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Winter 2015

Soup For You!

Gifts and Books for Chanukah Giving

A New Take on "Red Light/Green Light"

In Search of Real HeroesGOLD/PEWTER

ACORN DREIDEL FROM QUEST COLLECTION

The spring 2015 issue comes out in early March; call 202.464.4803 or email mjacobs@jwi.org to reserve space now!

ADVERTISE in the next issue of

to reach affluent, educated Jewish women across the U.S. and around the world.

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W I N T E R 2 0 1 5

3 A RACE TO CHANGE College students across the United States are

making strides toward an end to sexual assault – with the help of a childhood game.

BY MEREDITH JACOBS

7 THE SEASON OF GIVING Majestic menorahs, swanky sweaters, a box of

Chanukah beer... JW has your ultimate gift guide for this holiday season.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

13 IN SEARCH OF REAL HEROES In this Chanukah season, when we celebrate the

heroism of Judah Maccabee and his brothers, we asked women about what heroism means to them. Their answers are both enlightening and humbling.

BY RAHEL MUSLEAH

19 SOUP FOR YOU! Soup chases away the cold and is the perfect

antidote to whatever ails you. It has also helped these women build flourishing careers in the food world.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

32 BOOKS TO GIVE (OR KEEP) Chanukah is a time for celebrating heroes, for

getting together for good food with family and friends, and for giving thoughtful gifts. These books will help you do all three.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

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Volume 18Number 4

EDITORSusan Tomchin

CREATIVE DIRECTORDanielle Cantor

CEOLoribeth Weinstein

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONSMeredith Jacobs

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Kim Oster-Holstein, Chair

Vivian Bass, Chair-ElectRobyn Altman

Miri CypersNicole Feld

Susan Feldman

Meryl FrankToby Graff

Mardi KunikErica LeathamDiane Radin

Rabbi Susan ShankmanDeena Silver

Beth SloanEllen Stone

Susan W. Turnbull, Immediate Past Chair

Sandy UngerSuzi Weiss-Fischmann

JW is published twice annually in print by JWI and year-round online. In-spired by our legacy of progressive women’s leadership and guided by our Jewish values, JWI works to ensure that all women and girls thrive in healthy relationships, control their financial futures and realize the full potential of their personal strength.

JW magazine is distributed to donors and supporters of JWI and is available for purchase at $5.99 per issue. Postmaster: Please send address changes and inquiries to JW, 1129 20th Street NW, Suite 801, Washington, DC 20036.

© Contents JWI 2015

The articles and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the view of JWI or any member thereof. Advertising in JW does not necessarily imply editorial endorsement or guarantee kashrut of products.

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A Race to Change

College students across the United States are making strides toward an end to sexual assault –

with the help of a childhood game.

BY MEREDITH JACOBS

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n October 25, more than 500 students from George Washington (GW), American and

Towson Universities took part in a game of “Green Light Go,” on the campus of GW in Wash-

ington, D.C. While the game is similar to the one many played as children (run when it says green light and stop when it says red light) this version includes a crucial varia-tion: yellow light. Yellow represents the ambiguous mo-ments in a physical relationship, when there isn’t a clear yes or no. During these moments, it is critical for the part-ners to check in with each other and make certain both are comfortable and in agreement. When “yellow light” is called, players must turn to each other and ask permission to continue moving forward.

The game grew out of the ongoing collaboration between JWI and Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) national fraternity. This past summer, JWI became a formal philanthropic partner for ZBT. The fraternity has committed to raising funds for JWI’s work and has formally announced that healthy relationships and ending sexual assault on college campus is an organizational priority.

But how were the fraternity chapters to raise money for JWI? Much like Sigma Delta Tau (SDT) national sorority sells our exclusive purple OPI nail polish, “Girls Achieve Grapeness,” ZBT needed a signature event — one that would both raise money to allow JWI to continue to create healthy relationship and positive masculinity pro-grams for the fraternity and would raise awareness on col-lege campuses around the issue of ending sexual assault and dating abuse.

This new collaboration comes on the heels of several years of programmatic partnering between JWI and the frater-nity. ZBT took part in JWI’s award winning Safe Smart Dating, created with SDT sorority. The program, is the first co-ed, peer-led program created specifically for the campus Greek community to discuss healthy relation-ships, consent and bystander intervention. Last spring, JWI brought the young men from ZBT together with high school boys from the BBYO youth movement to spend a day at the Senate and the White House to discuss their ideas for ending assault on college campuses. Both groups spoke about their partnerships with JWI and the positive effects our healthy relationship workshops have brought to the teens and young men who have attended.

JWI assisted the ZBT students in creating “Let’s Get Real,” a week of honest conversations on campus leading up to the October 25 Green Light Go program.

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“Green Light Go cannot just be a game,” fraternity broth-ers Nick Carr, president of GW ZBT and Bryce Anderson, president of Towson University ZBT, stated. ”We need to start an honest conversation among college students. We need to get real about why women on campus need to watch their drinks. We need to be honest about why we’re hitting on the drunkest girls at the party.”

In spring 2016, other ZBT chapters across the country will host Green Light Go events.

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the season of giving

HANUKA 21 MENORAH ($1100)is a breathtaking splurge. It has

one side of an octahedron for each day of Chanukah. From Hungary-based EightDays Design Group. Made from Corian. Available at

thejewishmuseum.org.

Majestic menorahs, swanky sweaters, a box of Chanukah beer... JW has your

ultimate gift guide for this holiday season.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

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OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:

WASHINGTON DC SKYLINE MENORAH ($168) by award-winning artist Valerie

Atkisson is made from laser-cut stainless steel. At Modern Tribe.

CHALKBOARD MENORAH ($20) comes with two pieces of chalk – white and

blue – and turns upside down to hold two Shabbat candles. Available from

Modern Tribe.

MENORASAUR MENORAHS ($100) are created by Lisa Pierce from repurposed

plastic toys and clay. Herbivores and carnivores both available. Buy them at

The Jewish Museum Shop or The Vanilla Studio on Etsy.

WHEELING GROOVY MENORAH - VW BUS ($60) is made of enameled metal

and measures 10" long by 6" wide. moderntribe.com

THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM:

BRASS CONTEMPORARY MENORAH ($250) was created by Joy Stember,

one of the most highly respected young Judaica artists working today.

Available at joystember.com.

BLOSSOM MENORAH ($185) was created by Israeli artist Orit Grader out of brass

with enamel paint. Available on Etsy.

ECO-CHIC MENORAH ($130) from Haiti was crafted by hand from the metal

of recycled oil drums. From Three Stone Steps.

Light it UP

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SHTICK IN A BOX ($21.99), a holiday variety pack featuring three 12-ounce bottles of four different

craft beers from microbrewery He’brew, including its holiday 2015 introduction: Hanukkah, Chanukah: Pass the Beer®. From Schmaltz Brewing Company; list of

distributors at shmaltzbrewing.com.

DREIDELTOOTH BOW TIE ($49) is made in England (where else?) and comes perfectly pre-tied. Available in several colors and

other designs at Gelt Fiend.

VARSITY HANUKKAH SWEATERS ($75) have their own chenille letter. (Gimmel, of course, the “take all” letter in the dreidel game.) Available at Gelt Fiend.

something for everyone

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AZURE BOTTLE STOPPER ($40), made from authentic Brazilian agate – colored, cut and polished and sitting atop a glass stopper.

From Bliss Home and Design.

