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Sherri Mandell is an Israeli-American^[1] author, mother and activist. She is best known as the mother of Koby Mandell, a thirteen-year-old American boy who was murdered near their home in Tekoa in May 2001.^[2]^[3] Sherri Mandell and her husband, Rabbi Seth Mandell, founded the Koby Mandell Foundation, and she wrote a book about the murder, The Blessing of a Broken Heart.

Education and professional history

Mandell was born in New York and graduated from Cornell University in 1977. She received an M.A. in creative writing from Colorado State University and taught writing at the University of Maryland and at Penn State University. She is the author of Writers of the Holocaust, and has written for numerous magazines and journals, including The Washington Post, The Denver Post and The Jerusalem Post, and Hadassah Magazine. She and her husband currently write a blog at JPost.com.Heart Earned Wisdom

Family

Sherri and Seth Mandell briefly lived in Israel, where she gave birth to their first child, Yaakov (Koby). In 1996, with her husband and their four children, she returned to Israel where she still lives today. Sherri and Seth, a rabbi and Israel activist, spent several years in Chinuch, Jewish education, prior to moving to Israel. Seth was the executive director of the University of Maryland Hillel in College Park, Maryland, from 1990 to 1996, and prior to that was the director of the Penn State University Hillel. The time they spent as a Hillel family, particularly when they were living in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, interested them in activism.

Murder of Koby Mandell

On May 8, 2001, Koby and a friend, Yosef Ishran, took off from school to hike in a canyon close to their home in Tekoa. Koby and Yosef were found bludgeoned to death with stones, an act attributed to Palestinian terrorists, although the murderers were never found. Sherri Mandell founded the Koby Mandell Foundation in their son's memory. She is featured as an expert speaker on the documentary Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel.

The Koby Mandell Foundation

The Koby Mandell Foundation, established in 2002, runs healing programs for families that have been directly affected by terror in Israel, having lost an immediate family member to a terrorist attack or an act of war. The Foundation sponsors Camp Koby, its flagship program, for children that have lost a parent or a sibling in an act of terror; Mothers' Healing Retreats for women bereaved by terrorist violence, and similar retreats for widows who have lost a husband to terror or war. Sherri currently directs the Mothers' Healing Retreats.

Books

The Blessing of a Broken Heart (Toby Press, 2003) won the 2004 National Jewish Book Award in the Contemporary Jewish Life category.^[4] The book describes Sherri’s loss, her struggle with the first stages of mourning, her journey to find peace, and her growing faith as she endeavors to understand her pain in the context of 3,000 years of Jewish history and tradition. The book was translated into three languages and has also been made into a stage play.

Her next book, The Road to Resilience (Toby Press, 2015) redefines resilience as a process of becoming greater as a result of challenges.

She is also the author of two picture books, “The Upside Down Boy and the Israeli Prime Minister” and 'The Elephant in the Sukkah.” Her latest memoir is about pastoral counseling and is called “Reaching for Comfort.”

References

^ Grieving Mothers Come Together to Beat Back Effects of Violence Jewish Exponent
^ The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and Growing Role in Policy, Legislation, and the Private Sector (Occasional Paper) p. 28
^ San Diego Magazine Jan 2008 p. 104
^ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-19.

[1] Grieving Mothers Come Together to Beat Back Effects of Violence Jewish Exponent

[2] The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and Growing Role in Policy, Legislation, and the Private Sector (Occasional Paper) p. 28

[3] San Diego Magazine Jan 2008 p. 104

[4] "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2020-01-19.

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[2]

[3]

[4]

