Back: Living Legacies - A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women

Reviews

Review by Marilyn Herbert
Collection of legacies by Cynthia Ramsay
Jewish Women Writing Their Stories
Review by Doris Strub Epstein
RE - launch of the Volume II
Review by Marilyn Herbert
Review by Cynthia Ramsay
Review by Denise Rootenberg
The Read Head: Hyman and Sandell Greenberg Featured in New Writing Collection
Celebrating Jewish Women from Shalom Life
Launch of revised second edition
Review by Marilyn Herbert
Review by Kirill Popov
Review by Renate Krakauer
Review by Doris Strub Epstein
Review by Cynthia Ramsay

Living Legacies: A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women. Volume III
Reviewed by Marilyn Herbert
Bookclub-in-a-Box
Toronto, ON Canada
January, 2012

When you are on to a good thing, it is wise to keep going. Liz Pearl has not only done that, but maintains the richness in this third volume of Living Legacies. With each book and each personal story, I find myself ever more deeply engrossed in the common themes of identity and relationship.

Many of the stories in Volume One inspired readers from the inside out as they dealt with individual development. In the second book, the stories came more predominantly from the perspective of the generations of women who were confident in their identity and were ready to pass their knowledge along to their daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and friends. In the current collection of stories, many of the tales focus on the connections of women to the outer fabric of their culture and / or religion. An interesting feature of this gathering of thoughts by Canadian Jewish Women is that some were born outside of Canada, yet the "Canadian" part of their Jewish identity is clear in every narrative.

Having spent several years in the United States, Natalie Fingerhut returned to Toronto, completed a Masters degree in History at U. of T and married a nice Canadian Jewish boy, Rob Winters. Her story outlines the life links and lessons given to her by three of the rabbis in her Holy Blossom Temple community. Fingerhut lost her father when she was 12 years old and Rabbis Garten, Plaut and Moscowitz stepped into the shoes of role-model and advocate. They were not fazed by her independence, her feistiness and her inclination towards rebellion. They demonstrated patience and affection and slowly, but firmly, directed her along a positive life path. Fingerhut successfully dealt with the overshadowing loss of her father through the help of these fatherly stand-ins. She learned that no one needs to stand alone; one only needs to accept help when it is given. That is the strength of the Jewish community at large.

Born to Iraqi-Jewish parents in India, Diana Mingail grew up in Calcutta and came to Canada in 1956. War touched her family even in India where, for Mingail, the immediate situation to worry about were the Japanese bombs falling on their neighborhood. In contrast, it was through her father's tears that she learned about the world's mistreatment of Jews. He cried in front of her on two occasions: once when he learned about the devastation of European Jewry; the second, and more personal time, was when Iraqi mobs were attacking, maiming and killing Jews, destroying their properties and businesses in the process. Mingail learned that pain and sorrow can accompany joy and happiness; that it is okay to cry. She also learned that being Jewish connects you to a wider, even global, community with many shared links.

Rachel Adelman was born in Toronto, but her life journey played itself out in Israel and the United States. Using the braiding of a challah as a metaphor for her own and her family's life, she speaks about the intertwining of family, of stories, and of food. She quotes from the Torah, saying that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."(Deut. 8:3) There is much implied wisdom in this passage and in Adelman's story. Our experiences, our emotions, our knowledge all come together to form a new being - the self. Although Adelman's story, Not by Bread Alone, opens this volume of Living Legacies, Adelman (and Pearl) offer last words by which we live and act.

But words and deeds can also stab and wound, as Elaine Blackstien, a native of St. Catharines, Ontario discovered at the tender age of four, when one of her cousins told his mother in a loud stage whisper that Elaine was "stupid and ugly". While children are often direct in what they think, they are rarely aware of the impact of their words because they often test their environment. For Elaine, the shock of her cousin's words reverberated for decades. What haunted her was not even remembered by this cousin. As Elaine says, "the pain has faded over the years, but when I think of that day, the memory still hurts." Nothing ever truly disappears; it may only change direction.

Born Jewish, Robin Stone changed direction and married a non-Jewish man with whom she has two children. She grew up in a secular family and so Robin did not especially connect with her Jewishness until her oldest child was enrolled in a Jewish nursery school, located inside a synagogue. When Robin was 19, she had an unfortunate experience with a Jewish man who had hired her to write a "holiday" poem for his store. Claiming kinship because they were both Jewish, he tried to cheat Robin out of payment. For Robin, it marked the immersion into a world of distrust.

