Showing results for "Stories" in Jewish

Poland 1938. Eve of the World War II. Rivka sends her husband and three beloved children to the United States, where they will find safe shelter from the war. She tells everyone that she is staying behind in order to care for her aging parents but her real reason is completely different. Beyond her work as librarian, Rivka serves as a spy for the Jewish underground, a critical role in the changing reality in Europe.

1941, Krakow. Lidia Sobieska hears a knock on the door and is shocked to find a baby in a basket on her doorstep. Attached to the basket is a letter from the baby’s mother, begging to save her daughter Suzanne from the Nazis. Always wanting children of her own but unable to conceive, Lidia knows there is only one right thing to do. She names the baby Sophie and vows to do everything she can to love and protect her.

Cilka is just 16-years-old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice?

From one of the preeminent literary voices in Israel comes a darkly funny collection of surrealist stories exploring the increasingly complex relationship between humans and technology. Set in our world, alternate realities, distant futures, and the immortal realm, the stories in Autocorrect...

In the summer of 1921, outside the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Hanz Wolff finds twin baby girls in a wicker basket in his barn. Wrapped in woolen blankets embroidered with the Star of David, a note begs the German farmer and his barren wife to love and raise them as their own. Believing it to be a gift from God, the ecstatic couple keep the newborns’ Semitic heritage a secret, claiming that Maria had birthed them at home.

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland 1963. On the face of it, life is idyllic for Eli and Lena Kogan. Living in their beautiful house in the Irish countryside, their children are growing up happy and safe surrounded by a loving community. So when a letter arrives one day threatening to shatter their peaceful and prosperous world, Lena and Eli have no option but face the dark reality of their situation. How best to do that, is something that drives a wedge between them.

Sophie was born to be a rebel, raised by parents who challenged the brutal Nazi regime. Determined to follow in their footsteps, she leaves for university, defying Hitler’s command for women to stay at home. She knows instantly that she isn’t alone, that there are more courageous souls like her who will fight against evil. But it is only a matter of time before the Gestapo closes in.... And when Sophie is imprisoned in an interrogation room, staring a Nazi officer in the eye, will she take their secrets to her grave?

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past.

Inspired by true events and set against the backdrop of the Second World War, Melanie Levensohn’s A Jewish Girl in Paris is a powerful novel about forbidden love. 'This beautiful, heart-wrenching novel examines the harsh realities while remaining hopeful and celebrating resilience and love.' -...

September, 1939. The six Zaks siblings watch in silent horror as the Wehrmacht marches into their quiet hometown in southern Poland. Concerned for their survival, Yisrael Zaks leads his wife Haiya and his brothers Volf and Avraham toward the Russian border. But their escape does not go unhindered; and as they are captured by the invading German forces, they can hear their father’s last commandment still echoing behind them: “Never break the family apart. And whatever you do: never, ever leave any one of your siblings behind.”

Europe, 1939. Hanne is an adolescent boy, born into a wealthy family from Belgrade. Realizing the Nazi threat is advancing toward the Balkans with giant strides, his parents are prepared to do anything to save their son’s life. The road to survival, however, is not easy. Just as Europe’s gates are about to shut down, Hanne and 1,100 other youths sail away on the Danube River. On board the ship, under appalling living conditions, Hanne falls in love with Inge, a young German Jewish girl.

Divided Hearts includes 18 stories from the lives of descendants. Each story touches on a different stage in the lives of immigrants, people who left Israel at a young age, and are confronted with the consequences and the understanding of the process of immigration even decades after they left.

The Water and the Wine is set on the Greek island of Hydra in a '60s artistic community. The author lived there as a child. The main focus is on Leonard Cohen and his lover/muse, Marianne Ihlen. Each night, the artists and writers meet and discuss their ideas about life, art, philosophy, and religion. The Silver family (loosely based on the author's own family) arrive on the island and are drawn into a world of creativity and excitement but also infidelity, jealousy, and dysfunctional relationships. Ultimately, the novel asks the question: What is the price of creativity?

In 1939, Hitler's tyranny approaches western Poland. A prosperous Jewish family - Julius and Josefina Kohn and their two teenage children Peter and Suzanna - flee their homeland, embarking on an unexpected odyssey of 6,000 arduous miles. They evade Nazi capture, only to be arrested by the Soviets, who have invaded Poland from the east. Deported to northern Russia, they endure savage conditions during 18 months of forced labor in a prison camp, where death lurks around every corner.

From the joy of their wedding day surrounded by supportive friends and family, Yaakov and Leah are soon plunged into the complex reality of their new lives together as Yaakov leaves his beloved yeshiva to work in the city, and Leah confronts the often agonizing restrictions imposed by religious laws governing even the most intimate moments of their married lives. Adding to their difficulties is the hostility of some in the community who continue to view Leah as a dangerous interloper, questioning her sincerity and adherence to religious laws and spreading outrageous rumors.

This program includes exclusive archival audio. From Heather Morris, the New York Times bestselling author of the multi-million copy bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Cilka's Journey: a story of family, courage, and resilience, inspired by a true story. Against all odds, three Slovakian...

For fans of Etgar Keret, a debut collection that fuses the humor of everyday life in Israel with technology's challenges and the latest discoveries about the human brain. At once compassionate, philosophical, and humorous, Jerusalem Beach is a foray into the human condition in all its contradictions. Through a series of snapshots of contemporary life in Israel, Gefen reveals a world that's a step from the familiar.

In the early 1940s, countless Jewish families were imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto before being led to their deaths by the Nazis. Amidst this horror, one young Jewish girl is smuggled out of the ghetto, sent to live on the other side of Warsaw with Helen Dobinski, a friend of her mother. Helen's Catholic faith and her friendship with the girl's mother compels her to keep the young child safe from harm. But Helen's heroism comes at a cost. Because harboring a Jewish person is a crime to the Nazis, with severe punishment - even death - as the penalty.

The life of the vibrant Schwartz Family changes completely overnight. The sudden illness of Noa, the family's youngest daughter, forces them to attain a great sum of money for an urgent operation, and they are at a loss. Daria, the oldest sister, is the only one who believes that the not so distant past of the intricate Hungarian family holds an old secret that could lead the way to save her little sister's life. Armed with great determination, Daria goes on a cross-continent journey to investigate the Schwartz dynasty's origins.

Brzeziny, Poland, 1939. Zofia's comfortable lifestyle overturns when her husband, Jabez, who monitors Nazi activity, has gone missing. Rather than fleeing the country with her young son, as she had promised Jabez who is fearing retaliation, she decides to stay. She cannot possibly leave her friend, Aanya. Since their childhood they have amazed fellow Brzeziners that it does not matter that Aanya is Jewish and deaf, and that Zofia is Catholic and hearing. Now, more than ever with war looming, Zofia will do whatever is necessary to protect her family and Aanya.