Lilith, “How A Father’s Addiction Formed A Jewish Feminist”

Activism for just causes is part of my Jewish tradition. I wasn’t given a Jewish education; such education was reserved for my brother. But I became interested in Judaism through the women’s movement and its consciousness-raising, to which I gravitated because I was the daughter of a Jewish heroin addict. Feminism helped me understand why…

Jewish Book Council, Visiting Scribe

Dr. Sharon Leder Associate Professor Emerita is a natural organizer who founded Jewish Studies at S.U.N.Y.-Nassau Community College. Past Vice President of Am HaYam Cape Cod Havurah she currently serves its Interfaith Justice Committee. She is the author of the The Fix: A Father’s Secrets, A Daughter’s Search. Read full article here

Author Interview with Dr. Pamela Brewer (MyNDTalk.org)

Eight-year-old Sara Katz huddles under the covers, listening to her parents’ muffled arguments and fighting the sleep that inevitably brings her bad dreams. Is my daddy a good father? Is it my job to fix him? As Josef Katz’ sickness worsens, young Sara is torn apart by her family’s need to keep its “shame” a…

A Jewish Woman Attends Nar-Anon

My father, who suffered from heroin addiction from 1939 until 1963, never felt comfortable following the version of twelve steps he encountered his last year of life in one of the first methadone clinics in New York City, a Harlem storefront directed by Dr. William Baird. I remember my father telling my mother that he…