ALICE HOFFMAN
This stunning novel explores the little-known details of Anne Frank’s life before she went into hiding.
“We highly recommend Alice Hoffman’s novel of Anne Frank’s life.”
—Ronald Leopold, Executive Director, Anne Frank House
“[Alice Hoffman] is turning her pen toward an important historical gure like we’ve never seen her before: Anne Frank.”
—People Magazine
★ “Hoffman crafts a sympathetic three-dimensional rendering that showcases new facets of a gure whom readers may only know one side of.”
—PublishersWeekly, starred review
“Deeply moving and beautifully written.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Breaks readers’ hearts and reminds us of how important it is to remember and honor all that was lost.”
—Lois Lowry, bestselling author of Number the Stars
“Leaves readers with a poignant and heartrending picture of a young girl who is just beginning to blossom when she’s forced into hiding, a concentration camp, and, ultimately, a tragic death.”
Jewish Book Council
Sephardic Balkans: Jewish Heritage Tours
Learn about the Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities of the Balkans.
Travel with Dr. Joseph Benatov of the University of Pennsylvania
May–July 2025 & 2026
Our Jewish heritage tours:
→ Jewish Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, and Trieste (Italy)
→ Jewish Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Greece
→ Jewish Romania, Serbia, and Szeged (Hungary)
→Jewish Albania, Montenegro, and Corfu (Greece)
Explore magical Dubrovnik, Split, Salonica–“The Jerusalem of the Balkans”–Transylvania, Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade, Trieste, and Sarajevo, home of the Sarajevo Haggadah.
Custom tours for synagogues, JCCs, and private groups available upon request.
Bulgaria Gourmet: The Food & Wine Tour
Join our specialized trip for wine lovers and foodies.
Contact: sephardicbalkans.com benatov@gmail.com 267-970-1817
16 RAMPING UP—AND RETHINKING— ISRAEL EDUCATION
By Sue Fishkoff
With the ongoing war with Hamas and Hezbollah devastating Israel, and the surge in antisemitism at home, this past year was one of the most challenging that Jewish day schools in the United States have experienced, say school officials. And now, with a new academic year underway, the impact of October 7 continues to reverberate in the classroom.
22 BLAZING NEW TRAILS
By Leora Eren Frucht
Despite numerous obstacles, Bedouin women in increasing numbers are graduating from high school, pursuing higher education and entering the job market. While most choose traditional vocations like teaching and nursing, a small but growing number are becoming pioneers in fields such as medicine, the law, science, academia and, lately, the high-tech sector.
26 A MEDICAL EMERGENCY
By Hilary Danailova
Just a few years ago, politics and ethnic conflict felt far removed from the day-to-day world of medicine in the United States. That all changed last October, when Jews on medical school campuses and at hospitals and clinics say they were taken aback by an outpouring of anti-Israel schadenfreude. Instead of support, Jewish practitioners found themselves marginalized for their perceived Zionist sympathies, harassed on social media and shunned in professional forums. facebook.com/hadassahmag
DEPARTMENTS
12 COMMENTARY
Jewish unity over politics
14 ESSAY
In Israel, wrestling with Thanksgiving
34 TRAVEL
Perennially popular Barcelona
38 FOOD
The Mexican Jewish cocina
40 ARTS
• Cultu ral mas hups at The Jewish Museum
• Mark Podwal’s mosaic masterpiece
44 HANUKKAH GIFT GUIDE
46 BOOKS
• New titles for curious young readers
• Alice Hoffman on Anne Frank’s earliest years
• Antisemitism today, anthologized
Breaking News, Streaming History
Fueled by the sense of loss and the instinct to heal
By Carol Ann Schwartz
For many, the routine flow of daily life is defined by what’s in our inbox, and history is something we studied in school. But for the Jewish people, the illusion that today and yesterday belong to separate realms is harder to maintain. Over the past century we have lived history and everyday life more as a single thread, with mundane concerns constantly buffeted by existential threat and millennial achievement.
We can count the watershed moments in our sleep: exile and Holocaust; migration from despotic to free nations; aliyah and the rebirth of Israel; building a robust Jewish society and culture under constant pressure; seeing antisemitism rise, fall and rise again. And now we are witnessing Israel’s longest war, the Jewish nation’s lowest point emotionally, and yet, a nation energized and still growing.
Hadassah is embedded deeply in the Israeli heart and experience, building almost constantly since our founding. We build both when we are optimistic and when we are in pain. Today, once again we are fueled by the sense of loss and the instinct to heal.
The dynamism of the Hadassah Medical Organization is etched on the horizon. We inaugurated our hospital on Mount Scopus in 1939, lost it behind enemy lines in 1948 and regained it in 1967. Between those dates, our medical staff worked in temporary quarters in central Jerusalem until our Ein Kerem campus
opened in 1961. And since the 1990s, there has rarely been a time without construction cranes visible on the Hadassah landscape in Jerusalem.
THE DYNAMISM OF THE HADASSAH MEDICAL ORGANIZATION IS ETCHED ON THE HORIZON.
The gaza war spurred us to accelerate our timetable. In January of this year, acutely aware of the need to treat injured soldiers and civilians, we began the phased opening of our Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus several months ahead of schedule. In May, we inaugurated the first two floors of our reimagined Round Building—original anchor of the Ein Kerem campus— and by year’s end, we will open another two floors.
Given the perennial threat of war, the design of both the renovated Round Building and the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower in Ein Kerem—dedicated in 2012—feature underground operating theaters and intensive care units.
Expanding our capacity to respond to war and terrorism has long been integral to Hadassah’s planning. But
after October 7, we needed to shift into a higher gear. Maintaining progress in our institutions depends on all of us. I appeal to Hadassah’s members, friends and donors to be part of our current fundraising effort, Together We Will Heal (hadassah.org/ togetherwewillheal). And don’t forget Giving Tuesday, which falls this year on December 3.
Even as we maintain focus on our projects in Israel, we are all mindful— and alarmed—over rising antisemitism in America and around the world. Hatred of Jews is like a virus that can go into remission but is never eradicated. It has soared to new levels since the war with Hamas began. Hadassah recently completed a survey, Everyday Antisemitism: Women’s Stories, and the results will be out shortly. We’ll be sending that data to Congress and the media to help them better understand how our lives have been impacted by the surge in antisemitism. You can help spread the word, too, by sharing the results from our website or social media accounts.
When history merges with daily life, we also feel our holidays more keenly. As my family and I light Hanukkah candles this year, we will place hanukkiyot in the front and back windows of our home. We do this every year, but now the public aspect of our observance feels more important than ever. Just as Israel is a light unto the nations, I believe we should all shine our own light.
May Hanukkah this year be sweet for us all—and may the light herald peace and healing for Israel and its neighbors.
B’yachad Nerapeh.
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and war ensued, Hadassah responded immediately. The threat to Israel has escalated to include aggression from Hezbollah and Iran. Hadassah’s hospitals must now expand capacity to treat mass casualties and serve as a strong wartime asset to the people of Israel. Hadassah’s Youth Aliyah villages must continue to provide safe haven to students.
We cannot do this without you. Together we will heal. B’yachad Nerapeh.
HOW YOU CAN HELP HEAL THE WORLD
GANDEL REHABILITATION CENTER
Help us complete and fully equip the Gandel Rehabilitation Center to provide physical, occupational and speech therapies, as well as psychological services, for the wounded and other patients who will need long-term rehabilitation.
NEW OPERATING ROOMS AND ICU
Help outfit six new underground Operating Rooms, safe from conventional, chemical and biological attacks, and a crucial new Intensive Care Unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem.
YOUTH ALIYAH VILLAGES
Support our Meir Shfeyah and Hadassah Neurim Youth Aliyah villages, so they can provide critical psychological support and shelter for students and faculty. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: hadassah.org/togetherwewillheal TO DONATE, PLEASE VISIT: go.hadassah.org/givetogether
CHAIR Ellen Hershkin
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Lisa Hostein
DEPUTY EDITOR Libby Barnea
SENIOR EDITOR Leah Finkelshteyn
DIGITAL EDITOR Arielle Kaplan
EDITOR EMERITUS Alan M. Tigay
DESIGN/PRODUCTION Samantha Marsh
EDITORIAL BOARD
Roselyn Bell
Ruth G. Cole
Nancy Falchuk
Gloria Goldreich
Blu Greenberg
Dara Horn
Ruth B Hurwitz
Francine Klagsbrun
Anne Lapidus Lerner
Curt Leviant
Joy Levitt
Bonnie Lipton
Marcie Natan
Nessa Rapoport
Sima Schuster
Susan S. Smirnoff
Barbara Topol
A Season to Shine Bright
A time for solidarity, not division
| By Lisa Hostein
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ore than 30 years ago, the town of Billings, Mont., made headlines when an estimated 10,000 pictures of menorahs suddenly appeared in local homes around Hanukkah. It was the community’s response to an antisemitic act of violence that had targeted one of the town’s few Jewish families.
While such shows of solidarity seem rare today, they do exist. One unusual example: non-Jews putting up mezuzot following the call to action by a Catholic actress, Patricia Heaton, as a symbol of support. After being deluged with requests and amid an ensuing debate about the appropriateness of such a move by non-Jews, MyZuzah, a nonprofit that typically provides mezuzot for Jews, nimbly pivoted, creating a special 10/7 solidarity mezuzah case that comes with a yellow ribbon inside rather than the traditional Hebrew scroll.
As we emerge from a contentious election season, and as Israel’s multifront war continues to spark divisions, we need to recognize and encourage acts of courage, kindness and solidarity from both the nonJewish world and from within.
With the approach of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, Jewish educator Elana Stein Hain reminds us of “The Dangers of Political Polarization” (page 12) and urges us to focus not on what divides us but on our shared Jewish identity.
In Israel, Jessica Steinberg wrestles
with whether to celebrate “Thanksgiving in Jerusalem” with her ex-pat community that includes the Goldberg-Polin family, with the pain still raw from the murder of their beloved son, Hersh (page 14).
Despite some solidarity, antisemitism continues to pervade all corners of American society, including in health care, as Hilary Danailova reports in “A Medical Emergency” (page 26). As she wraps up her tenure as the Biden administration’s special envoy on antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt urges countries— and campuses—to implement new global guidelines to fight the “tsunami” of Jew-hatred (page 64).
As American Jews grapple with the onslaught of anti-Israel hate, Jewish days schools are stepping up efforts to educate their students about the complexities of Israel (page 16).
Back to that Montana story: The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate, a children’s story based on the events in Billings, has been reissued with timely new resources on how to fight hate. Find more children’s books in our annual roundup (page 46). Also in that section, read a Q&A with Alice Hoffman about her new Anne Frank novel and an adapted excerpt by novelist Lisa Barr from Zibby Owens’ On Being Jewish Now essay collection. Join both authors at the next Hadassah Magazine Discussion. For details, see page 52.
Be sure to peruse our annual Gift Guide, featuring creative Israeli and Judaica vendors (page 44).
And may the blessings of Thanksgiving and the light from our Hanukkah candles shine especially bright this year.
Happy Hanukkah
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CHAGRIN AND ANGER
I have not read an article that articulated my own chagrin and anger about the American response to October 7 as brilliantly as Abby Horowitz’s graphic essay “Welcome Home” in the September/October 2024 issue. My chagrin is at the screaming American students who are not directing their outrage at Hamas murderers and kidnappers, but rather at Israeli victims. My anger is at the unbelievably one-sided American news reporting, blaming the Israel Defense Forces for killing the people who invaded their country and stole their children. Thank you, Abby, for reminding me that there is a real Israel—a place that lives and fights in the real world, not the upside-down
moral universe of American college campuses and news media.
Judy Stephenson Memphis, Tenn.
POLAND RECOMMENDATIONS
I traveled to Poland in 1982, 1984, 1986, 1991 and 2015, including visits to Auschwitz during my first and last trips. In addition to the sights mentioned by Jennifer Wolf Kam in her September/October article, “Encountering Ghosts in Poland,” I highly recommend a day trip to Oswiecim (from Krakow), which we arranged via the Auschwitz Jewish Center at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City. The day included a private tour guide for Auschwitz and
Jewish Heritage Adventure in
MOROCCO
Birkenau. We received a private tour of the synagogue at the Auschwitz Jewish Center and a visit to the small Jewish cemetery. We ate a delicious lunch at nearby Cafe Bergson, which was formerly the house of the last remaining Jewish resident of Oswiecim.
I also recommend visiting the New Jewish Cemetery in Krakow. It was a very poignant experience to wander through a cemetery, which was in a state of disrepair at the time, although apparently Krakow had plans to restore it.
Susan J. Levinson New York, N.Y.
/ 518-783-6001 | www.ayelet.com | ayelet@ayelet.com
FOOD AS HERITAGE
As a longtime vegetarian with more and more vegan leanings as time goes by, I particularly enjoyed Julie Wilcox’s “Stress and Your Diet” and Adeena Sussman’s “Vegetables Take Center Stage” in the September/October issue. Food has been, is and will be a large part of Jewish heritage, identity and culture. If it’s plant-based and Jewish, delicious and sustainable to boot, it can only be good for you.
Paula
Zevin Somerset, N.J.
SURVIVAL AND HISTORY
Thank you, Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz, for
the column “Navigating Grief and Strength” (September/October issue), which made for an upbeat start to the new year. As a chapter president— again, after 55 years—facing the stresses of leadership amid a divisive social and political moment, your column summarized both the history of the Jewish people’s survival and the proud history of Hadassah. Together we will heal. Am Israel Chai! Nancy Golin Wiadro Naples, Fla.
SUPPORTING ISRAELI TEENS
In “A Kibbutz in Exile” in the July/ August 2024 issue, Uriel Heilman highlights the experiences of senior evacuees. Displaced children serve as
a backdrop to illustrate the hardships and chaos faced by the communities in temporary hotel housing, but the story of these youth is also worth telling.
For the last year, ELEM/Youth in Distress in Israel, a leading nonprofit that works with at-risk youth, is in these same hotels supporting teens. Building on our existing model of trauma-informed, informal therapy spaces, ELEM’s social workers and volunteers set up safe places in hotel lobbies for youth to talk, play, eat and have a rare moment to just be kids.
Liora
Attias-Hadar
CEO ELEM/Youth in Distress in Israel New York, N.Y.
“[A]
The Hyrcania excavation and (inset) a Byzantine Greek inscription found there
Unearthing the Jewish Presence in the Land of Israel, Even in Wartime
Several months before the Hamas attacks on October 7 of last year, Oren Gutfeld and Michal Haber of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University led the first-ever excavations in Hyrcania, the onetime Hasmonean desert fortress southwest of the Dead Sea.
The Hasmoneans, a ruling dynasty who lived in the middle years (140 to 37 BCE) of the Second Temple period, were the same family as the Maccabees of Hanukkah fame who rededicated the Temple after its desecration by Syrian Greek rulers.
Named for Maccabean leader and high priest John Hyrcanus, Hyrcania included a palace and aqueduct-fed gardens. Enlarged by Herod the Great and destroyed in the Great Revolt against the Romans in 66-73 CE, the area was later the site of a Christian monastery built in 492.
Among the finds at Hyrcania are a Byzantine Greek inscription paraphrasing Psalm 86:1-2 and a gold and turquoise ring from the early Islamic period inscribed with the Arabic phrase “God has willed it.”
Gutfeld said that, like most other organized archaeological digs in Israel, excavations at Hyrcania were halted due to the war. But he was hopeful that by Hanukkah the team would be able to return and continue its research.
“We plan to concentrate on the site’s Second Temple-period fortifications and the later Roman camp below that was never excavated
or surveyed,” Gutfeld said.
However, because hardly a month in Israel goes by without someone literally tripping over ancient relics, tangible evidence of thousands of years of Jewish history in the Land of Israel continues to surface, even in wartime.
In February, a 2,000-year-old Hasmonean coin was found near the Dead Sea by an 11-year-old hiker whose family has been housed at a nearby hotel since being evacuated from their northern kibbutz after October 7. The coin’s Greek inscription reads “Alexander Basileus [the King],” referring to Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Jannaeus (104-76 BCE).
Elsewhere, the Israel Antiquities Authority during the summer uncovered a massive quarry in northern Jerusalem dating from the late Second Temple period. The two-and-a-half ton blocks of stone found at the site are typical of royal construction projects, such as the 2,000-year-old Pilgrimage Road linking the City of David to the Second Temple compound.
Another exciting recent find is a 3,300-yearold ship at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea that sunk while transporting oil, wine and produce. The location of the wreckage far from the coast proves for the first time that ancient mariners could navigate using the stars and sun rather than staying within sight of land.
—Jordana Benami
21st Century Oil Miracle Thanks to Israeli Innovation
Fried latkes or doughnuts are quintessential Hanukkah treats, reminding us of the consecrated oil that miraculously burned for eight days in the menorah of the Holy Temple reclaimed by the Maccabees.
For many of us, however, fried foods are not reserved for festive occasions. Restaurant dishes such as French fries, onion rings and schnitzel are year-round favorites. And these
Gardening and Good Deeds Take Root in Malibu
Whether it’s Whole Latka Love spice mix sprinkled on fried potato pancakes or Italian Blend adding pizzaz to pastas and salad dressings, a cadre of seasonal spice offerings from Shemesh Farms brings to the table both flavor and a commitment to social justice.
The farm, set in a large garden space in Malibu, Calif., is a social enterprise that, since its launch in 2013, provides employment, community and programming to adults aged 18 and older with diverse abilities. The farm is a program of the Shalom Institute, which describes itself as a “Jewish Community Center for experiential education, community engagement, inclusion and accessibility, and Jewish overnight camping.”
Most of the approximately 60 farm fellows, as the workers are known, are on the autism
pose various health risks.
One issue is that some fast-food restaurants, food manufacturers and cafeterias reuse oil hundreds of times over a few days. Studies show oil degrades in appearance and quality with every reheating. Carcinogenic substances build up in reused oil, endangering even cooks inhaling its vapor.
Israeli food-tech company Beyond Oil is offering an industrial solution: A powder made from FDA-approved food additives that filters and absorbs harmful components from the oil and slows deterioration, preserving the oil’s quality for a longer period of time.
Beyond Oil, based in North Vancouver, Canada, and Kibbutz Yifat in Israel, is working
spectrum. Some have physical or other cognitive disabilities, or a combination.
“There’s something significantly special about working with this demographic,” said Nicky Pitman, director of Shemesh Farms. The fellows, who work alongside dedicated coaches as well as volunteers and a small staff, take part in almost all aspects of production, gaining a sense of pride and accomplishment.
Farm fellows contribute to “every herb blend,” Pitman said. “Their work goes into planting, watering, composting, harvesting, sorting, drying, curating the recipes and then bottling or packaging.”
Using vertical hydroponic towers, raised beds and in-ground techniques, Shemesh Farms, which is funded largely by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, grows 25 organic herbs and edible flowers for small-batch seasonal herb and salt blends as well as lavender for sachets. They also operate the Bee and Pollinator Center, an apiary that serves as an educational site for farm fellows, local schoolchildren and visitors.
Shemesh Farms offers year-round signature items, such as Citrus Garden Salts, Za’atar Blend #4 and Malibu Raw Honey, but it is known especially for its seasonal offerings. All its products are sold online.
The Italian Blend, Pitman said, has “got a
with fast-food chains and industrial frying companies across Israel and North America, though it is not disclosing the names of its partners. The company recently signed a letter of intent with one of the world’s largest food equipment manufacturers.
According to CEO and co-founder Jonathan Or, customers realize “substantial improvements in frying oil and food quality, yielding significant health benefits” while enhancing “environmental sustainability, employee well-being, guest experience, operational efficiency and reductions in food and labor costs.”
Dr. Sarel Halahmi, chief urologist at Bnei Zion Medical Center in Haifa, and Nissim Garti, a professor and former director of the Casali
little hint of cayenne to give it a kick, and some citrus zest, which gives a different flavor than most Italian blends.”
And while Whole Latka Love, Shemesh Farm’s Hanukkah offering, pairs well with latkes and roasted potatoes, Pitman also suggests trying it on chicken, eggs and avocado toast.
“Then we have our tea blend, TEA-kun Olam,” she said of the seasonal mix that includes chamomile, fennel and mint. “Because we believe you need to take care of yourself before you go out and take care of the world.”
—Debra
Eckerling
Institute of Applied Chemistry at Hebrew University, studied Beyond Oil’s efficacy and determined that using the powder in food service settings can lower the risk of certain types of cancer (and even infertility) associated with harmful substances in reused frying oil.
While the product isn’t available for home cooks, you could say it’s working miracles behind the scenes, much like that lone cruse of oil on the first Hanukkah in 164 BCE.
—Jordana Benami
The Dangers of Political Polarization
Hanukkah reminds us of our shared Jewish identity
By Elana Stein Hain
Although most of us think of the Festival of Lights as a warm, unifying holiday, historically, Hanukkah involved civil war between Hellenized and non-Hellenized Jews. Records from that era, in the 2nd century BCE, describe violent confrontations between the Maccabees and their fellow Jews who had embraced Greek paganism. Later, rabbinic Judaism reshaped the story to focus on possibility, on miracles and on shared Jewish identity. This year, it is especially important to embrace that reframing.
Like all groups in the United States, Jewish Americans have differing opinions on moral questions and on a vision for society. However, if there is something that we must learn from the convergence of antisemitism on the right and on the left, it is that buying into the polarization of American politics is calamitous for American Jews. The notion that either Democrats or Republicans will be our salvation is a mistake.