The effect of that incident coloured Robin's interactions with other Jews with whom she worked, but the pull of a mutual background later affected her in the opposite way. A kindly Jewish store-owner named Moshe counteracted her feeling of "imposter syndrome" by simply and honestly responding to her as a Jew and a human being. Her initially conflicted emotions changed to encompass the boundaries of her Jewish Bathurst St. neighbourhood. She has now grown confident of all segments of her persona, even the Jewish part.

Speaking to the pull and power of a community environment, award-winning writer Robin McGrath, talks about being the only Jew in Goose Bay, Labrador. She begins her story recounting a conversation with a rabbi who once told her that a good Jew would never live so far away from other Jews as to prevent the gathering of an informal "havurah" or even a minyan. McGrath grew up in St. John's Newfoundland, where the small Jewish community always found place to accommodate Jewish men or women who found themselves in Goose Bay or other isolated parts of Labrador and the Maritimes over the Jewish holidays.

What McGrath has done with her solitary Jewish experience in Goose Bay is create a Jewish world for herself in the midst of a community that has other long-standing traditions. She sees how her Innu neighbours derive strength from their inner spiritual and moral values, their historical concepts and skills, and their sense of family and independence. They are fighting to retain their uniqueness against all odds. As McGrath hints, this is what Jews have also done for millennia, and so she relies on herself to continue being a Jew, by lighting Shabbat candles, making a Pesach Seder table, baking hamentashen and reading Megillat Esther at Purim.

Mazel tov, Liz Pearl, on another project well done. The stories will continue to emerge from the mouths and minds of other Canadian Jewish women and I look forward to future volumes.

Collection of legacies
Cynthis Ramsay
Jewish Independent, December 30, 2011

Each story is a glimpse into the writer’s life, a personal account that reinforces the universality of the human endeavor. We all have had people who have impacted our lives, we all have had at least one life-altering moment, we all have hope that the next generations will create a better world – and we all feel comforted in knowing that we are not alone in what challenges or inspires us.

In the introduction to the third volume of Living Legacies: A Collection of Writing by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women (PK Press, 2011), editor Liz Pearl – a Toronto-based educator and therapist specializing in psychogeriatrics and expressive arts therapy – writes: “At previous book launches and readings, I have said that, among the rewards of producing this collection has been the expansion of my sisterhood. As volumes are added to the collection and the sisterhood grows, I have enjoyed the ripple effect. I am always amazed when I discover new connections and experiences emanating from Living Legacies. Some dividends include invitations to readings, book launches, community gatherings and special events hosted by contributing authors. Several women have been motivated to publish their memoirs; others have pursued legacy writing and preservation beyond this collection. Some women have invited me to share their milestones inspired by Living Legacies. Many women include me in their lives and we continue our exchange of blessings and wisdom.”

In the third volume of the series, which Pearl began in 2007, her sisterhood expands by more than 30 contributors, including four women with connections to the B.C. Jewish community: Dr. Shelley Halpern Evans, Shoshana Litman, Dale Adams Segal and Helen Waldstein Wilkes.

In “Food and Family,” Halpern Evans begins with memories of her grandmother’s cooking and baking – and the Israeli candies she always carried in her housedress pockets – moves to related recollections of her parents and her husband, before concluding with a hope for their three children: “Food is what sustains us, the hands that prepare it caress us, the colors and fragrances seduce us, and the warmth and tastes comfort us. And so, daughters and sons of the future: choose wisely. Savor the tastes on your tongues, they are fleeting – the hands holding yours, the fingers chopping and cutting and tenderly stewing the food, are the gentle hands that hold you for life. For dear life.”

Litman shares the story of an especially moving and holy Shabbat in Brooklyn with Aliza and Shlomo Teichman, a result of which, she writes, is that “heaven becomes easier to see wherever I am.” Aliza Teichman was previously married to Rabbi Pinchus (Pinky) Bak, and they lived in Vancouver for four years, writes Litman, before they and their children moved to New Jersey. Soon afterward, during a Purim celebration, the rabbi had a massive heart attack and died: “The following year, on Pinky’s Yahrzeit, Aliza donned a clown nose and took her family [five children] to a Purim party, determined that her children would grow up with more joy than sorrow.”

Adams Segal starts her contribution with the fact that she has been creating prayers her whole life: “At a very young age, perhaps eight or nine years old, I would wake each morning and simply say from my heart what words were there.” This practice of gratitude would serve her well in a family whose members were less clear about their faith and throughout the many ups and down of life. The act of writing prayers, she says, “has brought to me its own goodness, that is, the gift of being deeply alive right here, right now, and the knowing that we are not alone, not ever alone.”

