inspirational woman Archives » Michelle Trauring

A Night Inside ‘Bubby’s Kitchen’ With Shira Ginsburg

Blog October 6, 2021

As the tradition goes, the center of many Jewish households is the kitchen. And for Judith Ginsburg, hers was no exception.

She took pride in her vibrant, tight-knit family piling around the table, sharing laughs and smiles and food — by far and away her love language — and it was there that her granddaughter, Shira, first heard her Bubby’s stories about World War II.

In fact, she can’t imagine a time that she hasn’t known them — or when she started to realize they were unique.

“Like any other child, you don’t know that you’re different, that anything is different, until you get a little bit older and you start to see yourself in the context of the rest of the world,” Shira Ginsburg said during a telephone interview. “So for me, it was just what I knew — until I started telling people my grandparents were in the woods in the war, and they were like, ‘What do you mean, like, camping?’”

Not quite. As teenagers, Judith Ginsburg and her husband, Motke, lived for years in the forests of Belarus, serving as resistance fighters against the Nazi regime.

‘I’m Rising’: Susie Roden Kickstarts Fundraiser, While Facing Breast Cancer For Third Time

Blog February 24, 2021

When Susie Roden treated herself to a belated birthday massage on Monday morning, it certainly felt relaxing, but also a bit odd — considering she could only lie on her side, not her stomach.

Just 11 days earlier, the president of the Coalition for Women’s Cancers at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital had endured a partial mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, navigating a third bout with breast cancer that comes exactly 30 years after her first.

And it has only reinforced why she’s dedicated her life’s work to the cause.

A Humanitarian in the Making: Mikayla Mott Helps Raise $10K for Nicaragua Hurricane Relief Efforts

Blog December 15, 2020

Mikayla Mott takes a seat outside the Ding Repair Cafe on a recent Monday morning, a warm winter breeze tousling her long blonde hair and dancing with the wind chimes nearby.

Under the basking sun, she and the restaurant are sheltered from the noise and traffic and throngs of people at the bustling heart of San Juan del Sur, a coastal town in Nicaragua that the 26-year-old East Hampton native has called her second home for nearly three years.

Here, it is mostly peaceful and quiet, just three blocks from the bay.

A month ago, it was an entirely different scene at the unassuming cafe, which served as a staging area following a pair of hurricanes, Eta and Iota, that landed within days of each other and devastated countless communities across the country. Here, Ms. Mott and her team of volunteers raised over $10,000 in donations and collected countless supplies, which they sorted, divvied up and delivered to those in need.

Shinnecock Matriarch Harriett Crippen Brown Gumbs Blazed Path Forward, Dies At 99

Blog December 9, 2020

Lance Gumbs was on a mission to find misplaced beadwork in his mother’s shop last week when he saw them — the thick stack of files piled high on her desk.

It was like she had planned it.

Abandoning his original quest, Mr. Gumbs sat down, opened the first file and started to read. And for four and a half hours, he didn’t stop. When he closed the last one, he saw his mother and her legacy in a new light, her many accomplishments — a handful of which he never knew about — shining bright.

In those hours, he had come as close as he ever would to talking to her again.

Harriett Crippen Brown Gumbs, the matriarch and oldest female of the Shinnecock Indian Nation — a woman who lived her life as an educator, activist, feminist and historian — died on November 25 of natural causes. She was 99.