Hills, Queens, Rapoport runs two programs in each place. The kosher soup kitchen serves people ready-to-eat dinners in a restaurant-style setting. At the kosher food pantry, volunteers wearing bright green aprons distribute raw food packages for people to bring home.

According to Masbia, since March 2020, their facilities have served more than 250,000 to-go meals.

During the peak of the pandemic, people stood on long, socially

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COURTESY OF MAZON

distanced lines, Rapaport said. Now those with smartphones can schedule appointments via an app. Masbia helps mostly senior citizens, immigrant families and Orthodox Jews.

“We are about unconditional sharing,” Rapaport said. “When someone has no one else to turn to, they turn to us. We give a little hot soup, a decent lunch or dinner. It might be a small thing, but it is so important.”

Meanwhile, on a summer day in New Haven, Conn., Sandy Hagan, the director at Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven Food Pantry, glanced at her planner and declared, “It’s ‘Russian Day,’ ” noting that local Russian immigrants would be visiting the pantry that day.

Together with two volunteers, she will check that each bag includes fresh cabbage, potatoes, frozen chicken and apples. “We try and tailor the food to what people will want to cook,” Hagan said, noting that their Russian patrons “really like cabbage and apples.”

Tucked behind a diner, the pantry, which serves about 250 people monthly, resembles a small corner store. Cans of pumpkin puree and coconut milk line the shelves along with tins of tuna and canned fruit.

There are also low-sodium, glutenfree and kosher options.

In addition to the Russians who immigrated to the area after the Soviet Union collapsed, the pantry’s clientele includes military families, single mothers and Holocaust survivors. Indeed, about one-third of the 80,000 Holocaust survivors nationwide struggle to pay rent and buy food, according to The Blue Card, a national nonprofit that assists survivors.

“I see people who never make quite enough to stop needing help,” Hagan said, “and I see people who never thought they’d need it.”

Straight Talking Abby Leibman, president and CEO of MAZON testifying before Congress in January 2016. Food insecurity can only end, she says, with a bipartisan approach.

Help for the hungry also comes on a smaller scale. Many Jewish organizations, including Hadassah chapters across the country, hold periodic food drives. K’helah Shel Nashim, a chapter in the Hadassah Southern California region, launched a Feed Our Friends initiative last

year. In two separate drives, dozens of volunteers collected cans and other nonperishables to distribute to local food banks.

“The outpouring of donations and support was truly heartwarming, and it felt great to support the mission of Hadassah by helping those less fortunate who are living right here in our own community,” said Cindi Feig, president of the chapter.

While charities and nonprofits fill an essential role when it comes to alleviating food insecurity, it can only end if the government approaches the issue in a fully committed bipartisan fashion, MAZON’s Leibman said.

“More people in government have to realize that food insecurity is not the individual’s fault and that we have an obligation to help those who are struggling.”

Cathryn J. Prince is a freelance journalist and author whose most recent book is Queen of the Mountaineers: The Trailblazing Life of Fanny Bullock Workman.

IN A LAND OF PLENTY, THERE SHOULD BE PLENTY FOR EVERYONE.

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THE POWEROF PURPOSE WOMEN EFFECTING CHANGE

muted, their accomplishments downplayed, their personal development stymied. Today, we’re living through a sea change, with women increasingly hailed for their contributions—to the economy, social and humanistic development and leadership of nations and communities.

On January 9, 2022, Hadassah will convene “The Power of Purpose,” a major national conference that will virtually bring together women of all ages and from all parts of the country for a day of inspiration and empowerment. Some of the biggest names in America and Israel—women known for making the greatest impact on social justice, women’s health, advocacy, innovation and more—will speak about their personal challenges, their successes and their own inspiration for taking action. Through these women, and together, we will engage our minds, our voices, our bodies and our souls.

It is fitting that Hadassah would convene this extraordinary event, the first to address women's empowerment through the lens of Zionism, advocacy and women's health. Rooted in Henrietta Szold’s visionary goals and purposes, Hadassah, for more than a century, has given women the tools they needed to rise to their greatest potential in health care, in advocacy, in community leadership. Each of the featured speakers strives to help others. Coming from diverse backgrounds and places, they all have gone above and beyond to improve our world.

The women profiled here (along with a Noa Tishby Q&A on page 68) comprise just a handful of the inspiring individuals being featured at the conference. Please join them—along with hundreds of like-minded women— for a gathering that at its core reflects the purpose of Hadassah and will help lay the groundwork for future Hadassah programming and action. (To register, go to hadassah.org/powerofpurpose.)

SHUTTERSTOCK

F

or too many generations, women’s voices have been

Tackling Gun Violence

by Building Community

By Rachel Pomerance Berl

T

amar manasseh likened her plight to that of the Israelite mothers in the Exodus story, desperate to save their sons from Pharaoh’s deadly decree. But in her version, she was trying to shield her two sons, young Black men, from gang violence on the South Side of Chicago.

“You’re waiting on them to come and take your firstborn,” Manasseh, a newly minted rabbi, says in a phone interview, stressing the helplessness that besets Black mothers living in the area. “You love your kids. You try to give them the best life that you can… and they still die.”

But Manasseh, 43, refused to accept that outcome. Girded by the concept of tikkun olam and prompted by the 2015 murder of a mother who was killed while trying to break up a street fight, Manasseh pulled up a chair on a central corner in Englewood, one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods, to observe and try to stop gun violence. And MASK, Mothers/Men Against Senseless Killings, was born.

What began six years ago as a

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a community school from shipping containers and recruited volunteers to teach whoever showed up. “No one wants to cross five or six gang boundaries to go to an underperforming school,” she says. “If you won’t go to school, I’ll bring school to you. I’ll drop it right here on the corner of your block.”

“If it means I have to sit on a corner every day for the next 50 years, that’s what I'll do....

I can’t lose my kids.”

—TAMAR MANASSEH Advocacy panelist

Funded by donations, the MASK school serves between 10 to 20 kids—the numbers fluctuate—from pre-K through high school and operated even while other schools were closed due to Covid, providing adult supervision for kids whose parents were essential workers. Manasseh plans to offer GED and vocational training as well.

Manasseh maintains that her work isn’t heroic but simply stems from love for her children, a love that now encompasses all the children of the community.

“Everybody can do something, and everybody should do something,” she says. “We all have a part to do in repairing the world and we all have to help. It’s a big job.”

Rachel Pomerance Berl is a freelance writer in Bethesda, Md.

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ALYSSA POINTER/'CHICAGO TRIBUNE'/TNS/ALAMY LIVE NEWS

Tamar Manasseh

neighborhood watch and cookout— Manasseh and her friends dressed in bright pink shirts and barbecued—has morphed into a veritable community center, supplanting much of the violence with the restorative power of hope, love and resources for the deeply poverty-stricken area. MASK (ontheblock.org) now offers neighbors a school, a food and diaper pantry, vaccinations and holiday celebrations, including Jewish ones. On Yom Kippur, community members lit 600 yahrzeit candles in memory of the 600 Chicagoans killed by gun violence in the past year.

Although Manasseh’s sons are now 23 and 25, and one of them teaches at MASK’s school, you can still find her every evening on the block, where daily cookouts draw 150 neighbors of all ages.

“No one wants to shoot somebody when [there are] 10 women sitting out on a corner barbecuing,” Manasseh says. “That’s a cause for pause.”

“To save my kids, I had to understand what really was causing the violence,” she adds. “If it means I have to sit on a corner every day for the next 50 years, that’s what I’ll do.… I can’t lose my kids. I’m not strong enough.”

Manasseh, who grew up in Englewood and attended Akiba-Schechter Jewish Day School in Hyde Park, also on Chicago’s South Side, recently became the first woman to receive rabbinic ordination from the International Israelite Board of Rabbis, a Black Jewish organization led by Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr. of Chicago’s Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

But she isn’t looking for a pulpit.

“The community needs me,” she says. “The streets need me.”

To address widespread truancy in the neighborhood, Manasseh built

Rachel Fish

Scholar-Warrior Combats 'Jew Hatred' With Nuance

By Rahel Musleah

G

rowing up in johnson City, Tenn., in a community of only 60 Jewish families, Rachel Fish confronted challenges from prayer in school to bacon for breakfast at sleepovers.

Her father, who moved his family from Texas to Tennessee to pioneer pediatrics in the region, would always say, “ ‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’ ” Fish recalls. “At a very young age, my three siblings and I learned what it meant to be different and the need to help others understand those differences in a positive way. We were able to identify who we were and what it meant to us—and that gave us real purpose.”

“We were able to identify who we were and what it meant to us—and that gave us real purpose.”

COURTESY OF RACHEL FISH

—RACHEL FISH Israel panelist

Today, as a self-described scholar and warrior, Fish, 42, has paired her two loves—teaching and activism—by carving out a career as an historian focused on Israel, Zionism and Middle Eastern studies. She uses her scholarship to address “Jew hatred” in

all its forms, including anti-Zionism.

She advises Jewish communities of all kinds, from synagogues to Hillels, and organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, on how to reclaim a discourse on Israel that is nuanced and complex yet accessible.

Until the end of April, Fish was the executive director of the Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism, launched in 2019 to reach young people through social media. Her new initiative, Boundless Israel, will work with a variety of stakeholders—Jewish educators, lay leaders, young adults and more—to provide the “content, context and confidence to navigate the complexities of the Israel conversation without being constrained by typical frameworks,” she says.

“Teaching is my oxygen,” declares Fish, speaking over Zoom from her study in Waltham, Mass., wearing a T-shirt from Camp Ramah in Palmer, Mass., which she attended for 10 years and where she met her now husband, Dave Cutler, a writer and marketing professional. They have four children.

“I also love creating out-of-thebox approaches to raise awareness and sensitivity,” she says. “Being a ‘healthy disrupter’ doing interventions is my operating system.”

One early example came when she was a master’s student in contemporary Jewish and Islamic thought at Harvard Divinity School. A $2.5

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million gift by Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, then president of the United Arab Emirates, to endow a chair in Islamic studies caught her attention. When she discovered that he backed a think tank that sponsored antisemitic and anti-Zionist speakers, she led a campaign for the return of the funds. The sheik withdrew his gift in 2004, four years after it was bestowed.

Give Fish five minutes, and she will break down the thorny transformation of antisemitism from religious to racialized hatred to the kind of anti-Zionism that spread from the Soviet Union to the Arab world and the United Nations. Today, she says, anti-Zionism is coming largely from left-of-center groups, especially on college campuses, instead, as it used to spread, from right-of-center Christian theology—and that has not been addressed by most Jewish organizations. “The discourse has moved into mainstream politics, media and social justice conversations.”

Earlier in her career, she served as senior adviser and resident scholar of Jewish/Israel philanthropy at the Singer Foundation and as executive director for Brandeis University’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies. Her doctoral dissertation from Brandeis examined the idea of binationalism—one state for two peoples—and other alternative visions for constructing the State of Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict today is more a situation of conflict management of the status quo than resolution, she asserts.

“I’m blessed to be an historian,” she says. “I don’t have to give a prognosis for the future.”

Rahel Musleah leads “NamaStay at Home,” virtual tours of Jewish India and other cultural events (explorejewishindia.com).

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Joy Bauer

the pediatric cardiology department at Mount Sinai Medical Center; designed and supervised research in eating disorders and weight management for what was previously Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; taught anatomy, physiology and sports nutrition at New York University; and founded and headed a private nutrition center, which she sold in 2011 to spend more time with her three now adult children.

B

efore joy bauer crashed on a dismount from the balance beam at the age of 19, she was a competitive gymnast on an athletic scholarship at James Madison University in Virginia with an eye toward medical school. Though she recovered fully after multiple surgeries, she turned her focus to health and fitness with a different bent: nutrition.

Bauer didn’t foresee then how high she’d climb back. Today, at 58, she is the nutrition and healthy lifestyle expert for NBC’s TODAY show, and she hosts her own Amazon Live show, Health, Happiness, Joy. She is the author of 14 books, including her latest, Joy Bauer’s Superfood! 150 Recipes for Eternal Youth, and the recipient of numerous awards. As she states on her website (joybauer.com), “Life is hard. Food should be easy.”

“It’s purely coincidental that my name is Joy,” Bauer says, “but I do try to approach everything with a positive outlook.”

Fresh from a walk in a sleeveless navy T-shirt and shorts, her Cavachon pooch, Gatsby, at her bare feet, Bauer, even through Zoom, revels in her new home in West Harrison, N.Y., complete with her dream kitchen designed from scratch.

She’s been filming her shows during the Covid pandemic there, with her business manager and husband, Ian, behind the camera. They bought the property last year when the pandemic wrecked their plans to move to Manhattan after they had already sold their home in nearby Rye Brook.

Their new house is just minutes from Bauer’s close-knit family,

including her parents and siblings, with whom they often get together for musical jams (with Bauer on keyboard) and meals, often taste-testing the recipes she whips up. They also gather for Jewish holidays, celebrating with family traditions like a find-the-afikomen obstacle course and DIY services.

“I’m a mad scientist in the kitchen,” says Bauer, who first discovered her love of baking when she was in kindergarten. “To be able to create recipes that satisfy our cravings yet also nourish our bodies—to me that’s the jackpot. My purpose is to empower people to make small lifestyle changes with big payoffs,” something as simple as taking a 15-minute walk after dinner.

Her melt-in-the-mouth, slowcooker brisket with roasted carrots and onions is inspired by her grandmother, Martha Rother, who was president of her local Hadassah chapter in Bricktown, N.J. Bauer is also a life member. She has put her own spin on latkes, with varieties from sweet potato and quinoa to half-potato, half-cauliflower. And she promises Tex-Mex Matzah Balls by Passover. (All recipes can be found on her website and on Instagram.)

Her leap to fame was unexpected.

After obtaining a master’s degree in nutrition at New York University, she worked as nutrition director at

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

“My purpose is to empower people to make small lifestyle changes with big payoffs.”

—JOY BAUER Women’s Health panelist

In 1996, during media rounds for her first book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Total Nutrition, Bauer snagged a one-time spot on The View. It morphed into an ongoing gig. She was then offered a recurring spot on Live! with Regis and Kelly.

In 2006, the TODAY show called.

For her first TODAY segment, a three-minute spot on cholesterol, she prepared “a 15-page encyclopedia of talking points” and managed to cover only a fraction. Since then, she highlights key messages that she says are realistic, manageable and sustainable.

“I’m beyond blessed,” she says, “to be in a position to help people change their lives for the better.”

—Rahel Musleah

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COURTESY OF JOY BAUER

Encouraging Healthy Living for Everyone

Marcy Syms

A Trailblazer in Business, Philanthropy and Women's Equality

on the New York Stock Exchange; 15 years later, she became CEO. She shepherded the company to become a 50-store chain in 16 states until it filed for bankruptcy and closed all its stores in 2011.

Today, Syms, 70, is president of TPD (Toward/Positive/Developments) Group, a management consulting company that provides

ONWARD ISRAEL is a life-changing, 8-10 week internship experience in Israel for young adults age 19 to 27. Participants work in, live in, and experience Israel like a local. Onward Israel tailor-made internships place participants in a workplace based on your skills, interests and future plans. Programs feature time for learning, plus opportunities to interact with other participants from around the world. In your free time, explore Israel’s exciting nightlife, beaches, food scene, and culture. Applications for the Summer of 2022 open in November, 2021.