SOY VEY HANUKKAH CANDLES ($12.95) burn cleaner and longer than paraffin wax. Made in the USA with all-natural and vanilla-scented soy wax.

Available at Modern Tribe.

ECO-FRIENDLY KOSHER SALT BOX ($13.99) is made from high-quality bamboo, a renewable resource.

A magnet on the base of the lid ensures a tight seal. From Totally Bamboo.

ACORN DREIDEL ($95) is hand-painted and rests on an oak leaf. Gold/pewter;

measures 3" X 3" From Quest.

something for everyone

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT:

GELT FOR GROWN-UPS® DARK CHOCOLATE WITH SEA SALT ($15), also available in Dark

Chocolate with Cacao Nibs and Milk Chocolate. Each chocolate coin is molded to replicate a

Judean coin dating back to the 4th decade BCE, and is airbrushed in gold or silver. Kosher Dairy

certified; 18 pieces per box. From Veruca Chocolates.

CHANUKAH PASTA ($5.98) includes two bags featuring festive shapes. Pasta is crafted in Italy using traditional methods and is kosher certified.

Available from Cost Plus World Market.

RECYCLED MAGAZINES DREIDEL ($12 to $20) is hand-crafted in the Philippines from recycled

magazines and cardboard. Available from The Jewish Museum Shop or The Pickman Museum Shop.

CHANUKAH MENORAH PUZZLE ($38) from Israeli artist Yair Emanuel is handmade with 27 wood

pieces, each with a Hebrew letter. Available at Etsy.

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In this Chanukah season, when we celebrate the heroism of Judah Maccabee and his brothers, we asked women about what heroism means to them. Their answers are

both enlightening and humbling.

BY RAHEL MUSLEAH

JW Magazine | jwmag.org14

ail Reimer doesn’t use the word hero lightly. But then her mother’s example always stands to remind her of what true

heroism is.

Natalia Twersky risked her life innumerable times during the Holo-caust to save the lives of others. As a young mother of 26 she stole out of the Plaszow labor camp in Poland to hide her one-year-old son with a Christian school friend. She was on Schindler’s list but when she couldn’t get her sister and others on it, she went with them to Auschwitz. She became a kapo to protect them and endured horrific punishment trying to secure food for them. One beating rendered her almost unrecognizable.

“My mother wanted me to know what she survived so I could appreciate the importance of investing my own life with purpose, of making a meaning-ful difference in our broken world,” says Reimer, 65, founding director of the Jewish Women’s Archive, which documents Jewish women’s stories both to understand the past as well

as to empower women to be agents of change. (jwa.org) “Her life inspired me to live by Hillel’s saying: `If I am only for myself who am I?’”

For Reimer, the risk factor is a critical aspect of heroism. “We are always in search of role models—people who do courageous, wonderful, important, visionary acts—but they are not nec-essarily heroic. I reserve the word for a particular kind of act that’s more de-manding than bravery or doing what’s good and right.” Even when profiling women for two JWA exhibits, Re-imer stayed away from the term. She dubbed the first group of activists (in-cluding Emma Lazarus and Bella Ab-zug), “women of valor,” and the sec-ond, contemporary group, “women who dared.”

The word hero means different things to different people. Today, it is over-used, misused, trivialized and almost trite. Yet innumerable quiet, unher-alded heroes live among us. They are people who could live simple and un-complicated lives but do something out of the ordinary to strengthen their families, their communities and the world. They motivate us and show us what’s possible.

Rabbi Sharon Brous, 41, spiritual lead-er of Ikar, “a Jewish community of in-spiration and experimentation” in Los Angeles, defines a hero as someone who can overcome challenges, both real and perceived, to fight for some-thing she believes needs to change—regardless of the potential dangers. The risk could range from shattering an image (that others have of you) and losing a job to imprisonment or life endangerment. “A hero is able to listen to a call that comes from a deeper place—a call that too often we are trained to suppress because it’s unpopular or doomed to failure, so we don’t heed it.” Heroes, she adds, redefine what’s possible and do the unexpected. They can either be lead-ers of social movements or individuals who “break script” in their own lives to

overcome what has been designated the “proper” role for them.

Jewish history – both ancient and modern – reverberates with many women who model heroism both larger than life and “ordinary.” Like the Maccabees, Judith, the woman asso-ciated with Chanukah, boldly stands up for her people. A beautiful widow known for her piety and goodness, she recognizes that without decisive action the people in her besieged city will starve or be forced to surrender. She “breaks script” by going to the camp of Holofernes, the Assyrian general whose army has surrounded the city, and entices him to enjoy a meal of salty cheese and wine. When he drifts off to sleep, she cuts off his head, and the army flees. As a remind-er of her heroic act, Jews traditionally eat cheese and dairy on Chanukah.

Ironically, most people who act he-roically don’t consider themselves heroes. Felicita Jakoel (pronounced ya-koh-el), 56, who helped open the doors for 300 Albanian Jews to leave the rigid, restrictive, Communist-con-trolled regime and emigrate to Israel in 1991, says she is frightened by the word because it calls to mind a person who does great things and changes people’s lives. “I did what I could but

“A hero is able to listen to a call that comes from a deeper place.”

rabbi sharon brous

“My mother wanted me to know what she survived so I could appreciate the importance of investing my own life with purpose, of making a meaningful difference in our broken world.”

gail reimer

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 15

I’m a normal, average person that at a certain moment did something I was hoping to do all my life – leave Albania and go to the free world.”

“I did what I could but I’m a normal, average person that at a certain moment did something I was hoping to do all my life – leave Albania and go to the free world.”

felicita jakoel

Jakoel, who lives in Tel Aviv today, was raised in a Zionist home despite the danger of maintaining a Jewish identity. Though Albania saved all of its 200 Jews as well as 2000 refu-gees during the Holocaust, it became a strict dictatorship in 1945, “her-metically sealed” from the world until Communism began to fall at the end of the 20th century. When the gov-ernment started issuing passports in 1990, Jakoel obtained one to visit her cousins in Athens. There, she met with the Israeli ambassador and took her first secret trip a few months later to Israel, portrayed at the time in the Albanian media as the “black beast of the world.” Upon returning home she contacted her fellow Jews, told them what she had seen and felt and en-couraged them to make aliyah. They did so as a community in 1991.

Jakoel says that when she thinks of heroes, the Albanians who battled genocide during the Holocaust spring immediately to her mind. “The Ger-man killing machine came to a halt

in small Albania. Each story of res-cue is more beautiful than the next.” She recounts an incident in a remote village where the Batinos, a Jewish family, were saved by the Albanian Mecaj family. When the Germans ar-rived, the Jews were terrified—but to ease their fear the Albanian owner put his son in the attic with them. The Albanians—70 percent of whom are Muslim and 30 percent Christian—fol-low an ancient code of honor called Besa that transcends religion, geog-raphy and socioeconomic status, she explains. “If a stranger comes to your house, even your enemy, you are ob-ligated to help him. If you do not, you will be ostracized by the community. This kept the Albanians for thousands of years like the Torah kept the Jews. It was stronger than everything until Communism destroyed it.”

Today Jakoel works as a tour guide at Israel’s Independence Hall. “It’s like closing the circle,” she says, ac-knowledging that “you need a certain amount of courage to do what I did. Others might have been afraid to go secretly to Israel.” A hero, she says, needs courage, persistence and an ideal toward which to strive.