It is a mistake for utilitarian reasons: Each political party is dynamic, and both are susceptible to antisemitic manipulation.
We lose power as a people when
we are bitterly divided among ourselves. Instead, we need Jews to be active—and to advocate for Jewish concerns—in both parties. We need to be able to reach across the aisle to one another, seeking help and addressing issues that impact our community together. Additionally, Jews must be able to criticize their own party, rather than be blinded by the aspects they agree with. We must remain vigilant in our awareness of Jewish vulnerability.
Blind belief in political parties is also a mistake for ideological reasons: Polarization is, of course, not unique to our time. Over 100 years ago, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, chief rabbi of the pre-state Jewish settlement in Palestine, addressed the divisions he observed. Three ideological camps battled within the Jews of the nascent Jewish state: religionists, nationalists and cosmopolitans. Religionists eschewed both nationalism and cosmopolitanism in favor of a particularistic service of God. Nationalists rejected religion, opting instead for political particularism. And cosmopolitans rejected all particularism.
Rav Kook recognized all three ideological commitments as nec-
essary within a collective, and he argued that the checks and balances they provide one another might prevent fundamentalism. As he wrote in an essay: “…for each group must be influenced by the opposing force of the other…this will save each group from the defects of fundamentalism and extremism…”
Rav Kook invites us to disagree loudly and proudly, but to recognize what we gain ideologically by being part of a diverse Jewish ecosystem.
Finally, the idea that either Democrats or Republicans will save us is a mistake for religious reasons: We certainly must do what we can to ensure our own thriving, and yet we have so much in our tradition that cautions us against political power being the totality of our values and our hope for continuity.
Before his death, Moses warns the Israelites that they dare not fall into the trap of thinking that it is their own power and might that have been the key to their success (Deuteronomy 8:17-18). Instead, Moses advises them to be humble before God and to stay true to the values and behaviors that a covenantal life entails.
In our own day, I might put it as follows: Rather than relating to ourselves and to each other primarily in terms of politics, let us turn to our shared Jewish history, traditions, beliefs and practices. Politics are but one dimension of our identities, not the sum total.
So this year, as we light our Hanukkah candles, and when we see the candles of others, let us remember that shared symbols represent not only shared history, but a shared future. And may that future, God willing, be full of healing and promise.
hilarious & poignant story is universal in its message: The journey
Actor/Comedian Brad Zimmerman’s moving & hilarious story is about the grit & passion required to ‘make it’ as an artist, and the sweet rewards that come from never giving up. Brad graduated from college with a theater degree and moved to New York where he ‘temporarily’ waited tables for 29 yearswhile pursuing his career as an actor. Finally, he found success with a role on the Sopranos, and as the opening act for Joan Rivers (for 8 years), Brad Garrett & George Carlin. He now stars in his own hit Off Broadway show that is as profound and touching as it is entertaining. SEE THE SHOW ON TOUR IN 2025: Feb. 15 & 16: Lake Worth Playhouse, Lake Worth, FL.; Feb. 17: Jewish Federation Naples, FL.; July 31 - Aug. 24: Landmark On Main St. Port Washington, NY; and look for dates April 24 - May18 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Thanksgiving in Jerusalem
Being thankful is a blessing, even in dark times | By Jessica Steinberg
I’ve lived in israel for nearly 30 years, but as an ode to my American heritage, I have continued to mark the Thanksgiving traditions my parents put in place as first-generation Americans. Along with a standout roast turkey recipe that I sourced years ago, I like to prepare my mother-in-law’s mashed sweet potatoes topped with sugared pecans and fresh cranberry relish served in my mother’s cut-glass dish.
My family always celebrates this most American of holidays with family and friends in our Jerusalem bubble of American-born expats. We order a turkey and begin hunting around for cranberries, sometimes smuggled in by someone returning from a trip to the United States and, more recently, from one of the many Russian supermarkets in Israel. We serve pumpkin, too, cut into chunks and roasted with onions and chickpeas and, using canned pumpkin, made into easy pies.
We even have a friend who dresses up as a pilgrim, using those big white paper dinner napkins to create a wide pilgrim collar. It’s pretty hilarious.
But we didn’t gather last year for Thanksgiving. In 2023, the holiday
arrived just weeks after October 7, when more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage by Hamas terrorists.
Among those hostages was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, the 23-year-old son of our good friends Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, who have long been part of our Thanksgiving tradition.
None of us had the heart to celebrate, not without Jon and Rachel, not knowing that Hersh and the other hostages were in captivity. And not with so many soldiers and reservists—some of them our children, nephews and nieces—on the front lines, and with tens of thousands of Israelis evacuated from their homes.
Yet just after Thanksgiving last year, there was a development to be thankful for. On Friday, November 24, Hamas released the first batch of 105 hostages during a weeklong truce.
I now look back on that brief moment of hope in a kind of fugue of disbelief. Each afternoon, my Times of Israel team would review the list of hostages and then carefully watch the television footage that night, scrambling to update our online profile of
each hostage as they crossed over into Israeli territory. It was a miracle then, and even more so now in light of the dark days that followed.
Here we are, one year later, and Hersh is dead. After being held deep in a tunnel in Gaza, where he was starved and tortured, his Hamas captors executed him and five other hostages in August.
In the last 12 months, many of us have learned how to keep living despite the pain and tragedy, when illness and death, heartache and sorrow, surround us. Hersh’s parents and sisters are now having to figure out how to go on with the rest of their lives even as they continue to mourn their beloved son and brother. The same is true for the families of the other hostages killed, including those who were murdered alongside Hersh—Or Danino, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Eden Alexander and Alex Lubanov.
There are still weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, trips abroad—though few airlines now fly to Israel, and El Al is pricey—and holiday celebrations. But Thanksgiving? That seems unlikely again this year.
As the holiday approaches, it’s
hard to think about having that type of gathering, of bringing together the same group of friends who have spent the past year praying, rallying, protesting and lighting candles for Hersh.
It’s also too painful, knowing that Jon and Rachel won’t be sitting at the table with us, not this year. We’d also be missing two other families that annually join us for Thanksgiving—one of them, Jon and Rachel’s cousins, the other their best friends.
But maybe all my spirit isn’t lost. After living in Israel for the past three decades, I’m fairly Israeli—and that means I’m not making any firm plans yet. On a personal level, I have plenty to be thankful for: my own family, including my husband, two stepdaughters and two teenage sons; our siblings and their families who live close by; and our network of dear friends.
If, as Thanksgiving nears, it feels right to mark the holiday, we will somehow. Because that’s how I and other Israelis move forward—finding a path, even a last-minute one, amid the sorrow. I will buy a turkey and most likely head to a Russian supermarket to get frozen cranberries. I’ll pick up some canned pumpkin and a bag of sugared pecans.
And though my past Israeli Thanksgivings have all been celebrated on Thursday, maybe I will opt for Friday night this year, the de facto choice for many American Israelis, because it’s just easier when you have to prepare a Shabbat meal anyhow.
Easier is O.K. this year. And being thankful is a blessing, even in dark times.
Jessica Steinberg is the longtime arts and culture editor for The Times of Israel. After October 7, she focused much of her reporting on the hostages abducted to Gaza and on The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing podcast.
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Ramping up—and Rethinking— IsraelEducation
Jewish day schools grapple with teaching the complexities of the Jewish state | BySueFishkoff
On october 10, 2023, Jonah Hassenfeld gathered his middle school students in the auditorium at Schechter Boston, a pre-kindergarten to eighth grade pluralistic Jewish day school in Newton, Mass., where he is director of learning and teaching. It was the first day back in school after the horrific Hamas attack of October 7, and Hassenfeld knew he had to help his students process the tragedy.
“We had a very emotional ceremony for the entire school and said Tehillim (Psalms),” he recalled in a recent interview. After that, he brought
clearly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the events of October 7, including the murder of more than 1,200 people in southern Israel and some 250 others taken into Gaza as hostages.
“There were other leaders in the school who were afraid this was going to be too much” for the students, he said. “You know, ‘Is a sixth-grader ready to hear about what happened on October 7?’ But we found it really brought down the temperature.”
Hassenfeld’s experience was duplicated in Jewish schools nationwide, as grieving teachers, administrators and students tried to make sense of
surge in antisemitism at home, this past year was one of the most challenging that Jewish day schools in the United States have experienced, say school officials. And now, with a new academic year underway, the impact of October 7 continues to reverberate in the classroom in several ways.
One effect has been a wide-scale re-evaluation of how and what these schools are teaching their students about Israel, with educators attempting to better educate young Jews about the country and its history, help them navigate information—and disinformation—they are exposed to on social media and elsewhere and prepare them to confront a potentially hostile college environment.
In addition, schools have experienced a demographic boost, with an influx of transfer students from public or non-Jewish private schools that they and their parents feel are no longer safe or welcoming for Jews (see sidebar on page 19.)
srael education has always been a key part of the Jewish day school experience, one of the major ways that these schools— private educational institutions that provide a dual curriculum of Jewish studies and general studies—help students develop their Jewish identities.
Of the 1.6 million elementary and
secondary school Jewish students in the United States, about 300,000 attend day schools, according to the AVI CHAI Foundation’s 2017-2018 census of day school enrollment in the United States, the latest figures available. The majority of those students are enrolled in haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, schools. As of the 2021-2022 school year, some 92,000 students in the United States and Canada attend non-haredi Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and pluralistic or community day schools.
Ever since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the vast majority of these schools have prioritized teaching about the Jewish connection to the Holy Land. Only recently—in the past five to 10 years, experts say—have more Jewish schools introduced nuance into their portrayal of Israel, presenting the complexities of Israeli society and policies and exploring the Palestinian perspective. Educators say it’s time to treat Israel with the same intellectual honesty as any other school subject if you want kids to develop a strong relationship with the country.
of reasons,” explained Marc Wolf, chief program and strategy officer at Prizmah: The Center for Jewish Day Schools, an umbrella organization representing 306 non-haredi day schools in North America.
“Number one, strengthening that piece of a student’s identity about what they think and what they believe about Israel and what they know about Israel,” Wolf said. “There’s a second aspect, particularly for high
Orly Fass, who teaches the class, said the first five weeks focused on studying various Middle Eastern ethnic groups “so when we come to Israeli history, it won’t be in a vacuum.”
“Israel is in a specific neighborhood. You can’t understand the news from Lebanon without knowing its history, that it’s Shia, Sunni and Maronite,” she said, referring to different Muslim and Christian populations.
October 7 and the Israel-Hamas war have given new impetus to that shift, as more and more day schools feel an urgency to provide their students with what they need to flourish in a world where antisemitism and anti-Zionism are on the rise, including on college campuses.
“There has been a lot of increased interest in how schools are teaching about and thinking about modern Israel and Zionism, for a number
schools, which is preparing students for campus and doing that in a way that strengthens their Jewish identity around Israel, so that they feel comfortable walking across campus, even if there are protests happening.”
Some day schools are offering discrete classes on modern Israel for the first time. This fall, Akiba Yavneh Academy, an Orthodox day school in Dallas with more than 400 pre-K to 12th-grade students, launched “The Modern Middle East” as a mandatory class for all 11th-graders.
The students also read a Palestinian account of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” which is how many Palestinians refer to Israel’s founding.
“It was really hard for them to hear this,” Fass said. “We got into some big fights in class. We celebrate Israel all the time, and we should, but I don’t want them to be shocked” when they hear about some of the more complicated parts of Israel’s history and how others perceive Israel’s history. “I want them to understand the entire picture.”
Educators say they also must help students navigate the disinformation about Israel and the war with Hamas spread in the media.
“They get a lot of information from social media, but not knowledge,” said Noa Kolomer, Israel and Jewish educator at Golda Och Academy in West Orange, N.J., a pre-K to 12th grade pluralistic school with 525 students “It’s our role to help them decipher it, understand what it means.”
For many in the day school world, the attack on October 7 was personal. These schools have Israeli teachers
as well as students born in Israel, or with Israeli parents. People connected with the schools have family in Israel and they visit often. That heightened the need to help kids make sense of the Hamas attack and ensuing war.
“We have students with zero degrees of separation from what happened on October 7,” Rabbi Howard Ruben, head of school at the Jewish Community High School of the Bay in San Francisco, a high school with about 180 students, said, echoing the view of many of the school officials interviewed.
In the first weeks after October 7, schools leapt into action to support Israel, holding fundraisers or doing pro-Israel art projects, writing letters to Israeli soldiers and Israelis displaced by the conflict. It was, in many cases, Israel education on the fly.
“After October 7, what we saw in many schools was reactive,” said Sarah Gordon, senior director of Israel education at Unpacked for Educators, a division of OpenDor Media, a Jewish educational media company that works with day schools and congregational and sup
Israel’s history so they can talk about it with thoughtfulness, with nuance.”
Some of the changes have been in the works for a while. Sammy Chukran-Lontok, director of Judaic and Hebrew Studies at Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton, a kindergarten through 12th grade community day school with more than 700 students, said that she last updated the school’s Israel curriculum 10 years ago. “October 7 came and gave it a new urgency and purpose,” she said.
The school’s high school curriculum this semester includes a new lesson on Israeli resilience as part of a Judaics class. According to the lesson plan, teachers present to students the idea that Israelis “demonstrated incredible resilience” after the October 7 massacre; that, “after months of internal division and protest” over judicial reform, Israelis “immediately jumped into action together” to defend the country; and that the war effort against Hamas is supported by diverse groups in Israel.
Students, in turn, consider under what conditions national unity can transcend deep divisions, and whether one can fight a war without
rganizations that support days schools with guidance and resources are stepping up their game. Unpacked, for example, has released new videos and other material and has begun convening regional conferences for
Jewish educators. The first one, held in August in Miami, was aimed at giving teachers in day schools and supplemental schools specific ways to integrate the teaching of Israel and Zionism into their curricula as well as how to address charges of “apartheid” and “colonialism” that are often leveled against Israel. Upcoming conferences are scheduled for November in New York City and January in Toronto.
Prizmah, in collaboration with the Jewish Agency for Israel as well as The Jewish Education Project and the iCenter, two national organizations supporting Israel education, took educators from 19 day schools on a mission to Israel in March, to share best practices and learn from their Israeli colleagues. While such missions have taken place for decades, Wolf at Prizmah said this one, which was supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation, focused on new resources and curriculum related specifically to the current crisis.
One resource given to mission participants, compiled by Unpacked, was a list of Israeli songs released since October 7, along with their lyrics in Hebrew and English, the accompanying YouTube music videos and prompts to engage the students. “If you want your students to understand the current mood in Israel, one of the best ways to do so is by listening to its music,” the program description reads.
Typically, in day schools, Israel education is integrated into the general curriculum—in Hebrew language classes, social studies, art and other subjects.
But in the wake of October 7, some schools, like Akiba Yavneh in Dallas, launched separate courses on modern Israel. Other schools that have offered such courses in the past revived them for this academic year.
Continued on page 20
ENROLLMENT SURGE TIED TO THE WAR
Jewish day schools experienced a twopronged influx of students following the Hamas attacks on Israel, from American students and their parents seeking a safer Jewish environment as well as from Israelis escaping the war.
Right after October 7, Jewish day schools began absorbing large numbers of Israeli students, some already in the United States on vacation and unable or unwilling to return home, while others came directly from Israel.
By January, Prizmah reported that more than 1,000 Israeli students had enrolled in schools from Atlanta to Boca Raton to Los Angeles. By June, most of the Israelis had returned home.
But another group of new students has stayed—those who transferred midyear from public and non-Jewish private schools.
More than a third of day schools in North America saw increased inquiries from parents at some point after October 7, according to Prizmah.
It’s unusual for students to transfer midyear, said Helena Levine, head of school at Donna Klein in Boca Raton. This past January, however, her school accepted 13 transfer students, way above its usual “one or two.”
The enrollment bump has continued, with more students making the switch for this academic year. A May 2024 Prizmah report that
surveyed 103 day schools found that 62 of them said they were enrolling new students for 2024-2025 “as a result of the change in climate post October 7th.” While Prizmah does not yet have a tally of the total number of new students nationwide, half of the schools surveyed said they were getting students who did not come from their usual list of prospective families.
“We are seeing kids we would not have seen before, not from our usual feeder schools,” said Sarah Shulkind, head of school at the Milken school in Los Angeles. But, she cautioned, “How much is because of October 7 is hard to say.”
When asked their reasons for enrolling their children, par ents in the Prizmah survey cited different factors, from safety concerns to want ing a more Jewish envi ronment. The top reason, however, was concern about antisem itism—everything
from anti-Israel school board resolutions to teachers bringing pro-Palestinian material into the classroom to harassment from other students.
Of the 177 new students at Donna Klein this fall, Levine said 35 families cited antisemitism or anti-Zionism as their major motivation for making the switch.
“We have families moving here from Canada, England, South Africa and Belgium as well as from other states,” Levine said. “And they are looking for a Jewish day school when they might not have done so in the past.”
That was true for Leora and Josh Rubin, who moved to Boca Raton over the summer from Ann Arbor, Mich., because, they said, they no longer felt comfortable in their city.
The final straw came in January when their local school board passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. “Everyone wants a ceasefire in theory, but this is not the purview of a school board,” said Josh Rubin. “It was an attempt to demonize the Jewish community. We went to the meeting and were shocked by the hundreds of keffiyeh-clad people screaming at any Jew who spoke out.”
“It was like a dagger to the heart,” said Leora Rubin. Agreeing that they no longer wanted to raise their children, now 8, 10 and 13, in such an atmosphere, the Rubins enrolled the kids in Donna Klein. It was their first time sending them to a Jewish day school.
“It just felt right to us,” Josh Rubin said. “After October 7, we realized that our Jewish identity and our kids’ Jewish identity and them understanding who they are, their history, their present and their future, is very important. We think that sending them to Jewish day school is doing our bit.” —Sue Fishkoff
That’s the case at the Jewish Community High School in San Francisco. The course, “Israel: Conflict, Complexity and Hope,” has been reintroduced as an elective, but Ruben, the head of school, said that every student also learns about Israel as part of a mandatory course on modern Jewish history. “It’s an essential part of who we are as a school,” he said.
But whichever approach a school takes to Israel education, Gordon, of Unpacked, said the important thing is to be intentional about it. Set down goals with benchmarks and standards like is done for science, math and Bible study, she suggested. “What do I want my ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th graders to know, feel and do for Israel by the end of each school year?”
Israel education in day schools has at times been criticized, sometimes by their own alumni. In December 2023, alumni of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., a pluralistic junior kindergarten to 12th grade day school that enrolls 950 students, expressed public dissatisfaction about what they were taught about Israel as
teenagers.
“When we reflect on our years at JDS, many of us feel that our Israel education was defined by false narratives and glaring omissions,” the open letter, signed by roughly 150 alumni, said, referring to the school by its acronym. The letter, signed mostly by people in their 20s and 30s, began by expressing “devastation” about the October 7 attack but added that “we are also deeply concerned by Israel’s grave violations of human rights and international law, not only since October 7th but over the last 75 years throughout Palestine.”
The letter caused a brief public firestorm and two open letters of rebuttal from school alumni that garnered hundreds more signatures than the first. The school’s leadership also responded, saying they were “deeply hurt and disappointed” by the letter.
In fact, students at Charles E. Smith now take a mandatory course on the modern State of Israel and are also offered an elective called “Arab-Israeli Conflict” that uses Side by Side: Parallel Histories of IsraelPalestine, a book written by Israeli and Palestinian educators.
“On one page there will be the War of Independence. On the other page, we’ll talk about the Nakba,” explained head of school Rabbi Mitchel Malkus. “Students are understanding that Israeli historians and educators may teach about the War of Independence this way, and Palestinians may understand it differently,” he said, acknowledging that the course was launched after many of the authors of the critical letter graduated.
When Gordon entered the field of Jewish education almost 20 years ago, she said, very few day schools
exposed students to multiple narratives about Israel. That was true of her own experience attending a Modern Orthodox day school in Montreal, she said.
“I would say over the past five years, more and more schools are coming onboard,” she said, adding that while she and Unpacked may not agree with some of the narratives presented about Israel, students should know about them to be prepared for the post-day school world.
Rather than alienating young Jews, educators believe that focusing on more knowledge, Israel warts and all, especially in the higher grades, will lead to a stronger connection to Israel that will last through adulthood.
“One of the things that we pride ourselves on is training young people to be critical thinkers,” said Prizmah CEO Paul Bernstein. “We are trying to embed a love for Israel, yet with critical thinking around it. So, we’re going to have diverse opinions.
“What I’ve been proud to see,” he added, “is how many day school alumni are among those that are standing up and speaking for Israel and speaking for the community in a really difficult situation on campus.”
While much israel education takes place in the classroom, it also happens in the country itself on school-sponsored trips. Many were canceled during the 2023-2024 school year because of the war. But others went forward, focused on learning about and helping a post-October 7 Israel.
Golda Och’s most recent graduating class spent three months in Israel in the spring, as they do every year, but this year they focused on helping communities and Israelis displaced by the conflict.
“We sent 28 seniors, and they volunteered on kibbutzim, picked fruit in Otef Aza (the Gaza envelope), helped clean homes in evacuated areas,” said Rabbi Daniel Nevins, the head of school. “It was a really meaningful experience.”
Mimi Lebeau, now a freshman at Columbia University, was on that trip.
“I was interested in how the school would approach [the war] while still giving us the traditional trip,” she said. “I expected we’d learn about all sides, but the way they talked about it went beyond what I’d imagined. We met settlers, Palestinians opposed to Israel.”