Waldstein Wilkes, on the other hand, growing up in Ontario, had only ever experienced her Jewishness as a negative: “I progressed from a childhood where playmates taunted me as a ‘Christ-killer’ to a high school where classmates identified me as ‘the heartless Shylock’ to a young adult who knew that her presence at ‘restricted’ resorts and clubs across the country was unwelcome.” However, “[a]bout 15 years ago, quite by accident, I found myself seated across a lunch table from a rabbi who invited me to check out a Shabbat service.... The largely Hebrew service struck me as quite foreign until the congregants began to chant that ancient but to me unfamiliar call to prayer known as the Barchu.... I began to weep. Something deep inside me had been touched, and I knew that I had indeed come home.” She then goes on to share how that moment changed her outlook and her life, ending with the hope that the wisdom she has gained will allow her to be a role model for her children and grandchildren.

Jewish Women Writing Their Stories
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Harry Van Bommel, Canada 150 Blog

Don't you just love it when you find someone who shares your love of a good story? Liz Pearl is such a person. Over nearly a decade of work, Liz has helped women record their stories for publication. Her work is a wonderful example of what is possible in all sorts of disciplines.

From York University's website: http://at.yorku.ca/pk/ll.htm, we learned that Liz Pearl is an educator and therapist specializing in psychogeriatrics and the expressive art therapies. She is the co-editor of Mourning Has Broken - A Collection of Creative Writing about Grief and Healing (KOPE Associates, 2004, 2007) and the editor of Brain Attack - The Journey Back - A Unique Collection of Creative Writing about Stroke Recovery (KOPE Associates, 2005) and Living Legacies - A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women (PK Press, 2007, 2008).

Her latest editing work is a volume in the ongoing collection of original creative nonfiction written by inspirational contemporary Canadian Jewish Women. "The authors include a diverse range of Canadian Jewish women from across the country. Each author has a unique voice with a meaningful message to share. This anthology includes mini-memoirs, essays and poetry"

Liz provides us a template of similar kinds of work that is possible with any group of people interested in sharing their stories with their descendants and the general public. Inspiration is only a story away whether in book form, audio-visual or personal.

MORE PEARLS OF WISDOM; LIVING LEGACIES VOLUME II
Shalom Toronto
January 6, 2011
Doris Strub Epstein

Just launched a few months ago, Living Legacies by Liz Pearl, is the second volume of the innermost thoughts and feelings of Jewish women from across Canada. This is not about the rich and famous - the anthology comes from a diverse range of ages - from 15 up - socio-economic backgrounds and professions. It includes those who are affiliated, unaffiliated, converted, immigrants and expatriates. It takes the form deeply intimate essays, poems and memoirs. They write about their lives, what gives them meaning, what they have learned and the people that shaped them. "This new volume is more about the messages and legacy writing than about profiling of any kind," says author Liz Pearl.

Ina Fichman, film producer, writing in the forward of the book says, "We don't need to open our TV sets or buy glossy magazines to find inspiration...our most profound life lessons can come from our mothers, sisters, girlfriends, children, and yes, ourselves."

To whet your appetite, here are a few samples from the book.

In "A Jew by Choice," Anna Gersman, a convert to Judaism from Newmarket, who was raised as an atheist, talks about this journey. "It is not easy to convert from nothing, to construct a religious life without a solid foundation set in childhood."

History professor, child of survivors Monda Halpern from Hamilton, writes about her trip to Germany. "Despite wonderful times on the trip, I simply couldn't let go of Germany's historical baggage. Perhaps this makes it more my baggage than Germany's, but I'm fine with that - indifference about the past is far more contemptible. So while I hope that on a future trip to Germany my baggage might be a little lighter, never do I hope to leave it behind."

After years of infertility and many miscarriages, Lenore Goldfarb had two children by a surrogate. But she wanted to breastfeed them, just as her mother, and her mother's mother did. Together with Dr. Jack Newman an international breast feeding expert and advocate, they devised a never before attempted method to induce lactation. Later she improved upon it and developed the Newman-Goldfarb Protocols for Induced Lactation. "No matter what I have achieved, or may undertake in the future, finding a way to bring my sons into the world and breastfeed them with my own milk supply have been the greatest accomplishments of my life," she writes.

In "Confessions of a Shul Going Atheist" Mira Sucharov in the years following her bat mitzvah in Winnipeg, expressed her Judaism in Israeli politics and culture rather than in ritual practice. In her 20's she spent time in Israel and "adopted the atheistic swagger of many secular Israelis. ...God was for the right wing extremists and the working class traditionalists. I preferred to stay smug and aloof, dancing to Shalom Hanoch's l985 hit single "The Messiah's Not Coming." But when she attended High Holiday services in a shul with her husband and son and daughter .my atheist soul experienced a sense of elation." She recently enjoyed her first aliyah at shul.

