We want to hear from you! Please email letters to the editor to letters@hadassah.org. 

Courageous women

I appreciated the interviews with Holocaust survivors in “The Last Generation” (January/February 2025 issue), in which they shared their stories and insights. I was especially delighted to read the interview with Ronnie Breslow, as she and my mother were close friends in Philadelphia. We had lost contact after my mother’s death in 1991. After reading the story, I reconnected with Ronnie, and we have now shared memories, love and caring.

May the courage of Ronnie and all the witnesses be an inspiration to Hadassah members and friends.

Cynthia Jacobsen
Longmont, Colo.

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I applaud this moving and heartrending article about women who lived and survived the Holocaust. I, too, lived through this terror. I was born in 1934 in Munich. My parents and I were deported to Poland in October 1938, but we were returned to Germany. 

On Kristallnacht in November 1938, we were arrested and sent to Dachau, just outside Munich. At the time, Dachau was a work camp, but I was too young to work and was released. I was then smuggled into Holland and hidden with a German Jewish family, the Fritz Steins, who lived in Amsterdam.

I have written a memoir about my experience titled I Was Born in an Old Age Home.

I also speak publicly about what I endured and my survival and have suffered antisemitic backlash. For example, I recently spoke at the Berkeley City Council on their recognition of their Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration and was heckled and shouted down.

Susanne Kalter DeWitt
Berkeley, Calif. 

Must moving on mean forgiveness?

I read with interest, and some skepticism, “I Forgive a Country” in the January/February issue. Is it not a bit presumptuous to say “I forgive” when we were not the victims? While atrocities committed in Europe by Nazi Germany may have affected us indirectly as descendants, we were not the ones subject to the torture, nor were we imprisoned in concentration camps. How do we take it upon ourselves, therefore, to bestow forgiveness in the name of those who were? 

I understand the impetus to want to move on, let go of the anger. A laudable thing, many would say. But forgiving, that is quite something else.

Eva Zimmerman
Queens, N.Y. 

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After years of soul searching and wondering what my (deceased) parents would think, I reclaimed the German citizenship that had been denied them and my grandparents, just as author Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor did. I still had mixed feelings when I attended a reception for new citizens hosted by the German consulate in Boston, but the welcome speech given by Consul General Sonja Kreibich moved me profoundly. She forthrightly acknowledged Germany’s guilt and sorrow for its shameful past and its sincere desire to atone. I am now ready to embrace my new citizenship.

Today, Germany doesn’t require allegiance to a flag or any other symbol. I came away with a feeling that my birth country and many others could benefit from this lesson in accepting responsibility

Doris Cohen
Northampton, Mass.

Righteous in Buffalo

As a proud Hadassah member and second-generation Holocaust survivor, I want to applaud Alexandra Lapkin Schwank’s article on the The Politzer Saga and Linda Ambrus Broennimain’s late mother, Dr. Clara Ambrus. While the January/February article, “A Family Saga in Several Spaces,” was exceptional, there were two critical pieces of information that were missing.

The mural, painted by Hungarian artist TakerOne, featured not only Dr. Ambrus but two other local heroes who have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations—Tibor Baranski and Sister Margit Slachta. The article also failed to note the leading role of the Buffalo Jewish Federation in spearheading the project and raising the necessary funds. This work was a major initiative of Buffalo’s Holocaust Education Resource Organization (HERO) to educate our community about the Holocaust and combat antisemitism.

It is rewarding to see these righteous heroes publicly celebrated in Buffalo and in Hadassah Magazine.

Judge Lisa Bloch Rodwin
Buffalo, N.Y.

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I read “A Family Saga in Several Spaces” and kept coming back to Linda Ambrus Broenniman’s statement that “While I hold immense respect for Judaism and its traditions, I’ve realized that my spiritual path lies outside of organized religion.” It made me sad because I believe that organized religion, especially Judaism, provides a community while allowing congregants to explore their spirituality in many ways. There are so many denominations that provide such vibrant spaces, and I am sorry that more people don’t join organized religion for that alone. 

Abby Mayou
Hardwick, Mass. 

A Jewish author on being canceled

I am the author of Not From Here: The Song of America, the book reviewed by Judy Bolton-Fasman in the January/February issue. 

Advance marketing for Not From Here began September 1, 2023. There were immediate requests for review materials from editors at The New York Times, Elle Magazine and Oprah Daily, among other outlets. The Daily Beast requested an essay, which I wrote and they happily approved. 

One month into the marketing campaign, war broke out in Gaza. Every commitment, inquiry and request evaporated. Editors ghosted us. The Daily Beast canceled my essay four days before the posting date. When we asked for a reason, they said, “We changed the rules.” Indeed.

To date, on Amazon, Not From Here has only 13 reviews. 

Which is to say, finding Hadassah Magazine’s review of a canceled book that represents years of my life, that was to be a breakout, that was getting high interest from major sources before the widespread boycotting of Jewish authors in the wake of Gaza, brought tears to my eyes. 

I guess the world is the world, but always, we take care of each other. Thank you for your support at a difficult time for Jewish authors. I won’t forget this.

Leah Lax
Houston, Tex.