Rather than push her away from Israel, she said, the experience “made me stronger in my connection, because I understand more about the society.”
Whatever their approach to Israel education, October 7 and the resultant war has moved the day schools interviewed to do more—more classes, more discussions, more Israel.
At the Milken Community School in Los Angeles, a non-denominational sixth to 12th grade school with more than 760 students, head of school Sarah Shulkind said, “We have definitely ramped up our Israel education post October 7.”
Some of that was initiated by students. “They came to us, asking for more,” Shulkind said. The juniors and seniors formed a leadership circle; a daily minyan offered prayers for Israel and the hostages.
The school brought in 15 speakers last year instead of the usual three or four, representing a wide spectrum of Israeli and Jewish perspectives, including former Labor Party Knesset member Einat Wilf and Noa Tishby, Israel’s former special envoy on antisemitism.
In San Francisco, the Jewish Community High School held two
daylong workshops on Israel, one in December and one in March, where each student could choose their own entry point, be it through art, text, study, film or lectures.
Adi Alouf, director of Jewish and student life, began holding lunchand-learn sessions once a week, where students would talk about a news event from that week from an Israeli perspective. For example, the week after President Biden’s State of the Union address in March, the kids analyzed how the president addressed the war with Hamas.
In mid-September, the session was packed when Alouf brought in 22-year-old Ofri Reiner, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre. She spoke candidly of what it was like to run through a potato field with 1,000 other young Israelis while terrorists shot at them from the surrounding hills. Her brother, Shalev Dagan, an Israel Defense Forces soldier, was killed that day.
The two dozen students in the room listened in stunned silence.
keeping hope alive?”
“Hope is very fragile,” Reiner responded. “I agree it’s very hard after what’s happened.” Noting that she was active in coexistence groups as a teenager, today, she admitted, she “has faith,” but not hope. “I really believed in peace when I was young. It’s not something I can see now.”
While giving up on hope may not be the preferred position of many Jewish educators, the school did not shy away from having their students hear that perspective.
“At the beginning of the war, October 7 brought a fractured Israel together,” said Kolomer of Golda Och. “Now Israel is fracturing again. That’s the reality that is Israel. We want our students to be comfortable in the complexity.”
Sue Fishkoff is the former editor of J. The Jewish News of Northern California and the author of The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch and Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority.
contributed reporting from
Blazing New Trails
Bedouin women are changing the face of their traditional communities
In her polka-dot hijab and ankle-length traditional abaya, Eman Bin Nasser doesn’t look like the face of Israeli high tech. But Bin Nasser, who lives in a ramshackle, tin-roofed structure in the Negev desert, is a software engineer at a high-tech firm in Beersheva.
The 30-year-old mother of two is the first Bedouin woman from her village, Wadi al-Naam, to have a university degree.
“Most of my family don’t even know what I mean when I say I work as a software engineer, so I just tell them I work for a company in Beersheva, and they get that,” says Bin Nasser, seated in her office at Siraj Technologies, a company specializing in connecting devices to cloud platforms in a field known as the Internet of Things.
At home, she barely has internet service, relying on a solar-powered router her husband set up that provides intermittent access. Her sprawling village of 15,000, situated just a few hundred yards from a toxic waste plant, is not connected to Israel’s electricity grid.
Bin Nasser is one of a growing number of Bedouin women who are
By Leora Eren Frucht
changing the face of a community that has for decades constituted Israel’s poorest, least educated and most disadvantaged group of citizens. The enormous challenges they face only intensified this year in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war that began not far from their homes near the Gaza border.
About 300,000 Bedouin live in the Negev—out of some 350,000 in all of Israel. While the Bedouin, who descend from nomadic Muslim Arab tribes, constitute just 3 percent of the total population of Israel, they make up roughly a quarter of the population of the Negev. Bedouin towns and villages consistently rank on the lowest socioeconomic rung in the country. Bedouin youth have the lowest high school matriculation rate and the highest dropout rate (17 percent dropout compared to 3 percent among Jewish students).
Bedouin women face the additional challenge of living in a patriarchal society in which polygamy is not uncommon and girls are often married off early, some as young as 13, even though the legal age of marriage in Israel is 18.
On top of this, a land dispute
with the State of Israel has left about 100,000 Bedouin in the Negev living in encampments, known as “unrecognized villages.” These communities, including Bin Nasser’s, lack electricity, running water, internet and paved roads. Due to the dispute, every year thousands of homes are demolished by the state, which maintains they have been illegally built.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, these unrecognized Negev communities have been subjected to heavy rocket fire but lack bomb shelters, safe rooms and air-raid sirens. Often the Iron Dome doesn’t intercept missiles headed for the remote places where they live. In fact, the only casualty of Iran’s massive drone and missile attack on Israel in April was a 7-year-old Bedouin girl who was seriously injured by shrapnel at her home in an unrecognized village.
Since Hamas first launched its 2023 attacks, at least 22 Bedouin have been killed, either shot by terrorists on October 7 or killed by rocket fire from Gaza.
In addition, eight Bedouin were kidnapped, four of whom remain in
Hamas captivity, with one believed to be dead. Three others were freed, including one who was rescued in August, and one who was mistakenly killed by Israel Defense Forces’ fire while attempting to flee.
Thirteen Bedouin were recognized as heroes from October 7 for saving other Israelis fleeing the Hamas attackers, particularly at the Nova music festival. Among them was Yousef Ziadna, a 48-year-old minibus driver from the town of Rahat, who rescued some 30 festival-goers.
Many bedouin say they feel victimized by both Hamas and by Israel. As Israeli citizens, they have been suffering Hamas attacks. But they also feel the pain of civilians in Gaza, where many have relatives. Expressing that concern or any kind of identification with Gazans has at times enraged Jewish Israelis. Adalah, the legal center for Arab minority rights in Israel, has defended at least 95 university students who have been suspended, expelled or even arrested for posts on their private social media accounts, usually for citing quotes from the Koran or for expressing solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Despite these numerous obstacles, Bedouin women in recent years have been blazing new trails in their traditional community—graduating from
high school, pursuing higher education and entering the job market.
About 20 to 25 percent of Bedouin women work outside their homes, about double the rate of a decade ago. Most opt for traditional vocations like teaching and nursing. Yet a small but growing number are becoming pioneers in other professions, such as doctors, lawyers, scientists, academics and, lately, in high tech.
“Siraj Technologies is the first place I have worked, and it’s perfect for me,” says Bin Nasser, who studied software engineering at Sami Shamoon College of Engineering in Beersheva. “It’s comfortable that nearly all the workers are Bedouin; it feels like family.”
The company was founded seven years ago by the nongovernmental organization (NGO) of the same name, Siraj, which strives to expose the Bedouin community to science and technology and integrate members into the country’s high-tech sector. According to data from 2021, 1 percent of high-tech professionals in Israel are Bedouin.
“Even if there are talented Bedouin software engineering graduates, they find it hard to break into Israeli high tech, both because they lack the networking that is so important in that field and because they lack role models,” explains Fahima Atawna, who, until recently, served as executive director of the NGO Siraj.
The company, located in a sleeklooking industrial park in Beersheva, seems to be a place where there is little friction between modernity and Muslim tradition. “Workers here don’t need to explain why they need to step out now for prayer, or why they need to fast on Ramadan,” she says.
Atawna is something of a trailblazer herself. The 40-year-old resident of the Bedouin township of Hura has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, a master’s degree in public health and is also a certified ambulance driver and medic —a far cry from her own mother, who was illiterate.
“If my mother missed the boat because she didn’t know how to read or write, we will miss the boat if we don’t know how to use technology,” says Atawna, who, in August, became vice president of community outreach and resource development at Synergy7, a consortium that aims to establish cutting-edge R&D labs in Beersheva.
At present, five of the 25 engineers, all Bedouin, employed at Siraj Technologies are women. But company manager Othman Alshedh expects this ratio to increase dramatically given the number of women currently studying science and engineering in university.
Indeed, women made up 43 percent of Bedouin engineering and architecture students in 2019, compared to just 16 percent in 2007, according to a report by NAS Research and Consulting based on figures from the Council for Higher Education in Israel. Of the 168 Bedouin university students studying a range of quantitative sciences in 2020-21, 77 percent were women. Of the 203 Bedouin studying medicine and related fields in the same year, 84 percent were women.
The figures reflect shifts in the traditional Bedouin society, where women have been expected to marry young, raise children and run the household. The uptick in the number of girls studying is attributed to several factors. These include the success of various programs aimed at encouraging this trend; improvement in infrastructure, such as roads that enable greater access to schools; and more flexible attitudes among some Bedouin tribes and families regarding women’s roles. And then there is the sheer determination of individual Bedouin women.
One 32-year-old female interviewee, who asked not to be named, put it this way: “In my generation, a woman knows that either you get married during or right after high school—or you go on to study in university. That’s the only thing that can save us from having to marry young.”
Nadaa Alkraan is part of the young generation of Bedouin women aiming high. The third-year computer
science student at Ben-Gurion University was one of some 40 young Bedouin—–34 of them women—who visited the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Jaffa last year, as part of an enrichment program.
“How do you say innovation in Arabic?” asks an Arabic-speaking guide at the Peres Center. “Ibtikar,” pipe in several of the young women, all wearing dark hijabs that formed a striking silhouette against the neon-colored screens telling the story of Israeli high tech.
Alkraan hopes to be part of that story one day. “My dream is to set up my own startup,” says the petite 21-year-old who is the first woman from her unrecognized village to attend university.
The 10th of 12 children in her family, she literally had to pave her way to get to where she is today. “Our village was always being flooded by the rain in winter. It was very difficult to walk to the main road, so we, the villagers, built our own path to the road,” she recalls. That facilitated access to many things, including afterschool programs like the one she attended at the Tamar Center, which organized the Peres innovation center visit for alumni.
The Tamar Center was founded in 2015 by Bedouin businessman and philanthropist Ibrahim Nsasra. Its goal is to identify and encourage outstanding Bedouin high school students from the some two dozen different tribes in Israel to study and succeed at STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
Hanan Jbarin is director of the computer science track in Tamar’s afterschool enrichment program, one of several programs run by the center. Part of her job is helping students overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of a higher education.
Last year was even more chal-
lenging because of the war. The afterschool program, ordinarily held in Beersheva, was moved to Hura, a Bedouin township, because parents were afraid to let their children frequent a predominantly Jewish city when the overall climate in the country was so tense.
But even without that additional complication, Jbarin has her work cut out for her.
“When they enter my class, they are in culture shock,” says Jbarin, herself a graduate of a Tamar Center program. “Not only have many of these students never met with Jews— many have not even met Bedouin from another tribe.”
The first time Jbarin, a 24-year-old who lives in Hura, asked for a boy and a girl to volunteer for an activity together, her students were alarmed. “In the community, a girl can’t speak to any boys, not even to her male cousin,” she says. “In my classroom, I encourage and expect girls and boys to speak to each other.”
Over time, she says, they adapt. “I tell them: ‘You will get to university and that is the first shock you will have—it’s not the world you know. Sometimes what is hard isn’t the studies, but the things around it. I want to help you get used to what’s ahead.’ ”
While the growing number of Bedouin women opting to pursue higher education is impressive, it makes it easy to overlook some of the less glamorous but significant milestones reached by other women in the community in recent years. Merely working outside the home or driving are acts that, for many, require courage and determination.
Sahar, a 39-year-old mother from Rahat, the largest Bedouin town
with its 80,000 residents, exemplifies that spirit. Nearly 20 years ago, she decided to get a driver’s license. “My husband objected; it wasn’t acceptable for women to drive then,” she says. “When I wouldn’t give in, he expelled me from our home, and I went back to live at my parents’ home.
“We came close to divorce,” recalls Sahar, who preferred not to give her last name. But she continued to take driving lessons, with the support of her father. After obtaining her license, she moved back in with her husband, eventually giving birth to and raising six children.
“I knew one day things would change and women would be able to drive and have opportunities, and I wanted to be ready,” she explains.
Today, like an increasing number of Bedouin women, particularly the younger ones, she drives to work— with her husband’s full consent. “He saw that the world had changed,” she says with a triumphant smile.
Sahar works for Nazid, a catering company located in Idan Hanegev industrial park, on the outskirts of Rahat. She is one of 30 employees, predominantly Bedouin women, at the company, which prepares and transports packed meals to tens of thousands of school children around the country and to some businesses and organizations, including the IDF, a new client that signed up
during the war.
“Our vision was always to provide a place of employment for Bedouin women,” Eman Alatawneh, Nazid’s human resources director, says. “Men in our society can work anywhere; they can travel across the country for a job. For women, whose actions are scrutinized more carefully, it’s more challenging.”
Like the tamar center, nazid was also founded by Nsasra, the philanthropist. “We have a lot of divorced women, single mothers and older women on our work force,” Alatawneh says.
The 33-year-old, who has a master’s degree in public policy and management from Ben-Gurion University, is believed to be the first Bedouin director of human resources in the country. “Before I started this job,” she says, “I sought out someone in the field from my community to learn from but there was no one.” Instead, she was directed to a 1,400page Hebrew textbook on the subject, which she read in a month and keeps accessible on her phone.
However, there were some challenges that no textbook could have prepared her for. Soon after the Hamas attacks on October 7, she found herself comforting a Jewish employee who had been surrounded by terrorists at her home in Ofakim on that day. To allay the Jewish
employee’s fears of returning to work in Rahat, Alatawneh beefed up security measures at the factory to ensure that no outsiders could enter. Not only did the employee return to work, Alatawneh recalls, “she even came to a company event in Rahat to mark the end of Ramadan and joined in the singing and dancing.
“No matter what happens outside,” Alatawneh continues, “I can say that within the workplace we have managed to create an island of sanity, where we see one another as people.”
Alatawneh is one of those Bedouin women who pay a steep personal price for pursuit of a better future. She still recalls the euphoria she felt after completing her undergraduate degree at Sapir Academic College: “I came out a different person, ready for the world. By 24, I felt I had everything I needed to succeed: a degree, a driver’s license, Hebrew and self-confidence.”
A few years later, she married but ended up getting divorced after her husband would not support her professional aspirations. But she has no regrets. “I am proud I made the choices I made,” she declares.
The Bedouin women breaking new ground in Israel have had to overcome numerous challenges—some personal, like Alatawneh, and others more practical, like Bin Nasser, the software engineer, who contends with limited electricity and unreliable internet at home, and the lack of bomb shelters during times of war.
“For some Bedouin women, it’s a real struggle for survival,” says Fahima Atawna, the former head of Siraj. “But despite this, you see women with such hope and ambition—they are determined to be in a good place, a good modern place.”
A Medical Emergency
Combating the shocking rise of antisemitism in health
care
By Hilary Danailova
Back in february, when my regular doctor was out, I had an appointment with her substitute, a young Jewish woman whose long skirt and headband read as observant to me, though they wouldn’t have been obvious to most. What was obvious was the “I support Israel” pin on her white coat.
I marveled at her courage. In the doctor’s presence, I felt both at home and relieved. If she saw the note in my chart specifying my ethnicity as Ashkenazi Jewish, I knew she wouldn’t treat me any differently.
She might well have felt the same. Just a few years ago, conflicts in the Middle East felt largely removed from the day-to-day world of medicine in the United States, where the standard for the profession’s core mission—helping people—was to transcend politics and identities. That changed significantly after October 7.
While both antisemitism and antiIsrael sentiment had been rising in recent times, including within health care, the Hamas attacks on Israel accelerated the trend. Jewish students and professors on medical school
campuses say they were taken aback by the outpouring of anti-Israel schadenfreude. Incidents have included direct harassment, such as when a student at Georgetown University Medical School direct messaged “Free Palestine” to Jewish peers during a Zoom class lecture, as well as official statements from student organizations. In one example, the American Medical Student Association—one of the oldest independent student health care groups in the country—issued a statement expressing solidarity with student protests across the country and demanding “immediate action to address the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Instead of the support they expected from peers, Jewish practitioners in hospitals, clinics and health care facilities have found themselves marginalized for perceived Zionist sympathies, attacked on social media and shunned in professional forums.
In response, Jewish health care workers and students in America are turning to—and, in some cases, forming—Jewish medical groups for support. In the past year, more than 3,000 physicians, dentists, nurses, chaplains and other health professionals as well as students in medical schools have found community and purpose in the nascent American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA).
In September, its representatives joined the Jewish Federations of North America on Capitol Hill to
urge Congress to address the surge in antisemitism in health care.
Existing Jewish medical organizations and advocacy groups— including Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association and Maimonides societies (as Jewish medical students’ organizations are often called)—have stepped up efforts to combat harassment, counter misinformation and foster Jewish solidarity. Hadassah, with its long-standing involvement in medicine here and in Israel, has mobilized its Physicians Council and Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Council.
Also in September, Hadassah co-sponsored AJMA’s No Hate in Healthcare rally in New York City, where former Hadassah National President Ellen Hershkin was among the speakers. New York City plastic surgeon Dr. Ira Savetsky—husband of pro-Israel influencer Lizzy Savetsky— shared at the rally that he received threatening phone calls and messages at his home and office after offering to treat Israeli victims of October 7 for free.
Among the medical professionals and students interviewed for this article, there is a profound sense of disillusionment at the degree to which anti-Jewish hate, often couched in anti-Israel
rhetoric, is flourishing in a healing profession traditionally seen as friendly to Jews—and in a society highly attuned to minority sensitivities. “We were asleep at the wheel,” said Dr. Yael Halaas, a Manhattan plastic surgeon who spearheaded the WhatsApp group of beleaguered health professionals that coalesced in the weeks after October 7 into the AJMA. “But doctors have a real collaborative sense of when there’s an emergency.”
The daughter of an Argentine Jewish mother and a Cuban father, Dr. Halaas grew up as a double minority —a Latin American Jew steeped in family tales of fleeing Havana’s communist revolution and Argentina’s fascist regime. That legacy informed her fight against the hate she saw on social media, including comments from medical students and even fellow physicians who celebrated October 7 and made references to “bloodthirsty Zionists,” she said.
Like many others, Dr. Halaas was also struck by the silence of medical and academic institutions following the massacre—a glaring contrast to the loud condemnations that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just 11 of approximately 42 major professional medical associations in the United States made a statement about the violent attack on Israelis, while 31 condemned Russia’s invasion, according to a November 2023 article in Tablet magazine.
“You realized how encased these institutions are in structural antisem-
itism,” said Dr. Halaas, who is also president of the board of Widows and Orphans of the Israel Defense Forces. “And it speaks to how poor a job the Jews have done at representing and defining ourselves.”
Indeed, prior to late 2023, there was no central organizing body for American Jewish medical professionals.
The AJMA “should have started 50 years ago,” observed Michelle Stravitz, its executive director, noting that medical societies have long existed for Palestinians as well as for other ethnic groups in America.
A Jewish nonprofit leader based outside Washington, D.C., Stravitz was recruited in January, around the time the AJMA received its nonprofit status in a rapid six weeks. “The entire organization has moved at warp speed, both out of necessity and the incredible passion and commitment of its members,” she said.
The AJMA has partnered with more than a dozen Jewish and civil liberties organizations, including the UJA-Federation of New York, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. It hosts in-person events, most in New York City, as well as frequent Zoom sessions, including a June webinar on the sexual violence of October 7 that featured Israeli obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Dvora Bauman, director of Hadassah Medical Organization’s Bat Ami Center for Victims of Sexual Abuse.
AJMA has also launched chapters around the country and assembled a network of attorneys to assist members in fighting discrimination, including in employment matters.
A Jewish medical student who organized an AJMA chapter on a
small Ohio campus—and spoke on the condition that her name and institution be withheld to avoid professional repercussions—said she was seeing “a rise in new student-to-student discriminatory behaviors,” including antisemitic flyers with hateful parodies of the ubiquitous “Kidnapped” posters featuring the hostages being held in Gaza. The student became involved in activism after complaints to administrators went nowhere: “They were like, ‘That’s not in our sphere.’ ”
Seasoned medical professionals are also responding to the current climate. “It boggles my mind,” said Dr. Gil Rabinovici, a professor of neurology and radiology and director of the Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “There’s a constant attempt to minimize and normalize, and it really is against any value that I’ve been taught at this university about allyship and microaggressions.”
The neurologist grew up in Jerusalem, where his grandfather, Dr. Nathan Rabinovici, was the founding chair of the surgery department at the HMO. Well integrated into the Bay Area medical community, Dr. Rabinovici had long avoided conversations about his birth country, which he said tend to devolve into harangues based on simplistic progressive talking points. Berkeley “is the least tolerant place I’ve ever lived,” he said.
After October 7—shocked by hearing chants of “intifada, intifada, long live intifada!” within earshot of patient rooms from pro-Palestinian encampments nearby and other demonstrations—Dr. Rabinovici felt compelled to speak up. With a group of campus Jews and Israelis who
HEALTH
“found each other organically,” Dr. Rabinovici said, he led efforts to get officials to address the antisemitic hate speech at the medical school. The group’s fledgling effort also found support from the AJMA.
That solidarity emboldened the previously apolitical Dr. Rabinovici to take on a public advocacy role. Over the past year, he has been quoted in local and national media on issues like the ongoing controversy over Dr. Rupa Marya, a UCSF professor of internal medicine who has used X (formerly Twitter) to stoke anti-Israel sentiment.
Recently, she inflamed national debate with a September post that raised “concern” about a UCSF medical student from Israel; her posts cited supposed discomfort from the campus community about the presence of an Israeli who “participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating.”
