Hadassah Magazine May/June 2022

RESETTLING REFUGEES | ABORTION IN ISRAEL | DID THE BIBLICAL RUTH CONVERT?

MAY/ JUNE 2022

Talking

Talmud on TikTok Shavuot Learning With Miriam Anzovin

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TOGETHER, WE CAN HELP

ISRAEL’S

BUILDERS. NOW AND FOR THE NEXT 74 YEARS. Over more than 74 years, ordinary men and women devoted their lives to help build a new Jewish state. Many of these pioneers are now aging, frail, impoverished and alone.

They need our help.

With more than 7,000 volunteers and 120+ branches throughout Israel, Yad Sarah is dedicated to helping to provide for Israel’s less fortunate — especially those who have sacrificed so much, who have dedicated their lives to build a nation.

We provide home and health care support services that enable people in Israel to remain independent at home and in their own communities despite illness or frailty.

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MAY/JUNE 2022 | VOL. 103 NO. 5

14

DEPARTMENTS

(CLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM) © ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM, BY LAURA LACHMAN/TENENBAUM COLLECTION, GIFT OF RIVKA AND ZVI TENENBAUM, ZAHALA, IN MEMORY OF THEIR SON, THE FLUTIST YADIN TENENBAUM, WHO FELL IN THE YOM KIPPUR WAR AND WAS POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED THE BADGE OF DISTINCTION; HADAS PARUSH/FLASH90; DONNA GRETHEN

12 COMMENTARY To build a Jewish home— just do it

40

IN EVERY ISSUE 4 President’s Column 6 The Editor’s Turn 8 Letters to the Editor 10 Cut & Post 30 Hadassah Medicine 34 Hadassah News 37 Crossword Puzzle 56 About Hebrew On the Cover

Miriam Anzovin, photographed in her home in Natick, Mass. Photo courtesy of Miriam Anzovin. Q&A begins on page 54.

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

18 WELCOMING THE STRANGER, LITERALLY

By Rahel Musleah The plight of refugees is more poignant than ever as scenes of devastation and despair from Ukraine rivet world attention. The crisis continues as Jews prepare to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, which models the Jewish value of welcoming strangers, such as the biblical Ruth, into our midst. Indeed, synagogues and other Jewish groups have a long history of mobilizing their resources to help refugees, most recently thousands of Afghans fleeing the Taliban.

24 ISRAEL’S TAKE ON ABORTION

By Dina Kraft Despite its legality and accessibility in Israel, abortion is not an automatic right.

As part of the country’s 1977 abortion law, a pregnant woman must first receive approval from a three-person committee, comprised of two doctors and a social worker, a process that has been described as humiliating, ntrusive and paternalistic by critics and activists.

14 ESSAYS

• Seeing my mother in myself • Digging my roots in ancient Israel

38 TRAVEL Cosmopolitan Trieste, Italy

40 FOOD Grilling is an Israeli obsession

42 ARTS Classic Israeli souvenirs— art or tchotchkes?

44 BOOKS

• Time-traveling to prevent the Chernobyl disaster

• Exploring Zionist trials and triumphs

54 MIRIAM ANZOVIN:

TALKING TALMUD ON TIKTOK

By Hilary Danailova Since December 2021, Miriam Anzovin has been releasing her feminist “hot takes” on Daf Yomi—the page-a-day Talmud study practiced by Jews all over the world—on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. While traditionalists have criticized her “Daf Reactions” series for its salty language, irreverent humor and chutzpah for featuring a nonreligious woman interpreting rabbinic texts, her thousands of social media followers adore her.

MAY/JUNE 2022

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42

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Sacrifices Forged Into Blessings Honoring the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people

By Rhoda Smolow

W

hat is happening in Ukraine is a tragedy. What is happening in Ukraine is an inspiration. In a world that seems increasingly unsafe for democracy, people around the world recognize that Ukrainians are not only fighting for their lives, their freedom and their nation, but also defending democracy. At the same time, there are reasons why the Jewish people feel these events on an especially profound level.

Surely our heritage teaches us to identify with the oppressed. Surely our values impose a responsibility, and our good fortune gives us the capacity to help.

And then there is our history. The vast majority of world Jewry today lives in free and democratic societies because of decisions our parents, grandparents or great-grandparents made to leave the lands of their birth.

Every step and every breath we take flows from hard choices and sacrifices they made, which time has forged into blessings.

Of the multitude of lands from which we came, Ukraine is uppermost in our thoughts today. A substantial portion of both the American Jewish community and of Israel has roots there. Golda Meir and Sholem Aleichem, Mila Kunis and Natan Sharansky, Vladimir Horowitz and Oksana Baiul, Isaac Stern and Isaac Babel—and countless others—took their first breaths in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Jews still live there.

Even a large percentage of the Jews in Russia have ancestors who left Ukrainian cities, towns and shtetls.

As I write this column, I cannot know the outcome of the Russian invasion. But the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people in the face of appalling death and destruction will certainly be etched in history, not to mention the boundless pride we have in Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Jewish president they elected.

UKRAINE IS UPPERMOST IN OUR THOUGHTS TODAY.

U

kraine’s struggle has galvanized and strengthened the free world, more united today than at any time since the Cold War. Israel has been part of the global campaign to send assistance, and Hadassah is part of that effort.

Just days after Russia launched its unprovoked attack, the Hadassah Medical Organization sent its first shipment of medical equipment to aid victims. In March, our medical center began sending teams of health professionals to Poland. The first group went to the Medical University of Lublin, the regional trauma center closest to the Ukrainian border, to train medical personnel in dealing with serious trauma cases and mass casualties.

The second HMO team, comprising internists, pediatricians and nurses, was given medical responsibility for refugees at the border crossing close to Przemyśl in southeastern Poland. Among the personnel was Hadassah pulmonologist Dr. Alex MAY/JUNE 2022

Gileles-Hillel, who treated 4-year-old Yasinya, whose cystic fibrosis had gone unmanaged for days after she, her mother and older brother were forced to flee their hometown of Dnipro without Yasinya’s life-saving medicine. All our work is done in coordination with the World Health Organization, the Polish Red Cross and other humanitarian bodies.

Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America and Hadassah International are supporting these initiatives with fundraising campaigns. I urge you to visit the Hadassah website for updates on our activities and information on how you can help.

HMO has also helped some Ukrainians travel to Israel for treatment at our medical center. And in early March, the first group of young refugees reached our Meir Shfeyah Youth Village, where they were welcomed by staff as well as by resident youth from Ukraine who arrived before the war began.

Hadassah is taking action because that is what we do. The lesson of Israel’s rebirth, which we celebrate this spring on Yom Ha’atzmaut, is that miracles don’t come only from above. They come from the generosity, wisdom, skill and faith of people on the ground. They come from informed people who empower themselves and who pool their energies to change the world.

As we pray for freedom’s success, we must also work to see shattered lives and cities restored and the sacrifices Ukrainians make today forged into the blessings of the future.

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ISRAEL IS READY TO WELCOME YOU! We’re thrilled to invite you to join us in Jerusalem for Hadassah’s 100th National Convention: Together in Israel: Our Pride. Our Purpose.

There’s nothing like a Hadassah convention in Israel.

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Meet top Israeli innovators and the people whose lives Hadassah has touched, experience Israeli culture, and leave invigorated and inspired.

ACT TODAY! Join us in celebrating our pride, passion and purpose at Hadassah’s 100th National Convention.

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THE EDITOR’S TURN

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

Ruth B Hurwitz Carmela Kalmanson Francine Klagsbrun Anne Lapidus Lerner Curt Leviant Joy Levitt

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Modern Harvest New twists on celebrating Shavuot and Israel | By Lisa Hostein

I

n ancient israel, shavuot was one of three pilgrimage holidays, specifically a time when the Israelites would bring the first fruits of their harvest to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple, of course, no longer exists, but the connection between the holiday, which celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and the Land of Israel remains strong. We highlight that link with this issue, which honors Israel, marking its 74th birthday in May, and the themes of Shavuot, which begins the evening of June 4.

While we no longer bring our harvest fruits to the Temple on Shavuot (though the pilgrimage to Jerusalem continues for some), we do observe the holiday with learning as we continue to extract wisdom from the Torah more than 3,000 years after we stood as a people at Sinai. One woman grappling with that sacred text is Miriam Anzovin (pictured on the cover), who has added a modern twist to the ritual of Daf Yomi, the daily study of Talmud. She brings her own commentary on the commentary to TikTok, the social media video-sharing platform where she has created quite a buzz (page 54).

Shavuot also features the reading of the Book of Ruth, which centers on the biblical figure who, according to tradition, was the first convert to Judaism. But in “What if Ruth Didn’t Convert?” (page 12), Rabbi Shira Stutman asks us to think about what it means to build a Jewish home even if a family member isn’t Jewish.

MAY/JUNE 2022

Ruth’s warm reception by her new family is held up as an example of the Jewish obligation to welcome the stranger. In “Welcoming the Stranger, Literally” (page 18), Rahel Musleah reports on American Jewish communities upholding that value as they resettle Afghan refugees who fled their homeland last summer.

And learn how Hadassah is both welcoming and healing Ukrainian refugees (pages 4, 32 and 34) as their plight continues.

Meanwhile, as we celebrate Israel’s Independence Day, or Yom Ha’atzmaut, we share a bit of nostalgia and contemporary culture from the Jewish state: a remembrance of participating in a seminal archaeological dig (page 16); a look at the Israeli obsession with grilling (page 40); an exploration of Israeliana, iconic souvenirs and Judaica from the state’s early days (page 42); and reviews of books that examine some of the country’s challenges and triumphs (page 46).

On another challenging front, with the United States Supreme Court expected to rule soon on a case that could erode Roe v. Wade, Dina Kraft unpacks “Israel’s Take on Abortion” (page 24).

Also in Israel, Wendy Elliman profiles Dr. Tamar Elram, CEO of Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, who is leading a vast expansion of that campus (page 30).

With Israel on my mind, I’m looking forward to returning there in November to attend Hadassah’s 100th national convention in Jerusalem. I hope you’ll join me!

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MAGENV55

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

NO RETURN TO VIENNA I’m writing about “Vienna, a Diverse Jewish Mosaic” in the March/April 2022 issue. I was born in Austria, a country that sent me, two months short of my 12th birthday, to the Riga ghetto and, later, on marches to Poland. Liberated three and a half years later, I returned with my mother to postwar Vienna, where most Austrians claimed that there had never been a Nazi. In that climate, my mother and I preferred to immigrate to the United States to join my uncle in New Haven, Conn. Our Austrian passports allowed us to exit but stipulated that we could not return.

Why would I want to reclaim citizenship of a country that protected me so little? It would be like spitting on the graves of 75 percent of my murdered family, including my father.

Edith Dreyfuss Cherry Hill, N.J.

HONORING EARLY PIONEERS PLUS ‘A RABBI NAMED SALLY PRIESAND’ In “The Would-Be Rabbis” in the March/April issue, Rabbi Andrea L. Weiss writes that instead of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of the first female rabbi, had “history unfolded a bit differently, we might be marking the 100th anniversary of women in the rabbinate.”

Indeed, this summer will be the centennial of when the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform rabbinical organization, voted

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Please email letters to the editor to letters@ hadassah.org. To read more letters, visit us online at hadassahmagazine.org.

to support women’s ordination. At its 1922 conference, the CCAR issued a responsum on the subject and led a discussion before a three-woman committee, one of whose members was my aunt, Anna Baron.

At that meeting, according to a CCAR report, my aunt said, “I am connected with Jewish work in New York City, and I know that since the Jewish woman has entered this work it has intensified the value of Jewish education. I believe that should the Jewish woman enter the rabbinate, she will be able to intensify the religious feeling of our people.”

CCAR members voted 56 to 11 to “declare that women cannot justly be denied the privilege of ordination.” However, the CCAR itself did not have power to ordain rabbis.

That lay with the Hebrew Union College, which disapproved of the ordination of women for another 50 years.

Rachel Baron Heimovics Maitland, Fla. I enjoyed reading the early history of women in the rabbinate in the March/April special issue. I was part of that history, too.

MAY/JUNE 2022

I first thought of becoming a rabbi in 10th grade in the late 1960s. I would have forgotten the idea had I not written it in my diary. During my second year of college, I read about Rabbi Sally Priesand. Soon after, I found that old diary entry and decided that I still wanted to become a rabbi.

I transferred to Brandeis University for Judaic studies and became more observant. In 1973, I applied to the rabbinical school at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary. I wasn’t admitted. Instead, I attended the Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and was ordained in 1979. After ordination, I became the associate director of Washington University Hillel in St. Louis.

While still at HUC, I had contacted the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly (RA).

They affirmed that I was Conservative in outlook and practice. The RA has a membership committee that evaluates rabbis ordained by other seminaries and recommends them for membership if qualified. They’d never had a female applicant before me when I filed my application with the committee. In March 1983, my application was rejected by fewer than 10 votes short of the required 75 percent.

That October, the JTS faculty voted to admit women to the rabbinical school. I was already the rabbi of a small Conservative synagogue near Albany, N.Y., the first woman to head a Conservative synagogue. Two years later, in July 1985, the RA voted to admit Jan Kaufman (my HUC classmate) and me—two months after Amy Eilberg became the first ordained female Conservative rabbi.

Rabbi Beverly Weintraub Magidson Albany, N.Y.

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Almost 50 years ago, I attended a bar mitzvah at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in Manhattan. The celebrant was the son of friends. He was a nice kid, but he seemed less prepared than the girl at the bimah, who looked young in her simple dress and with her long hair held back by a band. Her Hebrew seemed much better than his, but, we figured, bat mitzvah girls are often more assured than boys.

You can imagine our surprise to learn that the well-prepared young woman was, in fact, a rabbi named Sally Priesand! As a budding feminist then, I was delighted. As an old lady now, I am pleased to see that she is still on the scene, even if she is retired.

Laura Mendley Bronxville, N.Y.

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My daughter, Brenda Velasquez Wagner, was in the first bar/bat mitzvah class that Rabbi Sally Priesand oversaw at Monmouth Reform Temple. Both at the time and in retrospect, we did not have a dramatic sense of breaking new ground or giving the rabbi any other role than the traditional one as leader of our congregation. The boldness came from the decision made by the board to hire Priesand. Indeed, for the years we remained at the temple, through the bar mitzvah of our son, Priesand was known for her learned and thought-provoking sermons.

Geraldine Khaner Velasquez, Ed.D. Holly Springs, N.C.

CORRECTION The item “Publishing Through a Jewish Lens” in the March/April 2022 issue misstated the heritage of Angela Engel’s mother-in-law, who hails from Iran, not Iraq.

MAY/JUNE 2022

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CUT

POST

Upcycling a Bat Mitzvah Dvar Torah

Abby Kelman and the legacy piece of art created from Abraham Joshua Heschel’s words

that his children will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand by the sea, lends itself to visual representation, said Kelman.

“Every human being is miraculously precious in the eyes of God,” Heschel wrote.

“Seen from the earth he is just a twinkle, little and unexciting. But in heaven every human being is a star—of vast magnitude, of great significance.” Alt rendered the entire speech

Translating the News for Gen-Z

COURTESY OF OLIVIA SELTZER

As Olivia Seltzer followed the results of the United States elections in 2016, the then-12year-old decided that it was time for her to become more informed about the news. Unfortunately, she said, she quickly realized that much of the media was “primarily targeted toward and created by an older demographic.”

Recognizing a vacuum, the now 18-year-old Santa Barbara, Calif., native set out to make news digestible for tweens and teens— and The Cramm was born.

According to Seltzer, who will be a first-year student at Harvard in the fall, her digital platform now reaches 2.5 million monthly readers, with followers in 113

Olivia Seltzer MAY/JUNE 2022

in calligraphy, framing it in watercolor. A luminous blue sky studded with stars spreads out above a green circle—the individual— anchored by the land below.

Heschel was a mentor to Kelman’s father, Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, who served as executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly from 1951 to 1989.

Heschel often visited and called the family

countries who look to The Cramm’s newsletter—delivered via email or text every weekday—website and social media channels to understand politics, global events and more. Recently, she’s been sharing news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Other routine topics include the rise of antisemitism; American politics; Israeli-Palestinian relations; Covid-19; and the occasional light story, such as one about Dolly Parton turning down a nomination to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Seltzer sources her stories from major outlets—ABC News, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among others—and frequently links to original articles in her copy.

“I don’t write with any sort of bias,” Seltzer stressed, but added that she does “take a very strong pro-human rights stance.”

Indeed, as a descendant of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet

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Union, she sees herself as an activist with a desire “to make the world a better place.”

Following years of waking up at 5 a.m. to work on The Cramm before school, Seltzer identified yet another vacuum among her fellow Gen-Z compatriots—the underlying history behind many of today’s leading news stories.

“I realized there’s this assumption in the news that we all have an understanding of the major events that have happened over the last century or so, but in reality, a lot of us don’t,” she explained.

“You can’t be expected to solve the world’s problems if you don’t understand them.”

And so, earlier this year, Seltzer published Cramm This Book: So You Know WTF Is Going On in the World Today, a book that decodes the backstory, for example, to the Arab-Israeli conflict and the civil rights movement that she

COURTESY OF ABBY KELMAN

At Abby Kelman’s bat mitzvah on October 24, 1969, philosopher and rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was supposed to deliver a dvar Torah. But Heschel, a close family friend, was hospitalized and couldn’t attend, so he wrote out his comments on onionskin—translucent white paper—and another family friend, then 41-year-old Elie Wiesel, read them aloud.

The speech sat in a folder for four decades until last year, when Kelman, an attorney in St. Louis specializing in clergy employment, decided to give herself a gift for her 65th birthday. She commissioned New York artist Ellen Alt, who had designed Kelman’s ketubah, to create an artistic rendering of the speech.

(The onionskin itself remains in the folder.)

Heschel’s lyrical commentary on the portion, Lech Lecha, in which God promises Abraham

You Are Cordially Invited to Judith Kaplan’s Instagram Feed Of course, Instagram didn’t exist in 1922, when Judith Kaplan, daughter of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, made history by celebrating the first-ever bat mitzvah. But a new account on the social media platform (@JudithKaplan1922) time travels back to that year to envision what a smart, vibrant and articulate “Judy” may have shared with friends and family through a video journal.

