Savor menu. COURTESY OF SARAH AROESTE There’s a certain kind of magic in the perfect melding of food and music that creates our most enduring memories. Think homemade challah and the zemirot sung around the Shabbat table, or “Happy Birthday to You” with a favorite cake. Those special moments are what inspired singer-songwriter Sarah Aroeste and chef Susan Barocas to create the multimedia, multifaceted project Savor: A Sephardic Food and Music Experience. The modest title, which means taste or flavor in Ladino, belies this rich portal into a world that explores Sephardi culture through classic ..read more

Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF VOTING MEMBERS To the Voting Members of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (“HWZOA”): PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that an annual meeting of the voting members of HWZOA will be held at the Sheraton Grand Chicago located at 301 E North Water Street, Chicago, IL 60611. The meeting will be held on Monday, July 10, 2023, at 11:00 am – 1:00 P.M. CT for the purposes of (I) reviewing the annual financial report of HWZOA, (II) adopting amendments to HWZOA’s Constitution, (III) electing 1 National Pre ..read more

Join us on Wednesday, July 19 at 7 PM ET as Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein explores the rise and influence of TikTok—the social media short-video platform favored by the millennial and Gen-Z generations—and how Jewish women are harnessing its reach to spread messages of religious identity and tolerance as well as to challenge antisemitism. The discussion will feature Miriam Ezagui, an Orthodox labor and delivery room nurse who, with over 1.6 million followers, is one of TikTok‘s most popular and prominent Jewish content creators, and other top influencers ..read more

Gilad Shalit (left) and Anne Frank. /WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; Oded Israeli 2009/FLICKR Many of us have seen parents or grandparents live into their nineties. And though the end of life is often hard, I think most would agree that the great leap forward in human lifespans over the past century has been a blessing. But sometimes an observable reality—like longevity—collides with a sudden discovery, leaving us in search of meaning. That’s how I felt when I noticed that Anne Frank would have turned 94 this month, on June 12. Had she survived World War II, the Jewish girl whose courage, insight and death ..read more

Guest houses in Kibbutz Ketura. /Dr. Avishai Teicher Pikiwiki Israel Kibbutz Ketura was founded in November 1973, just after the Yom Kippur War, by a group of Young Judaea alumni following their Year Course experience. Four of those founders still live there. Today, Ketura has approximately 180 members—over 30 of them Young Judaea alumnae—and is home to sophisticated sustainable-technology businesses as well as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Since its inception, the collective has welcomed temporary residents, many of them while participating in Young Judaea’s summer in Israel ..read more

Kibbutz Ketura was founded in November 1973, just after the Yom Kippur War, by a group of Young Judaea alumni following their Year Course experience. Four of those founders still live there. Today, Ketura has approximately 180 members—over 30 of them Young Judaea alumnae—and is home to sophisticated sustainable-technology businesses as well as the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. Since its inception, the collective has welcomed temporary residents, many of them while participating in Young Judaea’s summer in Israel or Year Course program. As many of these recollections submitted by p ..read more

Pow! Right in the Eye! Behind the Scenes of Modern French PaintingBy Berthe Weill. Translated by William Rodarmor (University of Chicago Press) Berthe Weill was a prickly Jewish Parisienne who suffered no fools and had an extraordinary eye for contemporary art. “I have a difficult personality,” the art gallerist wrote about herself in her 1933 memoir, Pow! Right in the Eye!, recently published in English for the first time. Her claim met no opposition. Picasso biographer John Richardson described Weill, a critical character in the Spanish painter’s life, as a peppery and “homely Jewish spinst ..read more

The Marriage Box By Corie Adjmi (She Writes Press) A foray into the world of Syrian Jews in America, The Marriage Box is a welcome change from the Ashkenazi context in many books written about the American Jewish experience. Author Corie Adjmi has mined her own Syrian Jewish upbringing for this debut novel; her previous book was the award-winning collection of short stories, Life and Other Shortcomings. Readers first meet Cassandra “Casey” Cohen as a secular Jewish 16-year-old living in 1970s New Orleans. When the rebellious teen starts hanging out with the wrong crowd, her parents decide to ..read more

SHUTTERSTOCK COVID-19, like other infectious diseases, affects more men than women. Women, however, are at higher risk than men for autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Autism is more common among men, while Alzheimer’s and other neurological degenerative diseases are more common in women. The list of differences between men and women around health and disease is a long one. “Gender should be central to personalizing health decisions and administering health care,” said Dr. Ithai Waldhorn. His doctoral research at the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Sidn ..read more

COURTESY OF ONE2ONE Emily Torkiya, a 15-year-old Jewish Texan, was preparing to visit Israel on a teen tour and wanted an insider’s view. Maya Halahmi, a 16-year-old Jerusalemite, was curious about America and needed to practice English. They met last year on Zoom, trading weekly insights into their respective worlds 7,000 miles apart. “I learned about Texas, and since Emily trains her friends at the gym, she helped me improve my workout,” said Halahmi. “I taught Emily Hebrew slang. And her dad asked me about the army.” Halahmi and Torkiya are among the 8,000 American and Israeli Jewish high s ..read more