{{Infobox writer | image = Sybil Kaplan.png | alt = 21st-century portrait photo of a smiling old woman with short, blonde hair, wearing a white turtleneck and red sweater | caption = | birth_name = Sybil Ruth Kaufman | birth_date = 1938 | birth_place = Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. | death_date = September 2023 | death_place = Israel | occupation = {{hlist|journalist|author}} | genre = {{hlist|food|children's literature}} | spouse = {{hlist|{{marriage|Michel Zimmerman|end=divorce}}|{{marriage|Barry Kaplan|1991}}}} | children = 2 }}
'''Sybil Kaplan''' ({{nee}}, '''Kaufman'''; after first marriage, '''Zimmerman'''; after second marriage, '''Kaplan''';<ref name="JPost2008">{{cite news |last1=Cashman |first1=Greer Fay |title=Grapevine: Reconciliation through dialogue |url=https://www.jpost.com/opinion/columnists/article-112400 |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=26 August 2008 |language=en}}</ref> 1938–2023) was an American journalist and author. She wrote ten kosher cookbooks,<ref name="KCJC2015" /> and five children's books.<ref name="jewishbookcouncil">{{cite web |title=Sybil Kaplan |url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/sybil-kaplan |website=www.jewishbookcouncil.org |access-date=10 February 2026 |language=en}}</ref>
==Early life== Sybil Ruth Kaufman was born in Kansas City, Missouri,<ref name="TheKansasCityStar1998" /> in 1938.<ref name="VIAF">{{cite web |title=Kaplan, Sybil Ruth, 1938- |url=https://viaf.org/en/viaf/97945714 |website=viaf.org |access-date=10 February 2026}}</ref> She grew up in Overland Park, Kansas.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" /> In 1957, at the age of nineteen, Kaplan made her first trip to Israel.<ref name="TheKCStar2009">{{cite news |last1=Shouse |first1=Deborah |title=Back home in Israel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-back-home-in-israel/190997002/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=22 January 2009 |page=73 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref>
==Career== In the 1960s, Kaplan was employed by Doubleday Publishing<ref name="TheKansasCityStar1998">{{cite news |first=Trisha |last=Drape |title=Overland Park author shares Hanukkah recipes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-overland-park-autho/190995750/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=2 December 1998 |page=461 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref> in Manhattan.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" />
Ten years later, she moved to Israel.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" />
She was a book reviewer for ''The Jerusalem Post'', before becoming a columnist.<ref name="TheKCStar2001">{{cite news |title=Books - Brookside woman's collection is highly functional |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-books-brookside-w/190996509/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=18 July 2001 |page=46 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref> 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.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" />
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.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" />
Kaplan served as a synagogue librarian,<ref name="TheKCStar1999">{{cite news |title=Chapter of Jewish Libraries formed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-chapter-of-jewish-l/190997417/ |work=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=10 July 1999 |page=281 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref> board member of Hadassah,<ref name="StamfordAdvocate2006">{{cite news |title=Holy Days |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/stamford-advocate-holy-days/190997648/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=Stamford Advocate |via=Newspapers.com |date=13 September 2006 |page=21 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref> public relations director for the ''Encyclopedia Judaica''.<ref name="TheKansasCityStar1998" /> food columnist for the ''National Jewish Post and Opinion'',<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" /> and foreign correspondent for the ''Kansas City Jewish Chronicle''.<ref name="KCJC2015" />
She owned more than 300 cookbooks, of which at least 150 were on kosher cooking.<ref name="jewishlink2024" /><ref name="JPost2023" /><ref name="TheKansasCityStar2001">{{cite news |last1=Mays |first1=Nancy |title=Cooks and Their Books. These local collectors read cookbooks the way other people read novels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-cooks-and-their-boo/190996198/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Kansas City Star |via=Newspapers.com |date=18 July 2001 |page=43 |language=en}} {{open access}}</ref> Some of these came from Curaçao, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Spain.<ref name="TheKCStar2001" />
==Personal life== Her first husband was Michel Zimmerman; they divorced.<ref name="TheKCStar2009" /> In 1991, she married Barry Kaplan,.<ref name="KCJC2015">{{cite news |title=Former Chronicle reporter releases book about her time as Israel correspondent - Kansas City Jewish Chronicle |url=https://www.kcjc.com/index.php/current-news/latest-news/3340-former-chronicle-reporter-releases-book-about-her-time-as-israel-correspondent |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=www.kcjc.com |date=3 September 2015}}</ref>
Sybil Kaplan spent her later life in Jerusalem. She died in September 2023, age 84.<ref name="jewishlink2024">{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Sybil |title=Becoming a Jerusalem-Based Food Writer |url=https://jewishlink.news/becoming-a-jerusalem-based-food-writer/ |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Jewish Link |date=4 January 2024 |language=en}}</ref>
==Selected works== {{div col|colwidth=30em}}
===Cookbooks=== * ''The Wonders of a Wonder Pot: Cooking in Israel without an Oven'', 1973 {{asin|B000RJ46QS}} * ''Israeli Cooking on a Budget'', 1978 {{asin|B000RY1U6W}} * ''From My Jerusalem Kitchen'', 1980 * ''Kosher Kettle: International Adventures in Kosher Cooking'', 1997 {{asin|B007NBNDK8}} * ''What’s Cooking at Hadassah College'', 2006 * ''What’s Cooking at Moreshet Avraham'', 2009 * ''The Shuk Lady Cooks'' (unpublished)<ref name="JPost2023">{{cite news |last1=Kaplan |first1=Sybil |title=Becoming a Jerusalem-based food writer {{!}} The Jerusalem Post |url=https://www.jpost.com/food-recipes/article-744707 |access-date=10 February 2026 |work=The Jerusalem Post |date=3 June 2023 |language=en}}</ref>
===Autobiography=== * ''Witness to History – Ten Years as a Woman Foreign Correspondent''
===Articles=== * "Frying high: Keeping known, lesser-known culinary traditions", (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 12, 2011) * "Soups are super for the sukkah" (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, October 11, 2011) * "Going around the world to break the fast" (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September 28, 2011) * "Sweet season: Apples and honey for Rosh Hashanah" (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September 19, 2011) * "A Summer Favorite: Tomatoes" (Jewish Link) * "Healthy Salmon Dishes" (Jewish Link) * "Cheese Is Pleasing" (Jewish Link) * "Sabich: For Yom Ha’Atzmaut or Anytime" (Jewish Link) * "Passover Sweets: Cookies and Candies" (Jewish Link) * "Potato Soup for Winter" (Jewish Link) * "Don’t Get Into a Stew! Make One for Dinner" (Jewish Link) * "Warm Winter Drinks" (Jewish Link) * "Crepes—A Fancy, Fun Dessert" (Jewish Link) * "Chili for Winter" (Jewish Link) {{div col end}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Sybil}} Category:1938 births Category:2023 deaths Category:American cookbook writers Category:American children's writers Category:American foreign correspondents Category:American autobiographers Category:American women children's writers Category:American columnists Category:American women columnists Category:Writers from Kansas City, Missouri Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:20th-century American women journalists Category:American women food writers Category:Jewish American women writers Category:Jewish American children's writers Category:Jews from Missouri Category:Librarians from Missouri Category:American women librarians Category:The Jerusalem Post people