It’s all part of the 100th anniversary celebration of the bat mitzvah, which was spearheaded by SAJ, the Reconstructionist synagogue founded by Kaplan and site of his daughter’s bat mitzvah. Meanwhile, read Hadassah members’ recollections of their bat mitzvahs on page 34.

An actress portraying a young Judith Kaplan on the eve of her bat mitzvah

IRONBOUND FILMS, INC.

phone, and when Abby Kelman would pick up, she remembers that he always took the time to ask about school and camp.

“All these names—Wiesel, Heschel—were a part of my world,” she said. In fact, Judith Kaplan Eisenstein, whose bat mitzvah in March 1922 was the first anywhere, spoke at the bat mitzvah of Abby’s sister, Naamah, in 1968. Today, Rabbi Naamah Kelman is dean of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Jerusalem campus and was the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in Israel.

Her own bat mitzvah, Abby Kelman noted, was a “low-key affair” during which she chanted the haftarah on a Friday night at Ansche Chesed synagogue in Manhattan. She hopes to pass down the legacy piece created from Heschel’s words to her children and future grandchildren.

“It’s a rare piece that’s significant for scholars, since Heschel didn’t write much Torah commentary,” she said, “but it was written just for me. Every time I walk by and read it, I’m amazed.” —Rahel Musleah

connects to the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I tried to be very straightforward and matter of fact in my writing,” Seltzer said, “which is easier to do when I’m cramming, pun unintended, so much into just one book. So there really isn’t the time to inject it with my own perspective and personal biases.”

—Jacqueline Weiss

The name of Adina Lichtman’s nonprofit—Knock Knock Give a Sock—may sound like a silly joke, but its purpose is deeply serious: to humanize homelessness. Over the last nine years, the 29-yearold Manhattanite has donated over three million pairs of socks to people experiencing homelessness and, in the process, put a name, face and story to those living in shelters and on the street.

Lichtman started the organization, known as KKGS, as a New York University sophomore in 2013, after a Hillel-sponsored sandwich-making event for people living in shelters. When she gave a sandwich to a man on the street near NYU, he thanked her and added, “What we really need are socks.” Returning to her dorm, she knocked on the doors of all the rooms on her floor and collected 40 pairs within 15 minutes.

Today, there are two parts to KKGS’s model: engaging colleges, communities and companies in 25 states to host sock drives and encouraging groups, mostly in the New York City area, to host “Meet Your Neighbors Dinners” to foster relationships between people living in homes and in shelters.

Lichtman has written two children’s books, Knock, Knock Give a Sock and Knock, Knock Where’s My Sock?, which tell the stories of two girls who make an impact regardless of where they live. She dedicated the books to her grandmothers, Hanka Goldkorn, a survivor of Auschwitz, and Roz Lichtman, whose family fled Poland before World War II. Jewish values continue to motivate Adina Lichtman. “When you see your Adina Lichtman neighbor in need,” she quotes the Torah, with a KKGS client “don’t look away.” —Rahel Musleah MAY/JUNE 2022

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COURTESY OF ADINA LICHTMAN

Outreach One Pair of Socks at a Time

COMMENTARY

What if Ruth Didn’t Convert?

Modeling what it means to build a Jewish home

By Rabbi Shira Stutman

MICHELLE THOMPSON

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ay i take a moment to suggest a controversial take on the Book of Ruth, which we read on the upcoming Shavuot holiday? According to the ancient rabbis, the eponymous Ruth was the first official convert to Judaism. She was born a Moabite and married into an Israelite family. She converted after her husband died, when her motherin-law, Naomi, said that Ruth was free to return to her birth family, and Ruth begged to stay: “Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

After a recent conversation I had with an interfaith family, I started to think: What if those Midrashic rabbis were wrong, and Ruth never actually converted? Would she be any less meaningful a contributor to the Jewish people if, instead, she had remained a non-Jew who made a commitment to building a Jewish home?

Carly and Ron live in Washington, D.C., with two small children.

Carly is Jewish, but did not grow up with any substantive Jewish content.

Ron grew up Christian, but now

considers himself secular. Before they got married, they committed to having a Jewish home, because Ron wanted his children to grow up with a religion, and Carly insisted that if there was a religion, it was going to be Judaism. The Washington Jewish community, with its plethora of programming for people in their 20s and 30s, made it easy for them to connect. They participated in numerous communal events, synagogue services and even an organized trip to Israel. They learned and engaged, but their Jewish practice was always outside their home.

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nce covid began, participation in Jewish activities ground to a halt, including attending Tot Shabbat at their local synagogue. Carly and Ron were nervous to “do Jewish” at home because they thought they would mangle the Hebrew and “were only 25 percent sure of which blessing goes in which order,” they told me.

But they were missing Judaism and didn’t know what to do.

I suggested starting with Shabbat MAY/JUNE 2022

dinner, with the internet as their backstop. I told them that God didn’t care if they got the Hebrew right and that their children didn’t care whether they said the blessing over the candles before or after the blessing over the wine—they were just waiting for challah! (For the record, the blessing over candles comes first.)

Recently, as Shabbat was beginning, I received a text from Ron: “Rabbi Shira! We did our first makeour-own-Shabbat with cake pops and songs and blessings, and I feel 10,000 times better already. Thanks again!”

We live in a moment in which we are blessed with tens of thousands of non-Jewish partners like Ron who are willing to jump in and build a Jewish life. No one should expect it to be easy. Building a Jewish home takes time and emotional, spiritual and physical energy. The most meaningful and effective way to do that is also the most time-consuming—just to do it. Celebrate Shabbat and holidays, read Jewish content, build a kashrut practice that is right for you.

It doesn’t matter if both partners are Jewish; it matters that they’re both doing the work to make Judaism happen.

While I welcome anyone who wants to convert to Judaism, including Ruth, what makes her my foremother is that she connected with the Jewish people and built a Jewish family, whether she had an official ceremony or not.

Building a Jewish home takes effort. And often, there’s a learning curve. But the return on investment over the arc of a lifetime is tremendous. It was true in the time of Ruth, and it is true today.

Rabbi Shira Stutman is co-host of Chutzpod!, a popular new Jewish podcast.

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J EW I S H B U LG A RI A , N O RT H M AC ED O N I A , & G REE C E J EW I S H B O S N I A , C ROAT I A , S LOV EN I A , & T RI ES T E ( I TA LY )

J EW I S H RO M A N I A , S ERB I A , & S Z E G ED ( H U N G A RY )

T R AV E L W I T H D R . J O S E P H B E N AT O V

SEPHARDICBALKANS.COM

ESSAY

Facing Up to Mother A love and likeness that plastic surgery could not erase

By Ellyn Bache

DONNA GRETHEN

E

ven before she lost her teeth, I thought my mother, Clara, was funny looking. She had kinky orange hair and wore red lipstick, which always struck me as clownish. When I got old enough, I straightened my own kinky hair and wore the palest lipstick I could find.

Mother’s skin was embarrassingly white, especially her legs, and in hot weather she was brazen enough to go around barelegged. As a teenager in Washington, D.C., in the 1950s, I slathered on self-tanner, which she pretended not to notice except once.

“Oh honey, I always thought pale skin looked just right on you,” she said when my “tan” became orange streaks, and I took to wearing long slacks and long-sleeved shirts in 90-degree heat.

Eventually I abandoned the tanning lotions because I discovered that, by sitting in the sun for smaller increments of time over a long

period, I could achieve a golden hue that—although I wouldn’t see this until decades later—ruined my skin forever.

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other had a long, bulbous nose. My own nose was also too long. At 16, I announced that I wanted to have it “done.”

Mother said, “Honey, what happens to you won’t depend on the length of your nose. It will depend on this.” She tapped my temple.

This sentiment moved me not a whit. I wanted a shorter nose, a different nose from hers.

“Why stop with your nose?” asked my cousin Richard, who loved to torment me. “What about the double chin?” I kicked him. He fled.

I didn’t have a double chin then and neither did my mother.

Mother made me wait until I graduated from high school before MAY/JUNE 2022

I had my nose fixed. She also made me pay for it myself, with money mostly earned by working part time in a shoe store. It was a boring job and I longed to quit. “If you quit,” Mother cautioned, “be sure you have something else to go to first.” I was miserable but I stayed—a lesson I’d appreciate later.

The surgery was a little more daunting than I’d expected, but for many years I was delighted with my new look. Only in retrospect, when I flipped to my senior picture in my high school yearbook, did I notice that my original nose—Mother’s nose—had a kind of dignity that the new one, a little too short, a little too cutesy, lacked.

While in her 40s, Mother lost most of her teeth to an ongoing infection and ever after wore dentures that never really fit. Over time, her jaw shrank and her face collapsed around it. She also developed a turkey-wattle of a double chin like the one Richard had foretold. When she heard one of her co-workers whisper that she “looked about 95 years old,” she shrugged it off. “She’s no raving beauty herself.” But not long after, I saw her catch a glimpse of herself in a department store mirror and pull back the skin on her cheek to erase the cobweb of wrinkles her face had become. When she caught sight of me, she said, “I wasn’t planning to win any beauty contest anyway,” and with a bright, false smile, quickly moved on.

I didn’t feel sorry for her. And I did. Either way, I was determined that no co-worker, or anybody else, was ever going to say such things to me. Twenty-five years ago, I had a facelift. Whether this was for me or her or both of us, I was never sure.

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The facelift kept my encroaching double chin at bay for more than a decade. Better yet, modern dentistry allowed me to keep most of my teeth and replace the missing ones with implants that looked better than the originals. But the hours I’d spent in the summer sun had taken their toll.

My hands became Mother’s hands.

My tightened face bore the hint of an all-too-familiar network of fine wrinkles.

Considering the advances in skin care, I could have had my problems filled or Botoxed or lasered away.

But year after year I hesitated.

Mother had grown frail, then ill and then died in 1986.

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

I

t wasn’t until recently, years after the long loneliness that follows the loss of any parent, that I realized why I’d left my aging face alone. In the mirror, an 80-yearold woman stared back at me with kinky hair I no longer straightened, a startlingly pale complexion I tried to brighten with lipstick, and of course that skin, far more lined than that of my friends. Despite years of angst and plastic surgery, I looked a lot like the woman who once told me that life is about inner strengths, not appearances, and who turned out to be right.

I wonder now why I ever wanted to eradicate Mother from my reflection—why any of us do. Who would have imagined how comforted I’d feel these days, knowing I have only to look into the mirror to call up that much-loved woman?

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

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

Ellyn Bache is the author of nine novels, including Safe Passage, which was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon, and two collections of short stories, one of which received the Willa Cather Fiction Prize.

She is a life member of Hadassah who lives in South Carolina.

afmda.org

MAY/JUNE 2022

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ESSAY

Roots Amid the Rubble Uncovering proof of ancient Jewish life in Ein Gedi | By Claudia Chotzen

COURTESY OF CLAUDIA CHOTZEN

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ike so many others at the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns, I escaped isolation by turning to television. When I watched The Dig, a movie on Netflix about amateur archaeologist Basil Brown’s discovery of a seventh-century AngloSaxon ship buried at Sutton Hoo on Edith Pretty’s estate in Suffolk, England in 1939, I was reminded of my own life-changing archaeology experience in Israel half a century ago.

In the spring of 1972, I was 19 and taking what would now be called a gap year before college. After finishing four months as a member of a dance company in Greece, I flew to Israel for the first time. While riding in a bus to see friends at Kibbutz Kvutzat Shiller in the center of the country, I heard a radio report about an archaeological excavation underway near the Dead Sea. The Israel Exploration Society believed that its crew was digging at the site of an ancient synagogue. I had come to Israel to understand more about my Judaism; digging in the earth seemed literally and figuratively an ideal way for me to learn more about my roots.

The next morning dawned bright and beautiful as I stood on the road outside the kibbutz and stuck out my thumb to hitchhike. Eventually, I made my way to the Dead Sea and then to the bottom of the road to the Ein Gedi Field School, excavation headquarters.

The field school was perched on a hill across the road from the Dead Sea, facing Jordan. Upon arrival, I climbed up the hill and found the excavation director loading tools into

a truck. His name was Dan Barag, a well-known and respected professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology. When I asked him if I could join his team of workers, he laughed.

“Do you have archaeology experience?” he asked me.

“No,” I replied, “but I’m a hard worker.”

“This is an extremely important excavation,” he said. “Experienced archaeologists and anthropologists are here from all over the world.

Many of them waited one or two years to work here, paid their own expenses and came great distances to work on this site. People don’t just show up at this dig. Go home, girl!”

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ndeterred, the next day I found my way back to the archaeological site and again asked the director if I could work.

Again, he told me there was no room.

When I returned a third time, Barag threw his hands in the air when he saw me. “You don’t quit, do you? O.K. I will let you work, but you have to follow all of my directions.”

He teamed me with Shalom, an elderly man with a deeply tanned, weathered face framed by a white beard. He wore the blue workpants typical of a kibbutznik, a shortsleeved shirt and canvas work gloves.

I was the youngest member of the group; Shalom, the only other inexperienced worker, was the oldest at 85. As an oleh from Russia, he was living his Jewish dream as he worked in the dirt.

MAY/JUNE 2022

The author in 1972

Barag and his fellow academics believed that the Ein Gedi site was once a fifth-century Byzantine-era synagogue. Two years earlier, a mosaic floor in beautiful condition had been unearthed, its center gloriously depicting geometric patterns, floral motifs and groupings of peacocks. These symbols and their location indicated the layout of an early synagogue, but so far there had been no definitive proof. The archaeologists were anxious to find evidence that Jews had lived in the area. Such a discovery would be the earliest sign of Jewish civilization in the Dead Sea region.

I was allowed to eat and sleep with the 16-person group at the field school dormitory. We woke daily at 4 a.m., when the sky was still black and the air cold. After a quick breakfast of fresh yogurt and tomatoes, we were driven to the site. By 5 a.m.,

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its mosaic floor, a portion of which Claudia Chotzen helped excavate 50 years ago.

with the sky still dark and filled with stars, we began work. Before long, the crimson sun rose over the Dead Sea. We worked until noon, when it became too hot to continue.

Shalom and I had been assigned the dismantling of a 7-foot-high rock wall that lay atop the northern edge of the excavated floor. He spoke as little English as I did Hebrew, but we managed to communicate. Together, we disassembled the wall, loading dirt and stones that had settled over centuries into a wheelbarrow and dumping the loads in the garbage pile at the edge of the site. When a rock was too large for one of us to move, we lifted it off the wall together.

Each day, cries of excitement would fly across the active site: Crew members were discovering bronze coins, an intact pottery vase—and once even a cloth purse. When that happened, we all dropped our shovels and brushes and rushed to see the find. Work would pause while the directors figured out the best

way to photograph and preserve the treasure. Then they would give us an on-the-spot lecture describing the significance of the new discovery.

But Shalom and I were finding only dirt and rocks.

After almost three weeks of digging, only a 1-foot-tall section of our wall remained. Barag approached Shalom and me. “You’re done here,” he said. He pointed to another 7-foot wall on the other side of the excavation. “Start taking down that wall over there.”

Shalom’s body stiffened and his hands squeezed the handle of the pick he held. We had worked tirelessly for weeks and were now only inches from what was believed to be the floor of an ancient synagogue.

Shalom began to argue with Barag in Hebrew while I beseeched him in English. But Barag kept insisting that we leave the spot, saying that we lacked the technical ability necessary for the final work.

After others in the group joined MAY/JUNE 2022

D

ecades later, i returned to Ein Gedi with my husband and our two sons. By then, not only was the synagogue fully excavated, but nearby streets and buildings of the ancient Jewish settlement had been partially uncovered.

A huge white protective tent covered the synagogue’s remains and its mosaic floor. The menorah I helped to reveal turned out to be part of a trio, and I was now able to see all three menorahs in the mosaic tile in front of where the bimah and ark had stood.

I had left my sweat and footprints in Israeli soil, and that effort had left me with an indelible memory of my own heritage and good fortune.

Claudia Chotzen is a former attorney and documentary film producer and director. This story is adapted from her recently published memoir, The Dark Room: A Memoir of Triumph.

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ALAMY

Life-Changing Archaeology A tent now covers the remains of the Ein Gedi synagogue and

the debate, advocating for Shalom and me, Barag relented. Under his supervision, we used delicate brushes to sweep away the last dirt from a surface that had not been seen in over a thousand years.

It was immediately apparent that the floor did indeed continue underneath our wall. And when we used rags and water to wash the tiles, we found a mosaic design. Shalom’s hands were shaking as we washed off the final layer of dust. In that same instant, we both recognized it—and so did Barag. The tiles formed a perfectly shaped menorah. Shalom began to weep, saying this was the most joyous moment of his life.

“The menorah indicates that this was a synagogue,” Barag told us. “The placement of the menorah indicates that this is where the bimah was. This is the proof we have been searching for that Jews inhabited this area near the Dead Sea.”

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Refugee resettlement as a Jewish value | By Rahel Musleah

wenty-one-month old Elisa, a refugee from Afghanistan who arrived in the United States in November with her parents, is already calling her new Jewish neighbors “auntie” and “uncle.”

On a recent March morning, exactly a month after Elisa’s family moved to the second floor of a bluesided two-family house in suburban New Jersey, two of those aunties, Shayna Schmidt of South Orange

and Liba Beyer of Maplewood— both leaders of a local Jewish effort to resettle the family—visited the young couple, Dina and Ali, and their daughter. Schmidt whisked the toddler away to read and play on the pink shag rug of her new room. Elisa sat in her lap, clutching a Doc McStuffins toy. Nearby in her parents’ bedroom, a pillow set against a patterned ivory bedspread declared House + Love = Home.

Dina, a 27-year-old matrimonial MAY/JUNE 2022

lawyer from Kabul, graciously extended her hospitality, bringing out a tray of cashews, pistachios, dates, crescent cookies and cups of cardamom tea. Beyer, whose day job is director of Global Campaigns for Human Rights Watch, chatted with Ali, who had worked for the American Embassy as a forklift driver until the Taliban took over in August 2021, turning their lives upside down.

