Wednesday, Feb 4, 2026
Women’s Leadership Forum Member Event
5:30 pm
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For more information about the event, please scroll down.
Live at The Weitzman + Livestream
About the Event
Join the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and the Jewish Book Council for this season’s Women’s Leadership Forum event, featuring a lively mother–daughter conversation offering humor, candor, and a rare look at the creative process and the bonds that shape the stories we tell.
Author Esther Levy Chehebar and her mother, Sylvia Levy, will delve into Sisters of Fortune—a sparkling debut novel that has critics comparing Esther’s sharp observations and emotional insight to Jane Austen. Through the story of three Syrian Jewish sisters navigating love, tradition, and identity in Brooklyn, Esther blends wit, warmth, and cultural specificity in a way that feels both timeless and entirely new.
Light bites and drinks will be served ahead of the program by Lilah Events.
For details about the event, please contact Brittany Andrews at bandrews@theweitzman.org or call (215) 391-4634.
About the Author
Esther Chehebar is a contributing writer at Tablet magazine, where she covers Sephardic Jewish tradition and community, and a member of Sephardic Bikur Holim, a non-profit supporting the growing Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA from the New School, and her work has been featured in Glamour and Man Repeller. Chehebar’s first book, I Share My Name, was an illustrated children’s book explaining the Sephardic tradition of naming children for their grandparents. She lives in New York with her husband, their kids, their Ori-Pei named Jude, and a couple of fish. Sisters of Fortune is her debut novel.
About the Book
Sisters of Fortune follows three Syrian Jewish sisters who chase love and grapple with the growing pains of young womanhood as they seek their place within and beyond their Brooklyn community. Their stories battle between tradition and modernity, reckoning with what their Syrian Jewish community wants and with what they want for themselves in America.
Read more about Esther Levy Chehebar and Sisters of Fortune, by clicking here.
About the Women’s Leadership Forum
The Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF) is a membership program in collaboration with Jewish Book Council that convenes around educational opportunities here at the Weitzman. The group supports The Weitzman and JBC’s shared mission to educate and celebrate Jewish history, heritage, and culture. We hope you will consider joining the Forum and stay up to date on all the exciting events to come! For more information about membership in the WLF, please contact Brittany Andrews at bandrews@theweitzman.org or call (215) 391-4634.
WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP FORUM
Event Chair
Jane Weitzman
Committee Members
Peggy Abrams
Bryna Berman
Sharyn Berman
Elisa Spungen Bildner*
Maxine Comisky
Dede Feinberg
Barrie Franklin
Terri Gelberg
Gwen Goodman
Joy Grenadier Greenberg*
Joanna Samson Greenfield
Margie Honickman
Sharon Tobin Kestenbaum**
Alexandra Lebovits
Mark Oster**
Lysa Puma
Nancy Isen Roberts
Lyn Ross
Sherrie Savett
Mimi Schneirov
Charlotte Schwartz
Rachel Shaw
Angelica Roiz Shenkar
Meredith Slawe
Samantha Spilkin
Dana Tadmor
*Indicates Jewish Book Council Executive Leadership
** Indicates Weitzman Executive Leadership
