By Talia Doninger, Special to The Observer

Dr. Mimi Zieman scaled the slopes of Mount Everest carrying the weight of her backpack — and her legacy as the child of a Holocaust survivor.

In 1988, as a 25-year-old medical student, she served as the expedition doctor for a team of five who tackled a new, unaided route on Mount Everest’s East Face in Tibet.

At the time, fewer than 200 had summited the mountain. “It was such a powerful moment when I realized that I was on the same mountains I had only read about in books,” she says. “They became a symbol for me, representing not just my personal struggles but the vastness of my heritage.”

Her memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, chronicles Zieman’s transformation from a young woman grappling with self-doubt to a seasoned climber conquering the world’s most famous peak.

It reflects how our bodies, our identities, and our choices shape who we become.

Zieman’s April 6 talk in Centerville closes out this year’s JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series.

She grew up in New York City in the 1970s and says she struggled to reconcile her Jewish upbringing with the world around her.

Her father, Isaac Zieman, had assumed five identities to survive the Holocaust. He navigated war-torn Europe in search of safety. He was the only member of his immediate family to live.

“In Jewish school, we learned, ‘If I am only for myself, what am I?’ We were to honor those killed by improving the world, a defining sense of duty,” she writes in the book. “But being named after three murdered relatives was a heavy load.”

Jewish ritual and connection, however, grounded her during moments of isolation while in the mountains.

Zieman says one of the most profound moments came during her first trip to the Himalayas — on Passover — when she looked up at the moon and felt a spiritual presence.

“I was walking toward freedom as they had. Freedom from my ‘shoulds.’ And at the same time, I was firmly rooted in my origins like the massive tree beside me,” she writes.

The second Passover in the book comes three years later, on Mount Everest, where she celebrates with the rest of her team. Zieman held an impromptu Seder with sea toast crackers, a hard-boiled egg, potatoes, and dates.

“Here my Jewish practice was far from a box, but rather an opening that made me feel closer to my teammates, connected to my family, and more accepted for who I was.”

Later on, she discovered that Chasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov encouraged prayer in solitude, particularly in nature, a practice known as hitbodedut.

She quotes him in her book: “When a person meditates in the fields, all the grasses join in his prayer and increase its effectiveness and power.”

As a former dancer, Zieman had already learned the importance of the body’s power in overcoming obstacles.

“I had to learn to just let my body do the movements without thinking about them. I could always dance better if I surrendered to my body and let go of my head.”

That trust in her body served her years later on Everest, where split-second decisions could mean life or death.

But before she set foot on the mountain, her desire to help others guided her to medicine. An OB/GYN, she lives in Atlanta and focuses her practice on women’s health advocacy.

“I couldn’t imagine anything more interesting than studying our bodies to gain a deeper understanding of human nature,” Zieman writes. “But I wouldn’t let go of the mountains.”

Self-discovery, she says, is a lifelong journey, essential for personal growth. “Many of us, including myself, have asked ourselves these hard questions: Who do I want to be in my life? What’s my purpose? What career do I want to have? What kind of partner do I want?”

She likens the path of our lives to dashed lines on a map. “Born in New York City to Sabina and Isaac, I had no input in that map. Yet they led me, somehow, to listen for opportunities, and to consider opportunities as possibilities.”

The JCC Cultural Arts & Book Series, in partnership with Washington-Centerville Public Library, presents author Mimi Zieman at 2 p.m., Sunday, April 6 at Woodbourne Library, 6060 Far Hills Ave., Centerville. Register for the free program here.

To read the complete April 2025 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.