If you are not into reading four-hundred page tomes try Chutzpah Girls, a gorgeously illustrated book of one-page biographies about a hundred ordinary women transformed into extraordinary super-powered heroines. A book that begs to be shared with mothers, daughters, and Bubbies alike, the co-authors, Julie Esther Silberstein and Tami Schlossberg Pruwer, enjoin the reader to discover “the real life tales of proud Jewish women who shaped history, rewrote the future and helped make the world a better place”.
The anthology begins in antiquity where me meet prophetess Abigail Deborah and Yael, then onto Talmudic times with scholars such as Bruria. Most of the selected “girls” were born in 20th century and continue to inspire the present generation. Among these is Rachel Edri. Known as the “Cookies Safta”. Edri saved her family in Ofakim by offering Hamas terrorists what else…cookies. Inbal Lieberman warrior and superhero kept Kibbutz Nir Am safe during the Hamas savage invasion on October 7th.
The diverse compilation of biographies honors women from around the world including British codebreaker Anne Ross, an impaired courageous women who defines the word chutzpah as does US Batya Sperling-Milner, born blind but learned (via technology) to read from the Torah on her bat mitzvah. Read about Israeli born Moran Samuel once a great athlete, Moran, a victim of a spinal stroke that left her paralyzed from the waist down, did not permit let her disability stop her from becoming a Paralympics champion. Or Bracha Kapchi a Yemenite humanitarian who opened a “gemach”, a lending facility for brides who could not afford to buy their wedding gowns.
The medley of risk-taking creative and philanthropic women features Professor Deborah Lipstadt, special envoy on antisemitsm. Lipstadt was a winner of a significant court case against Holocaust denier David Irving. And “chutzpadik” psychologist/ballerina Edith Eger. Eger was cut from the Hungarian gymnastics Olympics team and sent to Auschwitz she mustered the courage to dance for Josef Mengele. She taught many others to mitigate their fears.
Several of the Chutzpah Girls forged paths that led to greater justice and human rights. South African Helen Suzman an anti-apartheid parliamentarian fought injustice “in the Jewish tradition” following the concept of “tikkun olam” repairing the world. Rachel “Ruchie” Freier became the first Hasidic Jewish woman to be appointed to the New York Supreme Court. Chutzpah Girls honors Henrietta Szold founder of Hadassah. She built Israel’s “first modern medical system” and lived by her credo ”when you dream, dream big”. Acting with enormous courage, Torontonian Judy Feld Carr, human rights activist, smuggled Syrian Jews to escape and helped save three thousand Jews from Syrian tyranny. Chutzpah indeed!
A treasury of meaningful stories Chutzpah Girls encourages women of all ages to “Make your life a story worth telling.”