Learn more at https://www.onwardisrael.org NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

guidance for family-owned businesses. “I love the idea of starting something, of putting seeds in the ground and seeing how they grow,” she says on a Zoom call from her home office in Bedford Hills, N.Y., where she lives with her husband, Bob, and their 24-year-old son.

Syms is also planting seeds for the future of American women. She helped create the ERA Coalition in 2013 with the goal of passing the long-stalled Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution that would guard against discrimination based on gender. She later chaired the coalition as well as the Fund for Women’s Equality, spurring the passage of the amendment in Nevada, Illinois and Virginia, bringing the total number of states that have ratified it to 38, the necessary two-thirds majority. (It still requires legislation in Congress to overcome procedural barriers before it can become law.)

In January 2021, Syms and other board members left the coalition to start the ERA Project at Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law, a think tank that researches women’s equality under the law. “If we accept inequality,” Syms says, “we’re not the America

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ASTRID STAWIARZ/STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES

M

arcy syms’ determination jumps off the computer screen with a pop as vibrant as her vintage Armani deep-pink blouse.

“Nothing in life just happens,” she says, quoting Golda Meir. “You have to make it happen.”

Syms’ unshakeable faith in that mantra both empowered and propelled her forward in the worlds of business, philanthropy and activism. In 1983, at the age of 32, she took the helm of Syms Corp., the family-owned New York-based discount clothing retailer that her father, Sy Syms, founded 25 years earlier. In doing so, she became the youngest woman at the time to serve as president of a company listed

I believe us to be, and that would really break my heart.”

Her belief in women’s equality stems partly from two contrasting generational models. She takes inspiration from her grandmother, Clara Glickman, a Romanian immigrant who, as the assistant manager of a shoe store in Philadelphia, was proud that she was financially independent. Syms’ mother, Ruth Merns (the family name before her father changed it to Syms), took a different path. She gave up her career as a professional singer—Merns even worked a few Hadassah gigs—to raise her six children and “lost herself” in the process, Syms says.

Syms’ place as the oldest child in the family honed her sense of respon-

sibility. She grew up in a diverse Yonkers neighborhood in Westchester County, N.Y. The family moved to a larger home in nearby Bronxville when Syms was in 10th grade. As the only Jew in her school, she experienced antisemitic bullying. Refusing to let her classmates see her suffer, she embarked on her path to leadership, becoming advertising manager of the school newspaper, president of the chorus and even a cheerleader.

It’s been 43 years since she joined her father’s company for what was supposed to be a three-month trial.

She continues as president of the Sy Syms Foundation, which has awarded over $60 million in grants in science, education, the arts, public

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“If we accept inequality, we’re not the America I believe us to be.”

—MARCY SYMS Women’s Empowerment panelist

television and radio. It also supports the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University.

“As my bubbe used to say,” she notes, “you have to leave the world a better place than when you found it.”

—Rahel Musleah

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HEALTH

A Perfect Match Donating a kidney to a stranger | By Martha Gershun

COURTESY OF MARTHA GERSHUN

I

first read about debra porter Gill’s need for a kidney in a December 2017 article in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. The headline on the front page blared, “Giving of oneself: Member of the Kansas City Jewish community in search of a new kidney.”

At the time, Gill was a stranger, but I felt drawn to her. She was 56, just five years younger than I was.

She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., but had grown up in a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., where I make my home.

Later, I learned of even more connections: Deb once belonged to Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kan., my Reform synagogue. She had sent two daughters to the same Hebrew school that my children had attended. She was a former family law attorney who had prosecuted child sex crimes in the same county where I had led a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) organization helping abused and neglected children.

Deb had been diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes when she was a first-year law student. At the age of 27, she learned that she had chronic kidney disease. In 1999, Deb was one of six people to receive organs from a 42-year-old woman who died in a car accident. The transplant of a kidney and pancreas cured Deb’s diabetes and gave her full kidney function again.

But eventually, the donated kidney started to fail, and her doctors told Deb that waiting for another cadaveric kidney would take too long. She needed a living donor.

The article and the accompanying photo of Deb pulled me in. With her short blond hair and broad smile, Deb bore a striking resemblance to my cousin Ann, of blessed memory.

Ann had been one of my favorite people in the whole world. Smart, openhearted and always eager for a good story and a laugh, she was determined to stay positive despite the health issues caused by her polycystic kidney disease. In 2002, Ann received a kidney donation from a family friend—and she lived another nine years, long enough to see her daughters marry and the birth of four grandchildren. She was also able to celebrate the bar and bat mitzvahs of my son and daughter and to comfort me at my mother’s memorial service.

When I read about Deb’s plight—and saw her smile—I knew I had to try to repay that gift.

L

ast year, 18,318 people donated organs in the United States. Two-thirds of those donors were deceased, and 5,730 donors were living. Most living donors are relatives, co-workers or friends of the patient. Fewer than 10 percent are “altruistic donors,” with no prior relationship to the recipient.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, kidneys from living donors have many advantages over those from cadaveric donors. They may be a better immunological match; reduce the time a patient is on the waiting list, so they embark on the rigorous surgery in better health; and reduce the time a kidney must be without blood prior to trans-

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Bashert Martha Gershun (left) was drawn to Debra Porter Gill after reading about her need for a living donor in a local Jewish newspaper in Kansas City.

plantation, thereby preserving more function in the organ.

Many “stranger donors,” another term for altruistic donors, are recruited through the media, as I was.

Some find out about a patient in need from social media, a flyer or through a friend.

Community or faith-based organizations have stepped in to help locate altruistic donors. A model for those organizations within the Jewish community is Renewal, based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Since its founding in 2006, the nonprofit has matched hundreds of kidney patients with altruistic donors. Renewal helps Jewish patients work with community centers and synagogues to publicize the search and facilitates testing for potential donors.

“My family and I have been very grateful for everything Renewal has done to help in our search for a living donor,” said Dalia Harel, a Romanian-born retired medical

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Living organ donation has evolved since the first successful living kidney transplant between identical twins in Boston in 1954, he explained. At that time, the American medical establishment concluded that since a twin had an interest in the well-being of a sibling, the physical risk of donation was balanced by the psychological benefit of saving a loved one.

The development of tissue typing and matching, and drugs that could safely suppress the immune system to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs, allowed the pool of potential donors to widen from relatives to

LEADING RESOURCES

FOR KIDNEY DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION National Kidney Foundation (kidney.org) is among the oldest patient-focused nonprofits dealing with all aspects of kidney health. Its website features a primer on transplantation basics, including information on the United States’ national transplant list, the United Network for Organ Sharing; finding local transplant centers, which can have different criteria and costs; and whether patients should place themselves on waitlists at several centers.

National Kidney Registry (kidney registry.org) facilitates the matching of living kidney donors with transplant patients nationwide. Its website includes information on donation “chains,” also called paired exchange or swapped donations, linking living donors incompatible with their intended recipients with other donors and recipients to find matches for all transplant patients in the chain.

Donate Life America (donatelife. net) is dedicated to public education about organ and tissue donations and the importance of registering to become a deceased organ donor. It also provides information on becoming a living donor.

P

rior to making the decision to donate my kidney, I spoke to my good friend Dr. John D. Lantos, a pediatrician and bioethicist who is the director of the Bioethics Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. In medical ethics and health law, he said, there is a long-running debate about living donation since it calls for doctors to intentionally cause harm to one person—the donor—in order to benefit another.

It would seem to violate one of the most fundamental precepts in medical ethics: “First, do no harm.”

Renewal (renewal.org) provides financial and moral support to Jewish kidney patients and donors and their families throughout the transplantation process.

It also works with local communities and Jewish organizations to help those in need of a transplant.

A Miracle and a Mitzvah Gershun has experienced no adverse effects from donating her kidney and walks five miles a day to stay in shape.

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friends and colleagues, even strangers. But questions persisted about the ethics of living organ donation. Close relatives might benefit psychologically from saving a loved one, but does that apply to friends? Or to strangers like me?

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COURTESY OF MARTHA GERSHUN

researcher and grandmother who lives in Barrington, R.I. Harel, who has kidney failure, has been working with the organization since spring.

“They are now organizing a large Zoom event to help me find a donor.

They have already tested several potential donors on my behalf.”

Award-winning Jewish journalist Stewart Ain approached Renewal for help after he learned that a genetic condition had impacted the functioning of his kidneys. “Key to getting a kidney from a living donor is spreading the word that you need one,” said Ain, who lives in Commack, N.Y., and had written about Renewal in Jewish publications before discovering his own need. Renewal helped set up a Zoom event for him in September, where “we had more than 250 people tuned in from throughout the United States and Canada. Thanks to a Boca Raton synagogue, B’nai Torah Congregation, the local NBC television station in Palm Beach ran news stories about the Zoom program.

“I’m told a number of people on the Zoom call have indicated a willingness to be tested to see if they are eligible to become my living donor,” Ain reported. “In the meantime, I am still trying to spread the word.”

HEALTH

The medical community has worked hard to define that line, Dr. Lantos explained, allowing people who find great meaning in becoming organ donors to consent to transplantation, while implementing psychological screening to weed out others who might feel coerced or be motivated by self-destructive tendencies.

The more I learned about living organ donation, the more it felt like it was my turn to fulfill the Jewish mitzvah of pikuach nefesh—to save a life.

The timing seemed propitious. I had retired in April 2017 after a long

career in corporate and nonprofit management. My husband was well established as the executive director and CEO of Jewish Family Services of Greater Kansas City, the agency he had been running for more than a decade. Both of our children were living their own lives far from home.

Everyone I loved was settled and stable. My time was my own.

At the end of the Jewish Chronicle article, there was a phone number for the Transplant Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where

Deb was enrolled. One of more than 250 transplant centers in the United States, the Mayo Clinic performs more living kidney transplants than any other hospital in the country.

I called, and the receptionist directed me to fill out an online questionnaire. Two weeks later, I received a call from Lisa, one of the clinic’s Nurse Transplant Coordinators. My blood type, B positive, was the same as Deb’s, she told me, elevating the odds I might match as a potential donor. Subsequent blood tests revealed that despite the 1 in 100,000 odds that two biologically unrelated people will be compatible

DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

‘BE LIKE KATIE’ The “Hadassah kidney” is doing just fine.

And so are Katie Edelstein, who donated the kidney 17 years ago, and Belle Simon, then a fellow national board member, who was the grateful recipient.

Edelstein and Simon were just acquaintances when, during a Hadassah National Board meeting, Edelstein learned that Simon, who had kidney disease, was in desperate need of a new kidney.

In the years since, filled with memories that Edelstein made possible, they have become close friends.

“To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have lived without it,” said Simon, who was 66 at the time of the transplant and was told by doctors that she had an estimated five-year wait before an organ would be available. “It’s just been a very meaningful gift,” the Boynton Beach, Fla., resident added. “I praise Katie every day.”

During a recent Zoom conver-

Inspiring Others Belle Simon (right) and Katie Edelstein tell the story of the ‘Hadassah kidney’ at the 2019 national convention.

sation about the “Hadassah kidney,” as it is now known, they joked about how that long-ago decision continues to fascinate others. But the two turned serious when they shared that they have been privileged to inspire others.

They recently coached another Hadassah leader, who prefers not to disclose her name, through the process. A few acquaintances have donated kidneys. Readers were inspired to become live NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

donors after Hadassah Magazine published their story in 2004.

Edelstein’s local newspaper in Bellingham, Wash., The Bellingham Herald, once wrote about a bone marrow registration drive encouraging people to “Be like Katie.”

When you have two kidneys, Edelstein, 72, explained, neither function at 100 percent, but when you have one, it grows larger and works at full capacity.

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Thanks to Edelstein, Simon has been to many bar and bat mitzvahs, seen children and grandchildren graduate from elementary school, high school and college and has traveled around the world. And just this year, she became a greatgrandmother.

She has also had her share of heartache. Simon, now 83, lost her husband, Arthur, in August 2020 to Covid-19. But she mostly focuses on the positive—the 17 years she wouldn’t have had without Edelstein’s generosity.

Edelstein says her life has been enriched as well.

“I’m not sure I would have made that offer had I not been involved with Hadassah for so many years,” she said. Meeting the many volunteers, doctors, nurses and researchers who made a difference in so many lives rubbed off on her. After all, Edelstein noted, the opportunity to save someone’s life doesn’t come around very often.

—Donna Gordon Blankinship

Spread the Word Stewart Ain, here with a grandchild, approached Renewal for help finding a donor.

Two months of rigorous medical and psychological testing followed, all paid for by Deb’s insurance.

Finally, I got the call we were waiting for: The transplant team agreed I was healthy and sane enough to donate my kidney.

years since our surgeries, and both Deb, now 60, and I, at 65, continue to do well. She has taken my kidney on amazing adventures—including ziplining in Honduras. I have returned to my life as a nonprofit consultant and writer. I have had no adverse health effects from donating a kidney. Through the pandemic, I’ve been walking five miles a day and am in better shape than I was before the transplant.

Deb and I stay in touch by text, phone calls and Zoom. And we try to get together whenever she travels to Kansas City to see her family.

Every day in America, 13 people die waiting for a kidney. Often their best hope—their only hope—is to find a living donor. I will always be grateful I was able to perform this deeply meaningful, scientifically miraculous mitzvah. If I could, I’d do it again.

Martha Gershun is a nonprofit consultant, writer and community volunteer and the co-author of Kidney to Share (Cornell Press) with Dr. John D. Lantos, director of the Bioethics Center at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.

T

he next phase of the journey involved some hiccups.

Our first direct transplant attempt was cancelled the night before our scheduled surgery, when the doctors became concerned that Deb was too sick for the procedure.

After intensive treatment, she recovered. On September 28, 2018, nine months after I first read about her in the Jewish Chronicle, Deb and I found ourselves in adjoining beds at the Mayo Clinic, being prepped for surgery. Before the morning was over, my left kidney was surgically removed and transplanted into Deb. It has now been more than three

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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LEARN ABOUT ORGAN DONATION WITH HADASSAH Join Hadassah Greater Kansas City on Zoom on Saturday, November 20, from 7 to 9 p.m. CT for their fourth annual Touch of Red Gala. This year’s theme is Celebrate Life!, focusing on the importance of organ donation. Martha Gershun and Debra Porter Gill as well as Katie Edelstein and Belle Simon will share their experiences as living donortransplant recipient pairs. Other speakers will discuss transplantation at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Israel.

The event is free and open to all. Register at hadassahmidwest.org/GKCRedGala.

MERYL AIN

for organ transplantation, Deb and I were a perfect match.

Lisa explained that HIPAA privacy rules precluded the clinic from revealing to a patient the identity of a potential donor or sharing a patient’s contact information. I could decide to tell Deb that we were a match or remain anonymous.

Keeping this a secret was not in my nature. I found Deb on Facebook, sent a message and held my breath.

Would she think I was some stalker?

Would she be an emotional mess?

Deb answered the next day: “I read your message and it literally took my breath away. I had to take a little time before responding because I couldn’t find the words to express my gratitude…. Your incredible offer to donate one of your kidneys to me, or to anyone you don’t know, is beyond generous.”