UCSF Chancellor Dr. Sam Hawgood responded by condemning “the targeting of students on social media based on their national origins” and indicated he had “taken immediate action to address this situation.” Dr. Hawgood’s vague wording, which did not mention the Israeli student or Dr. Marya, prompted Dr. Rabinovici to offer his own condemnation in J. The Jewish News of Northern California of the USCF administration’s “failure to name anti-Israeli bias and anti-Jewish hate.”
“Most of my colleagues, even those who are very passionate about this cause, are scared to be named in public because the environment is one of intimidation and bullying,” he explained to Hadassah Magazine. “But I’m an Israeli. I’m not going to hide my beliefs or who I am.”
The collective efforts of physicians have yielded some victories. In July,
an article in Main Line Health’s Diversity, Respect, Equity and Inclusion Committee’s internal newsletter, circulated at Lankenau Medical Center in the Philadelphia suburbs, contained inflammatory language about the Israel-Hamas war. The article called Israel “an occupying army” and accused the IDF of stripping health care workers “down to their underwear” and depriving civilians of food, water and medicine. The newsletter sparked outrage among Jewish employees and community members, leading Jack Lynch, CEO of Lankenau’s parent organization, Main Line Health, to issue an apology.
“We pride ourselves on fostering a culture of respect.... We failed in meeting this commitment,” he wrote in an email to Main Line staff, citing the newsletter’s “inaccurate and biased accounts related to the Israel Hamas war.”
Lynch also met with leaders from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, the ADL and community rabbis for feedback, and added antisemitism education to Main Line’s required anti-bias and diversity training.
With its deep medical ties, Hadassah has galvanized other organizations to write a joint letter to the American Psychological Association urging action against antisemitism after news circulated in early 2023 of a “blacklist” of Chicago Jewish mental health practitioners. The incident also led to
the formation of the Association of Jewish Psychologists in March 2023, spearheaded by Chicago psychologist Beth Rom-Rymer, now president of the 1,200-member global group.
Hadassah leaders, including National President Carol Ann Schwartz and representatives from the organization’s Physicians Council, also recently urged the American Academy of Pediatrics to include antisemitism in a proposed resolution supporting research on the health impacts of bias, and to incorporate the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism into its practices.
Hadassah has also confronted the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA), an organization that represents 136 student medical associations worldwide, in a letter decrying what Hadassah calls “the dangerous and biased decision” of IFMSA to suspend its Israeli chapter in August, denying Israeli medical students access to cross-cultural collaborations and international fellowships. The IFMSA voted for a two-year suspension of the Federation of Israel Medical Students (FIMS) because of claims that the Israeli group lacks “morals and humanitarian values,” citing as evidence the Israelis’ disagreement with the IFMSA that their country’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide.
“Hadassah’s physician and health leaders are very engaged in fighting antisemitism in the health care arena, in all its forms, to ensure that health care providers and patients feel
safe and supported,” said Dr. Laura Brandspiegel, co-chair of Hadassah’s Physicians Council.
Not every professional organization has been hostile to Jews. When masked protesters, shouting and waving signs about Gaza, interrupted an annual assembly of the American Nursing Association in June, Toby Bressler, the longtime president of the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association, was comforted by the organization’s president. The latter saw that Bressler was in tears and sought her out.
“For me, as the descendant of Holocaust survivors, it brought up a whole lot of trauma,” said Bressler, an observant Jew who directs nursing at a large New York City academic medical center. She added that many at
the assembly “demonstrated allyship, which I appreciated.” Afterward, the nursing association issued a statement that explicitly denounced antisemitism. Bressler praises her own employer, which she is not at liberty to reference publicly, for issuing an immediate declaration of solidarity with its Jewish community after October 7 and including antisemitism in its diversity, equity and inclusion initiative (DEI). But she hears regularly about uncomfortable workplace interactions from her 2,400-strong membership, which includes more than a dozen chapters and represents Jews across the religious spectrum, including a growing number of men, many of whom have stopped wearing kippot to work.
“We’ve been mindful to hear
from our constituents, asking what they need, what would be helpful,” Bressler said, including launching support groups, stepping up advocacy and urging the inclusion of Jewish voices in DEI.
For her part, Dr. Halaas, AJMA founder, is optimistic. “I can’t see why we can’t cure antisemitism, the same way we have cured smallpox and polio,” she said. “In medicine, there is an almost religious dedication to the betterment of mankind; that is literally all of our lives’ work. We have to unabashedly speak out and work with our colleagues to define how we want humanity to be.”
Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.
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Wartime Innovation
Hadassah’s breakthrough techniques and technologies
By Wendy Elliman
The world changed on october 7, and with it, the medical landscape. Israel’s hospitals mobilized to provide critical care to those ambushed by terror and war— with the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem a key facility for many severe and complex cases, often adapting approaches and developing breakthrough solutions.
When sirens blared early that October morning, Dr. Meir Liebergall, longtime director of orthopedics at HMO and now head of its orthopedics and spinal rehabilitation department, was in Tel Aviv. “We didn’t yet know the magnitude of what was happening, but it was clearly a mass trauma event,” he said. “With 70 percent of victims of such events sustaining orthopedic injuries, my place was at Hadassah.” He reached Jerusalem in under an hour. The first helicopters landed minutes later.
As in earlier conflicts, at Hadassah, the needs of the injured have spurred new techniques and tech nologies, including reconstructing shattered joints and bones as well as extracting bullets.
Among the medical departments that have seen significant innovations is orthopedics, specifically personalized orthopedics. Personalized medicine—treatment tailored to the individual—has been around for over 20 years,
but it is new to orthopedics. It is also an area where Hadassah excels, using 3-D printing to help replace destroyed bone, cartilage and joints, tailoring them to the unique anatomy of each patient.
CT scans, Dr. Liebergall explained, enable the orthopedics teams to build a digital model of the injured area and then, using the uninjured joint or bone as a template “mirror image,” to measure the exact size and shape of the missing bone. These dimensions are then fed into a 3-D printer, which uses layers of strong yet lightweight and biocompatible titanium to fabricate a replica of the destroyed bone.
Lt. Col. Yonatan Bahat, a 48-yearold reserve brigadier commander, was fitted with a titanium shoulder joint created on a 3-D printer after his shoulder was shattered in Gaza. He had been leading his paratrooper brigade in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood when a terrorist
emerged from a tunnel and shot him at close range. Bahat, who had been in Gaza for 100 days, arrived at the Israel Defense Forces field headquarters in central Gaza with the shattered shoulder as well as heavily bleeding wounds in his chest, arms and legs.
In civilian life, Bahat runs Extreme Simulations, a private company that provides trainings and simulations for disaster and warfare response for the IDF and other organizations. His emergency treatment in Gaza was administered by one of his graduates, a 25-year-old female IDF paramedic. Evacuated under fire, he spent the next 10 days in an induced coma at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. It was five weeks before he was out of danger.
Two and a half months after arriving at Hadassah Ein Kerem, he was transferred to the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus with an artificial joint in his shoulder. “I’ve spent five months at Gandel, first as an inpatient and now as an outpatient,” he said. “I’ve worked hard, but without the patient-specific help I’ve received, I’d still be lying flat on a bed and unable to lift my arm to brush my own teeth.”
Likewise, Shilo Segev, a 21-yearold soldier in the Givati Brigade, can walk today because of a combination of personalized orthopedics and traditional bone grafting. Shot multiple times while on duty in Gaza’s Jabalia neighborhood, his most serious injury was to his leg. “I was sure I’d lose it,” he recalled. At Ein Kerem, his knee was temporarily secured with metal pins, carbon rods and clamps while doctors
constructed a 3-D printed model of the injured limb. “It showed us severe damage both to the knee and the upper thigh bone,” said Dr. Yoram Weil, head of the Orthopedic Trauma Unit. The crucial pieces of knee joint were printed in titanium, and a section of Segev’s pelvic bone was mapped out to graft into his thigh. With both procedures meticulously simulated on the 3-D printer prior to surgery, the reconstruction took less than two hours.
“I still have a long road, but I’m steadily improving and hope to regain full function,” Segev said.
Along with developing new technologies, Hadassah’s orthopedic surgeons have reversed an existing technique for safe removal of deeply embedded bullets and shrapnel. For the past decade, Dr. Josh Schroeder, head of HMO’s spinal deformities surgery department, has used surgical robots to pinpoint to the millimeter where to insert tiny spinal screws to stabilize and align damaged vertebrae. A year ago, with colleagues Drs. Liebergall and Leon Kaplan, he began utilizing the robot to remove objects rather than implant them.
His first such patient from the Israel-Hamas war was a soldier with a bullet lodged in his sacrum, the bone connecting the spinal column to the pelvis. “Left in place, it would affect the nerves to his legs or cause lead poisoning, so it had to come out,” Dr. Schroeder explained. “He was transferred to Hadassah Ein Kerem from another hospital that was equipped only for open spinal surgery, which would take half a day. Our minimally invasive procedure was over in 90 minutes.”
A surgical robot was programmed using CT scans and fluoroscopic images. It calculated exactly where the surgeons should enter the soldier’s
SHAPING THE MEDICAL ENVIRONMENT OF TOMORROW
While the battlefield has driven many of the medical advances this past year, research in unrelated areas at the Hadassah Medical Organization is ongoing. Breakthroughs have been made in the study of cancer and virology, among other disciplines, despite the many professional and personal challenges HMO and its staff have faced since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
“Hadassah continues as a leader in biomedical research,” said Dr. Eyal Mishani, director of HMO’s Research Fund and head of its Research and Development Division. “We believe that a hospital which invests in research, brings new treatments to its patients and exposes its physicians to new technologies will shape tomorrow’s medical environment.”
Among the developments at HMO this past year:
• Use of artificial intelligence in cancer care for more accurate and personalized treatment. HMO’s Cancer Research Institute has developed a model, known as MESiCA, which utilizes machine learning and natural language processing to detect unique patterns in the mutations that drive each patient’s cancer—enabling this to be done for the first time in routine clinical settings.
• Research on safely relieving the unbearable itching that many cancer patients experience as a result of the illness or its treatment. HMO’s Clinical Immunology
back to extract the bullet, avoiding damage to nearby nerves, vessels and organs.
“The perfect trajectory plotted by the robot has also helped us repair spinal fractures, extract bullet fragments and treat many other injuries since October 7 in this minimally invasive way,” Dr. Schroeder said.
and Allergy Unit has found that injecting a pharmaceutical called Dupixent (dupilumab)—commonly used to treat asthma and atopic dermatitis—blocks proteins that transmit the itching sensation to the brain and halts the irritation with just a few doses.
• Study of gender bias and its impact on treatment in Israeli and American emergency rooms. A recent HMO study found that women reporting pain are more likely to be perceived as overwrought and, therefore, their complaints are dismissed as exaggerated, while men, because they are viewed as stoic, are taken more seriously when expressing the same level of pain. This translates into women waiting an average of 30 minutes longer than men to see a physician and being less likely than men to receive painrelief medication, irrespective of their age, level of pain, health care provider or gender of the physician.
• Research identifying a critical link between lack of sleep and suicidal thoughts in 12- to 18-year-olds. With suicide the second leading cause of death in children and adolescents in the United States and in Israel, this finding by HMO’s Herman Dana Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry elevates insufficient sleep as a significant risk factor in suicide.
• Discovery that congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV), a relatively common virus that causes lifelong neurological deficits, can be reliably identified in saliva. This finding encourages routine screening in newborns, enabling intervention to reduce the impact of this virus. —Wendy Elliman
Whether with robots and 3-D printers or using traditional techniques, Hadassah physicians and researchers remain at the forefront of transforming health care, in peace and in war.
Wendy Elliman is a British-born science writer who has lived in Israel for more than five decades.
Hadassah’s Global Efforts
Speaking out for Israel and against antisemitism
Adapting Lessons Learned at Oxford for Our Members
Considering the exponential growth in antisemitism following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel— and my new role as Hadassah’s director of education and advocacy resources—I was determined to participate in a conference this summer on combating antisemitism through curricula, organized by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy (ISGAP).
When I was a graduate student pursuing two master’s degrees, much of my research and output had focused on antisemitism—including papers on online anti-Jewish hate and how the lack of clear definitions of Zionism and anti-Zionism can thwart productive conversation. Before flying to Oxford in July for the conference, I reread that academic work in preparation.
A Hadassah life member and former board member of Greater Atlanta Hadassah who is now focused squarely on Zionist and Jew-
ish education, I saw my attendance at the nearly 40 lectures in Oxford as an opportunity to brainstorm engaging and interactive programs for members—and to learn. Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident, Israeli politician and humans rights advocate who is today chairman of ISGAP, delivered a keynote speech to the 70-plus attendees on his “3-D” litmus test on when criticism of Israel is antisemitism: demonization, delegitimization and double standards. I got to know several Hadassah members in Oxford, among them Melanie Hughes, a college librarian and archivist and one third of the presidium leadership for the Louisville, Ky., chapter, and Amy Cooper from New York City, who serves as ISGAP’s chief development officer.
During the conference’s final two days, I presented a plan to develop a series of standalone modules that will include facilitator scripts, pre-recorded videos, handouts and other material to empower Hadassah members to identify antisemitism, understand its implications, recognize its tropes, navigate complicated conversations about Israel and Zionism and advocate.
After returning from Oxford, I began working with Diana Diner, Hadassah’s Zionist educator, to implement the plan (which will be made available on myHadassah. org) and to look for opportunities to incorporate some of the women honored by Hadassah as “18 Zionist Women You Should Know” into the programs.
—Wendy Kalman
Lea Milikowsky with her Hadassah certificate and pin
A
Bat
Mitzvah
Project Connects Teen to Hadassah
Lea milikowsky celebrated her bat mitzvah in June by performing a piano concert of some of her favorite Chopin nocturnes as well as Jewish classics like “Hatikvah,” “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” and “Adon Olam.” She interspersed the musical numbers with short, heartfelt speeches to her 100-plus guests on the grounds of her synagogue. A member of Chabad of Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego, where girls do not read from the Torah, Milikowsky said that she chose to observe her coming-of-age with music “as a great way to express myself.”
And to express her love for Israel, she chose to partner with Hadassah.
“After October 7, I felt a strong connection to Israel and wanted to help,” the 13-year-old said in an interview. “I wanted to do something meaningful for my bat mitzvah project.
“My mom and I spent time researching different charities online,” Milikowsky continued, “and that’s how we found Hadassah. Hadassah stood out because they help both people and soldiers, and I felt like that was the most meaningful way to make an impact.”
After connecting with Deanna Migdal, area engagement director for Hadassah West, Milikowsky opted to raise money for the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus—which was made easier when Migdal created a unique QR code that Milikowsky included in her invitations.
Because of her advocacy and her guests’ generosity, the teen, who requested donations instead of gifts, raised $8,300 for the Gandel center.
Jan Sabran-Wolfert, president of Hadassah San Diego, attended the bat mitzvah on June 9 and presented Milikowsky with a certificate and pin in acknowledgment of her support.
Now, Milikowsky’s mother, Nadya Spivack, is looking to make her own Hadassah connections by joining Evolve, a community of younger members.
“It’s so crucial for women in Israel to have access to good health care, especially after terrible events like October 7, when so many women were affected,” Spivack said about her interest in Hadassah. “I want to help make sure Jewish women always have somewhere to go for help and support, no matter what they’ve been through.”
—Libby Barnea
Calling out the United Nations
Hadassah volunteers and leaders had a strong presence at the United Nations this fall as leaders from around the world converged in New York City for General Assembly meetings.
On September 18, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a biased resolution that effectively strips Israel of the right to self-defense
in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem while not acknowledging Hamas’s terrorist attacks against Israel. In response, Hadassah National President Carol Ann Schwartz published an op-ed in Newsweek, titled “The United Nations Again Reveals Its True Colors Regarding Israel,” that calls on world leaders to act independently to hold Hamas accountable for killing, kidnapping and raping civilians on October 7.
“Hamas violated the rights of not only Jewish and Arab Israelis,” Schwartz writes, “but also citizens of 25 countries. More than half of the hostages taken were citizens of countries other than Israel, including the United States, Argentina, Germany, France, Thailand, the Philippines, and more.”
Meanwhile, Hadassah represen-
MARCH TO RECOVERY
Supporters of Hadassah International around the globe—from Paris (above) to Hong Kong to Mexico City and elsewhere— took part in a March to Recovery campaign on October 8 via a series of walks, cycling events, basketball games and other active commemorations as a declaration of collective strength one year after the Hamas attacks on Israel. The events also highlighted the importance of rehabilitation in the healing process, with a special focus on the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, which staged its own gathering that same day (left).
tatives participated in September meetings with foreign ministers in New York City alongside other Jewish and Zionist organizations to urge the United Nations and individual countries to designate Hamas as a terrorist organization and hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity, including for weaponizing sexual violence.
Hadassah leaders also spoke out about Hamas’s weaponization of sexual violence during a September 6 meeting in New York City of the newly formed United Nations-affiliated End Antisemitism and Promote Peace Committee. And on September 20, Hadassah co-sponsored and joined a Hostages Family Forum rally in New York City to demand Hamas safely release the hostages still being held captive in Gaza.
Perennially Popular Barcelona
Peeling back Jewish history in Catalonia | By
Hilary Danailova
Deep in the heart of barcelona’s famous Gothic Quarter is a synagogue out of a Jewish joke: It’s the one nobody attends. The grandly named Sinagoga Mayor (Great Synagogue) sounds like it ought to be the city’s central temple. Instead, it’s the site of excavated ruins
of what some scholars believe is Barcelona’s medieval central synagogue. Spooky and atmospheric, the series of basement rooms have no congregation and host no routine worship. But it is a tourist staple and advertises its availability for foreigners’ bar and bat mitzvahs.
This is the Jewish Barcelona most Jewish tourists see. Americans often visit Europe for history and heritage, and the capital of Spain’s Catalonia
region obliges with the remnants of a medieval Jewish district known as El Call (pronounced “al kye”), a center of Sephardi life before the Jews’ expulsion. Here the observant passerby can discern Hebrew letters etched into the alleys’ damp stone walls, though most dwellings were last inhabited by actual Jews long before Columbus sailed.
What sets Barcelona apart from most European cities, from a Jewish
perspective, is how distinct its modern Jewish community is from that Sephardi heritage. Today’s Jewish Barcelona, with some 6,000 residents, is served mostly by a handful of synagogues in nondescript uptown buildings far from the tourist scrum. There, amid dental offices and hair
WHAT TO SEE AND DO
Barcelona boasts the world’s only Michelinstarred restaurant to offer a kosher menu. Xerta , upon request and under Chabad supervision, will prepare kosher versions of its lauded coastal-inspired cuisine. Tucked into a hotel in the uptown Eixample district, Xerta lies midway between the Gothic Quarter and the hilly zones that are home to most Jewish institutions (and families).
The Eixample—really a sprawling collection of elegant 19th century neighborhoods—is also home to some of Antonio Gaudí’s best-known masterworks . Here you’ll find two landmark buildings, La Pedrera-Casa Milà and Casa Battlò, on Barcelona’s main shopping boulevard of Passeig de Gràcia, and the Sagrada Família church nearby.
Near the Chabad center in Les Corts, an uptown residential area, is Taím , a kosher cafe beloved by visiting Jews for its takeout meals and Shabbat catering. The city’s oldest modern synagogue, Comunidad Israelita de Barcelona , is nearby, as is the Comunitat Jueva Atid de Catalunya , the Masorti congregation. Both welcome visitors with advance notice.
In the Gothic Quarter, kosher eateries are right on iconic tree-lined Las Ramblas , which slices through the medieval center and links the central Plaza Catalunya with Barcelona’s waterfront. Just steps from the Teatre Liceu, the city’s opera house, Restaurant Maccabi offers an elegant kosher oasis from Spain’s ubiquitous ham-and-shrimp menus, with a selection that includes Spanish specialties like paella (chicken or vegetable) and stuffed eggplant.
salons, the majority of Jewish life takes place. These are congregations that have coalesced within the past century, indeed most in recent decades. Their constituents are an eclectic
tors, British retirees and North African French restaurateurs. They are only the latest to discover Barcelona, which has attracted newcomers since classical times to its port on Spain’s mountainous Northeast coast, about two hours’ drive
Also off Las Ramblas is the popular Boquería , Barcelona’s famous central covered market, where hungry tourists will find popular kosher takeout spot Shani’s Falafel . (This part of Barcelona is also one of Europe’s most infamous pickpocketing hotspots; don’t bring anything extraneous and keep a firm hand on your wallet or purse.)
Nearby, the historic Jewish quarter, El Call , is tucked into the city’s medieval core, roughly bounded by the streets Banys Nous (a Catalan reference to the Jewish ritual baths once located on this street), Sant Sever, Bisbe and the Plaça Sant Jaume. Aside from a few Hebrew inscriptions on the narrow walls of Carrer del Call, the district’s eponymous thoroughfare, and the Sinagoga Mayor —the excavated ruins thought to be the site of the city’s main medieval synagogue—Barcelona’s Sephardi Jewish heritage is most evident in its place names.
While the sights are open by day—including a Chabad-run souvenir shop for kosher wine and books on Honoré Street—the best time to wander the quarter is late at night. After bars have closed and most tourists have left, one can easily imagine medieval Jewish life amid the winding alleys.
El Born , the trendier half of Barcelona’s medieval district, lies across Via Laietana from the Gothic Quarter. It is home to the Picasso Museum , featuring predominantly early works by the young artist testing his technique and experimenting with style.