“We weren’t able to bring anything with us,” Dina said in Dari, the form

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(CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT) RAHEL MUSLEAH; ANDREW HARNIK/AP PHOTO; AG FOR HIAS

Welcoming the Stranger, Literally

And in a nod to their new lives in a new country, they have decided to call Elisa by her middle name instead of her given first name, Fatima.

“It was very difficult to leave the country you’ve spent your entire life in, to leave your family,” said Ali, 28. “I still tear up and get mad about how much I’m missing home.” Dina and Ali are Shiite Muslims, and while Ali noted that he had met Jews at the embassy where he had worked, he said that “something like this, where people would sit together, break bread, share a meal and talk—that didn’t happen before.” Religion is not a factor in determining whether a person is good or bad, he added.

“For me and my family, what matters is humanity.”

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‘We Are All Immigrants’ (clockwise from opposite page, far left) Dina, Ali and a sleeping Elisa in their New Jersey apartment; Afghan refugees on the Fort Dix military base near Trenton, N.J.; HIAS-affiliated relief groups bringing Ukrainians to Poland

of Farsi spoken in Afghanistan, through an interpreter. “Just some backpacks with a couple of changes of clothing and a small Koran. The rest was milk and diapers and stuff I needed for my little daughter.” The Taliban had shut both Dina’s office and her mother’s hair salon and, like other Afghans who have fled, Dina fears for the safety of her and Ali’s relatives, most of whom remain in Afghanistan. To protect them, Dina and Ali are not sharing their last name.

he plight of refugees is more poignant than ever today as scenes of devastation and despair from Ukraine rivet world attention. The crisis continues as Jews prepare to celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, which begins this year the evening of June 4 and models the Jewish responsibility of welcoming strangers, such as the biblical Ruth, into our midst. The United Nations reports that more than five million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in late February.

President Joseph Biden has announced that up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine will be welcomed in the United States, but “the country is still awaiting further details on who will come and which resettlement pathways will be available to them,” according to Merrill Zack, vice president of community engagement for HIAS, the 100-year-old agency originally founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the only Jewish agency that works with the MAY/JUNE 2022

American government to implement the refugee admissions program.

Synagogues and other Jewish groups across the country have historically mobilized resources to help refugees, from Vietnamese in the 1970s to Soviet Jews through the 1990s to Syrian refugees from 2014 to 2016. What was different with the initial phase of the Afghan resettlement was the sheer volume of Afghans already in the United States and in need of welcome into communities, said Zack, citing the 76,000 refugees evacuated since last August in phase one of Operation Allies Welcome who had spent months on military bases in the United States. Of those refugees, 3,500 have been resettled through HIAS, which primarily works with local synagogues and Jewish organizations.

Schmidt and Beyer, both Hadassah life members, are more than just kind neighbors. They sit on the six-person steering committee of the SOMA Welcome Circle, an initiative that operates under the aegis of HIAS and involves three New Jersey synagogues in the South Orange-Maplewood area, known as SOMA—Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel, Beth El Congregation and Congregation Oheb Shalom.

“We keep telling our Afghan family that we are all immigrants,” said Beyer, who was a Young Judaean in her youth.

No specific plans to welcome a Ukrainian family have been implemented, according to Schmidt, but “we are all in the mind to help whomever we can and to continue to resettle families as they come to our area.”

The United States refugee resettlement program works like a pyramid of services. At the top, the State Department contracts with nine national umbrella agencies, including HIAS, which then partner with

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Surround With Care ‘Aunties’ Shayna Schmidt (left) and Liba Beyer (right) spend quality

RAHEL MUSLEAH

time with Dina and her daughter, Elisa.

local groups such as Jewish Family Services to perform the tangible, nitty gritty work. In a recent development, in October 2021, the Biden administration authorized emergency nationwide “sponsor circle” programs—HIAS calls such programs Welcome Circles—to facilitate the absorption of Afghan refugees.

The sponsor circle initiative allows private citizens and communities to be directly involved in refugee resettlement for the first time in decades.

Sponsor circles take on responsibilities traditionally delegated by the umbrella agencies to local agencies.

“The innovation of sponsor circles is the willingness of our country in this emergency moment to trust community members to welcome the refugees,” said Zack. “In response, circle members are saying, ‘We will rise to the occasion as American citizens and as Jews.’ ” Every item in Dina and Ali’s home, from kitchen utensils to electronics, has either been donated or purchased by members and friends of the three synagogues. The community received over 980 material donations, exceeded their fundraising goal of $50,000 and determined that it would commit to supporting the family for a year, rather than HIAS’s

standard requirement of six months of assistance. Schmidt, a realtor who found the apartment, coordinates transportation for the family. Other members shared their medical, legal and professional expertise at no charge and signed up for a meal train. Local businesses offered free haircuts, photo shoots, moving services and more.

“Coming together as a community to help people is always part of being Jewish,” said Susannah Litwin, 14, one of six eighth graders in the SOMA area who raised $1,008 by baking and selling homemade cupcakes, cookies and brownies. “I hope our donation allows them to have a brighter future,” added fellow baker Scarlett Friedland, 13.

Over 100 sponsor circles have been established around the country, welcoming more than 350 Afghan individuals. Of that number, 32 are HIAS-affiliated Welcome Circles, which crisscross the country from Palo Alto, Calif., to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The numbers include 13 circles in California, eight in the Northeast and several in the Midwest. Like the SOMA circle in New Jersey, the others have responded with an outpouring of goodwill, compassion and tangible donations. All Afghans MAY/JUNE 2022

who arrived in the United States since last summer have been resettled, and more circles are being recruited in preparation for Afghan families currently overseas on American military bases and other places.

In addition to completing rigorous background checks and paperwork in order to be certified, Welcome Circle members attend workshops and trainings on subjects such as cultural understanding, navigating boundaries and building trust as well as webinars on practical issues like budgets and finances. The goal is to lead the families to independence and employment.

If sponsor circles open up to Ukrainian refugees, HIAS will “absolutely consider that as an option,” said Zack. In the meantime, the refugee resettlement program under the Lautenberg Amendment, which was first enacted in 1990 to facilitate resettlement of Jews from the former Soviet Union, has been reauthorized in response to the war in Ukraine. Lautenberg eligibility is limited to members of specific religious minorities that claim persecution, as designated by Congress, with close family members who hold permanent immigration status in the United States. On the ground, a HIAS response team has been in Poland and Ukraine assessing ways it can assist both Jews and others as they cross into Poland and other neighboring countries.

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n st. louis, mo., the hias-affiliated Intertwine Interfaith Welcome Circle is the outcome of a six-year collaboration among Congregation Shaare Emeth, Parkway United Church of Christ and the Turkish American Society of Missouri (TASOM). Forming the circle was a natural progression, said Debbie

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Tulsa, Okla. To date, his congregation has resettled dozens of individuals from Afghanistan.

surrounded Dina and Ali like a large Jewish family, said Beyer, but their efforts can only partially mitigate the hard work ahead.

“Whatever you’ve done in the past, you have to start over to build a life again,” said Dina, who dreams of returning to work as a lawyer or paralegal. Ali, who was on the Afghan National Handball team, hopes to obtain a commercial driver’s license (one of the rabbis donated a car) and work as a driver while he studies to become a fitness instructor.

Bram, Shaare Emeth’s director of Jewish life and learning.

“Many TASOM members emigrated themselves and had a challenging time being accepted, especially after 9/11,” she said. “One of the core reasons that the Intertwine program was created was to build bridges. And so now to do this together, to welcome new refugees, is making that bridge even stronger.”

The Intertwine circle greeted a family of six in February—parents and four children aged 3 to 11.

The mother, a midwife and doctor, worked with United States Special Forces in Afghanistan and was involved in Covid-19 treatment there.

The father is a nurse who worked for an international medical group by driving women to work, since women do not traditionally drive in Afghanistan. The couple is hoping to obtain medical licensing here, a process that could take two years.

Members of the St. Louis circle are experiencing a learning curve covering everything from food to language, Lisa Mason, a congregant of Parkway United Church of Christ, said in a post on the church’s website.

“A family of six can eat an incredible amount of naan in a day since it’s used as a ‘spoon’ at every meal; there

hough most welcome Circles are formed by Conservative and Reform synagogues, Kehilat Kesher, the Community Synagogue of Tenafly and Englewood, N.J., is Modern Orthodox. Its members welcomed Nik Muhammad, his wife, Hanifa, and their 3-year-old son, Mudaser, in February. In addition to funds raised to sustain the Afghan family for six months, one donor offered to let the family stay in the carriage house on his property for two weeks until a more permanent apartment became available.

Besides the mitzvah of tikkun olam, Leah Silberstein, who sits on the steering committee for the shul’s Welcome Circle, said her background as the child of Holocaust survivors helped by HIAS drives her to aid refugees.

“It takes extraordinary courage to leave everything you know behind and to find one’s footing in a society that’s utterly foreign to you—professionally, personally, spiritually and socially,” said Silberstein, 60, a Hadassah life member and director of strategic initiatives for a private school in Manhattan. In some ways, the Afghan family she is assisting reminds her of her parents’ immigra-

are even more varieties of rice than we knew, and everyone loves pizza.”

The word “camp” triggers traumatic memories of the family’s months in United States military camps in Qatar and New Jersey, she added, so the phrase “summer program” is substituted for “summer camp.”

Back in New Jersey, Rabbi Daniel Cohen of South Orange’s Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel noted that “The Torah mentions welcoming the stranger over 36 times, and frequently adds ‘because you were slaves in Egypt.’ It’s clear that those who know the pain of being powerless, and have suffered as a result, have a responsibility to help and uplift others once they are in a position to do so. We consciously wanted to do this work as a synagogue community.”

The SOMA group previously welcomed Soviet Jews and, five years ago, two Syrian and one Iraqi family.

One of the Syrian daughters now teaches in Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel’s preschool. Cohen said he has a personal obligation, too. His grandfather escaped Lithuania in the early 1900s. “No one helped him then. For his grandchild to be in a position to help is really powerful.”

The SOMA community has MAY/JUNE 2022

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COURTESY OF B’NAI EMUNAH

Sharing the Journey Rabbi Daniel Kaiman (right) welcomes an Afghan refugee family to

Tikkun Olam in Action Teen volunteers help out at B’nai Emunah’s warehouse, which is

COURTESY OF B’NAI EMUNAH

packed with donated furniture and household goods.

tion story. They came to these shores holding the hands of a 3-year-old child—her older sister, who was born in a displaced persons’ camp in 1948.

“It’s a humbling learning experience for me to see the world from someone else’s eyes,” said Silberstein. “It has reinforced my awe and respect for what my parents did without bitterness or an ounce of hatred.”

Nik Muhammad, who worked in Afghanistan as a translator for United States governmental advisers for five years, has a degree in English literature and education from Balkh University. His family’s airy apartment in northern New Jersey looks out over a busy downtown street and a twice-weekly flea market. The town has a sizable Muslim refugee population, a mosque and halal grocery.

“The apartment is openhearted,” he said. “You don’t feel like you’re living in a prison or jail.”

Like Dina and Ali, Nik Muhammad said that he and Hanifa, a seamstress, delayed their departure from Afghanistan until the fall because of the huge crowds that besieged the airports in August.

After leaving on a special immigrant visa for people who worked for the

United States government or its affiliates, he spent almost a month on a military base in Qatar before arriving at Fort Dix, near Trenton, N.J. The young family lived in a one-room military barracks for almost two months, still wearing traditional Afghan clothing called koli—among the few items they brought with them—Mudaser in a gray tunic and wide pants, Hanifa in brown and he in black. Now, the family has donned Western clothes, including an Incredible Hulk T-shirt for Mudaser.

Meanwhile, their families and most of Nik Muhammad’s 24 colleagues who served as translators have not been able to leave Afghanistan.

“Sometimes when we have a video call with my parents, Mudaser shouts, ‘Darzimah, darzimah!’ I’m coming, I’m coming, in Pashto,” Nik Muhammad said. “Or, ‘Roza, roza!’

You guys must come here. The only English words he knows are ‘thank you,’ because he hears me saying it to other people.

“I haven’t been in this situation before,” he continued. “I stood on my own feet and spent my own money. Now sometimes I shy to ask, ‘Please take me to the grocery store.’

MAY/JUNE 2022

I feel awkward. People who are independent and now dependent on other people, it’s very hard for them.”

He said he hopes to work as an internet technician for a cable company, or if he is able to afford a car in the future, as an Uber, Grubhub or Amazon driver. Now that he has his Green Card, he said, “the U.S. will be like our homeland. We will work hard to make this homeland better and better by our hard working. It doesn’t matter if I have a low job or a higher position. I can help this country.”

C

ongregation b’nai Emunah, a Conservative synagogue in Tulsa, Okla., has taken support of refugees one giant step further than most other Jewish communities engaged in this work. Last October, they became a federally funded local resettlement agency. Though a suggested number of refugees for an agency to assist in its full first year is 50, B’nai Emunah resettled 59 Afghans in its first three months, said Rabbi Daniel Kaiman.

A professional director of refugee resettlement, two caseworkers, an administrator and a part-time translator now work out of the synagogue’s library. A nearby warehouse stores donated furniture and other goods and is the site of tikkun olam in action, including religious school children who have assembled welcome kits there.

Founded 100 years ago by refugees from Latvia, B’nai Emunah, with around 500 member units, has long been committed to social justice, a commitment that is now guided by co-rabbis Kaiman and Marc Fitzerman. Six years ago, the congregation established the only free English as a second language program in Tulsa that offers childcare for local refugee

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mothers, who are mostly Burmese, Russian and Ukrainian.

That project opened the door to more resettlement work, and the Afghan crisis unfolded while the community was becoming certified as its own agency, said Kaiman, 37, a Hadassah Associate whose maternal grandfather is a Holocaust survivor. His Cuban-born mother immigrated to Israel and then to the United States. Currently, there are around 150 Ukrainian families in the area, and Kaiman said that while his synagogue awaits further guidance in resettling refugees from Ukraine, it has been working with some of these local families to file applications on behalf of relatives who might qualify as refugees under the Lautenberg Amendment.

The synagogue encourages members to rent to refugees and employ them, to volunteer and donate time and funds. For some members, Kaiman noted, refugee work is a way of expressing their Judaism.

“We probably have more Jews regularly volunteering with our resettlement services than coming to Shabbat morning services,” he said. “Almost every time we face a challenge or question, there’s a congregant excitedly and surprisingly on the other end of the phone.”

“So often when you do social service, you do it through someone,” Kaiman added. “In this case, we are the ones doing the work, and it feels like an extension of the congregation.

It’s another level of investment and

care, and models for our kids the values that are near and dear.”

During recess from religious school on a recent Sunday morning, students played on slides, rode bikes and climbed on playground equipment side by side with four Afghan children whose parents were meeting inside the synagogue with their lawyer—a B’nai Emunah member with two children in the school.

“Everyone now realizes that we’re living our lives together,” said Kaiman. “There’s great meaning in sharing the journey.”

Rahel Musleah leads virtual tours of Jewish India and other cultural events and has scheduled her first post-pandemic, in-person tour for November 2022 (explorejewishindia.com).

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Israel’s Take on Abortion Relatively easy to get, difficult to talk about

LEIGH WELLS/IKON IMAGES

E

By Dina Kraft

arly one morning last December, Avigail Bailey was pacing the floor of her Jerusalem apartment, awaiting the results of a pregnancy test. When two blue lines appeared, she woke her partner with news that neither of them wanted: The test was positive.

They both agreed to terminate the pregnancy.

“It was an unplanned pregnancy.

Our contraception failed. We live together but felt we were too young,

not economically stable and that this was really not part of our plans,” says Bailey, 27, who studies philosophy at Shalem College in Jerusalem. “For both of us, the choice was very clear.”

Bailey, who was in her first trimester, immediately went into planning mode. “Who do I need to call? What’s the process for getting an abortion?” she recalls asking herself before reaching out to Lada’at-Choose Well, a Jerusalem-based reproductive and sexual health nonprofit. “The shock MAY/JUNE 2022

quickly turned to, ‘How can we deal with this? And quickly.’ ” For Bailey and other women in Israel who choose to end their pregnancies, abortion is legal, accessible at hospitals and clinics throughout the country and subsidized under the national health care system. It is nevertheless a sensitive topic, and many of the medical professionals approached for this article declined to be interviewed or share their names.

“Abortion is something that is relatively easy to get in Israel but not easy to talk about,” explains a hospital insider who asked to remain anonymous. Some 98 percent of those who apply for an abortion ultimately receive one, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Despite its accessibility, abortion is not an automatic right. Israel’s abortion law, passed in 1977, includes criteria for allowing the procedure: If the woman is under 18 or over 40; if the fetus is not viable or would have severe medical problems if brought to term; if the pregnancy is the result of rape, incest or an “illicit union” (including not being married or having a relationship outside of marriage); and if the woman’s mental or physical health is at risk.

As part of the law, a pregnant woman must receive approval from a termination of pregnancy committee comprised of two physicians and a social worker (one of whom must be a woman) that determines if she meets the legal criteria for an abortion. The committee appointment itself can take two weeks or more to schedule, and the meeting has been described as humiliating, intrusive and paternalistic by critics and activists. Consequently, some women choose to undergo the procedure through private doctors, paying the costs—about $1,000—out of pocket

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he push for reform in Israel comes amid an existential battle for reproductive rights in the United States.

In 2021, 19 states passed more than 100 new reproductive health restrictions. Texas, for example, passed a controversial abortion law banning the procedure in almost all cases after six weeks of a pregnancy, around the same time that most women realize they are pregnant. More recently, other states, including Oklahoma, Kentucky and Florida, have adopted

Her Choice Israeli college student Avigail Bailey ended her pregnancy in December.

their own restrictions and bans.

Meanwhile, the United States Supreme Court is soon expected to hand down a major decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, concerning the constitutionality of a Mississippi state law that prohibits most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy; viability is generally considered to be around 24 weeks.

Pro-choice activists in the United States fear the Supreme Court may overturn the constitutional right to pre-viability abortions, a precedent established in Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1972 case that legalized abortion in the United States. For women who live in states where their reproductive rights might not be protected if Roe v. Wade is eroded, this could mean the end of abortion access. (For information about Hadassah’s efforts to protect reproductive rights in the United States, see page 35.)

