Happy Purim 2015!

Review of "Edith's Story: The True Story of How One Young Girl Survived World War II"

I don't like to read stories about the Holocaust, but I began reading a sample of  "Edith's Story: The True Story of How One Young Girl Survived World War II" and could not put the book down.  It only took me two days to read it, in fact.

Edith van Hessen was a happy child and teen growing up in Holland.  As I read about her, I was reminded of my own daughter,  Annabelle, who seems to make friends wherever she goes.

Edith was good at sports. She attended an exclusive private school, played the piano, loved to write and had a wonderful and loving mother and father, grandmother, and two brothers.  Her home was a home filled with love.

She even wrote that she ice skated with her friends in Holland and learned the Fourteen Step, an ice dance that I know well.  Edith, like all young teens, looked forward to a happy life and future.

Just like Anne Frank, she kept diaries and wrote a lot of letters.  Parts of her diary entries and letters are woven together throughout her book.

Before Germany invaded Holland, Edith's oldest brother moved to the USA when it seems that it might be dangerous for the family to stay in Holland because they are Jews, but the rest of the family did not really want to leave the comfortable life they had in Holland.

The van Hessens know they are Jewish, but they are secular Jews who celebrate "St Nicholas" day. They have friends from all sorts of religious backgrounds, and life in Holland is good.  They actually could have moved easier than some since her father worked for an American company based in Ohio. 

Also, the USA will not allow Edith's grandmother in the United States since the grandmother was from Germany and the US will no longer allow Jewish Germans into the USA, so the family decides to stay since they don't want to leave the grandmother behind.

Just in case they might possibly change their minds, they did obtain passports and Visas, but those were burned up after the Germans invaded Holland.

At first the van Hessens don't believe Hitler will actually do the same things in Holland as he did in Germany, but they soon find out they were wrong. It happened slowly, but soon they had to sew yellow stars on all of their clothing, Edith can't go to school with gentiles, they can't ride bikes, they can't ride buses, their car is taken away, they can only shop at certain times, and things keep getting worse and worse.  Jewish friends are suddenly told they must vacate their homes.  It is a very scary time.

The van Hessen family decides to have Edith and her brother Jules hide since young people are being "called" and being "called" could mean that they could be sent to work camps or to unknown places.

It is the right time for Edith and her brother to hide.  Edith and her brother obtain false identification cards without the Jewish "J" and different names. Jules goes to a different place to hide than Edith.

Edith lives with a gentile family in an area where no one knows her and takes on the name "Netti" (a gentile girl whose parents are ill) and helps her hosts keep their home clean.  She is very lonely during that time and misses her family so much.  She is visited by a gentile friend that gives her letters from her parents that are supposed to be burned after they are read, but she keeps the letters anyway.  These letters are treasures now since they are what made Edith's book so very dramatic.

During the hiding period, Edith does get to travel to see her father one last time while he is the hospital recovering from cancer surgery, but knows it will be the last time she will ever see him.  She also does see her brother one time, just before her brother tells her about his plan to leave Holland and head for Switzerland (I or was it America?).

The brother who had false identification is caught though before he has a chance to escape and is eventually sent to a death camp.  Her family's home is eventually taken by the Germans.  Her mother and grandmother, and friends and other relatives are eventually sent to death camps and die there. Her father dies in the hospital, but Edith says that later she believes he may have committed suicide rather than be sent to a German death camp.

Edith "hides" under the false gentile identity for about three years.  

After the Germans are defeated and things return to "normal," Edith leaves the gentile family and returns home and finds her bedroom almost intact, although her family's house was stripped and everything else was gone. In her room she also finds photos and memories.

Edith is reunited with her brother,who moved to the USA and also her cousin who both served with the Allies during the war She goes on with her life and eventually goes to college, participates in sports, gets married, has children and goes to America.

She forms a new family and life goes on, but she always misses her parents, brother, grandmother, and other friends and family who died in the Holocaust.

