Pirkei Imahot: a Celebration of Our Mothers

Plot

Both joyful and moving, Pirkei Imahot recalls more than 50 unsung but unforgettable mothers and grandmothers who, while utterly unique, are also familiar characters to anyone who grew up in a Jewish family. Be careful opening this book: an eclectic assemblage of women waits to spill out. They chop fish, they pull pranks, the cover sofas in plastic. Mothers come to vivd lifer here in their children's and grandchildren's words. THough they wear other women's names, we kjnow them as intimately as those who held us in their arms. Here, in beautifully crafted memory words, 50 authors offer up women joyous and soulful, heoric and fragile, whose words and deeds forever remain the guideposts of our lives. Jewish mothers have had a bad rap, but this collection shows Jewish mothering as it really is. Eas eassay in this beautifully edited collection is a gem. Strung together, they constitue a striking necklace; memories of them others who raised us, of grandmothers, of the persons who shaped our souls.