The best way to experience El Born’s Palau de la Música Catalana , a fabulous Modernist landmark, is to attend a concert in its lavish but intimate theater. Nearby, the Parc de la Ciutadella is a favorite picnic spot; at its southern end is Barcelona’s worthwhile zoo.
Sunny, mild weather makes the city’s waterfront appealing year-round. Starting in Barceloneta , the beachside neighborhood adjacent to El Born, a wide, sandy strip extends north for miles, lined by a promenade dotted with the beach bars known as chiringuitos and thronged by bicyclists and rollerbladers.
To the south, the Gothic Quarter is bounded by a vertiginous green bluff known as Montjuïc —“Mountain of the Jews” in old Catalan, the site of a vanished medieval Jewish cemetery. Today, apart from magnificent views over the city and sea, Montjuïc offers a light-filled museum dedicated to artist and native son Joan Miró, shady botanical gardens and a palace complex that leads to the National Museum of Catalonia.
from the French border. The first Jewish community here dates back 2,000 years to the Roman period; a distinctive Catalan identity predates Barcelona’s incorporation into modern Spain.
As is true for its jews, catalonia’s capital city has seen its fortunes wax and wane over the centuries. Along with its northern neighbor, Girona, Barcelona was a center of Jewish merchant and intellectual life during the 12th and 13th centuries. It hosted legendary rabbis like Moses Ben Nachman, a Talmudic sparring partner of Maimonides known as Nahmanides, and Shlomo Ben Adret, for whom a major Gothic Quarter street is named. The latter’s family home has been renovated and opened to the public as Casa Adret, a Jewish cultural center.
During the century preceding the 1492 conquest of all of Spain by Catholic rulers King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella, however, Catalonia’s approximately 4,000 Jews were subject to a campaign of persecution. While some converted, most fled east
to seek refuge in the Ottoman Empire. With its intellectual class decimated by the loss of Jewish and Arab scientists and doctors, Spain went into a long decline. By the early 20th century, Barcelona was a cultural backwater.
The contemporary phenomenon known as Barcelona—the city whose hyper-popularity has made it the nexus of Europe’s contemporary anti-tourism movement that decries the resultant rising housing costs and teeming crowds—was born under the international Olympic spotlight in 1992, when officials debuted a glittering Mediterranean waterfront on the erstwhile site of an industrial port. Alongside a palm-lined promenade, tons of imported sand transformed a workaday fishing town into a global beach destination that now welcomes almost 16 million tourists annually. The resulting attention has also renewed interest in the city’s 19th-century architectural splendors, including Art Nouveau masterpieces and the surreal concoctions of Antoni Gaudí.
Even if you’ve visited before, you may be shocked by just how packed the popular districts are, especially in
summer, and how thoroughly foreign speech has saturated even peripheral neighborhoods where Catalan was until recently the lingua franca.
Those looking for the “real” Barcelona should accept that the city has been globalized past the point of return by both tourists and transplants; its authentic self is now multiethnic, multilingual and culturally syncretic.
Amid this renaissance, Barcelona’s largely expat and immigrant Jewish community boasts five synagogues, among them the Orthodox Comunidad Israelita de Barcelona, which became the first modern congregation when it was founded by German Ashkenazim in 1918. More recently, the community has welcomed a lively Chabad center, a Masorti (Conservative and egalitarian) synagogue, a progressive shul and—bringing Jewish life here full circle—a small but growing Orthodox congregation in the Gothic Quarter, reviving ritual life in El Call after more than 600 years.
Hilary Danailova writes about travel, culture, politics and lifestyle for numerous publications.
ISRAEL’S FUTURE: ONE JEWISH STATE
Bold Vision for Sovereignty and Peace
For years, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been a powder keg, threatening global stability. The endless cycle of violence, failed negotiations, and shattered lives has le many disillusioned. But now, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman reveals a revolutionary solution in his explosive new book, One Jewish State.
As U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2017 to 2021, Friedman significantly strengthened U.S.-Israel ties, securing Jerusalem’s recognition as the capital and brokering the Abraham Accords. Nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and awarded the National Security Medal, he is a key advocate and expert in Middle Eastern diplomacy. His proposal is not just a plan; it’s a visionary goal for Israel to achieve complete sovereignty over its biblical homeland. Together, we can achieve this vision, bringing peace, prosperity, and dignity to Israel’s people.
Explore the Vision
Inside One Jewish State, Friedman explores:
• Historical Context: The complex historical backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Cultural Insights: The intertwined histories and shared cultural narratives of Jews and Muslims in disputed territories
• Legal Perspectives: Past, present, and future
Praise for One Jewish State
One Jewish State is more than a book; it’s a blueprint for a new era. It’s a call to embrace a future where Israel is a unified sovereign state, bringing peace, prosperity, and human dignity to all Israel’s inhabitants.
It is a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of Israel and the Middle East.
“God’s vision is, the best path to peace!”
— Mike Pompeo
“This IS the solution the world has been missing.”
legal challenges, with a comprehensive analysis of the legal frameworks impacting Israel’s sovereignty
• Failed Solutions: Critical insights into prior proposals and peace plans, and why they faltered in achieving lasting peace
• Geopolitical Analysis: Geographic and security considerations crucial to understanding the region’s complex dynamics
— Mike Huckabee
“David Friedman is a man of ideas.” — Alan Dershowitz
“When history judges those who have globally defended and strengthened Israel, David Friedman will be at the forefront.”
— Pastor John Hagee
“Friedman’s new book is essential reading for those who seek a better future for the Middle East.” Mark Levin
Inside the Mexican Jewish ‘Cocina’
Modern techniques and treasured family recipes |
hen margaret e. boyle
invited Ilan Stavans to an academic conference in Maine in 2016, neither had an inkling that it would be the beginning of a delicious—and prolific— friendship.
Boyle and Stavans, both scholars and professors of Latin culture—Boyle at Bowdoin College in Maine and Stavans at Amherst College in Massachusetts— quickly connected over their shared Mexican Jewish
Latkes con Mole
Serves 8
FOR THE LATKES
4 pou nds russet potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
1 medium yellow onion, peeled
1/2 cup potato starch
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 l arge eggs, lightly beaten Vegetable oil, for frying
FOR THE MOLE
2 t ablespoons vegetable oil
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 (8-ounce) jar prepared mole
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
By Adeena Sussman
heritage. Mexican-born Stavans moved to the United States in his 20s, while Boyle was born in California to a large Mexican Jewish family.
Lightning truly struck when they discovered they both had women in their families who had compiled Mexican Jewish cookbooks that, through recipes and stories, lent insight into the storied history of Jews in Mexico as well as the aromas and flavors of their cocinas Stavans’ mother, Ofelia Slomianski, had created a handwritten note book filled with the recipes mother, known as Bobe Miriam, forming a time capsule of Mexican Jew
2 ounce s bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
FOR SERVING
Crumbled queso fresco
1. Make the latkes: Line 2 large baking sheets with several layers of paper towels and set aside.
ish life since her emigration from Eastern Europe in the 1920s.
Boyle’s great-grandmother, Baba Malka Poplawski, had begun a similar notebook that her progeny annotated while she was still alive and cooking in Mexico City.
“We realized we were both sitting on goldmines,” Boyle said by phone from Maine. The two decided to expand on their legacies. They placed an advertisement in 2020 in Diario Judeo, Mexico’s largest Jewish newspaper, asking for additional recipes and stories from the contemporary Jewish communities all over Mexico. The result is Sabor Judio: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook,
2. Grate the potatoes and onion on the large holes of a box grater. (Or cut them into quarters and shred using the shredding disc of a food processor.) Working in batches, wrap the shredded potatoes and onion in a clean tea towel and squeeze out as much water as possible.
3. Add the shredded potatoes and onion to a large bowl along with the potato starch, salt and eggs. Mix until fully incorporated
4. In a large frying pan, heat 1/4 inch of oil over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Working in batches of 4-5, drop 1/4 cup of batter into the pan and press gently with a spatula to flatten slightly. Cook, flipping once, until browned on both sides and cooked through, 6-8 minute per batch, then transfer to the prepared baking sheets to drain.
5. Continue with the remaining latke mixture, adding more oil as necessary and adjusting the heat up or down if the latkes are browning too quickly or not quickly enough. The latkes can be kept warm in the oven while preparing the mole.
6. Make the mole: Heat the oil in a large saucepan set over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, until softened, 6-8 minutes.
7. Add a heaping tablespoon of the prepared mole, stirring to combine it with the onion, then add 1 cup of the broth. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to medium low and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reaches the consistency of thick soup.
8. Continue adding the prepared mole and the remaining broth, a little at a time, until both are completely used up. Continue cooking the mixture, stirring often, until it turns into a thick, rich sauce. Add the chocolate, stirring to melt, then remove from the heat.
9. Serve latkes hot, topped with mole and crumbled queso fresco.
which was published in October.
“The response was overwhelming in a good way,” Boyle said. “People really just wanted to share their stories.”
The respondents came from a cross-section of Mexico’s more than 40,000 Jews, the majority of whom live in Mexico City and whose history is remarkable for its diversity. There are the ancestors of Sephardi crypto-Jews, who went underground with their Jewish practice to survive the Spanish Inquisition. In the 1800s, a wave of Ashkenazi Jews came seeking refuge from persecution in Eastern Europe. Also represented are a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors and Jews who fled from countries like Syria, Turkey, Iran and Lebanon as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.
Some of those Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews were the parents and grandparents of Estrella Jafif, a celebrity chef who spent most of her career trying to sidestep her heritage, focusing instead on non-kosher recipes that she served at high-end catering events and the restaurants owned by her family. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, Jafif began
Olive Oil Cake
Serves 10-12
2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1/2 tablespoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cup whole milk
3 eggs
1 orange, zested
spending significant time in the kitchen with her relatives. She took copious notes on her family’s recipes and fused them with her own more modern dishes to create the Spanishlanguage cookbook, Cocina Estelar (stellar cooking), which was released earlier this year.
“My mother was born in Cuba, my maternal grandmother in Turkey, my mother-in-law in Lebanon and my paternal grandmother in Mexico, but she had a very marked Arab and Syrian influence,” Jafif said by phone from her home in Mexico City. “For them, practicing their cooking is preserving their traditions and their essence. What I like most is the unique mix that arises when you serve a Syrian kibbeh (fried stuffed bulgur) and Cuban chicken and rice at the same table. That’s how we ate in my house.”
Pati Jinich, perhaps the best-known Mexican Jewish food maven for her string of best-selling cookbooks and public television series, Pati’s Mexican Table, describes a similar amalgamation of Jewish heritage and native cooking techniques. “As Jews grew roots in Mexico they integrated local flavors, helping form a unique
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 c up Grand Marnier (optional)
FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
FOR THE DECORATION
Orange marmalade
6 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 c up pistachios, shelled, toasted and roughly chopped
Orang e zest
‘regional’ Jewish cuisine,” Jinich said. “The cuisine continues to evolve as Mexico evolves. My hope is that more and more people get to know how unique Mexican Jewish food is, which helps give a face to the community.”
Jafif’s Tamarind Chicken (find the recipe at hadassahmagazine. org/food) is the perfect fusion of an ingredient used in both Mexican and Mizrahi kitchens and would make a delicious centerpiece for a Hanukkah dinner. For a dairy holiday meal, try Latkes con Mole, a recipe that Stavans’ wife, Alison Sparks, adapted from her mother-in-law and that pairs a traditional savory, chocolatebased sauce with crisp-fried potato pancakes. And feel good about eschewing sufganiyot this year in favor of Jafif’s more healthful and sophisticated Olive Oil Cake.
Adeena Sussman lives in Tel Aviv. She is the author of Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Kitchen to Yours and Sababa: Fresh, Sunny Flavors from My Israeli Kitchen. Sign up for her newsletter at adeenasussman. substack.com.
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease a round cake pan with butter and flour.
2. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine olive oil, milk, eggs, orange zest and juice and Grand Marnier. Beat well.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth and uniform batter.
5. Pour the batter into the greased mold and bake for 45 minutes, until golden.
6. Make the whipped cream: Add cream and sugar to a mixer and whip until you have a thick and spreadable whipped cream. Fold in the pistachios with a spatula.
7. Slice the cake after it has cooled, place a dollop of whipped cream on top, then some marmalade and orange zest. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and toasted pistachios.
Remembrance of ‘Things’ Past
An Israeli-born artist brings her striking cultural mashups to Manhattan’s Jewish Museum |
By Robert Goldblum
In the opening section of his epic 1926 poem “Paterson,” William Carlos Williams lays down a marker, a revolutionary credo, for his generation of American poets: “Say it, no ideas but in things.”
It’s a mantra that seems to animate the work of Israeli photographer and collage artist Ilit Azoulay, whose new show at The Jewish Museum in New York City bears the unassuming but sly name, “Mere Things.” The works in the exhibition, which runs through early January, are, of course, not “mere things”; they bear the weight of Jewish memory.
As a creator of photomontages, Azoulay, a graduate of the prestigious Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem whose works have appeared at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City as well as other institutions, is a collector and reassembler of “things.” To create her works, she rummages around for months in the often dusty archives and back rooms of the repositories of Jewish history—venues like The Jewish Museum and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem—in search of objects she will photograph and then replant, so to speak, in modern times, giving them new life.
“Mere Things,” her first solo exhibition in the United States, features large-scale pieces from previous exhi-
bitions as well as a new photo collage created for this show. In it, the past and present are on a collision course. Azoulay digitally stitches together separate photos of objects into one image, sometimes in jarring ways that unmoor them from their original context, and places them in what look like enclosed frames.
“It’s like Ilit is digging back into history,” said James S. Snyder, The Jewish Museum’s director, who previously led the Israel Museum when it commissioned Azoulay to create an earlier series that included some of the works in “Mere Things.”
Take the cultural mashup in Vitrine No. 9: The return of things that are no more, from 2017, which uses images of artifacts she found in the Israel Museum. The top half of the work features a collection of colorful images, including an ornate copper chandelier, fragments of pottery, what looks like a Torah crown and an Indonesian puppet holding a squiggly walking stick. The bottom half of the image centers on a metal sculpture of a hulking prehistoric animal atop what could be a maroon ceremonial shawl set against a gold-leaf background. The whole piece is enclosed in a frame, focusing attention on the juxtaposition of the various elements.
“She spent three years at the museum,” Snyder said, “exploring
the physical foundation but also the storage rooms, the basement, the underground pathways. And she also interviewed a lot of staff members. The work was about the objects, but also about the memories and reflections of staff members.”
It was about the “ideological archeology of the museum,” he said, as well as the objects and artifacts, many of which have been overlooked for decades.
“It’s the notion,” Snyder continued, noting the guiding principle behind Azoulay’s body of work, “of all things connecting across time and cultures” —even to the present moment.
Acknowledging how fraught the present moment can be for Israeli artists, Snyder said, “We are certainly among the very few museums in the U.S. and internationally that is showcasing an Israeli artist during these complex times. And it is important to do so, since cultural perspectives like Ilit’s, which are completely separate and apart from the politics of these times, take on that much more relevance now.”
The show at the jewish Museum spans 15 years of Azoulay’s career, much of it revealing an artist and archivist at the intersection of urban preservation and photography. In 2010’s Tree for Too One, she uses discarded items found in soon-to-be demolished homes in south Tel Aviv—a rusted bolt, a pair of jeans, a bright red toy. And in 2014’s Shifting Degrees of Uncertainty, she includes over 85 individually framed prints of items photographed from cities around Germany. (She currently lives in Berlin.)
A FLOOR THAT LOOKS TO THE STARS
A colorful mosaic installation is an artist’s final public work |
By Stewart Kampel
About half a year ago, Dr. Mark Podwal, a New York City dermatologist with a parallel vocation as one of the foremost artists of the Jewish experience, was in Israel visiting archaeological sites when he came across remnants of a mosaic floor depicting the Jewish zodiac in what was once a synagogue.
“In all of early Jewish art, no single motif has aroused more surprise and scholarly interest than the zodiac mosaic floors,” Dr. Podwal said in an interview for Hadassah Magazine in September, less than two weeks before he passed away at the age of 79.
Recreating the zodiac motif in his contemporary yet whimsical style for a mosaic floor in the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue, part of the Museum at Eldridge Street in New York City’s Lower East Side, was Dr. Podwal’s final major public work. He died a few months after its unveiling.
The zodiac is a recurring motif in Jewish folk art and architecture from medieval times to today, linking Jewish ritual and cyclical celebration with local traditions and visual cultures. Mosaic zodiacs have been found in the remains of synagogues dating back to the Roman Empire, and 17th century synagogues in Poland and Ukraine featured painted zodiac designs on walls and ceilings.
Indeed, it was their use in synagogues that intrigued the artist. “I knew that zodiac iconography turned up in synagogues in Israel from the 6th and 7th century,” Dr. Podwal said. “I decided to do the zodiac floor in a new way.”
Fabricated and installed by artisans from Progretto Arte Polo, a workshop based in Verona, Italy, the 8- by 24-foot floor, set in a foyer before the main sanctuary, consists of over 300,000 colored tiles. Each astrological sign is imbued with Jewish meaning and paired with a Hebrew letter—the first letter of the Hebrew name of the month associated with that sign—and placed in a rich, blue-tiled background.
Dr. Podwal’s mosaic image of the kaf , the first Hebrew letter in Kislev, is embedded with a bow and arrow; a bow, or keshet in Hebrew, is the Jewish symbol for that month. And since Hanukkah begins in Kislev, the artist used a dreidel as the point of the arrow. The subsequent month in the calendar, Tevet, is represented by a tet
Azoulay, whose parents moved to Israel from Marrakesh, Morocco, in the mid-20th century, appears to have
with a capricorn, a mythological creature with the body of a goat and tail of a fish. Here, the sea goat holds a menorah, another nod to the festival of Hanukkah, which extends into the first two days of Tevet.
Dr. Podwal’s art career was launched in the 1970s, when he started drawing political cartoons for The New York Times opinion pages while he was a resident at New York University Hospital. He went on to author and illustrate over a dozen children’s books as well as illustrate many other texts. His art is deceptively simple, employing metaphors from Jewish legend, history and tradition to convey a host of meanings.
Dr. Podwal, whose pieces are held in nearly 80 museums worldwide, engaged in projects that touched on Jewish joy and pain. He designed Rosh Hashanah cards and decorative plates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and an embroidered textile for Prague’s 700-year-old Altneuschul. His art was animated for public television in A Passover Seder by Elie Wiesel, who became a close friend, and he designed the Congressional Gold Medal that President Ronald Reagan presented to Wiesel.
Assessing his friend’s career and impact, Dr. Barry Coller, a medical school classmate of Dr. Podwal’s and now vice president of medicine at Rockefeller University in New York City, said: “I think he has been the foremost Jewish visual interpreter of our generation. There are many Jewish artists, but Mark plumbed the visual symbols, lore and ethos of Judaism with deep knowledge and artistic mastery. His print series, ‘All This Has Come Upon Us,’ is a searing indictment of centuries of antisemitism.”
That series, created in 2014 for the Terezin Ghetto Museum, includes 42 paintings and drawings. The works span Jewish history from the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem through the history of persecution in Europe and the Holocaust.
It is that awareness of Jewish history and iconography that Dr. Podwal brought to the Eldridge Street Synagogue. The mosaic floor is the latest addition to the synagogue, built in 1887 during a period of mass Jewish immigration to the United States, when 75 percent of the 2.5 million Jewish arrivals first settled in the Lower East Side.
The synagogue flourished for 50 years, but beginning in the 1920s, it began to decline as many Jews moved elsewhere. Successful fundraising in the 1980s led to restoration and the founding of the Museum at Eldridge Street. In 1996, the synagogue was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural beauty and significance in the American immigrant experience.
Stewart Kampel was a longtime editor at The New York Times
the artistic urge to archive and document in her DNA. Her family owns a music store in the Israeli port city
of Jaffa, and she grew up listening to a wide range of Middle Eastern music. The shop, she told ArtReview
More than 70 leading Jewish authors, advocates, and rabbis share personal stories of what it means to be Jewish in the aftermath of October 7.
profits will be donated to Artists Against Antisemitism in paperback, eBook, and audiobook read by the contributors.
magazine in 2022, holds “an archive of vocal artists from all over the region. I saw my father and his brothers through the years recording and archiving more and more voices from the Middle East, creating a net of connected cultural histories, based on the natural understanding of being part of the region.”
Unity Totem, the new work in the exhibition, is drawn from The Jewish Museum’s collection and seems inspired by her upbringing as a child of Moroccan immigrants. While there are some items from European Jewry, most of the objects in the fanciful photo collage can be traced to the Arab world, including images of Torah finials from 19th century Tunisia and Yemen, a Torah pointer and Hanukkah lamp from Morocco and a green velvet pointed woman’s hat from Algeria.
The 19 pieces of Judaica appear suspended in Unity Totem, as if they are floating free or had just blown in from what could be an open window pictured at the right of the piece. Look closely, though, and the objects are tethered to thin strings that emanate from the green felt hat, atop which rests a Tunisian Torah finial and an unrolled Scroll of Esther from the Ottoman Empire. The overall image brings to mind a circus carousel, with the green hat as the point of the big top. A puff of smoke (ritual incense, perhaps) appears to waft out from under the hat toward the direction of the window, covering a number of the objects with a cloud-like haze, a sacred spirit moving over them.
In Unity Totem, Azoulay is creating her own net of connected cultural histories, binding an 18th century shofar from Europe to an amulet necklace from late 19th or early 20th century Kurdistan to an Italian Torah crown in the shape of Venetian headgear.
