A Word from the Author

This is not the kind of story I usually write. It’s special to me. I normally do vegan cookbooks, and fantasy fiction (witches, Camelot, funny fairy tales).
But, I had to write it. I cried when I wrote it.
It started when I watched an interview with Malky Weingarten – a Hasidic woman filmmaker from Brooklyn. I was so moved by her openness and how much she wanted to explain her way of living, that…I started writing.
I had had my own welcoming experience of Hasidic Judaism at two Chabad centers: in Edinburgh where I live, and in Oxford where I studied business – it remained a life-long friendship.
Like Zila, I started out secular, in Rehovot, and learned slowly. Through my teen friendship with my orthodox neighbor. My Orthodox best friend in first year of college, when I studied opera singing in Jerusalem. Jerusalem itself. My best friend in my final year of bachelors studies, who was a young Haredi (ultra religious) rabbi. My work as a singer in liberal synagogues in Berlin. My kabbalah teacher – a reform woman rabba. My three months in secular Brooklyn with an unexpected invite to spend Yom Kippur day with a religious family.
And the Hasidic Chabad rebbetzin who mentored me on this project.
Now, I can say that I know enough to be open. And to write a story like this one. I hope you liked it.