Her reaction reassured me, and in a fortuitous coincidence, Deb was en route to spend a week with her family in Kansas City just as I was reaching out. I still didn’t know if I would be cleared to donate, but this seemed like our best chance to meet in person. We agreed to have lunch.

Before our lunch, I was as nervous as I would be for a first date. What are the protocols for meeting the woman whose life you are trying to save?

I needn’t have worried. Deb and I connected right away. I loved that she wasn’t maudlin about her health and that she was appropriately grateful, but never over the top with her thanks. Deb and I had many things in common: We both liked to write, were active in progressive politics and had spent our careers helping children facing adversity. As we stumbled on new bits of synchronicity, we became increasingly convinced that our match was bashert.

HADASSAH MEDICINE

Transplantation and Rebirth Israel ranks near the top in live organ donations | By Wendy Elliman

COURTESY OF HMO

T

he kidney that is cleansing the blood of Tomer Tarfa Darja and controlling his water balance, vitamins, hormones, glucose, amino acids and more, feels like his own. About three years ago, this 5-ounce, reddish-brown, fistsized organ was performing the same master chemist job in the body of Esti Lerer, then 28, a counselor for at-risk youth and a Hasidic mother of three children under eight.

“What do you say to someone who saves your life?” asked Darja, 26, who came to Israel from Ethiopia as a toddler with his widowed mother and now lives in Jerusalem.

“No words are enough.”

Six years ago, he was in a preparatory school for the army, hoping to enlist in an elite Israel Defense Forces unit, when an upset stomach took him to a doctor. He was diagnosed with a genetic kidney disease, and he deteriorated rapidly. By 2018, Darja needed dialysis three times a week.

That was the year that Lerer, who also lives in Jerusalem but grew up in a large family in Ofakim in the Negev, won a long, hard-fought battle to become a living, or altruistic, kidney donor. “It was something I’d decided when I was 16, when my best friend’s father died because there was no kidney for him,” she said. She had even told her future husband, Hanan, on their first date that she was going to register to become an organ donor at age 23, the youngest it is legally permissible to become an organ donor in Israel.

Israel’s doctors and screening boards prefer that female donors are

past childbearing age. “But Esti was unstoppable,” recalled Hadassah nurse Neta Malka, coordinator of live kidney donations and transplants at the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem. “And Darja was her perfect medical match.”

“It’s rare to have so young a donor, and particularly fortunate for such a young recipient,” said Dr. Abed Khalaileh, director of HMO’s solid organ transplantation unit, located on the Ein Kerem campus, who performed the surgeries on both Darja and Lerer.

One of seven sons born to a Palestinian Israeli family in Jerusalem, Dr. Khalaileh typically performs two scheduled liver or kidney transplants each week as well as an emergency transplant or two. “It’s a journey,” he said of his decision to become a trans-

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Then and Now Tomer Tarfa Darja at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem with his kidney donor Esti Lerer and her husband, Hanan, looking on (top); Darja, a new father, holds his infant daughter.

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plantation specialist. “Just as anyone can learn to draw but only a handful become artists, transplantation needs not only technical competence but imagination, 3-D vision and something inborn. In that sense, it chose me more than me choosing it.”

L

erer is among approximately 250 Israelis who choose to donate their kidneys each year, quadruple the number a decade ago, according to Israel’s National Transplant Center. Established by the Health Ministry in 1994, the center manages organ donation and transplantation in Israel, coordinating with hospitals countrywide.

With 90 to 95 percent of the country’s kidney transplant recipients surviving their first year, Israel has one of the world’s highest success rates.

Organ donation at HMO begins with transplant coordinators. Like every other transplantation center in Israel, the medical center has two coordinators, one to recruit organs from deceased, also known as cadaveric, donors, and the other to facilitate live donations—tasks that the Health Ministry requires to be separate because of the very different circumstances under which the organ is obtained. Hadassah Ein Kerem nurse Kyrill Grozovsky, who emigrated from Moscow 30 years ago, handles the former, guiding and supporting the families of brain-dead patients through the difficult decision-making process.

“We have around 50 potential donors in Hadassah each year,” he said. “I take a deep breath, then go meet the family. I tell them of the options and try to understand who they are. It’s usually a long and emotional process, driven by the incentive of saving lives. And it often brings great comfort to the donor family.”

“DONATING ORGANS SHOULD BE AS MUCH A SOCIAL NORM AS STOPPING AT A RED LIGHT.” — KYRILL GROZOVSKY HADASSAH TRANSPLANT COORDINATOR

He recalls discussing donation with the distraught wife and two children of a 42-year-old man suddenly felled by a brain hemorrhage. “The family was secular, Jewish and couldn’t decide what to do,” he said.

“I asked the wife about her husband.

‘He was friendly,’ she said. ‘Everyone loved him. He was always ready to help.’ And I said: ‘Then let him help them in death as in life.’ And she did.”

Grozovsky also recalls his interaction with a young Muslim couple mourning their 3-year-old daughter, who died after being hit by a car.

“In Muslim society, it’s the extended family, particularly the older men, who decide,” he said. “I spoke as much with the grandfather and imam as with the child’s parents. The imam’s approval tipped the balance in favor of donation.”

Over 60 percent of families facing this decision choose to donate, up from 40 percent two decades ago. The rise in numbers is due to several factors, including an ongoing public-awareness campaign around the National Transplant Center’s ADI organ-donor registration cards—the millionth ADI card was signed last April. Numbers have been further boosted by Israel’s 2008 Brain-Respiratory Death Act. It determines death by neurologic criteria rather than

HELLO GORGEOUS CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND WORK OF LIVING LEGEND BARBRA STREISAND.

JMOF-FIU, the exclusive Southeast exhibition presenter, is proud to pay tribute to the iconic singer, actress, director, and producer. To book a live, curator-led virtual exhibition tour, contact Nancy Cohen at nancohen@fiu.edu.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Jewish Museum of Florida

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Jmof.fiu.edu

HADASSAH MEDICINE

cessation of heartbeat—when organs begin to deteriorate and therefore are less viable for transplant. The newer criteria are accepted by many Jewish and Muslim religious authorities in Israel.

The numbers, however, still do not meet the need. “Donation is up from when I began this job 19 years ago, but it’s not enough,” said Grozovsky. “Donating organs should be as much a social norm as stopping at a red light.”

Over 700 people in Israel are waiting for kidneys, and more than 150 for livers. Each year, about 300 people are added to waiting lists and some 100 die while waiting.

Altruistic donors are thus a vital resource. Israel is ranked relatively low compared with other countries in deceased donations. It is, however, third worldwide in live donation, after South Korea and Turkey, according to a 2020 report from the International Registry on Organ Donation and Transplantation.

Malka, who guided Lerer through her donation process, has been Hadassah’s living donor nurse coordinator for seven years, helping potential donors navigate the required rigorous medical, psychological and ethics testing before donation. “Live-organ donation is wonderful, but only when it’s right for donors and their families,” she stressed. “I suggest, for example, that a man waits until after his son’s bar mitzvah. I urge that partners, parents and grown children are involved in the decision. And I introduce willing donors, who don’t match their relative or friend, to organ donor chains of giving—their kidney going to a matched stranger, in return for one needed at home.”

Three years ago, Hadassah clinical psychologist Benny Kashany participated in a donor chain, realizing that with one act he could save the lives of several people. “The husband of the woman who received my kidney has continued the chain of giving,

SAVE A LIFE

donating his kidney to a stranger,” he said. “And the stranger’s father gave a kidney to a young girl.”

Central to the high rate of altruistic donors in Israel is Matnat Chaim (Gift of Life), an organization that has helped make Israel one of a few countries with more living than deceased donors—63 percent of all organs donated in the country are from living donors, compared with 28 percent in the United States.

The organization was founded in 2009 by Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber of Jerusalem. He developed kidney disease at 42 and survived on dialysis until transplantation. During his dialysis sessions, Heber befriended a young kidney patient, Pinchas Turgeman, and tried to help him find a donor. Sadly, Turgeman passed away before an organ was available.

Heber became a full-time kidney donation advocate and founded Matnat Chaim, which works with Israeli hospitals and even a few in the United States, facilitating over 1,000 live-donor kidney transplants.

He succumbed to Covid-19 in April 2020, aged 55, and his widow, Rachel, now directs the organization.

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HADASSAH ON CALL Go behind the scenes at Hadassah Medical Organization with the Hadassah On Call: New Frontiers in Medicine podcast. The November episode features Hadassah neurologist Dr. Max Bauer discussing headaches and pain management. Catch up on recent episodes, including an interview with Dr. Dror Mevorach, director of the rheumatology research center and head of a Covid unit at the Hadassah Medical Organization, who is researching new treatments to combat the virus.

Sign up for new episode alerts at hadassah.org/hadassahoncall.

Another Chance at Life Dr. Abed Khalaileh, director of the solid organ transplantation unit at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, stands at the bedside of recovering kidney recipient Randa Aweis.

COURTESY OF HMO

O

rgan transplantation is, of course, global, but at Hadassah, there are quintessentially Israeli versions. On May 11 of this year, as Hamas rockets battered Israel and violence erupted in mixed Jewish-Arab towns, Yigal Yehoshua, 56, of Lod was hit in the head with a brick during a riot in the city. He died six days later. His donated lungs, liver and kidneys saved four lives. One of them was Randa Aweis, a 58-year-old Christian Arab mother of six from Jerusalem. Recovering from kidney transplant surgery at Hadassah Ein Kerem, she thanked Yehoshua’s family for their “noble deed.”

Her daughter Farouz blessed them for giving her mother “another chance at life.”

Esti Lerer appreciates that a donated kidney can bring people from different walks of life together. Tomer Tarfa Darja, she said, has become part of her family.

“I knew that God would direct my kidney to the person who needed it most,” said Lerer, who gave birth to a daughter in October after a trouble-free pregnancy.

“A year ago, we celebrated Darja’s wedding, and three months ago, the birth of his daughter. We expect she will be firm friends with our youngest daughter, Mali.

Giving Darja my kidney is among the most joyous things I ever did.”

Wendy Elliman is a British-born science writer who has lived in Israel for more than four decades.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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HADASSAH NEWS

‘A Path for Each Person to Make a Difference’ Finding a place and purpose in Hadassah Stories compiled by Marlene Post

Naomi Adler Assumes Top Spot

I

PAIGE THATCHER

n september, hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, welcomed Naomi Adler as CEO/executive director. Adler, 55, most recently served as president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the first woman to serve in that position.

Prior to that, she led two United Way organizations in New York and was an assistant district attorney in Monroe County, N.Y. Adler’s reputation as a successful prosecutor in cases of violence against women and children, and later as a community advocate for families living in poverty, earned her several honors.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

​​ What are your top priorities as you begin your tenure as Hadassah CEO/executive director?

One cannot be successful without taking the time to learn from members, donors and other supporters. This is especially true at Hadassah, where thousands of leaders throughout our nation help power our tremendous network of influence. Creating opportunities for these leaders to share their experiences with me is a top priority.

Another is making sure everyone reading this knows they’re needed. Please, tell the people in your life about Hadassah. Invite them to get involved with the Hadassah initiatives that speak most to them—to advance women’s health, fight antisemitism, connect younger generations with all that Israel has to offer and support the exceptional work of Hadassah’s hospitals.

One of my other top priorities is to make more people aware of our unique impact and how their philanthropy can be a part of this work. I want women from every generation to know they have a place at Hadassah. And that goes for our male Associates, too.

Hadassah has struggled to bring in and engage younger women. What strategies are needed to address this issue?

Our ideal, as we create opportunities for increased engagement from new and existing members, is to make it clear that Hadassah understands and accommodates the time pressures that impact women at various stages of life. This means ensuring there is a path for younger generations to become passionate supporters now and feel comfortable in the knowledge that if they need to, they can pause their engagement during busier times of their lives. Indeed, every woman should feel that there is not only a place and purpose for them in Hadassah, but that they are welcome to re-join or enhance their participation at any time.

I’m very excited by the progress we’re already making in this area. The women in Hadassah’s Evolve initiative, our growing community of active, empowered young women, are working hard to reach more young women.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

College-age Jews and others in their 20s are reporting less support for Israel. As a Zionist organization, how can Hadassah try to counter that?

I am extremely focused on enhancing the opportunities for Hadassah to attract and engage women of all ages, including women exploring Zionism for the first time. Let’s utilize Hadassah’s platform of empowerment and healing to reach and educate young Jews and to make clear that what Hadassah does in Israel has nothing to do with politics.

Hadassah members, supporters and friends hold many different views on Israel. Yet there’s one we all share: If you want to help Israel and its people, Hadassah is the place to do so. When you support Hadassah, you’re supporting a model for a shared society, health equity and at-risk youth who depend on our work.

What lessons can Hadassah learn from the pandemic?

It’s wonderful to come into an organization that’s been so responsive and relevant during the pandemic here in the United States, not just at Hadassah’s hospitals—although we should all be proud that our innovations have helped

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make Israel a global leader in the fight against Covid-19.

Hadassah attendance at our U.S.-based virtual programs has skyrocketed. We’re excited by these additional chances to engage new people and will incorporate these virtual connections when we return to in-person events.

Members have demonstrated a real commitment to healing our world on the macro and micro levels, including in their communities and chapters, helping many find resilience, resources and purpose in the face of isolation.

Tell us about your Hadassah connections and your earliest memories of the organization.

Hadassah is part of my family story, and many in my immediate and extended family have served as leaders in various parts of the country. When my grandparents and their children escaped Nazi Germany in

1939, as my Aunt Marianne proudly reminds me, their local Hadassah chapters helped my Oma (grandmother) feel accepted in their new Jewish community in Worcester, Mass., and later in Hartford, Conn. Hadassah was a social lifeline as well as a chance to support our beloved Israel through tzedakah.

Since the announcement of my new position, hundreds of relatives and friends from around the world have reached out. I’ve heard how Hadassah is an important part of their own multigenerational family story and their personal identity. It makes me even more proud to be not just Hadassah’s newest CEO, but a life member whose family has supported Hadassah’s work for so many years.

You grew up in Rochester, N.Y., birthplace of the Rochester Hadassah Cookbook, one of the most popular Hadassah cookbooks of all time.

When I was growing up in Rochester, I loved

the elaborate desserts my mom would bake when we entertained my father’s colleagues from the Eastman School of Music. In our community, that cookbook was the bedrock of such occasions.

And today, I appreciate the way Hadassah is making food not just a part of our culture and tradition, but also a way to infuse health and wellness into our lives.

Anything you’d like to add?

Hadassah’s mission speaks to me, deeply, and I know that if more people heard about Hadassah’s incredible results, it would move them to action, too. So many of you have already invested your time, talent and treasure to help expand our impact, and I look forward to hearing ideas of how to ensure that Hadassah continues to thrive.

I’m so humbled to be part of an organization where there is a path for each person to make a difference.

ZIONISM…DID YOU KNOW? Find the following bold words about Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, in the word search.

Built on the slopes of Mount Carmel in the late BRONZE AGE, by the THIRD century in the common era, Haifa was a center of DYE making. The city became a gateway for Jewish IMMIGRATION into the new STATE of Israel after May 1948. Today, Haifa is known for the successful COEXISTENCE of its diverse religious and ethnic communities.

