December 2022
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Joy Comes in the Morning – an interview with Sherri Mandell
Sherri shares about grief, happiness and the power of story.
By Penina Taylor
No parent should ever have to bury their 13-year-old child. Such a tragedy is enough to fell even the strongest of us. But when a grieving parent takes all of the anger and sadness and channels it into doing good for others, that’s the ultimate expression of what it means to be human.
Meet Sherri Mandell. Mother of four, author of more than 10 books, teacher, public speaker and founder of the Koby Mandell Foundation.
Her story begins similarly to that of many ba’alei teshuvah – growing up in New York in a culturally connected but religiously devoid Jewish family as part of the post-Holocaust generation that associated Judaism with suffering, and not much else. On a visit to Israel she discovered a side of Judaism she had never known, stayed to learn and met the man she would end up marrying. But that is where the similarities end.
A Message From Our Editor
There’s a line from a pop song called Big Yellow Taxi that says, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone?” Although I’ve known about Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z’tzal, for close to two decades, I unfortunately only discovered what a treasure he was after his passing.
I’ve recently started reading his book, Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence and I am absolutely convinced that Rabbi Sacks was a modern-day prophet. His words cut to the core, and his ideas could save a wounded world – so much so, in fact, that I believe that every person on earth – of any religion and no religion – should read this book. One of the key concepts he addresses in the book is our “need” to create the division – and to reinforce the division – between “us” and “other”.
Penina Taylor
Editor in Chief
