JTA’s review for the book follows:

Eight Fairy Nights
Imagined and illustrated by Bub
BookBaby; ages 4-8
Penny Schwartz
Bub’s unique Hanukkah story introduces young kids to a fairytale version of the Hanukkah story and the Maccabees — who are lauded for their courage. Readers then meet eight fairies with eight virtues, one for each night. The book captures Bub’s enthusiasm for celebrating Hanukkah, and her weakness for riddles.
Without referencing God’s hand in the Hanukkah miracle, Eight Fairy Nights may be especially appealing to secular and humanist Jews.

Reviewed by Nili Belkin

In Here’s To The Ladies, Eddie Shapiro interviews 20 award-winning actresses. His style is open, honest, and gently invasive, allowing his interviewee to provide information that anyone else may have failed to access. Readers become privy to secrets, gossip, spats, and reminiscences, making them feel as if present and participating with him during the interview process.

Each interview begins with a short history detailing the actress’s education and rise to stardom. This is a diverse group, ranging from Charlotte d’Amboise, who grew up in the New York City Ballet, to Portsmouth native Adrienne Warren, who turned to musical theater after sustaining an injury that eliminated her basketball future. Mary Beth Peil transitions from opera to musical theater, and Stephanie J. Block gets her theatrical start playing roles in SoCal theme parks.  Each shares insight into her hard work, self-doubt, and successes. 

Shapiro begins the book with an interview with the now-deceased Barbara Cook.  He joins her in her New York apartment, setting the tone of cozy reminiscing for the rest of the book. Shapiro and Cook discuss her rise in the theater to starring roles in classics Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man, as well as her transition to cabaret and concert performer later in life. She dishes on past work experiences: leaving the London production of Carrie, predicting “this is going to be a phenomenal failure.”  But, later in the interview, stating that Betty Buckley (who replaced her) “was very good for it (the role).” Cook also relates a decline in prime roles because “I was too fat,” so, as with many of the women in this book, she changed her focus to continue her successful career.   

Filled with tales of queens, princesses, cheerleaders, and rock stars, stories of friendship, loss, and grief are interwoven throughout the book.  Kelli O’Hara cries when speaking of personal loss from the deaths of her friends and co-stars Marin Mazzie and Rebecca Luker.  “They were strong, funny, sweet, good people. And they’re gone.” And Charlotte d’Amboise shares how terrifying it was in 1985 when many on Broadway were dying from AIDS. “Everybody was just terrified.  You got it and you were dead. Fast.”   

Humor and hard work are components of the success these women achieve.  Faith Prince began her career in a church in Lynchburg, Va. About playing Ursala in The Little Mermaid, she says, “I enjoyed scaring children. Who knew?” Heather Headley, who offers a unique approach to the role of the witch in Into the Woods says, “I love The Witch, and she taught me a lot!” Grit is a requirement for achieving their success. Stephanie Block was cast as the first Elphaba in Wicked, working for two years in workshops and development until it was Broadway-bound, when she was replaced by a bigger named star and Block became the understudy.  

The women are open with Shapiro about professional relationships, providing gossip and insight, such as that Leonard Bernstein was “so kind.  And supportive…. Very sexy man.”  Reports on Jerome Robbins stating, “we all felt burnt out.” Claims that Yul Brynner “had my back” and Robert Preston described as “Extraordinarily sexual.”  

Cast and crew relationships are also included.  Their dressers, for example, they say, “become your therapist, your lifesaver. They keep you from going on stage nude.” 

Then there is the exhausting and exhilarating award season. The month-long award season increases demands on stars who are already doing eight shows a week. The tension and excitement grow knowing Tony judges may be in the audience at any time.   

Shapiro clearly adores these women.  His sheer love of music theater shines through the book as he presents a personal introduction to a group of incredible leading ladies from the Broadway stage.  So, sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy this delightful collection of interviews. Reading Here’s To The Ladies is like attending the cast party of the year.   

*The presentation is part of the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival. $10 for JCC members; $14 for non-members.

Learn more and register at JewishVA.org/BookFest. 

In my 56 years, I have been fortunate to meet many people who were a part of history. Sometimes I determined that meeting people who made and are a part of history is profoundly inspiring. Their stories, shaped by resilience and vision, offer invaluable lessons to all who are willing to listen. One such individual was Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat. 

