I am Rachel bat Moshe ve Semha. My friends call me Ginette. I am Jewish.
Born of a Sephardi Mother and an Ashkenazi Father, and proud to have as part of my family tree – my great grandfather Rabbi Yosef Hayyim Cohen, my great uncle Nessim Cohen who was murdered at Auschwitz, and my grandfather Reuben Furman, who lived through a pogrom in Odessa to start life anew as a tailor in the Bronx.
I place the Lord before me always, when I chant the ancient words of Torah, when I touch the mezuzah, and when I give tzedakah.
My Judaism is my inner compass: guiding me to pursue righteousness, justice, kindness and love.
When called, I will answer as did our ancestors, Hineni, Here I am.
I know that God is calling and I must be there when the Jewish people cry out for our help – now and forever.