HAIFA BAY is now a major SEAPORT on the Mediterranean COAST. Its petroleum REFINERIES and CHEMICAL processing plants have strategic VALUE. Located in the city, MATAM is one of Israel’s oldest and largest high-tech business parks. Academically, the city boasts the University of Haifa and the TECHNION. Haifa has Israel’s only underground RAPID transit system, CARMELIT. Among Haifa’s tourist attractions are the BAHAI World Centre and the CAVE OF ELIJAH. Every December, the city’s annual Holiday of Holidays celebrates TOLERANCE and the UNITY of Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

NOW YOU KNOW…More About Haifa NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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TRAVEL

Sofia’s Serendipity A first-class destination waiting to be discovered

By Hilary Danailova

SHUTTERSTOCK

I

n the 15 years i’ve been visiting my husband’s family in Sofia, Bulgaria, I’ve watched European Union membership transform the city from a post-Communist backwater into a vibrant capital. Rusting trams and weedy parks have been replaced by a world-class metro, manicured gardens and pedestrian boulevards where stylish crowds stroll.

Today, I tell American friends that if they want to explore a new corner of Europe, Bulgaria is an excellent choice. What it lacks in historic charm (more on that later), Sofia makes up for in serendipity: dramatic mountain scenery, Mediterranean-style cuisine and the largest synagogue in Southeastern Europe.

English is now ubiquitous, and the city is still cheap enough for budget travelers to go first class.

With traditions of secularism and interfaith tolerance, Bulgaria is also among the most comfortable European destinations for Jews and is a favorite of Israelis, who enjoy the short flight and legal gambling.

When locals meet Jewish visitors, they

proudly relate how—despite siding with the Axis powers during World War II—Bulgarian authorities saved their entire Jewish population from Nazi deportation. And the Holocaust wasn’t the first time these lands offered refuge. Bulgaria’s modern-day Sephardi community traces its roots to Iberian Jews expelled in the 1400s who resettled in the Ottoman Empire.

This heritage of religious coexistence is visible at the so-called Triangle of Tolerance, where temples for three major religions stand on a single downtown block. The glorious, Moorish-domed Sofia Synagogue, Banya Bashi Mosque and Sveta Nedelya Church cluster in the oldest part of Sofia, where the urban landscape is a palimpsest of European history. Indeed, shoppers heading to the nearby open-air market of Zhenski Pazar pick their way through a courtyard dotted with stone ruins from the time of Roman rule, which lasted from the first century BCE until the fifth century, the period when the city was called Serdika.

A Jewish community sprang up

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

along the Danube shortly after the Romans arrived. But Sofia, a remote outpost during the ensuing five centuries of Ottoman rule, only became the capital after Bulgaria won independence in 1878. So while visitors will find some ancient churches and classical ruins, the oldest neighborhoods of Sofia mostly date to the turn of the last century—and much of the city is considerably newer.

The vast majority of Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews immigrated to Israel after World War II. More left in the 1990s after the Communist regime collapsed, and around 4,500 Jews still live here, mostly in Sofia.

Incredibly, Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish dialect, remained their vernacular for half a millennium. Joseph Benatov, a Philadelphia-based Sofia native who leads Sephardi heritage tours of the Balkans, explained that Ladino only dwindled as the community’s Jewish schools shifted instruction to French and then Bulgarian in the 20th century. (Read about one woman’s effort to learn Ladino online during the pandemic on page 14.)

Still, the scene was lively on a summer morning at the Jewish community center, housed in a 1920s building. People of all ages passed through a metal detector and picked up a copy of the Jewish News, a local paper published twice a month

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Vibrant Capital Sofia’s dramatic mountain scenery and lavishly restored synagogue await curious travelers.

that covers community doings, then headed for cards or yoga in the courtyard. “It’s where we grew up as kids, the true hub of Jewish life,” Benatov said of the JCC. “We’d have huge parties every Friday night.”

Nearly two million people now

IF YOU GO Amid rising Covid cases in both countries, Bulgaria tightened travel restrictions for Americans in September; check bg.usembassy. gov for current information.

High-altitude Sofia has a more continental climate than most of Southern Europe. Expect hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The Ministry of Tourism (bulgariatravel.org) offers helpful destination guides for Sofia and beyond.

Inexpensive taxis (OK Supertrans is reliable) are the simplest way to get anywhere you can’t easily walk. Pedestrians, take note: Instead of crosswalks, many Sofia intersections have stairs to underground tunnels.

Accessibility for those with disabilities is minimal; expect uneven sidewalks and corners without curb cuts.

Bulgaria is Slavic, but forget about borscht. The cuisine

call Sofia home, yet there remains an intimate scale to its leafy, cobblestoned streets, peppered with quirky boutiques and galleries. Balkan pop music wails from cafes in hidden gardens. As it has for thousands of years, mineral water bubbles up from

resembles that of neighboring Greece and Turkey, with fresh salads, stuffed vegetable dishes and grilled meats accompanied by excellent local wines and brandies. English menus are widely available. Kosher food is available at Kosher Point Alegria, a cafe on Ul. Knyaz Boris I, and at Rohr Chabad Center, which caters almost exclusively to Israelis and where most business is conducted in Hebrew.

WHAT TO SEE Built in 1909, the lavishly restored Sofia Synagogue, which follows Sephardi rites, is the third-largest Jewish house of worship in Europe and offers weekday and Shabbat services (entrance fee for tourists is about $3; sofiasynagogue.com). Nearby are two neo-Byzantine landmarks from the turn of the 20th century: the Sofia Central Mineral Baths, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

the ground by the Serdika ruins, flowing from fountains where Sofians fill up bottles. As the city motto goes: Sofia grows, but never ages.

Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.

which houses the Sofia Regional History Museum, and the Market Hall, a classic European indoor emporium. Further down the Triangle of Tolerance are the historic Banya Bashi Mosque and the Eastern Orthodox Sveta Nedelya Church.

In nearby City Garden, an oasis of fountains and outdoor cafes, are the Ivan Vazov National Theatre and Grand Hotel Sofia.

Yellow-brick roads delineate the area around Parliament, the National Gallery of Art and the city’s most iconic landmark—the gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

Shaded by tree canopies, Sofia’s central neighborhoods are a walker’s paradise. Explore Ul. Shipka, home to Sofia University and the lovely Doctor’s Garden, as well as the tangle of streets just north of Vitosha Boulevard.

Named for the 7,500-foot mountain that looms over the city, Vitosha is a wide pedestrian

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thoroughfare lined with shops and cafes. It leads to the National Palace of Culture, a socialist-era landmark built in 1981 for the 1,300th anniversary of Bulgaria’s founding.

It’s worth a drive north of the city center to see the medieval frescoes at Boyana Church, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site with Byzantine structures and paintings dating from the 10th through 19th centuries.

A combination ticket includes admission to the nearby National History Museum, where an English-language tour puts Bulgaria into context.

Sephardic Balkans offers virtual and in-person Jewish heritage tours of Sofia and other parts of Bulgaria with Joseph Benatov, a native Sofian who teaches Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania (sephardicbalkans.com).

FOOD

Sophisticated Riffs on Hanukkah Classics Latkes and cake à la Grandma Anne | By Adeena Sussman

W

hen my grandfather, Jack Nadrich, retired from his restaurant-supply business that sold everything from Pyrex to paring knives to New York Cityarea Greek diners, my grandmother, Anne, announced her retirement from cooking.

A child of the Depression who had left middle school at age 12 to cook and clean for her family,

thereby allowing her older siblings and father to work, the kitchen was a place she was happy to leave behind for good. So when she and my grandfather moved to Northern California in 1978 to be closer to my family, almost every day they happily ate out

for lunch and dinner, often taking me and my older sister, Sharon, with them.

Every day except one. On the first night of Hanukkah, my grandmother would unearth her shiny Farberware skillet and stainless-steel box grater and would buy a 5-pound bag of potatoes to make the one food that elicited pure joy among us: latkes. As my family sat down at my grandparents’ dining table set with Corelle plates in Spring Blossom Green laid atop tissue-thin paper placemats, Grandma Anne would fry latkes made-to-order on her electric range, not stopping until the last potato was gone and our bellies were full of her crispy, sour

4. Transfer the leeks and

Green Latkes Makes 8 to 10 latkes 1 medium leek, sliced into very thin rounds 1 medium potato, scrubbed, skin on 2 cups broccoli florets, chopped into tiny pieces 1 cup thinly sliced scallion, greens parts only 1/2 cup finely chopped dill, plus more for frying 1 clove finely minced garlic

4 eggs

1/3 cup potato starch

1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground

ADEENA SUSSMAN

black pepper, plus more for seasoning

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Vegetable oil, for frying Sour cream, for serving

1. Arrange a rack over a baking

sheet.

2. Place the leeks in a medium bowl, cover with cold water, swirl to release any sand and then dry NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

thoroughly using a clean kitchen towel or salad spinner.

3. Grate the potato, then use your hands to squeeze out and discard as much liquid as possible.

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potatoes to a large bowl and add the broccoli, scallion, dill, garlic, eggs, potato starch, salt, pepper and baking powder. Stir until everything is combined.

5. Heat 1/2-inch oil in a large cast-iron other heavy skillet until a shred of potato from the batter sizzles upon contact. Using a 1/4 cup measure, dollop the batter into the pan, three or four at a time, flattening the pancakes slightly.

Fry until the underside is deeply golden and the edges are lacy and crisp, about 3 minutes. Flip and fry an additional 3 minutes.

6. Drain the latkes on the rack and season with more salt and pepper.

7. Serve warm, dolloped with sour cream and garnished with more dill, if desired. Latkes can be reheated in a 400° oven for 10 minutes before serving.

forms the base. In lieu of onions, I incorporate leeks, which crisp up marvelously and add mellow flavor.

Scallion greens and chopped dill lend extra freshness while maintaining a lot of their brightness even after frying.

S

ince thanksgiving weekend ends just as Hanukkah begins this year, these latkes would pair well with leftover turkey. Swap in nondairy yogurt or sour cream and bring out that leftover cranberry relish for a sweet and savory contrast.

For dessert, my grandmother always served an Entenmann’s pound cake and steaming hot mugs of unsweetened Lipton tea. But for less time than it takes to make a

trip to the supermarket, you can mix up an elegant cake whose star ingredient—olive oil—evokes the central Hanukkah miracle. A bit of semolina, which is similar in texture to cornmeal but made from wheat, adds intriguing texture, and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds is festive and colorful. If you can’t find them, top the cake with orange segments or other seasonal fruit.

Best of all, the cake tastes better and becomes moister after it sits for a few days—a Hanukkah miracle all of us dessert lovers can appreciate.

Adeena Sussman is the author of Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen and co-author of Gazoz: The Art of Making Magical, Seasonal Sparkling Drinks. She lives in Tel Aviv.

Olive Oil Semolina Cake Serves 8 to 10

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup semolina

2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon fine sea salt 4 eggs 1 cup sugar 2/3 cup olive oil 1/2 cup nondairy full-fat milk substitute, such as oat, almond or soy 3 tablespoons orange juice, preferably fresh 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Finely grated zest of 1 medium orange Confectioners’ sugar and pomegranate seeds, for garnish and serving

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a 10-inch round baking pan with parchment and grease the sides of the pan.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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2. Combine the flour, semolina,

baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Beat the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment at high speed until slightly fluffy, 1 minute. With the mixer running, drizzle in the oil, then the milk substitute, orange juice and vanilla into the batter until incorporated.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture until just combined, then mix in the orange zest.

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until the cake feels just dry and springy, 27 to 30 minutes. Cool for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove cake from pan and let cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and garnish with pomegranate seeds, if desired.

Cake can be stored on the counter (without the pomegranate seeds), sealed in plastic wrap, for 3 days.

ADEENA SUSSMAN

cream-topped potato pancakes. I loved those latkes and reveled in the uncomplicated happiness that making them brought to my grandmother.

I still think of her every year on Hanukkah when I make latkes. But since I fry latkes and other delights practically every night of the eightday holiday that begins this year on November 28, I sometimes deviate from the classics, varying my repertoire to include as many vegetables and flavors as I can.

I’ve made every permutation possible—from sweet potato and beet to kohlrabi, carrot and sunchoke. My latest obsession is green fritters that bring garden goodness to a late-fall meal. Broccoli—with a bit of grated potato in honor of Grandma Anne—

ARTS

Precious, Rare and Dazzling Gemstones mined in Israel make exclusive jewelry

By Rahel Musleah

T

he spectacular one-of-a kind ring on Tali Shalem’s finger is decorated with blue and green sapphires, shiny black spinel, dark-red garnets and has a bluish-gray gem called Carmel Sapphire at its center. All these rare jewels were found near Haifa by the only mining company focusing on precious stones in northern Israel, Shefa Gems.

Shalem, a mother of three sons, is CEO of both Shefa and the company’s new jewelry branch, Holy Gems, which is now marketing its gems in limited-edition bracelets, rings, earrings and necklaces crafted in 18-karat white and yellow gold

by Shalem’s mother, Michaella Taub.

The jewelry is sold at private auction and on the company’s website (holy-gems.com).

While Israel is known for its distinctive green-blue Eilat stones, no other precious gems had been found in Israel in recent years until Shefa, which means abundance, began exploring the region in 2000. Among the company’s major finds was the Carmel Sapphire, a stone with inclusions of the new mineral carmeltazite. Named for its major chemical components—titanium, aluminum and zirconium (“taz”)—and Mount Carmel, where it was discovered, carmeltazite was chosen Mineral of the Year by the International Mineralogical Association in 2018.

The rarity of precious stones found in Israel is evident in the small number of carats that have been unearthed: fewer than 100 carats of sapphire; fewer than 200 of garnet; fewer than 200 of spinel; and fewer than 300 of Carmel Sapphire.

COURTESY OF SHEFA GEMS

T

CEO Tali Shalem wearing a Holy Gems ring

ali shalem was born into a family with roots in Czechoslovakia, Germany and Poland.

Her grandfather, Chanan Taub, fled Europe for Israel in 1938, leaving behind his parents and eight brothers and sisters; his family all died in Auschwitz. In Palestine, he joined the Zionist youth movement Betar and fought for the establishment of Israel as a member of the Irgun. In 1942, he settled in Netanya, today Israel’s diamond center, and helped develop the country’s diamond cutting and polishing industry. His son Avi Taub—Shalem’s father—became a Chabad-Lubavitch Hasid after a visit to Chabad headquarters in Brooklyn in the 1970s. It was Avi Taub who

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Limited Editions The garnet-studded ring and the ‘Cluster of Sapphire Necklace’ both include gems mined in Israel.

expanded the business from polishing and trading diamonds to producing and selling jewelry in showrooms around the world.

Wearing a brunette sheitel and thin-rimmed gold aviator glasses, Shalem recounted, over a Zoom call from her office in Netanya, the story of Shefa’s founding. In 1988, Aryeh Gur’el, then mayor of Haifa, visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, to consult with him on events in the city. Mid-conversation, the rebbe said that the Almighty had concealed precious stones near Haifa. The conversation was filmed, and years later, Taub saw the video. In 1999, he set off to explore the rebbe’s revelation and ultimately created Shefa. Though geologists and scholars said finding gems in Israel was all but impossible, Taub persisted.