Ambassador Eizenstat’s latest book, The Art of Diplomacy, takes a deep look at the history and complexity of international negotiation and those who live it every day. Reading it brought me back to my meetings with him, and again, I was reminded of his impact. Engaging with the Ambassador both with several of my students and later interviewing him for an international-related podcast, fostered a deeper appreciation for his contributions and motivated me to pursue meaningful change, reminding us that history is crafted by those who dare to act.   

Born in 1943, Eizenstat’s education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Chicago Law School laid the foundation for a multifaceted career that spans law, government, and international diplomacy. 

Among Eizenstat’s many notable accomplishments, he served as Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, where he advocated for American businesses and promoted international trade agreements. He helped bolster the U.S. economy in the 1990s, a period characterized by globalization and increased competition in international markets. Eizenstat’s expertise in trade policy advanced U.S. interests abroad and reinforced the significance of multilateral trade relations.

Eizenstat also impacted how the United States viewed the peace process in the Middle East. In 1997, during remarks at the Doha Economic Conference, he presented a bold new outlook, highlighting the correlation between lasting peace in the region and the liberalization of trade and commerce. Given the current unrest on college campuses concerning economic investment, these words seem almost prophetic. Eizenstat’s insight went beyond the mere notion that the peace process historically limps along from crisis to crisis and sea-change is unattainable. Eizenstat understood that a new dynamic must involve an economic track as well as a diplomatic track. His time in Jordan, Egypt, the West Bank, and Gaza showed him that without peace, there can be no prosperity, but just as importantly, without prosperity and economic opportunity, there can be no peace. 

His influence extended beyond economic policy into the realm of human rights and international justice. As the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, he was instrumental in the creation of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which stands as a testament to his commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and educating future generations about the dangers of intolerance and discrimination. 

To me, his most daring act was to advocate and spearhead negotiations related to Holocaust-era assets during a time when not many people wanted to take that on. He led efforts to resolve claims against Swiss banks for their role in holding the assets of Holocaust victims. His leadership helped facilitate agreements that provided reparations and restitution to survivors and their families, showcasing his dedication to justice and accountability.

This latest book showcases his substantial contributions to academia and public discourse. His writings, including books and countless articles, reflect his deep engagement with issues of public policy, international relations, and human rights. Through these works, he has influenced both scholarly debate and public understanding of complex issues, advocating for principles that align with democracy and human dignity.

Eizenstat continues to serve as a valued advisor with the State Department. His quiet and continued commitment to diplomacy, humanity, and public service reflects a broader understanding of the interconnectedness of global life and the importance of fostering collaboration among all people. 

John Sutton has served in various academic administrative and faculty positions with Virginia Beach City Public Schools for more than 17 years. In 2011, he formed the Foreign Policy Work Group, which brings experts and policymakers in foreign affairs together with high school students to develop a deeper understanding of foreign policy.

*The presentation is part of the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival in partnership with the Jewish CommunityRelations Council of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, Simon Family JCC, and Community Partners’ 14th annual Israel Today series. Learn more and register at JewishVA.org/BookFest. 

The Counterfeit Countess is an unforgettable account of inspiring courage, resilience, and humanity in the face of unspeakable cruelty. This book is a biography of Jewish mathematician Dr. Josephine Janina Spinner Mehlberg, born May 1, 1905, to wealthy Jewish parents in Poland. Mehlberg posed as Catholic aristocrat Countess Janina Suchodolska during World War II and was able to provide welfare services, food, and supplies to prisoners at Majdanek concentration camp using her alias.

 Mehlberg earned her doctorate in 1928 and then met and married a fellow student, Henry, a philosopher, and settled in Lwow (now Lviv), Poland. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the couple fled to Lublin, where a family friend provided them with new identities as Count and Countess Suchodolska. The “Countess” connected with the resistance, provided aid during a typhus epidemic, and negotiated with the camp Commandant, which led to the release of more than 3,000 Catholic Poles.

 The Mehlbergs survived the war and emigrated to Chicago, Illinois. In her memoirs, Mehlberg describes horrific acts and suffering during the war, often asking herself, “What made me go on?… If I did not go on, I would have had no reason to live. I had to live and go on to answer the need.” Her story is a call for tolerance, mercy, and hope – a powerful testament to the acts of a Jewish woman who was one of the best frauds ever.