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+{{Short description|Israeli-American author, mother and activist}}
-'''Sherri Mandell''' is an author, a mother and an activist.  She is perhaps best known as the mother of [[Koby Mandell]], a thirteen year old [[United States|American]] boy who was murdered near their home in [[Israel]] in May 2001. His body was found in a cave alongside that of his best friend. Both boys had been bludgeoned to death with large rocks the size of bowling balls.
+{{BLP sources|date=March 2011}}
+'''Sherri Mandell''' is an [[Israeli-American]]<ref>[http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/13154/ Grieving Mothers Come Together to Beat Back Effects of Violence] ''Jewish Exponent''</ref> author, mother and activist. She is best known as the mother of [[Murder of Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran|Koby Mandell]], a thirteen-year-old [[United States|American]] boy who was murdered near their home in Tekoa in May 2001.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cA-jetiOXEQC&dq=Sherri+Mandell+settlement&pg=PA28 The Victims of Terrorism: An Assessment of Their Influence and Growing Role in Policy, Legislation, and the Private Sector (Occasional Paper)] p. 28</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OwIEAAAAMBAJ&dq=Sherri+Mandell+settlement&pg=PA104 San Diego Magazine Jan 2008] p. 104</ref> Sherri Mandell and her husband, Rabbi Seth Mandell, founded the Koby Mandell Foundation, and she wrote a book about the murder, ''The Blessing of a Broken Heart''.
+==Education and professional history==
-Sherri Mandell and her husband, Rabbi Seth Mandell, responded to this tragedy by founding The Koby Mandell Foundation.  She also wrote a book, entitled ''The Blessing of a Broken Heart'', in which she details the events of that day, and talks about how she was able to cope with the trauma and grow as a person.
+Mandell was born in [[New York (state)|New York]] and graduated from [[Cornell University]] in 1977. She received an M.A. in creative writing from [[Colorado State University]] and taught writing at the [[University of Maryland, College Park|University of Maryland]] and at [[Penn State University]]. She is the author of ''Writers of the Holocaust,'' and has written for numerous magazines and journals, including ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[The Denver Post]]'' and ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'', and ''[[Hadassah Magazine]]''. She and her husband currently write a blog at JPost.com.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110208045756/http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/mandell/ Heart Earned Wisdom]
+==Family==
+Sherri and Seth Mandell briefly lived in Israel, where she gave birth to their first child, Yaakov (Koby). In 1996, with her husband and their four children, she returned to Israel where she still lives today. Sherri and Seth, a rabbi and Israel activist, spent several years in [[Chinuch]], Jewish education, prior to moving to Israel. Seth was the executive director of the University of Maryland Hillel in College Park, Maryland, from 1990 to 1996, and prior to that was the director of the Penn State University Hillel. The time they spent as a Hillel family, particularly when they were living in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]], a suburb of Washington, DC, interested them in activism.
+==Murder of Koby Mandell==
-== Education and Professional History ==
+On May 8, 2001, Koby and a friend, Yosef Ishran, took off from school to hike in a canyon close to their home in Tekoa. Koby and Yosef were found bludgeoned to death with stones, an act attributed to Palestinian terrorists, although the murderers were never found. Sherri Mandell founded the Koby Mandell Foundation in their son's memory. She is featured as an expert speaker on the documentary ''[[Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel]]''.
+==The Koby Mandell Foundation==
-Sherri Mandell was born in [[New York]] and graduated from [[Cornell University]] in 1977.  She received an M.A. in Creative Writing from [[Colorado State University]] and taught writing at the [[University of Maryland]] and at [[Penn State University]]. She is the author of ''Writers of the Holocaust'' and has written for numerous magazines and journals, including ''[[The Washington Post]]'', ''[[The Denver Post]]'' and ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'', as well as ''[[Hadassah Magazine]]''. Sherri and her husband Seth currently write a blog at JPost.com.[http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/wisdom/ Heart Earned Wisdom]
+The Koby Mandell Foundation, established in 2002, runs healing programs for families that have been directly affected by terror in Israel, having lost an immediate family member to a terrorist attack or an act of war. The Foundation sponsors Camp Koby, its flagship program, for children that have lost a parent or a sibling in an act of terror; Mothers' Healing Retreats for women bereaved by terrorist violence, and similar retreats for widows who have lost a husband to terror or war. Sherri currently directs the Mothers' Healing Retreats.
-== Family ==
+==Books==
