A Thousand Threads

A story told through Yiddish letters

English translation by
Miriam Beckerman, Lily Poritz Miller
and Olga Zabludoff

Edited and compiled by
Lily Poritz Miller and Olga Zabludoff

"
From the 1920s and after, these letters provide an absorbing account of a Jewish family's migration from Lithuania. Alternately endearing, heart-rending, plaintive, joyous, exhilarating and intriguing, they relay a human drama, rich in both the details of everyday life and the articulation of grand hopes for the future. 'Be well and lucky,' they say over and over again. Readers will be moved to salute these writers, for their care for one another and their articulation of their family's and their people's deepest aspirations."  
Michael R. Marrus
   Professor of History
   University of Toronto


"
In recounting his life through letter-writing during a three-year period in the 1920s, Tzvi Shapiro gives great insight into the tribulations of the immigrant experience. Rarely does a biography get so personal."
Gary Mokotoff
Publisher, AVOTAYNU


"
For all of us who are children of the age of Jewish displacement, migration and landing in new settings, this trove of over 200 letters is an invaluable document of social history. Fighting loneliness and despondency, an intelligent and sensitive young Jew is at the center of a fascinating correspondence primarily with his sister whose reflections and insightful, encouraging responses turn these letters into an 'epistolary novel.' Viewed through the lens of the Holocaust 20 years later, the central characters win our admiration for their rootedness in tradition and their resourcefulness. They are true Jewish survivors of painful relocation and pioneers in building a new life."
  Max Ticktin
   Professor of Jewish Studies
   George Washington University





            

R E M E M B R A N C E    B O O K S
Washington, D.C.
Cover design:  Elizabeth Jassem
Praise for A Thousand Threads
Photos from the collection of Sarah Shapiro Poritz
Association of Jewish Libraries
Remembrance Books
2475 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 721
Washington, DC 20037-2639

Fax:        202-338-6524
Email:   
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Canadian Jewish News
The Yiddish Forward
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A Thousand Threads
a story told through Yiddish letters

Remembrance Books
6" x 9", 320 pages, paperback
ISBN: 0-9669349-1-1      US $24.95
SITES OF JEWISH INTEREST