By Barrett Holman Leak
LA JOLLA, California — We laughed, we cried….and we were moved beyond words at this year’s 15th edition of Women of Valor celebrating and honoring the lives of six women with live theatrical readings.
The delightful, touching, sometimes comedic and often bittersweet scripts were directed by Ali Viterbi and written by Sarah Price Keating, Becca Myers, Todd Salovey, and Ali Viterbi. Todd Salovey is Director of the Lipinsky Jewish Arts Festival (JFest).
“A woman of valor, who shall find?” asks the famous psalm.
It was with great excitement that we packed into Garfield Theatre at Lawrence Family JCC (a performance Sunday, June 23, will be at the Leichtag Commons in Encinitas) to be brought into the lives of six superlative women who have contributed greatly to our San Diego community. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria opened the program with a short inspiring introduction.
The honorees this year were Sara Brown, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s San Diego Office; Debbie Kornberg, the owner of Spice + Leaf; Vered Libstein, a survivor of the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel; Rabbi Devorah Marcus, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El San Diego, Bev Pamensky, the Director of Membership Services at Kindness Initiative; and Dr. Barbara Parker. a professor emerita in the Department of Medicine at UCSD and medical oncologist at UC San Diego Health.
“You can’t just sit at the top of the slide. You’ve got to go down.” That quote is what gave Debbie Kornberg the courage to give up what seemed like safety and security to pursue a dream of working with spices. The transformation of her life and the spiritual and emotional abundance that came with her new business is life changing. We learned from her life story that, in her words “Spices are a cheat to joy.” Kornberg is not only a spice expert and business owner. She teaches weekly Spice It Up with Deb: A Live Cooking Experience workshops that bring great joy to people.
Barbara Parker has a story familiar to millions of women – the guilt felt over working and having children. But she integrated both in her life because for her Judaism has provided a set of values that include tikkun olam – making the world a better place. Thus, she raised children and made Shabbat a priority in her home and the work she has done with cancer patients has saved many lives. Today, she is a grandmother with a legacy of healing. In her story we learned the importance of legacy building and about the deep gratitude she has for her life.
Through two women, Sara Brown and Rabbi Devorah Marcus, we learned more about individuality and the courage that comes from adversity. Little Sara Brown was forced by a 7th grade teacher to kneel on the floor while other students ran their fingers through her hair to search for the horns on her head that antisemites claim Jews have. Later she decided that she did not want to be a lawyer; she wanted to prevent genocide and grew up to be a leader in the field. Taking an individual path of studying genocide (despite being warned she would never have a job), she is now the holder of the first Ph.D. in Genocide Studies and directs the San Diego office of the American Jewish Committee. Sara Brown’s hope is for our Jewish community to thrive.
Rabbi Marcus ran up against sexist rejection as a married woman while trying to find a position as a rabbi and then struggled personally because she had to face fat-shaming and a 15- year struggle with infertility. We learned that both Brown and Marcus had to take non-traditional journeys to have children and, in the process, found healing.
Bev Pamensky, who stepped down as Executive Director to become Director of Member Services for Kindness Initiative, revealed an important lesson for us all through her life. She communicated that she feels called to serve. She connects people and finds ways to resolve issues in a way that involves dignity and respect. Kindness Initiative is an organization dedicated to alleviating poverty in the San Diego Jewish community. Her message is that we must understand what our needs are and then take care of them first so we can better serve others. After a life where she felt as though she was an outsider, through her service she has come to realize that being in community creates a sense of belonging and is key to a good life.
Calmness under pressure and the strength of mind to persevere and find life in desert times came through loudly with the story of Vered Libstein. Libstein is the widow of Ofir Libstein, who many in our San Diego community knew and loved. Ofir served as the Head of Sha’ar Hanegev Council. Kibbutz life there, he told her is 95% paradise and 5% hell, due to the rockets sent from Gaza to nearby Israeli towns from time to time. As the mayor of Sha’har Hanegev, San Diego’s sister city in Israel, Ofir exchanged visits with Mayor Gloria and welcomed other San Diegans. He was a leader full of life and joy.
In one quick moment he was murdered on October 7, 2023, along with Vered’s mother, son and nephew. She had to endure four funerals in a few days. But as Libstein shared with us that even after the grey times of life, it is important to focus on the beauty of God’s creation and the importance of persevering and starting over. Life will bloom again, she assured us. Vered has now launched the Darom Adom (Red South) Festival, one of Israel’s largest nature events highlighting the anemone flower’s blossoming season.
The program was opened with soulful violin playing from Myla Wingard, and at various intervals she accented and punctuated the stories. Danny Myers sang beautifully to close out the program with the song “Daddy’s Boy.” It was impossible not to give a standing ovation for the performances and to these six women whose outstanding lives call us all to live with courage, joy and purpose.
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Barrett Holman Leak is an author, educator and community organizer.
Thank you for coming and supporting JFest 🤗