L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
Food Services
Continued from Page 16
1½ teaspoon sumac
1 scant handful fresh
parsley, chopped, for
topping Place the eggplant cubes in
a colander, and sprinkle them
with salt. Allow them to sit for
about 30 minutes; the eggplant
will “sweat,” and this removes
some of the bitterness.
Heat your oven to 400
degrees F.
Rinse the eggplant, dry it
with paper towels and place it
on a parchment-lined, rimmed
cookie sheet. Add the onions
and tomatoes to the eggplant.
Continued from Page 5
In a measuring cup, mix the
olive oil with all the remaining
ingredients except for the
parsley, and mix well with a
fork. Drizzle this mixture over
the vegetables and toss well to
coat. Bake for 30 minutes until
the eggplant is soft ; stir it
occasionally in the oven to
ensure even cooking. When
done, place the eggplant
mixture in a bowl, cover and
place it in the fridge.
Before serving, sprinkle the
salad with parsley and toss. Th is
can be enjoyed warm, chilled or
at room temperature. ●
HEALTHCARE DIRECTORY
Compassionate Caregivers 365
Companions-Housekeepers Available Now!
Call Marsha: 610-848-8847
Mekor Habracha/Center City Synagogue
(Orthodox) 1500 Walnut St., #206
Philadelphia Rosh Hashanah: Sept. 7 (9 a.m. for two
hours) and 8 (9 a.m. for two hours)
Yom Kippur: Sept. 16 (9 a.m. for two hours
and 5 p.m. for three hours)
Reservations and donations required.
Contact: 215-525-4246,
mekorhabracha@gmail.com Congregation Beth Israel Media
(Reconstructionist) 542 S. New Middletown Road
Media Rosh Hashanah: Sept. 6 (5:30 p.m. for one
hour), 7 (10 a.m. for two hours) and 8 (10 a.m.
for two hours)
Yom Kippur: Sept. 15 (7 p.m. for two hours)
and 16 (10 a.m. for three hours and 5:30 p.m.
for two hours)
Donations appreciated.
Contact: 302-373-3158,
info@bethisraelmedia.org Chabad Lubavitch of Delaware County
400 Marple Road
Broomall Rosh Hashanah: Sept. 6 (7 p.m. for one hour),
7 (9:30 a.m. for three hours) and 8 (9:30 a.m. for
three hours)
Yom Kippur: Sept. 15 (7 p.m. for two hours)
LEGAL DIRECTORY
ELDER LAW
AND ESTATE PLANNING
ROBERT A. ROVNER, Esq.
(former State Senator and Asst. Dist. Attorney)
ROVNER, ALLEN, ROVNER,
ZIMMERMAN, SIGMAN &
SCHMIDT TOLL FREE (888) D-I-A-L L-A-W
FREE CONSULTATION Personal
Injury, Disability, Divorces,
Criminal Defense, Workers
Compensation OFFICES: PENNSYLVANIA
and NEW JERSEY
www.dial-law.com 18
SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
Wills Trusts
Powers of Attorney
Living Wills
Probate Estates
Protect assets from
nursing home
LARRY SCOTT AUERBACH, ESQ.
CERTIFIED ELDER LAW ATTORNEY
CPA-PFS, J.D., LL.M.,MBA
1000 Easton Road
Abington, PA 19001
For consultation call
215-517-5566 or
1-877-987-8788 Toll Free
Website: www.Lsauerbach.com
and 16 (9:30 a.m. for four hours and 5:30 for
two hours)
Free. Contact: 610-353-3835, rabbi@jewishdelco.org
VIRTUAL Several of the synagogues above are off ering
virtual options, too. A list of those synagogues,
as well as others, follows. For more information,
reach out through the contact info above or
check the links below.