Since l999, Montrealer Bluma Teram has been working with older persons, their families and communities in rural western Kenya. She claims her Jewish heritage is a driving force for her commitment. "The connection between the Kenyan women with whom I work and Jewish women throughout the world, is that they are the keepers of history, values and tradition, and they are the bearers of the future."

"The creation of this book has been a meaningful integration of personal goals and professional ambitions," writes Pearl. "The process has enabled me to look backward and forward and yet remain focused on the present." Born in Montreal, she lives in Toronto with her husband and three children. An educator and therapist specializing in psychogeriatrics and the expressive art therapies, she is currently working on Volume III, which will include approximately 40 new Canadian Jewish women not previously included in the Living Legacies series. The new volume will be launched in late 2011.

And finally - she quotes, "a book gives knowledge, but it is life that gives understanding." Living Legacies takes you inside the lives of these women. It is engrossing, honest and thoroughly engaging.

SIDEBAR

Liz's top ten Pearls
Family first
Never say never
Love thy neighbour
Give peace a chance
Honour your parents
Variety is the spice of life
Wisdom is a fountain of life
United we stand, divided we fall
If I am not for myself, who is for me?
When one door closes, another one opens

The RE - launch of the Volume II of Living Legacies - A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women (PK Press, 2010) was hosted by Israel's Judaica Centre in Toronto on October 21^st, 2010. The event included an introduction about the genesis of the publication by Liz Pearl, the editor of the book, followed by six unique presentations by contributing authors.

The evening began with a musical presentation by cantorial soloist Lindi Rivers. The audience enjoyed an intimate performance of songs from her recently released CD Lazman Hazeh.

Laya Crust described her artistic vision and style of creating unique ketubot and distinctive Jewish ceremonial objects.

Carol Katz travelled from Montreal to read from her chapter "Zaidie and Ferdele" about her childhood relationship with her grandfather.

Ellen F. Jaffee from Hamilton dedicated her reading to the memory of her mother. She read a selection of poems from her chapter "The Way Women Move".

Judy Librach read from her chapter, a heart-warming letter "To my Grandmother with Love" describing her lifelong loving relationship with her grandmother.

The evening concluded with Yiddidh iz Mayn Loshn, an entertaining Yiddish musical performance by Honey Novick.

The contributing authors and editor enjoyed a casual opportunity to mingle with fellow bibliophiles.

Liz Pearl

Laya Crust

Carol Katz

Ellen F. Jaffe

Lindi Rivers

Honey Novick

Living Legacies: A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women. Volume II
Edited by Liz Pearl. Toronto: PK Press, 2010.
Reviewed by Marilyn Herbert
Bookclub-in-a-Box. Toronto, ON Canada
October, 2010

Review

Published in Women In Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Engaging nonfiction reading
Cynthia Ramsay
September 3, 2010, Jewish Independent

'Living Legacies' inspires
Denise Rootenberg
July 21, 2010, Jewish Tribune

The Read Head: Hyman and Sandell Greenberg Featured in New Writing Collection
Sharon Chisvin
June 2010, WinnipegJewishReview.com

Celebrating Jewish Women
June 9, 2009
Shalom Life

In "Living Legacies: A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women," the gist of the book is in its title.

It's a collection of writing by inspirational Canadian Jewish women from around the country. The authors range in age and experience, and they each have a unique voice with a different message to share.

Predominant themes in the book include values, beliefs and issues of identity. All of these themes are manifested in the context of gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, familiy, education, career and community. Although Living Legacies consists mostly of memoirs and essays, the book also features letters and poetry.

The publication was edited by Liz Pearl, an independent educator and therapist specializing in expressive arts therapies, and includes a foreword by Ina Fichman, founder of Instinct Films.

"Living Legacies" is now in its second edition, in celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary. The book includes all of its original content, with the addition of 12 new contributing authors. Pearl decided to include 60 contributors to represent her personal connection to Israel and hopes to share it with the Jewish community of Canada.

The book is currently available at Israel's "The Judaica Centre."

The launch of the REVISED SECOND EDITION of Living Legacies - A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women (PK Press, 2008) was hosted by Israel's Judaica Centre in Toronto on Wednesday, March 25th 2009. The event included an introduction about the genesis of the publication by Liz Pearl, the editor of the book, followed by five unique presentations by local contributing authors.

