 FEBRUARY 4 • 2021 | 37

Creative Writers Wanted 
by Historical Society

The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan is calling 
all creative writers. The group is soliciting poetry and 
personal essays (up to 1,500 words), for the “Creative 
Expressions” sections of the 2021 issue of its journal, 
Michigan Jewish History — related to the theme of Jewish 
participation in public life. 
 Public life is defined broadly: philanthropy, activism, 
political participation, military service, teaching, board 
membership, writing, tour-guiding and more.
Editor/Curator Joy Gaines-Friedler will help you edit.
 To submit a piece for consideration (by mid-Feb-
ruary), email a Word document to Gaines-Friedler at 
caboti@yahoo.com. 
 For questions about Michigan Jewish History, email 
managing editor Tracy Weissman at tweissman@mich-
jewishhistory.org. 

B’nai Moshe Hosts Victim of Neo-Nazis

Congregation 
B’nai Moshe of 
West Bloomfield 
will welcome 
Tanya Gersh to a 
virtual town hall 
7 p.m. Sunday, 
March 21, to 
discuss how 
she and her family dealt 
with months of abusive 
antisemitic messages from 
the publisher of a neo-Nazi 
website.
A U.S. judge ruled that 
the publisher of a neo-Nazi 
website, who organized 
a “troll storm” to target 
Tanya Gersh and her 
family should have to pay 
more than $14 million in 
damages and remove all 
posts that encouraged his 
readers to contact her. The 
judge called the harassment 
campaign, launched by the 
Daily Stormer publisher 
Andrew Anglin “egregious 
and reprehensible.
”
Anglin targeted Gersh, a 
Jewish real estate agent in 
Whitefish, Mont., a town 
where the prominent white 
nationalist Richard Spencer 
and his family have some-
times lived.

The anonymous 
internet trolls bom-
barded her family 
with hateful and 
threatening messages 
after Anglin published 
their personal infor-
mation, including a 
photo of her young 
son. In a string of posts, 
Anglin accused Gersh and 
other Jewish residents of 
Whitefish of engaging in an 
“extortion racket” against 
the mother of white nation-
alist Richard Spencer. Gersh 
said she had agreed to help 
Spencer’s mother sell com-
mercial property she owns 
in Whitefish. 
Gersh said she received 
threatening emails, texts 
and voicemails, including 
promises to drive her to sui-
cide and “endless references 
to being thrown in the oven, 
being gassed.
“Sometimes when I 
answered that phone all I 
heard were gunshots,
” she 
said.
Registration for the virtu-
al town hall is free; however, 
registration is required at 
www.bnaimoshe.org. 

Tanya Gersh

SPOTLIGHT

JTA
R

abbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, 
the scion of multiple Hasidic 
dynasties, author of more 
than 60 books, and a physician who 
became a leading authority on drug 
treatment, has died.
Rabbi Twerski, 90, had 
been battling COVID-19 in 
Israel, according to Yeshiva 
World News.
Born in Milwaukee into a 
family of incomparably dis-
tinguished rabbinic stock, 
Rabbi Twerski was descend-
ed on his father’s side from 
Rabbi Menachem Nachum Twersky, 
the founder of the Chernobyl Hasidic 
dynasty also known by the name of 
his work of Torah commentary, Me’
or 
Einayim. His mother was the daughter 
of the Bobover Hasidic rebbe.
A noted Judaic scholar in his own 
right, Rabbi Twerski was among the 
last of a breed of rabbinic authori-
ties who also achieved recognized 
expertise in secular subjects and 
frequently presented at academic and 
professional conferences in the full 
Hasidic garb he wore every day. After 
graduating from medical school in 
1960, he spent two decades as the 
clinical director of the psychiatry unit 
at St. Francis Hospital in Pittsburgh. 
In 1972, he founded Gateway Rehab 
in Pittsburgh.
Rabbi Twerski wrote more than 
60 books, most of which were aimed 
at Jewish readers but some of which 
were published for a general audi-
ence. His books addressed both 
religious subjects and self-help topics 
— including happiness, self-esteem, 
and marital issues — and some-
times both. He was also a fan of the 
comic strip “Peanuts” and authored 
two books with its creator, Charles 
Schultz.
Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, a 
psychologist and former executive 

vice president of the Orthodox 
Union, said Rabbi Twerski would 
often say that though he had written 
dozens of books, he had really writ-
ten just one book about one subject: 
self-esteem. 
That interest was rooted 
in his psychiatric training, 
but was also connected 
to his Hasidic worldview, 
including the teachings of 
the Hasidic movement’s 
founder, the Baal Shem Tov, 
whose philosophy centered 
on authenticity — and, in 
Rabbi Twerski’s understanding, 
self-esteem.
“In terms of relating to people, 
relationships, understanding the soul 
and the psyche, those are the values 
that he grew up with and in medical 
school he found that in psychiatry,
” 
Weinreb said.
In 1996, Rabbi Twerski wrote The 
Shame Borne in Silence, becoming one 
of the first major Orthodox leaders 
to speak publicly about domestic vio-
lence and other forms of abuse in the 
Orthodox community.
Rabbi Twerski was a vocal pro-
ponent of Alcoholics Anonymous, 
whose 12 steps he found entirely con-
sonant with Jewish teachings, despite 
its origins in Christian thought. 
He even defended the practice of 
attending AA meetings in church 
basements, something many strictly 
observant Jews are loath to do.
Within the Orthodox community, 
Rabbi Twerski founded Nefesh, an 
association for mental health work-
ers, spanning the range of Orthodox 
observance and making clear that 
he saw no contradiction between 
his Orthodox faith and his scientific 
pursuits.
“He was a great believer that there 
was no contradiction,
” Weinreb said. 
“
A person could be a person of great 
faith and a rigorous scientist.
” 

Rabbi Twerski, 90,
Psychiatrist, Author

Rabbi Abraham 
Twerski

STEVE CHRISTO/FAIRFAX 

MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES/JTA

