A Jewish Refugee in New York
Rivke Zilberg's Journal

Kadya Molodovsky (Author), Anita Norich (Translated by)

9780253040756

Hardback, published 1 April 2019

202 pages, 4 B&W
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.431 kg

"This novel invites the reader inside the mind of a Polish Jewish woman who has recently arrived in New York just after WWII began in Europe. She grapples with the twin challenges of being a refugee—agonizing over the fate of loved ones left behind and struggling to adapt to a strange new social, cultural, and economic environment, uncertain of her future."—Jeffrey Shandler, author of Anne Frank Unbound

Rivke Zilberg, a 20-year-old Jewish woman, arrives in New York shortly after the Nazi invasion of Poland, her home country. Struggling to learn a new language and cope with a different way of life in the United States, Rivke finds herself keeping a journal about the challenges and opportunities of this new land. In her attempt to find a new life as a Jewish immigrant in the US, Rivke shares the stories of losing her mother to a bombing in Lublin, jilting a fiancé who has made his way to Palestine, and a flirtatious relationship with an American "allrightnik."
In this fictionalized journal originally published in Yiddish, author Kadya Molodovsy provides keen insight into the day-to-day activities of the large immigrant Jewish community of New York. By depicting one woman's struggles as a Jewish refugee in the US during WWII, Molodovsky points readers to the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place.

Introduction / Anita Norich
From Lublin to New York: The Journal of Rivke Zilberg, A Young Jewish Refugee / A novel by Kadya Molodovsky