Bess Benevoy, Liz Pearl, Judith Wiley, Dr. Karen Mock

Dr. Judith Cohen, ethnomusicologist, educator and performer welcomed the audience with her beautiful singing in Ladino.

Dr. Renate Krakauer, child Holocaust survivor, read from her chapter "My Mother, My Role Model" a touching tribute to mother who passed away since the time of publication. Renate has another autobiographical story soon to be released in April, as part of the Azrieli Foundation's Holocaust Memoirs Program - series II. The volume contains her story, "A Happy Childhood" together with her father's story, "Memories from the Abyss".

Tilda Shalof, veteran critical care nurse and bestselling author of A Nurse's Story ((McClelland & Stewart, 2004) and The Making of a Nurse (McClelland and Stewart, 2007) spoke with passion about her personal and professional "Legacy of Caregiving". Tilda's third book, Hey Nurse! My Adventures at Summer Camp will be released in Spring, 2009.

Judith Wiley is the Director of Wiley & Associates, a consulting firm specializing in governance training for the non profit and charitable sector. Judith read form her excerpt "Serendipity", describing a range of experiences and how she was influenced by several key role models.

Dr. Karen Mock

Dr. Karen Mock, President of Canadian Friends of Haifa University, most recently was Senior Policy Advisor on Diversity and Equity to the Ontario Minister of Education. Dr. Mock is the former National Director of the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada. To conclude the evening, Karen presented her legacy of "Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice". In her essay, Karen outlined how eight key characteristics have informed her work and her relationships.

The Living Legacies - Revised Second Edition, contains in total - 60 authors to commemorate Israel @ 60 years. The editor chose to include 60 contributors as a representation of her personal connection, as well as the Canadian Jewish community's collective bond with the State of Israel. The book includes a foreword by Ina Fichman, Founder of Instinct Films.

The book is available for sale at Israel's The Judaica Centre. For more information contact the editor liz_pearl@sympatico.ca.

Living Legacies by Liz Pearl
Reviewed by: Marilyn Herbert
Bookclub-in-a-Box
www.bookclubinabox.com
March, 2008

Published in Women In Judaism: A Multidisciplinary Journal

Living Legacies, a Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, is an impressive anthology. Liz Pearl has researched and organized the views and hopes of women across the country, reaching deeply into their inner thoughts and beliefs. Their willingness to share their personal reflections is Pearl's gift to us, the readers. Each story, with its vibrant energy, becomes a connecting link in a chain of legacy that feels alive and relevant. The book is organized into easily accessible sections with interesting biographical information about each contributor at the end of her piece.

I don't know if children still play the game Follow The Leader, and maybe I'm dating myself, but in reading this wonderful collection of stories, notes, and anecdotes, I am reminded of this past-time. The rules of the game are quite simple. there is one person at the head of a line steering the human column in a variety of directions, while everyone tries to stay on track. Every once in a while, the game begins anew with a fresh leader.

This is what living legacies do - like the leader, they steer, inspire, challenge, and encourage those in the group to follow the lines of their lives in as many positive, engaging, and energizing ways as possible. There are multiple routes to take, never just one. And as participants, we can be a leader or a follower at any time. A legacy is meant for us to give as well as inherit.

In her book, Pearl has gathered a number of leaders and followers to fill this collection with motivating stories of lives lived and cherished. Parents, children, teachers, students, spiritual leaders and other professionals, each have a personal story to tell. And just like the game, every story has a singular message. Until we read through the entire book, we won't know which one will touch us where it counts - in the heart and in the soul.

Several stories stand out.

In Dear Thirteen-Year-Old-Sarah, Sarah Zelcer writes to her past self from her present self. As a thirty-year old woman, she sees how far she has come over seventeen years. In this unique piece, Sarah addresses fears and concerns shared by many teenagers who are on the cusp of adolescence and who still have many hats of identity to try on until they discover which ones fit best. Looking into the future can be as scary as blindly following a leader, especially if you are near the end of the line and cannot see the captain. Sarah underscores reassurance and excitement in her journey and tells us that it is "OK not to know. It is so good to explore ... the journey that lies ahead." Sarah signs off with the possibility of revisiting her present self thirty years from now. Until then, Sarah has prepared an intriguing trail of enthusiasm and eagerness for the future. This is a good gift to give to the young.