The discourse over abortion differs dramatically between the United States and Israel. In Israel, reproductive rights barely register as a political issue and abortions are legal throughout gestation. There is a separate committee for those seeking the procedure after 24 weeks, usually for complex medical reasons. This committee is typically comprised of MAY/JUNE 2022

the director of the hospital or clinic and senior doctors.

“The United States is going backward. I think we are in a very different place, and we have laws to protect us from that kind of extremism,” says Silvina Freund, executive director of Open Door, or Delet Petucha in Hebrew, which serves as an Israeli parallel to Planned Parenthood, a leading United States health care provider and reproductive health organization. “We will fight to make sure that nothing like that can happen here.”

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n israel, reform efforts are less about access and more about concerns regarding a woman’s right to dignity, respect and agency over her own body. Indeed, even doctors and social workers who sit on the committees are deeply uncomfortable with the process, according to one insider.

“They tell us, ‘This is not why I studied medicine, to put a woman in such an impossible situation,’ ” says Roni Ben-Cnaan, advocacy coordinator for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.

Those seeking an abortion may fabricate the information they present to the committee to meet the legal criteria, adds Ben-Cnaan.

She has heard from married women who falsely claim that a pregnancy was conceived out of wedlock. “A woman does not want to lie,” says Ben-Cnaan, “but she will do so if there’s no other option.” Government statistics show that pregnancy out of wedlock or from rape or incest were the most cited reasons in 2020 given to the committee, representing 49 percent of termination requests.

Even in cases where a fetus is not developing or would not survive outside the womb, termination

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COURTESY OF AVIGAIL BAILEY

and without committee approval, which is illegal, although the authorities do not monitor or discipline private abortion providers.

It is reforms to these committees that are the focus of activists, even as they acknowledge the pitfalls in attempting to change, or even draw attention to, a fairly permissive and liberal system in a country that is becoming increasingly traditional and socially conservative.

“It really bothered me that I had to go through a committee, that other people had to give their approval,” says Bailey. While the committee discussed her abortion case, she and her boyfriend sat in the adjacent hallway, hands clasped, waiting for the door to open, and with it, an answer.

Being unmarried, Bailey met the criteria for approval, and she was able to have an abortion.

“For women, often the most stressful part of the process is appearing before the committee, more so than the abortion itself,” Dina Shalev, director of Lada’at, says.

“That’s why we are working so hard to change things.” Lada’at’s hotline for information about reproductive health and abortion—including the country’s only one in Arabic—fields calls from across the country.

ministry also wants to redress lengthy wait times for committee hearings.

Furthermore, Meretz lawmakers have proposed amending the abortion law to do away with committees for first-trimester abortions as well as changing the role of the committee during the second trimester from approval to advisory.

Protest Pro-choice and anti-abortion activists rallied outside the United States Supreme Court in

RENA SCHILD/SHUTTERSTOCK

December 2021 as the court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

requires committee approval.

Fourteen years ago, Nurit Daniels, a resident of Kibbutz Maabarot near Netanya, was told by her doctor to apply to a committee when, at 12 weeks pregnant, a scan found the fetus she was carrying was not viable because its digestive system was developing outside of its abdominal wall.

“I remember sitting facing [the committee],” says Daniels, now 49.

“It was deeply unpleasant. Here I was carrying a baby that could not survive. I think my situation should have been treated like a medical procedure. If you have cancer, you don’t have to go to a committee to get the treatment you need, so why not in this case?”

Dr. Susan Warchaizer, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Tel Aviv who has performed abortions in the past, agrees. “I think it’s absolutely outrageous that any woman cannot get an abortion on demand when she wants or needs it,” she says, noting that many committees just “rubber stamp” the procedure, making the approval process legalized fiction.

But she is hesitant about lobbying for change. “If you put scrutiny on what’s going on, there’s a fear it could open a Pandora’s box and the situation could get worse, not better,” says Dr. Warchaizer. “So it makes me

nervous to say ‘Let’s fight for this,’ because basically every woman seeking an abortion gets one.”

Despite these concerns, human rights, feminist and pro-choice groups, including Lada’at and Open Door, an organization that counsels young men and women about pregnancy and sexuality, have come together to press for reforms.

They note opportunities for change in the diverse, though currently fragile, ruling government coalition that includes a progressive health minister, Nitzan Horowitz of the Meretz Party. The coalition also, for the first time in over a decade, does not include ultra-Orthodox parties, such as Shas or United Torah Judaism, that have historically blocked any reform.

“It should be a given that the rights to a woman’s body are the woman’s alone,” Horowitz was quoted saying

by Ynet, an Israeli news site. “Any decision, or medical procedure, such as the choice of whether to perform an abortion, must be in the hands of the woman.”

Under Horowitz, the ministry plans to amend the questionnaire that is part of the committee procedure, deleting questions deemed medically unnecessary or intrusive, such as those about contraceptive use. The MAY/JUNE 2022

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ny debate around israel’s abortion policy plays out in a society that encourages its citizens to have children and, in some ways, sees offspring as a response to current and historical trauma. Indeed, many Israeli Jews see children as essential to rebuilding the Jewish people after the Holocaust and as an answer to demographic fears around the Arab population of Israel. The government has historically offered economic incentives for large families, and Israel is one of the few countries in the world to subsidize fertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization.

Israel has among the highest birthrates per capita in the developed world, with an average of more than 3.01 kids per family, compared to 1.6 in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.

According to the Health Ministry, abortion rates have steadily decreased over the past 30 years, staying largely at 20,000 abortions annually even as the number of pregnancies has risen—from 103,000 per year in 1990 to 182,000 in 2019. The drop in abortion rates is attributed to better sex education in schools and access to contraception, says reproductive rights activist Sharon Orshalimy, a doctoral student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev who researches contraception in Israel.

In 2020, Israel’s statistics bureau found that 85 percent of abortions

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O

ver the years, it has been religious parties, from ultra-Orthodox to national religious, that have blocked attempts to reform the abortion law, noted Rebecca Steinfeld, Ph.D., an England-based researcher and political scientist who has written about abortion and reproductive policy in Israel. Ultra-Orthodox

Dina Shalev, director of Lada’at

parties also have attempted to ban late-term abortions in the past, but never with any success.

According to Lada’at and other women’s rights groups, a handful of anti-abortion groups are attempting to influence the current discourse, including Efrat-C.R.I.B., Committee for

the Rescue of Israel’s Babies, which offers economic aid and counseling to women considering an abortion.

Founded in 1977 by a Holocaust survivor who wanted to promote childbirth in the Jewish world, Efrat’s goal has never been to become a political force, according to Ruth Tidhar, the group’s chief social worker. “We have no qualms with the idea that abortion is accessible,” she says, adding that their focus is helping women make an informed choice and providing financial support.

These organizations “speak to some of the more (socially) conservative and religious Jews, but there is a majority of Israelis that have a more liberal approach to abortion, especially in the early stages,” says Shalev of Lada’at.

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MAY/JUNE 2022

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COURTESY OF DINA SHALEV

in Israel were performed in the first trimester and that most undergoing the procedure already had one child.

(Similarly, most of those seeking an abortion in the United States are already mothers and over 90 percent are in their first trimester, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

This attitude reflects Jewish law, which states that life or personhood begins at birth. Moreover, the Talmud states in Yevamot 69b that “until 40 days from conception the fetus is merely water. It is not yet considered a living being.” Furthermore, in halacha, a threat to a woman’s life takes priority over the continuation of her pregnancy. These precepts allow more flexibility, not to mention a range of Jewish opinions, around the issue of abortion.

Nowhere is that reality more present than in the United States.

In general, the major liberal Jewish denominations are vocally supportive of legal access to abortions, upholding the pro-choice position that it is up to the woman to decide.

Orthodox rabbis are largely

cautious about publicly discussing abortion. Nevertheless, two mainstream Orthodox groups, the Rabbinical Council of America, an umbrella group for Orthodox rabbis, and the ultra-Orthodox Agudath Israel of America, released statements opposing a 2019 New York State law, the Reproductive Health Act, which enacted further legal protections for abortions.

In their statements, both groups asserted that Jewish law allows abortion in certain cases, for example if the expectant mother’s life is at risk, but maintained that the New York law permits overly broad allowances for termination of pregnancy.

Still, in Israel, “there are no lack of religious rulings that authorize abortions,” says Rabbi Yuval Sherlow,

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MAY/JUNE 2022 Yahrzeit Ad_onethird_2022.indd 1

director of the Ethics Department at Tzohar, an Israeli group of Orthodox rabbis that works to bridge the gap between religious and secular Jews in the country. “Halacha is more liberal than its image.”

Sherlow thinks that Israel’s abortion law is optimal at balancing protecting the woman and the fetus.

“I think the situation today works, and if by chance some committees are overstepping boundaries, then we need to make them more sensitive,” he says. “But the fact that abortion is not an automatic procedure is something I support.”

Several storylines in the hit Israeli television show Shtisel, about a haredi family in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem, offer insight into ultra-Orthodox attitudes on abortion. In its third and most recent season, the young and married Ruchami (played by Shira Haas) is revealed to have had an abortion; she has a condition that makes pregnancy dangerous, and her rabbi insisted she have an abortion to save her life. Her husband, Hanina, is shown consulting with the rabbi about whether they should now try to have a child via surrogacy, which the rabbi allows, noting that Jewish law in most cases would advise against any pregnancy that could endanger a mother’s health—with health being defined as both mental and physical health. Season one touches on the subject, too. Ruchami’s mother, Giti, abandoned by her husband and with five children to raise, considers having an abortion and even goes before a committee, though she ultimately decides against the procedure.

Several years ago, Tamar, a Modern Orthodox married mother of three living on a moshav outside of Jerusalem, had to make a decision seven weeks into an unplanned preg-

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nancy. Her youngest was 18 months old and had health problems.

“We had just had a very troubling and challenging year in all ways, and when I found out I was pregnant, my husband was certain he did not want to go through with it,” says Tamar, 35, who had had a previous abortion for a fetus that was not developing.

“I still took time though to decide on my own.”

As a married woman, Tamar knew a committee would automatically grant her an abortion if she claimed that she had conceived out of wedlock. But she did not want to have that lie “on my record,” as she puts it. Instead, she opted for proof that a pregnancy would cause her mental distress. She met with a psychiatrist and secured a letter for the committee stating just that.

She did not tell her mother about the pregnancy and subsequent abortion, fearing she would not be accepting of her decision. “But I have a daughter, and I’ll tell her about it and my other children as well one day,” she says, keen to speak out against abortion stigma that exists in religious communities.

“I think the committee system needs to end. But at the end of the day, we are a country where women have a say over their own bodies,” says Tamar. “What we have is good enough—not perfect, but good enough.”

As for Avigail Bailey, the college student who ended her pregnancy in December, “I know I want a family in the future, I’ve always wanted that,” she says. “But I want to start a family when it’s the right time for me.”

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

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HADASSAH MEDICINE

Spearheading an Expansion at Mount Scopus CEO Dr. Tamar Elram focuses on doing ‘the most good’

By Wendy Elliman

COURTESY OF HMO

D

r. tamar elram is with a patient in the community health center in Ma’ale Adumim, a city in the Judean Hills, when a nurse urgently summons her for another case. A pregnant woman at the center no longer feels her baby moving, and the fetal monitor shows reason for concern. The closest operating room is 20 minutes away; Dr. Elram, an obstetrician-gynecologist, calls an ambulance. When the ambulance is a no-show, she leads the distressed woman to her own car, fastens to its roof the emergency police light she carries as CEO of Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus and speeds, literally, to Jerusalem, alerting the hospital’s delivery team en route.

A little boy is born soon after arrival at Mount Scopus. He needs help breathing in his first few days, and then settles into normal, healthy growth.

Dr. Elram, 50, has been head of the 350-bed Mount Scopus hospital since 2017, responsible for its staff of 1,200 and almost 300,000 patients each year as well as for its operations, maintenance and development.

But she still relishes her clinical work.

“Continuing to practice gynecology keeps my feet on the ground,” she said, “and my eyes at patient level.”

Whether serving individuals or an institution, “you impact people in every encounter and must therefore always exercise your responsibility and authority in the best way,” she said. Treating patients, she added, “is

a privilege to be cherished, and so is leading Hadassah Mount Scopus— especially now, as it embarks on a massive expansion.”

This expansion is the response of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America and the Hadassah Medical Organization to the medical needs of Jerusalem, which is among the country’s fastest-growing urban regions and has the highest proportion of elderly residents in Israel. Among the additions planned for the 86-year-old hospital campus are seven new buildings that “will change the skyline to the northeast of the city,” said Dr. Elram, including a new rehabilitation center slated to open in 2023.

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lmost five years ago, Dr. Elram came to Mount Scopus after directing another Jerusalem hospital, Misgav Ladach.

Originally from England, her family moved to Jerusalem when she was 5 years old. By the time of her bat mitzvah, she had decided on a medical career and ultimately attended the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine.

She has two master’s degrees. The first, earned through a prestigious Wexner Israel Graduate Fellowship she received from the Wexner Foundation, which supports the development of Jewish leaders in North America and Israel, is in public administration from Harvard University. The second, in health administration, is from Hebrew University.

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Dr. Tamar Elram

She has served as assistant to Israel’s Health Ministry director-general and as the deputy director of Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. Dr. Elram lives in Alon, near Ma’ale Adumin, and she and her husband, Daniel, have five children, aged 13 to 24. In addition to directing a busy hospital, leading its expansion and spending time with her family, Dr. Elram is a poet who writes about women, motherhood and medicine. A Doctor’s Handwriting: Poems, a collection of her work, was published by Niv Books last year.

(See hadassahmagazine.org/medicine for selections of her writing.)

“I love taking on challenges, creating work procedures, pushing forward building projects and addressing organizational culture,” she said.

Among those challenges is figuring out how best to lead—in ordinary times, in times of stress, such as the pandemic, as well as during transitions—a subject she has thought long and hard about.

“I believe in awareness-based leadership, an approach in which the leader’s culture is about ‘we’ rather than ‘me,’ ” she said, explaining that this method focuses on identifying principles and living by them as well as recognizing the feelings and values of those who work with her.

On the shelves in her Mount Scopus office are books that have influenced her: Dvora Hacohen’s

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delivery department, part of the new Rady Mother and Child Center.

And, with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development, the hospital has opened Hadassah’s first cardiac rehabilitation unit and completed northern Jerusalem’s first cardiac catheterization laboratory, where 1,000 procedures are performed each year.

new, award-winning biography of Henrietta Szold, To Repair a Broken World; a volume of yoga philosophy; and Alan Morinis’s Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar.

“Henrietta Szold exemplifies a successful value-driven leader,” said Dr. Elram. “Yoga gave me the principle of ahimsa, or non-aggression, in negotiating at every level.”

Morinis’s book explores topics such as humility, compassion, generosity, responsibility and faith—values to which she “connected instantly,” both as an individual and as a CEO. Dr. Elram’s leadership approach quickly proved itself. “Tamar is an energetic and dedicated manager, doing a wonderful job,” said Dalia Itzik, former speaker of the Knesset and chair of HMO in Israel.

For her part, Dr. Elram attributes much of the success of the hospital to her staff and teamwork. “Things work, medically, administratively, planning-wise because the team functions brilliantly, embraces appropriate values and makes what we do easy,” she said.

In the years since Dr. Elram took the reins, the hospital has totally renovated its emergency center and opened its first trauma unit. The number of births at Mount Scopus has increased by over 30 percent thanks to a renovated and expanded

T

he changes in maternity and cardiac care are just the beginning. Today, there are cranes and construction workers on the hospital’s 28-acre campus, finishing the eight-story, $100-million-plus Gandel Rehabilitation Center, named a “priority strategic project” by the Israeli government. Replacing Hadassah Mount Scopus’s modest 50-year-old rehabilitation facility, which crowded four to five patients per room, the Gandel center is scheduled to open early next year with cutting-edge research and rehabilitation facilities, including hydro-, physio- and occupational therapies as well as clinics, outpatient areas and a healing garden on its roof.

Four inpatient wings, with a total of 132 beds (in contrast to the current 38) are also being planned for the new center, with treatment areas including rehabilitation for neurological, orthopedic, spinal cord injury, geriatric and ventilator-dependent cases.

“Hadassah’s is the only rehab facility for greater Jerusalem’s 1.2 million-plus residents, and currently it’s able to cope with just 30 percent of the need,” explained Dr. Elram.

“The Gandel center will be the country’s largest. Without exaggeration, it’s among the most important projects underway in Israel today.”

The center is a flagship project of Hadassah International and HadasMAY/JUNE 2022

sah Australia, which recently received one of Hadassah’s largest ever single donations, given by the Gandel Foundation, led by John and Pauline Gandel of Melbourne, Australia.

The Gandel center is the first of the new construction projects planned for Hadassah Mount Scopus, the older of Hadassah’s two Jerusalem campuses. In the coming decades, six more buildings are slated to join the center, among them a 14-story inpatient tower and a new emergency center. The original 1930s building—when it opened, considered among the most modern hospital buildings in the Middle East—will be conserved, its use yet to be determined. Also planned is an electric power generation station, a helipad, a hotel for patient families and a commercial area near the Mount Scopus light rail station.

For spearheading these changes at Mount Scopus as well as for her extensive clinical work, Dr. Elram is frequently recognized as a leader in her field. In 2019, Lady Globes magazine included her as one of the “50 Most Influential Women in Key Positions in Israel,” citing her leadership abilities and the transformations at Mount Scopus. And in 2021, the national religious women’s organization, Emunah, named Dr. Elram, herself observant, Woman of the Year.

Dr. Elram is proud of the recognition but is nevertheless frustrated when selected for gender-focused lists and awards. “The split is chauvinist,” she said. “There should be no such division. We’re all human beings.”

What we should focus on, she added, is where we can “do the most good.”

