ABSTRACT
I have never understood why Black/African American people all look alike to people who are not group members. There are multitudes of different combinations of various colors, tones, shapes, and styles that make up and differentiate the people defined by the “one drop rule” as Negroes. As this wonderful and similarly varied collection of “Jewish” histories, events, lifestyles, and relationship to Judaism attests, knowing that someone is Jewish tells us both very little as well as, potentially, a great deal about her. These stories of and by brilliant, thoughtful women, as Ellen Kaschak wished, do complicate the dominant narrative, explicating the connections between family dynamics, the development and consolidation of one's identity, and the effects of that identity on their psychotherapy practices. As the editors intended, by expanding the minyan to include multiple women's voices, this volume illuminates a wide spectrum of ways to experience oneself. Each contributor has examined her personal journey to the present understanding of who she is as a Jewish woman and what kinds of experiences were salient in shaping her. Their collective brilliance, thoughtfulness, and simplicity encourage all psychotherapist to explore our own journeys while shedding light on every reader's understanding of what it means to be Jewish.
