Sybil Kaplan

Sybil Ruth Kaufman was born in Kansas City, Missouri,^[4] in 1938.^[5] She grew up in Overland Park, Kansas.^[6][7] In 1957, at the age of nineteen, Kaplan made her first trip to Israel.^[8]

In the 1960s, Kaplan was employed by Doubleday Publishing^[4] in Manhattan.^[6][7]

Ten years later, she moved to Israel.^[6][7]

She was a book reviewer for The Jerusalem Post, before becoming a columnist.^[9] Her column, "From My Jerusalem Kitchen", ran from 1976 until she returned to the U.S. in 1980, living in Chicago where her two daughters attended school. The articles were based on her shopping trips to the Mahane Yehuda Market and the subsequent recipes that she created.^[6][7]

Subsequently, she returned to Overland Park, and then in 2008, she moved back to Israel. From 2009 to 2020, she conducted English language walking tours in Machane Yehuda.^[6][7]

Kaplan served as a synagogue librarian,^[10] board member of Hadassah,^[11] public relations director for the Encyclopedia Judaica.^[4] food columnist for the National Jewish Post and Opinion,^[6][7] and foreign correspondent for the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.^[2]

She owned more than 300 cookbooks, of which at least 150 were on kosher cooking.^[6][7][12] Some of these came from from Curacao, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Spain.^[9]

Her first husband was Michel Zimmerman; they divorced.^[8] In 1991, she married Barry Kaplan,.^[2]

Sybil Kaplan spent her later life in Jerusalem. She died in September 2023, age 84.^[6]