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

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HADASSAH MEDICINE

On the Border Between Poland and Ukraine The Hadassah Medical Organization brings expertise and care to those displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

tions to work with aid organizations near the Ukrainian-Polish border. (clockwise from top) Hadassah nurse Denis Lipatov reassures a young arrival at the refugee center in Przemyśl, Poland; refugees search through donated supplies; Dr. Miklosh Bala, an HMO trauma unit head, trains staff at the Medical University of Lublin; a young patient receives care in the Hadassah-run clinic at the center; HMO teams at the center. In April’s Hadassah On Call podcast, HMO Acting Director-General Dr. Yoram Weiss; senior pediatric pulmonologist Dr. Alex Gileles-Hillel, who traveled to Poland; and nursing division head Rely Alon, who set up a free hotline for pregnant Ukrainian refugees, discuss HMO’s humanitarian efforts (hadassah.org/podcasts).

...AND IN ISRAEL The Hadassah-supported Meir Shfeyah Youth Village is hosting students who escaped the conflict in Ukraine. Among the activities during their first days at the village was a day trip to Dor HaBonim Beach in central Israel.

COURTESY OF HMO AND HADASSAH INTERANTIONAL

On a Mission HMO has sent several delega-

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HADASSAH NEWS

Praise for Our Mission The importance of kindness, respect and resourcefulness Stories compiled by Marlene Post

The Power to Help Heal the World

By Naomi Adler

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n february, i had a homecoming, setting foot on Israeli ground for the first time as the CEO of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. As we celebrate the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, we reflect on the lessons of the Book of Ruth, including the importance of kindness, respect and resourcefulness—three qualities clearly demonstrated throughout all my encounters in Israel.

Thanks to many planning sessions with National President Rhoda Smolow, I arrived with a robust schedule of meetings with new colleagues at the Hadassah Medical Organization, a visit to one of our youth villages and several days of diplomatic business. Thankfully, it also included my favorite pastime of taking long walks in Jerusalem on Shabbat and making up for two years without Israeli breakfast!

I arrived in Israel aware of Hadassah’s long history of impactful response to crises; however, the experience of being there when the missiles started raining down on Ukraine will stay with me for a lifetime. One example truly illustrates why Hadassah is so unique.

Hadassah CEO Naomi Adler (left) with Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk and HMO Board Chair Dalia Itzik; (top) Adler at the Abbell Synagogue at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem with Barbara Goldstein, deputy director of the Hadassah Office in Israel MAY/JUNE 2022

During the first week of the war in Ukraine, Dalia Itzik, the chair of the HMO board, received an urgent plea from Yevhen Korniychuk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel, asking for medical supplies. Within hours, HMO’s acting director-general, Dr. Yoram Weiss, executed a plan to ensure we could answer the request.

By the time Itzik and I sat down to dinner with Ambassador Korniychuk, those supplies—which Dr. Weiss and I helped send off—had been driven to Tel Aviv, then directly airlifted.

Distraught and exhausted, the ambassador poignantly acknowledged Hadassah as the first Israeli hospital to help as a stream of people stopped by our table to share condolences.

Just after that dinner, in collaboration with Hadassah International, the first of several HMO teams arrived in Poland. In addition to assisting in Lublin, our nurses and doctors partnered with the World Health Organization and others to help Ukrainian refugees. Armed with their deep trauma experience and the knowledge that Hadassah supporters would fund these efforts, our medical personnel were able to set a strong, nimble foundation for whatever lies ahead.

Simultaneously, Hadassah has been working with the Israeli govern-

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Keeping Up the Fight for Reproductive Rights

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adassah has and always will unequivocally stand for women’s reproductive rights and empowering women with the knowledge to make critical health decisions for themselves and their families.

On February 28, in a vote of 46-48, the United States Senate failed to pass the Women’s Health

Protection Act, further jeopardizing reproductive health access across the country. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court heard challenges to two state laws this session, and a major decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, involving a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks and whose outcome could erode Roe v. Wade, is expected soon.

Following, learn about Hadassah’s efforts to safeguard women’s health and how to get involved, with more information available online at hadassah.org.

ZIONISM…DID YOU KNOW? Name the outstanding Israeli women who achieved fame and success in a variety of industries, from the arts to the military to politics.

What actress made it big in Hollywood movies by playing a superhero with a golden lasso?

What actress first made a name for herself in a television series about an ultraOrthodox Jewish family, before moving on to films such as Unorthodox?

Who was the first woman to become speaker of the Knesset, and who briefly served as interim president of Israel?

That same woman is now chair of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s board of directors.

Urge your state and federal legislators to protect reproductive rights and ensure that women’s health is a top priority. Nineteen states passed more than 100 new reproductive health restrictions in 2021 alone. Tell state policymakers to oppose abortion bans as well as onerous and medically unnecessary requirements placed on patients, physicians and service providers.

Watch the previously recorded program “The Road Beyond Roe: Advocating for Reproductive Choice.”

Continued on next page

ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, one a retired brigadier general and advisor to the IDF chief of staff on women’s issues and the other a retired major general who is now Israel’s Minister of Economy?

What Israeli philanthropist is Israel’s wealthiest woman and the force behind The Doing Good Model?

What best-selling author wrote the novels The Liar, Waking Lions and One Night Markovitch?

At the 2020 summer games in Tokyo, what athlete became the first Israeli woman to win an Olympic gold medal?

What jurist serves as chief justice of Israel’s Supreme Court?

Which two women made it to the top MAY/JUNE 2022

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NOW YOU KNOW… MORE ABOUT SUCCESSFUL FEMALE LEADERS IN ISRAEL

ANSWERS: Gal Gadot; Shira Hass; Dalia Itzik; Brigadier General Suzy Yogev and Major General Orna Barbivai; Shari Arison; Ayelet Gundar-Goshen; Linoy Ashram; Esther Hayut

ment to resettle young refugees in our Youth Aliyah villages, created to provide refuge to children fleeing Nazi Germany. One teenager encouraged me to walk through their farm, explaining that he works with the animals to cope with the anxiety he feels with his parents still in a war zone.

Throughout the trip, I was extremely fortunate to partner with our incredible professionals in Israel as well as several Hadassah volunteers, among them Dianne Gottlieb, Viviane Kovacs, Shelley Kaplan, Ruth Ann Freedman and Joyce Rabin as well as staff including Max Winer and Stacey Horowitz. At each stop, we heard praise for our mission of taking care of others of all backgrounds, identities and places of residence.

Now that I’m back in the United States, I’ve been thrilled to share this experience as I start to meet in person with members and supporters. Many thanks to hosts in Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, California and Massachusetts who clearly share the pride I feel every day about Hadassah’s power to help heal the world.

HADASSAH NEWS

Read Hadassah’s new policy statement: Reaffirming Support for Reproductive Choice. “We all deserve agency over our own bodies and the autonomy to make reproductive health decisions based on medical guidance, our own values and what we feel is best for our health, our families and our future.”

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COURTESY OF ELLEN WEINGART

Panelists include feminist pioneer-activist-writer Letty Cottin Pogrebin in an interview with journalist Esther Kustanowitz; Congresswomen Lois Frankel and Sara Jacobs; high-risk pregnancy specialist Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky; and Hadassah leaders. Hadassah units across the country are organizing watch parties to engage and mobilize members.

Ellen Weingart at her 2018 adult bat mitzvah at the Abbell Synagogue

Become a public champion for reproductive rights. Speak with friends and family about why reproductive health matters to you.

Recruit others to send messages to policymakers. Like and share Hadassah’s posts on social media or create your own. —Lauren Katz

Members Recount Their Bat Mitzvahs

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n honor of the 100th anniversary of the bat mitzvah, Hadassah collected members’ stories of their milestone events. Here are two examples of ceremonies—one celebrated as a young girl, the other as an adult. Read more reminiscences at hadassahmagazine.org.

now, I see it as the first step in my strong support for equal rights—for women, for minorities, for anyone who is seen as other.

Ellen Weingart, 2018 My bat mitzvah was held in the Abbell Synagogue at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem with its magnificent Chagall windows. The date was April 22, 2018, the last day of the Hadassah Israel at 70 Mission. We were in Israel during Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, when we remember the fallen soldiers, and then joined the joyful celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, commemorating Israel’s 70th birthday, with songs and dancing. A group of us gathered in the Abbell Synagogue.

Barbara Goldstein read the Torah and, one by one, called us to the Torah as a bat mitzvah.

Stephanie Chernoff, 1979 On May 5, 1979, I became a bat mitzvah at Huntington Jewish Center, in Huntington, N.Y. I was the second girl in the congregation to become a bat mitzvah on Shabbat morning. The second girl in a large Conservative congregation to chant all the aliyot from the Torah and to recite the haftarah. Looking back MAY/JUNE 2022

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SEEKING VETERANS OF KIBBUTZ KETURA In advance of Kibbutz Ketura’s 50th Anniversary next year, Hadassah would like to gather stories from people who spent time on the kibbutz, which was founded by Young Judaeans. We’d love to hear from Hadassah members, their family members and Young Judaea alumni. Photos are welcome, too. Send your memories to cstubbs@hadassah.org.

CROSSWORD

The Moment of Ruth

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Answers on page 48

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TRAVEL

Trieste, Elegant and Cosmopolitan The Adriatic city where everyone can feel at home

By Hilary Danailova

SHUTTERSTOCK

I

bumped into james joyce on a bridge in Trieste, Italy. Our meeting was hardly a coincidence. In a jaunty pose, wearing his signature spectacles, Joyce is frozen in statue form along a route he traversed frequently during his almost 15 years in this Northern Italian city. It was here, beginning in 1904, that the young Irish author penned his most iconic works, including Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and much of Ulysses, the latter inspired in part by Trieste Jewish friend and literary colleague Italo Svevo.

Like Joyce, I found Trieste to be a place where one stumbles into Jewish stories. On my first night in the city’s marvelous medieval quarter, over a post-dinner gin and tonic, I struck up a conversation with the woman at the next table while our kids played on the piazza. An American from the San Francisco Bay Area, she had relocated to Trieste to reconnect with her father’s Italian Jewish roots; her kids had just started at the local Hebrew school.

Decades after the Holocaust, during which most of Trieste’s 6,000 Jews had either fled, converted or were deported to concentration camps, Jewish life feels present here to a degree rarely found in Southern Europe. It’s impossible to miss the fortress-like grand synagogue, built during Joyce’s sojourn, with its huge rose window overlooking a downtown boulevard. There’s the

Jaunty Pose A statue of Irish writer James Joyce on a bridge by the Grand Canal

statue of novelist Svevo, Joyce’s confidant, striking a pose along the bike racks on the Piazza Hortis.

Along the façades of Via Francesco d’Assisi, Hebrew lettering is a clue to the Jewish community headquarters inside.

For a small city of 200,000 residents, Trieste boasts a notable cosmopolitanism that a century ago attracted not only Joyce, but also Jewish intellectuals like Sigmund Freud and Italian poet Umberto Saba, whose antiquarian bookstore lives on at Via San Nicolò 30. This ancient port on the Adriatic Coast 100 miles northeast of Venice has only been part of Italy since World War I. Before that, Trieste was part of the Hapsburg Empire for roughly 600 years, during which time it was populated by Austrians, Serbs and Slovenes, including a minority of Jews and others, and briefly contested

by Napoleon.

In Trieste, few sights are more staggeringly beautiful than the sun slowly slipping into the Adriatic MAY/JUNE 2022

Sea, punctuated by silhouetted ship masts and distant towers as a rosy glow envelops the palazzo-studded hills above the city. Though she never personally visited the area, 18th-century Empress Maria Theresa (the only woman in 600 years of Hapsburg rule) played a major role in the city’s development by ordering the construction of the Borgo Teresiano, a neoclassical Viennese-style neighborhood. Trieste’s Grand Canal is its centerpiece, lined with trattorias and crisscrossed by bridges.

But the best vantage point for sunset-watching may be the Piazza Unità d’Italia, Europe’s largest waterfront square. Surrounded by palazzos that predate the namesake unification of Italy, the piazza shimmers after a recent facelift that restored both the iconic Fountain of the Four Continents in front of City Hall and the elegant sandstone that had, in postwar years, been repaved with asphalt. A statue of Hapsburg Emperor Charles IV (Maria Theresa’s father) stands atop an obelisk, pointing toward the free trade port he established to cement Trieste’s commercial status.

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ven before hapsburg rule, as the city prospered, a Jewish bourgeoisie wove itself into the social fabric. Fortified by Ashkenazi Jews from German-speaking lands and, later, by a Sephardic community with roots in Corfu, Trieste

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largest waterfront square

Jewry coalesced toward the end of the Middle Ages and reached full flower in the late 1800s, when the population peaked at around 6,000.

As elsewhere, the Jews’ fortunes rose and fell according to the whims and prejudices of whomever was in

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

WHAT TO SEE Best programmed as an overnight side trip, Trieste is an easy drive from Venice (2 hours); Ljubljana, Slovenia (1.5 hours); and Zagreb, Croatia (3 hours).

Trieste’s top sights are clustered around the waterfront on flat, easily navigable streets and piazzas, many pedestrian-only. Since the coast faces west, the sun sets into the Adriatic every evening.

The heart of Trieste is Piazza Unità d’Italia, a grand square surrounded by 19th-century palazzos that was known as Piazza Grande before the unification of Italy. To the south is Trieste’s medieval quarter, a mostly pedestrian zone full of cafes and inviting smaller piazzas.

North is the neoclassical Borgo Teresiano neighborhood, centered around the Grand Canal. East of Piazza Unità is Trieste’s historic Jewish quarter, which used to be home to the city’s Jews. Have a pastry at Caffè San Marco (nonkosher), which retains the fin-de-siècle ambience and piles of books that made it a refuge for intellectuals like James Joyce and Italo Svevo. A block away on via S. Francesco Assisi is the imposing synagogue, the Tempio Israelitico di Trieste (entrance fee about $6; triestebraica.it).

influx of Jewish academics drawn to the city’s many research institutions, including the renowned University of Trieste—a Fascist-era complex in the hills overlooking downtown.

Along the elegant boulevards of Trieste’s centuries-old Jewish quarter, I passed Viennese-style cafes and watched the sun glint off a Serbian church spire. Yet I never felt I was anywhere other than Italy. In Trieste, it seems, anyone—Irish poets, French emperors, American Jews—can feel right at home.

Tempio Israelitico di Trieste

Housed in a former Jewish hospital building a few blocks southeast of the Jewish quarter, the Museo della Comunità Ebraica di Trieste Carlo e Vera Wagner illuminates history through Judaica, photographs and a Holocaust exhibit. Displays and tours are available in English.

For a look at how Trieste’s 19th-century Jewish bourgeoisie lived, visit the Civic Museo Morpurgo located on the preserved secondfloor residence of the wealthy Morpurgo family.

Lavishly furnished in red velvet, gold gilt and glittering chandeliers, the Morpurgo house, two blocks north of the Jewish museum, offers a glimpse into a lifestyle involving separate men’s and women’s entertaining spaces and parlors for concerts and poetry readings.

James Joyce is everywhere in Trieste: in statue form on a Grand Canal bridge; as the Hotel James Joyce in Trieste’s medieval quarter (a convenient choice, with parking); and, a few streets away, at the Museo James Joyce, which MAY/JUNE 2022

hosts an annual Bloomsday celebration on June 16 that celebrates the iconic hero of Ulysses, Leopold Bloom, said to be inspired by Italian Jewish writer Italo Svevo. This year’s festivities will honor the novel’s centennial. In December, the museum also celebrates Svevo’s birthday.

On Trieste’s outskirts lies Risiera di San Sabba, the site of a Nazi concentration camp that housed Italy’s lone World War II crematorium.

Built as a rice mill in 1913, the building was commandeered by Nazis for the detention and killing of more than 3,000 political prisoners— mostly Italian and Yugoslav Resistance members and suspected partisans—and as a transit camp for Jews en route to Auschwitz.

After the war, the Risiera served as a camp and transit hub for refugees and the displaced, including ethnic Italians fleeing a newly socialist Yugoslavia. Today, the camp is a national monument that offers guided tours and multimedia exhibits, including wartime photographs and artifacts.

Trieste’s hilly coastline has few real beaches, but a short trip west of the city is the suburb of Barcola, on the Gulf of Trieste. From the waterfront promenade, staircases lead down to a strip of pebbly sand. While here, visit Castello di Miramare, a Hapsburg palazzo with romantic balconies overlooking the water.

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SHUTTERSTOCK

City Center Piazza Unità d’Italia, Europe’s

charge, but overall, Trieste was one of the better places to be Jewish in Europe in the centuries before World War II. It was also a major port of Jewish immigration to Haifa as well as to America in the interwar years.

Today, there are roughly 600 Jews in Trieste, one-tenth the prewar figure. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. Local Jews maintain an active day school, employ a full-time Orthodox rabbi and proudly oversaw the recent renovation of their synagogue’s landmark dome. The community is fortified by a steady

FOOD

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Mangalim Cooking meat over fire is an obsession in Israel

By Adeena Sussman

FLASH 90

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n israel, yom ha’atzmaut, or Independence Day, notably commences just as the country’s Memorial Day comes to a close. But if you’re not looking at the clock, there’s another sure-fire way to know that Yom Ha’atzmaut, which this year began the evening of May 4, has started. Smoke begins wafting through the air, the result of locals cooking al ha’esh (“on the fire”) to celebrate their young nation’s independence—employing the oldest cooking method known to mankind.

In the leadup to Yom Ha’atzmaut, hardware stores and supermarkets display shiny metal mangalim (small hibachi-like grills whose name has origins in Turkey), pyramid-shaped stacks of charcoal and wood, and nafnafim, pieces of plastic designed specifically for fanning coals to keep a cooking fire alive. Butcher shops offer meat pre-seasoned, skewered and vacuum-sealed for freshness.

Popular Israeli food magazines like Ha’Shulchan try to top previous years’ barbecue recipes—char-grilled spatchcocked piri piri chicken, anyone?—and people extend invitations to friends and family the Israeli way: via WhatsApp. Unofficially, grilling season starts weeks earlier, the day after Passover, when Moroccan Jews observe the festivity of Mimouna by setting up mangalim and charring virtually anything that can fit on the grates.

But it is on Independence Day when almost every public space is carpeted

with Israelis young and old, religious and secular, in groups of families and friends. They are lighting coals, flipping burgers and sausages, rotating skewers and sizzling a staggering array of proteins as well as tomato and onion halves and pita rounds.

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ccording to israeli food writer and television personality Shaily Lipa, it makes sense that Yom Ha’atzmaut is a griller’s paradise.

