The Chochmat Nashim Podcast: Women Talk Judaism · Jewish Coffee House

Talking Grief: In Memory of Laura Ben-David z"l (Season 8 Episode 15)

·40 min·2 clips

"They're not gone, they're still with you" became real for Shoshana after Laura's death.

The podcast opens with Anne Gordon and Shoshana Kutz-Jaskol speaking plainly about Laura Ben-David's death. They never pretend it is anything less than painful. From the start, the discussion treats grief as universal, something even people who have been lucky enough to avoid it so far will eventually know. Laura is remembered as someone who loved life and Israel, a master photographer, a Chokhmat Nashim board member, and a fierce friend who stood up to injustice. The hosts also name the family mourning her, from her husband and children to her mother, sisters, brother, and grandchildren. That detail keeps the episode grounded. It is not trying to smooth loss into abstraction. Instead, it asks how a community carries pain together. Two close friends join the conversation, and their memories broaden the picture of Laura. Each story adds another piece of who she was. The result is not a tidy summary. It is a fuller sense of presence built from absence. One speaker reflects on how grief shared aloud can feel less like a burden than reciprocity. Another pushes on the idea that loss can make someone feel both more absent and more vivid at once. The conversation keeps circling back to friendship, mutual care, and the importance of showing up for one another. There is also a clear-eyed recognition that gathering around pain does not make it disappear. If anything, shared knowing can sharpen what is missing. By the end, the hosts move from remembrance to challenge. They ask listeners to hug people close, keep them real for themselves, keep them alive, and make the most of the time they have.

As heard by us

A grief conversation that turns one loss into a fuller portrait of friendship, presence, and shared memory.

Laura Ben-David's death sits at the center of this conversation, and the episode treats grief as something a community carries together, not alone.

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Why you'd press play

When you want grief handled with memory, candor, and no decorative comfort.

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