From a Ruined Garden

In the years after World War II Polish Jewish survivors of the Holocaust who had made their way to America or Israel resolved to preserve the memory of their destroyed communities by compiling memorial books, narrative accounts of Jewish life in Polish towns before, during, and to some extent after the Holocaust. "From a Ruined Garden" gathers some 65 selections from the nearly one thousand memorial books published since World War II. The texts describe typical market days, communal institutions, prayer houses, peculiar town types, outstanding personalities, and local customs and legends, as well as everyday life during the Holocaust and the experiences of returning survivors. The book includes a comprehensive bibliography of the memorial books and a gazetteer of place names mentioned in the text. A substantial introduction by the editors illuminates the history of the memorial books and their importance in the construction of memory culture through the response of survivors.

ISBN 0253211875   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780253211873 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 554 Publisher Indiana University Press   Published in Bloomington, IN Imprint Indiana University Press   Series title Indiana-Holocaust Museum Reprint S. Format Paperback   Previous ISBN 9780805207897 Publication date 01 Jun 1998   Height (mm) 156 Library of Congress 98012201   Width (mm) 234 DEWEY 940.5318   Spine width (mm) 20 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Professional / Scholarly Pages 396

		Acknowledgments
		Introduction		1
		Our Towns
		What Is a Pinkes?		51
		The Court of the Plyaters		53
		At the Market		58
		Novoyelne		64
		The Twenty-first of Adar: The Great Day		65
		The Burial Society		68
		Girls' Kheyders		70
		Anarchist Activities		72
		The Struggle for the Right to Work		76
		Light and Shadow		79
		The Jewish Porters of Warsaw		81
		When Anti-Semitism Raged		87
		Sports Clubs and Self-Defense		88
		The Last Meeting of the Community Council in Kutno		91
		Townspeople
		The Blind Cantor		97
		Reb Moyshe-Yudl, the Traveling Tailor		99
		Ayzikl the Bachelor		101
		Zabalye the Coachwoman		101
		The Mute		103
		Esther-Khaye the Zogerin ["Sayer"]		104
		Tall Libe		106
		Reb Dvoyre Mash		107
		Crazy Sora		108
		Shloyme-Akive, the Town Fool		109
		Alter, the Village Peddler		111
		The Kozhenitser Rebe		113
		Lifeways
		Customs, Symbols, and Ceremonies		119
		More...

"An indispensable sourcebook... Emphasis falls on the variegated, often joyful, culture of the Polish Jews, on what existed before the garden was ruined.O NGeoffrey H. Hartmann, The New Republic oFrom these marvelous selections, one can see an entire culture unfolding. From a Ruined Garden accomplishes what editors from hundreds of towns sought to do for their destroyed communitiesNcreate paper monuments wherein a bit of that extinguished flame is fanned back to life.O NCurt Leviant, New York Times Book Review

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