Martina Vandenberg, 46, also has a dossier full of heroes – the women she has represented pro bono during her two decades fighting human traffick-ing, forced labor, rape as a war crime and violence against women. A for-mer Human Rights Watch researcher, she spearheaded investigations into human rights violations in the Russian Federation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Uzbekistan and the Ukraine; her work in Kosovo focused on war crimes. She also authored [for the Israel Women’s Network] the first report document-ing human trafficking in Israel.

Vandenberg recounts the case of a village in which the Serbs locked all the women in a barn, pulled them out one by one to gang-rape them, then killed almost all of them – until one soldier unlocked the door and told the survivors to run. Months later, they

testified in The Hague against Slobo-dan Milošević, the Yugoslav president who was charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, includ-ing command responsibility for rape and genocide. “Imagine taking an ex-perience so horrifying we can’t even imagine it and finding the courage to hold the individuals accountable.”

Most of Vandenberg’s cases today in-volve women who are “modern-day versions of house slaves:” they are brought to the U.S., held in homes, and forced to work around the clock without any pay. Some are sexually assaulted or abused. But their hero-ism grows over time, Vandenberg says. “Sometimes they are so afraid when I meet them that they won’t look up or make eye contact, but by the time they take the stand it is as if they have grown two feet.” The conse-quences they must weigh if they testi-fy are dire: they subject themselves to public scrutiny and endure retaliatory threats against their families from the ruthless traffickers.

“Can you be heroic in all parts of life, in small things as well as big ones? That’s a conversation every person has to face.”

Martina Vandenberg

“I’m a handmaid to heroism, a facilita-tor,” says Vandenberg, who has been in dangerous situations but down-plays her own role in comparison to her clients. “We used to joke at Human

JW Magazine | jwmag.org16

Rights Watch that courage was be-ing terrified of doing something and doing it anyway.” Two personal expe-riences set her on the human rights path: her best friend in high school was abused, and while in graduate school at Oxford University (her the-sis was on the Soviet military) she traveled to the Russian Federation and met women who had been raped. Later, she co-founded one of Russia’s first rape crisis centers for women.

What is the stuff of heroism? Not ev-eryone has it—and what motivates some and not others remains a mys-tery. Brous calls it heart strength, a spiritual response to complacency, stagnancy and status quo that allows us to assert our core values. “It’s the force that compels a person to say, `just because it is this way doesn’t mean it has to be.’”

Judy Feld Carr, a “very middle-aged” Toronto musicologist who secretly brought 3,228 Syrian Jews to freedom over a period of 28 years, adds anoth-er ingredient: someone who becomes a hero often experiences injustice and then translates it into a duty to work toward justice for others.

The daughter of a fur trader and a Brooklyn-born mother, Carr was raised in Sudbury, a small northern Ontario town with only 30 Jewish families. She experienced intense an-ti-Semitism as a child. “I was the only Jewish kid in school and was alone in my predicament. I was beaten up for killing Christ by students and taunt-ed by teachers. My front teeth were knocked out when I was seven. I was hit with a rock on Good Friday.”

Her neighbor Sophie, a Holocaust sur-vivor who had married a non-Jewish miner, became a surrogate mother to her. Once, when Carr was 12, Sophie was preparing hot chocolate and started to cry that it would’ve been her little girl’s birthday – the child, who was six weeks older than Carr, had died at Auschwitz. “She put her arm around me and started scream-ing, `You can’t let what happened to us ever happen again.’ I’ll never forget that. I sat outside in the snow later, crying and thinking, 'What does she want from me?’ When I took the last Jew out of Syria I cried for the first time in 28 years and I thought, 'So-phie, I did it for you.’ That was always in my mind. It gave me the impetus. It was not heroism but my obligation.”

Carr seems astounded herself by how events unfolded. She attended the University of Toronto, then graduate school, married, had three children, became the first president of the largest synagogue in North America, and was involved in demonstrating for Soviet Jewry. “All that was nor-mal,” she says. In 1972 she and her late husband, Ronald Feld, read about Syrian Jews who were not allowed to emigrate. They sent a telegram to a rabbi in Damascus asking if the com-munity needed any religious books. He replied with a shopping list, and they began communicating through a code system: Carr would send biblical verses or lines from the prayerbook, and the rabbi would respond with the next line. After a pogrom in Damascus

the rabbi sent a biblical verse about Rachel weeping for her children.

Carr didn’t realize the risks at the be-ginning—until the Syrian authorities cracked the code and she and her husband were threatened. He died of a heart attack the next day. (She later remarried.) But she did not halt her efforts. With backing from two synagogue funds and another set up in Feld’s name, she raised money for ransoms to obtain exit permits, to arrange escapes, and to smuggle out ancient articles of Jewish wor-ship. She worked with smugglers and bribed government officials.

“There was a lot of stress, a lot of fear and difficulty because I was dealing with people’s lives. Every person was a major problem. It tore me apart. Most people didn’t know it was me behind it and I kept it that way. I was going to quit all the time. I lost my hus-band; I had little babies to raise; I had to hold three jobs. But the telegrams were coming. We need tefillin, tallitot, books, and medical care. A baby born in prison needs milk. We need to get our children out and our relatives out

“The first girl I took out [of Syria] when she was 19 and brought to Toronto just became a grandmother. I’m seeing generations now, and that is astounding.”

judy feld carr

“Instead of focusing on herself, [a hero] thinks of others and makes a difference in such a way that others not only learn and grow, but also reach more of their potential than they ever thought possible.”

diane berenbaum

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Nurture your own

Inner Hero“I try to raise my own children to respect as well as defy tradition. I try to raise little people who know how to ask big questions, who don’t take things for granted. I want them to see what’s beautiful and painful about the world so their hearts can be awakened to fight against what’s unfair instead of presuming they are powerless. Sometimes we give up and the moment requires the exact opposite. We have to find our outrage again. We have to figure out what has to happen to change the script.” - Rabbi Sharon Brous

“I've always enjoyed reading stories of the mythic hero's journey, and particularly the female hero—Esther and Ruth in the Bible, Inanna and Persephone in world myth. Stories like that inspire me to find the hero's journey in my own life, and work on the qualities that make heroes successful: courage, in-genuity, loyalty, and honesty. I read my daughter Bible stories and fairy tales for the same reason. She loves the character of Miriam in the story of Moses in the basket on the Nile, and she gets that Miriam's quick thinking and bravery saved Moses' life. I believe stories are one way to cultivate hero-ism in ourselves and others.” – Rabbi Jill Hammer

“Nurture heroism by learning about or providing others with models of ‘ordinary’ people who risked their lives to save or make a difference in the lives of others. Nurture heroism by cultivating your sense of moral responsibility for other human be-ings.” – Gail Reimer

“Commit to a mindset that you matter and you make an impact and a difference. Find a friend you can confide in and can serve as coach and cheer-leader. Self-esteem leads to being proactive—al-most like an inspiration to do more. Keep physical reminders of the impact you’ve had: small gifts from others that can help you exercise your inner hero and encourage it in others. – Diane Berenbaum

“To nurture heroism you need a counterbalance of joy. People who are most successful are those who have a well-developed sense of humor and are able to laugh at themselves. Remind yourself on a daily basis to be big in the moment when your instincts are to be small.” – Martina Vandenberg

of prison.” Eventually Carr devoted herself to the rescue fulltime and began working with Israeli authorities, who were doing their own rescues.

