Move over Deborah, Golda, and Me and make room for Alisha, Chaya and others who collectively call themselves the Jewish Sisters in Sobriety. This compilation of twenty separate women’s memoirs merges into a unified story of pain, addiction, and recovery that touches every soul within the Jewish community. Set against the Judaic ethno-cultural denial of chemical dependency, this book is an outcry against the shame and isolation of the Jewish mother, daughter, sister, wife, and self against these forces. These women blaze the trail to redemption through recovery and find refuge in JACS (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others) a self-help program affiliated with the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services.
This is vital reading for rabbis, professionals, educators and all of those amongst us who are unaware that Jewish woman can and do become addicted. Invaluable resources and bibliographic material are provided (although, including the year of publication of these resources would have been helpful). In the end however, the voices of the Jewish sisters are intended for their siblings who have yet to know the hope of spiritual transformation. Let us all pray they get heard. Bibliography, editorial committee and editorial advisors, for more information: JACS, JBRCS, JWFNY, and resource list.
