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Meryll

Meryll

  http://morejewishluck.com
Meryll Levine Page is a retired high school history teacher with a special interest in women’s history. She taught extensively about the Soviet Union and its break-up. Currently she co-facilitates the Minneapolis Jewish Artists’ Lab.
Meryll

Jewish on the Down Low

Meryll
Friday, 09 April 2021
Jewish Luck Blog
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 encoun...
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CSG Jewish Affinity Group
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Meryll

Hack Attack

Meryll
Sunday, 02 July 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
Hack Attack
The news is providing a lot of fodder we could use for a blog—Putin's upcoming visit, the controversy at the Kotel, the non-stop scatological twittering by our President… My own daily dramas can overshadow the geopolitical and ideological. Welcome to my own personal newsheadline:The lede--​Proper Grammar Saves Hacking Victim (me)Last week modern te...
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hacked computer team viewer vulnerability back pain hacking
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Meryll

July Book of the Month: Bloodlines by Neville Frankel

Meryll
Sunday, 02 July 2017
Highlighted Books
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 been like had our grandparents not left Russia before the Revolution? What would it have been like to grow up in the Soviet Union? Neville Frankel began his novel, Bloodlines, with a similar question—what would it have been like to be part of a midd...
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Bloodlines Neville Frankel Apartheid and Jews South Africa On the Sickle's Edge
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Meryll

Haunted by the Past; Family Pictures, Part II

Meryll
Sunday, 11 June 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
Haunted by the Past; Family Pictures, Part II
Last week Leslie shared her reaction to the portrait you see in front of you. As she was lobbing rhetorical question after question to me, i.e. "who takes pictures like that?""Why was I wearing those clothes? I would have preferred pants." "Why did Mom take us to Mr. Neuron so often?"When Leslie asked about Mr. Neuron, a switch flipped in...
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Walter Neuron Mansfield Skiing Professional photography Jewish refugees from Nazi Euope
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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...
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Putin veterans Minnesota Humanities Center Memorial Day
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Meryll

June Author of the Month--Joseph Kanon

Meryll
Monday, 01 May 2017
Highlighted Books
June Author of the Month--Joseph Kanon
​Leslie and I have moved far afield from recommending books that connect to Jewish Luck. This month's author has set his upcoming novel, Defectors, in Moscow.There is at least a tenuous connection now to Jewish Luck.  The main reason for my recommendation is that Kanon's books create a world.Like many authors, Kanon favors one genre—the thrill...
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Joseph Kanon The Good German The Defector Thriller recommendations Istanbul Passage
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Meryll

Alisa's Birthday and the Siege of Leningrad

Meryll
Sunday, 12 March 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
Alisa's Birthday and the Siege of Leningrad
Happy Significant Birthday to Alisa on March 5th! Those of you who read Jewish Luck remember Alisa is one of the two women who survived the Soviet era to thrive as a world citizen today. If you check the family tree in Jewish Luck, you'll be able to work out just how old Alisa is.Alisa wrote to me saying, "I know XX is only a number! But I don't fe...
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Leningrad siege The Museum of Russian HIstory-TMORA Blokada Stalin Hero of Leningrad
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Leslie and Meryll

More, please, Joan!

Joan, we'd love to hear more! Which grandmother's cousin--it he also our cousin? Did he get to Russia before 1941 when the Russi... Read More
Monday, 13 March 2017 09:54
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Meryll

April Book of the Month: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Meryll
Wednesday, 01 March 2017
Highlighted Books
April Book of the Month: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Once upon a time, an evil king sentenced a kind Count to life imprisonment in a sprawling palace. Formerly ensconced in his plush and gilded quarters the Count was to the drafty garret. Nina, a spritely young girl, rescued the count bringing him back to life in his reduced surroundings. Alas, he couldn't rescue the grown-up Nina...
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Former People Amor Towles A Gentleman in Moscow Book review Mensch
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Meryll

A Little March with Big Repercussions

Meryll
Friday, 17 February 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
A Little March with Big Repercussions
Leslie stood with the thousands of women in D.C. on January 21. Many of our friends marched in St. Paul and other cities across the U.S. Perhaps the most unusual march that day occurred at our mom's independent living home in Encinitas, CA where fifty women from 80 to 102 years old staged their own "little march."At Friday night dinner, one of Mom'...
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Women's March in Washington Seacrest Village Protesting Trump Elderly activism Strategies after the Women's March
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Meryll

