Salt on a Robin's Tail: An Unlikely Jewish Journey Through Childhood, Forgiveness, and Hope

Andrea Kott thought of herself as "the welfare Jew."

The daughter of a single mother whose depression and drinking pitched them into poverty, her stormy life looked nothing like that of the Jewish kids she knew: It defied every stereotype she associated with being Jewish-having an intact family and material wealth, and becoming a bat mitzvah.

Alienated and ashamed, Kott felt ineligible to be Jewish, yet hungered for connection to the tradition and to God. It took a near-fatal accident, her ...