 The story reveals that Josephine Janina Spinner Mehlberg was a truly remarkable, brilliant, and quickwitted woman. In her words, “There is nothing left to do for those who perished but to remember. And in the way of my ancestors, intone the Kaddish for the dead, and like the real Countess Suchodolska, WE WILL REMEMBER…”

Sherry Lieberman facilitates the JCC Book Club, which meets on the third Monday of the month at the Simon Family JCC. For more information, contact Mia Klein at MKlein@UJFT.org or 757-452-3184. 

*The presentation is part of the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival in partnership with the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. Pre-registration required. Learn more and register at JewishVA.org/BookFest.

The Rabbi Sacks Tidewater Community Book Club continued its journey of Jewish conversation by reviewing The Great Partnership in collaboration with Temple Israel and the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. The second in a planned six-book exploration, The Great Partnership explores the relationship between religion, science, and the search for meaning.

The book begins by explaining why so many view religion and science as incompatible. It then makes a forceful case for why religion matters and directly addresses major challenges to faith.

Contrasting accounts of the world are explored with one narrative describing a universe where random chance overwhelmed massive improbability, resulting in the spontaneous formation of life with ever-increasing complexity. There is no purpose or higher meaning; we simply exist in a brief instant of time along the continuum of infinity. Our actions and thoughts are no more than preprogrammed responses from our genetic code of no moral consequence.

An alternative offers a universe called into being from an entity outside it. Under the laws called nature that are understood as science, Homo sapiens became sentient and endowed with free will to make moral choices that have consequences that endow life with meaning. As Sacks says, “The meaning of the system lies outside the system. Therefore, the meaning of the universe lies outside the universe. That was the revolution of Abrahamic monotheism.”

Science and religion are independent realms that complement each other similarly to both sides of the brain. The left brain supports linear, analytical, and mechanical functions that allow information to be processed. The right brain is more integrative and is a source of empathy and emotion. Sacks argues that Judaism represents a right-brain spirituality transformed by the Greek world through Christianity into a left-brain language that made compatibility with scientific progress difficult to integrate. Sacks makes the case that Judaism in its original form complements scientific advancement without serious theological difficulties. Utilizing classic Jewish sources, he discusses how religious faith is not threatened but may even be strengthened by scientific advances that include the universe’s origins and evolutionary biology. Ultimately, “Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean.”

For some, science alone serves the function of religion. However, science has no space for empathy or to account for human dignity. There is no morality in nature. Moral choice requires understanding the concern of the “other.” Certainly, one does not have to be religious to be ethical. However, Sacks makes a persuasive argument about the risk to morality and relationships needed to sustain a vibrant society when devoid of a noncoercive religious framework. Just as there is bad science, there is bad religion, and Sacks discusses the pitfalls that religion must navigate to remain a force for good.
The search for meaning is made, not discovered, and it is found in the stories told, the prayers said, and the rituals performed. It isn’t necessary to choose between embracing science and pursuing faith.

The next meeting will be in partnership with host Temple Israel at 7255 Granby St in Norfolk. The group will discuss Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence. Participants are encouraged to read the book in advance, but attending without advance reading will still be worth the effort. Is there a better way to start Father’s Day than with some spirited discussion? Join and bring a friend!

For more information or to register, visit JewishVA.org/SacksBookClub or contact Sierra Lautman at SLautman@ujft.org.

Meir Shalev

Am Oved Publishers, 2022

263 pages

Close to one million Israelis live in the United States and Canada. I happen to be one of them. Thus, Don’t Tell Your Brother by veteran and master Israeli author Meir Shalev (born in Nahalal, Israel 1948), whose books have been translated to 26 languages, piqued my interest. The novel’s protagonist, Itamar Diskin, born in 1945 in Jerusalem and myself the same year in Kazakhstan (USSR), lives in Charlottesville, Virginia for 35 years, while I reside in Virginia Beach for the same time, though I arrived in Chicago in 1966. Itamar annually visits his younger brother Boaz and wife Maya in Tel Aviv, and I annually visit my family in Haifa.