“It’s one of the only holidays here that isn’t religious in nature,” said Lipa, who has published a dozen best-selling Hebrew-language books, most recently a kitchen organizing bible. “Anyone can light a fire at any time of the day with no religious restrictions.”

“This is also the only day of the year,” Lipa added, “when you’re not allowed to call the police on neighbors for a too-loud or too-late party, so you’ll see some Israeli chutzpah on display.”

The primal act of cooking meat over fire is an obsession in Israel that extends well beyond Yom Ha’atzmaut. Every city and most towns have multiple restaurants famous for their grilled offerings, everything from beef kebab (consisting of ground meat) and lamb shish kebab (cubed meat) to internal organs such as sweetbreads, livers and hearts. In Tel Aviv, Itzik HaGadol is among the most popular barbecue joints, and in Jerusalem, Steakiyat Hatzot claims a devoted following.

MAY/JUNE 2022

A Yom Ha’atzmaut picnic in Tel Aviv

A unique aspect of Israel’s grilling culture is just how multicultural it is. Indeed, kebabs—seasoned, highly flavorful cubed or ground beef either cooked burger-style or molded around skewers—have multiple influences, including Turkish, Syrian, Persian, Egyptian and Indian. The ground lamb-and-beef kebab recipe that I share in my cookbook, Sababa, is seasoned with heaps of fresh herbs and mixed with a touch of baking soda to make them light and airy, then formed into small burgers for easy cooking. But these kebabs welcome substitution, so you can use a blend of part ground lamb or dark meat chicken, and mix-and-match the herbs and seasonings to your liking.

Another protein that takes on the flavors of many cultures is pargiyot, or boneless skinless chicken thighs.

This dark meat is far more popular in Israel than boneless skinless chicken breast, and for good reason: It absorbs flavor beautifully and caramelizes nicely due to its higher fat content.

Most importantly, pargiyot practically refuse to dry out, even when left on a smoking-hot grill for too long.

One of Lipa’s pargiyot recipes, taken from her cookbook My Balkan Kitchen, touches on her Greek heritage and involves first marinating the chicken in orange juice and ouzo (anise-flavored liqueur).

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sraeli-born sarit packer, who with her husband, Itamar Srulovich, runs the successful Honey & Co. restaurants in London, last year co-authored with him Chasing Smoke: Cooking Over Fire Around

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Makes 12 mini-burgers

layer on a large, rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp and golden, 30 to 35 minutes total, flipping the fries once after 20 minutes only if they seem like they’re burning.

FOR THE FRIES 2 large russet potatoes

3. Grill the burgers: Preheat a

3 large garlic cloves 1 cup lightly packed

(about 1 1/2 pounds), scrubbed 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning

1 cup lightly packed

1. Prep the burgers: In the bowl

fries, a tahini sauce and green salad of your choice.

FOR THE BURGERS 1 small red onion, roughly chopped

1/2 small red bell pepper, seeded

parsley leaves

cilantro leaves

1/2 cup lightly packed mint leaves

2 tablespoons fresh

za’atar or oregano, or 2 teaspoons dried 3/4 pound ground lamb (at least 20-25% fat) 3/4 pound ground beef

(at least 20-25% fat)

2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon ground

coriander

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons harissa or

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

of a food processor, pulse the onion, bell pepper and garlic until finely chopped, 20 pulses. Add the parsley, cilantro, mint and za’atar and pulse until the herbs are finely chopped, 15 pulses. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Add the lamb, beef, salt, cumin, coriander, black pepper, harissa and baking soda and gently mix with your hands to incorporate. Form the mixture into 12 equal-sized round patties about 1-inch thick, arrange on a plate, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

2. Make the fries: Preheat the

oven to 425°. Cut the potatoes into 1/2-inch batons, then pat them dry with paper towels. In a large bowl toss the potatoes with the oil, salt and pepper. Arrange in a single

the Levant. She has teased out other unique features of Israeli grilling, beyond the meat-centric atmosphere of Yom Ha’atzmaut gatherings. “The main thing is we grill a lot of vegetables and fruits in Israel, something we didn’t see so much in other countries,” Packer said of the couple’s research. “In Israel, anything goes.”

That includes watermelon, which

grill, grill pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the patties, trying not to move them, until a slight crust forms and the meat is cooked to medium, 3 to 4 minutes per side.

4. Serve the kebabs with the

Ouzo and Orange Chicken Thigh Souvlaki Serves 6

MAY/JUNE 2022

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1/2 onion (one onion cut into a half round)

Vegetable oil 1/2 cup chopped parsley

1. Combine the ouzo, orange

juice, olive oil, honey, garlic, oregano and thyme in a large bowl. Add the chicken, toss to coat and marinate on the counter for 40 minutes. (You can also marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, then remove from the refrigerator an hour before grilling.)

2. Remove the chicken from the

1/4 cup ouzo or arak 1/2 cup fresh orange juice 1/4 cup olive oil

1 heaping tablespoon honey 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 heaping teaspoon dried oregano Picked leaves from two stalks of thyme 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs,

Packer said grills beautifully. (To grill watermelon, brush both sides of 2-inch-thick slices of watermelon with olive oil and cook on the hottest part of the grill until black grill marks form, 1 to 2 minutes per side.) Packer advised using fruit in peak ripeness and cooking it over the hottest flame possible for a short time.

Best of all, Israeli-inspired recipes

cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes

marinade, thread on 6 skewers and season generously with salt and pepper.

3. Heat a grill or grill pan over

medium heat. Dip the half-onion round in the oil and then use it to grease the grill lightly. Grill the skewers until cooked through, flipping once, 3-4 minutes per side.

4. Arrange on a platter and garnish with the parsley.

work equally well over a coal-fired grill, gas grill or inside on a grill pan—and on Yom Ha’atzmaut, July 4 or any special day that calls for a barbecue.

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

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(LEFT) PHOTO COURTESY OF DAN PEREZ. RECIPE FROM ‘SABABA: FRESH, SUNNY FLAVORS FROM MY ISRAELI KITCHEN’; PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL LAILA. RECIPE FROM ‘MY BALKAN KITCHEN’ BY SHAILY LIPA

Mini Herb and Garlic Kebaburgers With Fries

ARTS

Zionist Home Goods Mom’s souvenirs from Israel may be collectibles

By Renee Ghert-Zand

(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) © ISRAEL MUSEUM, JERUSALEM/PHOTO BY LAURA LACHMAN; ARTISTIC PALESTINE PLAY-CARDS C. 1920/DUCHIFAT PRESS/GIFT OF DR. HARRY G. FRIEDMAN. THE JEWISH MUSEUM, N.Y.; DR. ELLA TENENBAUM-KOREN

A

brass plate depicting the biblical figures of Jacob and Rachel surrounded by grapevines. A cigarette box with a green patina, its clasp decorated with a miniature relief of the Land of Israel.

A sleek silver Shabbat candelabra inspired by the German Bauhaus movement.

While the plate and box are household items and the candelabra is a piece of Judaica, all three are examples of Israeliana—decorative and ritual objects made in Israel, largely in the early through mid-20th century.

A look around your home, and those of your parents or grandparents, will likely yield examples such as a bronze menorah with a relief of the 12 Tribes of Israel; plates decorated with agricultural motifs; or small bowls with a green patina—all picked up as souvenirs on a trip to Israel or bought at a Zionist fundraising fair in America. Once dismissed as tchotchkes, these objects are now valuable both historically and, for rare finds, monetarily. And while some experts only consider metalware to be Israeliana, collectors have expanded the category to include ceramics and glass items as well as ephemera such as posters and postcards.

Interest in Israeliana is growing at auctions, and museums are recognizing its importance as well. For the first time, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem has on display, through early May, items from its collection of Israeliana, including the Bauhaus-inspired candelabra and the Jacob and Rachel plate.

“We judge these items based more

on their historical rather than artistic value, but with the perspective of time they have become increasingly appreciated,” said Sharon Weiser-Ferguson, senior curator for the museum’s Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life.

Their allure is attributed to several factors, including nostalgia for a simpler time and Israeliana’s connection to the history of Israel. Many of the pieces are tied to the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts (now the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design), founded in Jerusalem in 1906 by the Lithuanian-born artist Boris Schatz.

To support itself in its early days, Bezalel established workshops producing practical and decorative objects that could be sold locally as well as abroad. As a result, early examples of Israeliana mirror the detailed patterning and ornamentation of the late-19th century European Arts and Crafts movement favored by Schatz.

Although the designs show European influences, the methods and materials used in the early pieces reflect the difficult economic situation in the Yishuv, the Jewish community in Palestine before statehood. Unlike in Europe, where Jews commissioned sterling silver pieces for their homes, the best material that Bezalel artisans MAY/JUNE 2022

Nostalgic Allure (clockwise from top) Brass menorah with a green patina; playing cards

by Bezalel artist Ze’ev Raban; minimalist silver Shabbat candelabra. (opposite page) a souvenir plate with an image of Theodor Herzl

then had to work with was silver plate.

For the most part, artists and craftspeople used bronze and brass, which were far cheaper and more accessible.

Even British shell cases from World War I were re-purposed into art.

Toronto attorney David Matlow owns a shell case engraved with the likeness of Zionist pioneer Theodor Herzl and marked as having been produced at a Bezalel workshop, probably in the early 1920s.

“There are about 50 pieces of metalwork Israeliana—including some made by Boris Schatz himself— among the more than 5,000 items I have that relate to Herzl,” said Matlow, owner of what is likely the largest privately held collection of Herzl memorabilia, which he has

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ISRAELIANA DISCUSSION Join us on May 12 at 12:30 p.m. for a virtual event exploring Israeliana with a leading collector and two curators at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Register for the free event at hadassahmagazine.org.

B

ezalel closed in 1929 amid financial difficulties, then reopened in 1935, attracting refugees from Nazi Germany who had studied in the Bauhaus school. The new immigrants’ Modernist and International school training is reflected in the minimalist aesthetic of some of the Israeliana produced in that period.

Dr. Ella Tenenbaum-Koren, whose parents, Zvi and Rivka Tenenbaum, donated some 60 pieces of Israeliana to the Israel Museum in memory of their son, Yadin, who was killed in the Yom Kippur War, is partial to the style introduced by the German Jewish refugees. “My preferred items are modern and minimalist—both the everyday items and the Judaica,” said Dr. Tenenbaum-Koren, a former medical director for Pfizer Israel who lives near Tel Aviv.

The family has also donated or lent pieces from their extensive collection to other museums in Israel, Europe and the United States. In recent years, Dr. Tenenbaum-Koren has taken on the role of guardian and grower of the collection.

Among her favorite designers is

to mass produce items by pouring molten metal into a mold.

Dov Bernhard Friedlander, who immigrated to then-Palestine in 1934 and opened his own workshop where he created silver and silver-plated items— the material reflecting something of an economic upturn for the Jews in the region. Included in the family collection are that sleek silver two-branched candelabra meant for Shabbat use and geometric silver teacup holders typical of the Bauhaus style.

Designers from both the earlier and later periods often trained and then worked at Bezalel. Others opened their own workshops or designed for larger companies. Ze’ev Raban, for example, who came to Ottoman Palestine in 1912, created pieces for a variety of manufacturers. Raban is perhaps best known for merging biblical imagery with art deco and Orientalist motifs for travel posters and even commercial packaging. A deck of his playing cards, decorated with images of biblical figures like King David and Bathsheba and with the suits reconfigured as Stars of David, menorahs, fig leaves and pomegranates, is in the collection of The Jewish Museum in Manhattan.

However, among American tourists, perhaps the best-known Israeliana company was Pal-Bell, co-founded by artist Maurice Ascalon in 1939. Ascalon invented the unique green patina that became a hallmark of Israeli craft items. Pal-Bell and other manufacturers used the patina to “age” objects, causing them to resemble ancient artifacts dug up in the Holy Land. It was also in the late 1930s that producers of Israeliana turned to metal casting, i.e., a way MAY/JUNE 2022

F

or the most part, producers of Israeliana saw themselves as designers and artisans, and not as artists.

“The difference has to do with the change in perspective we have on what they created. It used to be that they produced objects and saw themselves as craftsmen,” said Weiser-Ferguson.

“Today, we regard them as artists.”

The artwork they created is both affordable and accessible to collectors. According to Dr. Tenenbaum-Koren and Matlow, it is not difficult to break into collecting using online resources and second-hand shops in the United States and Israel.

And with Israeliana’s popularity beginning to trend upward, now may be a good time to start. Handmade items from the earlier period will be more expensive than mass-produced objects, with prices ranging in the tens to hundreds of dollars.

However, Dr. Tenenbaum-Koren emphasized that, at least for her, it’s not about the monetary value.

“I love Israeliana because of the memories and nostalgic feelings it evokes,” she said. “It reminds me of Israel’s past.”

Renee Ghert-Zand is a Jerusalem-based freelance writer and journalist covering Israel and the Jewish world.

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FINDING ISRAELIANA EBay and Etsy are good places to start.

Search the sites for “Israeliana” or the names of designers and manufacturers.

Auction houses such as Kedem (kedem-auctions.com) and Kestenbaum & Company (kestenbaum.net) frequently feature items created pre-statehood and during the early decades of the Jewish state.

COURTESY OF DAVID MATLOW/PHOTO BY KEVIN VINER, ELEVATOR DIGITAL, TORONTO

displayed at synagogues and other Jewish venues in Canada.

One of Matlow’s favorite metalware treasures, despite having no connection to Herzl, is a menorah with a green patina that is adorned with an oil jug and laurel branch.

Indeed, Israeliana Judaica as well as household items such as plates and ashtrays often feature archeological references like ancient coins and oil lamps. “This was a way to show that Jews were not new to the land,” Weiser-Ferguson explained. “We also see military references, biblical characters, the Seven Species, the 12 Tribes, figures working the land as well as Zionist leaders.”

BOOKS

Nuclear Families Finding love, connection and salvation amid the fallout FICTION

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Atomic Anna

By Rachel Barenbaum (Grand Central Publishing) If you could travel back in time to change history, should you? Writers have grappled with this question since H.G. Wells introduced readers to time travel with his groundbreaking 1895 master work, The Time Machine. Rachel Barenbaum, author of the acclaimed A Bend in the Stars, tackles the implications of time travel as well as the promises and pitfalls of nuclear science with a Soviet Jewish twist in her inventive new novel, Atomic Anna.

Barenbaum opens her story on April 26, 1986, the date of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, the worst nuclear disaster in history. Chief engineer of the plant and brilliant

Soviet scientist Anna, who has hidden her Jewishness throughout her long career, is asleep in a nearby apartment at the time. The meltdown accidentally sends her on a jump through time and space to 1992 and Mount Aragats in Armenia—home to a Soviet cosmic ray research station. The jump saves Anna and sets her on a mission to travel back and prevent the meltdown.

But Anna’s quest to return to the precise date needed to stop the disaster at Chernobyl—today part of Ukraine and in recent headlines during the war there—is not straightforward. As she analyzes the anomaly that caused her first jump and tries to fine-tune her time machine, she finds herself traveling to other eras, meeting family members with problems that call out for intervention.

Among the many memorable characters in Barenbaum’s novel are Anna’s husband, Yasha, a scientist and KGB operative, and her best friend, Yulia, a Jewish refusenik. Most important, however, are Anna’s daughter, Molly, an artist whose Atomic Anna comic books, carried back and forth through MAY/JUNE 2022

time, leave clues for unsuspecting characters, and Anna’s granddaughter, Raisa, a brilliant mathematician.

Anna has never developed a relationship with either her daughter or granddaughter. Years before the Chernobyl meltdown, she had sent a young Molly on a daring escape to freedom in America with Yulia and her husband. Raised in 1960s Philadelphia and feeling abandoned by her birth mother, Molly turns to drugs.

Her struggles with substance abuse cause Molly to abandon her own daughter, who is sent to foster care.

Barenbaum masterfully switches back and forth among the women’s lives, detailing their struggles with intergenerational trauma and personal aspirations as well as how they grapple with their Jewish identity.

In the Soviet Union, Anna must pay a “high price to erase the label” of her Jewishness. “Not that she even really felt Jewish—it was only a word to her, a word that pushed her down.”

For her part, Molly, stuck between the need to fit in with American society and pressures from her adoptive parents, wants to abandon her identity and play on Yom Kippur like a “normal kid, forget about being Jewish.”

In Anna’s increasingly desperate attempts to change the future and the past, personal needs collide with social responsibility: Should she save Molly and Raisa or stop Chernobyl? This is Barenbaum’s overarching question, exemplified by her use of quotes from Pirkei Avot to introduce each section of the book, the final one opening with Hillel’s famous words: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I?” —Elizabeth Edelglass Elizabeth Edelglass is a fiction writer, poet and book reviewer living in Connecticut.

I 44 I hadassahmagazine.org

The reappearance of some of Johanna Kaplan’s brilliant short stories in Loss of Memory Is Only Temporary is cause for celebration.

Kaplan’s work is often compared to such influential Jewish American writers as Cynthia Ozick and Saul Bellow. Hers is a distinctive voice with an uncannily pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, in any language and in any accent. This new volume includes stories that first appeared in Kaplan’s earlier collection, Other People’s Lives, along with two newer pieces and an admiring preface

by Francine Prose. (Prose is not her only admirer; Other People’s Lives, from 1975, and Kaplan’s 1981 novel, O My America!, have won multiple awards. And full disclosure, I’m a friend of the author.)

Most of the stories in Kaplan’s new collection are set in the bustling Jewish neighborhoods of the Bronx and the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the decades following World War II. The apartments teem with immigrant families no more than one or two generations removed from the Old Country and European refugees struggling to rebuild lives after the Holocaust. From the windows come shouts in English, Yiddish, Polish, Russian and sometimes Hebrew, their collective kvetches forming a stereophonic soundtrack of the New York of that era.

Many of these tales are told from the perspective of a truth-telling girl or young woman upon whom nothing

is lost: neither the comical airs and absurdities promulgated by the self-absorbed adults who surround her, nor the vulnerability and grief that reside just beneath their brittle façades. In the story “Other People’s Lives,” troubled adolescent Louise has been discharged from a private psychiatric clinic to board with Maria, the young German-born wife of a famous ballet dancer who has been incapacitated by Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Maria boisterously takes charge of everyone around her, as she has always done, managing to survive life in Germany before, during and after the war, and now the financial mess in which her husband’s illness has landed her. Together, Louise and Maria form a makeshift family of opposites, stemming from a shared history of dislocation and constant change.