This book really affected me and seemed to be more powerful a read that Anne Frank's diary. In fact, when Edith had twin babies in 1950, she shared a hospital room with Miep, the woman who helped hide the Frank family! She tells Miep, when Miep mentions that Mr. Frank is trying to publish Anne's diary, that she doubts anyone will read it...

It is awful to think such a sad thing happened to such a young and sweet girl.  I cried and I will cry again when I think about Edith's story.  I hope nothing like the Holocaust will ever happen again...

Review of "Jew in the Pew" - A Book by Jenny Berg Chandler

I recently read a book on my Kindle Fire by Jenny Berg Chandler called Jew in the Pew: A Memoir.

I discovered the book when I typed in "Jewish" into the search book box in the Kindle Store and I was intrigued.

I also wondered if I could perhaps relate to this author and, of course, books that tell people's individual stories always attract my attention these days since I recently published the story of my skating life.  I have recently wondered if the manuscript draft I've written about my crazy and mixed up spiritual journey should also be published, but a friend suggested I hold off since that story seems to not have an ending quite yet.

Anyway, back to Jenny Berg Chandler's story: 

Jenny grew up in a reform Jewish home in Philadelphia, but her family was torn apart when her parents divorced after her mother suddenly became a believer in Jesus.

After the divorce, and from the time she was eight to fourteen, Jenny's family (mother and siblings and grandparents) lived in a Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia, but also attended a Messianic Jewish congregation, and seemed to only have messianic Jewish friends.  Messianic Judaism was their entire world it seemed.  They were totally absorbed in it, and to outsiders their involvement could have seemed a bit cult-like.  The family did all the Jewish holidays and from their point of view, they were Jews who believed in Yeshua (Jesus).  In other words, they did not fit in with the regular Jewish community, but were not really "standard Christians" either.

All was good until at the age of fourteen, very suddenly,  Jenny's family was thrown out of the messianic Jewish world.  Jenny does not really know what happened, but she did know that the people that had been part of Jenny's and her family's close knit messianic world would no longer associate with her or her family.  It must have been a horrible time for Jenny and her family, but life went on.

Instead of just going the "plain Jewish route" and giving up believing in Jesus, Jenny's family did what most believers in Jesus would do: the went to church and became very involved and Jenny also went to a Christian school.  The family made new friends and became part of mainline evangelical Christianity, but together, at home and isolated from other Jews, maintained some Jewish traditions.   Their messianic Jewish past, and their reformed Jewish past was still part of her family's life, but after Jenny got married, Jenny sometimes felt that those memories were buried or tucked away. 

Jenny grew up and married a Baptist.  She and her husband became involved at church and were very involved and part of the church going world, but Jenny realized as time went on that she missed being Jewish.  How much she missed being Jewish didn't take over her thoughts and being until her family moved to Florida when her children were pre-teens. 

"Jew in the Pew" tells Jenny's story of how she decided to bring being a Jew and Judaism back into her life and into her family's life.  The book is told in an entertaining style and in a journal-like form, and is so open that the reader feels he or she IS Jenny since the reader is taken into Jenny's home, her thoughts, and into her personal life.

The reader gets a chance to celebrate and learn about every Jewish holiday with Jenny and her family.  I felt like I was really there during Purim, Sukkot, Shabbat, Passover, and other holidays.  I traveled with Jenny to a synagogue and to other Jewish gatherings.  I was in the kitchen cooking Jewish foods and baking challah.  That was fun!

It is obvious from reading the book that Jenny has an incredibly close family and that although many of her family members are messianic Jews, that Jenny is very much Jewish and that she is also Christian because she believes that Jesus is the Jewish messiah.  Like a chameleon, Jenny can become either, but is the most comfortable with other messianic Jews.