It is, of course, hard to find a silver lining in any Holocaust-related experience, but if anyone can turn such a devastating event into a call for moral and ethical action, Judy Weissenberg Cohen seems to be that person. In her story, From Death March to Liberation and Beyond, she describes how she came alone to Auschwitz. Without the support of family beside her, she instinctively knew that her imminent survival would depend on an interactive "we" factor. In the absence of her own biological sisters, she asked two other women (who were in fact sisters) to adopt her into their circle. The three looked after each other, knowing that togetherness and mutual assistance was a vital key to outlasting the horror of that time. And so, they managed to survive.

But life's road is not straight and there are potholes along the way that a good leader cannot always see or avoid. Coming to Canada and raising a family should have been a calm and quiet reward for enduring the war's atrocities, but Judy has found that hatred follows its own route and has no respect for boundary lines. A confrontation with a neo-Nazi group infused her with a need for action. "A new purpose filled my life. To teach younger generations about what the ultimate result of blind hatred was and still is." The legacy that Judy offers is as old as Judaism itself and is based on the principle of tikun olam, the process of mending the world. If Judy can lead many followers, or even just one, down that road of repair, then she will have successfully built a new and stronger model of "we". By attaching her personal efforts to the efforts of others, she teaches that, after all, we are the world. We are a group, as well as individuals. Judy exemplifies the power of one and the power of many, simultaneously.

The sub-title of Pearl's book, A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, seems more directed to an audience of women, rather than to men. This is not a bad thing, only a perceptible bias in this bank of stories. In her anecdote, Amy Sky tells how she set Maya Angelou's poem, Phenomenal Woman, to music. She describes the forbidding task of first asking Angelou for permission and then, the even more daunting mission, of writing music that would best express the poem's amazing sense of empowerment. Sky declares that she was immediately transported back into a very common female territory that includes self-doubt, self-criticism, and a lack of confidence. She was initially frightened, but then mesmerized, by Angelou's words:

I'm a woman
Phenomenal woman
Baby that's me

Girls are too often taught to create unassuming, humble, unpretentious personas for themselves, and at the same time, to perfect their physical appearances in order to get ahead socially and professionally. This is a very familiar part of my growing up years. Therefore, it is surprising to read how Amy Sky, a new talent, a young slender, and physically lovely woman, felt intimidated by the elder, unpretentious, physically robust and extraordinarily famous, Maya Angelou. Suddenly, everything that the young Amy valued about herself created great anxiety. She began to wonder not how Angelou had the "chutzpah", the boldness, to call herself a phenomenal woman, but why she, Amy Sky, could not regard herself in the same way.

The story has a happy ending: Sky's music has taken Angelou's poem to new heights and to new audiences. What Sky learned, and is now passing on, is that "living your life with humour, respect, compassion, and above all, self love ... creates the energy that draws people to you." This is a wonderful birthright to bestow on every young girl, and it counters the current culture of physical obsession. But here is my thought: Sky's story touched me deeply as a woman, but as the mother of a son, as well as two daughters, I began to wish for a collection of wisdom aimed at boys and young men. It would be interesting to know what thoughts and links the other half of our population considers significant enough to pass on to one another. Like our women, men also need to absorb and benefit from the wisdom of father to son, brother to brother.

"Life never works out the way it is planned" are the words Ellen Schwartz includes in Eyes Wide Open, her piece about her son, Jacob. Sharon Trostin Hampson, who wrote My Journey ... with Detours, Adventures and Adversity, would agree. Both women learned the hard way that life is not always a fair leader and that, in times of trouble and difficulty, it may be best to find a way to change direction, by changing attitude.

Schwartz' son was born with a neurodegenerative disease and requires round-the-clock care and multiple treatments. Although she is immersed in Jacob's physical care, and has the responsibility of nurturing her relationships with her other children and husband, Schwartz still finds the time to write, to speak, and to run the charitable foundation she created in Jacob's name, Jacob's Ladder. Schwartz is a teacher who has learned the most important of life's lessons from her son - "to take a situation, any situation and make it positive." This is what she chooses to transmit to her children and to others, knowing that this skill would make it easier for everyone to follow where life leads them. This is the legacy she would like to pass along.

Well-known for her inspirational role in the musical troupe Sharon, Lois, and Bram, Sharon Hampson has already shown countless generations of children the way to sing through their joys and troubles. But Hampson, like Ellen Schwartz, has had to learn how to face life's obstacles and roll with the punches. "The test is not how we deal with [trouble], but that we deal with it. If we don't it is impossible to move forward."

And moving forward is what Hampson has always been determined to do. Early on in her life, she took a chance on a career in music (a direction that many Jewish parents would not confidently encourage) and she took another chance on marriage (Joe Hampson was fifteen years older than Sharon and had already had another marriage and a child.) But life is all about taking risks and about trusting yourself to be your own leader. Despite all her successes and pleasures, Hampson has been diagnosed with breast cancer three times. Also during this time, she lost her life's companion, her husband Joe to another form of the dread disease. But, as Hampson says, it is vital to keep following the leader and carry on with your life. She is gratified to be surrounded by loving family and to be well. And so, her journey continues.