“Sour or Suntanned, It Makes No Difference,” set in a Zionist summer camp, features unhappy camper Miriam who is unwillingly cast in a play—about Jews resisting Nazis in Warsaw—being put on for the upcoming parents’ visiting day.

Yet playing a partisan World War II heroine who faces Nazis and lives to tell the tale instills in her the promise of her own future.

The collection’s two newer pieces, “Tales of My Great-Grandfathers” and “Family Obligations,” are both nonfiction accounts of Kaplan’s family, whom she places within the larger context of Jewish tradition. She includes the story of her great-grandfather Rabbi Jacob Meir of Minsk, who let one of his daughters attend medical school in Moscow, “even though the only way a Jewish girl could get the requisite identity permit to live in Moscow was by allowing herself to be declared a prostitute.”

That familial timeline, stretching MAY/JUNE 2022

both into the past and the future, illuminates the spot where Kaplan herself stands. Somewhere, she writes, among her great-grandfathers’ “ancient, unlikely dreams and far-fetched adventures towards fulfillment, lies my own ineluctable walk-on in a drama of catastrophe and renewal any imaginative writer would be hard put to equal.”

Kaplan’s artistic vision encapsulates it all in her own, unparalleled way.

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

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Rachel Barenbaum

ONE BOOK, ONE HADASSAH Join us on Wednesday, June 15, at 7 p.m. ET, as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein interviews best-selling author Rachel Barenbaum about Atomic Anna. A time-travel story centered around the dilemma of the atomic age, the ambitious and timely novel follows three generations of Jewish women as they attempt to prevent the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and save their own family. Exploring intergenerational trauma and Jewish identity in both the Soviet Union and 20th century America, Atomic Anna grapples with themes of love and responsibility and the bonds between mothers and daughters. This event is free and open to all. To register, go to hadassahmagazine.org/books.

ALBERTO PANIAGUA

Loss of Memory Is Only Temporary

By Johanna Kaplan (Ecco)

BOOKS

NEW AT

ZABARS.COM NONFICTION

The Israeli Century: How the Zionist Revolution Changed History and Reinvented Judaism

By Yossi Shain (Wicked Son) Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted

By Daniel Sokatch. Illustrated by Christopher Noxon (Bloomsbury Publishing)

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Two recent books on Israel examine the country’s current situation, potential trajectory and its relationship with the Diaspora. Yet, they could not be more different, both in style and substance.

In The Israeli Century, the English translation of a book first published in Israel in 2019, Yossi Shain, political science professor at Tel Aviv University and member of the Knesset from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, provides a three-millennia account of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel and life in the Diaspora. The book contains a voluminous, even daunting amount of material. But the patient reader will find much value in it.

Shain’s overall judgment, as implied by the book’s title, is that a thriving and dynamic Israel represents a “tectonic shift of Jewish history” and increasingly has come to dominate the Diaspora, displacing “the United States as the center of global Jewry and as the long-term definer of the Jewish people’s interests and identity.”

Citing the example of Birthright Israel, the program that has sent hundreds of thousands of young Jews on 10-day trips to the country, he argues that only through engagement with Israel can the Diaspora hope to nurture its Jewish identity.

It certainly is true, as Shain observes, that Israel has long enjoyed a prominent place on the Diaspora’s agenda.

However, I suspect many American Jewish readers will have a difficult time accepting one of the book’s central premises, namely, that a diminishing and assimilating Diaspora has ceased to contribute much of anything significant to the Jewish people.

The last chapter, which explores the so-called Israeli century, raises profound questions, such as the extent to which the Jewish state should serve as a “light unto the nations,” how it should relate to its non-Jewish citizens

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and whether it must be democratic.

The most pressing domestic challenge facing Israel, according to Shain, is its relationship with the rapidly growing non-Zionist and anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox population. He wonders whether the ultra-Orthodox eventually will “take over the state’s institutions and levers of power, tightening their grip and overpowering its sovereignty and modernity.” He recognizes that unless that is avoided, the Israeli century could become the ultraOrthodox century, with far-reaching implications for the Jewish state and people.

Meanwhile, Shain barely touches on the festering conflict with the Palestinians. For Daniel Sokatch,

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CEO of the New Israel Fund, this is the central challenge facing Israel.

His book, Can We Talk About Israel?, is written in a lighter and more accessible style than Shain’s and includes cartoons by Christopher Noxon throughout. “This book is an attempt to explain why Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seem to drive so many otherwise reasonable people completely bonkers,” Sokatch writes in his introduction. “This is the story of why Israel turns some classic Jewish liberals into uber-conservatives on one issue alone. It is the story of why some otherwise compassionate and judicious progressives feel driven to single Israel out for boycotts, sanctions, and a level of condemnation they would never

MAY/JUNE 2022

dream of applying to, say, any of the dozens of worse state actors out there….”

Sokatch, too, begins with history, moving quickly from biblical times to the dawn of the Zionist movement in the 19th century to an explanation of how the establishment of Israel clashed with Palestinian nationalism.

Yet, Sokatch’s main purpose is to act as a modern-day prophet admonishing Israel. He joins with many Israeli and American Jewish progressives

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07/04/2022 15:46:23

BOOKS

who believe that, in the absence of an agreement that accepts Palestinian independence in the West Bank, Israel soon will face the untenable choice of protecting the state’s Jewish majority or sacrificing its democratic character.

Sokatch places blame for the impasse on both Israelis and the Palestinians, unequivocally condemning extremist Palestinian violence and Palestinian Authority corruption as well as acknowledging peace offers rejected by Palestinian leadership.

However, he finds that Israel’s settlement and infrastructure building in the West Bank poses the greatest obstacle to the two-state vision—an assessment that I believe is wellfounded.

It is easy to be discouraged over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sokatch injects a note of optimism, though, drawing on stories of ordinary people from both sides, among them Maisam Jaljuli, a Palestinian Israeli social activist working with Arabs and Jews, and Gadi Gvaryahu, a religious activist for Tag Meir, an

A N S W E R S Crossword Puzzle on page 37

B O W L

A H H A

T G E L

I H A V E

A W H I R L

R I A T A S

G M S O A T A B T E R O E T E L L E B O O N E S H A L U A S T R B A O N I F E O F N D L E O R M T A U E R

organization that works to counter racism in Israel. People are doing extraordinary things to create a better future for everyone between the river and sea.

Sokatch, who weaves his personal experiences with Israel throughout, expresses the hope that after reading his book, “you’ll be able to hold your own in any Israel conversation, at any dinner party.”

Different as they are, both books deserve a place on your reading list.

—Martin J. Raffel Martin J. Raffel is a former senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

The End of Her: Racing Against Alzheimer’s to Solve a Murder

By Wayne Hoffman (Heliotrope Books) Every family has its secrets and its mysteries, but few harbor a century-old unsolved murder. In this engrossing, well-paced memoir, journalist Wayne Hoffman, executive

P O P K I L D T I R A D I D E N S W E S T S O F A K O F R U A S I T T E N O E N A P D E R G I R I A A B O A Z R P I C H A E N C A S E E I C H L MAY/JUNE 2022

N E I A N T L O H E I A L T H U T R T H I P E N S B A U A L R E L L C A S D

P N E U M O

A R T I E S

M E S S R S

I S S U E

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editor of Tablet magazine, sets out to uncover the truth behind the 1913 murder of his maternal great-grandmother, Sarah, in Winnipeg’s Jewish neighborhood. The book is also a heartwarming tribute to his mother, Susan, his confidante and partner in crime-solving, to whom Hoffman is especially close.

Sadly, just as Hoffman begins his detective work, Susan is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and the family mystery and Susan’s cognitive abilities unravel in tandem. “It seemed like the perfect time for me to solve the mystery,” he writes.

“After all, 2013 was shaping up to be a year of disorientation in my own family, as my mother’s condition changed everything about her, and everyone around her at the same time. It seemed an appropriate mirror for 1913, a pivotal annus horribilis for my ancestors, the year when the family was shattered by loss….”

While the book necessarily has its darker moments—the section relating Susan’s steady decline is heartbreaking—Hoffman knows how to spin a rollicking good yarn. Sarah’s story, as related first to Hoffman by his mother, seems apocryphal: He was told that she was shot in the head by a drive-by sniper while breastfeeding her infant daughter on the porch during a Canadian winter. The bones of the story—the shooting itself next to a young child—are accurate, confirmed by multiple news reports.

But the reality turned out to be more

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credible, and shocking. Sarah was shot while fast asleep in her bed, her toddler nestled by her side. But who would kill a young immigrant mother of four—and why?

Suspects abound: a spurned lover back in Russia, antisemitic household help and, of course, the most obvious suspect, Sarah’s husband—despite a rock-solid alibi placing him in a different province at the time of the murder.

Hoffman’s experience as a journalist stands him in good stead as he works toward the satisfying, if not entirely unpredictable, ending, excavating maps and news clippings, interviewing distant relatives and traveling from his home in New York to western Canada. More than

anything, the book is a testament to the bonds of family, and Hoffman’s gift is inviting the reader into his, warts and all.

—Joanne Sydney Lessner Joanne Sydney Lessner is an actor, novelist and Drama Desk-nominated lyricist.

Zabar’s: A Family Story, With Recipes

By Lori Zabar (Schocken) Back in the 1970s, there was nothing more magical than a Saturday night at Zabar’s. The quintessential New York City food purveyor was open late in those days, and the crush of Upper West Siders stopping at the store on Broadway and 80th for

nova, cream cheese, babka and a bit of gossip on their way home after a night out was an existential part of that fabled period of low rents, high style and the occasional mugging.

While that halcyon time is long gone, Zabar’s still flourishes, albeit differently. The story of the store that began in 1934 as a tiny mom-andpop appetizing counter—a vintage appellation for places that sold smoked and pickled fish, cream cheese spreads and, maybe, dried

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Premiums increase annually starting in year 11 for Trendsetter Super 10, in year 16 for Trendsetter Super 15, in year 21 for Trendsetter Super 20, and in year 31 for Trendsetter Super 30. Policy forms and numbers may vary, and these policies may not be available in all jurisdictions. Insurance eligibility and premiums are subject to underwriting. In most states, in the event of suicide during the first two policy years, death benefits are limited only to the return of premiums paid. Suicide is no defense to payment of life insurance benefits, nor is suicide while insane a defense to payment of accidental death benefits, if any, under this policy where the policy is issued to a Missouri citizen, unless the insurer can show that the insured intended suicide when s/he applied for the policy, regardless of any language to the contrary in the policy.

Transamerica Life Insurance Company is rated A (Excellent) by A.M. Best for financial strength as of September 12, 2019. A is the third highest of 16 ratings awarded by A.M. Best, a leading independent rating service that evaluates insurance companies’ financial strength and ability to meet obligations to policyholders.

Call The Leibowitz Group at **No quotes are final until underwriting is completed.

888-448-LEBO for a no obligation quote.** (5326)

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BOOKS

fruit, but no meat—is also the story of the family.

And who better to tell that story than Lori Zabar, granddaughter of the redoubtable Louis and Lilly Zabar, the mom and pop who started it all. Zabar’s: A Family

Story, With Recipes takes readers from the Ukrainian shtetl origins of the Zabarka/Teitelbaum families and an existence rife with danger and pogroms, to the upper-middleclass Upper West Side, where four generations of Zabars all lived and

CHARITABLE SOLICITATION DISCLOSURE STATEMENTS HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC. 40 Wall Street, 8th Floor – New York, NY 10005 – Telephone: (212) 355-7900 Contributions will be used for the support of Hadassah’s charitable projects and programs in the U.S. and/ or Israel including: medical relief, education and research; education and advocacy programs on issues of concern to women and that of the family; and support of programs for Jewish youth. Financial and other information about Hadassah may be obtained, without cost, by writing the Finance Department at Hadassah’s principal place of business at the address indicated above, or by calling the phone number indicated above. In addition, residents of the following states may obtain financial and/or licensing information from their states, as indicated. DC: The Certificate of Registration Number of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. is #40003848, which is valid for the period 9/1/2021-8/31/2023. Registration does not imply endorsement of the solicitation by the District of Columbia, or by any officer or employee of the District. FL: A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION FOR HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC. (#SC-1298) AND HADASSAH MEDICAL RELIEF ASSOCIATION, INC. (#SC-4603) MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE 1-800-HELP-FLA, OR ONLINE AT www.FloridaConsumerHelp.com. KS: The official registration and annual financial report of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. is filed with the Kansas Secretary of State. Kansas Registration #237-478-3. MD: A copy of the current financial statement of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. is available by writing 40 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10005, Att: Finance Dept., or by calling (212) 355-7900. Documents and information submitted under the Maryland Charitable Solicitations Act are also available for the cost of postage and copies, from the Maryland Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401. MI: Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. MICS #13005/Hadassah Medical Relief Association, Inc. MICS # 11986/The Hadassah Foundation, Inc. MICS #22965. MS: The official registration and financial information of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. may be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office by calling 1(888) 236-6167. NJ: INFORMATION FILED BY HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC. AND HADASSAH MEDICAL RELIEF ASSOCIATION, INC. WITH THE NEW JERSEY ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6215 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/charity/ chardir.htm. NY: You may obtain a copy of Hadassah’s Financial Report by writing to the Hadassah Finance Dept., 40 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10005. NC: FINANCIAL INFORMATION ABOUT HADASSAH, THE WOMEN’S ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA, INC. AND A COPY OF ITS LICENSE ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA SECRETARY OF STATE, SOLICITATION LICENSING SECTION AT 919-807-2214 OR FOR NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENTS AT 1-888-830-4989. PA: The official registration and financial information of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc., Hadassah Medical Relief Association, Inc., and The Hadassah Foundation, Inc. may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll free, within Pennsylvania, 1(800) 732-0999. VA: A financial statement of the organization is available from the Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, P.O. Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23218, Phone #1 (800) 552-9963, upon request.

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WV: West Virginia residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. ALL OTHER STATES: A copy of Hadassah’s latest Financial Report is available by writing to the Hadassah Finance Dept., 40 Wall Street, 8th Floor, New York, New York 10005. REGISTRATION DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OR IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, SANCTION OR RECOMMENDATION BY ANY STATE. Charitable deductions are allowed to the extent provided by law. Hadassah shall have full dominion, control and discretion over all gifts (and shall be under no legal obligation to transfer any portion of a gift to or for the use or benefit of any other entity or organization). All decisions regarding the use of funds for any purpose, or the transfer of funds to or for the benefit of any other entity or organization, shall be subject to the approval of the Board or other governing body of Hadassah. The Hadassah Foundation, Inc. is a supporting organization of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. and Hadassah Medical Relief Association, Inc. January 2021 MAY/JUNE 2022

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TOP TEN JEWISH BEST SELLERS FICTION 1. Three Sisters

by Heather Morris (St. Martin’s Press) 2. Woman on Fire

by Lisa Barr (Harper) 3. The Books of Jacob

by Olga Tokarczuk (Riverhead Books) 4. The Cellist

by Daniel Silva (Harper) 5. Our Country Friends

by Gary Shteyngart (Random House) NONFICTION 1. Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life

by Delia Ephron (Little, Brown and Company) 2. Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie

by Julia Haart (Crown) 3. Lies My Mother Told Me: Tall Tales from a Short Woman

by Melissa Rivers (Post Hill Press) 4. All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business

by Mel Brooks (Ballantine Books) 5. The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation

by Rosemary Sullivan (Harper) Courtesy of MyJewishBooks.com

A Powerful Love Story With a Purpose flourished within 10 blocks of the store. (Except, that is, for the family apostate, Eli Zabar, one of Louis and Lilly’s sons, who fled to the Upper East Side to start his own food empire.)

Zabar’s is a delicious, overstuffed history of the family and the shop, including the precarious early days and the legendary price battles over Cuisinart food processors, which Zabar’s sold well below the retail price, infuriating the Cuisinart company and thrilling loyal customers. Also covered is the decades-long internecine quarrel between Zabar sons Saul and Stanley (Lori’s father), and their partner and co-owner Murray Klein, whose marketing genius made the store famous.

And then there are the family recipes and the delicious dive into the stories behind the company’s almost infinite inventory of (mostly nonkosher) cheese, smoked fish, baked goods, herring, coffee, pastrami and more. (Go to hadassahmagazine.org/ books for Lilly Zabar’s Stuffed Cabbage and Zabar’s Nova Cream Cheese Spread, perfect for the Shavuot holiday.)

But mostly, the book is about the tenacity of Zabar’s—and the Zabars.

Lori, who passed away in February at the age of 67 after a five-year battle with cancer, has written a loving, and lovable, book that captures the unique culinary and cultural cachet the store still holds. As a longtime patron reflects in the book, “I can’t even picture life without Zabar’s, I hope it lasts forever.”

—Beth Segal

"THE CHOICE is about the choices Jews make and the rules we break for reasons of consideration, conscience, logic, and love. Buy this book for the endearing romance at its core and get a feminist brief for women's inclusion in sacred space and communal life, plus twenty brilliant Talmud lessons.

A surfeit of riches."

—Letty Cottin Pogrebin, author of twelve books including Debora, Golda, and Me, and Shanda

Anton has written a transformative novel that takes characters inspired by Chaim Potok and ages them into young adults in Brooklyn in the 1950s. www.thechoicenovel.com

In print and ebook

ISBN 978-0-9763050-3-3

2022 Tour Dates Adult Group Tours 13-DAY & 16-DAY TOURS

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Re-Visitor Tours 13-DAY TOURS SMALL GROUP ADULT TOURS

Beth Segal is an award-winning writer and photographer specializing in food projects. Her work has appeared in The Plain Dealer, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Bon Appétit and many other publications.

MAR 29 or NOV 1

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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.

ALIAS ANNA: A TRUE STORY OF OUTWITTING THE NAZIS Susan Hood and Greg Dawson

For readers ages 8+ comes an inspiring nonfiction novel-in-verse about Zhanna Arshanskaya, a young Ukrainian Jewish girl using the alias Anna, whose phenomenal piano-playing skills saved her life and the life of her sister Frina during the Holocaust—from award-winning author Susan Hood with Zhanna’s son Greg Dawson.

