Interview with Leah Kotkes in Binah Magazine, 20 April 2009

Excerpts:
The Rav said he felt my life story would inspire women. “Go home and write the first chapter tonight and phone me,” he said.

“My hope is that the book gives something of worth to all Jewish women.”

These are Leah Kotkes’s sentiments about her soon-to-be released first book, The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest, which will give readers a glimpse into a journey of truth and faith. Leah hopes her memoir will inspire and help women in a meaningful and tangible way.

Interview with Leah Kotkes in The Jewish Press, 06 May 2009

Excerpts:
It takes courage and guts for a well-known person in the Orthodox world to write a memoir, a personal account sharing chapters of her life, which include how she became frum.

My rav encouraged me to “write the truth” because the “truth will help and inspire women.” I struggled often with writing the “truth” because it was painful, or challenging, or difficult to present without hurting or disturbing the picture perfect image of myself. However, my rav kept prompting me to “tell it as it was,” which is what I did, but in the most careful, selective and tznius way, leaving the reader room to form her own viewpoint through her own interpretation of the reality I presented.

Interview with Leah Kotkes in The Jewish Tribune, 07 May 2009

Excerpts:

If writing makes a woman feel good, there is no better reason for her to write. For myself, becoming a good writer means writing a good story. The way I do this is firstly to daven to Hashem for siyatto dishmayo in my writing endeavours. I wish I could write 24 hours a day, I love writing that much, but I could never allow myself that luxury. My chosen tafkid is to write for Klal Yisroel while encouraging others to use their writing to inspire Klal Yisroel…

Leah Kotkes’s hope is that every Jewish woman will find a point of inspiration and encouragement in her memoir, which is her first book. The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest (Israel Bookshop Publications) charts the curve of Leah’s fascinating life journey, from fashion publicist in London to world traveller to the astonishingly contrasting life of a kollel wife and mother of four children. The Map Seeker has a haskomoh from Rav Chayim Pinchos Scheinberg. He says the book “has a most relevant message in today’s times when so many are in need of a true tale of perseverance and vision in order for them to follow G-d’s path and to know Him. It is my prayer that from between the pages of this book thousands of people will come closer to G-d and His Torah.”

An excerpt from The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest at Aish.com, 10 May 2009

Excerpts:
Divorce feels like the death of something once so precious and dear.

The day I walked out of my former husband’s apartment, I knew I would never return. All I wanted that day was to live a normal life.

I felt like I was a damaged person and I needed to heal myself. How would I do it and how long would it take?

Divorce is God’s way of saying — your mold is too small, I am going to smash it, break it, destroy what I gave you, and then you will have to rebuild it stronger and better and why not a bit bigger, and when you have done your job, I will do mine — I will fill your new vessel with so much blessing it will overflow into all areas of your life.

Book Review of The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest in Hamodia, 20 May 2009

Excerpts:
Leah Kotkes has had an eventful life. As a religiously uncommitted British teen, she began a career in fashion publicity and was soon associated with the industry’s rising stars.

Glamorous though it was, fashion did not afford her the opportunity to pursue what she felt was her true calling, writing. Vanessa, as she was then called, switched careers, and began writing in the newsroom of ITN. She soon found herself involved in another passion — the search for truth. Seeking a map, a guide to a meaningful, fulfilled existence, Vanessa found Yiddishkeit and changed her name to Leah.

Today, Leah Kotkes is at the forefront of a burgeoning print movement in the Torah world. Her writing is elegant, her viewpoint honest and introspective. She plays language like a violin as she portrays the pathos and grace that she has found in reality and inside herself. The Map Seeker, her first book, tells the story of her quest. Leah documents her struggles and successes from girlhood to motherhood, her embrace of Yiddishkeit and her survival of a divorce that threatened to destroy her.

Book Review of The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest in Yated Ne’eman, 28 May 2009

Excerpts:
The Map Seeker is a captivating memoir, tracing the monumental turnaround in the life of Leah Kotkes from being Vanessa, a young British girl, from a wealthy secular family through her experiences as an accomplished career woman in London to, at the age of 28, her embrace of an authentic Torah true life of Yiddishkeit. The author takes us through her step by step climb to where she is today in Yerushalayim, living her life as a true eishes chayil under the guidance of da’as Torah, mentors and role models where together with her husband of 11 years has established a bayis ne’eman b’Yisroel raising her four wonderful yiddisher kinderlech.

Reading this very revealing personal story of someone who had to come a long way and work very hard to recognize her relationship with the Ribbono shel Olam can be a catalyst for hisorerus to reignite in every one of us that dimension of our Yiddishkeit and we can come to the realization that every second ,every minute, every hour, every day, week, month and year, we have our individual tafkid for being put on this earth and with this realization automatically one feels a gevaldiger simchas hachaim and purpose in every aspect of life.

Thank you Leah, I was inspired as I am sure that every one who reads the Map Seeker will also be inspired.

Book Review of The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest in The Jewish Voice, 29 May 2009

Excerpts:
Leah Kotkes, a writer for Binah Magazine and mentor of Jewish women writers, takes her readers on a poignant and emotionally charged sojourn in her first book, “The Map Seeker: One Woman’s Quest” (Israel Bookshop Publications). Having been asked to write this memoir by her Rav, Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg in Jerusalem, it is clear that Mrs. Kotkes’ words of faith, hope and inspiration will serve as a moral compass of sorts, to all Jewish women who seek perspective on the vicissitudes of life and the challenges that lie therein.

This emotionally rife memoir will stir the hearts of women from all backgrounds and will provide the much needed succor and strength to those who are dealing with the hardships of divorce, illness, death, monetary difficulties and other such dilemmas. And for those who find themselves in a quandary about which road to take; which “map” to choose in their journey on this earth, this book will exhort you to stay the course, to never relinquish your faith in Hashem and the truth of Torah. A must read!