The most dramatic operation she [Fruma Ya’el] had done in twenty years was to extract a well-deserved bullet from Pinkas Rabinovich’s backside after a tavern brawl. Never did she imagine she would be called upon to perform such grisly surgery as she had on a poor orphan. She wiped the amputation blade with her rag and laid it in the mahogany case between a pair of scissors and a scalpel. What else could she have done? Sometimes life left one no choices.  

Taken from PLEASE SAY KADDISH FOR ME by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields         

• 

  Original Artwork © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Although Havah’s introduction to Fruma Ya’el is a painful one, she will become one of the most important people in the girl’s life.

            Fruma Ya’el Levine, the cantor’s wife, is a one of Svechka’s most beloved citizens for she is the village midwife. She is proud of the fact that she’s seen most of the babies’ faces before their own mothers. Her great love of children has earned her the title of Auntie Fruma.

            In her youth she had the opportunity to immigrate to America to study medicine, but tragic circumstances barred the way. Trapped in an arranged and empty marriage, she pours her love into her only living child, Gittel.

            Fruma Ya’el sees in Havah the passionately intelligent girl she used to be. Little by little an ironclad bond forms between them.

Published by W&B Publishers

Represented by Loiacono Literary Agency

***

As a child growing up in a Jewish family, it never occurred to me that not everyone had a Hebrew name. My friend Lori Ginson was proud of her Yiddish/Hebrew name “Fruma Ya’el,” meaning Pious Strength of God. However Lori was a troubled soul and died much too young. I think she would be pleased that I gave her name to one of the strongest characters in my novels. 

 Lori “Fruma Ya’el” Ginson

1962-2004