When Taub died from cancer in 2019 at the age of 68, Shalem, the oldest of six siblings, was appointed CEO. She had worked for many years in various roles at the company. Now, she said, she’s fulfilling her father’s vision as well as biblical prophecies about a land rich in natural resources, including gemstones. Her personal favorites are sapphires—

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as well as distinctive pieces such as the “Cluster of Sapphire Necklace,” inspired by the biblical story in Numbers 13: 21-24 of the fruits that Moses’ scouts brought back from the Holy Land—a clusters of grapes as well as pomegranates and figs. The necklace has over four carats of blue and green sapphires and is studded with small diamonds. Opening bids for different pieces range from $23,000 to well over $100,000.

Shalem believes that all people will feel a spiritual connection to the gems and noted that none of the jewelry features religious symbols.

“We don’t want to be involved in anything political or religious,” she said. “We believe this land is holy to all people and religions.”

Rahel Musleah leads “NamaStay at Home,” virtual tours of Jewish India and other cultural events (explorejewishindia.com).

BROADCASTING JEWISH 24/7 In 2003, when Rabbi Mark Golub created Shalom TV—the first dedicated Jewish television channel, now known as Jewish Broadcasting Service—there were few at-home media options for Jewish content. Golub, who leads a havurah in Stamford, Conn., had experience producing popular media for diverse audiences. In 1991, he created a Russian-language television channel to serve Jews from the former Soviet Union who did not speak English, and he produced several Broadway plays, notably revivals of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike—all Tony winners.

Today, the Stamford-based Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) has more than a half-million monthly viewer households—a figure that continues to rise during the pandemic, as many Americans stay home. Donor-funded JBS received a huge boost in viewership when Comcast added it to its channel lineup in late 2020. JBS (jbstv.org) also broadcasts via internet streaming providers like DirecTV, Apple TV and Amazon.

(from right) Rabbi Mark Golub interviewing Michael Aloni and Neta Riskin from ‘Shtisel’ on his talk show

Although much of JBS’s content is available elsewhere online, for many viewers, “it’s still easiest to interact with a channel right on your television,” explained JBS Senior Vice President Shahar Azani. “This is a centerpiece around which all Jews can engage—a point of access to Jews and Judaism.”

The channel’s 24/7 lineup includes religious services and events from New York Jewish institutions; Israeli and Jewish films; and daily English-language news from the Israeli media outlet ILTV. It also has broadcasted Hadassah events, including some Hadassah Magazine programs.

JBS has a wealth of original programming as well. Among the most popular is Golub’s weekly NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

talk show, L’Chayim, which began on radio in 1979 and is now a JBS primetime staple. Other originals include The Wisdom of Ruth Westheimer, an advice show with the noted sex therapist, and Shalom Kids, a children’s program.

During Hanukkah, JBS invites Jewish celebrities to light the menorah live. Past candle lightings have included actress Tovah Feldshuh and Israeli food writer and television personality Gil Hovav.

“JBS is a lifelong dream come true for me, but it never occurred to me that it would become such an important fixture in the American Jewish landscape,” said Golub. “A place where a Jew can learn to read Hebrew, study a page of Talmud, have a front row seat at major Jewish gatherings

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and lectures and see in-depth interviews with the brightest and most exciting people on the world Jewish scene—including, of course, leaders of Hadassah!”

While JBS presents diverse Jewish perspectives, Azani said, the channel’s “unabashedly pro-Israel” bias is necessary to counter anti-Israel propaganda.

“There’s so much imbalance out there that we’re not shy about showcasing Israel’s position.

We’re offering a point of view you won’t see from The New York Times or CNN.” But Azani pointed out that on L’Chayim, Golub has hosted Jews with a variety of perspectives, including Morton Klein, president of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, and Jeremy Ben-Ami, who leads the liberal group J Street.

“There’s so much more to Israel and the Jewish world beyond geopolitics,” Azani added. “We amplify eclectic and diverse voices. And every day, we get emails from people who first engaged with Jewish content through our TV.” —Hilary Danailova Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.

COURTESY OF JEWISH BROADCASTING SERVICE

both the Carmel and the conventional blue ones. “Sapphires are said to bring good luck, to promote wealth and good business decisions,” she explained. “The Bible is filled with quotes about the beauty of sapphires.”

Sapphires and other gems mined

by Shefa and used in Holy Gems designs will be part of an auction on the jewelry company’s website (register before November 20). Among the 101 pieces for sale are Shalem’s ring

HANUKKAH GIFT GUIDE

Bake, Light, Play

F

orget doughnuts. challah has become our yeasted holiday go-to, whether baked for Shabbat during Hanukkah or worn as adorable earrings. And for those looking to display their support for the Jewish state, we have recommendations from artists in Israel. For more information and items go to hadassahmagazine.org.

HAPPY CHALLAH-DAYS

HENRIETTA AND GOLDA ON YOUR DESK

From fighting the British to building the medical infrastructure of Israel, these six pioneering women helped create the modern state (individual figures from $21; set from $102; piece-of-history.com).

LOX, BLINTZES AND CHICKEN SOUP

Help kids or grandkids search for their favorite Jewish eats with The Jewish Foods Memory Game, which features 40 colorful food cards with names in Hebrew and English (from $17.95; amazon.com).

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Over the past year, challah has evolved beyond its ritual role to encompass self-care—and guilty carb pleasure. Now you can bake loaves with The Challah Box’s kit (right, from $45; thechallahbox.com); cover them with an artful Shabbat cloth (top left, from $70; studioarmadillo.com); or wear them in cute earrings (from $28; unkoshermarket.com).

FOR THE BIRDS

The painted metal, limited-edition menorah by Russian-born Israeli Marina Zlochin adds whimsy to candlelighting and is just one of the joyful designs available from the artist (from $245; joyart-gallery.co.il).

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BY AND FOR STRONG WOMEN

The Strength bracelet (left, center bracelet) was created by Freida Rothman to commemorate her grandmothers, both Holocaust survivors; the limited-edition Strength pendant honors those impacted by breast cancer (bracelet from $395; pendant from $275; freidarothman.com).

GET A PIECE OF US

The 500-piece puzzle is not just a celebration of Zionist women, it also helps support the magazine. Receive or gift the puzzle, created from one of our classic covers, with a donation of $180 to the Hadassah Magazine Circle (hadassahmagazine.org/make-a-gift).

OPEN SESAME

Enjoy a rich and flaky organic halvah gift pack from Seed + Mill. The trio of available flavors—sea salt and dark chocolate, pistachio (above) and toasted coconut chocolate— are the company’s best sellers (from $48; seedandmill.com).

SPIN, RAWHIDE!

Proof that dreidels can be made out of almost anything and still turn, Jaffabased JUDATLV’s spinners come as a leather circle that is folded into a brass handle to create the dreidel (from $50 each; shop.thejewishmuseum.org).

CLEAN CUT

Contemporary, stylish and intricate, the laser-cut brass menorah created by Tel Avivbased design house Studio Armadillo also comes with glass cups for oil (from $219; studioarmadillo.com).

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

CHARMING

A fresh take on Jewish pendant designs, the chai, pomegranate and hamsa charms are inspired by the rounded forms of Op art and come in gold-plated or silver-plated brass (from $75 each; studioarmadillo.com).

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85+ VEGGIE-FORWARD RECIPES FOR RELAXED, FLEXIBLE COOKING

From the New York Times bestselling author and his superteam of chefs, this is Ottolenghi, unplugged

Available wherever books are sold

CROSSWORD

A Widow Warrior Whose Name Means 'Jewish'

Answers on page 60

A Widow Warrior Whose Name Means ‘Jewish’

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BOOKS

The Joy and Solace of Good Stories An alligator chef, a horse that delivers challah and Henrietta Szold | By Sarah Yahr Tucker

ILLUSTRATION BY MENAHEM HALBERSTADT/COURTESY OF KALANIOT BOOKS (TOP)

A

fter long months of navigating Covid-19, many parents and grandparents are wondering, “Are the kids all right?”

As we cope with ongoing precautions and stress, how are children handling the new normal? It’s reassuring to know that a powerful source of comfort—even in a pandemic—is a good story. And there is nothing like the joy of great picture books.

Their colorful pages encourage children to share emotions and experiences. Their simple narratives explain complex issues, calm fears, offer guidance and, of course, bring magical worlds to life. Especially as we look to Hanukkah, it’s hard to worry too much with an alligator chef frying up latkes, a klezmer band grooving across the page and a beloved auntie filling borekas with “potatoes and cheese and hope.”

Among the newly published titles this year for children aged 8 and younger are some outstanding stories about Jewish music and traditions, history—including a picture book on Henrietta Szold—and culture that remind us to focus on courage and kindness during tough times.

Soosie, The Horse That Saved Shabbat

By Tami Lehman-Wilzig. Illustrated by Menahem Halberstadt (Kalaniot Books) Inspired by the history of Israel’s famed Angel Bakery, this heartwarming story will make readers long for freshly baked challah. In a multicultural Jerusalem of the early 20th century, two elderly bakers braid dough before dawn every Friday.

‘Soosie, The Horse That Saved Shabbat’

Their delivery boy travels the cobblestoned streets selling the bread, and their devoted horse, Soosie, pulls the cart.

One week, when the Friday morning routine is disrupted, it is up to Soosie to make sure the families of Jerusalem get their Shabbat loaves on time. With the lyrical repetition of LehmanWilzig’s text and Halberstadt’s vivid, expressive artwork, this simple tale carries deeper messages about honoring everyday heroes, caring for the community and the Jewish value of kindness to animals.

Klezmer!

Written and illustrated by Kyra Teis (Kar-Ben) More abstract rhapsody than narrative, Klezmer! follows a child visiting her grandparents’ apartment on New

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

York City’s Lower East Side. There, she finds an eclectic group of musicians, and the visit soon becomes a klezmer jam session with the child joining in on clarinet. Along the way, we learn about the evolution of klezmer from its immigrant roots to its modern revival. The rhythmic text is loosely poetic, but it contains some delightful rhymes, including: “Klezmer’s oldish, and newish, like jazz, but it’s Jewish.” Teis’s collage illustrations bring the music alive on the pages, blending vibrant paintings with historical photography. The result is a celebration of klezmer as inclusive and multicultural, connected with food and family and inspiring a new era of musicians.

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In Brown’s debut picture book, a dedicated young dancer must skip her ballet recital for her cousin’s wedding. “It’s so unfair!” according to the feisty Sarah, who ends up finding unexpected beauty and grace at the Jewish ceremony. While not quite ballet, the cantor’s song and the circles of the bride are as elegant as a dance. And then, of course, there is the hora. Drawn into the infectious rhythm of “Hava Nagila,” Sarah finds herself part of a dance performance after all, connecting with tradition and making it her own. Brown’s portrayal of Sarah will ring true for many young children, and Wegman’s joyful illustrations express the movements of the hora with lively energy.

Wegman also depicts a diverse wedding with guests of different ages, ethnicities and physical abilities.

Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey

By Ruth Behar Illustrated by Devon Holzwarth (Knopf) Languages, cultures and generations meet in this poignant story about a Sephardi family from Cuba. Long ago, Tía Fortuna left her home in Havana

‘Sarah’s Solo’

with only a suitcase and a mezuzah.

Now, she is saying goodbye again, this time to her house by the sea in Miami and taking the same treasured items to an assisted living community. Her young niece Estrella spends the day with her, playing on the beach, eating borekas and learning about the history of a people “who found hope wherever they went.” As Tía Fortuna welcomes a new chapter in her life, Estrella understands that home can be anywhere as long as it includes family, tradition and joy.

Behar’s lyrical text is rich with Spanish phrases and Sephardi expressions that draw the reader into Estrella’s world. Holzwarth’s illustrations are beautifully immersive with warm tropical colors that give shape to the swirling memories.

mixtures—all of which turn into a soggy mess. Luckily, he discovers the secret to gourmet latke success and, with the help of his animal friends, pulls off a delicious Hanukkah miracle. Waldman’s clever rhymes will have kids giggling as they convey a gentle message about reimagining cherished traditions while preserving their strengths.

Whitehouse’s adorable neighborhood of animals—from moose to mice— complement the playful text. At the end, Big Larry’s unique recipe is revealed for young cooks to try at home.

Larry’s Latkes

By Jenna Waldman. Illustrated by Ben Whitehouse (Apples & Honey Press) This funny story will inspire some tinkering with the family latke recipe.

Alligator chef Big Larry serves up fried perfection at his latke truck every year. But for his 10th annual Hanukkah party, he decides to shake up Grandma Golda Gator’s triedand-true recipe. Scouring the farmer’s market, he finds exciting new ingredients and whips up distinct culinary

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

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ONE BOOK, ONE HADASSAH Join us Thursday, December 9, at 7 p.m. ET, as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein interviews critically acclaimed author Francine Prose about her latest novel, The Vixen. A penetrative and humorous look at the McCarthy era and the Jewish struggle for acceptance in post-World War II America, Prose’s novel follows the tribulations of a recent Harvard graduate as he navigates loyalty to his middle-class family and Jewish values, his conscience and his own ambitions in the glittering New York City publishing world. This event is free and open to all. Register at events. hadassah.org/onebookthevixen.

ILLUSTRATION BY PAULA WEGMAN/COURTESY OF KALANIOT BOOKS (TOP, CENTER)

Sarah’s Solo

By Tracy Brown. Illustrated by Paula Wegman (Kalaniot Books)

BOOKS

conversation leaves Washington with a renewed sense of faith in the cause of independence. Krensky’s text feels steeped in history, and Harlin’s beautiful watercolor paintings bring the scenes to life with warm colors and vivid detail. An author’s note discusses the factual basis for the story. This interesting perspective on the Hanukkah story is best for older children.

Henrietta Szold teaches at a school for new immigrants, from ‘A Queen to the Rescue’

ILLUSTRATION BY YEVGENIA NAYBERG/COURTESY OF CRESTON BOOKS (TOP)

A Queen to the Rescue: The Story of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah

By Nancy Churnin. Illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg (Creston Books) The first picture book biography of Hadassah’s founder, A Queen to the Rescue presents Henrietta Szold’s extraordinary life of service. Beginning with her early years in Baltimore after the Civil War, we learn about Szold’s efforts to help educate immigrants, her work as the first editor of the Jewish Publication Society and her founding of Hadassah as a women’s Zionist organization. Inspired by the courage of Queen Esther, Szold defied the limited roles for women of her time.

The book shows how she moved to Palestine to fight poverty and disease, and later in her life, rescued thousands of Jewish children during World War II. Her legacy of hope and compassion continue in Hadassah’s work today.

Churnin’s well-researched text is aimed at older children and features frank discussions of anti-immigrant attitudes and the violence of the Holocaust. Nayberg’s distinctive artwork hauntingly expresses the enormity of

Szold’s mission and her determination to help all people in need.

Hanukkah at Valley Forge

By Stephen Krensky. Illustrated by Greg Harlin (Apples & Honey Press) Prolific children’s author Stephen Krensky is out with a brand-new edition of Hanukkah at Valley Forge, which depicts a fictional encounter between George Washington and a Jewish soldier during the American Revolution. Fifteen years after its original publication, Krensky’s story still feels distinctly relevant. On a December night, General Washington walks through the freezing camp of his Continental Army and notices a soldier lighting a Hanukkah candle.

