Memories of a Stolen Childhood and Life Fulfilled

Chased from pillar to post as her family fled the Nazis from Belgium into France, Bertha Schwarz and one ofher sisters were sent off alone by their mother to find a hiding place with Rabbi Schneerson in France. They had already lost their father to the Germans. The two girls survived and with their mother and other sister, were smuggled into Switzerland, where, again, they were separated and were reunited when the war ended. Bertha's story does not end there. Her mother brought her and her sisters to pre-war Israel, where, for financial reasons, they were separated again, trying to make their way through difficult times. Bertha protected her settlement during the war for independence, later served in the IDF, got married, learned to code for computers, and came to the United States with her husband, where they shared the trials and tribulations of the American Dream, including disappointments. Bertha bounced back and made a life for herself and her children--from New York to Boston to Maryland and Tel Aviv. She now speaks to students and adult groups about the importance of stopping hatred and racism. The chronicle of her life is one that carries with it the legacy of the Jewish people, a legacy she is most proud of.

Just Give Me A Minute: Insights from the Radio Rabbi 

In Just Give Me A Minute, Radio Rabbi Joseph Potasnik has condensed thousands of his mini-sermons on 1010WINS radio (serving the Greater Metro NY area) and his observations on “The Rev and the Rabbi” on ABC Talkradio into a book filled with inspirational and spiritual anecdotes, parables and wise words from biblical and other sources. Every Sunday morning, tens of thousands of listeners from every walk of life tune in to to get a shot of Rabbi Joe’s motivational one-minute sermons, one that keeps them going all week long.

The insights he offers in this book reflect his caring, kind and often humorous attitudes. Indexed by topics and holidays, the mini-sermons can be used to inspire toastmasters at lifecycle events, public speakers, clergy–and even comedians–to spice up their talks and speeches. And his fans, who can’t wait until Sunday, can have Joe right at their finger tips, to pick a mini-sermon to start or end each day, just by flipping through the pages.

My Father, Noah Merdinger: Life from the ruins

The remarkable story of the family of a resistance fighter, Holocaust survivor and archeologist who discovered the Roman ruins in Bet Shean, Israel. As told by his daughter Suzanne.

Janusz Korczak: Sculptor of Children’s Souls

This wonderful book by former teacher and scholar Marcia Talmage Schneider, offers details of Janusz Korczak and his orphanage from the perspectives of several orphans and former teachers. To the children he took in, Janusz Korczak was more than a teacher, doctor, or orphanage director. He was, in the words of one of the young lives he touched, a "sculptor of children's souls."

A Candle in the Heart

"It was once fittingly said of Eleanor Roosevelt that she 'would rather light a candle than curse the darkness.' The same could be said of Judith Kallman. In her deeply moving and profoundly courageous memoir, A Candle in the Heart, she illuminates the goodness of the human spirit amidst the darkness of the Holocaust. She illustrates, in haunting detail, the human capacity for unspeakable cruelty and evil. But more importantly, she reminds us that light--which is seen through her love for family and friends, the selfless sacrifice of strangers, and the sustaining power of faith--can endure and prevail even in the darkest moments of human history. A Candle in the Heart reminds us that hope is eternal." --Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT)

MY LIFE MY WAY

For years, Eta was unable to sleep because, as the sole survivor of her family, she thought she might forget the details of their ordeal during the Holocaust. And she had promised to tell their stories. Spunky and direct, she often took her life in her hands to arm and rescue others, and to escape from a Nazi prison. A partisan in the woods around Lukow, she spent the better part of a year walking around with a bullet in her leg, until the Russians did some street surgery on her. After the liberation, she started a new family and came to America, where she became a quintessential Hadassah lady and community activist. When she finished her remarkable manuscript, Eta, of blessed memory,  said, "A person's stories belong to the future. That's how memories live on and your descendants remember you. Write. That's how you find peace of mind." Her memories will live with her readers for a long time.

prisoner of memory

The author, herself a Holocaust survivor, has written the saga of an exceptional woman, who lived through two world wars under the most dire circumstances, a woman who was strong and resilient, you took whatever life dished out and stood up to it. After liberation she moved to the borning state of Israel, and left her mark there as well. Astonishing in scope, deeply emotional, spiritually gratifying, this is definitely a book worth your time.

going forward

A young girl from a distinguished Hasidic home with all of its comforts loses almost everything except the ideals instilled within her by her illustrious family. She kept her faith in God and the image of who she was raised to be in her mind, no matter what terrors she encountered. From the ghetto in Warsaw to Munkacs, from Budapest to Bergen-Belsen, to Tel Aviv and New York, you'll feel like you're part of the journey when reading this book. This book, suitable for young adult readers, is a testament to how simple faith is the key to personal strength and can conquer the most dire life circumstances. The book is also available in Yiddish. – Aviva Fort

MY LOST WORLD

Sara Rosen was born into a prosperous Jewish family in Krakow which enjoyed comfortable relations with the surrounding Polish environment but was still deeply rooted in Jewish tradition and Jewish past. The stability of Jewish life in pre-1939 Eastern Europe has sometimes been idealized and its warmth and cohesiveness given a romantic glow. Yet the picture Sara Rosen paints is convincing and it was the strength of her family ties which enabled her parents, her siblings and herself to summon up the fortitude to deal with the ordeal of Nazi rule....The Landerer family were among the fortunate few who managed by luck and good fortune to survive the Shoah with the loss of only one of its members. But Sara Rosen is very conscious of the fact that her fate was exceptional and was not shared by most of her extended family or by the bulk of her fellow Jews in Poland. She concludes her moving and heart-warming account with an attempt to summon up those of her family who did not survive. This obligation to remember is one we all share. It is only by remembering and by giving form to the nameless dead that we can experience the pain of mourning. Only a real understanding, intellectual and emotional, of what we have lost will enable us to start to rebuild something of what was destroyed. To that attempt at rebuilding, Sara Rosen's book is a small but significant contribution.---Antony Polonsky, Brandeis University