The Wildest Inauguration Ever

Meryll
Friday, 13 January 2017
Jewish Luck Blog
The Wildest Inauguration Ever
What do Alec Baldwin and Daniel Webster have in common? Inaugural dread.Baldwin tweeted last week: "I wanna perform at Trump's inauguration. I wanna sing HIGHWAY TO HELL."In 1839 Daniel Webster described the hellish situation in DC. The crowds who showed up for Andrew Jackson's inauguration were "like the inundation of the northern barbarians into ...
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Andrew Jackson Trump's inauguration Women's March in Washington Alec Baldwin Trail of Tears
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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...
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Putin Marshall Goldman Petrostate Gazprom Rozneft
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Meryll

Happy Birthday Leslie and Meryll

Meryll
Friday, 30 December 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Happy Birthday Leslie and Meryll
"When are you going to have children? "Ackkk! For all newlyweds of childbearing age, this is the dreaded question. For their parents it's the verbalization of the thought, "When will you make me a grandparent?"When my mom asked me this question she followed it up with a caveat."If you're planning on having children in the winter [in Minnesota]...
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December birthday January birthday winter break traditions
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Meryll

Connectivity

Meryll
Friday, 23 December 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Connectivity
A trove of fifty-year-old memories popped into my email inbox last week. I couldn't open the email without remembering my insecure and lonely teenager-self. What I hadn't remembered was the email attachment, a small booklet entitled "Who is Man?" and the pride I felt with its completion. The project engaged me during the fall of my sophomore year....
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CRUSY Israel Seminar Label Waldman Camp Ramah in WIsconsin Reunions
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Meryll

My Granddaughter Loves Superman

Meryll
Friday, 09 December 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
My Granddaughter Loves Superman
Superman has enthralled my seven-year-old granddaughter for months. A Superman poster looms over her bed. Superman T-shirts supplant Hello Kitty shirts. The doll house sits as if on a vacant lot in her room while action figures and an array of graphic novels for little ones (aka comic books) dot her floor-scape.When I ask her why she likes Superman...
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Superman Golem Jerry Siegel Peter Pan Superheroes
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Meryll

December Author of the Month: Jonas Hassen Khemiri

Meryll
Thursday, 01 December 2016
Highlighted Books
Jonas Hassen Khemiri has won more than thirteen literary awards in his thirty-eight years. After reading Montecore:The Silence of the Tiger, I am not surprised. This novel won the PO Enquist Literary Prize, Sweden's highest honor for a young author. Montecore was recommended to me by Professor Emeritus Roland Thorstensson of the Swedish Studies Dep...
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Jonas Hassen Khemiri Montecore Swedish novelists immigrant novels Gustavus Adolphis College
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Meryll

Not Twittering One's Life Away

Meryll
Friday, 25 November 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Not Twittering One's Life Away
What's the antonym of "early adopter" in the world of technology?Search Google and you won't find an answer. The illustration to the right suggests "laggard" and I've also heard the term "Luddite" bandied about.While I'm not a complete Luddite, I certainly fit the category of "laggard." I like seeing how the technology will work out before I shell ...
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late technology adopter early adopter Twitter Facebook Nokia
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Meryll

Return to Hope

Meryll
Saturday, 19 November 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Return to Hope
Headbanging, bubblebursting, handwringing threaded my post-election world. As I moved through last week talking to friends and acquaintances in these two liberal Minnesota counties, I felt the shock waves and the questions—could we be so out of the mainstream? Could this really be happening? What will tomorrow's United States feel like for "the oth...
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West Point Student Leadership Seminar veterans Veterans Day Minnesota Humanities Center
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Meryll

November Author of the Month: Douglas Smith

Meryll
Tuesday, 01 November 2016
Highlighted Books
November Author of the Month:  Douglas Smith
In his prologue to Former People:The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy, Douglas Smith explains how a paté fork led him to his 400+ page work, Former People:The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. (New York:Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2012).While this is a daunting work of non-fiction detailing the fall of the Russian aristocracy in...
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Douglas Smith Former People Russian aristocracy Russian Revolution
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Meryll

A Tale of Two Hospitals

Meryll
Saturday, 29 October 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Time moves at a different pace in a hospital.I barely registered the past few days which blurred into each other. The hands on the clock (yes, they have analog clocks in Minnesota hospitals) seemed to move much more slowly in the waiting areas of a hospital than anywhere else.Leslie and I have been in sync in so many ways since we began writing Jew...
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surgery pre-op anxiety Russian hospitals sepsis
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Meryll

Tasting Torah Online

Meryll
Saturday, 15 October 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Tasting Torah Online
Tasting Torah (www.tastingtorah.com) debuts this week.  I'm excited about my new website. Following the advice of the Nobel Prize winner for literature and local hero #2, Bob Dylan, who counseled, "don't look back," I am looking forward.During my seven years of retirement I've had the chance to plunge into new challenges and ind...
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Parashat hashavua Tasting Torah Shabbat recipes Genesis Bob Dylan
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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...
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Putin Tom Friedman St. Louis Park Senior HIgh Al Franken op-ed
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Meryll

