We want to hear from you! Please email letters to the editor to letters@hadassah.org. 

In Praise and Displeasure

Thank you so much for putting Miriam Anzovin on the May/June 2022 cover of Hadassah Magazine. Her TikToks are so informative and entertaining. I love that the magazine focused on a trending millennial. Please keep up this type of coverage in the future!
Susan Avery
New York, N.Y.

I am writing to express my displeasure with the recent Q&A with Miriam Anzovin. I regard Anzovin as a woman, but no lady. The interview sullies the reputation of Hadassah women and the organization when it refers to Anzovin’s “salty language and irreverence” and for the fact that she is not a “scholar.” 

Because I enjoy reading Hadassah Magazine and support the work of Hadassah, I will not stop my subscription nor withhold my support, but I ask you choose people to interview more carefully.
Dr. Howard Rottenberg
Atlanta, Ga.

Questioning ‘Her Choice’

While I believe that a woman whose health is at risk or who has been raped, or who is carrying a baby that is not viable, deserves the right to consider termination of her pregnancy, I find it extremely disturbing that Hadassah Magazine, in the feature article “Israel’s Take on Abortion” in the May/June issue, included a picture and story about college student Avigail Bailey. In the photo of Bailey, she appears smiling above a caption that proudly states that her abortion was ‘Her Choice.’ 

Just because she and her boyfriend didn’t want the pregnancy, there she was beaming at the fact that she destroyed a life. How many women struggle with infertility who will see that image of Bailey and feel sad that it was acceptable for her to end her pregnancy? 

I am disappointed that Hadassah Magazine found Bailey’s story to be a great example of Israel’s abortion policy.
Beth Pascal
Hillsborough, Calif.

When I Was a Refugee

Reading “Welcoming the Stranger, Literally” by Rahel Musleah in the May/June issue brought back memories of my own arrival as a refugee from Bucharest, Romania, in 1983 and how HIAS and Jewish Family Service supported me and made my new life in a new country a success. The United States welcomed me with open arms and has been my home ever since.

Some of my fondest memories are of HIAS making my transition to independence possible. Recollections of Tova Friedman, a Holocaust survivor who was a director of the JFS in Elizabeth, N.J., to which I had been assigned, are especially dear to me. 

I was very pleased to read about the help and support that HIAS, JFS and now the Welcome Circles continue to offer to refugees from all walks of life. It warms my Jewish kishkes.
Paula Zevin
Somerset, N.J. 

Museum-Quality Hanukkiyah

I found the “Zionist Home Goods” arts article on Israeliana in the May/June issue to be especially interesting.

When my husband and I were married in December 1964 in Rahway, N.J., our rabbi gave us a lovely hanukkiyah as a wedding gift. We use it still. 

So, imagine my surprise, nearly 58 years later, to see a photo of an identical hanukkiyah on page 42, in a photo by Laura Lachman with the credit indicating that the hanukkiyah is in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. 

I never dreamed my favorite hanukkiyah is a museum-quality object!
Cari Greene
League City, Texas

Another ‘Betrayal’ of Anne Frank

In the “Top Ten Jewish Best Sellers, Nonfiction” list in the May/June issue, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Rosemary Sullivan comes in at No. 5. I have been living in the Netherlands for more than 46 years, so I am aware that the book’s Dutch publisher, Ambo Athos, has now apologized for publishing it, has removed the title from stores in the country and has even stated that the book is not entirely based on facts.
Janice Knoppers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Re-Circulating the Magazine 

Several years ago, when my husband and I moved from our longtime home in Long Island, N.Y., to a retirement community near our son in Westchester County, N.Y., I had to downsize. My accumulation of stuff included lots of past issues of Hadassah Magazine. Now that we have moved, when I finish reading an issue, I ex-out my name and place it on a table in the main lobby of our building. The magazine is quickly gone, and Hadassah Magazine continues to circulate. Here’s to longevity!
Aileen Novick
Rye, N.Y.