Carr’s role was one of the best-kept secrets in the Jewish world until late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin public-ly acclaimed her activities. She has since received numer-ous awards and accolades, including highest honors from Israel and Canada. Some of the rescued have even named their children after her. “The first girl I took out when she was 19 and brought to Toronto just became a grandmoth-er. I’m seeing generations now, and that is astounding. If that’s considered a hero so be it.”

In contrast to Carr’s story of espionage worthy of a spy thriller, for some people it’s an act of heroism just to get out of bed in the morning, says Brous. A struggle with illness can elicit a previously unimaginable strength, a re-sponse to an inner cry to live. For her friend Carmen Taylor Jones, whose 15-year-old daughter was shot and killed on her 45th birthday, heroism is as much about reaffirming life as it is about becoming an outspoken advocate for gun prevention. Sometimes it’s hardest to fight for family and for oneself, Brous notes.

To Diane Berenbaum, senior vice president at Communico, a customer service training and consulting organization, a hero is someone with a big heart. “Instead of focusing on herself, she thinks of others and makes a difference in such a way that others not only learn and grow, but also reach more of their potential than they ever thought possible.” Women are especially predisposed to doubt themselves, says Berenbaum, yet when they nurture their "inner hero," they can transform themselves. “It’s not necessarily easy to do, given the messages we may have heard all our lives, or expectations we were supposed to meet or exceed.”

Berenbaum volunteers once a month at an all-female fed-eral prison in Danbury, Conn. She and other Jewish wom-en meet with the Jewish inmates for Friday night services and conversation. “We don’t go there to take the lead or teach them,” she says, “but to step back, listen and help them connect in new ways. That fosters personal growth, enriches relationships and motivates new perspectives. I’ve seen heroes appear, and the heroes within them grow. They’ve noticed it too, and they are stronger, prouder and more at peace.”

Heroism is not only writ large, agrees Vandenberg. Nelson Mandela, a hero on the world stage, acknowledged that he fell short in his private life. “There are small acts we do that have an enormous ripple effect,” she says. “Can you be he-roic in all parts of life, in small things as well as big ones? That’s a conversation every person has to face.”

Rahel Musleah is an award-winning journalist, author and speaker. Visit her website, rahelsjewishindia.com.

JW Magazine | jwmag.org18

LEARN MORE &

GIVE NOW: jwi.org/nli

creating 100 children’s libraries in domestic violence shelters nationwide by 2017

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 19

SOUP FOR YOU!Soup chases away the cold and is the perfect antidote to whatever ails you. It has also helped these women build

flourishing careers in the food world.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

oup is the queen of the comfort food kingdom. A flavorsome bowl of soup remains unsurpassed in warding off winter chill and as an elixir to help us recover from the flu, in addition to holding pride of place at Jewish holiday meals. And as almost anyone who samples a beloved grandmother’s chicken soup will tell you, soup=love. Even modernist writer Virginia Woolf weighed in. “Soup is cuisine’s kindest course,” she said.

With winter coming, we spoke to four women who have an intimate relationship with soup: Sara Polon and her mom, Marilyn Polon, co-founders of Soupergirl, an up and com-ing business in the Washington, D.C. area; Pam Reiss, author of a popular kosher soup cookbook and a key player in her family’s kosher catering business and specialty food store in Winnipeg, Canada; and Laura Frankel, executive chef at Wolfgang Puck Kosher Cater-ing at the Spertus Institute in Chicago who has prepared gazpacho for former president George W. Bush and matzoh ball soup for Ivanka Trump. We asked them not only share their stories but their soup making secrets and recipes that will inspire even the most time-challenged among us to put a pot on.

Sara Polon, 38, isn’t a trained professional chef. In fact, she was a comedian before she turned soup-maker. Yet, her background in comedy clubs has been an unexpected asset in her work at Soupergirl.

“In the most basic sense, it prepared me for run-ning a business,” she says. “You need to be quick on your feet and prepare for the unexpected. In the food industry, in particular, in the era of Yelp, Facebook and Twitter, you need to have a thick skin, because people post things constantly. Most of it is positive but you never know. It’s like when you’re doing a comedy show you never know when a heckler will appear.”

Polon was inspired to get involved in the local food movement when she read Michael Pollan’s influential book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which deplores the dominance of industrial farming

and the threats to the quality of the food we purchase. Since farming wasn’t her thing, her thoughts turned to something she loved—soup. Growing up, she says, “We had stews, chilies, all kinds of soups and Mom made everything from scratch. I was so fortunate.”

In 2008 she and Marilyn launched Soupergirl, a soup delivery business offering two daily vegan soup choices to D.C. residents. In 2011 they took the next step—opening their first brick and mortar store in Takoma, D.C. A second location, on Washington’s busy M Street, followed, and at-tracts a stream of lunch customers from among the area’s many office workers. In 2013 the Po-lons began selling wholesale and now containers of Soupergirl’s creations are found in the refriger-ated sections of Whole Foods and many other health-oriented stores in the D.C. area. “We are slowly and responsibly growing the business,

Soupergirl's Sara Polon (left) and Marilyn Polon (right)

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A BOWL OF WISDOM

"Whenever something went wrong when I was young - if I had a pimple or if my hair broke - my mom would

say, 'Sister mine, I'm going to make you some soup.' And I really thought the

soup would make my pimple go away or my hair stronger."

Maya Angelou

"Only the pure in heart can make a good soup."

Ludwig van Beethoven

"I never feel more useful than when I'm making my kids a bowl of soup."

Mary-Louise Parker

"A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting."

Abraham Maslow

"I think that women just have a primeval instinct to make soup, which they will try to foist on anybody who

looks like a likely candidate."

Dylan Moran

"Soup is a lot like a family. Each ingredient enhances the others;

each batch has its own characteristics; and it needs time to simmer to

reach full flavor."

Marge Kennedy

"A Jewish woman had two chickens. One got sick, so the woman made

chicken soup out of the other one to help the sick one get well."

Henny Youngman

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 21

hoping eventually to reach national distribu-tion,” says Polon.

Soupergirl’s soups are a far cry from the canned commercial soups many of us grew up eating for lunch. All the soups are vegan, preservative-free, and made by hand from fresh, locally grown in-gredients. “We cook with what’s available from local farmers and don’t get produce off season from Mexico or California,” Marilyn Polon says. That means during the winter months they rely on an array of beans, grains, sweet potatoes, win-ter greens, squashes and root vegetables—from carrots to parsnips to celeriac (celery root).

“Our soups are a great way to get your daily veg-etable servings,” Sara Polon adds. “And since our soups are very hearty, you stay full for hours. They are what you might cook yourself at home if you had the time.” Soupergirl’s products are kosher and low in sodium. “The thing about salt is that you can always add it, but you can’t take it out,” she says. Fat is also kept at a minimum. “We use a drizzle of canola oil, enough to sweat the vegetables, but no other fats in our soups.” The stock is always homemade and the soups are cooked slowly. “Soup cooking should not be rushed,” Polon advises. “You need time for the flavors to develop,” which is why soup tastes bet-ter the second day.

When Soupergirl began, it was just mother and daughter, cooking side by side. “I joke that I should be in Florida playing mahjong,” says Marilyn, 70, who handles Soupergirl’s recipe de-velopment. Sara runs the business, including the connections with local farmers. “We worked so hard for a year to get the business started. We were cooking together and I also had to do re-search about recipes and shop for the ingredients. But it’s been an adventure and in the end great fun,” Marilyn says. The soup business is her third career: she worked for 20 years as a speech and language pathologist and 10 years as volunteer coordinator at the Jewish Social Service Agency.

