Dana Witkin holds her brand new Rebecca Rubin doll up to her face, and the resemblance is hard to ignore. Both the 7-year-old Orange County resident and Rebecca Rubin - the first Jewish doll in American Girl's historical character line - have softly curled light brown hair with amber highlights, olive skin, and striking hazel eyes.

Of course, Dana's second cousin, 8-year-old Caitlyn Dienstag, looks more like American Girl's 1854 Swedish immigrant doll, Kirsten Larsen, with her blond hair and blue eyes. But the girls' connection to Rebecca goes deeper than to her looks, and that is why Dana and Caitlyn are celebrating Rebecca's launch - as well as their own birthdays - at a brunch at the American Girl Place with their mothers and bubbies.   "I'm so excited that there's finally a Jewish doll," said Caitlyn, who, like Dana, already owns a few American Girl dolls. Caitlyn plans to have Rebecca light candles with her on Friday night.  

Rebecca is the 18-inch, 9-year-old daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants living on New York's Lower East Side in 1914. Her collection includes candlesticks, a challah and samovar on a sideboard, as well as a picnic basket with bagels, pickles, rugalach, and an American flag. Six books by Jacqueline Dembar Greene tell her story with both historical accuracy and literary appeal. And the books portray girls with real personalities - not princesses, but complex kids dealing with universal challenges of growing up in their particular historic contexts. For the thousands of girls, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who will read Rebecca's story, Jewish culture will come alive.

In the first of six books, meant to illustrate the immigrant experience in the early part of last century, Rebecca is introduced as a spunky and conflicted aspiring actress. Rebecca finds ways to make money so she can buy her own candlesticks for Friday night, but then she is pulled by a mitzvah - raising money to bring her cousin Ana and her family from Russia, where they are impoverished and threatened by pogroms. Her story illuminates the tension between tradition and assimilation, as her father keeps his shoe store open on Shabbat but her grandfather still goes to shul. She deals with growing-up issues such as finding her place in a family of five children, and proving herself mature enough to earn her family's respect. Getting Rebecca's look down was one of the many challenges that faced researchers as the developed the doll. They wanted a character Jewish girls would recognize as one of their own, without going for the too typical brown hair and brown eyes, or the also plausible fairer complexion.  

So far, their meticulous research seems to have paid off. Not only the girls, but Jewish community leaders and academics agree that the books paint a true picture of Jewish life and the issues facing immigrant families. And Rebecca seems to be a positive role model for these girls.   "Her story is very much our family's history," said Shana Dienstag, Caitlyn's mom, and a teacher at Adat Ari El in Valley Village. "And they're so connected to their American girl dolls, that this will really mean something to them."