+''The Blessing of a Broken Heart'' ([[Toby Press]], 2003) won the 2004 [[National Jewish Book Award]] in the Contemporary Jewish Life category.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|access-date=2020-01-19}}</ref> The book describes Sherri’s loss, her struggle with the first stages of mourning, her journey to find peace, and her growing faith as she endeavors to understand her pain in the context of 3,000 years of Jewish history and tradition. The book was translated into three languages and has also been made into a stage play.
+Her next book, ''The Road to Resilience'' (Toby Press, 2015) redefines resilience as a process of becoming greater as a result of challenges.
-In 1996, with her husband and their four children, Sherri moved to Israel, where she still lives today.  Sherri and Seth, a rabbi and Israel activist, spent several years in [[Chinuch]], Jewish education, prior to moving to Israel. Seth Mandell was the executive director of the University of Maryland Hillel in College Park, Maryland, from ?? until 1996.  Before that he was the director of the Penn State University Hillel. The time they spent as a Hillel family, particularly when they were living in [[Silver Spring, Maryland]], a suburb of Washington, DC, developed within Sherri and Seth a sense of activism, which carried them through the terrible, personal tragedy that they would have to face several years later.
+She is also the author of two picture books, “The Upside Down Boy and the Israeli Prime Minister” and 'The Elephant in the Sukkah.” Her latest memoir is about pastoral counseling and is called “Reaching for Comfort.”
-In moving to Israel, Sherri and Seth hoped to fulfill the [[Zionist]] dream of settling the Land of Israel, and to raise their children as Israelis, growing up with a love of Judaism and the land.  In fact, they had lived there previously, briefly, and that is where Sherri gave birth to their first child, Yaakov (Koby) Mandell.
+==References==
-== Tragedy and Worldwide News ==
+{{Reflist}}
-On May 8, 2001, Koby and a friend, Yosef Ish-Ran, played hooky from school to hike in a canyon close to their home in Tekoa. Koby and Yosef were found bludgeoned to death with stones, an act attributed to Palestinian terrorists, although the murderers were never found.  News of the brutal murders swept across the world. The boys were held up as martyrs, symbols for the age-old hatred between two sets of people.
+{{authority control}}
-Despite the despair that engulfed her in the first days after Koby's death, Sherri's strong bond with her husband, and her deep religious faith, grieve, cope with the pain and the guilt she felt about raising her family in an unsafe place, and find meaning and purpose in her drastically changed life.
-Determined to turn this act of hate into love, the Mandells established the Koby Mandell Foundation in their son's memory.
-== The Koby Mandell Foundation ==
-The Koby Mandell Foundation, established in 2002, runs healing programs for families that have been directly affected by terror in Israel, having lost an immediate family member to a terrorist attack or an act of war.  The Foundation sponsors Camp Koby, its flagship program, for children that have lost a parent or a sibling in an act of terror; Mothers' Healing Retreats for women bereaved by terrorist violence, and similar retreats for widows who have lost a husband to terror or war.  Sherri currently directs the Mothers' Healing Retreats, an innovative healing program of The Koby Mandell Foundation that she hopes brings love, support and healing to mothers and widows bereaved by terrorism.
-== The Blessing of a Broken Heart ==
-Her most recent book is hailed as an uplifting, sometimes heartbreaking exploration of her own experience losing her son. ''The Blessing of a Broken Heart'' (Toby Press, 2003) won the 2004 National Jewish Book Award in the Contemporary Jewish Life category.  In it, Sherri presents her unique perspective on the hidden power of tragedy based on her own harrowing experience. The book describes Sherri’s loss, her struggle with the first stages of mourning, her journey to find peace, and her growing faith as she endeavors to understand her pain in the context of 3,000 years of Jewish history and tradition.
-== Summary ==
-Mandell was born in [[New York]]. She is a graduate of [[Cornell University]] and has a Master's degree in creative writng from  [[Colorado State University]]. Sherri Mandell was a professor at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]] and at [[Penn State University]].
-Sherri Mandell immigrated to [[Israel]] in 1996 where she continued her writings and is director of [http://www.kobymandell.org/index.html The Koby Mandell Foundation] Women's Healing Retreat for Bereaved Mothers and Widows.
-Mandell is featured as an expert speaker on the documentary [[Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in Israel]]
 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandell, Sherri}}
 [[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
 [[Category:Living people]]
-[[Category:Writers]]
+[[Category:American women non-fiction writers]]
-[[Category:Women]]
+[[Category:Jewish American activists]]
-[[Category:Activists]]
+[[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]]
+[[Category:Jewish women writers]]
+[[Category:Israeli settlers]]
+[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
+[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
+[[Category:21st-century American women]]

Authority control databases
International	VIAF FAST
National	United States Israel