Death Duties: Loss, Mourning and the Chevra Kadisha

Join us on Motzaei Shabbat in the Lower Level Beit Midrash, for a book talk with Sally Berkovic about her new book Death Duties: Loss, Mourning and the Chevra Kadisha

On a significant birthday, Sally gave herself the gift of joining the Chevra Kadisha in London, UK. Her presentation, marking the 7^th of Adar, will talk about these experiences and drawing on historical objects and visual arts, Sally will highlight how the Chevra Kadisha has been represented as an integral part of Jewish communal life.  Her book, Death Duties,  is a poignant reflection on her own experiences of grief and loss, and challenges the reader to ask the tough questions about one’s legacy, digital footprint and the conversations about death and dying with our loved ones.

Sally was born in Australia and is the daughter of Slovakian Holocaust survivors. She grew up in Melbourne and lived in Jerusalem and New York before an epistolary romance brought her to London. Since 2009, she has been the CEO of the Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe, supporting Jewish heritage and culture. Her first book, Under My Hat was published in 1997 and was short-listed for the Jewish Quarterly Prize. It is a social commentary-cum-memoir focused on the challenges of raising daughters while straddling the tensions between an Orthodox religious life and the competing forces of secularism. Updated and reissued in 2019, the book explores the impact of more than 20 years of evolutionary change, including women’s scholarship, Orthodox women clergy, enhanced ritual participation and women's political and communal leadership.

Read her website – https://sallyberkovic.com/  for more of her writing and radio work.

Please RSVP below to receive an access code to enter the building and the Zoom link.