On Thursday, January 4th, we willjoin Oakland Ruach Hadassah for a specialfund-raising book club and author event. The money will go to the Hadassahhospitals in Israel, where doctors and staff are busy taking care of victims ofthis current war. They are asking for a donation of $18.oo. We will meetin person at a Hadassah member’s house in Oakland, at 7:30 pm. A Zoom optionwill be available for those unable to be with us in person. Thebook is Lostand Found: A Historical Novel, by Rachel Biale. The bookis 508 pages long and was publishedin August, 2022. It is not available in any library. It can be purchasedthrough Afikomen Judaica Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/lost-and-found-rachel-biale/18678359?ean=9781087975511. A Kindle edition can be downloaded through Amazon.
Register here: events.hadassah.org/RachelBiale
Held at a private residence. Address provided uponregistration. For those unable to attend in person a Zoom link will beprovided.
Lost and Found: A Historical Novel,by Rachel Biale
NOVEMBER 1940: a mysterious explosion sinks the Patria,anchored in the Haifa Harbor. On board are 2,500 Jewish refugees fleeingNazi-occupied Europe. The British Palestine Mandate authorities are ready todeport them. A four-year-old boy disappears while his parents and newbornbrother are saved. What happened to him? Wavingtogether a true story and imagined narratives, Lost and Found wrestles with awrenching human quandary: can you love a child enough that you are willing togive them up?
The author, Rachel Biale, will join usto speak about her book. She grew up in Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin inIsrael, now featured in her memoir, “Growing up Below Sea Level: A KibbutzChildhood” (2020). After high school and her IDF service, she came to theUS. She earned a BA and MA in Jewish History at UCLA, which formed the basisfor her path-breaking book, “Women and Jewish Law” (1984). She earnedher Masters of Social Work from Yeshiva University in New York. She has worked as a clinical social worker forover 20 years and subsequently in various capacities for 15 years, in the SanFrancisco Bay Area Jewish community. She has had a parenting counselingpractice for over 35 years and wrote a parenting advice column for the J. Weekly for 3 years. Those columns and much more are nowincluded in her book, “What Now? 2-Minute Tips for Solving CommonParenting Challenges.” She lives inBerkeley.
