Rating: 
Summary: Modern Problems-Traditional Perspectives
Review: Ten women deal with a variety of modern problems, all of whom are Hasidic Jews. They gather together once a week for a session of learning Torah (Genesis) while they grapple with the committments that keep them from attending. One woman has two children with Down's sysndrome, another has recently faced a severe financial setback, another grapples with the demands of her religion v.s. her personal desire to be viewed as a modern woman, and many other issues are raised. Each woman places her personal problem in the context of the weekly Torah learning. The juxtaposition is great. I really felt a kinship for all of the women involved. The only time I was left wanting was the woman who felt that she was being selfish by not subsuming her desires under the desires of her family and parents. I felt that she needed a more feminist perspective. All of the other women I felt were making healthy choices, even if they were not choices that I would make for myself.
Rating:
Summary: hard to put down
Review: This book was engrossing and enjoyable - I was very interested in all of the characters and would have loved to have more on how their dilemnas worked out. It was very interesting to see them apply religious values to work out the common problems and challenges of adoption, step children, an invalid husband, an unmarried daughter - and the incredibly high standards of kindness and selflessness they live up to. so different from the 'me' world of our consumer society.
Rating: 
Summary: The "Joy Luck Club" meets "The Chosen"
Review: What Amy Tan did for the world of Chinese women in "The Joy Luck Club," this book does for Hasidic women's culture. Riva Zakutinsky and Yaffa Leiba Gottlieb (both Hasidic themselves), have given the public a highly-readable, intimate window into a world that would otherwise be inaccessible to most outsiders. The result is an excellent book that will make you laugh, cry, and truly realize how the common humanity we all share can shine through outward differences. I plan to recommend this book to my neighbors, my local libraries, and readers of my Hasidism FAQ. Like "Joy Luck Club," it would make a great movie, too. If I were a film producer, I'd jump at the chance!The ten women who gather around Sarah's Table every Tuesday for lunch and Torah study are very religious Jews, but definitely not plaster saints. (Is that a mixed metaphor?) They struggle daily with the same types of life challenges facing women (and men) the world over: caring for developmentally challenged children, coping with a serious illness in the family, becoming a step-parent, balancing home and personal life with a career.
Oh yes, some of these women DO have careers outside the home. For example, there's Shaina, author of a series of Jewish children's books. And Reva, Shaina's publisher, whose husband encouraged her to start her business. Not to mention Klara, the attorney, whose strict Hasidic observance led her to open her own law firm rather than "sell out" to pressures to conform. Of special interest to the outside world will be the chapter on Tamar, who is seeking the right "match" for her older daughter. As you will learn from her story, Hasidic matchmaking is not the same thing as an "arranged marriage." Naturally, Hasidic parents expect their children to marry Hasidim, and a matchmaker may help introduce a prospective couple to each other. But the man and woman decide for themselves whether to marry or not. This dates all the way back to the biblical story of Rebecca, who was asked if she wanted to marry Isaac. (See Genesis 24:57-58) Everyone, according to Hasidic teachings, has a destined match literallly made in heaven. Sometimes, however, we make the wrong choices here on earth. And sometimes, finding one's true soulmate can mean going to the ends of the earth -- as Klara's Polish mother learned in a tiny town in Russia. One problem with the book is that the glossary assumes too much Judaic knowledge on the part of non-Jewish readers. While the more obscure Yiddish and Hebrew words are defined in the glossary, common ones like "Shabbos" (Sabbath) and "yeshiva" (academy of Jewish study) are not. And there is no pronunciation guide. Maybe these terms can be taken for granted in Brooklyn where the authors live, but they require explanation in areas where there are few Jews. (I myself live in a Midwestern town where people think my first name is "Robbi" and have no idea what a RABBI is -- until I say "Jewish minister.") I was also annoyed to see the late Lubovitcher Rebbe (Menachem Schneerson) defined as the "most recent leader of the worldwide Hasidic movement." He might be leader of the worldwide LUBOVITCH Hasidic movement (to which these women belong) but he's not my Hasidic leader -- I'm a Breslover Hasid. (Different group. There are over 150 other Hasidic groups besides Lubovitch. The biggest, by population, is probably Satmar.) Hopefully these glossary shortcomings will be corrected in future editions.
Rating:
Summary: The "Joy Luck Club" meets "The Chosen"
Review: What Amy Tan did for the world of Chinese women in "The Joy Luck Club," this book does for Hasidic women's culture. Riva Zakutinsky and Yaffa Leiba Gottlieb (both Hasidic themselves), have given the public a highly-readable, intimate window into a world that would otherwise be inaccessible to most outsiders. The result is an excellent book that will make you laugh, cry, and truly realize how the common humanity we all share can shine through outward differences. I plan to recommend this book to my neighbors, my local libraries, and readers of my Hasidism FAQ. Like "Joy Luck Club," it would make a great movie, too. If I were a film producer, I'd jump at the chance! The ten women who gather around Sarah's Table every Tuesday for lunch and Torah study are very religious Jews, but definitely not plaster saints. (Is that a mixed metaphor?) They struggle daily with the same types of life challenges facing women (and men) the world over: caring for developmentally challenged children, coping with a serious illness in the family, becoming a step-parent, balancing home and personal life with a career.
Oh yes, some of these women DO have careers outside the home. For example, there's Shaina, author of a series of Jewish children's books. And Reva, Shaina's publisher, whose husband encouraged her to start her business. Not to mention Klara, the attorney, whose strict Hasidic observance led her to open her own law firm rather than "sell out" to pressures to conform. Of special interest to the outside world will be the chapter on Tamar, who is seeking the right "match" for her older daughter. As you will learn from her story, Hasidic matchmaking is not the same thing as an "arranged marriage." Naturally, Hasidic parents expect their children to marry Hasidim, and a matchmaker may help introduce a prospective couple to each other. But the man and woman decide for themselves whether to marry or not. This dates all the way back to the biblical story of Rebecca, who was asked if she wanted to marry Isaac. (See Genesis 24:57-58) Everyone, according to Hasidic teachings, has a destined match literallly made in heaven. Sometimes, however, we make the wrong choices here on earth. And sometimes, finding one's true soulmate can mean going to the ends of the earth -- as Klara's Polish mother learned in a tiny town in Russia. One problem with the book is that the glossary assumes too much Judaic knowledge on the part of non-Jewish readers. While the more obscure Yiddish and Hebrew words are defined in the glossary, common ones like "Shabbos" (Sabbath) and "yeshiva" (academy of Jewish study) are not. And there is no pronunciation guide. Maybe these terms can be taken for granted in Brooklyn where the authors live, but they require explanation in areas where there are few Jews. (I myself live in a Midwestern town where people think my first name is "Robbi" and have no idea what a RABBI is -- until I say "Jewish minister.") I was also annoyed to see the late Lubovitcher Rebbe (Menachem Schneerson) defined as the "most recent leader of the worldwide Hasidic movement." He might be leader of the worldwide LUBOVITCH Hasidic movement (to which these women belong) but he's not my Hasidic leader -- I'm a Breslover Hasid. (Different group. There are over 150 other Hasidic groups besides Lubovitch. The biggest, by population, is probably Satmar.) Hopefully these glossary shortcomings will be corrected in future editions.
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