JW Magazine | jwmag.org22

Marilyn Polon still loves to cook at a time of life when many of her friends don’t like to cook any-more. “I go into my kitchen turn on some music and no one bothers me. At this point I have a good feel about what ingredients will come to-gether and make a good soup.” Two strategies she’s picked up along the way: adding a squirt of lemon juice to brighten a soup’s flavor and soak-ing and then pureeing raw cashews with water to create cashew cream. She uses the latter, which has a neutral flavor, to make soups such as cream of tomato.

Soupergirl’s menu changes daily and Marilyn estimates that over the past eight years she has developed more than a thousand recipes, among them the vegetarian matzoh ball soup that Sou-pergirl offers for Rosh Hashanah and Passover. During the colder months, customer favorites are West African peanut stew made with peanut butter, chick peas, and cumin; triple ginger but-ternut squash; black bean pumpkin soup; and curried peanut squash (see recipe on page 27). “When we offer these soups we know to make a lot of extra,” says Sara Polon.

As for working with her mom in a business, she says, without missing a beat, “We have a blast together. She’s the heart and soul of the business and my best friend.”

Working with family members is something Pam Reiss, 41, is accustomed to. After earning a bach-elor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from the University of Minnesota, she returned to her hometown of Winnipeg to join the fam-ily business, working alongside her parents and sister. That business, Desserts Plus, founded by her mom, is the only independent kosher grocery store and catering business serving the central Ca-nadian city’s 13,000-member Jewish community.

“I like experimenting and creating new things, and with soup it’s so easy to do,” says Reiss. Her soup

cookbook was born the year that her parents de-cided to go South for the winter and closed down for two months. Reiss spent the down time in the kitchen, developing 40 to 50 new soup recipes.

“I decided to try to do something with the reci-pes,” she recalls, and submitted a book proposal to various publishers, ultimately garnering three offers. The first edition of Soup: A Kosher Collec-tion (Whitecap), which contained some 140 reci-pes, sold out. For the second edition that came out in 2011, she developed 20 additional recipes.

This is the kind of book that people can use daily since recipes are easy to follow and prepare, even for inexperienced cooks. While she includes reci-pes for traditionally Jewish soups such as borscht, chicken soup with herbs, and her grandmother’s dairy break-the-fast soup, she offers an array of other options from roasted garlic and potato to carrot dill (recipe on page 25); Thai ginger chick-en to Greek meatball; Middle Eastern squash

“THERE IS NOTHING MORE REASSURING

TO ME DURING A LONG DAY AT WORK

THAN KNOWING I HAVE A BIG BATCH OF SOUP COOKING

AT HOME.”– CHEF LAURA FRANKEL

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 23

and couscous soup to hot and sour (recipe on page 31). A substantial number of the recipes are pareve – meat and dairy free – a boon to vegans.

“I was lucky to travel a lot when I was younger to the Far East and Europe,” Reiss says. “I’ve tried to remember and re-create some of the flavors I enjoyed on my travels.” That, plus the fact that her family loves a variety of foods, from Asian to Greek to French, has expanded her palate and inspired her to try a variety of ingredients and flavorings.

She’ll often go to the grocery and see what fresh produce is available and then try to make soup. “For me, making soup is fun. I love throwing things in a pot and seeing what comes out.”

“Soup is so forgiving yet for some reason people are afraid of making it,” Reiss says. “We used to have a baker in our store able to create amaz-ing wedding cakes, yet she would say that she couldn’t make soup.”

Judging from the feedback, Reiss believes her cookbook has helped people embrace soup-making. “People use and love my book. They see that it’s not difficult to put a delicious pot of soup on.” One woman she spoke to recently has made Reiss’s book her go-to engagement gift for couples. “She told me that over the years she has bought more than 40 copies!”

Renowned chef and caterer Laura Frankel, a graduate of the Cordon Bleu, devotes her days to creating sophisticated kosher dishes for her clients at Wolfgang Puck Kosher restaurant and catering at the Spertus Institute in Chicago. As a mom, however, she still needs to get an inviting meal on the table each evening for her three teen-age sons and often achieves this with the aid of a slow cooker. “There is nothing more reassuring to me during a long day at work than knowing I have a big batch of soup cooking at home,” she writes in Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes, just issued in a paperback edition by Agate Publishing.

While an earlier generation of slow cookers often produced overcooked, gummy meat and vegeta-bles, “Today’s slow cooker food is bold, assertive and more enticing,” she notes in the book’s intro-duction. Her cookbook is designed to help all of us turn out “a slew of nuanced, flavorful soups,” as well as an array of gourmet caliber stews and main dishes. Many of her recipes boast the use of assertive spices and international flair and sophis-tication: peppery mulligatawny, curried split pea, spicy tortilla soup, and Italian classics such as pasta e fagioli, pumpkin soup, and ribollita (reci-pe on page 29), a hearty Tuscan soup made with greens and beans. She also includes such classics as black bean soup, creamy tomato, onion soup and the Eastern European Jewish favorite, sweet-and-sour cabbage soup (recipe on page 26). She offers two intriguing kinds of chili – vegetarian, made with squash and sweet potato, and bison

JW Magazine | jwmag.org24

chili, made with ground and chunked bison, as well as two cups of Guinness or another dark beer.

“I was born for the job that I have,” says Fran-kel, 54. She started cooking at age five and by the time she was in seventh grade she was already planning menus, writing shopping lists and do-ing most of her family’s cooking. She has fond memories of watching her pharmacist father making soup when someone in the family was ill. “When the weather was miserable or if someone in the house was ill, you could find my father in the kitchen, chopping and stirring his way to the perfect antidote,” she writes.

She contends that with a few simple strategies we can all turn out amazing soups.

One of the most important steps, whether mak-ing soup or other dishes in the slow cooker, is browning, she notes. You need to take the time to caramelize the meat as well as the onions and the other vegetables, she stresses. “When you put something raw into the slow cooker, it doesn’t do anything. And no amount of cooking will change that. Caramelization changes the charac-ter of your food.”

Instead of making soup from scraps or those left-over carrots lingering at the rear of the vegetable bin she “considers each ingredient that goes into it.” She prefers to buy seasonally. “Just as you wouldn’t want to wear a long-sleeve cashmere sweater in August, you wouldn’t want to make a soup that isn’t seasonal.”

Buy the best ingredients you can afford, she ad-vises, “simple ingredients that are very good each one unto themselves. You don’t have to spend a ton of money, but pick the best you can.” That may mean getting locally grown produce at the farmer’s market and upgrading your choice of ol-ive oil. Instead of using a house brand from a big box store, she prefers the flavor of estate grown olive oil, i.e. olive oil that’s from one farm, and

processed on the same day the olives were picked. That big can of bargain olive oil comes from many different sources and can be very uneven tasting and even harsh and bitter, she notes. Her cur-rent “workhorse” olive oil is Nuñez de Prado Flor de Aceite, an intensely flavorful Spanish olive oil available from Whole Foods and other sources.

Frankel never substitutes margarine for butter in order to keep recipes non-dairy. She refuses to use faux ingredients. If a recipe calls for butter, she uses butter. “I don’t cook with margarine or anything that’s fake. It just doesn’t taste as good.”

