facebook   linkedin   goodreads    Buy the Book
  • Home
  • Authors
    • Sister Authors
    • Meet Leslie
    • Meet Meryll
  • Book
    • About the Book
    • Discussion Questions
    • Beyond the Pale
    • Behind the Scenes
    • More about the Dedication Page
    • Reviews
  • Blog
    • Latest Blogs
    • Featured Books
    • Blog Archive
  • Extras
    • Deleted Chapters
      • Choose Your Beginning
        • The Missing Introduction
        • Alternate Chapter 1
      • Ballerina Alla
      • Baubie Chapters
        • Celestial Tea and Essig Flaish
        • Celestial Tea and Mandelbrot
        • Celestial Tea and Poppy Seed Cookies
    • Recipes from Baubies
      • Recipes from Grandma Rae
        • Essig Flaish
        • Mandelbrot
        • Mohn Cookies
  • Press
    • Press Kit
    • In the Media
    • Reviews
  • Events
  • Contact

Putin

Leslie

Alexey Navalny: Intrepid SuperHero of Russia

Leslie
Sunday, 31 January 2021
Jewish Luck Blog
Alexey Navalny: Intrepid SuperHero of Russia
"Faster than a speeding bullet." .Organized anti-government rallies in 109 cities across Russia from jail for January 23 and January 30, 2021. Watch each weekend. "More powerful than a locomotive."  Able to make a miraculous recovery from Novichok poisoning on Aug. 20, 2020 after remaining in a coma for nearly a month. His is the only kno...
Tags:
Demoncracy in Russia Novichok poisioning Putin's Palace Putin Navalny
Continue reading
3404 Hits
0 Comments
Meryll

What happened to Meryll's blogs?

Meryll
Friday, 26 May 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
It's been a while since I've written a blog for morejewishluck.  With Russia as our topic, there's been no lack of material to entice me to the keyboard, but I'm feeling Putin fatigue. One of my favorite organizations, the Minnesota Humanities Center, asked me to blog about Memorial Day.  The Humanities Center has focused much energy...
Tags:
veterans Minnesota Humanities Center Putin Memorial Day
Continue reading
3127 Hits
0 Comments
Meryll

February Author of the Month: Marshall Goldman

Meryll
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Highlighted Books
February Author of the Month: Marshall Goldman
Although Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) has little to do with Jewish Luck, Leslie and I read Marshall Goldman's economic analysis of Putin's impact on Russia's economic growth since he took office as prime minister in 1999 and president in 2000.Goldman's question is a good one and although it is...
Tags:
Putin Marshall Goldman Petrostate Gazprom Rozneft
Continue reading
2970 Hits
0 Comments
Leslie

The Cossacks Are Coming

Leslie
Friday, 11 November 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
The Cossacks Are Coming
The Canadian immigration website crashed Tuesday night and I am partly responsible. I wrote three blogs on "Places I do not Belong," but never did I think it would include the United States. My dad taught me to be vigilant for Cossacks* and I think I see them entering Washington hand in hand with Donald Trump. They are dressed in the suit...
Tags:
Reactions to the US Election Cossacks Immigration to Canada Putin Trump election
Continue reading
2729 Hits
Meryll

Local Hero

Meryll
Sunday, 09 October 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Local Hero
What do the Coen brothers, Sharon Isbin, Al Franken, and Tom Friedman have in common? They were all raised in our Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park and we're justly proud of our roster of celebrities.Our celebrities tend to be known for their intellectual acumen and talent rather than athletic prowess. St. Louis Park residents have followed...
Tags:
Putin Tom Friedman St. Louis Park Senior HIgh Al Franken op-ed
Continue reading
3011 Hits
Leslie

Being Mindful of Mindlessness: From the Personal to the Political

Leslie
Friday, 01 January 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
"How do you apply mindfulness in your life?" the question on my seminar application read.I jotted down "probably not enough," but the truth is I don't know."What exactly is mindfulness?" I ask myself.My attention operates like a red bouncy ball, and where is my purse anyways? Am I therefore mindless or just distractible?Let's start wit...
Tags:
MIndfulness Mindlessness Putin Ellen J. Langer
Continue reading
3956 Hits
0 Comments
Meryll

