The Broken Vase

On a sunny May afternoon in Silver Spring, Maryland, Yaffa Klugerman’s 14-year-old son, Dov, crossed the street from his school to his home and was hit by a car. He was rushed to the hospital, where Yaffa and her husband, Tzvi, immediately learned that their son had sustained a non-survivable injury. After nine agonizing days in the hospital, Dov succumbed to his injuries, and his parents were left to somehow go on living along with their four surviving children. Their close-knit Orthodox Jewish family and community would make valiant efforts to help—but how could the Klugermans ever move forward? In this memoir, Yaffa Klugerman explores the harrowing experience of the accident and Dov’s time in the hospital, as well as her crisis of faith in the year following his death. It is a raw, vulnerable, and authentic view into an unimaginable tragedy and the power of hope and ultimate healing that followed.

Author Biography

Yaffa Klugerman is a professional writer and editor, currently working as a director of content marketing at a cybersecurity company. Her background is in journalism, public relations, and marketing, and her many articles on Jewish life have appeared in The Forward, The New York Jewish Week, the Washington Jewish Week, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and through Behrman House Publishers. She resides in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren. The Broken Vase is her first book.