The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust

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The Life of Jews in Poland before the Holocaust

A Memoir

Ben-Zion Gold

168 pages

Paperback

December 2013

978-0-8032-7175-3

$18.95 Add to Cart
eBook (EPUB)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

September 2022

978-1-4962-0946-7

$18.95 Add to Cart
eBook (PDF)
Ebook purchases delivered via Leaf e-Reader

March 2007

978-0-8032-0564-2

$18.95 Add to Cart

About the Book

Ben-Zion Gold’s memoir brings to life the world of a million Jews in pre-World War II Poland who were later destroyed by the Nazis. Warmly recalling the relationships, rituals, observances, and celebrations, Gold evokes the sense of family and faith that helped him through the catastrophe that followed. With him we experience the life and institutions of the time: the Heder and hooky playing, his encounter with Hassidism, the courtship and marriage of his oldest sister, and the author’s own first inkling of love. And with him, we recapture the memories that made life worth living in the face of disaster, along with the experience of the human capacity for evil that tested and transformed his faith as it devastated his world. Finally, Gold tells of the fate of his family and of his own escape from that fate.

Author Bio

Ben-Zion Gold was born in 1923 in Radom, Poland, and grew up in a traditional Jewish home. The sole survivor of his family, he arrived in the United States in 1947. For more than forty years he served as the director and rabbi at Harvard-Radcliff Hillel, where through teaching, innovative programs, and unique personal interactions, he inspired and motivated Jewish students, faculty, and the surrounding community to deepen their commitment to, and knowledge of, Judaism.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Jewish Radom
2. Home and Family
3. My Father's Marriage and Business
4. My Religious Upbringing
5. Heder
6. My Sisters' Education
7. Yeshiva
8. Jews and Poles
9. Rayzel's Engagement
10. Pinye's Death
11. Finding a Tutor
12. The Beit HaMidrash and the Yeshiva
13. Encounters with Hasidism
14. Musarnikes
15. Bathya's Engagement
16. Love's First Glance
17. Escape to Freedom
18. The Encounter
19. After Liberation

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