He questions the young Polish immigrant and learns the story of the Maccabees’ struggle for freedom against the Greeks, drawing connections with the Americans’ fight against another powerful oppressor. The

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

L

ooking for more inspiration? Several other picture books about remarkable Jewish women have been published this year, including Dear Mr. Dickens

by Nancy Churnin, illustrated by Bethany Stancliffe (Albert Whitman), about the woman who confronted the famed author over antisemitism in his books, and Hannah G. Solomon Dared to Make a Difference by Bonnie Lindauer, illustrated by Sofia Moore (KarBen), about the social reformer and founder of the National Council of Jewish Women. Another notable title is the highly anticipated Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long (Viking), which includes Jewish representation in its uplifting call for children to “be the change they want to see.”

Sarah Yahr Tucker is a freelance writer and journalist based in Los Angeles.

For more reviews and our roundup of young adult books, go to hadassahmagazine.org/books.

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RBG’S BRAVE & BRILLIANT WOMEN: 33 JEWISH WOMEN TO INSPIRE EVERYONE

No charitable gift has a greater impact on the lives of Israelis.

By Nadine Epstein Illustrated by Bee Johnson (Delacorte Press) In 2019, Moment magazine editor Nadine Epstein sat down with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to discuss the importance of Jewish role models. The two came up with a list of 150 women “with indomitable energy who moved the world forward,” writes Epstein.

Narrowing that list to 33 for this collection of short biographies aimed at young adults—and indeed all people—was an unenviable task. But the two managed to curate a list that includes trailblazers from the Bible through the 20th century, evocatively illustrated with colorful portraits by award-winning illustrator Bee Johnson.

Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold is among the highlighted women. As the justice, who passed away in September 2020, notes in a forward, Szold was one of her role models whose “humanity and bravery touched me deeply.” There are other familiar names and faces, among them poet Emma Lazarus; the first ordained female rabbi, Regina Jonas; and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.

All the stories and accomplishments are described in accessible prose. Among the less well-known women are pioneering feminist Ernestine Rose and Emmy Noether, a German math genius who developed the field of abstract algebra. A coda to each section includes a discussion of how these women are viewed today.

“The world needs more brave and inspirational people,” Ginsburg wrote to readers young and old. “You can be one of them.” —Leah Finkelshteyn

There are many ways to support Israel and its people, but none is more transformative than a gift to Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service. Your gift to MDA isn’t just changing lives — it’s literally saving them — providing critical care and hospital transport for everyone from victims of heart attacks to casualties of rocket attacks.

Save a life through a gift to Magen David Adom today. Support MDA by visiting AFMDA.org/give or calling 866.632.2763.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

afmda.org

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BOOKS

FICTION

Hope and Empathy Telling both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

By Dina Kraft

A

s a journalist, i am drawn to stories that delve into dual narratives and the impact that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has on ordinary lives (something I was fortunate to explore as host of Hadassah’s The Branch podcast).

But these themes are not readily found in literature.

Two first-time novelists have taken on this mission, albeit with very different approaches, in their recently published books: City of a Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks (Harper) and Hope Valley (Bedazzled Ink) by Haviva Ner-David.

Ner-David, an American-born rabbi who lives with her family on a kibbutz in the Galilee, draws her inspiration from discussions in the Jewish-Palestinian dialogue groups she’s attended over the years.

In Hope Valley, she describes the intersecting stories of two Galilean women, both 51, both artists living with illness and navigating familial and collective trauma. Tikvah, who

has multiple sclerosis, is a Jewish Israeli who resides on moshav Sapir; Rabia, also known as Ruby, is an Israeli Palestinian whose work is known worldwide. She has returned to Israel and her childhood village after years abroad to be treated for cancer. The two meet by chance in 2000 on the eve of the Second Intifada, in the valley between their respective homes.

Tikvah, whose name means hope, is the child of Holocaust survivors.

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She grew up in New York and made aliyah immediately after high school.

Despite having lived in Israel for decades, she is unaware of Palestinian history, including that the 1948 War of Independence and its aftereffects are known as the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” by Palestinians who mourn the war as the beginning of their own exile and displacement.

Ruby teaches her new friend that her moshav was built on what was once an Arab village, demolished after the 1948 war, and that the valley where the two meet has a name.

“Maybe not an official one, on your people’s maps, but all of the Arab villagers around here know it,” Ruby tells Tikvah.

“Hope Valley. Marjat Amal.

And my village up on the hill across from your moshav, Bir al-Demue—that is on your maps so I assume you know what that means.” (Tikvah doesn’t.)

“Well, it means Well of Tears.

There’s an historic well in the village where women would come to cry, their tears mixing with the water in the well. Hopes and tears. Appropriate, considering the history of the area.”

Curiosity and growing discomfort with her own lack of knowledge awakens Tikvah’s interest in the history and present-day experiences of her Arab neighbors. Ruby, meanwhile, initially resentful of all Jewish Israelis and on a mission to recover her late father’s 1948-era diary, which was

hidden in a stone wall in Tikvah’s home, undergoes her own evolution through her connection to Tikvah.

Coincidences and intersecting storylines multiply at a dizzying pace as the book hurtles toward an ending that reinforces how much the two women ultimately have in common, while not underplaying the power dynamics at play.

In City of a Thousand Gates, Sacks explores the impact of power dynamics on intersecting lives by telling the intricacies of the Israeli-Palestinian story through a sweeping ensemble cast of characters.

There are Jewish settler families; American Jews of various political and religious stripes who now live in Israel; Palestinian academics,

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business owners and workers living in East Jerusalem or the West Bank; Israeli and Palestinian soccer players, soldiers and students.

Checkpoints, too, are almost a character themselves in the novel, places experienced differently by the

young Israeli soldiers guarding them and the Palestinians trying to pass through to get to work and studies.

Palestinian characters like Hamid, a university student who sneaks into Tel Aviv to work illegally for an Israeli air conditioning installer in

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order to pay his tuition, or Samar, a professor at Bethlehem University, are the ones whose time is lost waiting in long lines.

They fear spooking the nervous troops even as those soldiers—like Ori, a blue-eyed combat soldier struggling with his religious beliefs—are also on edge, wondering what dangers might lurk among the Palestinians they confront every day.

These myriad characters each have their own take on tragic incidents, such as a pair of terror attacks that claim the lives of two 14-year-olds—one a Jewish girl stabbed in her bed in a West Bank settlement, the other a Palestinian boy jumped outside a mall by a mob of Jewish teenagers bent on revenge. These tragedies are borrowed from real-life events of the summer of 2014. In June of that year, three Jewish teenage boys— Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach—were abducted and murdered by a Hamas cell in the West Bank. In early July, 14-yearold Mohammed Abu Khdeir was beaten and burned to death by Jewish extremists. The violence was among the events that led to Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.

Sacks is a gifted writer who does an excellent job of keeping the tension alive. Like the Israeli-Palestinian reality, the plot gives the characters something to share: dread of when the next incident will happen and the uncertainty of its aftermath.

Hope Valley and City of a Thou-

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sand Gates shine brightest in their humanizing of Jews and Palestinians.

The novels capture the vast divide between these two groups—a tragedy in itself—despite their close physical proximity.

Both writers get credit for taking on richly researched dual and multiple narratives in a conflict mired in the admonition to “take a side.” They challenge readers to go inside the minds and hearts of all the characters as they process trauma, flashes of insight and, sometimes, even hope.

Dina Kraft is The Christian Science Monitor’s Israel correspondent and co-host of Groundwork, a new podcast about Israeli and Palestinian peace and social justice activism.

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Fanny & Gabriel By Nava Semel. Translated

by Gilah Kahn-Hoffmann (Gefen Publishing)

“Should we call this a love story?”

With that question, acclaimed Israeli author Nava Semel begins her final novel, the alluring historical saga Fanny & Gabriel.

Your answer will be a Rorschach test of your own romantic sensibilities. For me, the novel’s bittersweet flavor has the taste of truth. And knowing that Semel wove this fully

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imagined novel from the troubled lives of her own grandparents makes her tale all the more bewitching.

As Semel tells it, from betrothal to death, the bond that tied Fanny and Gabriel together remained as stubborn as it was elusive. It endured, however frayed, through marriage, divorce and remarriage 40 years after they first wed, despite Gabriel’s countless abandonments and betrayals along the way. How and why their link never gave way entirely is the mystery Semel attempts to unlock.

That motive suffuses the book with empathy, irony and honesty.

Her propulsive pacing carries us forward from the now-lost Jewish communities of Bukovina, Romania,

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to the ravages of World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the creation of the State of Israel and beyond. Throughout, Semel uses authorial asides to comment on and grapple with Fanny’s steadfast faithfulness to an unfaithful man. Even in Gabriel’s absence, Fanny “held on to him, as though she had swallowed him up,” Semel writes. “She was here and he was there, by choice, and not due to the vicissitudes of fate. And yet they were fettered to one another until someone cut the cord.” But there is strength and dignity in Fanny’s stubborn refusal to abandon Gabriel, and Semel portrays her not as a martyr but as a heroine.

Some of the book’s most powerful scenes depict Gabriel’s terror

in the trenches of World War I— he is conscripted into the army shortly after Fanny and he become engaged—and the shell shock that remains with him for the rest of his life. Perhaps that experience first leads him to become a serial abandoner, using his charms to seduce and then leave one woman after another in whatever country he lands. This is true especially after he settles in New York City in the early 1920s, abandoning Fanny and their son, Yitzhak, and makes a fortune on Wall Street. It is tough to take a shine to a character who could pay so little attention to the fact that his wife and son (based on Semel’s father, the late Israeli politician and Knesset member Yitzhak Artzi)

remained trapped in Hitler’s Europe.

I can only say it is part of the enchantment of Semel’s writing that she finds a way to confer on him a measure of understanding.

My appreciation of Fanny & Gabriel is only dampened by the fact that Semel’s early death in 2017 at the age of 63 means there won’t be more books to follow. The novel was written shortly before she passed away and has only recently been translated into English. One of Israel’s most popular, prolific and influential writers, she was among the first to explicitly address the enduring presence and impact of the Holocaust on the psyches of both the survivors and their children in over 20 books.

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Semel does not shy away from discussing the Holocaust in this book, either, in scenes describing the enduring grief of a character who mourns for her first husband and daughter, both murdered in the Holocaust. The book’s true joy resides in the lives of Fanny and Gabriel’s children and grandchildren as well as in Semel’s children, whom she periodically references in her asides.

Fanny and Gabriel’s will to survive is their legacy, this memorable work an elegantly crafted tribute to an earlier generation.

—Diane Cole Diane Cole is the author of a memoir, After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges, and writes for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and other publications.

More Than I Love My Life

By David Grossman Translated by Jessica Cohen (Knopf) David Grossman’s latest novel, More Than I Love My Life, has been described as a story of three strong women. This is accurate.

But Grossman, one of Israel’s most acclaimed writers, uses the stories of these women as a springboard to touch on many themes: love and abandonment; memory, secrets and blame;

class warfare; Israeli kibbutz life; and the politics of postwar Yugoslavia under the iron rule of Communist leader Josip Broz Tito. Grossman packs all this into almost 300 pages of powerful prose, ably translated by Jessica Cohen, who shared the 2017 Man Booker International Prize with him for A Horse Walks Into a Bar. The novel’s main protagonist is Vera, now age 90. She arrived in Israel with her daughter, Nina, from Yugoslavia in the 1960s, after serving three years in one of Tito’s harshest political prisons on the island of Goli Otok. Nina was a teenager when Vera brought her to Israel to live on a kibbutz. It is Nina’s daughter, Gili, who narrates their stories 40 years after Vera made aliyah.

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Grossman weaves three men into his story, too. Tuvia, a widower and kibbutznik, falls for Vera and marries her. Rafael, Tuvia’s son, falls in love with Nina and fathers Gili. Then there is the mysterious Milosz, Vera’s first husband and Nina’s father, who died in Yugoslavia. Even after years of marriage to Tuvia, Vera speaks of Milosz as the “husband I loved more than my life”—the source of the novel’s title.

Rafael and Gili are both filmmakers. Citing an expedition to create a documentary as an excuse, they bring Vera and Nina back to Croatia (part of the former Yugoslavia) and the abandoned Goli Otok to learn the secrets of Vera’s past while attempting to heal family wounds. Amid the

ruins of the island prison, elderly Vera confronts questions about her past: Did she have a choice when she left 6-year-old Nina for incarceration? Why did Nina reenact that abandonment with her own child?

And will Gili leave her longtime partner because of his desire for children? Are these women capable of mothering, or have they been permanently scarred by their history of abandonment?

In the author’s acknowledgements, Grossman reveals that the character of Vera is based on his friend Eva Panić Nahir, a Yugoslavian World War II partisan and postwar political prisoner. Eva and her daughter gave him “the freedom to tell [their] story but also to imagine it and invent it

in ways it never existed.” With this permission, Grossman steps outside Israel, his usual novelistic focus, to give us a universal examination of the brutal legacies of love and war.

—Elizabeth Edelglass Elizabeth Edelglass is a fiction writer, poet and book reviewer living in Connecticut.

NONFICTION

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth

By Noa Tishby (Simon & Schuster) Israeli-born Noa Tishby is an actress with some success. She starred in a popular Israeli soap opera, Ramat Aviv Gimmel, and played Anita to critical acclaim in the Israeli National

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Theater production of West Side Story. Since moving to the United States, her biggest claim to fame so far has been selling the Israeli series In Treatment (BeTipul) to HBO, then acting as a producer on the Emmy Award-winning show. The first Israeli series to be adapted into a Hollywood production, it opened the floodgates for many more. Tishby was also involved in the recent reboot of In Treatment, which premiered in May. (She is one of the scheduled

speakers at Hadassah’s “The Power of Purpose” conference in January.

For more information about the event, see page 22, and read our Q&A with Tishby on page 68.)

But her career wasn’t what prompted her new book, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. Rather, it was ignorance—including her own.

She opens the book by recounting a story about an American actress who, after confirming that Tishby is Israeli, wondered if her parents were upset that she no longer wore a hijab.

Tishby contends that that kind of confusion about Israel and Israelis is common. Acknowledging that she herself, a secular sabra, did not know enough about her country and

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her heritage, she set about studying her own people and “found amazing stuff, like how the Jewish holidays are connected to…the moon (I mean who knew that?).”

Yes, who would know that (this reviewer asks with sarcasm)?

Fortunately, despite this inauspicious start, Tishby does a number of things really well. First, she writes an interesting history of the Holy Land going back to biblical times to show “that Jewish people are indigenous to the land of Israel.” It is history lite and lacks nuance but serves up more than enough for folks with only a passing knowledge of the area.

She’s also honest. While painting a positive overall picture of Israel, Tishby does acknowledge

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its blemishes. For one, she writes about haredi overreach and control in Israel’s political and religious life and ultra-Orthodox attempts at “centralizing Judaism and cementing one right way to be Jewish.”

Her guide also tackles the problem of inequality in Israeli society, though in a breezy style that can sometimes feel a bit flippant for the subject matter. “We’re going to discuss racism within the Jewish society, and for those of you about to get offended—go clutch some pearls, will ya.” While emphasizing that, legally, Israeli Arabs have full rights, racism is “still alive and kicking in Israel,” she writes.