“Margarine is not good for you. If I wouldn’t serve something to my kids with full enthusiasm, then I’m not going to serve it to anyone. What I’m going to serve to my kids is going to [have ingredients] that come from the farm rather than the factory. Margarine is made in a laboratory. When we eat dairy we eat butter. When we’re not eating dairy we eat olive oil.”

In her kitchen, commercial stock is never an op-tion. “Companies can use only three ounces of protein per gallon and call it stock,” she explains. “Picture the equivalent of three cubes of cheese in the palm of your hand and then added to a gallon of water. It doesn’t taste like anything. They add something called natural flavors, a yeast product, which gives it a savory flavor, but that’s not the same as real chicken stock. Real chicken and vegetable stocks are delicious. I’m not going to get that from a commercial product.”

“Think of homemade stock like a little black dress. Once you have it, you dress it up, add jew-elry. The stock is the same way. You add flavor-ings and garnishes. You take a blank canvas and turn it into something special.”

Sue Tomchin is the editor of JW magazine.

Carrots and dill are natural partners. Although there are no dairy products in the recipe, the soup has an almost buttery flavor.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

• 5–6 medium carrots (1 ½ lb.), peeled and thinly sliced

• 1½ tsp. salt

• ¼ tsp. black pepper

• 5 cups vegetable stock

• 3 Tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Over medium-low heat, sweat the onion in olive oil for 5 to 7 minutes, until wilted but not browned.

2. Add the carrots, salt, pepper and stock. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for 20 minutes, or until the carrots are tender.

3. Purée the soup.

4. Add the fresh dill and heat for 1 to 2 minutes.Carrot

Dill SoupUsed with permission from Soup: A Kosher Collection by Pam Reiss, published by Whitecap Books, photo by Michelle Furbacher JW Magazine | jwmag.org 25

Sweet & Sour

Cabbage Soup

The beets in this soup turn it an incredibly gorgeous scarlet color, so don’t even think of leaving them out. Serve with a loaf of crusty bread and you have a comforting supper. I like to make a big batch and freeze it to eat again on a cold night.

Makes 6 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• Olive oil

• 1 pound beef chuck or stew meat, minced very fine

• 2 large Spanish onions, chopped

• 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

• 3 carrots, peeled and grated on the coarse side of a box grater

• 3 celery stalks, chopped

• 2 large red beets, peeled and grated on the coarse side of a box grater

• One 28-ounce can plum tomatoes with their juices, crushed

• 2 tablespoons tomato paste

• ⅓ cup vinegar, preferably rice vinegar

• ⅓ cup sugar

• 2 quarts homemade chicken stock

• 1 large head green cabbage (about 3 pounds), quartered, cored, and very thinly sliced

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat a slow cooker to Low.

2. Lightly coat the bottom of a sauté pan with olive oil. Brown the meat over medium heat, stirring occasionally.

3. Add the onions and continue to cook until the onions are translucent and soft, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the garlic and continue to cook for 2 min-utes more.

5. Transfer the meat mixture to the slow cooker insert. Add the carrots, celery, beets, tomatoes with their juices, tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, and chicken stock. Cover and cook on Low for 6 hours or on High for 4 hours.

6. Add the cabbage and cook for 1 hour more on High. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pep-per. Ladle the soup into bowls.

Reprinted with permission from Jewish SlowCooker Recipes by Laura Frankel, Agate Surrey, 2015.JW Magazine | jwmag.org26

Curried Peanut Squash

Soup

Yields about 7 cups

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 Tbsp. canola oil

• 2 cups thinly vertically sliced onions

• 1 Tbsp. curry powder

• 1 ½ tsp. ground toasted cumin

• ¼ tsp. ground red cayenne pepper

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 4 cups broth

• 2 cups chopped, peeled butternut squash

• 1 cup shredded carrot

• ¾ cup sliced green onions

• 3-6 Tbsp. peanut butter

• ¼ cup chopped parsley

• Salt, pepper

• 1 ½ cups cooked brown basmati rice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the oil in a pot. Add onions and cook until tender.

2. Stir in curry, cumin, cayenne and garlic.

3. Cook one minute stirring constantly

4. Add broth, squash and carrot, and bring to boil

5. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer 20 minutes or until squash is tender

6. Add sliced green onions, peanut butter, parsley and salt. (You can add more or less peanut butter depending on taste.)

7. Season to taste

8. Add rice. Serve with lime wedges and chopped cilantro.

Recipe courtesy of Soupergirl JW Magazine | jwmag.org 27

Ribollita

Reprinted with permission from Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes—120 Holiday and Everyday Dishes Made Easy by Laura Frankel, Agate Surrey, 2015JW Magazine | jwmag.org28

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 29

The name of this hearty Tuscan soup means “twice boiled.” Traditionally, it was made from leftover minestrone soup combined with stale bread to create a new dish. I break with tradition by adding the toasted bread toward the end of cooking. I also like to add a Parmesan cheese rind to the stock, which adds a refined richness to the dish. I save the rinds from Parmesan cheese in a bag in my freezer. Anytime I need an extra boost of flavor, in go the rinds.

Serve this soup with chunks of garlicky toast to contrast with the creamy beans.

Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups dried cannellini beans, sorted through, rinsed, and soaked overnight

• Olive oil

• 1 medium red onion, chopped

• 1 small leek, white part only, chopped

• 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

• 4 medium zucchini, trimmed and sliced

• 3 garlic cloves, chopped, plus 1 whole peeled garlic clove

• 1 small head savoy cabbage (about 2 pounds), shredded

• 1 bunch cavolo nero (see Note) or kale (about 1 pound)

• 1 bunch Swiss chard (about 1 pound), shredded

• 4 medium Idaho or russet potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice

• 1 cup cut green beans in bite-sized pieces (fresh or frozen)

• One 28-ounce can whole peeled plum tomatoes with their juices, crushed

• ¼ cup tomato paste

• Bouquet garni consisting of 6 thyme sprigs, 6 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, and 1 bay leaf, tied together with kitchen twine

• 6 cups vegetable stock or water

• Parmesan cheese rind (optional)

• Four 1-inch-thick slices stale Italian bread, toasted

• Suggested garnishes: Extra-virgin olive oil, grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat a slow cooker to Low.

2. Drain and rinse the soaked beans. Place the beans into the slow cooker insert.

3. Place a large sauté pan over medium heat. Lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. Sauté the onion, leek, carrots, and zucchini in batches until the vegetables are lightly browned. Transfer the vegetables to the slow cooker insert.

4. Add the chopped garlic, savoy cabbage, cavolo nero, chard, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes with their juices, tomato paste, bouquet garni, vegetable stock, and cheese rind, if using, to the insert. Cover and cook on Low for 6 hours, until the cannellini beans are creamy and barely holding together.

5. Rub the toasted bread with the garlic clove. Place the toasted bread on top of the soup. Press down lightly on it. Cover and cook for 30 minutes more.

6. Mix the bread into the soup before serving. Serve the soup in bowls, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese.

NOTE: Cavolo nero translates to “black kale” in Italian. This vari-ety of cabbage does not form heads but rather looks like a bunch of big dark green or pur-plish-black leaves. Cavolo nero can be found in some specialty stores, but if it is not available in your area, you can substitute Swiss chard, another kale, or any hearty braising green.

Hot & Sour Soup

JW Magazine | jwmag.org30

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 31Used with permission from Soup: A Kosher Collection by Pam Reiss, published by Whitecap Books, photo by Chris Freeland

Using the soaking liquid from the shiitake mushrooms adds amazing flavor to this soup. It’s a little spicy and a little sour. Add or remove the chili sauce and vinegar to suit your taste.

Makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

• ¼ oz. dried shiitake mushrooms

• 1 cup boiling water

• 1 small carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks

• 4 cups vegetable stock

• 1 cup bean sprouts

• ¼ lb. firm tofu, cut into ¼-inch cubes

• ⅛ cup bamboo shoots

• ⅛ cup water chestnuts cut into matchsticks

• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce

• 1 ½ tsp. sambal oelek (chili sauce)

• ¼ tsp. black pepper

• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch

• 1 cup cold water

• 2 eggs

• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil

• 3 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar

• 1–2 green onions (scallions), sliced very thin

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse the dried shiitake mushrooms well and put them in a bowl. Pour the boiling water over them and set aside, covered, until the mushrooms have cooled. When cool enough to handle, take them out of the water. If the mushrooms are whole, take off the stems and discard, then slice the mushroom caps into thin strips.

2. Slowly pour the remaining mushroom water into the soup pot, being careful to leave any residue in the bottom of the bowl. Add the carrot and stock to the pot, cover and bring to a boil.

3. When the soup has boiled, turn the heat down so it is simmer-ing gently. Add the bean sprouts, rehydrated mushrooms, tofu, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, soy sauce, sambal oelek and black pepper and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cold water. Pour into the soup and mix well. Allow the soup to cook another 1 to 2 minutes, until it has thickened.

5. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and sesame oil. In a slow, thin stream pour the mixture into the soup and wait for 10 seconds before stirring. Add the vinegar.

6. Garnish with the green onions and serve.

JW Magazine | jwmag.org32

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 33

Chanukah

is a time for

celebrating

heroes, for

getting together

for good food

with family and

friends, and for

giving thoughtful gifts.

These books will

help you do all three.

BY SUE TOMCHIN

JW Magazine | jwmag.org34

The Seasonal Jewish KitchenAmelia Saltsman is the daughter of a Romanian mother and an Iraqi father who met in the Israeli army and then immi-grated to LA, where she was raised. This blend of traditions coupled with an appreciation of seasonal ingredients has yielded a gorgeously photographed and intriguing cook-book. Her recipes are flavorful and distinctive: Savory Per-sian Herb and Cheese Hamantaschen; Buckwheat, Bow Ties, and Brussels Sprouts, an update on kasha varnishkes; and a Roasted Autumn Fruit dessert that includes figs, grapes and persimmons, in addition to the more usual apples and pears. Saltsman writes beautifully about the Jewish holidays and their ties to the seasons, her family food memories, and such topics as the Jewish farm movement in the U.S. Legendary cookbook author Deborah Madison provides a warm intro-duction. (Sterling Epicure)

ZahavMichael Solomonov believes that Israeli cooking is magical, and he wanted to convey that magic in the dishes he served at the Israeli restaurant he opened with Steven Cook in Phila-delphia in 2008. Now in Zahav, a new cookbook named after his restaurant, the James Beard Award winning chef shares the story of his personal journey and the foods and recipes he has created and enjoyed along the way. He presents “a world of Israeli cooking” including six kinds of hummus, among them the smooth buttery baked version that his cus-tomers love; intriguing salads such as Kale, Apple, Walnut and Sumac-Onion Tabbouleh; kabobs of every stripe; and soups such as matzoh ball soup seasoned with black garlic. This is a delectable book—for its storytelling, its recipes and its lavish photographs. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

The New KosherKim Kushner is a sought after cooking teacher in Manhattan, and it’s easy to see why judging from her new cookbook. Her perspective is young, fresh and new and her recipes are gen-uinely easy-to-make. She focuses on fresh, locally sourced ingredients in unusual combinations, drawing inspiration from the cuisines of Morocco (her mother was born there and raised in Israel), Italy, Asia and other places. Among her offerings: Caramelized Red Onion & Dill Frittata with Smoked Salmon that she makes in a springform pan, allow-ing foolproof transfer to a serving dish; Tamari Salmon with Edamame, a favorite of guests; Crispy Smashed Za’atar Po-tatoes; and Dark Chocolate Bark with Rose Petals, Pistachios & Walnuts, a “showstopping dessert that will wow compa-ny.” Vibrant photos appear throughout. (Weldon Owen)

Inventive Jewish Cookbooks

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 35

Ketzel the Cat Who ComposedFor a book that can be read and enjoyed even after the menorah and candles have been put away, we suggest this charmer. By Lesléa Newman, author of more than 60 books for readers of all ages, this book is based on a true story about Morris Moshe Cotel, a composer who taught music composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and his pet cat, Ketzel. One day Ketzel strolled down the keyboard of the piano and Morris recorded the notes as he heard them, entering the 21-second composition in a contest for works of less than one-minute. “Piece for Piano: Four Paws” received a spe-cial commendation and was debuted at a concert, played by a 10-year-old pianist! Amy June Bates provides lovely illustrations. Ages 5-8 (Candlewick)

Honeyky HanukahWe all have sung folk legend Woodie Guthrie’s iconic song “This Land Is Your Land.” But did you know he wrote a Cha-nukah song too? In this delightful book, kids can enjoy the song’s lyrics and David Horowitz’s joyful illustrations, but also sing along, since a CD recording of the song by the Grammy-Award winning group, The Klezmatics, accompa-nies the book. Guthrie had a creative relationship with his Jewish mother-in-law, poet Aliza Greenblatt, that inspired him to write songs celebrating Jewish culture, including this one. Ages 3-5 (Doubleday Books for Young Readers)

Dear Santa, Love Rachel RosensteinRachel Rosenstein knows she’s Jewish and loves the Jew-ish holidays, including Chanukah, but the twinkly lights on every house but hers, the “gi-normous Christmas tree in the town square,” Santa Claus and all the other holiday glitter and gifts, has led to a severe case of Christmas-envy. Actress Amanda Peet and her friend, writer Andrea Troyer, tell Rachel’s story with humor and compassion, wrapping in positive messages about Jewish identity and the impor-tance of family. Christine Davenier’s illustrations beautiful-ly capture the book’s spirit. The authors are donating part of the proceeds from the book to Seeds of Peace, a peace-building program for teens, including Israelis and Palestin-ians. Ages 3-7 (Doubleday Books for Young Readers)

Clifford Celebrates HanukkahThe lovable dog with 129 million books in print and an Emmy® Award–Winning TV series encounters the Festival of Lights in the final book created by the late author/illus-trator Norman Bridwell. Ages 3-5 (Scholastic)

Kids' Stuff

JW Magazine | jwmag.org36

The Notorious RBG and Sisters in Law In her ninth decade of life and her twentieth year on the Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become a pop culture star, inspiring Halloween costumes, greeting cards, a character on the Cartoon Network and even tattoos. But unlike the celebrities who come and go on the Internet (who cares about Paris Hilton, anymore?) Justice Ginsburg’s revolutionary work fighting gender discrimination that has earned her the title “Thurgood Marshall of the women’s movement,” ensures her a permanent place in U.S. history. Two absorbing new books explore Ginsburg’s life and legacy. Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon, a national reporter at MSNBC, and soon-to-graduate at-torney Shana Knizhnik, creator of the blog Notorious R.B.G. Tumblr, is substantive, yet breezy in tone. The authors combine absorbing narrative and rare archival photos and documents to capture Ginsburg’s unique story and personality: The women’s rights cases she argued; the unique equality of her loving marriage to husband Marty Ginsburg; and even the neckwear she adorns depending whether she’s de-livering a minority or majority opinion. In Sisters in Law, attorney and cultural historian Linda Hirshman’s informative and highly readable new book, she tells Ginsburg’s story in tandem with that of Sandra Day O’Connor. Weaving personal anecdotes and biographical details (Ginsburg, we learn, was a cheerleader in high school!) with legal history, she shows how these two women, though of different parties, disposi-tions and backgrounds, worked to make women equal before the law. (Dey St.-William Morrow; Harper)