Absurdist Sculpture—Russian style

Meryll
Friday, 29 May 2015
Jewish Luck Blog
Public art enhances our lives. In Minneapolis public art is diverse and found in all corners of the city. Sharon Zweigbaum highlighted Minneapolis public art featuring water as part of the Jewish Artists’ Lab sponsored by the Sabes JCC last Tuesday. Some of the sculptures like the shadow figures embedded in sidewalks make us rethink our idea of Minneapolis’s influential figures.  Fountains abound in the City of Lakes that refresh and entice passers by.  Russian public art is, well, uniquely Russian.  In the New York Times of May 29, 2015 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/world/europe/another-huge-statue-in-russia-not-rare-but-hugely-divisive.html?ref=world), Neil MacFarquhar guides us through the reasoning that Moscow may soon be looking up at an 82 foot tall statue of St. Vladimir slated to perch on a Moscow hill.  Aside from environmental arguments against the statue and the artistic merit of Salvat Scherbakov’s work, this is a convoluted attempt to reconstruct Russian History.  For a more thorough explanation one needs to read...
Tags:
St. Vladimir Sharon Zweignbaum Russia statue Putin public art
Continue reading
4901 Hits
0 Comments
Meryll

Weighing in on Nemtsov's Murder

Meryll
Friday, 06 March 2015
Jewish Luck Blog
150306The Ukraine and now the murder of Boris Nemtsov? What’s happening in Russia? Everyday we read the news from Russia, we are very relieved for Vera that she has left Russia for good and we’re certain Alisa feels vindicated in her move many times over. For me, the murder of Nemtsov(photo on the left) brought back memories of Sergey Kirov’s (photo on the right) 1934 murder.  In December 1934, Pravda (Truth) alleged it was a young man named Nikolaev who was guilty of killing Kirov and the organs of state successfully captured, tried, and convicted him. But, when Soviet archives were opened in 1994, the truth was not so clear.  Nikolaev may have pulled the trigger, but it seems Stalin and the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) were behind the plot.  After playing the role of chief mourner at Kirov’s funeral, Stalin initiated new laws and orders that launched the purges...
Tags:
Putin Nemstov Masha Gessen Kirov
Continue reading
3643 Hits
0 Comments
Leslie

Driven Crazy by Putin or Driven by Crazy Putin

Leslie
Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Jewish Luck Blog
  In our book, Jewish Luck, Vera describes a morose chauffeur, Ivan, whose spirits cannot be lifted by any favor, big or small.  After giving Ivan money for his children’s education, finding him an apartment, and increasing his wages, this benevolent boss asks what more he can do for Ivan.  “I want to be driven,” Ivan answers. Vera used this story to illustrate the lack of initiative in Russian culture- Russians want the perks without the responsibility.  The story may reveal something deeper and more disturbing in the Russian psyche.  On a lovely Saturday afternoon in West Rogers Park visiting my second and fourth cousin, Joanie[1] and her wonderful family after a few decades of not being in touch, a guest rapped on the door.  In strolled Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern[2] with great energy and pomp and took his place at the Shabbat table.  Both of us were passionate about the books laid...
Tags:
Putin Petrovsky-Shtern Putin popularity Russia
Continue reading
4978 Hits
0 Comments
Leslie

Why Everyone Hates Putin (Except Putin and Colbert)

Leslie
Saturday, 04 January 2014
Jewish Luck Blog
With the advent of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, you may be wondering what's so bad about Vladimir Putin?  After all, this compassionate leader just released Khodorkovsky early after 10 years in prison.  This oil tycoon's crime was that he was not only richer and smarter than Putin, but he had backed a rival political party.  Putin also graciously pardoned those two women from the punk rock group Pussy Riot sentenced for "hooliganism."  But don't ask Putin about gay rights because that would be an abomination.   Didn't the always photogenic Putin just discover ancient Greek vessels in the shallow water of the Black Sea when scuba-diving?  And the ecologically- minded Putin also donned a mechanized hangglider to point the way for a flock of endangered cranes who apparently didn't know where to migrate on their own.  Looking closely at his photos, you may have noticed that he is actually growing...
Tags:
Putin Winter Olympics Colbert Pussy Riot
Continue reading
4032 Hits
0 Comments

