By JoAnne Viviano From The Columbus Dispatch

Two sisters are returning to their native Bexley this weekend to discuss an adventure that started on a corner in Leningrad in 1976 and has turned into a book exploring the friendship that sustained two Jewish women in the former Soviet Union.

Leslie Levine Adler and Meryll Levine Page, who now live in the Minneapolis area, will discuss Jewish Luck at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Bexley Public Library.

“The homecoming for us means a lot because the whole process is a process of full circles,” Page said. “The women come full circle in the book as their friendship becomes deeper.”

The book stems from Adler’s meeting one of the women on a street corner when the American was studying at Leningrad State University. The woman later started a business in Russia, despite resistance from organized crime, and has since relocated to the Cayman Islands. Her friend moved to Sweden.

Through the process of writing the book, the subjects returned to the former Leningrad — now St. Petersburg — to walk through their history and friendship, crying, learning revelations and sharing hugs, Page said.

Although the book is not about the Holocaust, Page will discuss that issue earlier on Sunday with the Tifereth Israel Men’s Club. That talk will focus on how the Soviet Union did not allow Jews to learn their history after World War II, going so far as to jail people who spoke of the Holocaust.

“They didn’t want Jews to feel special because they didn’t want to allow for any ethnic pride or differentiation,” she said.

Visiting Columbus this week was another author, June Hersh, who shared her book of recipes collected from Holocaust survivors during a discussion at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus.

Hersh, of Manhattan, said Recipes Remembered, a Celebration of Survival is a compilation of “dishes that have really nourished and nurtured us for generations.” She said the recipes are a way for survivors to keep good childhood memories alive and to feel connections to the people they lost during the war.

“For the survivor community, food was a way of rooting them in their foundation, which was so abruptly and horrifically ripped away from them,” Hersh said.

Some of her favorite recipes are simple, such as lentil soup, or from her Greek ancestry, such as roasted lamb and spanakopita. All the baked goods, she added, are “truly exceptional,” including the rugelach and Linzer tortes.

Hersh said all proceeds from the cookbook go to charity, primarily the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.

“It’s really our obligation to this group of people to perpetuate their legacy and to honor them in this way,” she said.

Learn more at http://morejewishluck.com and www.junehersh.com