Synagogues already listed: Congregation
Ohev Shalom, Temple Adath Israel of the
Main Line (adathisrael.org/livestream), Beth
Chaim Reform Congregation (bethchaim.net),
Congregation Beth Israel Media (bethisrael-
media.org/form/hhd-tickets) Some Reconstructionist synagogues are
hosting services online exclusively. Here’s a list,
along with access links or contact info:
Virtual Reconstructionist options: Kol
Tzedek (kol-tzedek.org/high-holidays.html),
Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir (215-629-1995, info@
leyvhair.org), Or Hadash (215-283-0276, offi ce@
orhadash.com) Check out this resource from the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia for a more
extensive list of prayer options: jewishphilly.
org/high-holidays-services-2021/. ●
jsaff ren@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
5HYHUVH0RUWJDJH 5HYHUVH3XUFKDVH
BOOKEEPING SERVICES
6HUYLQJ3$ )/ 0LFKDHO)ULHGPDQ
nmls
$)LQDQFLDO3ODQQLQJ7RRO $6DIHW\1HW)RU
6HQLRUV2OGHU$GXOWV
LQIR#UHYHUVLQJPWJFRP ZZZUHYHUVLQJPWJFRP
To advertise in our
Medical & Healthcare
Directories Call
215-832-0749 JEWISH
Quickbooks Experience
610-715-3637 COMMERCIAL
LOANS CALL
EVAN SEGAL
JEFFREY HORROW
Personalized Tax Preparation
and Accounting For Individuals
and Businesses.
215-704-2080 evan@segalfinancial.com
610-828-7060 www.segalfinancial.com
SJHorrow.com See recent success stories on SJHorrow@gmail.com
our www.segalfinancial.com
Facebook page
evan@segalfinancial.com www.segalfinancial.com
EXPONENT See recent success stories on our
Facebook page
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
L ifestyle /C ulture
‘Misha’ a Tale of a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
FI L M
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
“MISHA: A MÉMOIRE of the
Holocaust Years” was supposed
to be Misha Defonseca’s
magnum opus.
The memoir, published in
1997, recounts Defonseca’s
supposed escape from Nazi
clutches as a child after her
parents’ deportation to Germany.
After leaving her foster home,
Defonseca wanders through
the Belgian woods, eventually
befriending and living amongst
a pack of wolves.
The book was translated
into 18 languages, optioned for
a Disney film and landed a spot
on Oprah Winfrey’s bookshelf
as part of Oprah’s Book Club,
though book sales in the United
States were disappointingly
low, making it a fresh story for
today’s American audience.
Soon after the memoir’s
modest international success,
it — along with Defonseca —
fell from grace. (Spoiler alert!)
Defonseca’s publisher, Jane
Daniel, found inconsistencies
in Defonseca’s story, leading
Daniel to enlist a team consisting
of a genealogist, wolf-sanctuary
founder and journalist, among
others, to uncover the real story
of Defonseca.
The fallout of Defonseca’s
exposure as a fraud is unrav-
eled in “Misha and the Wolves,”
a true-crime documentary
by Sam Hobkinson now
streaming on Netflix.
The documentary intro-
duces the story’s players, as
a series of characters — each
with a connection to Defonseca
— relay their part of the narra-
tive. Defonseca, a stoic older
woman with pulled-back gray
hair and outdated makeup,
shares her thoughts, too.
Hobkinson spends the
first third of the film building
suspense, stitching together
interviews and b-roll to leave
the audience incredulous of
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM The “real” Misha Defonseca is still alive and is an animal lover.
Defonseca’s story, with Daniel
giving the bulk of the detailing.
After Daniel reveals Misha’s
story as fraudulent, Hobkinson
tries to shock the audience: He
shoots a scene of the woman
in the first half of the film who
spoke as Defonseca sitting in
a makeup chair, removing a
wig and revealing herself to be
nothing more than an actor.
Hobkinson’s clever narra-
tive tool falls short, however,
due to one-dimensional acting
from “Defonseca,” a character
known to others as eccen-
tric and warm. Her lines feel
scripted and unoriginal, and
her perspective does not feel
special enough to warrant her
presence in the documentary.