Recent Blogs

Meryll
Meryll
09 April 2021
Jewish on the Down Low
I snapped up the invitation to speak at a zoom meeting for the Jewish Affinity Group from Columbus School for Girls. Self-quarantining for almost a year has made me hungry to talk about Jewish Luck. It's certainly clear from the news that Vera and Alla's perceptions about the "New" Russia are just as relevant now as they were when Vera first encountered Putin in Leningrad.More than the intellectua...
Read More
Leslie
Leslie
07 February 2021
American Kompromat
What I learned from American Kompromat by Craig Unger (2021) Dutton: NYC has prompted me to write a blog. Trigger Warning: This book contains potentially distressing content that could trigger trauma that we have experienced regarding the previous US President. I whisper this mantra to myself: "We're safe now. He's gone. We're safe now." The purpose of this exercise is to reduce my blood pre...
Read More
Leslie
Leslie
31 January 2021
Alexey Navalny: Intrepid SuperHero of Russia
"Faster than a speeding bullet." .Organized anti-government rallies in 109 cities across Russia from jail for January 23 and January 30, 2021. Watch each weekend. "More powerful than a locomotive."  Able to make a miraculous recovery from Novichok poisoning on Aug. 20, 2020 after remaining in a coma for nearly a month. His is the only known case of survival of that strain of Novichok. "...
Read More

Invite Us To Speak

invite

We were featured speakers at Hadassah Brandeis Institute and Levy Summer Series. Our speaking engagements include JCCs, synagogues, libraries, book groups, retirement communities, schools, and organizations (e.g. ORT, Hadassah, and Women's League). References are available. 

Invite Us To Speak
 

Talk Review

"I was very fortunate to be able to hear Meryll and Leslie speak at a Hadassah event in Israel. Each of the ~50 participants really enjoyed the event because Meryll and Leslie were so engaging. While they had a natural rapport with the audience, you could also tell they had prepared well so they could connect with our particular group's interests. I learned a lot from listening to them, and I found their sisterly interaction unique and fun. If you want an enlightening and uplifting experience, attend one of their book talks."
Lisa Shimoni, Modiin Israel

Book Review

"Truly, you have written a story that makes accessible the reality of existence in Russia, through the eyes of individuals who lived through the various regimes and dictates.  It is fascinating and very well told.  As I read Vera and Alla's story, I learned more Russian history than I had known from a textbook.  That's a big deal, women!  You tell the tale with vivid detail and hook us on the two women and their stories, then weave in the history to illuminate their journeys. It is such a necessary book.  I am thrilled that the two of you collaborated, as I can see the uniqueness of your personalities come through in the stories, and that, too, makes the book a gem."
Margaret Leibfried, Danielson Group consultant

Buy the Book

Online:

Click here to order your copy of Jewish Luck: A True Story of Friendship, Deception, and Risky Business on Amazon.com.

The Kindle version is available here

In Stores:
cgb250
logo-sholom
Make a donation to Sholom Home and enjoy Jewish Luck at the same time. Jewish Luck is now available at the Sholom Home West gift store. Meryll and Leslie will donate 50% of the proceeds back to Sholom Home. Enjoy!

Tasting Torah

Nourish mind, body, and soul with Meryll's Tasting Torah, which will bring oneg (joy) and limmud (learning) to your Shabbat, broaden your culinary horizons, and draw your Shabbat guests closer together.

logo tasting torah

Highlighted Books

Meryll
Meryll
02 July 2017
July Book of the Month:  Bloodlines by Neville Frankel
July Book of the Month: Bloodlines by Neville Frankel
Leslie and I began writing Jewish Luck with an underlying question in our minds—what would life have...
Read More

Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved by More Jewish Luck

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Login

Site created by LiveSites