Chil­dren’s

She’s a Men­sch!: Ten Amaz­ing Jew­ish Women

  • Review
By – December 11, 2023

The bold, inno­v­a­tive, and globe-span­ning Jew­ish women in this book all tri­umphed over bad luck, prej­u­dice, pover­ty, and war. Their suc­cess­es — from win­ning Olympic gold medals to res­cu­ing imper­iled Jews — are pre­sent­ed in detailed yet read­able vignettes that will inspire many read­ers to reach beyond what they think they can achieve.

These lit­tle-known Ashke­nazi and Sephardic women include an astro­naut, a chess cham­pi­on, a World War II spy, and the direc­tor of an inter­na­tion­al NGO, among oth­ers. They are wait­ing for today’s young read­ers to dis­cov­er them — and that’s where this won­der­ful­ly illus­trat­ed book comes in. It’s the third in the Do You Know My Name? series, which intro­duces read­ers to a vari­ety of women and their incred­i­ble accomplishments.

While men­sch” has a mas­cu­line con­no­ta­tion, its mean­ing here is stretched to include the women who, with courage, inge­nu­ity, and intel­lect, met the chal­lenges that life some­times throws. They are role mod­els who can now be admired and emu­lat­ed by a broad­er audience.

Award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and free­lance writer, Helen Weiss Pin­cus, has taught mem­oir writ­ing and cre­ative writ­ing through­out the NY Metro area to senior cit­i­zens and high school stu­dents. Her work has been pub­lished in The New York Times, The Record, The Jew­ish Stan­dard, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. She recent­ly added Bub­by” to her job description.

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