And that is the lovely thing about legacy - it keeps on going and it keeps on giving, across the generations, in and among friends and family, even in the presence of strangers. Although we may think of legacy as something old handed down to a new generation, it may be more appropriate to look at the old ideas of inheritance in new ways. Things that are left to us are not only hands-on-possessions, but may simply be a bridge of endowment that links generation to generation. It is a baton used personally and then handed over to a new leader in the game. Each contributor in Pearl's book bestows her special and individual baton of legacy.

Reading this book is a pleasure that keeps on giving and is meant to be re-read and revisited often. As I said earlier, we never know which of the wonderful legacies Pearl has presented to us will touch us at just the right time and place.

Reviewed by Kirill Popov
Founder, Jewish Ottawa South
March, 2008
www.jewishottawasouth.com

Living Legacies - A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women. This unique anthology, edited by Liz Pearl with a forward by Ina Fichman, showcases the writings of more than 45 of Canada's outstanding female Jewish role models. It offers a wide range of female authors and thinkers whose inspirational writings show the vibrancy of our Jewish community. As you read these short stories, it is difficult to put the book down, yet you feel the need to pause and reflect on each one. The compilation takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions, at times invoking strong feelings of joy and sadness. This book would make a wonderful gift and is a must for every Jewish library.

Living Legacies: A collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, researched and edited by Liz Pearl and published in December 2007, deserves to be read not only because of its wonderful stories but also because it includes four Darchei Noam members: Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, Lenka Lichtenstein, Elaine Todres, and Renate Krakauer. The stories, essays and poems cover a wide range of topics such as memorable moments from the past and concern for the future, family life and career/professional/volunteer paths, as well as hardships overcome and opportunities fulfilled. These women exemplify how Jewish women throughout the ages have been links in a chain of Jewish continuity. They write about loving relationships with parents, their pride and hopes for the next generation, and their engagement with the Jewish community. Intended as a book of wisdom and advice for young Jewish women, it is a book that can be enjoyed by both male and female readers of all ages.

Renate Krakauer
Ner Noam
Darchei Noam Newsletter
April 2008
www.darcheinoam.on.ca

Reviewed by Doris Strub Epstein
depstein@rogers.com
Shalom Toronto
www.shalomtorontonews.com
April, 2008

CANADIAN, JEWISH AND FEMALE; PEARLS OF WISDOM

In this wide ranging anthology, titled Living Legacies: A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, 49 women ages 16 to 84 from across Canada, write about their core values and beliefs and what gives their lives meaning. They reflect on the lessons learned and the people that helped shape them. What connects them all is their relationship with Judaism and Israel.

Through deeply intimate essays, poems, memoirs and letters, they transmit the essence of what they have learned to be true and vital, especially with an eye to the next generation. They have strong and passionate opinions about what we should cherish and prioritize.

Researched and edited by Liz Pearl, an educator and therapist specializing in psychogeriatrics and the expressive art therapies, the women come from diverse backgrounds from all over Canada and include those who are affiliated, unaffiliated, converted, immigrants and expatriates.

Dr. Ruth Simkin, a physician from Winnipeg is in her 60's. In "My Bobies", she writes about the influence of her grandmothers. "As long as you have your mind, you will always be free," they told her. "Leave that shlemazel husband of yours and go back to school. Go be a doctor." "They were the only ones who truly encouraged me to radically change my life and go to medical school" she said. "Courage and wisdom, that's what I got from both my bobies. And absolute unqualified love. Their legacy remains within me, informing everything I do."

Torontonian Shira Herzog, daughter of Yaacov Herzog, former Israeli Ambassador to Canada, and niece of Chaim Herzog, ambassador to the U.N. and sixth President of Israel, was born in Israel.

"I move back and forth seamlessly between two countries and societies in what are for me, three interlocking circles - Israel, Canada and North America's Jewish communities." Even though "my roots are deeply embedded in Israel's soil.",

"My family legacy could easily have been a burden ... but it adds up for me to a sense of multiple responsibilities - To Israel, Jewish life and the Canadian community."

Many of Vancouver story teller Helen Mintz's one woman shows are about the richness of Yiddish language and culture. "Yiddish has much more to offer than recipes and curse," she writes. "I have been told that the Yiddish language and Yiddish literature are dead. People have suggested that we must move forward out of the ashes of the Holocaust and abandon the language of our pain and humiliation. But what price do we pay when we abandon our foremothers and forefathers?"