Sunday Morning with a Gentleman Caller

Meryll
Friday, 30 September 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Sunday Morning with a Gentleman Caller
My alarm sounded at 4:45 AM last Sunday and adrenaline zipped through me.I laid out all the disaster scenarios for my 7:00 AM flight from Minneapolis to DC. Would I be TSA pre-cleared? Could I bring on the tiny tube of Hummus for my return flight? How long would the lines be?Of course I was early and could have slept another twenty minute...
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romantic encounters Duluth American Airlines rendezvous
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Meryll

Keeping One's Stripes

Meryll
Friday, 23 September 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Keeping One's Stripes
A slide flashes before the seventy artists of six Midwestern Jewish Art Labs.It's a tallit katan—an undershirt with ritual fringes flying like a flag from the barbed wire of liberated Auschwitz.Our lecturer, Professor Milton Katz of the Kansas City Art Institute, tells us it's the work of Zinovi Tolkatchev, a Russian soldier.I'm awed by the power o...
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Tolkatchev Milton Katz Soviet artists of World War II Kiev artists Auschwitz artists
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Meryll

The Healthiest President Ever—So What?

Meryll
Friday, 16 September 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
The Healthiest President Ever—So What?
"Trump would be the healthiest president ever," bloviated his doctor Harold Bornstein.I say, so what?Let's examine five not-so-healthy presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,  Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy. In aggregate and alphabetical order, some of their medical conditions inclu...
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Trump's health Top 20 Presidents Harold Bornstein Presidents and their health
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Meryll

Sister-Friends Forever

Meryll
Friday, 09 September 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Sister-Friends Forever
For many this marked the first week back to school. For retired teachers, this week emphasizes our freedom from alarm clocks and school calendars. When I met a friend for lunch who just retired after 40+ years of teaching, we celebrated our mutual freedom from meetings and preparing bulletin boards. Transitions were also on the conversational ...
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Sisters Literature about sisters Sisters as roomates Retirement living Riordan Mansion
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Meryll

Thoughts from Costco's Cereal Aisle

Meryll
Saturday, 03 September 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
Costco's wide aisles lend themselves to in-depth conversations when you run into a friend.You don't have to worry about blocking the other shoppers from their oversized cereal packages or clogging up the supersize aisles.Last week I found myself in conversation with a long time friend. We delved into the topic of humiliation.All of a sudden I blurt...
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humiliation shame Costco
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Meryll

It's No Joke

Meryll
Sunday, 21 August 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
It's No Joke
Leslie emailed me this photo that was originally on Christopher Diaz's Facebook page. We both found it an amusing riff on the mutual admiration Trump and Putin have declared for each other. We find the photo increasingly disturbing and we're not the only ones. There has been a spate of op-ed pieces that castigate Trump for his Putin-...
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Putin and Trump The Fool kakistocracy Putin and the Kremlin critics A fish rots from his head
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Meryll

September Book of the Month-- Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan

Meryll
Monday, 01 August 2016
Highlighted Books
September Book of the Month--  Stalin's Daughter:  The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva by Rosemary Sullivan
Reviews abound online for Stalin's Daughter. Rewards and honors have been heaped upon author Rosemary Sullivan for her comprehensive biography of Svetlana Alliluyeva.After reading all 623 pages of Stalin's Daughter while on vacation in England, my question to Rosemary Sullivan is: what prompted her to write this book?Sullivan, a Canadian, has ...
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Stalin's Daughter Rosemary Sullivan Svetlana Alliluyeva
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Meryll

Applause for Encore Careers

Meryll
Sunday, 31 July 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
I learned a new term this week—encore career.It's the current buzz word for retired adults who begin a career or plunge into a new passion.Some do this in addition to pursuing hobbies like golf or bridge or taking classes to keep their minds sharp. Others eschew the traditional retirement activities to enjoy a different career.The term wa...
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Encore career Hillary Clinton Wellesley College Marc Freedman Retired women
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Meryll

Melania's Speech: Three Made-To-Order Lesson Plans

Meryll
Friday, 22 July 2016
Jewish Luck Blog
I've been retired for six years now from teaching high school history, but sometimes I can't help reading the news and turning it into a lesson plan, or, in this case, three lesson plans.Melania's speech was perfect material for the first week of school. So, English and history teachers, enjoy the dog days of summer and stop scrounging around ...
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Lesson plans on plagiarism Melania's speech Students and plagiarism Lesson plans on irony Consequences of plagiarism
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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...
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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. "...
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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:
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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.

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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...
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