In a way, there is a touch of magic, an aesthetic sleight of hand, in what Azoulay pulls off in Unity Totem. The 19 objects are, of course, separate and discrete—mere things, if you like. But in the collage, they are braided together under the big top of Jewish history, dancing free but held in a tender embrace by the spidery web to which they cling.
Across Environmental evaluation letters
Rap Doctor Hair goop
Jewish Writers Write What They Know
Jewish Writers Write What They Know
By Jonathan Schmalzbach
. ___ shalom
. Legendary gunfight
locale
. Charlottesville sch.
1. Environmental evaluation letters
. Tortoise partner in a 70down fable
4. Rap Doctor
7 Hair goop
10. shalom
. Per Wilde: ___ is someone who deprives you solitude without providing you with company.
14. Legendary gunfight locale
17. Charlottesville sch.
. No-pay transport letters
. Pearl Buck hero
18. Tortoise partner in a 70-down fable
44. Jewish actor Josh , who voices Olaf
46. Not alfresco
48. Clinker
50. Author Dunlop of “Women Are the Fiercest Creatures”
54. “ Fine Day”
55. Convened
57. Author Reddy “A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl”
. Young'un
. ___ cow (pitch a fit)
19. Per Wilde: is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.
. Holiday that can overlap with Thanksgiving, Christmas or the secular new year
. First __
. Author, publisher, podcaster and book maven
20. No-pay transport letters
21. Pearl Buck hero
. Rescuer of Odysseus, in myth
. Balaam's mount
. Pro vote
. 180° from NNW
22. Holiday that can overlap with Thanksgiving, Christmas or the secular new year
58. One way to run
61. Lit firecracker sound
64. Astonishment
66. F.I.C.A. funds it
67. Alt. spelling
68. Jewish value of repairing the world
74. "Bruce ___ Warrior's Journey" (martial arts documentary)
72. ___-A (drug used to treat chicken pox)
73. Inventor Howe
76. Timely new anthology edited by 29-across
DOWN
1. Baker’s unit
2. Unisex fragrance introduced in 1996
30. Sitcom co-star of Betty and Estelle
9. Beverly Hills' Restaurant Row
31. Prison part
10. "Oops!"
3. Come at (not be free)
11. Shore smell
on page 62
60. They are seen on some seder plates
51. They may administer IVs
33. “Aladdin” prince
62. Psychologist who wrote “Walden Two”
52. Asner and Begley
34. Gabriel, for one
35. Benchmark: abbr.
53. Great bond rating
63. Klondike gold rush city
56. What it takes to tango
82. Grant who sang "The Wayward Wind"
74. “Bruce Warrior’s Journey” (martial arts documentary)
4. Visit in one’s car
5. Tabula
12. Wiping out 13. Coop dweller
15. Baseball's "Big Papi"
38. Servi Machlin, who championed Italian Jewish cuisine
58. Author Dellaira
65. Singer Cass and family
59. Abandons at sea
25. Young’un
. "Cogito ___ sum"
. Hanukkah hash brown
26 . cow (pitch a fit)
83. Washington state public power syst.
84. Nice attempt
27. First
. Escort's offering
. Jewish actor Josh ___, who voices Olaf
. Not alfresco
29. Author, publisher, podcaster and book maven
. Clinker
. Author Dunlop "Women Are the Fiercest Creatures"
32. Rescuer of Odysseus, in myth
33. Balaam’s mount
. "___ Fine Day"
36. Pro vote
. Convened
37. 180° from NNW
. Author Reddy "A Girl Within a Girl Within s Girl"
38. “Cogito sum”
. One way to run
39. Hanukkah hash brown
. Lit firecracker sound
. Astonishment
. F.I.C.A. funds it
42. Escort’s offering
. Alt. spelling
. Jewish value of
repairing the world
85. Post-Shabbat meal
76. Timely new anthology edited by 29-across
6. Carrier whose name means “skyward”
16. Energy-channeling healing technique
7. Belly laughs
23. "Look here!"
8. Unfolds
24. Neon, e.g.
40. Rabbi Abraham Isaac
68. Golf supporter?
60. They are seen on some seder plates
69. West Hartford univ.
70. Famous fable name
41. Long, long time
62. Psychologist who wrote "Walden Two"
82. Grant who sang “The Wayward Wind”
86. Class-conscious org.?
87. Movie meet-cute, for one
9. Beverly Hills’ Restaurant Row
43. It’s the word
28. Scooby-___ (cartoon dog)
63. Klondike gold rush city
45. First name in advice
71. Hasan, onetime MSNBC host and critic of Israel
65. Singer Cass and family
83. Washington state public power syst.
10. “Oops!”
88. "Check this out!"
11. Shore smell
30. Sitcom co-star of Betty and Estelle
47. The Jewish people, today and always
68. Golf supporter?
75. Chipped in
69. West Hartford univ.
84. Nice attempt
89. "Don't give up!"
12. Wiping out
31. Prison part
49. Campus bigwig
70. Famous fable name
77. Tupperware’s take on the Stanley cup
85. Post-Shabbat meal
90. Triage sites, briefly
91. "___ Kapital"
86. Class-conscious org.?
Down
87. Movie meet-cute, for one
1. Baker's unit
88. “Check this out!”
13. Coop dweller
33. "Aladdin" prince
15. Baseball’s “Big Papi”
34. Gabriel, for one
16. Energy-channeling healing technique
51. They may administer IVs
35. Benchmark: abbr.
23. “Look here!”
71. ___ Hasan, onetime
78. “ on Down the Road”
52. Asner and Begley
MSNBC host and critic of Israel
79. Bonn was its cap.
53. Great bond rating
75. Chipped in
80. Boat in “Jaws”
2. Unisex fragrance introduced in 1996
89. “Don’t give up!”
90. Triage sites, briefly
24. Neon, e.g.
3. Come at ___ (not be free)
91. “ Kapital”
4. Visit in one's car
5. Tabula ___
6. Carrier whose name means "skyward"
38. ___ Servi Machlin, who championed Italian Jewish cuisine
28. Scooby(cartoon dog)
56. What it takes to tango
40. Famed Rabbi Issac ___
77. Tupperware's take on the Stanley cup
58. Author Dellaira
41. Long, long time
43. It's the word
59. Abandons at sea
45. First name in advice
47. The Jewish people,
81. Penultimate letters in the alphabet
78. "___ on Down the Road"
82. Republicans, for short
79. Bonn was its cap.
80. Boat in "Jaws"
81. Penultimate letters in
Stars, Light and Joy
Simply putting on a necklace with a jewish symbol today has become especially meaningful—an announcement of affiliation and pride. So, too, is the lighting of the menorah each night of Hanukkah. From jewelry to Judaica to home goods, these gift items proudly celebrate our community and support for Israel as well as honor the sorrow and resilience of this past year. For more items, go to hadassahmagazine.org.
NEEDLEWORK BOUQUET
Jerusalem-based Dorit Judaica specializes in colorful, intricate laser-cut metal pieces. Her Floral Harmony Menorah echoes the look of embroidered flowers for a bright, homey feel (from $110;
A WINNING HAND
Calling all Jewish mah jongg players: The Menschie Mahjong set has everything you love about the game, but with a unique twist. The hand-painted tiles feature Jewish themes. The green dragon tile depicts a menorah; the crack shows cracked pieces of matzah (naturally); and the joker has a bubbe offering soup. Designed by Dallas-based Goldielox—a company named after owner Vivien Judson’s affection for both Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and smoked fish—the brightly colored luxury set, Judson says, is an homage to the deep Jewish connection to the Chinese game (from $275; goldielox.com ).
A DRINK TO REMEMBER
In collaboration with the families of men and women abducted by Hamas, Israel-based Wines on the Vine has developed a selection of wines to raise awareness and express solidarity with the hostages and their families. Each bottle in its Wines of Hope series features a photograph and a personal story of a hostage. Among those highlighted are Noa Argamani, rescued in June, and Agam Berger, still in Gaza. A percentage of the proceeds supports the Hostages Families Forum (from $50 per bottle; wineonthevine.org ).
OUT OF THE BOX
HaSod in Tel Aviv is committed to helping Israeli small businesses impacted by the war by offering individual gift boxes with foods and products from the ravaged North and South (above, from $99) as well as curated
GET TAGGED
Miriam Merenfeld’s Words jewelry collection is a collaboration with podcaster and marketing expert Eitan Chitayat, creator of the #I’mThatJew campaign to combat antisemitism and amplify Jewish strength. The online campaign has reached millions on various social media platforms. These words come to life in the real world with Merenfeld’s sterling silver dog tags that feature a variety of statements from the campaign, including “That Brave, Proud, and Unafraid Jew” and “That Proud, Unapologetic Zionist Jew” (from $160; miriammerenfeld.com ).
LIGHT IN 3-D
Tel Aviv-based Armadillo Judaica Lovers specializes in working with modern 3-D technology and geometric forms and repeating shapes for its innovative Judaica. its latest menorah, a 2024 Etsy Design Award finalist, is created using a clay 3-D printer. The menorah’s sleek repeating vase silhouette is a nod to the olive oil vessel that, as told in the story of the miracle of Hanukkah, was found by the victorious Maccabees and its oil used to light the menorah in the Temple in Jerusalem. Available in blue (shown here), emerald or graphite (from $188; studioarmadillo.com ).
MAKE A STATEMENT
WEAR IT LOUD AND PROUD
With its bold, vintage-inspired images and designs, the Jew Got It Art shop features clothing, prints and other items that celebrate a common theme—Jewish spirit and Israeli pride. The collection, designed in Israel, includes T-shirts commemorating Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the Gaza border kibbutzim attacked on October 7, as well as shirts featuring a graphic riff on our cry of resilience, Am Yisrael Chai (at left, from $30.50; etsy.com/shop/ jewgotitart ).
Over the past year, many of us have begun wearing Jewish charms or symbols. Israeli fine jeweler Sivan Lotan’s Heritage line, since October 7 crafted to emphasize Jewish roots, offers meaningful, beautiful additions to any collection. The Israeli Symbols Ring comes in white, rose or yellow gold (above, from $530) and the mix-and-match Solidarity Charm Necklace is available with additional pieces (below, charms from $190 to $590 each; sivanlotan-jewelry.com ).
Receive or gift the apron with a donation of $250 or more to the Hadassah Magazine Circle ( hadassahmagazine.org/make-a-gif t).
From ‘Uri and the King of Darkness’
Building Connections at Hanukkah and Everyday
Unlikely friendships and loving families come alive in new children’s books | By
Alexandra Lapkin Schwank
Books have the power to teach, entertain and offer nuggets of wisdom. This year’s selection of children’s stories is no exception, with common themes including connections we build with our friends, our family and our community during Hanukkah and throughout the year.
There are books that bring to life unlikely friendships, like a bond between a young girl and an octogenarian and the companionship between a boy and 10 golems he creates. Meanwhile, biographies about Florine Stettheimer, a Modernist painter, and Abraham Cahan, the founder of The Jewish Daily Forward, as well as a timely reissue of a classic story about a town banding together to fight hate highlight the importance of building community.
Lastly, relationships among par-
ents, grandparents and children, including in one gentle tale of an interfaith family, are poignantly depicted both at holiday celebrations and in everyday moments that leave an indelible mark on the younger generation.
The Greatest By Veera Hiranandani. Illustrated by Vesper Stamper (Random House)
With its vibrant watercolor-andgouache illustrations, this picture book is Jewish Indian author Veera Hiranandani’s loving ode to her Jewish grandfather.
Every week, an unnamed grandfather looks forward to spending Sundays with his three grandchildren, who “act as if he is the greatest
grandfather in the world,” even though he insists he is “a simple, ordinary man.” As the seasons change, he shows them how to catch fireflies in a jar, tells a fantastic story as they light the Hanukkah candles and invents a game to play on a rainy day. “Maybe love is like a mirror and it is reflected back and forth until it glows so bright everything is surrounded by that light,” the grandfather wonders. Or maybe he’s simply loved “by the greatest grandchildren in the world.”
Violin of Hope By Ella Schwartz. Illustrated by Juliana Oakley (Kar-Ben Publishing)
Each evening, Itzik and Feiga listen to their father play the violin. Some nights, they dance to his “quick and lively” melodies; other nights, they listen quietly as his music grows “slow and sorrowful.” His playing is cut short when Nazi soldiers take away the violin and throw it on a truck with other items belonging to Jewish families. The violin, which “had been silent for years,” is found in a damp cellar, carefully restored and played once again by a Jewish musician in a great concert hall. Evocative imagery adds to the sweet story, inspired by the real-life project Violins of Hope, created by a father-and-son team of luthiers in Israel who repaired violins looted during the Holocaust.
A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me Written and illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg (Holiday House)
Florine Stettheimer was a stylish and spirited early 20th century Modernist
Jewish painter who hosted artistic salons for figures of the avantgarde movement in her New York City apartment. In this biographical picture book, a young aspiring artist visits a museum where she discovers Stettheimer’s self-portrait looking at her from a gallery wall. Struck by the uncanny resemblance to herself, the narrator imagines what it would be like to have Florine as a friend. When the narrator ventures outside, despite the heavy rain, she sees a world through Stettheimer’s playful eyes as “full of color and full of surprise.” Yevgenia Nayberg’s theatrical and vivid artwork, inspired by Stettheimer’s own work, brings the story to life.
Amazing Abe: How Abraham Cahan’s Newspaper Gave a Voice to Jewish Immigrants By Norman H. Finkelstein. Illustrated by Vesper Stamper (Holiday House)
Celebrated children’s author Norman H. Finkelstein, who passed away earlier this year, has created a warm portrayal of the founder of the Yiddish Forverts (The Jewish Daily Forward). Abraham Cahan was more than a journalist. His newspaper, which he founded in 1897, was a lifeline for his readers— Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Eastern Europe—and helped them in a new home that had “New customs. New ways to dress. New ways to think.” Cahan’s own story of emigration from Lithuania, where he had become inspired to advocate for the working class, adds another dimension to this biography, as do Vesper Stamper’s expressive and detailed illustrations of Jewish apartments
and bustling neighborhoods in New York City.
& Honey Press)
When Saul Katz, “a tall, wrinkled man with an accent,” first arrives at Sarah’s house to take Hebrew lessons from her father, he and the young girl get off on the wrong foot. Mr. Katz spills hot tea while holding a cup in his trembling hands, and she does not understand why he wants to have a bar mitzvah at the age of 81. But as Sarah begins to understand him and hears his beautiful singing voice, a friendship blooms. Filled with engaging illustrations—particularly noteworthy is a beautiful spread depicting Saul’s bar mitzvah in a luminous synagogue—the book is inspired by the relationship between the author’s own children and Sol Kleiman, an octogenarian immigrant who arrived from the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
Too
Many
Golems
By Jane Yolen. Illustrated by Maya Shleifer (Chronicle Books)
In yet another story of an unconventional friendship, prolific children’s book author Jane Yolen tells a tale of a boy and a passel of friendly clay monsters. The rabbi’s son, 6-year-old Abi—short for Absalom—is always getting in trouble. One day, he takes an old scroll from the synagogue basement and reads
From ‘Mr. Katz and Me’
the text out loud to practice his Hebrew, but he has no idea that it is an incantation to summon golems. The “ten huge clay men” from Jewish folklore who show up at his doorstep ready to “win every fight” seem scary at first, but Abi remembers his parents’ advice to be a good host and treat strangers with kindness. The golems prove to be good friends who help Abi with his Hebrew lessons and even teach him songs.
ONE BOOK, ONE HADASSAH
Join us on Thursday, December 19 at 7 PM ET as author and women’s health advocate Dr. Mimi Zieman discusses her engaging memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest , with Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein. As a young medical student, Dr. Zieman became the medical expert—and the only woman— on a team scaling Mount Everest. In this coming-of-age story, she blends memories of the risky expedition with reflections on her Jewish background and her meditations on risk, adventure and empowerment. Free and open to all. To register, scan the QR code here or go to hadassahmagazine.org.
BOOKS
Baila the Klopper By Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod. Illustrated by Shirley Waisman (Kar-Ben Publishing)
Young Baila walks around her shtetl with a klopper, a special door knocker, and sings a song— “Get up! It’s early, but soon will be later. Roll out of bed to serve your Creator!”—to wake everyone for morning prayers. She knocks on the doors of the baker, the carpenter and the klezmer musician. But when the blacksmith is too tired to rise because of a bad night’s sleep, it is up to Baila to help him and her other sleepy neighbors. This fun book will have kids not only klopping along with bright-eyed, curly-haired Baila, but also appreciating the necessity of allowing adults a good night’s sleep. An author’s note and photos at the end of the book tell the story of real-life kloppers whose job it was to knock on doors with a special wooden mallet and wake men for religious services in Eastern Europe.
Uri and the King of Darkness: A Hanukkah Story Written by Nati Bait and translated by Ilana Kurshan. Illustrated by Carmel Ben Ami (Kalaniot Books)
Israeli author Nati Bait takes the common childhood fear of the dark and shows that there is nothing to be afraid of with a little imagination. Uri and his sister, Shir, wait for their dad to get home in time to light the candles on the first night of Hanukkah. Darkness descends and a heavy rain falls, and the children become increasingly worried that something bad has happened to their father. To protect him, Uri imagines fight-
ing off the King of Darkness and his army, whom he envisions as Greek soldiers “with spear and with shield.” Then the door swings open and their dad walks in holding sweet Hanukkah treats. In the afterword, Bait includes a brief retelling of the successful Jewish rebellion against the Syrian Greek rulers that is commemorated during Hanukkah as well as the blessings before lighting the menorah.
Gingerbread
Dreidels By Jane Breskin Zalben. Illustrated by Thai My Phuong (Charlesbridge)
Sophie and Max are used to celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah separately. Except this year, both holidays start on December 25!
The children worry that Hanukkah and Christmas won’t be the same. “Will we get half the presents?” Max wonders. When both sets of their grandparents arrive, the family gets to baking gingerbread dreidels (author Jane Breskin Zalben includes a recipe), decorating a spruce tree in the backyard and lighting the menorah. Warm illustrations of a loving family and the gentle treatment of interfaith marriage convey the message that it doesn’t really matter when the holidays are celebrated as long as they are spent with loved ones.
The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate By
Janice Cohn. Illustrated by Bill Farnsworth (Le Chambon Press)
On the third night of Hanukkah in 1993, someone threw a rock through the window of the Schnitzer family’s
home in Billings, Mont., where a menorah could be seen. Thousands in the community rallied around the Jewish family by displaying menorahs in their windows in solidarity. The city’s clergy, police and journalists also came together in a show of support to combat a series of antisemitic and racist incidents plaguing the town.
The classic children’s book based on real events, first published 30 years ago, was reissued and expanded in late 2023, and its message could not be timelier. With the rise of antisemitism, the Jewish community needs courageous allies more than ever.
The new edition features background information, a discussion guide, relevant clippings from the Billing Gazette and a 2019 essay from former editor Darrell Ehrlick, who described the steps the newspaper took to combat hate. His greatest hope “is that people do not think because we took a stand in 1993 and gave the Neo-Nazis the boot, that we licked this racist thing and that it could never happen here again,” he writes. “What I think is really important is that people realize that fighting against hate and intolerance is an ongoing battle.”
Alexandra Lapkin Schwank is a freelance writer for several Jewish publications. She lives with her family in the Boston area.
ALICE AND ANNE
An acclaimed author fears that Anne Frank is now being forgotten
By RAHEL MUSLEAH
Alice Hoffman first read Anne Frank’s
The Diary of a Young Girl when she was 12 years old. Now, 60 years later, the acclaimed author has recreated Anne’s life before the family went into hiding. When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary (Scholastic, in cooperation with the Anne Frank House) is a heartbreaking middle-grade novel that illuminates the way the world closed in on the Franks, from the moment the Nazis invaded the Netherlands to Otto Frank’s desperate attempts to get his family to safety in America. The author of over 30 novels, Hoffman calls Anne “the greatest first-person narrator in literature” and says her mission is to send readers back to the original diary, which she deems required reading for every child throughout the world.
Hoffman lives outside Boston with her Polish Sheepdog Shelby. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How did this book come about?
Scholastic approached me, sometime during Covid. There was a sense that there was so much antisemitism, and that Anne was being forgotten. I talked to my 11-year-old niece, who lives in Austria, and she had never heard of Anne Frank. I just couldn’t say no. On a personal level, I began my life as a writer with Anne. At school we only read male writers. It was a big shock to read a book written by a young female voice who was also Jewish. It made me feel like maybe it could happen to me, I could be a writer. Anne’s vision and desires and outspokenness—these are all things that I didn’t know were possible for a girl.
What were the challenges of recreating Anne’s life before the diary?
I tried not to think about the end. To recre -
ate her emotional arc, I had to get to a place where I also didn’t know. There’s this idea that you live your life forwards, but you understand it backwards. People didn’t understand what was happening. It was so horrible; it was so evil that they couldn’t really fathom it. It happened so slowly, and so gradually, and then it happened all at once.
What literary techniques and decisions did you make?
I wanted readers to feel like they were there and to feel what she felt. Sometimes I wrote in the second person (“you”) to include the reader, sometimes in the third person but from inside Anne, and sometimes as a distant fairy tale. Sometimes the evil is so unbelievable that you can only tell it in a mythic way. I also tried to include history without stopping the story as a novel.
There’s a message of hope in your book as well.