Combating misinformation put out by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and its allies is another of the book’s strengths. BDS is not a new movement, she explains.

For years, the Arab League boycotted companies that did business in Israel.

I recall being able to purchase a Coke but not a Pepsi in the country back in

A N S W E R S Crossword Puzzle on page 47

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the 1980s: The Coca-Cola company ignored the call to boycott, but PepsiCo would not sell its products in Israel until the early 1990s. Tishby also notes that Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, chose not to boycott Tel Aviv University, where he earned his master’s degree and Ph.D. BDS’s stated goal of one state that would include the return of millions of Arabs supposedly forced from the land during Israel’s War of Independence could mean the end of Israel as a Jewish state. “Let me be clear,” Tishby writes. “BDS is not a movement for justice or peace. The movement doesn’t offer any solution for peace anywhere.”

Tishby makes other valid points.

Israel is a worldwide leader in innovation; it is a nation that encourages dissent; it is unfairly targeted by the international community. And there are more notable details, in fact too many to be included here. Just one reason that this is a book well worth

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the read for anyone who cares about, or needs a crash course on, the Jewish state. —Curt Schleier Curt Schleier, a freelance writer, teaches business writing to corporate executives.

Letters to Camondo

By Edmund de Waal (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) This intimate yet worldly book—a slim collection of 58 imaginary letters that the British ceramic artist Edmund de Waal wrote to a onetime real-life Jewish count, Moïse de Camondo—is an original and precious literary gem.

De Waal, known for the international best seller The Hare with Amber Eyes, about his wealthy Jewish forebears, the Ephrussis, here turns the spotlight on the Camondos, distant Sephardi relatives (and neighbors of the Ephrussis). Sweeping across centuries, Letters to Camondo is a daring effort to memorialize a once significant Jewish family of financiers and philanthropists.

To this day, the Camondo family occupies a central place in Paris.

Moïse de Camondo (1860 to 1935) bequeathed his handsomely furnished mansion to France, provided it was retained without alteration as a memorial to his son, Nissim, a pilot shot down in World War I while on a mission for France. That home is now the Musée Nissim de Camondo.

Bouncing back and forth in time, the imagined letters describe the Frenchification of the Camondos, among 10 leading wealthy Jewish fami-

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lies in the city. These families—besides the Rothschilds, there were also the Reinachs—built mansions around the Parc Monceau in a hilly area of Paris.

While the Camondos’ experience of acculturation, wealth and antisemitism is revelatory, it is the author’s description of the mansion, his artist’s eye for meaningful details, that makes the book such a rewarding read.

Moïse de Camondo, who was 9 when his family moved to France from Turkey, inherited his father’s home at 63 Rue de Monceau in 1910. He soon tore it down and built his masterpiece in the spirit of Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon at Versailles, disposing of most of the treasures his father brought from abroad, including many Jewish religious artifacts. Only a few items in the museum indicate Moïse’s Jewishness: The vast kitchens include separate sinks, for meat and dairy dishes, and there are two bound books of prayers and rituals for the High Holidays and Passover.

Camondo furnished the mansion with French creations from the reigns of Louis XV and XVI. A staff of 14 oversaw its upkeep. The Camondos belonged to every exclusive French club, entertained political leaders lavishly and patronized the arts.

LOOKING FOR MORE TO READ? See our review of All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, the new biography from acclaimed Jewish funnyman, writer and producer Mel Brooks, at hadassahmagazine.org/books.

Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation: (Act of October 23, 1962 Section 4369, Title 39, and United States Code.) Date of filing: October 2021. Title of Publication: Hadassah Magazine. Frequency of Issue: Bi-monthly. Location of Known Office of Publication: 40 Wall St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005. Location of Headquarters of General Business Offices of the Publishers: 40 Wall St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005.

Executive Editor: Lisa Hostein,: 40 Wall St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005. Owner: Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.: 40 Wall St., 8th Floor, New York, NY 10005. Known Bondholders, Mortgages and other Security Holder Owning of Holding One Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds, Mortgages or other Securities: None. Average No. of Copies of Each Issue Printed During 12 Months from September/ October 2020—July/August 2021: 233,002.

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Every Family has a Secret.

Where Madness Lies is a story of redemption and the healing power of truth.

Rigmor, a young Jewish woman, is sent to a reputed premier psychiatric institution.

But the tide of eugenics, and the Nazi’s campaign to sterilize and euthanize the mentally ill, put Rigmor in mortal danger.

“A dramatically captivating and historically edifying novel.”

—Kirkus Reviews “A powerful, heartbreaking novel.”

—Foreword Reviews

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Their Jewishness was just one part of their identity, an identity that largely focused on French patriotism.

“You become part of the street, the neighborhood, the city, the country, so perfectly, so delicately aligned,” de Waal wrote, “that you disappear.”

In his letters, de Waal describes the reactions of the antisemitic French press to the Dreyfus affair (1894 to 1906), the scandal that occurred when Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely convicted of treason. He also writes that he knows “far too much about who my cousins slept with a century ago.” At the age of 31, de Waal relates, Moïse de Camondo married 19-year-old socialite Irène Cahen d’Anvers.

The marriage produced two chil-

dren, Nissim and Béatrice, and lasted for six years, until Irène ran off with an Italian count and converted to Catholicism. Camondo won custody of the children. Béatrice went on to marry Leon Reinach, a Jewish musician from that prominent family, and had two children, Fanny and Bertrand. The two later divorced.

Sadly, their wealth and patriotism did not help the Camondos during the Nazi occupation, and the family story ends in tragedy.

De Waal describes how Béatrice, who believed her money and social standing would shield her, rode in the Bois de Boulogne every day, the Star of David armband required by the Nazis affixed to her riding costume.

In 1942, the Gestapo sent the entire

Holiday Gift Guide

family to Drancy, a concentration camp outside Paris, and later to Auschwitz, where they were all murdered. The house museum in Paris as well as accounts of the family, like de Waal’s, are all that remain of the influential Camondos.

Of related interest is an exhibition on view through May 15, 2022, at The Jewish Museum in New York City (thejewishmuseum.org). “The Hare with Amber Eyes,” based on de Waal’s earlier book, tells the story of the Ephrussi family as well as showcases the breadth and depth of their illustrious art collection.

—Stewart Kampel Stewart Kampel was a longtime editor at The New York Times.

THE ZEBRA FROM ZION

Introducing the newest Mensch Pet, the Zebra from Zion. Comes with the newest Mensch on a Bench book The Only Jew in the Jungle teaching kids about living an authentic Jewish life. https://themenschonabench.com/shop/

INSPIRATION FOR

HEROINES

The Prophetess is the story of a young woman becoming a modern-day Jewish heroine.

Available with matching journal, pen, stickers and more to empower women to grow into their gifts. For Bat Mitzvah, teens and all with a heroine inside.

Use coupon code HGG21 for 10% off all gifts at www.GrowIntoYourGifts.com.

TELL AND K’VELL: CONNECTING FAMILY AND FRIENDS THROUGH STORYTELLING

Strengthen family bonds and share Jewish values among the generations.

Enjoy lively conversations exploring questions about family history, traditions, music, sports and more! No right or wrong answers. For all backgrounds and ages. Especially meaningful in interfaith and intergenerational families.

Order from www.tellandkvell.net.

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For the one who carries their passions with them!

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NONFICTION 1. People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present

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by Steve Leder (Avery) 3. Play Nice But Win: A CEO’s Journey from Founder to Leader

by Michael Dell, James Kaplan (Portfolio)

HADASSAH’S PERPETUAL YAHRZEIT PROGRAM ENSURES THAT KADDISH WILL BE RECITED IN JERUSALEM FOR YOUR LOVED ONES. EVERY YEAR. FOREVER. PERPETUAL YAHRZEIT Kaddish will be recited annually for your loved one in perpetuity in the Fannie and Maxwell Abbell Synagogue at Hadassah Medical Center beneath Marc Chagall’s iconic stained glass windows.

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ENHANCED PERPETUAL YAHRZEIT Kaddish will be recited for your loved one daily for 11 months after burial, after which Kaddish will be recited annually.

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5. The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix

by Howard Markel (Norton)

HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC.

Courtesy of MyJewishBooks.com

The solicitation disclosure on page 54 is incorporated in this advertisement.

©2021 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc., Hadassah, the H logo, and Hadassah the Power of Women Who Do are registered trademarks of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

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Guide to Jewish Literature Order these books directly through the Hadassah Magazine website!

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under The iron BridGe

mY isrAel And me

Alice McGinty, illustrated by Rotem Teplow

Kathy Kacer

Dusseldorf, Germany, 1938: Paul is being pressured to join the Hitler Youth when he meets the Edelweiss Pirates, a group of teenagers working to undermine the growing power of the Nazis.

During the terrifying violence of Kristallnacht, Paul must step out of the shadows and make a lifechanging decision. A new novel from acclaimed author Kathy Kacer, based on true history.

Paperback, 216 pp., $13.95. Available now at www. secondstorypress.ca or from your favorite bookstore.

The pAris phoTo Jane S. Gabin

This historical novel, praised by Kirkus Reviews and many readers, is based upon the exploits of the author’s father, aiding a Jewish family, in WWII Paris. But much of the story - including the very existence of the French mother and her child - were hidden. What was the mystery? The fear-haunted days of the Occupation, the joy of Liberation, and the unanswered questions in the Jewish community reverberate throughout this story. Follow Sgt. Ben Gordon as he strives to bring joy, and follow the discoveries of his daughter decades later.

http://www.theparisphoto.com. Available in softcover or e-book at Amazon or from your favorite bookseller.

A Queen To The resCue

Told in verse, this beautiful children’s book introduces readers to the diversity of Israel’s people. Text sheds light on the varied cultures and traditions that have special connections to Israel. Written by awardwinning author, Alice Blumenthal McGinty, and noted Israeli illustrator, Rotem Teplow, this book arrives at a critical time for parents and educators to begin thoughtful conversations about the complicated feelings surrounding modern-day Israel.

Hardcover edition available online at Amazon or Bookshop.org, and in stores. Order through JKBAC.com with coupon code ISRAEL for free shipping and a pocketsized passport activity.

disCoverinG Twins: no seCreT is sAfe forever

Stella ter Hart

Holland, 1944. Young Sophia carries secrets, covering them with lies.

She doesn’t mean to, or want to. They are forced upon her. Terrified her lies will be discovered, she buries them deep within, separating them by decades, countries and continents. Canada, 2015. With Alzheimer’s overtaking her, Sophia’s secrets resurface with a vengeance. Prepare to face the gripping, heartwrenching realities of WWII from a difference perspective.

Available at Barnes and Noble.

messiAh of sepTimAniA

Nancy Churnin

Henrietta Szold provides a model for social justice and how to work for it, no matter the obstacles.

The determination and spirit of Hadassah’s heroic founder continue to inspire women all over the world. Recipient of a Kirkus starred review: “A powerful introduction to a little known, very brave woman.” A great way to build children’s excitement about Hadassah’s mission to heal the world.

Available at your local bookseller or through Lerner Publishing Group, 800 328-4929, custserve@lernerbooks. com. For free teacher guides, resources and projects for kids, or to book the author, go to nancychurnin.com.

Leon Levin

This is the true, virtually unknown, story of an independent 150-year-old medieval Jewish kingdom in southern France called Septimania. Its first king, amazingly, became Charlemagne’s uncle. His people hailed him, with excellent reason, as the long-tarried Messiah. The quest for the long-lost Holy Menorah is a vital part of the story. “The novel…will keep the reader entranced.”—Alan Caruba, National Book Critics Circle. Amazon Review 4+ stars.

Available on Amazon.

hAnnAh Gould

Thomas F. Linehan, Jr In 1942 war-torn Poland, a Jewish family is murdered by the Nazis and Ukrainians, but fifteen-year-old Hannah Gould miraculously escapes.

Alone and desperate, Hannah ultimately makes her way to a group of Jewish and Russian partisans between Poland and Russia. She is transformed from an innocent, sheltered Jewish girl from Warsaw to a cold killer in the forests of Belorussia.

Available in soft-cover and e-book at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or through bookstores. Signed copies available direct from author. www.timlinehanbooks.com.

onCe upon A Time in frAnCe

Fabien Nury, illustrated by Sylvain Vallée and translated by Ivanka Hahnenberger

Winner of Angoulême Award for Best Series.

Over one million copies sold internationally.

“Nury’s story is gripping, brutal, and morally complex, dramatizing the fleeting nature of power. Thrilling, haunting, superb.” —Kirkus Reviews (Starred). “Based on true events, this is an absolutely riveting thriller that asks difficult questions about good and evil and whether actions taken in the heat of battle can be fairly adjudicated in peacetime.” —Library Journal, (Starred) and Editor’s Pick. “A fascinating hybrid of war history, biography, and true crime.”

—Shelf Awareness.

Pub: October 2019|368 pp. 10x 8 in. Fully illustrated.

Publisher: Dead Reckoning, an imprint of Naval Institute Press, 978-1-68247-471-6 Paperback with flaps, $29.95.

reCipe for disAsTer

Aimee Lucido With a delicious mix of prose, poetry, and recipes, this hybrid novel is another fresh, thoughtful, and accessible novel that is cookin’. - New York Times Best-Selling Author Kwame Alexander. In this heartfelt middle school drama, Hannah’s schemes for throwing her own bat mitzvah unleash family secrets, create rivalries with best friends, and ultimately teach Hannah what being Jewish is all about.

Available wherever books are sold.

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one niGhT wiTh liliTh Martin Golan

When their marriage – and their Victorian home – go up in flames, a couple must face the charred remains of both. But did the fire rob them of their past or free them from it? The novel draws on the biblical tale of Lilith, Adam’s first wife, who is portrayed as a woman of fierce independence and unbridled sexuality. The protagonist sees his wife as his “Lilith” – until he unearths the tragic roots of her fervor. A love story like no other.

“With prose that is insightful and slightly mystical, Golan questions the impossibility of happiness.”

– Kirkus Reviews.

Available in softcover or e-book on Amazon, barnesandnoble.com or through bookstores. More about the novel and author at martingolan.com.

how To find whAT You’re noT lookinG for Veera Hiranandani

An empowering historical fiction novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of The Night Diary.

When her family’s Jewish bakery runs into financial trouble and her sister elopes with a man from India following the 1967 Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision, twelve-year-old Ariel feels like change is the only constant in her life. So, she’s left to hone something that will always be—her voice.

$17.99. Available at prh.com.

riskY Business J.T. Palace

Jason Kirby landed a dream job at an auto parts manufacturer.

Soon he suspects some of his colleagues are white collar criminals.

The mild mannered accountant is forced into a role he never thought he’d play: hero. Some forensic accounting turns life-threatening as he finds corporate corruption and international espionage. The conspiracy goes deeper than he imagined. With each new piece of the puzzle, Kirby faces different enemies, from coworkers to Russian oligarchs to upper levels of government.

Can he survive long enough to uncover the truth, or will he end up a casualty of the riskiest kind of business?

Print and e-book available on Amazon, and on all platforms where Draft2Digital distributes.

AlmA presses plAY Tina Cane

A lyrical coming-of-age novel for ages 12 and up.

