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Good News on Menopause

Thank you for “The Changing Conversation Around Menopause” in the January/February 2026 issue. As an obstetrician-gynecologist for the past several decades, I have watched helplessly as many of my colleagues have ignored or minimized their menopausal patients’ complaints, mainly because they were reluctant to prescribe hormones that were considered “unsafe.” Their only options were to recommend antidepressants or beta blockers to deal with emotional issues and heart palpitations, or largely ineffective dietary supplements.  

The good news is that new generations of physicians and nurse practitioners are starting to be appropriately trained to understand that menopause is really a simple estrogen deficiency and are prescribing safer estrogen compounds. I have documented this trend in my new book, Menopause Mended: The Proven Truth About Bioidentical Hormone Therapy, Women’s Health, and the Business of Medicine.

Dr. Jerrold H. Weinberg
Milwaukee, Wisc.

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Unbeknown to me, medical treatment for menopause symptoms was not required to be covered by health insurers in New Jersey. But, thanks to State Assemblywoman Heather Simmons, a Democrat representing Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland Counties who spearheaded the effort, bill A5278 is now a law requiring health insurers in New Jersey to cover diagnosis and treatment of menopause symptoms. 

Norman Lenchitz
Pittsgrove Township, N.J.

Words Matter

In April 2024, chef Jose Andrés told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that Israel was engaged in “a war against humanity itself” in Gaza. This is not merely being “critical” of the Israel Defense Forces, as referenced in the January/February article “World Central Kitchen’s Woman in Israel.” This is eliminationist language—what do you do with a group that is at “war against humanity”?

His words were, of course, quoted in ABC’s online headline to generate maximum outrage against the Jewish state.

It was shocking, therefore, to see Hadassah Magazine’s story on the World Central Kitchen that included both a flattering quote and photograph of Andrés. With antisemitism rising from both the political left and the political right, if Jewish organizations cannot be counted on to avoid giving cover to those who foment it, who can?

Karen Bekker
Long Island, N.Y.

Nazi-Defying Artists

Thank you for the article “A Record of Beauty and Brutality” in the January/February issue. The article includes a photo of the artist Claude Cahun with a caption explaining that she staged photographic self-portraits, but it says nothing else about her amazing life. Claude Cahun was actually a nom de plume for Lucy Schwob, a very daring anti-Nazi protester who worked alongside her life partner, Suzanne Malherbe, whose real name was Marcel Moore. 

To learn more about these women, I recommend reading Paper Bullets: Two Artists Who Risked Their Lives to Defy the Nazis by Jeffrey H. Jackson.

Rhoda Schulzinger
Silver Spring, Md.

Charie Kirk and Shabbat

How dare Hadassah Magazine publish an article that cites Charlie Kirk as an authority on how to keep Shabbat (“Dialing Up Holiness,” January/February)? The article did not mention that he espoused Christian nationalist views that I see as totally the opposite of Hadassah’s principles. Mentioning him added nothing to the article.

Deborah Bearman Jewett
Minneapolis, Minn.

Welcoming Converts

I thoroughly enjoyed Rabbi Rachel Kobrin’s article, “Nobody Wants This? Everyone Should Want This,” in the January/February issue. Both the article and watching the Netflix show made me recall when my wife, Diana, decided to convert to Judaism.

I can’t say what she was thinking during the time leading up to the decision. Diana did not tell me she was planning to convert or that she had discussed it with our rabbi. I value that she went through the self-examination and acceptance of Jewish values without any real input from me. Her conversion was a product of her own deep devotion to Jewish values, customs and family.

Today, she remains a longtime board member of our synagogue’s sisterhood and active in our greater Jewish community. Diana did not just fall in love with me; she fell in love with Judaism.

Jeffrey Paul
Albuquerque, N.M.

As the “matriarch” of the most eclectic combination of family members imaginable, at 86 years old, I can remember when converts were supposed to be welcomed and treated the same as born Jews. Sadly, this wasn’t always the case, but it is still important to do so.  

That said, the Netflix series Nobody Wants This is insulting to Jews and non-Jews alike. The stereotypical Jewish mother, a typical “shiksa” and a mama’s boy young rabbi who seems clueless. Of course, rabbis are human, but I doubt any would deliberately self-sabotage like Noah.

Niki Eschen
Mason, Ohio

Celebrating More Scribes

I am writing in response to some misinformation in “Sacred Collaboration” in the November/December 2025 issue. It is implied in the feature that there are no Orthodox women working as scribes, but I am a female Orthodox soferet. Over the last nearly 20 years, I have written more than 30 megillot (Esther, Rut, Shir Hashirim) and am currently writing a sefer Torah for the Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell University.

Nava Levine-Coren
Jerusalem, Israel

The article on sofrot was fascinating but missing any mention of Avielah Barclay, who in 2003 became the first woman to be certified as a scribe. I know that because Barclay was a member of our congregation, Shaarey Tefilah in Vancouver, Canada. We were blessed to commission a Megillat Esther from Barclay and read from it on Purim in 2004. What a privilege for a congregation to read a sacred text written by one of its own!

Ross Singer
Kibbutz Maaleh Gilboa, Israel