To All My Friends and Colleagues.
Good News! My new book, "Portraits in Literature: The Jews of Poland, an Anthology" has been selected a Finalist by the National Jewish Book Awards for 2011. A quote from the Pasadena Star News, January 27, 2012 article by Brenda Gazzar, Staff Writer San Marino Holocaust Survivor to discuss new Polish Jewish Anthology. When Hava Bromberg Ben-Zvi's father was fatally shot by Nazis in 1941, the blond, blue-eyed Jewish girl had to fend for herself under an assumed identity in Nazi-occupied Eastern Poland. The same day the Nazis rounded up and killed the remaining Jews in her village, the 12-year-old sought shelter at a friend's home for the day and then wandered from village to village. She was directed to an orphanage, where a sympathetic director took her in for about two years and then sent her to a nearby farm, where she remained until the war's end. More than six decades later, the San Marino resident's latest book "Portraits in Literature: The Jews of Poland, an Anthology" is her three-year effort to preserve the rich literature of Polish Jewry before, during and after World War11 while bringing it to the attention of a new generation of readers. "Poland was the center of Jewish civilization in the world before WW11," Ben-Zvi said, noting there were about 3.5 million Jews in Poland before the war and about 3 million Polish Jews killed during the Holocaust.Their literature is their legacy." Ben-Zvi served as director of the Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles for 27 years and discusses the book she compiled and edited. "Portraits in Literature" - a Finalist in the prestigious 2011 National Jewish Book Awards - is a collection of 56 short stories, eyewitness accounts, poetry, essays, folk tales and humor from a variety of Polish Jewish literature from the 1800's to the present. Published in July by Vallentine Mitchell of London and Portland, Oregon, it includes both fiction and non-fiction pieces she found in libraries in the U.S. and Israel that are accompanied by Ben-Zvi's own astute observations. Selecting the writings was not an easy task since Polish Jews were quite literate and prolific, she said. "I needed stories that truly reflected their conditions, their problems, their joys and sorrows," she said. "I didn't just pick any story. A story to me had to speak to the heart." Among the writings selected were novelist's Sholem Asch's short story "The Rebel" about a young Jewish bride who scandalizes her family by refusing to cut off her hair at the time of her marriage as was customary. Another is called "The Polish Wife" by Anna Cwiakowska. It's a short story about a Polish man and his Catholic wife who immigrate to Israel to start a new life after facing persecution in the 1960's. The book also includes Philip Friedman's "Their Brothers' Keepers", which details several true accounts of non-Jews who took extraordinary measures to protect their Jewish neighbors from death during the Holocaust. Ben-Zvi dedicated her book to her late husband of nearly 60 years, Ephraim, a Polish Jew who also survived the war after his family was exiled to Siberia in 1941. The two met in Israel while she was a high school student and he was in college. Ben-Zvi has also authored "Eva's Journey: A Young Girl's True Story" and "The Bride Who Argued with God: Tales from the Treasury of Jewish Folklore." Available through trade channels, your vendors, Amazon.com and International Specialized Book Services (800) 944-6190)
__ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: [email protected] Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list [email protected] https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