Get the perfect present for teens this holiday! Alma’s life is a series of halves: she’s half Jewish, half Chinese, and halfway through becoming a woman. In this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, is Alma ready to press play on the soundtrack of her life?

Hardcover, 336 pages. US $17.99/ CAN $23.99. Available wherever books are sold.

wiTh And wiThouT her: A memoir of loss Beth Simon Rosenschein

Life is peaceful for a middle-class Jewish family in Minnesota in the 1970s.

Then the young mother suffers a devastating stroke, and nothing is as it was. Her eldest daughter must find a way to grow up as best she can. This memoir tells the story of a family’s struggle through physical and mental illness, loss, and shattered expectations towards endurance and healing.

Available on Amazon in paperback and e-book formats.

BuBBie’s mAGiCAl hAir

Abbe Rolnick, illustrated by Lynda Porter

A visual delight of adventure, change, and a word united by love. “Ribbons, stars, and dandelion dust spread magic.” Mesmerizing words and illustrations surprise with twists and twirls as you are happily carried off by your imagination on the locks of Bubbie’s hair: “Look for her in the mirror, in the pocket of your coat, and when you look both ways crossing the street.”

Available from Bookshop.org.

mY ArT, mY world

Rita Winkler, with Mark Winkler and Helen Winkler

Rita Winkler, a young woman with Down syndrome, shows us the world as she sees it through her art: a place full of joy and color.

Whether she’s working at a coffee shop, visiting her uncle in New York City, or in a folk dancing lesson, Rita’s voice and creativity shine through.

Hardcover, 36 pp., $19.95. Available now at www. secondstorypress.ca or from your favorite bookstore.

shATTered fAiTh: The life of ABrAhAm Dr. Larry S. Milner

Milner takes us to the closing period in Abraham’s life after the Akedah, when told by YHWH to prepare to sacrifice Isaac. It was after this event that Abraham, amazingly, lost faith.

After the Akedah, when it was not Isaac who died, but Sarah, Abraham did the unexpected; he married a pagan. Milner presents Abraham’s story in the format of a play, through dialogue. Ideal for teachers and group leaders, this story can easily be presented in a live format for all ages.

ISBN 978-1946124-883, 148 pages. Available on Amazon.

shATTered TrusT: The deATh of moses Dr. Larry S. Milner

Milner analyzes when Moses punished the Israelites with a death penalty, not God-approved, that this prohibited him from entering Israel and how this punishment was consistent with the principles of Divine Justice found in the Torah. Then Milner examines when Moses strikes, rather than speaking to the rock at Meribah, the event thought to be the reason Moses couldn’t enter the Land. He presents the view that this reason was a late addition to the Torah, intended to rehabilitate the reputation of Moses.

ISBN 978-1946124-869, 774 pages. Available on Amazon.

The seCreT AdvenTures of mollY ABrAmowiTZ

M. Marmer Verhoeff

Molly’s marriage is boring. She blames her self-absorbed husband Seth for the rift in their relationship. During a three-week period of separation, Molly decides to ignore her conservative Jewish lifestyle and experience romantic adventure. Drug addicted Bo-D, corporate lawyer Julian Delonge, and orthodox widower Avram Hirsch are her men of choice.

With the help of Molly’s new friend, Ms. MavisBeulah Brown, Molly comes to realize that fulfillment is best found in her marriage and in a way she never imagined. Visit mmarmerverhoeff. com to read about other Verhoeff novels.

Available on Amazon/Amazon Kindle.

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The AdvenTures of YAdel The dreidel: Book one: The rise of The ZeAloTs

do noT disClose: A memoir of fAmilY seCreTs losT And found

Andy Lazris

Filled with humor, adventure, colorful characters, and a deep sense of history, Yadel’s story is a saga of a people who not only survive but who thrive in a hostile and ever-changing world. “Andy Lazris beautifully recounts Jewish history in an engaging, humorous manner through his novel” -Seattle Book Review.

Leora Krygier

A mysterious file and a stranger’s World War II postcard propels a secondgeneration Holocaust survivor on a haunting journey of betrayal and redemption, giving her the courage to confront her own family’s buried secret. “A captivating story, smartly recounted,” Kirkus Starred Review.

Available on Amazon.

Available on Amazon.

BuBBie’s BABY: 15Th AnniversArY ediTion

JudAism And ChrisTiAniTY: A ConTrAsT

Rabbi Stuart Federow

Christian missionaries calling themselves messianic “Jews,” Jews ingratiating themselves to Evangelical Christians for their support of Israel, the overuse of the term “Judeo-Christian,” and the increasing use of Jewish rituals in Christian churches are among the factors that blur the lines between Judaism and Christianity. Judaism and Christianity: A Contrast explains, from a Jewish perspective, the irreconcilable differences and mutually exclusive beliefs of the two faiths. Now available in Spanish, as Judaismo y Cristianismo: Un Contraste.

Elaine Serling

A musical story celebrating and honoring the special relationship between grandparents and a grandchild. This new re-designed hardcover edition features fresh lyrics, a toe-tapping memorable melody and colorful illustrations that mirror moments of joy this special bond brings. Use the digital download code printed inside the book to download the song. Reading, listening and singing together, will create memories that will last a lifetime!

Available from www.elaineserling.com. 800-457-2157; $19.95 + $3 shipping.

shloYml BoYl And his luCkY dreYdl

Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in hardcover, paperback and in all e-book formats.

how To mAke A life

Florence Reiss Kraut

An award-winning and riveting historical novel of four generations of an immigrant family. When matriarch Ida escapes a pogrom in Ukraine determined to save her family, she cannot foresee the struggles of her descendants. Through war, mental illness, secrets and betrayal, each generation’s actions impact the lives of the next, as love and loyalty are tested by secrets and betrayal.

You will recognize these family members and grieve and rejoice with them. Readers cannot put the book down. Gift it for the holidays. Pick it for your book club and author will Zoom with you for a lively conversation.

Available in paperback and e-book on Amazon, or wherever you buy books on author website www.florencereisskraut.com

Yale Strom

The klezmer musician, Shloyml from Buhusi, embarks on a journey to buy olive oil from the Holy Land - the one thing needed for the community’s yearly latke contest. Will Shloyml bring the oil back home in time, or will he be stopped by the devious Nebish brothers? Will it come down to a game of dreydl? The book is in English and Yiddish.

Available on Etsy.

The Curious spell of mAdAm GenovA

ConspirACY u: A CAse sTudY Scott A. Shay

Take a deep-dive into the world of anti-Zionist conspiracy theories and how they are spread in academia. Learn the difference between a theory and a conspiracy theory in Shay’s third book, Conspiracy U: A Case Study. Dr. Erica Brown at the Mayberg Center calls it “a well-researched and compelling book.” Unpack anti-Zionist conspiracy theories that embed themselves in our schools, media, and in normal discourse.

Hardcover, 304 pages. To purchase go to www.scottshay.com.

nAmes in A JAr Jennifer Gold

In this riveting story from award-winning author Jennifer Gold, two sisters must summon all their courage to make it back to each other. When twelve-year-old Anna Krawitz escapes the Warsaw Ghetto with an orphaned baby, her older sister Lina is taken to the infamous Treblinka Camp. Surrounded by devastation, can the two sisters survive and find one another again?

Paperback, 336 pp., $14.95. Available now at www. secondstorypress.ca or from your favorite bookstore.

wiTh GreAT power: The mArvelous sTAn lee

Annie Hunter Eriksen and Lee Gatlin

Stan Lee didn’t have hulking strength.

Or fantastic flexibility. Or cat-like reflexes.

His superpower was creating heroes who did!

He asked: what if anyone—even an ordinary kid—could be a superhero? Discover more about the life of Stan Lee, known to many for his appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and how he revolutionized comics.

Picture book | Hardcover | $18.99 | Page Street Kids

J.G. Schwartz

Oy Vey! A book filled with fun and mishigas!

A spell cast upon two pocket watches goes terribly awry and changes the course of history in twentieth-century America.

The lives of Charles Lindbergh, Marilyn Monroe, and John F. Kennedy, among others, become intertwined in this fascinating novel.

Available on Amazon.

To advertise here, please call Randi O’Connor at (212) 451-6221, or email roconnor@hadassah.org.

Space is limited.

ABOUT HEBREW “Andy Lazris beautifully recounts Jewish history in an engaging, humorous manner through his novel.”

-Seattle Book Review

Little by Little

Buy the book on Amazon or at www.andylazris.com

Mandrakes, water and a ‘few’ biblical phrases

By Joseph Lowin

A

1950’s song says, little things mean a lot. and this includes the many Hebrew words that describe littleness. Among the 8,674 biblical Hebrew root words in lexicographer James Strong’s concordance of the Bible, there are no fewer than 102 Hebrew words in which the root ‫ט‬-‫ע‬-‫מ‬ (mem, ayin, tet), fewness, appears. Adopting a rabbinic dictum using that root, ‫( ָתּ ַפ ְשׂ ָתּ מוּעָ ט ָתּ ַפ ְשׂ ָתּ‬tafasta mu’at tafasta), “Take on only as much as you can handle,” this column will focus on just a few of these biblical iterations, ‫( לְ ַמ ֵעט‬le-ma’et), excluding, for example, potentially politically charged modern words like ‫יעוּטים‬ ִ ‫( ִמ‬mi’utim), minorities.

Chapter 24 of Genesis uses our root with lyrical daintiness, telling how forefather Abraham sent his servant in search of a wife suitable for his son Isaac.

The servant, encountering a bevy of young women who had come to draw water for their flocks, singles out Rebecca. Approaching her at the well, he intones, using diction worthy of romantic poetry: “Kindly let me sip ‫( ְמ ַעט ַמיִ ם‬me’at mayim), a bit of water, from your pitcher.” When she offers hydration to both the man and his 10 camels, he recognizes through her generosity that she is the woman for his master’s son.

Later, the root finds its way into a transaction between our foremothers Rachel and Leah, sisters both married to Jacob. When Rachel, who is barren, tries to steal Leah’s aphrodisiacal mandrakes, a distraught Leah begins a haranguing response, ...‫( ַה ְמ ַעט‬ha-me’at), “Was it not enough [for you to take away my husband, that you would also take my mandrake love-flowers]?”

In Exodus, Moses, fed up with the backbiting of the disgruntled Israelites he has brought out from Egypt, approaches God to ask to be relieved of his commission to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, pleading, ‫עוֹד ְמ ַעט‬ ‫( ְוּס ָקלוּנִ י‬od me’at u-sekaluni), “It’s only a little time before they stone me.”

There is ‫( ל ֺא ְמ ַעט‬lo me’at), a lot more, that ‫( לְ ִפי ִמיעוּט ַד ַע ִתּי‬lefi mi’ut da’ati), in all modesty, one might glean from the Bible’s remaining 99 uses of the root. According to a rabbinic tradition that has remained with the Jews since Talmudic times, when one coats the walls of one’s house one should, in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem, leave a ‫מוּעט‬ ָ ‫( ָד ָבר‬davar mu’at), little patch, unpainted. Let us follow a modified version of the customs of our forebears and stop here, having, perhaps, only enough space to cover a ‫ְמ ַעט ִמזְ ָער‬ (me’at miz’ar), infinitesimally small, exploration of the root.

SHUTTERSTOCK

s the

“Andy Lazris beautifully recounts “Andy Lazris beautifully recounts Jewish history in an engaging, Jewish history in an engaging, humorous manner through his novel.” humorous manner through his novel.”

-Seattle Book Review -Seattle Book Review Buy the book on Amazon or at Buy the book on Amazon or at www.andylazris.com www.andylazris.com

“Andy Lazris beautifully recounts Jewish history in an engaging, humorous manner through his novel.”

-Seattle Book Review

Joseph Lowin’s columns for Hadassah Magazine are collected in the books HebrewSpeak and HebrewTalk.

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Buy the book on Amazon or at www.andylazris.com

Our new website is just like Hadassah.

Bold, powerful and action-oriented.

SEE FOR YOURSELF.

hadassah.org Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. ©2021 Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. Hadassah, the H logo, and Hadassah the Power of Women Who Do are registered trademarks of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

QUESTION

ANSWER

Noa Tishby

This actor/producer is all about pro-Israel activism

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen

N

COURTESY OF NOA TISHBY

oa tishby became famous in israel when starring in the late-1990s soap opera Ramat Aviv Gimmel, named for the high-priced Tel Aviv suburb where the show was set. But it was for her producing, not her acting, that Tishby made a name for herself in Hollywood. She exported the hit Israeli television show In Treatment (BeTipul) to HBO, which brought it to American audiences in 2008. She still serves as a producer on the series.

Now Tishby, who lives in Los Angeles with her young son, is becoming famous as an outspoken advocate for Israel.

Her recent book, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth (see review on page 58), has led to speeches in front of influential Jewish groups. Tishby describes herself as liberal, albeit with strong positions on Israeli security and defense. She’s also active on social media, where she takes on A-list celebrities like model Bella Hadid, who has accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” to her 46 million Instagram followers and has participated in protests calling for “Palestine to be free.” Tishby is an invited featured speaker for Hadassah’s “The Power of Purpose” virtual conference on January 9 (see page 22 for information about the conference and to read more speaker profiles).

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

How effective is your Israel advocacy? How do you measure the book’s impact?

I don’t know the answer yet, that is the honest truth. The book is going into its seventh printing.

I know that it has reached people who have been converted [to a new point of view]. I’m getting a lot of mail from people telling me this.

People who were on the fence or who didn’t know anything about Israel. A 29-year-old German woman living in Berlin who read the book after it was recommended on the television show The View wrote, “I didn’t know much about Israel.

Thank you so much for making it clear.” That makes me very happy and proud.

Out of 10 people, two will never be swayed. Eight are either pro-Israel or anti-antisemitism. A lot of people are on the fence. Time will tell if it makes a difference in turning around the conversation and popular opinion.

How has writing the book changed you?

I’ve been very active in pro-Israel activism for over a decade. [In 2011, Tishby created Act for Israel, focused on combating anti-Israel social media trolls. In 2014, she co-founded Reality Israel, bringing Jewish and non-Jewish leaders from different fields to Israel.]

But it was always a side project. The minute I sat down to write the book, I realized that everything I’ve worked through and learned for 25 years was culminating in this project. It wasn’t some actress-producer doing a novelty project. It’s a very natural merger of my private passion with a public one. I don’t know yet how it will change me.

You are the rare ardent Israel proponent who will also at times publicly criticize aspects of Israeli society. Is it difficult to get that nuance across in the media?

During the war in May [between Hamas in Gaza and Israel], I was on

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Fox News, The View on ABC and Ben Shapiro’s podcast, but I was never on CNN or MSNBC. Unfortunately, left-wing and mainstream media did not want to talk to me.

The bias against Israel in mainstream media is real. I hope that changes.

Any book-related projects in the works?

A couple are in the works involving television and the book. I’m doing my best to expand the book’s reach. We [pro-Israel people] have been talking to ourselves for far too long. For now, I’m focused only on activism. I have new agents and told them, “Don’t send me to auditions.” This is it. The book and the message and everything I’m working on in terms of production. There is nothing more important to do with my life than this.

Debra Nussbaum Cohen, author of Celebrating Your New Jewish Daughter: Creating Jewish Ways to Welcome Baby Girls into the Covenant, is a journalist in New York City.

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