Lincoln and the JewsBy 1865, the Jewish population of the U.S. had grown to more than 150,000, alarming many Americans, including members of President Lincoln’s cabinet and some of his top generals. The president, however, chose the opposite tack, numbering Jews among his friends, supporters and advisors, appointing them to public office, and developing sensitivity about their minority status that inspired him to change the language he used to speak and write about America. President Lincoln even had a Jewish podiatrist and friend, Issachar Zacharie, who, at the President’s request, undertook a brief spying mission. This fascinat-ing story comes to light in a remarkable book, out earlier this year, by historian Jonathan D. Sarna, profes-sor of American History at Brandeis, and Benjamin Shapell, founder of the Shapell Manuscript Founda-tion. Using letters, photographs and other primary source material, the authors provide an extraordinary new perspective on one of our greatest presidents and the era in which he lived. (Thomas Dunne Books)

Real-Life Superheroes

JW Magazine | jwmag.org 37

Memoirs of Interesting LivesHunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir Carrie Brownstein, the creator, writer and co-star of the Emmy-nominated television show Portlandia, first be-came widely known as the guitarist and vocalist for the feminist punk rock band Sleater-Kinney (named after a road in a town near Olympia, Washington). But before she became a music icon, as she relates in her candid, smart memoir, she was an isolated young girl growing up in a troubled, nominally Jewish family in the Pacific Northwest, who dreamed that music would give her the means to reinvent herself and find a place in the world. In deft prose, Brownstein relates the story of the band’s birth, the making of its albums, the difficul-ties of touring and other aspects of the musician’s life. The band broke up in 2006 and came back together in in 2012. In performing, Brownstein ultimately finds her true calling: “That music really did feel like a cloak,” she writes. “And slowly I could wear that cloak—that confidence—in other set-tings, in conversations, at dinner par-ties or events, in school… It took a very long time to catch up with my performer self, to draw from that strength.” (Riverhead Books)

My Journey“Anyone can dress a beautiful girl. They look great in everything. But to dress a woman, a true peer, who wants to look fabulous, sexy, confi-dent, and still age-appropriate, was an accomplishment,” writes Donna Karan. In her candid new memoir, the iconic designer writes about the birth of her eponymous clothing line, which showed working women that femi-ninity and professionalism weren't mutually exclusive. But she also tells the rest of the story: Of her parents who worked in the fashion industry; her mother’s rages and mood swings; her turbulent romantic life; and her growth from neurotic girl and un-seasoned intern to the lead designer at prestigious label Ann Klein. She also describes the personal awaken-ing that led her – a non-practicing Jew and self-described “seeker” – to explore Eastern traditions and kab-balah; and the experience of “letting go” earlier this year of her role as lead designer at DKNY. The book is peppered with the names of Karan's many friends: Barbra Streisand, one of Karan's best friends, writes the memoir’s introduction, and former President Bill Clinton writes one of the book’s blurbs. (Ballantine Books)

Stolen LegacyWhile stories have surfaced from time to time in recent years about cases of art restitution from the Ho-locaust era, one doesn’t hear often about property restitution, espe-cially a prominent property located in what was the eastern sector of Berlin. That’s what makes the story Dina Gold relates in her new book so interesting and unusual. Gold grew up hearing her grandmother Nel-lie talk about the family’s six story building, covering a whole block, that once served as headquarters for the H. Wolff Fur Company, one of the largest in Germany in the early part of the 20th century. Driven by a “be-lief that a Nazi theft should not be al-lowed to stand,” Gold, a journalist and mother of three, undertook a six-year campaign to obtain justice. Along the way, she uncovered her family’s history and learned about collusion between the Nazis and the insurance company that held the mortgage on the building. She ultimately wins a substantial settlement for her mother and other family members. Ambas-sador Stuart E. Eisenstat, who has been deeply involved in Holocaust justice issues, wrote the introduction to the book. (Ankerwycke)

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The Hours CountJillian Cantor reimagines the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the American couple executed in 1953 for con-spiring to commit espionage. The story is told through the lens of a fictional neighbor Millie Stein, who meets and be-friends Ethel in Knickerbocker Towers, the New York City apartment building where the Rosenbergs lived prior to their arrest. Ethel and Millie bond over concerns for their children and the challenges of being young mothers with limited incomes and opportunities to spread their wings. This absorbing and often poignant novel conveys the paranoia of the Cold War era when Americans actively worried about “the bomb,” but also of a time when male-female roles were rigidly adhered to and such problems as autism were not commonly known about. Cantor’s critical-ly acclaimed 2013 novel, Margot, also uses a historic figure as inspiration: Margot Frank, Anne’s sister, whom she por-trays as surviving Bergen-Belsen and coming to America where she poses as a Christian from Poland. (Riverhead)

St. MazieJamie Attenberg, author of the wonderful 2013 novel, The Middlesteins, tells the story of Mazie Phillips Gordon, a bawdy Prohibition-era bad girl who, when the Depression strikes, opens the doors of The Venice, the movie theater she runs, to help the down and out. The story is ostensibly based on Mazie’s diary, rediscovered by a documentarian 90 years later, as well as those who remember her. In actu-ality, Attenberg was inspired to write the book by the life of a woman profiled by New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell. (Grand Central)

The Jazz Palace Out earlier this year, but so good it deserves mentioning as a potential gift book, is The Jazz Palace by Mary Morris. Set in Chicago early in the 20th century, the novel features two families, the Lehrmans, who run a small hat factory, and the Chimbrovas, who run a saloon. Both suffer terrible blows—the former the loss of a son in a snowstorm, and the latter, of three boys in the 1915 sinking of the SS East-land, a ferry. Encountering one another on the day of the sinking are Benny Lehrman and Pearl Chimbrova. Later, Benny becomes an accomplished jazz pianist whom Pearl invites to perform at her family’s saloon. Morris beauti-fully evokes the sights and sounds of Chicago’s jazz era, its clubs, musicians, gangsters and famous figures, Louis Armstrong and Al Capone, among them. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

The MuralistB.A. Shapiro also mixes history and invention in her com-pelling new novel. Inspired by historical events in the years leading up to World War II, the novel features as its fic-tional protagonists the Danielle Abrams, who lives in the present and works for Christie’s auction house, and her great-aunt Alizée Benoit, a gifted young American Jewish artist painting murals for the WPA in New York City, who has been missing since 1940. Alizée’s circle of friends and colleagues include such artists as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner and William de Kooning. Struggling to define herself as an abstract artist at the same time as she is working to obtain visas for her family living in Nazi-occupied France, she meets and is befriended by El-eanor Roosevelt. The First Lady offers help, but Alizée also comes up against the powerful isolationists Charles Lind-bergh, Joe Kennedy and Breckinridge Long. Suddenly, she disappears, and isn’t seen again. Shapiro is also the author of the bestselling novel, The Art Forger. (Algonquin)

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