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Aug 9, 2024 | 
blogs.timesofisrael.com | Helen Weiss Pincus
The Jewish month of Nissan, in the spring, brings the holiday of Passover, commemorating the biblical redemption from Egyptian slavery. It is a month of joy. “There are no hesbedim [eulogies] during Nissan,” my cousin Fayge said, when she called to tell me her mother, Tilly, had died. Fayge speaks in a very clipped voice, each sentence is a compressed world. “So the funeral will be very quick, at four o’clock in front of the Belz shul,” she said.
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Aug 9, 2024 | 
qoshe.com | Helen Weiss Pincus
Columnists Actual . Favourites . Archive Aa Aa Aa - A + ..... © The Times of Israel (Blogs) visit website
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
blogs.timesofisrael.com | Helen Weiss Pincus
At a bus stop in Teaneck I was waiting for a bus to New York, calmed by the awareness that I was at the correct location at an appropriate time (turns out this was incorrect, but that’s another story). The weather was pleasant, and with all these positives, I was in a glowy good mood despite everything going on in the world. When a woman sat down next to me I smiled at her. I took her presence as confirmation that this was indeed the bus stop and the arrival was imminent.
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Jun 4, 2024 | 
blogs.timesofisrael.com | Helen Weiss Pincus
It was noisy, hot, crowded. Tank-like double strollers pushed thru the crowded, filled sidewalks. We bumped into old friends, new friends, reconnected with forgotten friends. We comforted overwhelmed children. We sweated, laughed, cried and sang. We stood in line for bathrooms – several times. The day was a study in blue and white – Israeli flags were draped over shoulders, t-shirts proclaiming so much were worn by parade marchers.
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Jan 19, 2024 | 
jewishbookcouncil.org | Helen Weiss Pincus |Ruth Thomson |Chana Stiefel |Susan Gal
Review By – January 22, 2024 This delicately told, beautifully illustrated true story is recommended by the publisher for ages five to nine — but, in reality, it’s suitable and useful for children of all ages. It centers on a special maple tree whose descendants are planted in many locations, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City.
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Nov 15, 2023 | 
jewishbookcouncil.org | Helen Weiss Pincus |Jenny Waldman |Ben Whitehouse |Jacqueline Jules
Skip to main content Jewish Book Council, founded in 1943, is the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature. Get the latest reviews, news, and more in your inbox. Review By – November 27, 2023 Each night of Hanukkah, an alliterative, rowdy, friendly, group of uninvited guests shows up just in time for the candle lighting.
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Sep 7, 2023 | 
blogs.timesofisrael.com | Helen Weiss Pincus
On a recent summer evening at a kosher restaurant in the old Jewish ghetto in Venice, Italy, 20 Jewish travelers were celebrating a birthday. In Hebrew and in English we shared a rousing chorus of traditional songs lauding the passing of another blessed year. The bright yellow, very delicious cake topped off our meal at Gam Gam restaurant ( a Venetian Jewish landmark).
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Aug 29, 2023 | 
jewishbookcouncil.org | Helen Weiss Pincus |Sharon T Cameron
Review By – September 25, 2023 Teenage sisters Astra and Frederieke are living on the edge of disaster as life in their beloved Czernowitz, Romania — which has always been filled with family, friends, school, dance classes, and ordinary complications — begins to implode in the pre – World War II era. Everything that’s important to them seems to be vanishing. With the Nazis and Soviets taking over, moments of safety and sanity become increasingly rare.
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Jun 6, 2023 | 
jewishbookcouncil.org | Helen Weiss Pincus |David Safier
Review By – June 20, 2023 Polish Catholic Irena Sendler and her friends were determined to protect their Jewish neighbors and acquaintances from the unbearable and unsafe conditions the Nazi invaders were creating. Allowed into the overcrowded, disease-ridden Warsaw Ghetto as medical workers, Irena and her co-conspirators smuggled in food and medicine. But the situation worsened rapidly, and there was no resolution in sight.
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Apr 18, 2023 | 
jewishbookcouncil.org | Helen Weiss Pincus |Jennifer Nielsen
This recent addition to Holocaust literature focuses on nine women whose dedication to humanity and truth is both impressive and challenging to understand. One reading about their lives can only marvel at the extraordinary courage and resourcefulness with which they faced a brutal world. Each unique story includes historical background that deepens our understanding of the growth of Nazi ideology.