I found myself relating to Jenny since my desire to give my children a Jewish identity is so very strong and my desire to seek God as a Jew and be part of the Jewish community is also so very strong.  Also, Jenny's feeling that she really does not belong inside a gentile church is so true for me.  Home for me is with the Jewish community.  I will never feel comfortable in a church setting.

For Jenny, home is with Messianic Jews or with the regular Jewish community, but she can fit into a church too.

I did not know until I read Jenny's story, how very Jewish messianic Jews are.  That world almost seems like another branch of Judaism in fact!  Getting thrown out of that community was almost like a divorce for Jenny's family and it was refreshing to read about Jenny's reconnection to that community and her connection with the Jewish community in Florida and also about the healing relationships in her own family that seemed to be helped by Jenny's desire to connect with "all things Jewish"

Whatever a Jewish person believes does not change the fact that he or she is Jewish; that line of thinking is made very clear in Berg Chandler's book.  Jenny Berg Chandler's book shows how strong Jewish identity can be in a very gentile world.  It made me grateful that I've been able to worship G-d the way that works for me (for me I just can't do it  in that "other world"), but I see that Jenny figured out how to worship God and be a part of two worlds at the same time.

I learned too that every Jewish person must find his or her own way to worship God.  Jenny found a good balance, and I believe I may have found what works for me.  I recommend Jenny's book to any Jewish person who may struggle with Jewish and/or Christian issues, those who are inter-married, and to anyone interested in understanding what it may be like to be Jewish in America.  It's an easy read.

Note:  I was intrigued that Jenny enjoyed connecting with a group called "Jewish Java" in Florida.  I wish such a group was in Colorado where I live!  I also thought it was neat to read how Jenny's daughter went on a Birthright Israel trip since my son, Joel, got to go on one early last summer.  I can see that Jenny was able to pass on a sense of Jewish identity on to her children, and I've been so glad I've been able to do that with my family too.      

Visit the the American Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia 12-23-14

During a trip to see my son in Philadelphia (he's traveling with an ice show), my daughter and I and my son wanted to go to the historical places, but heard that visiting the American Jewish Museum in Philadelphia would be a fantastic experience and it certainly was!

We arrived just as a tour was about to begin and were asked if we'd like to take part and going on that tour made our experience the best museum experience I've ever had in my life.  The tour guide began when Jews came to America in the 1600s and took us throught the present.  

It was an emotional experience to learn about the observant Jewish families in the US, learn about the struggles they faced, learn about the places they lived, where they worked, and more.  There was a lot of emphasis on anti-semitism and prejudice.  We saw a reproduction of the first synagogue in the United States and we learned about Jews during the Revoluationary War.  We learned that Abraham Lincoln not only fought for the rights of African Americans, but the rights of American Jews. 

I learned General Grant refused to have Jews in his company in the Civil War.  

I learned about the beginning of the Reform Movement and about a very non-kosher meal that was served to those who were invited that made a statement that eating kosher was not a requirement.

I learned a horrible story about a man with the last name Frank who was accused of a murder in the South and sentenced to prison and then killed because he was Jewish and also from the North.

As the tour moved on to modern times we learned about Jewish immigrants and where they came from, we learned about Jews in World War 1 and 2, Jewish camps, Jewish schools,  American Jewish music, and famous American Jews throughout American history.

At the end of the tour there is a place where visitors can tell their own stories and we had so much fun there!  Here are some of the videos we made that shared our family's history:

• Holiday Traditions
• Religious Freedom
• Holiday Songs - Dredel Song
• Food - Matzah and Eggs, Matzah, Hamentaschen
• Food - My Grandma Fannie's First Attempt to Cook for My Grandpa Max

It was truly an amazing, emotional, and remarkable day, and a day we will never forget!



Below is an interesting video about the problem Jews have every year during the holiday season. It was part of the display at the museum called "The Night Before Hanukkah."
 


Watch the video playlist below to see some of the things we saw and learned:

When we left teh museum, Annabelle took a photo of Joel and I in front of the huge menoral that was lit up at the Independence Mall!