Author Shar Levine was born in Edmonton, raised in Calgary and now lives in Vancouver with her husband and four children. The daughter of a Japanese mother and Jewish father, she was adopted as a newborn by Jewish parents and raised as a practicing Jew.

But as far back as she can remember, everyone always asked her "What are you?" I've always felt like an outsider," she reflects in her essay, "That's Funny, You Don't Look Jewish." Her children, who attended a Jewish day school, evoked similar comments.

Here's what she learned from all this: "What's on the outside is not as important as what is on the inside. Jewishness is a state of heart and mind, not a set of physical attributes. Don't let others define your Jewish identity - it's up to you."

Wise advice for all of us.

A Book of Wise Words

Many B.C. women are part of Living Legacies.
Reviewed by CYNTHIA RAMSAY

www.jewishindependent.ca
May 2008

The last stanza of a poem by Judy Weissenberg Cohen perfectly summarizes the overall sentiment of Living Legacies: A Collection of Inspirational Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women: "Let us create a society / free of hatred and hunger / where respect for each other / glows like a beautiful ember."

The recently published anthology "is an opportunity for a variety of Canadian Jewish women to capture their life stories, values and beliefs, thereby creating a unique written portrait for today and providing an ethical/spiritual inheritance for future generations," writes editor Liz Pearl in the introduction.

Weissenberg's poem is found in her contribution to the book, "From Death March to Liberation and Beyond," in which she briefly describes her experience in the Holocaust and her physical and mental rehabilitation afterward. Now living in Toronto, Weissenberg has become an activist in Holocaust education, working on the "collective task" of prevention of hatred and genocide. She has also created the website Women and the Holocaust, "in a deliberate effort to give voice to gender issues pertaining to female Holocaust survivors, as well as to bridge scholars, survivors and poets together with the general public."

Part of the proceeds from the sales of Living Legacies will be donated to www.womenandtheholocaust.com. Pearl will also be setting aside some of the proceeds of the book's sales for Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee ( www.veahavta.org). These actions complement the book's theme of tikkun olam, repair of the world, a concept that makes an appearance in almost every essay, letter or poem.

The more than 50 contributors to Living Legacies represent a range of Canadian Jewish women of all ages and backgrounds. British Columbian authors include Jody Dales, Marion Secunda Poliakoff, Dr. Renee Norman, Shar Levine, Lynn Greenhough, Esther Kane, Carol Slater, Helen Mintz and Dr. Ruth Simkin. Each woman shares a very personal story and some advice with readers.

Dales writes a letter to her daughters, stressing the importance of generosity and gratitude in life; Poliakoff writes to her granddaughter, encouraging her to work for multicultural understanding, to live Jewishly and to strive for social justice. Norman also focuses on family and the generations; on the importance of memory.

In very different ways, Levine and Greenhough discuss identity and what it means to be Jewish - and what it means to be true to yourself and to live happily and ethically. Kane expands on these ideas, talking about the need to care for yourself, from the perspective of someone who herself had an eating disorder and whose current occupation as a therapist includes much work with mothers and daughters.

Family, friendship and other relationships are often at the centre of the stories in Living Legacies and Slater's "A charmed life" accents "caring, kindness and love" and the importance of the people we meet in our lives. Mintz links the generations and the value and beauty of language in "A Taste of Yiddish" and Simkin tenderly recalls her grandmothers, admonishing readers, "If you are lucky enough to still have grandmothers or close aunts or cousins who love you and respect you, ask them questions now, learn from them, take what they offer you. We all become old some day. We carry our lives with us. And our pasts. Appreciate who they are and who you are and how we are all intertwined in this wonderful weave of life."

This feeling captures the intent of Living Legacies to connect generations and provide inspiring role models for young Jewish women (and men) now and in the future. Pearl, who is an independent educator and therapist specializing in psychogeriatrics and the expressive arts therapies, has managed to compile an impressive collection. Each contribution is distinct and readers may be surprised at which stories speak to them most. The book would be a great gift for a bat or bar mitzvah, for new parents or for a friend who seems to have lost her way in life.

Living Legacies, published by PK Press, is available from Israel's in Thornhill, Ont., at toll-free 1-877-511-1010 or israelbook-gift@on.aibn.com, and at Eglinton Store in Toronto, 1-416-256-1010 or israelsjudaica@yahoo.ca. It can also be ordered on the book's website, http://at.yorku.ca/pk/ll-order.htm.