I barely knew my grandparents who came to this country in 1905 and spoke only Yiddish. Because my mother refused to speak of her life in Odessa I was totally unaware of the persecution she and her family witnessed and experienced. As a psychoanalyst who helps people understand their own family’s history to better understand themselves, my historical novel, Odessa, Odessa helped me piece together what little I knew of my family’s history, and what I gleaned from my research and reading of novels, to render this portrait. Thomas Mann describes, in writing Joseph and His Brothers, putting clothing on the myth. I put the clothing on the history of my mother’s life story. So relevant today!
I wrote...
Odessa, Odessa: A Novel
By
Barbara Artson
What is my book about?
Henya, wife of Rabbi Mendel Kolopsky, considers an unexpected pregnancy and the hardships ahead for the children she already has. Soon after the child is born, Cossacks ransack the Kolopskys's home, severely beating Mendel. In the aftermath, he tells Henya that, contrary to his brother Shimshon's belief that socialism is their ticket to escaping the region's brutal anti-Semitic pogroms, he still believes America holds the answer. Henya, meanwhile, understands that any future will be perilous: she now knows their baby daughter, who has slept through this night of melee, is surely deaf.
So begins a beautifully told story that unfolds over decades of the 20th century - a story in which two families, joined in tradition and parted during persecution, will remain bound by their fateful decision to leave Odessa.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Books I Picked & Why
Jews Without Money
By
Michael Gold
Why this book?
This is a beautifully told tale about what the first generation of Jews endured on their way to making a new life in the United State told from the sensibility of a young boy whose father becomes disabled trying to make a living as a worker. The book is semi-autobiographical and can be applied to any first-generation whether they be Irish, Japanese, Mexican, or Ukrainian. Life in the ghetto is hard and yet the immigrant endures.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Bread Givers
By
Anzia Yezierska
Why this book?
This historical novel set in the lower East Side, one of my favorites, tells the saga of a gifted young woman, an immigrant, who breaks free from the restricted environment of her Orthodox community to become a school teacher. Before the word “feminism existed, before women were given the vote, when anti-Semitism was rife in this country, she demanded the right to live a productive and meaningful life. She gave so much to her new country. That is why I love this book.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
The Triangle
By
Katharine Weber
Why this book?
This first-person narrative historical novel tells in chilling detail the real-life events of the Triangle shirtwaist fire of 1911 seen through the eyes of one of the few survivors. Over 150 workers, mostly women, died in the inferno due to the management's decision to keep the doors locked so that the workers produced more shirts. You will turn each page feeling the horror, the fear, the rage, the disbelief this tragedy evokes.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
Daniel Deronda
By
George Eliot
Why this book?
A powerful novel by possibly the finest nineteenth-century writer, that exposes the virulent anti-Semitism prevalent in late nineteenth-century Victorian England. The protagonist, Daniel Deronda, raised in privilege, meets a young Jewish woman and through her, discovers his Jewish identity. In spite of its length, I felt a sadness at having to leave these beautifully drawn characters who had become my best friends.
When you buy a book we may earn a small commission.
Joseph and His Brothers
By
Thomas Mann
Why this book?
Thomas Mann, “puts clothing on the myth” of the biblical story of Joseph in this deeply profound and moving novel that reveals aspects of the human condition: love, greed, ruthlessness, forgiveness, jealousy, and ambition. Joseph and His Brothers remains relevant to the 21st-century reader. If I had to choose one novel to take with me to read on an isolated island, this would be the one I chose.