In a time of great tragedy, great loss and great evil, nature still exists. There’s still beauty in the natural world: wolves and black moths and rabbits and birds. That’s one of the reasons Anne is such an important voice. True, she didn’t know the end of the story, but she had hope and believed that people were good, that it was possible to change the world. That’s a really important message, especially for young readers right now.
Many of your books feature a mother-daughter-grand mother relationship. Why is that important to you?
To have someone who was behind me and who loved me, no matter what,
was of great solace to me, and that was also true of Anne and her grandmother. Grandmothers are also where stories and knowledge come from. My grandmother’s stories about being a Russian immigrant, about waking up with wolves and watching birds in the forest in Russia, always seemed to me like fairy tales.
Tell me about your Jewish identity today.
It’s a big part of who I am in every way, and it’s who I am as a writer. My grandfather was a writer—a poet and a union activist. My bond with my grandparents made my Jewish identity more important to me. I started writing more about Jewish things when my grandmother died. I felt like she was my connection to being Jewish, and when she was gone, I needed to find a different kind of connection.
How emotional was the process of writing the book?
It was a great honor to be asked to write, and it was also frightening, difficult, emotional and sad. When I said yes, I didn’t realize what it would feel like to go to Amsterdam and retrace Anne’s steps, what it would feel like to go to the house where the family had lived before they had to hide in the attic. I had to put those fears aside. I wrote about the beauty that was in her and in her family relationships. Every time I talk about the book, I feel like crying, and I have to hold myself together. In a way, I don’t feel like it’s my book. It’s more about Anne’s book, her diary. Who knows what would have happened to her had she survived, but she wanted to be a
ON YOUR SHELF: PICKLEBALL, KINGS AND JEWISH ANTIQUES
By Sandee Brawarsky
The Third Temple By Yishai Sarid. Translated by Yardenne Greenspan (Restless Books)
An Israeli lawyer and award-winning writer, Yishai Sarid has written a novel that imagines Israel’s near future, an apocalyptic story about Jewish fundamentalism, prayer, sacrifice and family set in the time of the titular Third Temple. Told though the voice of the royal family’s third son, Jonathan— whose ruling father has made the Torah the law of the Land of Israel—the cautionary tale unfolds with descriptive power. The newly translated novel was awarded Israel’s distinguished Bernstein Prize when it was first published in Hebrew in 2015.
Pickleballers By Ilana Long (Berkley)
This energetic debut novel might be the first Jewish romantic comedy set around a pickleball court. A woman going through an unexpected divorce finds friendship and healing through the sport that’s increasingly being played all over America. As she is perfecting her back swing, she finds new romance, albeit with complications, spin and bounce. Readers will understand why you never want to hit the ball into the kitchen and the nature of a mid-court crisis.
Rosenfeld By Maya Kessler (Avid Reader Press)
The Talmudic aphorism “ kishmo ken hu ,” which means the name describes itself, aptly characterizes a marketing tagline for Israeli writer Maya Kessler’s debut novel: “A grown-up love story for grown-ups.” Told in the first person by Noa Simon, a young, driven filmmaker, the novel starts slowly, but soon the foreplay is over. Her affair with Teddy Rosenfeld, the gruff older CEO of her company, is steamy. Rosenfeld can be seen
as a rejoinder to #MeToo certitudes since it is Noa who pursues her boss. While this book is not recommended for human resources personnel or underage readers, the rest of us can enjoy this well-told tale of a ravenous romance set in Israel.
Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
By
Jean Strouse (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Behind artist John Singer Sargent’s many celebrated portraits are untold stories. Award-winning biographer Jean Strouse portrays the connection between the American expatriate artist and his aristocratic patron, Asher Wertheimer, a London-based German Jewish art dealer. Strouse has long been captivated by 12 portraits of Wertheimer, his wife, Flora, and their 10 children that Sargent painted around the turn of the 20th century. In her research, she came to understand the trajectory of the family members’ lives, particularly the tragedy some of the children later faced in fascist Italy in the 1930s.
The Lives of Jewish Things: Collecting and Curating Material
Culture Edited by Gabrielle Anna Berlinger and Ruth von Bernuth (Wayne State University Press)
Examining Judaica, Holocaust ephemera, antiquities, folkloric items and large-scale objects, such as a Bedouin shelter transformed into a sukkah, the scholars, curators and artists whose essays are included in this volume take a wide view of what makes an object Jewish. While this book has an academic tone, general readers interested in material objects and their history as well as their layers of meaning, beauty and the ways they carry Jewish tradition and culture will find much that is engaging.
Sandee Brawarsky is a longtime columnist in the Jewish book world as well as an award-winning journalist, editor and author of several books, most recently of 212 Views of Central Park: Experiencing New York City’s Jewel From Every Angle.
Encounters at a book signing BOOK ESSAY: BEING JEWISH AT FULL VOLUME
In the introduction to her new anthology, On Being Jewish Now: Reflections from Authors and Advocates, podcaster, author and publisher Zibby Owens relates a story from her childhood: Listening to her mother chat with a close friend at a restaurant, she realized that whenever the conversation turned to Judaism, the two would speak in hushed tones. Curious, Owens later asked her mother, “How come whenever you talk about Jewish things, you always lower your voice?”
The authors of the 74 essays compiled and edited by Owens—writers, podcasters, journalists and influencers, both Israeli and American—all wrestle in some way with the volume at which to express their Jewishness as they connect with history and tradition and describe their experiences of the past year. Whether recounting the decision to wear a Star of David in public, withdraw their children from public school due to antisemitism or speak on college campuses about Jewish topics, these voices reveal the wide range of responses to the current chapter in Jewish history.
New York Times best-selling author Lisa Barr, whose most recent book is The Goddess of Warsaw, is one of the loudest of these Jewish voices. Along with Owens, she is a founding member of the Jewish advocacy group Artists Against Antisemitism. Below is her essay, adapted from On Being Jewish Now:
Reflections from Authors and Advocates. Copyright 2024 by Zibby Media LLC.
An elderly woman with sass in her step approached me after my book gig in Greenville, S.C. It was early June, my first out-of-town event for my new novel, and, admittedly, I was exhausted and raw from the onslaught of relentless antisemitism—particularly in the book world.
Since October 7, I, along with many Jewish authors and artists, have experienced a tsunami of harassment (at least 50 times a day I receive some form of a “Die Jew” message), review-bombing (more than 450 one-star reviews beginning on October 8 in a coordinated attempt to tank my work) and dealing with book event cancellations—for one reason only: I am a loud and proud Jewish author who refuses to remain silent.
I’m also the triple threat—the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, a former journalist who worked for The Jerusalem Post and lived in Israel for seven years and an author of World War II thrillers. In other words: prime time for the haters. Ironically, as a young journalist, I covered one of the most important historical moments of almost peace between enemies: the Oslo Accords— the famous “handshake” between the late (assassinated) prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, the late Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and President Bill Clinton at the White House.
Ahh, if only. . .
The woman leaned over the table as I signed two books that she bought for her daughters-in-law and said: “I’m not sure how to say this. I know it’s gonna come out all wrong, but,
“Chutzpah Girls is the Book Every Jewish mother needs to read with her daughters.”
- LIZZY SAVETSKY
“A proud and unapologetic celebration of diverstiy of Jewish women worldwide.”
“A
“For
- DEBRA MESSING
- NOA TISHBY
hell, I’m gonna say it anyway: The Jews just never give up—and I love that…just love it. Shame on those haters. You,” she pointed between my eyes, “keep fighting back—just like your main character in your book. She doesn’t stop, and don’t you stop, either.”
I froze with my black Sharpie in midair. The woman’s words echoed in the room—treasured words that belonged to my beloved grandmother. It was as if my deceased Grandma Rachel had materialized from Heaven’s Kitchen (where she serves as executive chef) and put her own voice into this woman’s mouth to remind me during this difficult time to stay strong, stay in my lane and remember what she’d taught me way back when I was just a girl in her kitchen.
MAGAZINE DISCUSSION
My grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, was my best friend, my personal heroine and will always be the voice in my head. Her parents and siblings perished in Auschwitz, but her immediate young family survived the war. She exemplified the beauty of family, the power of tradition and taught me to fight for those you love no matter what. She encouraged me to use my voice (and words) to stand up to hate, even if I’m scared—especially if I’m scared.
IJoin us on Thursday, November 21 at 7:00 PM ET when Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein convenes a panel of best-selling authors and publishing insiders to discuss the increasing incidents of exclusion, antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the book industry, with guests Zibby Owens, author, podcaster and founder and CEO of Zibby Media; Lisa Barr, the New York Times best-selling author of The Goddess of Warsaw and Woman on Fire , among other novels; and Naomi FirestoneTeeter, CEO of the Jewish Book Council, whose mission is to support and celebrate Jewish literature. Free and open to all. To register, scan the QR code or go online to hadassahmagazine.org.
’ve been plenty scared and worried these days by the rampant antisemitism worldwide, the virulent hatred toward Jews and Israel on college campuses and the vandalizing of Jewish businesses à la Kristallnacht. Perhaps most disturbing is that antisemitism has become trendy among the younger set. As someone who has covered terrorism extensively, I wish I could stand on a mountaintop and shout: Terrorism knows no boundaries. Be careful what you wish for, kids….
How I wish my grandmother were by my side right now in real time. If only I could feel the wrinkled softness of her hand encasing mine as I navigate this new normal. She would see a different me, emerging postOctober 7—a woman who wears her Judaism every day, not just on Shabbat when I light the candles.
My daily jewelry is now superJewy—a chai and a Jewish star necklace, a Jewish star bracelet, a dog tag for the hostages and a gold ring with my Hebrew name on it that I bought on my teen tour to Israel when I was 16 with my babysitting money. It’s my armor and message to the world: I will never cower.
Perhaps antisemitism is no different than it’s ever been. Maybe things never really changed post-Holocaust.
The difference now is that many of us are not afraid to stand up, band together, use our resources and fight back.
Now, nearly a year after the massacre in Israel and all that has ensued, the blacklists and harassers don’t scare me the way they did in the beginning. Recently, I even told one antisemitic woman at one of my book events who tried to tear me down mid-presentation that we should “have coffee.” Her blatant goal was to see me shrink, but instead, I used the opportunity to stand taller, to take the higher road and to show all those around us the ugly face of hate: hers. She later apologized and wrote to me privately, “I have much to learn.”
The legacy of October 7 has been an unfathomable, unending nightmare, but also a calling and an awakening for Jews worldwide. I am forever changed as an author, a journalist, a mother of three daughters, a human.
On October 6, I knew what I wanted from life, but after October 7, I knew what life wanted from me: putting my grandmother’s voice and her legacy of survival into real action.
“Loud and proud” is the new “Never again.”
FICTION
The Singer Sisters By Sarah Seltzer (Flatiron Books)
The world of contemporary music, performed in venues ranging from 1960s folk rock clubs to 1990s alternative rock (alt-rock) stadium concerts, presents a captivating new milieu for Jewish fiction. The Singer Sisters by Sarah Seltzer intertwines tales of the music industry with themes of sisterhood, motherhood and marriage, all seen through a Jewish lens.
Seltzer, an award-winning journalist, brings her experience and distinctive feminist voice as execu-
tive editor of Lilith—a magazine with the tag line “independent, Jewish & frankly feminist”—to both the Jewish and female aspects of her debut novel.
The titular sisters are Judie and Sylvia Zingerman, 1960s teens who sing duets in their Massachusetts synagogue. After their musical parents invite aspiring musician Dave Cantor, stage name Dave Canticle, to their Shabbat table, Judie abandons her plans for college to join Dave in New York City’s Greenwich Village in search of fame as a singer-songwriter à la Bob Dylan. However, her career doesn’t take off until she moves back home to start
recording with her sister. The book meanders through time and perspectives as the three rise to stardom. The success of The Singer Sisters— the name of their popular duo—is largely based on Judie’s skills as a songwriter, writing hits that hint at, but don’t reveal, the depths of her private life, while Dave makes a name as a solo artist.
Dave and Judie marry and are labeled “folk-rock royalty” and “one of music’s ‘most enduring’ couples.” But we already know that this is no happily ever after. On page one of Seltzer’s novel, the two inform their grown children that they are
Doris Berg Sopkin
M om was president of Hadassah chapters in Aventura, Florida, and Skokie, Illinois. She grew up in Gary, Indiana, with the aroma of the cakes that her mother, Anna Berg, baked to raise funds for Hadassah. Mom first went to Israel in 1953 and attended a summer program for young teachers at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba. She was a founding board member of Oakton College and was honored with a plaque at its Des Plaines, Illinois campus. She taught in Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois; played the flute in the Skokie Symphony Orchestra; accompanied singers on the piano and sang in several choirs. Music, reading, friends and close family were her lifeblood. She also loved gardening and bowling. Mom had a master’s degree from Northeastern Illinois University in education for children with reading disabilities and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin in education and music. Mom was born in Gary on June 23,1927, and passed away in Aventura on Sept. 15, 2024. She is survived by three daughters and two grandsons: Barbara, Sandra, Carol, Evan and Daniel.
going to split up.
Seltzer dives most deeply into the mind of Emma Cantor, Judie and Dave’s alt rock-loving daughter. After she was born, Judie shocked her fans (and her sister) by giving up singing for motherhood. As a young adult in the 1990s, Emma decides to skip college to write and perform her own songs, echoing the fame of her mom and dad. After her debut single, Seltzer writes, Emma becomes “an It Girl. Parties and ceremony invites piled up.” Yet Judie fears that Emma will repeat her mistakes. But what mistakes?
Enter the mysterious Rose, who worked as Emma’s au pair one longago summer. When Rose attends one of Emma’s concerts and meets up
with her afterward, Emma recalls an angry moment from that summer, when Rose had called the Cantors “a family of liars.”
Much of the book is spent untangling the family’s secrets and lies, as Emma asks questions, scours her memory, writes her own soul-searching songs and uncovers a stash of her mother’s never-recorded pieces.
The relationship between Emma and Judie is the heart of this novel. Both women have regrets. Both wonder if motherhood and stardom can coexist. Dave and other men can have it all—music, fame, family—but can a woman?
Seltzer’s characters carry their Jewishness lightly, casually mentioning Holocaust-survivor ancestors or
Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah
Celebrate the festival of lights in style with updated Hanukkah menorahs, dreidels, and gifts from the Jewish Museum Shop.
briefly hesitating before eating treyf food. But the Jewish theme of teshuvah, repentance, weighs heavily on their stories, leading to admissions and apologies and new beginnings. Opportunity beckons—for mother-daughter reconciliation, perhaps, and for Judie to forgive herself and allow her beloved music back into her life.
—Elizabeth Edelglass
Elizabeth Edelglass is a fiction writer, poet and book reviewer living in Connecticut.
Goyhood By Reuven Fenton (Central Avenue Publishing)
Poor Mayer (formerly Marty) Belkin. The Brooklyn-based Talmud scholar
has received a call that his estranged mother, Ida Mae, has killed herself with a combination of pills and liquor. Now, almost 30 years after leaving his secular home for yeshiva, he must return to his birthplace in small-town Georgia to make funeral arrangements and deal with the shenanigans of his freewheeling twin brother, David.
But that’s not all. Mayer soon learns a whopper of a long-held lie: In her suicide note, Ida Mae confesses that she was not Jewish through matrilineal descent, as she had always
told her boys. Rather, her own mother, the twins’ grandmother, was an antisemite and her great-grandfather a “Nazi of some kind.”
What’s a yeshiva prodigy to do? After studying Jewish texts faithfully for decades, marrying into a rabbinic family and leading a pious, ultra-Orthodox life, Mayer believes himself trapped in a “goyhood”—a fraud, a poseur and someone who has desecrated all that had been sacred to him by following Jewish laws that were not rightfully his. He will have to undergo a traditional Orthodox conversion to Judaism before he goes back to his wife and family, to become what he had always, on the most
visceral level, believed himself to be.
Before that happens, though, writer Fenton takes the brothers on a riotous, tongue-in-cheek romp of a road trip through the American South. Along the way, they re-engage as siblings, explore the contours of grief, consider the meaning of genuine reverence and, perhaps most importantly for Mayer—whose childhood obsession was the Field Guide to the Birds of North America immerse themselves in the majesty of the natural environment.
Fenton, a longtime reporter for the New York Post, has a journalist’s knack for detail. In Goyhood, his debut novel, he puts that asset to good use, particularly when describ-
Do You Know a Holocaust Survivor?
ing Mayer’s delight in reacquainting himself with birdwatching. The author also does something clever and counterintuitive. Think how often Jewish characters in literature have hidden their identities, pretending to be Christian or trying to blend
in with the scenery. Fenton turns this plot device on its head, creating a Christian character who wants more than anything to be seen and known as Jewish.
Mayer and David’s road trip is fascinating, funny and soulful. Read-
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ers will want to join them for the entire journey.
—Robert Nagler Miller
Robert Nagler Miller writes frequently about the arts, literature and Jewish themes from his home near New York City.
Our Little Histories By Janice Weizman (Toby Press)
In Our Little Histories, Janice Weizman takes readers not only around the world but also back in time, weaving together the strands of a multigenerational Jewish family separated—and then reunited—by antisemitism and tradition.
Jennifer Greenberg-Wu, a museum curator in present-day Chicago, is invited by a wealthy oligarch intrigued by his own Jewish heritage to stage a “living installation” exhibition in Belarus showcasing the country’s Jewish past. His vision is an unusual exhibition/reality theater featuring “Jewish people living their Jewish lives.” Jennifer reaches out to her long-lost cousin, Nadav Markovitch, who lives in Israel, to take part in the exhibition. He is observant, and she has asked him and his family to be one of the displays, re-enacting Jewish practices and traditions before an audience.
The project causes Jennifer, an atheist married to a non-Jew, to start investigating her own hazy Jewish roots. With her teenage daughter, Cassie, she travels through the area once known as the Pale of Settlement, home to former shtetls and urban Jewish communities, to conduct research for the exhibition and delve into her own traditions and history. Her exploration paves the way for a series of intricate and intimate stories looking back at six generations of her own now far-flung Jewish family.
Each of the book’s seven chapters depicts a different family story.
Weizman—a Toronto-born transplant to Israel whose first novel, The Wayward Moon, won the Independent Publishers Award and the Midwest Book Award—traces the family’s history backward in time. She highlights the pivotal decisions made by each generation that ultimately caused the family to spread throughout the world.
In these “little histories,” Weizman recounts life in a pre-state kibbutz, 1930s Chicago, pre-World War II Vilna and Minsk and 1960s Tel Aviv. She arrives finally, in the last story, at the impoverished shtetl of Prepoisk, in Belarus, where one woman, Raizel Shulman, is forced to make a heartbreaking decision in order to save her three young sons. It is a moment that triggers the migrations that are central to the rest of the stories.
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WHO WILL SAY KADDISH?
HADASSAH’S PERPETUAL YAHRZEIT PROGRAM ENSURES THAT KADDISH WILL BE RECITED IN JERUSALEM FOR YOUR LOVED ONES. EVERY YEAR. FOREVER.
PERPETUAL YAHRZEIT
Weizman’s storytelling is masterful and her characters and their settings well-researched. While the story of each family member is unique, together they form a universal Jewish saga.
—Ruth Marks Eglash
Ruth Marks Eglash is a Jerusalem-based veteran journalist who writes for multiple outlets.
For more book coverage, including more children’s book reviews as well as a review of new romances, such as the Hanukkah-set novel Love You a Latke , go to hadassahmagazine.org/books.
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.
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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NONFICTION
Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life By
In late summer, a Brooklyn bookstore canceled a discussion of Joshua Leifer’s Tablets Shattered at the last minute because the event’s moderator, Rabbi Andy Bachman, founder of a group for unaffiliated Jews called Brooklyn Jews, was “a Zionist.”
Never mind that Bachman does not shy away from criticizing Israel; his belief in a Jewish state was enough to convince the bookstore manager to clamp down on free speech.
The irony is that the bookstore’s decision prevented a public discussion of a book that is highly critical of Israel and its centrality to American Jewish life. Tablets Shattered is part history, part personal rumination, part sociological forecasting.
Leifer, who has worked as an editor and journalist for left-wing publications such as Jewish Currents, intersperses the story of his personal history with an analysis of the 20th century American Jewish experience. Born in 1994, Leifer grew up, he writes, in a “mainline affiliated community” in New Jersey, where he
Guide to Jewish Literature
Order these books directly through the Hadassah Magazine website! Just go to Hadassahmagazine.org and click on Guide to Jewish Literature.
Clara’s s eCret
Stephan R. Frenkel
This critically acclaimed bestseller presents the captivating story of Clara Prinz, a remarkable woman forced to leave her native Berlin in 1939. As Clara traveled alone on a voyage into the unknown, she turned to memories of her adolescence during La Belle Époque –the Beautiful Era filled with optimism and cultural transformation at the dawn of the twentieth century. Through Clara’s chance encounters with notable personalities of the period, Clara’s Secret weaves an unforgettable tapestry of personal and historic events. Clara’s Secret is ultimately a compelling story of the advancement of humankind and the survival of its decline.
LIMITED TIME OFFER: Throughout November, Clara’s Secret Kindle Version is available on Amazon for $1.99.
the triumph of life : a Narrative theology of J udaism
Rabbi Irving Greenberg
This magnum opus is a narrative of the relationship between God and humanity as expressed in the Jewish journey through modernity, the Holocaust, the creation of Israel, and the birth of Judaism’s next era. To achieve tikkun olam, Judaism’s utopian vision of the world, Judaism offers the method of covenant, a partnership between God and humanity across generations in which human beings grow ever more responsible for world repair. This empowers the Jewish people and all humanity to bring the world toward the triumph of life.