The enthralling account focuses on a web of intriguing relationships in an Israeli context. Itamar is single and very handsome as Boaz tells his brother, “Like what mother used to say about you: “’ Itamar is the calf that Abraham offered the angels.’” Itamar is co-owner of a private gym in Charlottesville with his extensive military background as a body-training officer in the IDF’s Air Force, whereas Boaz served as a chief on a submarine. Itamar’s appearance attracts clients, particularly women. His transition from Israel to the States followed traumatic events. His father, Yechiel (also my father’s name), a lawyer and a colorful character, died. Michal, his girlfriend and an ex- Air Force intelligence officer, left him after five good years and five bad weeks that closely resonates with Biblical Joseph’s dream, reflecting the author’s fondness for the Bible.

Though Itamar’s initial plan was to recover and return home to Israel where he was born, grew up, had his family, friends, language, and culture—that did not materialize as is the case with many Israelis—even with some coming here on official Israeli assignments. Apparently, America is too enticing.

Itamar shares in a somewhat confessional, “I wanted to travel in a large and distant country in which I don’t have memories, plans, family.” With a chuckle, he tells his brother Boaz, “For this very purpose America was discovered for me.” He rented a small car, aimlessly traveling to small towns on side roads till arriving in Virginia that was destined to become his home and my own. “The last state journeyed in was Virginia where I was tempted to enter a city named Charlottesville. A small city but larger than the others I had previously visited. I didn’t yet know then how important was that city in the history of the country that would become mine, and I couldn’t imagine how important and good it would be in my own history.”

Michal, Itamar’s past love, introduced him to poetry when joining her for an evening dedicated to Yehuda Amichai (1924–2000) with the famous poet present in the packed hall. Consequently, Itamar was turned on to poetry. I too am fond of Amichai’s popular poems (He received the prestigious Israel Prize for Poetry in 1982), vividly recalling his visit in the early 1970s to Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College where he recited his prosaic and profound poetry in his unassuming manner.

Amichai was born in Germany, immigrated in 1936 at age 12 with his parents to then Palestine and fought as a Palmachnik in the 1948 War of Independence. His generation represented the admired pioneering “Eretz Yisrael Hayafa,” though admittedly it was a “macho” society where poetry and literature generally were reserved for women’s studies. Back then, an Israeli living abroad was derogatorily considered a Yored, one “Going down,” on the verge of a Boged, no less than a traitor. Currently there is hardly an Israeli family that is not represented in the States, now a source of pride attesting perhaps to a normalized society with both a complex past and present while continuing to evolve.

Nowadays moving away from Israel is regarded as simply “leaving” with no criticism attached or a “relocation” spelled in Hebrew letters, one of multiple English words penetrating Hebrew with obviously the failed past attempt to keep Hebrew “pure,” yet with added new Hebrew words and forms. Indeed, American culture’s impact on Israel has been massive. Just as the novel’s protagonist, Itamar, is not in touch with the American Jewish community, so Israeli Americans tend to keep to themselves albeit experiencing a high rate of intermarriage with non-Jews. Curiously and ironically, the entire literary and life legacy of Amichai, once an iconic super-Israeli, is preserved at Yale University.

Meir Shalev’s endearing, rich, and layered Hebrew prose is often expressed in enchanting poetic form such as the following, both celebrating and mourning Itamar’s lost love of Michal—though something precious may be lost in translation: “A branch moving in the wind, for once we slept under the tree. Your glowing face above me. Tiny and happy pebbles penetrated my back: We too are here. Participating. Sorry to be a bit thorny. The tree was excited. Its leaves were humming. The sun dropped off them melted gold.”

Rabbi Dr. Israel Bobrov Zoberman is founder of Temple Lev Tikvah and Honorary Senior Rabbi Scholar at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church, both in Virginia Beach.

Son of Polish Holocaust survivors who met in Siberia, he was born in Chu, Kazakhstan in 1945. He spent his childhood among refugees in Poland, Austria, Germany, and Israel. Rabbi Zoberman grew up in Haifa, Israel and served in the IDF in the 1960s.

He arrived with his family to Israel from France on the boat, Independence on Israel’s first Independence Day in May, 1949.

–Reviewed by Rabbi Israel Zoberman

 Madam—The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age 

 Debby Applegate

 553 pp

 Doubleday, 2021

Frank Sinatra, Walter Winchell, Lucky Luciano, Dorothy Parker, Duke Ellington, Dutch Schultz, Robert Benchley, Desi Arnaz—and likely FDR. This is just a partial list of Jazz Era writers, celebrities, musicians, gangsters, politicians, and other notables who had one thing in common—they were all friends and sometimes clients of Polly Adler, a penniless Jewish immigrant who became the most famous Manhattan madam of the early 20th century.

