JEWISH MOTHERS

If you don't want your stereotypes of Jewish mothers challenged, ignore this book: 50 women are featured in 'Jewish Mothers', but not one is the chicken-soup feeding yente who wants her son to be a doctor and her daughter to marry one. In a short essay, each woman offers a slice of life: Avis Miller, the first female rabbi hired by a major Conservative congregation, talks about pulpit jitters; documentary filmmaker Marcia Jarmel writes eloquently of the importance of kids and motherhood among Orthodox Jews; Sue Willis discusses about the religious discrimination suit she brought against the Pike County, Alabama, Public School district after her kids' teachers "ripped ... Star of David pins" off he children's shirts; Nancy Helman-Shneiderman describes the Jewish ritual she created for women undergoing a hysterectomy. The women's essays are moving, but the black-and-white photographs of each woman are even more arresting: photographer Lloyd Wolf captured midwife Alice Bailes catching a newborn, violinist Alicia Svigals with instrument and baby, and ventriloquist Shari Lewis with Lamb Chop. Even folks who usually disdain coffee-table books will find this one spellbinding.