Moreover, to pull off this
stunt the documentary holds
off on revealing the “real”
Defonseca’s face, hiding photo-
graphs and video footage from
the audience.
For a film that sets out to
correct an untruth, the lack of
footage of Defonseca during
the first half of the film is
confusing and is representa-
tive of Hobkinson’s reliance
on telling his story through
interviews, as opposed to
compelling footage.
The documentary
is packed with B-roll footage
of a fictionalized Defonseca
hiking through the woods as
a young girl or of the film
crew dismantling the set of the
fake Defonseca’s actor’s home.
These shots were a missed
opportunity to not only show
old footage, but to give the
audience an inside look at the
process of uncovering a true
mystery. In fact, “Misha and the
Wolves” shines brightest when
it walks the audience through
uncovering the truth.
Much of Defonseca’s story is
debunked by Evelyne Haendel,
an actual Belgian Holocaust
survivor. Haendel, a geneal-
ogist, dives into archives and
finds the truth about Defonseca.
When she speaks to the camera,
Haendel feels honest, vulner-
able. The shots of her traveling
around Belgium, pouring over
old records, being surprised
with what she finds, transforms
“Misha and the Wolves” into
more than just an entertaining
documentary, but a real mystery
that needs dissecting.
Haendel’s astonishment at
the lengths Defonseca went to
spin her story is what makes
the film all the more engaging.
In addition to making sense
of why Defonseca chose to
falsify her story, Haendel had
to make sense of why someone
would choose to pretend to
be a Holocaust survivor, of all
people. To see the distress
Defonseca’s falsehood caused
for a Shoah survivor further
antagonizes Defonseca and is
a profound reminder to the
audience that the Holocaust
JEWISH EXPONENT
“Misha and the Wolves” is a true-crime documentary now streaming on
Netflix. Courtesy of MetFilm Sales
remains off-limits
for appropriation.
The end of the film takes
yet another turn, as it makes a
half-hearted attempt to redeem
Defonseca, who is still alive,
and, evidently, truly an animal
lover. A shaky attempt to add
nuance to the story, Defonseca’s
redemption detracted from the
harm she caused to those who
read and were affected by her
book. It was an out-of-place
addition to the film that had
potential, but was not executed
with enough intention and felt
like an afterthought.
The story of Defonseca
is an eerie one. It warrants
a conversation about the
validity of memory and the
complex morality of those who
have lied or made other bad
choices because of their own
past strife. Though Defonseca’s
story is worth knowing,
perhaps Hobkinson wasn’t the
best choice to tell it.
Unlike Defonseca, who
uses grandeur and charisma to
convince her audience of lies,
“Misha and the Wolves” does
nearly the opposite: It tries to
set the story straight, but lacks
the imagination to truly sell its
viewers. l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
The 2021 Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and
Joseph S. Gruss Lecture in Talmudic Civil Law
Is the Value of Human Life
Paramount?: Law and Personal Autonomy in Rabbinic Law
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
5:30 PM
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School
3501 Sansom Street
Dr. Ayelet Hoffmann
2021-2022 Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law
Individually packaged meals will be available
after the lecture for in-person guests. Dietary laws
will be observed. In-person registration is required
for entrance into the building.
This program has been approved for 1.0 Substantive CLE credits for Pennsylvania lawyers. CLE credit may be available
in other jurisdictions as well. Attendees seeking CLE credit should make a payment via the online registration link in
the amount of $40.00 ($20.00 public interest/non-profit attorneys). In order to receive the appropriate amount of credit,
passwords provided throughout the program must be noted in your evaluation form.
Penn Law Alumni receive CLE credits free through The W.P. Carey Foundation’s generous commitment to Lifelong Learning.
To RSVP, please e-mail Neoshie Giles at:
gilesne@law.upenn.edu SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
19