Polly’s story begins in Yanow, Belarus where Pearl Adler is born sometime around 1900 and raised to be a traditional, Jewish homemaker or balaboosta. In that role, Pearl is expected to run the household and provide her future husband time to study at the local Yeshiva. When Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement becomes untenable due to pogroms and wars, Polly (her Americanized name) travels alone to the U.S. with little more than the clothes on her back.

Although Debby Applegate centers her narrative on Polly’s life, this extensively researched biography provides the reader with a deep dive into one of the most turbulent periods in U.S. history as urbanization, Prohibition, World War I, and women’s suffrage combined to upend traditional American society and morality. If you think the ’60’s impacted American moral standards, wait until you read about the ’20s!

Ironically, Prohibition was a driving force in these changes. Prior to ratification of the 18th Amendment in 1919, New York society was separated by race, religion, profession, and economic status. Prohibition created fabulously wealthy bootleggers and left many ordinary citizens united in their rejection of government-imposed morality. Individuals from all walks of society gathered in speakeasies where artists, writers, musicians, politicians, cops, gangsters, and New Yorkers of all races joined to create new social standards. The resulting ferment gave us flappers, jazz music, expanding drug use, and more publicly open sexuality.

Readers may be surprised to learn that in the first decades of the 19th century, many of the most prominent brothels were run by Jewish women from the old country. At that time, Jews made up roughly 20% of New York City’s population, but Jewish women operated an estimated 50% of the “houses of ill repute.” Applegate theorizes that, “The shtetl tradition of the balaboosta—the cheerful, efficient wife who ran the home and family business while her husband studied Torah—developed in many Jewish women the rare combination of practical financial sense and homey hospitality” needed to run a successful bawdy house.

Because of the nature of Polly’s business and the crude, often sexist and racist language of her era, Madam begins with a warning that some readers may be offended by its content. However, Applegate’s use of the “slanguage” of that time helps immerse the reader in Polly’s world and never comes across as gratuitous.

Occasionally, the narrative bogs down a bit as the author seems compelled to share all the results of her extensive research, though readers will be fascinated by the ongoing parade of fabulous historical characters. Readers will also come away with a deeper understanding of the Jazz Era and an appreciation of the role of the Old World balaboosta in this truly revolutionary period in American history.

Skip Sacks is a native of Norfolk and is Virginia State Counsel for Stewart Title Guaranty Company. Sacks has served as an adjunct professor at ODU and occasionally reviews books to honor the memory of his father, Hal Sacks, who wrote hundreds of book reviews for this publication.

–Reviewed by Skip Sacks

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The Matchmaker’s Gift: A Novel

Linda Cohen Loigman

St. Martin’s Press

320 pages, 2022

Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you believe in soulmates? The Matchmaker’s Gift is a dual-timeline novel about Sara Glikman Auerbach, and her granddaughter, Abby.

Sara is a female matchmaker or shadchanteh on the streets of New York’s Lower East Side in 1910.

It was interesting to learn about Orthodox matchmaking and that there were thousands of Jewish matchmakers or shadchan in New York. Unsurprisingly, the business of matchmaking was a male dominated field, and with Sara having the ability to see flashes at the edge of her vision (showing her that a couple is bashert, or meant to be), we learn the Shadchanim are very threatened by her successful matchmaking.

When Sara dies, her granddaughter, who in a twist of fate is a highly successful Manhattan divorce attorney, inherits her journals in which she recorded a lifetime of matches. As Abby reads the journals, she finds more questions than answers. Is her career right for her?

How could you not fall for a book with a gorgeous cover, home-made cinnamon babkas, a Pickle King, knish wars, soulmates, and a beloved grandmother with a saying for everything?  Will Abby inherit her grandmother’s calling and become a modern-day matchmaker? Readers who enjoy romance with a little magic thrown in and believe that “there is a lid for every pot” will love The Matchmaker’s Gift!

If you love the book as much as I did, or if you want to hear more before you read it, Loigman is one of the speakers for this year’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival, a program of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and Simon Family JCC. Loigman is speaking as part of the festival’s Arts + Ideas Book of the Month series, a collection of conversations surrounding books with intriguing topics, characters, and stories for book-club-style conversations that will allow the community to engage personally with some of this season’s most exciting authors.

