Recently,
the Bukharian Jewish Women (BJW) Book Club celebrated its first anniversary,
and 20 women gathered in person for our April 2023 Book Club get-together at
the beautiful Bukharian Jewish Community Center (special thanks to Iosif Khaimov for the
hospitality).
Irina
Aronov and I have the privilege of co-leading this wonderful community
activity.
Our
latest book was «Lioness Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel» by Francine
Klagsbrun, which provided a fertile ground for a thought-provoking discussion.
We aimed to understand Golda as a politician, mother, and wife.
Svetlana
Levitina shared her experience of working with Golda and described her as a
good listener, wise advisor, and a very warm person. My mother, Larisa
Alishayeva, shared how in 1947, her aunt's husband, Michael Leviev, met Golda
Meir in Moscow while she was an ambassador and said to her the famous Pesach
Haggadah phrase «Next year in Jerusalem». Unfortunately, his contact with Golda
resulted in his imprisonment.
We are blessed
that we can visit Israel whenever we want. I was fortunate to go to Israel with
#ProjectInspire in March 2023. This spiritual, fun, and learning-filled trip
made me love our land and people even more.
Idealists
such as Golda Meir, Ben Gurion, Chaim Weitzman, and many others made it
possible for us to have the country of Israel, which recently celebrated its
75th birthday. As the saying goes, our country is 3000 years old and 75 years
young! Through our monthly meetups and discussions, we are discovering that we
have many accomplished, curious, smart women in the Bukharian Jewish community
who want to grow, learn, and have fun together. It's amazing to see how each
woman wants to do something for others. I am thankful to all of our
participants but would like to hi-light contributions of some people a bit
more:
Leya
Yusupov, the visionary and a photographer, she created a movement of Bukharian
Jewish women that inspired many young women, leading to the creation of the BJW
Facebook group and the book club. She also took amazing shots of many women in
our book club and we now have priceless memories.
Nelly
Abayev, an artist (www.romanticdecorativeart.com), gifted our book club
participants custom-created bookmarks, each done with love and amazing
creativity and embroidered with the BJW logo.
Marina
Abayeva came to our book club and taught us meditation and stretching
techniques.
Viktoriya
Khanimov created a sip and paint event where we painted our canvases with
books! Next event is being planned for June – stay tuned.
Vera Borukhov organized dance activity for book
club members, she is also a very active participant and a
leader of our club.
Diana Sionov,
organized trip to a theater performance about Yemenite Jews, and also a trip to
a Jewish Museum. Diana reads books with the most attention to detail (I think
she hasn’t skipped a page and we read more than 10,000 pages by now!).
I am amazed by the
diverse talents and skills of the women in our community and the ways we are
coming together to support each other and give back. I am grateful to the
participants of our club as without them there would be no such club!
I’d like to conclude this saga with a Golda Meir quote – «To say whether women
are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse».
Elana Yuabov, CPA, PMP & a poet