Available wherever books are sold.

THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL R. M. Romero

A spellbinding modern folktale in verse about embracing your power, facing your monsters, and loving deeply enough to transcend a century. Mixing European folklore and Jewish history, author R. M. Romero channels the spirit of myth into a brilliantly original young adult novel, inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.

Hardcover, 384 pages. Available on Bookshop.org or wherever books are sold. Published by Peachtree Teen / Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.

THE ASSIGNMENT Inspired by a real-life incident. When a favorite teacher gives an assignment requiring students to pretend they’re Nazis and debate the Final Solution, two brave teens speak up and refuse to participate. The situation explodes, forcing the school and larger community to confront antisemitism and bigotry. What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail?

Find out in this riveting, fast-paced, multi-awardwinning novel.

Available in hardcover, e-book, paperback, and audio wherever books are sold. Free curriculum guide through Penguin Random House. Liza will speak to Hadassah chapters, synagogues, schools, and other groups. Visit lizawiemer.com for more information.

THE SUN WILL COME OUT

Available from Orca Book Publishers.

I AM STANDING AT MOUNT SINAI: A BOOK ABOUT SHAVUOT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

Marilyn Oser

Historical novel, ISBN 9798417836855, 285 pages. Paperback and e-book, available on Amazon. www.marilynoser.com.

MODIGLIANI’S GIFT Myron Crespin

A well-told story of an Italian Sephardic artist and his famous impressionist style of elongated faces. The book is an adventure story of finding a flea market Haggadah, becoming a million-dollar gift.

Available on Amazon.

Judith Gottesman, MSW, with Maria De La O.

The owner of Soul Mates Unlimited™, Judith Gottesman, MSW, is a dating coach & Jewish matchmaker. Dating in today’s app-happy, fast-tracked world can be annoying, confusing, & even scary. The Lost Art of Dating: A Dating Coach’s Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Love at Any Age, is both for those overwhelmed by dating & want to take on the challenge with the right tools & techniques, but also experienced daters who want to try a new approach. Rich with tips and tricks, The Lost Art of Dating is the masterful guide to finding a date ... and everlasting love.

Buy her books at SoulMatesUnlimited.com or on Amazon.

Joanne Levy

The Sun Will Come Out is a funny and heartwarming account of a shy girl’s first summer away from home.

When Bea meets a friend named Harry and finds the courage to take part in the camp production of Annie, she learns she really can do anything and that silver linings can be found just about anywhere.

THIS STORIED LAND This is the story of ordinary people trying to do what’s right in extraordinary times. Three women and their families must navigate the joys and hazards of life amid Arabs, Jews and Britons in pre-Israel Palestine, 1920-1948. “A particularly gifted novelist,” (Midwest Book Review).

THE LOST ART OF DATING: A DATING COACH’S STEP-BYSTEP GUIDE TO FINDING LOVE AT ANY AGE

Liza Wiemer

Sherry T Wasserman, illus. by Ruthie Cisse

This vibrantly illustrated hardcover picture book explains the Shavuot holiday. Told through the eyes of an insightful young girl, it retells the Biblical saga of the Jewish People’s encounter with God at Mt. Sinai; recounts the exciting, scary revelation of the Ten Commandments and the Torah; links together Passover’s story of freedom with Shavuot’s emphasis on acceptance of rules for moral behavior; explains how Shavuot was celebrated in ancient times and today; makes the vivid story of Mount Sinai and Shavuot come alive for a new generation of Jewish children. Includes the actual Hebrew text from Exodus and a glossary.

Available at Amazon, $20.

CAFÉ SHIRA: A NOVEL

David Ehrlich, Translated from the Hebrew by Michael Swirsky

“This is a beautiful book to be treasured and savored!”

-Eitan Fishbane, author of Shadows in Winter. “A quiet masterpiece”-Bernard Avishai, author of The Hebrew Republic. With gentle humor and acerbic irony, David Ehrlich offers us a microcosm of the uniquely colorful and complex city of Jerusalem.

Paperback $22.95. Purchase at press.syr.edu or call 800-848-6224.

HIP SET Michael Fertik

“Fast paced with an original, exotic setting, Hip Set is an unstoppable read from first page to last,” Faye Kellerman, best-selling author. A noir thriller set in modern-day Tel Aviv, Hip Set begins with what appears to the police to be a simple murder but swiftly takes our heroes through the hidden lives of Sudanese refugees and the violent underground economy of Russian gangsters, in search of an ancient mystery, lying untouched in the desert for millennia, that has been troubling scholars since it first appeared in the Old Testament itself.

Available on Amazon.

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PROTECTING PAIGE

EMBRACING THE SUPERNATURAL IN JUDAISM: SIGNS FROM OUR DECEASED LOVED ONES AND STORIES ABOUT THE WORLD-TO-COME

Deby Eisenberg

“Compelling...engaging... a moving family saga” —Kirkus Reviews. Until her enchanting French mother died and her famous uncle became her guardian, Paige never knew the pain and passion of the secrets in a hidden diary. She never knew the Holocaust was part of her story.

A stunning novel of uncovering your heritage and discovering your destiny.

Print and e-book available on Amazon.

Visit www.debyeisenberg.com.

THE BITCH OF BUCHENWALD: HER TAINTED LEGACY

Wendie Pecharsky and Jill Merzon

Spanning six decades, this tense and riveting fact-based Jewish historical novel transports readers from the gates of Buchenwald to the streets of modern-day London, where the son of Ilse Koch, the notorious “Bitch of Buchenwald,” is planning an anti-government coup. But first, he must secure his sisters’ diaries, which hold the key to Ilse’s legacy: a fortune in looted Nazi gold.

Buy it on Amazon.

BUBBIE’S BABY: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Elaine Serling

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

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

SITTING SHIVA Erin Silver

In this gorgeously illustrated, deeply moving picture book, a young girl learns about the practice of sitting shiva after her mother dies. Sitting Shiva is a beautiful, heartfelt story about grief and loss, but also about comfort and community. It shows that no matter what religion you practice, we are all more similar than we are different.

Available from Orca Book Publishers.

Stephen Karol

Learn about the afterlife in three ways: first, what the Hebrew Bible and later Jewish writings have to say about what happens when we die; second, what the traditional beliefs and customs are that recognize God’s “supernatural” power to connect with us in our daily lives; and, third, what experiences some people have had with communication from the deceased through what are called “signs,” and which I refer to as “blessings from God.” Included are 75 personal accounts in which the presence of deceased loved ones is felt and brings joy and comfort to the living.

Available through Amazon: Kindle $9.99; paperback $24.99. Signed copies can be provided by the author. Email rabbistephenkarol@gmail.com.

COMMENTARY Barbara Dowell

Commentary’s poetry captures the perspective of Columbus author, educator, and Jewish musician, Barbara Dowell, as she reflects on her life experiences. Her interactions with family, friends, teaching, performing and religious affiliation colored her life. Her third book of poetry relates warm childhood memories, the role fate played in meeting her husband, presenting the funny side of motherhood, sharing stories that are easy to relate to and uplifting to read. While the book speaks about her life experiences, readers will identify and find themselves within the pages of the book.

Available on Amazon.

THE DARK ROOM: A MEMOIR OF TRIUMPH Claudia Chotzen

This complex family tapestry weaves the author’s experience as one of eight children of parents who fled Nazi Germany. Her mother juggled raising her family and her photography profession with her passion as a civil rights activist. To the outside world she was a hero; inside the home a different story unraveled. Claudia’s mother violated her trust and her body, a betrayal of the most profound maternal bond. However, this not a story of revenge or bitterness; rather it is healing, funny, inspirational. Ultimately, it is about the ability to break the cycle of abuse, to thrive and to love.

Available on Amazon.

WITH AND WITHOUT HER: A MEMOIR OF LOSS

Beth Simon Rosenschein

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

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

Available on Amazon in paperback and e-book formats.

THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO EVE: THE WOMEN OF THE TORAH Hadassah Alderson

“How does the Hebrew Bible fit into the lives of Jewish Women today?” has become a central question to Modern Jewish life. Combining the seemingly antithetical interests of the Biblical text and feminist thinking, well-known, little-known, and the author’s own Midrashic stories about the laws are told to make the Bible relevant to modern readers. Early reviews emphasize this book’s literary content and comprehensiveness.

Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

ON 174TH STREET: THE WORLD OF WILLIE MITTLEMAN Mel Weiser

Days are bad in the Great Depression of the 1930s. But for little Willie Mittleman and the Mittleman clan in their Bronx, NY neighborhood, life is still good, proving that laughter and love will always be the lifesaving forces to rescue us from adversity and pain. A big-hearted gem. Funny, touching and insightful. For readers of all ages.

Available on Amazon.

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

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Miriam Anzovin Talking Talmud on TikTok | By Hilary Danailova

COURTESY OF MIRIAM ANZOVIN

P

eople think it’s a character, but this is how I am in real life,” Miriam Anzovin says on a Zoom call from her Natick, Mass., home, her silvery voice and floral walls recognizable from the TikTok videos that have made her a Jewish social media sensation.

Since December 2021, Anzovin has released pop-culture-laced Talmudic commentary—what she calls feminist “hot takes”—on the Daf Yomi, the page-a-day Talmud study ritual practiced by Jews all over the world.

Some traditionalists have criticized Anzovin’s online “Daf Reactions” series for its salty language and irreverent humor as well as her chutzpah as a nonreligious woman interpreting rabbinic texts.

But her 11,000 followers on TikTok, the short video-sharing platform, and a nearly equal number on Instagram and Twitter adore

her—so much so that when she posted a pre-Purim makeup tutorial for those planning homage costumes, social media the next day was full of platinum blonde wigs and red hair bows. The look mirrored blonde Anzovin and the bow she wore in a January video that was her first to go viral when it surpassed 45,000 views, making her an overnight Jewish social media star.

On that January day, in eye-rollheavy millennial-speak, Anzovin, 37, was tackling the Talmud page Moed Katan 9. She offered an impassioned rendition of a discussion between a rabbi who believed that only young women should beautify themselves on Chol Hamoed (intermediate festival days) and another who defended the cosmetic agency of all women.

“He said, and I am barely paraphrasing, Oh my God, what the actual f@ck is wrong with you, you MAY/JUNE 2022

misogynistic ageist dipsh!t!” Anzovin scoffs, flicking her makeup brush indignantly. (Her own tagline, after all, is “the intersection of Sefaria and Sephora,” referring to her two favorite sources: the Jewish digital library and the cosmetics retailer.) “I’m Miriam here in 2022, and I’m kvelling over the actions of a man who died in 320 CE. That’s the power of Daf Yomi.”

The current seven-year learning cycle began in January 2020, and as the world went virtual during Covid, online study groups mushroomed around the globe.

Daf Yomi, a roughly century-old practice, certainly wasn’t a buzzword during Anzovin’s childhood in Amherst, Mass., where her parents moved after embracing religious observance. A self-described autodidact, Anzovin homeschooled herself for high school before earning an undergraduate degree in Judaic studies from the University of Massachusetts.

She now works as a content producer for JewishBoston.com, where for years she hosted the Vibe of the Tribe podcast (now on hiatus) with her current Daf Yomi havruta (study partner), Dan Seligson. This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.

What inspired you to study Daf Yomi?

A few years ago, I was privileged to hear Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks [chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, who died in 2020] give a talk about Daf Yomi. The way he spoke about it was so profoundly exciting—the idea of literally being on the same page as other Jews, like this huge book club. The Daf is generations talking to generations. People wonder what’s in it, and how we can use our own identities to explore these ideas in a modern way.

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So I waited for the new cycle, and then in 2019, there was a series of horrific antisemitic attacks. Studying Talmud is my seven-year middle finger to antisemites.

What’s your Daf Yomi ritual?

I do my makeup, which takes 45 minutes, while listening to Rabbanit Michelle Farber’s Daf Yomi podcast.

Makeup is a meditative process for me; it gets me in the right headspace.

Next, I’ll check the daily Daf Yomi email from the online educational site My Jewish Learning, which links to the original text on Sefaria.

It is a punishing pace of learning.

I only do a video when I have a very strong reaction to a Talmud page, typically several times a week, because it takes hours, and it all has to be the same day—from learning to filming, editing and release.

What prompted you to take your “Daf Reactions” to TikTok? Were you always a performer?

No! Until my divorce three years ago, I really thought that I was a wallflower—that I had to be quiet and suppress the self. I didn’t know I had it in me until Dan asked me to be a guest on his podcast. I became his co-host!

Then last year, I thought: Maybe there are other millennials like me out there—doing Daf for the first time, engaging with this in meme culture, sharing my sensibilities around feminism. And since everybody’s going through such a tough time, maybe other people might get my jokes and laugh, too.

It’s been a whirlwind and still overwhelming. People reach out from around the world. Getting videos from other young people doing their own Daf reactions—that is incredible.

Why do you think your videos have resonated to such an extent?

People have had these exact questions and struggles studying Talmud since Day One. And there has been Talmud humor for just as long. I’m just doing it on screen, as a woman—with enthusiasm, eyeliner and a lot of emojis!

My identity helps others see themselves as learners: “Hey, if this secular feminist can love the Talmud and find profound value in it, maybe there’s a place for others who don’t fit the stereotype of people who study Talmud.”

Some critics have pointed to your irreverent approach as evidence that women shouldn’t delve into Talmud.

What’s your response?

The suggestion that my normal millennial swearing delegitimizes not only my learning, but other women’s learning, is ridiculous. What about men who claim to live religious lives but are sexists, or unethical, or abusers… even, gasp, use the F word? Nobody says, “See, this is what happens when you teach men Gemara.”

In a February video, you shared your outrage at Talmudic rationalizations of rape, revealing you’ve been a victim of sexual abuse. What kinds of reactions did you get?

So many people reached out after that episode to disclose their own experiences with assault—including men. A lot of people struggle with the parts of Talmud learning [dealing with sexual violence, misogyny and mamzerim, children born from a forbidden relationship and their descendants]. I was glad to be able to point viewers to an incredible organization, the Center for Women’s Justice [a Jerusalem-based feminist legal organization]. The best thing I can do is redirect the spotlight onto the real heroes doing this vital work to MAY/JUNE 2022

help women struggling with domestic issues under Israeli religious law.

How has learning and discussing Daf Yomi shaped your evolving Jewish identity now that you’re no longer observant?

This has been one of the most meaningful Jewish experiences of my life. I always felt like if I did anything religious, I would be hypocritical or disingenuous, because I don’t believe in God. But Jewishness is an intrinsic part of me, so it’s been a relief to be able to engage in some way.

Spending time with our literal and intellectual ancestors—this is not only religion, it’s history and peoplehood and should be accessible to all of us.

Studying Talmud is a new paradigm: I am being Jewish by learning.

Your multipart reactions to the Purim and Passover stories were epic. Can we expect something comparable for Shavuot?

Yes! Expect a similar approach for Megillat Ruth. The concept of yibum [the tradition of a widow marrying her brother-in-law] and the relationship between Ruth and Naomi are key elements of the story for me.

Does your family watch your videos?

My grandmother subscribes, but I’m using millennial language, so sometimes translations need to happen. Like when I make a joke referring to the popular HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones—she’s never seen it.

My mom is proud and supportive.

After I stopped being religious, I felt like I let her down. To have her kvell over something Jewish that I was doing was beautiful.

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

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us that there is ‫( ֵעת ְספּ ד וְ ֵעת ְרק ד‬et sipod ve-et rikod) “a time to mourn and a time to dance.” When we find that there is also a time when a dancer becomes a flour sifter, we know for sure that we are in for another Hebrew lesson, dealing this time with the root ‫ד‬-‫ק‬-‫( ר‬resh, kof, dalet), to dance.

The root appears in 1 Chronicles 15:29, where it alludes to a story, told in the Book of Samuel, of the marital strife between King David and his bride Michal. The story recounts that as David joyfully dances his way back to Jerusalem while transporting the Ark of the Covenant, Michal looks out a window and was embarrassed to see David ‫וּמ ַשׂ ֵחק‬ ְ ‫( ְמ ַר ֵקּד‬merakked u-me-sahek) “dancing and leaping,” unashamedly.

The website Sefaria, an online library of Jewish texts, reveals a host of rabbinical stories that use our root, including dozens of citations devoted to a Talmudic debate around a text in Ketubut 16b asking how to rejoice before the bride at a wedding: ‫( כֵּ יצַ ד ְמ ַר ְקּ ִדין לִ ְפנֵ י ַהכַּ לָּ ה‬keitsad merakkdin lifnei ha-kallah), literally, “How does one dance before the bride?” and translated as “What does one recite while dancing before a bride?”. The answer centers on a rabbinic dispute about truth-telling and white lies. In this case, should one describe the bride “as she is,” being absolutely truthful? We follow the opinion of the sage Hillel, who declares that no matter what, one should always sing out that she is “a pleasant, comely bride.”

The rabbis elsewhere use ‫( ְמ ַר ֵקּד‬merakked) as a term for flour sifter, perhaps because they perceived the flour as it is being sifted as, metaphorically, dancing in the air? A story about the first flour sifter is told in Berakhot 58a by Ben Zoma, a sage of the mishnaic period. He marveled that in order for Adam, in the Garden of Eden, “to eat bread,” he had to bake it from scratch himself, performing 11 arduous tasks, from plowing to baking, including ‫ִה ְר ִקיד‬ (hirkid), sifting the flour.

In her song ‫ר קד ת‬ ְ ‫( נָ ִשׁים‬nashim rokdot), “Dancing Women,” on the different stages of a woman’s life, renowned Israeli singer Chava Alberstein describes how women in different age groups ‫( י צְ א ת ְבּ ִרקּוּד‬yoz’ot be-rikkud), will go out to dance. Today, there is the hora, an exuberant ‫ִרקּוּד ַע ָמּ ִמי‬ (rikkud ammami), folk dance, stored deeply in Jewish DNA. Just find your own rhythm.

Joseph Lowin’s new book on Hebrew roots, Hebrew Matters, was published in April. His columns for Hadassah Magazine are collected in the books HebrewSpeak and HebrewTalk.

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