Register at JewishVA.org/BookFest. For more information, contact Hunter Thomas, director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org. 

The Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival is held in coordination with the Jewish Book Council, the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature.

–Reviewed by Joan Laderberg

Klezmer for the Joyful Soul

Debbie Burke

Queen Esther Publishing LLC

206 pages; 2021

Debbie Burke, a local author who has written several books on jazz and two novels, published a book last year on klezmer music. In Klezmer for the Joyful Soul, she interviews 30 klezmer musicians, scholars, historians, and cantors about the fascinating art form.

Burke has a great introduction where she discusses her connection to the music through learning about her paternal grandfather and other family members from Lviv. In this book, she sheds light on the creative process, what draws these individuals to klezmer, and how they connect to their Jewishness through the music.

The book is an eye-opener written in a very engaging and conversational style. Readers learn about the use of klezmer in the movies and that the music is not only a phenomenon in Eastern Europe or the U.S.—but rather that it’s performed worldwide and by Jewish and non-Jewish musicians alike. Klezmer for the Joyful Soul is an entertaining and highly recommended read.

For more information, visit https://bit.ly/DebbieBurkeAmazon.

–Reviewed by Terri Denison

Bound In The Bond Of Life

(Pittsburgh Writers Reflect

on the Tree of Life Tragedy)

Edited by Beth Kissileff and Eric Lidji

University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020

242 pages

Rabbi Zoberman

The utterly shocking and deeply unsettling 83-minute attack on Shabbat morning, October 27, 2018, on the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, resulting in the death of 11 worshiping Jews, has been described as the worst antisemitic crime committed on American soil. The book’s title, Bound In The Bond Of Life, is the traditional Jewish memorial response asserting life’s primacy while facing painful death and loss. The moving volume of insightful reflections by a wide array of Pittsburgh writers connects to their own lives’ experiences. It is thoughtfully fitting testimony honoring the memory of the slain who are rightfully placed in the context of the long historical chain of Jewish martyrdom, culminating in the Holocaust and beyond, with the appellation of “Kedoshei Pittsburgh” (Pittsburgh’s Martyrs).

The book’s co-editor Beth Kissileff is married to one of the attack’s survivors, Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of New Light Congregation, which meets at Conservative Tree of Life. She has taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Minnesota, among others, editing, Reading Genesis: Beginnings, along with, Reading Exodus: Journeys.

Kissileff compellingly challenges the reader, “The essays in this volume raise issues and ask tough questions…. Can any of us feel safe again? Did anti- Semitism really not ever go away?—With the anticipation there will be an impetus to think about these issues in a new way and even perhaps act to ameliorate the twin problems of anti-Semitism and gun violence that plague the United States at this moment, as well as the concomitant fear of the immigrant that is said to have impelled the shooter to his brutal action.”

Obviously, these and interrelated issues are complex and beclouded by sectarian politics. Thus, we are not free from tackling them while advocating for remedies that will help prevent similar tragedies in the future, aware of the precipitous rise of antisemitic violent acts in this country and around the world. Surely and sadly, antisemitism, xenophobia, Islamophobia and hate of the Other are deeply seated in American society and elsewhere.

Co-editor Eric Lidji is director of Pittsburgh’s Rau Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center. He is the author of The Seventeenth Generation: The lifework of Rabbi Walter Jacob, and co-editor of Her Deeds Sing Her Praises: Profiles of Pittsburgh Jewish Women. He oversees preserving the October 27, 2018 massacre’s documentation. “In due time, with persistence, I can know just the tiniest bit more. I can know each thing individually. I will be able to describe it, and I will be able to situate it among all the other things in the archive, so that nothing is ever lost or overlooked, so that others can someday make meaning from it all.”

The Jewish experience, including the American Jewish one we have agonizingly discovered, is mixed; tears of joy as well as tears of sorrow with hopefully through prayer and action, the former having the upper hand. Only congregation Tree of Life remains in the building which will be redesigned by famed architect Daniel Libeskind, son of Holocaust survivors, who designed the World Trade Center site following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The remodeled building will memorialize the worst antisemitic violation on American soil, as well as serve the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Quite a confluence of related tragedies!

Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is founder and spiritual leader of Temple Lev Tikvah in Virginia Beach, Virginia.