So, What's Happening? At ESRA's 42nd Annual General Meeting, held on Zoom in June, I reported on the many developments of the past difficult Corona year. Wishing to keep you all updated, I will review some of them here. There is more to report than space allows, and I apologize in advance if I have omitted any important events or special people. On...

Corona is not leaving us. The challenge for the new year is how we, as individuals, learn to live "normally" with the virus, and how our country helps us to do so. Nina Reshef met Ziv Koren who has just brought out his historic book of photographs – To Breathe – which sums up in pictorial form the crazy first year of Corona in Israel and memorializ...

Sadie Cohen, mother of the first Jewish President of the United States (so the story goes), was having her hair done in New York for Thanksgiving. "My son offered me a taxi to the airport, a flight on Airforce One to Washington, a helicopter to avoid the traffic, and accommodation at the White House," she confides, diffidently, to her hairdresser. ...

"Yom Kippur always brings back memories of my aliyah" 7th of Tishrei, 5731. A family of Americans, we came to live with Auntie Rivka in her little house in Geula. It was a stone house with iron shutters on top of a kiosk, just down the block from Kikar HaShabbat. I always thought that Kikar HaShabbat was so named because that's where everyone would...

Illustration by Liora Blum Happy holidays to all ESRA Magazine readersWishing you health, happiness and a wonderful year  Ellen and Harold DaviesDebbie EfronJoan FreedmanHerb and Lenore HahnDoreen and Michael HochermanOrah and Irv KaplanShelley MorrisNydia and Arne RabuchinRoslyn and Harold SilverJoe and Paula SimonAdrian and Emma WolffWishing a sweet and healthy new ye...

Unclaimed Funds (or Lost Accounts) are funds you own that you may have not been aware of, or forgotten, or for which you had not received annual reports due to failure to update contact information, or you cannot remember where they are located. These funds are essentially sitting and waiting for you to claim. What types of Unclaimed Funds could th...

ESRA’s Maia Aron with Counseling Program Co-Founder Susan Kurnedz and Cecily Spungin Co-Founder Juliet Rostowsky and Professor Claire Rabin, who is responsible for the counselor training program Cecily Spungin, Supervisor Michelle Freedman, Grief Counselor Where Friends in Need are Friends Indeed  Photos by Steve Silberman "I'm so distressed; I don't know where to turn." If you're an English speaker living anywhere in Israel, a blessing awaits you at the place you can turn - the newly expanded ESRA Counseling Program. While founded in 2007, the program has become a powerhouse of help in the past...

Chelsea Physic Garden main house, café and shop Statue of physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane Are there really 613 seeds in a pomegranate? Or is it just a tradition relayed around the fruit-laden festive table at Rosh Hashanah and, since this number coincides with the number of Torah commandments, maybe viewed as a positive omen with regard to family fruitfulness and multiplication? On a visit to Britain last year I took a fascinating and h...

Photos by Sue Joffe View of the Old City The Western Wall What a chance to explore some of the places I have had on my list for years. Going up to Jerusalem is in any case a magical experience, and as you will see, this trip was no different. I not only wanted to be on my own, but I wanted to test myself for a more adventurous overseas trip later in the year. It's become pretty easy to get to Jerusalem th...

Hijack for Freedom The Memoirs of Mark DymshitsSoviet Pilot, Jew, Breacher of the Iron Curtain Gefen Publishing, 2021Paperback, 284 pages $24.95 from Gefen or Amazon Hidden HeroesOne Woman's Story of Resistance and Rescue in the Soviet Unionby Pamela Braun CohenGefen Publishing, 2021Hardcover, 424 pages$28 from Gefen, $29.95 on ...