Order at https://jps.org/books/the-triumph-of-life/.
the QueeN’s Cook
Tessa Afshar
After gaining a position in Queen Esther’s kitchens, Roxannah discovers her dream job is fraught with palace intrigue. She must partner with Adin, the Jewish royal physician never far from her thoughts, in a race to save the life of a princess...despite the secrets their mission might uncover.
Get for 30% off + free shipping from Bakerbookhouse.com.
the m aNy
m others of ivy puddi N gsto N e Randy Susan Meyers
During Mississippi’s 1964 Freedom Summer, Annabel’s first love disappears, sparking a lifelong fight for justice. Later, she joins a political collective where five couples raise their children together. As upheaval grows, the children are moved to a Vermont commune for safety while parents rotate care. But not all danger comes from the outside. “Full of warmth, wit, and wisdom.”—Liane Moriarty, NYT bestselling author. “With hard-hitting prose and a well-researched setting; a deeply felt, beautiful novel.”—Booklist. “Moves with urgency and grace between Freedom Summer and 9/11 and beyond.”—MER Review, Ellen Meeropol. Available at all retailers.
haN ukkah pa Jamakkahs
Dara Henry, with illustrations by Olga Ivanov & Aleksey Ivanov
When Ruthie receives “pajamakkahs” for Hanukkah, she loves them so much she refuses to take them off. Can she keep her promise to her parents and leave them spotless for eight whole nights? With globs of humor, a splatter of love, and out of the gift-box creativity, Hanukkah Pajamakkahs is a fun, fresh readaloud that celebrates togetherness and family traditions—in or out of pajamas.
Available on Bookshop.org.
stumbliNg stoNes
Bonnie Suchman
Stumbling Stones is based on the true story of the author’s husband’s great Aunt Alice, a woman born into a prosperous German Jewish family around the turn of the twentieth century. Alice was a woman ahead of her time, pursuing a fashion career and ignoring the growing Nazi threat to Jews. She could not imagine a Germany where simply being Jewish was an existential threat. But when she could no longer look away, she faced the horrifying realization that she might have waited too long to escape.
Available from Bookshop.org.
all s hook u p
Enid Langbert
“The ‘50s are a decade that is still rarely understood. Post-Holocaust and preVietnam, America was finding its way in a difficult and often hostile world. All Shook Up explores this experience through the eyes of a 14-year-old girl whose parents have been deeply scared by the experiences of the previous decades. The novel is engaging, troubling and thought-provoking but it is a must read.” — Rabbi Adam Mintz, Director of 929 English and Adjunct Associate Professor of Jewish History at City College, New York.
Available on Bookshop.org.
love you a l atke
Amanda Elliot
If you’ve ever dreamed of a Hallmark Hanukkah movie, Love You a Latke by Amanda Elliot is the rom-com for you! Abby Cohen’s got enough on her plate planning a Hanukkah festival in her Vermont town—until annoyingly cheerful Seth volunteers to help. As sparks fly over fake dating schemes, family Hanukkah dinners, and snowy New York adventures, Abby starts to wonder if Seth’s sunny smiles might be melting more than just her winter blues. Grab a sufganiyah and get ready to fall in love, because this delightful and heartwarming story will light up your holiday!
Learn more: prh.com/latke.
s hattered stars, h eali N g h earts: u N raveli N g my father’s h oloCaust survival story
Irene Stern Frielich
In this searing, heartfelt memoir, a Jewish woman embarks on an international journey to retrace her late father’s escape from Nazi Germany, beautifully weaving past and present as she grapples with loss, intergenerational trauma, and hope for a more just future. Bring this unexpectedly uplifting story of healing and humanity into your life! Winner of Readers’ Favorite silver medal and The BookFest gold award.
362 pages. Available on Amazon, Bookshop.org or via www.shatteredstars.org.
r abbi sCholar
father frie N d: the life , thought, h umor , aN d
Wisdom of r abbi e dWard m . g ershfield
James N. Gershfield
Rabbi Edward Gershfield did not fit the cookie cutter mold of a typical rabbi or Jewish scholar. Known to some as the Freedom Writer for writing many Jewish divorces, he taught Talmud and Rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York City for over forty years. This intimate biography, written by his son James, includes stories from his early Winnipeg days and many years living in Manhattan, excerpts from sermons and adult education courses, thoughts on Jews and Judaism, words of wisdom, jokes and sayings in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish, and some interesting information about Jewish divorce. Available on Amazon.
the g irls of J erusalem aN d o ther stories
Marsha Lee Berkman
From the opening vignette in which a photograph is a silent witness to history to the powerful coda “Miracles,” a novella set against the vibrant panorama of the Yiddish theater in America, the fifteen memorable narratives in The Girls of Jerusalem and Other Stories span continents and eras as they chronicle love and loss, piety and heresy, mysticism and rationality to reinterpret ancient tropes of exile, dislocation, and profound change, revealing a new understanding of Jewish history and memory. “Luminous tales of exile and loss that bequeath new life” Kirkus Reviews (starred review). A best book of the year selection. Available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.
bubbie’s baby: 15th aNN iversary e ditioN
Elaine Serling
A musical story celebrating the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. This book features fresh lyrics and a toe-tapping melody. The colorful illustrations mirror the joy of this special bond. Use the QR code printed inside the book to download the song. Prepare to make memories to last a lifetime—listening, reading and singing together! Available on Amazon or at www.elaineserling.com. 800-457-2157; $19.95 + $3 shipping.
deadliNes, doNuts & dreidels
Jennifer Wilck
Journalist Jessica Sacks’s career is on the line if she doesn’t interview celebrated hero firefighter Thomas Carville—her forever crush. When Jessica returns home for Hanukkah, he takes her breath away and shuts her down. Thomas would rather kiss her under the mistletoe than answer her questions. They’re as far apart as Christmas and Hanukkah…or are they?
Available on Amazon and Bookshop.org.
k lara’s truth
Susan Weissbach
Friedman
It is May 2014, and Professor Klara Lieberman receives a letter from her estranged mother. Her long-agodisappeared father, she learns, is buried in Warsaw. As the Polish government is giving financial reparations for land it stole from its Jewish citizens during WWII, Klara’s mother wants her to go to Poland to collect it, while Klara is determined to go find answers about her father. Available from Bookshop.org.
the m idN ight
m itzvah
Ruth Horowitz, illustrated by Jenny Meilihove
“The Midnight Mitzvah is an absolutely charming story!” – Lesléa Newman. In this retelling of a 2,000year-old story from the Talmud, Hanina Chipmunk knows it’s a mitzvah to help others...but how can she give food to a hungry friend without making her friend feel embarrassed? She will need her wits and bravery to complete her mitzvah. Available on Bookshop.org.
N ot N othi N g
Gayle Forman
#1 New York Times
bestselling author Gayle Forman weaves a multigenerational tale of hope, compassion, and forgiveness that is as timely as it is timeless. When a boy is court-ordered to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility, he and the inhabitants learn unexpected lessons about the deepest horrors humans are capable of as well as strength and depth of our compassion. For ages 10 and up. Hardcover, 288 pages. Available wherever books are sold. $17.99.
portrait of a r eform r abbi: CoNti N uity
aN d ChaN ge
Lance Sussman
This is a must read for all those concerned with the fate of Judaism in America in the 21st century. This anthology, reflecting the work of rabbi-scholar Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D., over the last forty years, explores the history, theology, and practices of Reform Judaism over the two centuries of its existence and sheds light on Reform’s complex intertwining of tradition and innovation. This is the second book of a trilogy. The first, Portrait of an American Rabbi: In His Own Words, is an anthology of Sussman’s sermons and is an exploration of the important events of our times. Available on Bookshop.org.
i’ll remember you Deborah Packer
Based on true eventsturbulent home front America, 1943 - Poignant love story in shadow of antisemitism, racism and uncertainty of war - Proud, small-town Jewish girl and complex Jewish soldier from Brooklyn with horrific memories of WWI PolandTwo strangers, caught up in the desperation of the times, struggle through a hastily arranged marriage, childhood trauma, and personal challenges in a country fighting for democracy abroad but facing deep-seated hate and intolerance at home. “Captivating novel based on a true story.” —Booklife Prize. “Historically accurate and intimate portrait of people scarred by war and intolerance”. —Booktrib. Now, a screenplay.
Available on Amazon and bn.com.
from h ere : lesso N s i N love & loss from 9/11 Felice Zaslow
Felice and Ira Zaslow’s love story spanned almost four decades, from the beaches of Far Rockaway to a comfortable suburban existence on the south shore of Long Island. Then came the morning of September 11, 2001. Through the days, weeks, and months that followed, Felice had to find her way through unfathomable trauma, on a path she had to forge herself, seeking guidance and role models along the way. This remarkable and inspiring memoir puts a very personal face on a national tragedy, facing down the darkness by looking for the light that is always present.
Available on Amazon and Bookshop.org.
attended a Jewish day school through sixth grade. He puts it this way: “At home as in school, Judaism and Zionism were synonymous. I had no sense of where one ended and the other began.”
As a teenager, he began questioning this pairing—and after he attended college and became a journalist, his adolescent rebellion blossomed into full-fledged activism over his perspective on Israel’s activities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Leifer, who conducted more than 100 interviews for Tablets Shattered, has few positive things to say about the American Jewish experience. In his eyes, that experience was largely a capitulation to capitalism’s “coercive power” that made American Jews
prairie soNata
Sandy Shefrin Rabin
Named one of the Best Books of the year by Kirkus Reviews. “A compelling work…poignant and eloquent.” Bittersweet coming-of-age story of Mira Adler and what she learns about life and love from her Yiddish and violin teacher, Chaver B, a mysterious immigrant from Prague who harbors a painful secret. Winner of Next Generation Indie and Independent Press Awards. Ages 13-110. Great for book clubs. www.PrairieSonata.com.
s hield of the m ighty
Connilyn Cossette
Zevi, a captain in King Saul’s army, is sent to his childhood hometown to recruit soldiers to fight the Philistines and skilled artisans to serve in court. Confronted by his dark past and an intriguing and beautiful perfumer, he’s forced to wrestle with his ambitions and his desire for vengeance while entangled in a dangerous plot. Get for 30% off + free shipping from Bakerbookhouse.com.
forget their faith and community. With more than a tint of nostalgia, he writes: “Fully joining the American project entailed the suppression and surrender of what had been the dominant forms of eastern European Jewishness: traditionalist Orthodoxy and left-wing Yiddish radicalism.”
Leifer is no less critical of the centrality that Zionism and Israel came to play in American Jewish life, particularly after the 1967 Six-Day War. Leifer is more than a generation too young to have lived through the excitement of Israel’s victory. What he knows instead are the forces of “religious messianism, or Zionist zeal
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b rave : the story of ahi N oam
Mesu Andrews
Forced to flee Jezreel, Ahinoam and her warrior father find kinship amongst David’s camp of outcasts. When she and the charismatic David fall in love, she senses Yahweh’s blessing to marry him. After his affection turns to the elegant Abigail, Ahinoam must decide if she can trust the future she was certain God had given her. Get for 30% off + free shipping from Bakerbookhouse.com.
b rooklyN loves
Walter Fishkind
This is the story of a young man, Joshua Bernstein, who believes in God but also has doubts as to His existence. Throughout his junior year in high school, Josh searches for God through his conversations with his parents, his teacher, his girlfriend, and his rabbi. In his journey to find God, he learns a lot from his interactions with his peers and his reading. Available on Amazon.
at fever pitch” the war unleashed that “elevated the modern nation-state of Israel to religious significance” as well as the territorial issues of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip he witnessed as a journalist.
Still, as someone who lives part time in Israel, he remains committed to what he calls the Jewish “struggle” with Zionism and the State of Israel.
Leifer’s prognosis for American Jews is bleak: In his telling, Israel and Zionism unified Jews during the latter part of the 20th century, but that collective purpose, he believes, is waning.
He sketches out several possible future paths for American Jewry. This includes pessimism for a dying American Jewish organized world, which
street Cor N er d reams
Florence Reiss Kraut
A well-researched page-turner perfect for holiday gifts! Set between the World Wars, this suspenseful love story, family saga, and gangster tale brings to life the Feinsteins, a family forged in tragedy and hope, dreaming of success while living amidst the Jewish and Italian gangs who ruled Brooklyn’s teeming streets. The unforgettable characters captivate readers as the family struggles with loss, dangerous choices, financial disaster and passionate love. Like How to Make a Life, Kraut’s acclaimed first novel, Street Corner Dreams is thoroughly engrossing and filled with points perfect for debate in book clubs. Author will Zoom or meet in person.
Available in paperback, audio and e-book on Amazon, Bookshop.org or wherever you buy books. www.florencereisskraut.com; florencekraut@gmail.com
he sees as “dominated by big donors and, at the same time, more detached from the lives of most American Jews.” He holds out a little more hope for what he calls “neo-Reform Judaism,” whose “ritual innovators
and radical experimenters” are updating Jewish religion and tradition for the next generation, and for the leftwing Jewish protest movement that has been critical of Israeli policies— organizations like IfNotNow—which
Cursed from birth, Mendel Schlotz is the unluckiest kid in his village. He’s also the only one who can save it.
A fast-paced middle grade graphic novel from a veteran Jewish comics star.
★“[A] triumphant depiction of a quintessential Jewish coming-of-age tradition.”—Publishers Weekly
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“did not confine their Judaism to the synagogue but brought it with them into the streets.” He has even more optimism for what he calls “separatist Orthodoxy”—the communities that make up the haredi world, which he sees as robust and centered on obligation and mutual aid. “Today’s ultra-Orthodox,” he writes, “are, in this sense, survivors twice over: first of the Nazi mortal threat, then of the liberal capitalist culture on American shores.”
Tablets Shattered has its flaws. Its tone, at times, is suffused with youthful righteousness: Leifer’s depiction of the failed 2000 Camp David peace talks—he blames Israel alone for the talks’ collapse—feels one-sided. As a result of these weaknesses, many readers committed to Zionism and the American Jewish world will be tempted to dismiss this book. Such a cursory dismissal would miss the mark.
Despite those flaws, this is a passionate, clearly written and argued book by a candid young intellectual who cares deeply about the Jewish future. He has a complex Jewish identity (Leifer himself married into an ultra-Orthodox family) and is highly critical of the Jewish left’s response to the October 7 massacre, which he finds callous, writing that too many were unable to mention the hostages or mourn the deaths of fellow Jews.
American Jews, particularly those who care about the younger generation, will ignore this book at their own peril. Tablets Shattered deserves the attention that the Brooklyn bookstore was unwilling to give it.
—Peter Ephross
Peter Ephross, the editor of Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words: Oral Histories of 23 Players, is a longtime writer about the Jewish world.
Israel Scouts at home and (inset) at the Israel Day parade in New York City
Be Prepared
A root for Israel Scouts, IDF soldiers and the rest of us |
SBy Joseph Lowin
ometimes, the meaning of a word is not just semantics, but also a matter of history. Take the Hebrew root נ-ו-כ (khaf-vav-nun), to prepare, focus or be devoted as well as many other meanings. In addition to its everyday usages, for example, the root is found widely in discussions of war.
Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Rabbi Haim Sabato, a rosh yeshiva, novelist and tank gunner, used the root in the title of his 1999 novel םוּאתּ תנָוַּכַּ (te’um kavvanot), Adjusting Sights. The book not only memorializes the tank battles on the Golan Heights but also puts in perspective the status of Sabato’s הָנוַּכַּ (kavvanah , religious conviction. More recently, when Hezbol- ) lah threatened to widen its war on Israel, editorials questioned Israeli תנְנכַּ (konenut), preparedness, for such an attack and wondered about a need to put Israel Defense Forces pilots on ןֵכה בַצַַּמַ (matsav hakhen), emergency standby. Indeed, ןֵכא (akhen), soldiers on a mission need ןעָשַָׁה תֶא ןֵוכְלְ (le-khaven et ha-sha’on), to set their watches, but also הָעָָשַָׁה תֶא ןֵוכְלְ (le-khaven et ha-sha’ah), to seize an opportunity, to complete their tasks.
The root is prominent in Scripture as well as rabbinic literature. In a landmark legal decision about inheritance, God Himself rules, in Numbers 27:7, that the daughters of Zelophad תֹרְֹבֹדֹּ ןֵכַּ (ken dovrot), “make a just claim” for their inheritance. In the Book of Esther 7:10, the king takes offense at a perceived sexual offense by Haman against the queen and has him impaled on the same stake יָכדֹּרֹמְַלְ ןיִכה רֹשָׁא (asher heikhin le-mordekhai), “that he had built for Mordechai.” Proverbs 30:25, prefiguring Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, suggests that we imitate the industrious ants who, in summer, םָמְַחְַ
(yakhinu lahmam), gather food, for winter. Isaiah 40:12 proclaims that God ןֵכַּתּ (tikken), “arranged,” the span of Heaven. And so, the Talmudic sages advise, ןֵוּכַּתה (hitkavven), “Put yourself in the proper condition” to meet your Maker there.
Today, an inspiring teacher will, ןָוּכמִַבִּ (bimkhuvvan), deliberately, exclaim ןכָנ (nakhon , “Correct!” to cheer on her students. The Israel Scouts move- ) ment challenges its members with the command, ןָכוּמַ הֵיה (heyeh mukhan), “Be prepared!” to elicit a resounding ןָכוּמַ דיִמַתּ (tamid mukhan), “Always prepared!” Curiously, the badge of the scouting movement uses a more formal derivation of our root for this motto, ןכָנ הֵיה (heyeh nakhon).
Grab a book from your תיִננכ (konanit , bookcase, and read how the pio- ) neers of the Zionist movement labored mightily עַקְַרַֹקַַּ
(le-hakhin et ha-karka), “to prepare the ground,” so that Jews today might—figuratively and literally—glean the fruits of their labor.
Joseph Lowin’s columns for Hadassah Magazine are collected in HebrewSpeak, Hebrew Talk and his most recent book, Hebrew Matters, available at gcrr.org/gcrr-press/hebrew-matters
QUESTION
Deborah Lipstadt
Shocked by ‘tsunami’ of antisemitism
By Lisa Hostein
Ambassador deborah lipstadt has spent her entire career studying and educating others about antisemitism and the Holocaust. But even she was taken off guard by the surge in Jew-hatred that erupted in the United States and around the world in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel. Lipstadt, who serves as the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said she was “shocked” but not completely surprised by what she terms a “tsunami” of antisemitism that has engulfed Jews.
“It was an organized effort in many places that we didn’t anticipate and that we were unprepared for,” she
How did the global guidelines come together? And why do you think they are so significant?
So much of what we do is reactive. This is pro-active, sharing common wisdom and best practices for those of us who are engaged in the fight. Among the 12 guidelines: leaders must speak out; don’t politicize antisemitism, recognize it comes from the left and the right; educate, understand what it is. We’re hoping countries will use it as a tool in their fight against antisemitism. They already are.
You and many others have long contended that anti-Israel activity is not necessarily antisemitism. But is there a greater blurring of the lines these days?
I’m often asked to explain the difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. I used to go through a long explanation, threading the needle, explaining that criticism of Israeli policy isn’t antisemitism, that’s democracy. Now I just say, you’re
said, citing, among other examples, recent allegations by Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, that Iran is inciting and financing some of the anti-Israel protests. Lipstadt, who is on leave from her longtime position as a professor at Emory University and whose envoy role is based in the State Department and focuses primarily on antisemitism abroad, recently initiated a set of global guidelines to fight Jew-hatred. More than 38 countries and four international regional bodies have so far signed onto the nonbinding guidelines, which were launched at a gathering in Buenos Aires in July. This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
asking the wrong person. Go ask the person who defaced the Holocaust memorial in Paris or the person who firebombed the synagogue in Montreal. They’re making the connection themselves.
There’s an ongoing debate about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is one of two definitions in the Biden administration’s national strategy to counter antisemitism. Does the debate over the definition affect the ability to combat antisemitism?
I find the IHRA definition, which has been adopted by 38 countries, including the United States, and many organizations, to be a very useful document for guidance, and I find that the fight against it has political undertones. Debate over the definition is a great absorption of people’s energies. Every minute that I’m involved in talking about the debate is a minute that could be used in actually fighting antisemitism.
To what extent can these guidelines be used to combat antisemitism on college campuses in the United States and around the world?
I have met informally with some top American university officials and told them they can use these guidelines, to speak out and to enforce their own rules and laws. They can do so without curtailing freedom of speech.
What’s your advice to the next president of the United States on how to continue the fight against antisemitism?
Take this issue seriously. Appoint someone who understands the issue and cares about the issue. And recognize that this is a threat not just to the welfare of the Jewish community, but it’s a threat to democracy and it’s a threat to national stability.
Lisa Hostein is the executive editor of Hadassah Magazine. To watch the full video interview with Ambassador Lipstadt, go to hadassahmagazine.org and search “Lipstadt tsunami.”
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Family, Israel and Charity
“Israel has always been a part of me, and the Hadassah hospitals in Jerusalem help so many people. My charitable gift annuities are a win-win. I receive payments for life, and Hadassah receives the support it needs to help ensure its future.”
— Barbara Lefton Sarasota, Florida
Family, Israel and charity have always been deeply important to Barbara Lefton. Growing up in the World War II era, Barbara knew that money was scarce, but that didn’t keep her parents from giving to charities.
Their example stuck with Barbara, who has spent her life giving back and teaching her four children,
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