Trafford Publishing: Inside the Rain Barrel: A Grandfather Tells His Granddaughter the True Story of How a Jewish Prayer Book - And a Young Man

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Inside the Rain Barrel: A Grandfather Tells His Granddaughter the True Story of How a Jewish Prayer Book - And a Young Man - Survived the Holocaust.

by Susan S. Ringel and Robert Ringel

22 pages; Saddle stitched; illustrated; catalogue #05-1907; ISBN 1-4120-6996-3; US$10.96, C$12.60, EUR9.00, £6.30

A granddaughter learns how a young man and a Jewish prayer book survived the Holocaust. The book becomes a family treasure and the focus of family history and tradition.

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About the Book About the Author Excerpts Catalogue Information

About the Book

Inside the Rain Barrel is the true story of a young man's extraordinary courage and commitment. He risks his life to save his family's prayer book from being destroyed during the Holocaust. The book represents the continuity and legacy of a Polish Jewish family. An 11-year old girl learns from her grandfather about family Jewish traditions that have continued on for a very long time, first in Europe and now in the United States.
With a warm and bright approach, the book weaves historic information - from the comfort of life in the shtetl to the danger of World War II - around a conversation between Grandpa Bob and Natalie, his granddaughter. Natalie learns that the tattered prayer book he shows her once belonged to her great-great-great-grandmother, Blumah Gelah. The book was hidden in a rain barrel to protect it from the Nazis. Natalie realizes that the book is a treasure to guard and to cherish.
Inside the Rain Barrel is a celebration of life, family and tradition. The story gives young readers much information and asks them questions about how they would act in certain situations. The story also makes suggestions to encourage and help readers to start a search about their own family members from the past, and to find precious objects that may be passed along from generation to generation.
Much of the Inside the Rain Barrel story plays out in very difficult times and places. The authors, both experienced educators, have taken great care to write sensitively in a manner that will inform but not frighten young readers. Inside the Rain Barrel is fully illustrated with color and black and white photographs. Some photos are more than 100 years old. A glossary has been provided to help readers understand the Hebrew and Yiddish words which appear in the text.

About the Author

Susan S. Ringel is a freelance writer, third grade Religious School teacher at her synagogue, and community volunteer. She graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English. She is married to Robert Ringel's, son, Mark. They live with their sons, Bradley and Richard, in Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Robert Ringel ("Grandpa Bob") was born in New York City and earned his graduate degrees from Purdue University. He is currently a professor at Purdue University working to find ways to help children speak and hear better. He lives with "Grandma Estelle" in West Lafayette, Indiana. They had the opportunity to travel to Poland for the first time in 1999. Many of the pictures in this book come from that trip.
Over the past years, Bob and Estelle Ringel have had the opportunity to make many friends in cities and towns in Poland near the original family home site. These people, with Cousin Norman's advice, did a wonderful job of finding the important places to visit and helping the Ringels to meet villagers who have known their family for more than 85 years. They are grateful for the help and hospitality offered by their Polish friends. Since the time of his original visit, "Grandpa Bob" has been back three more times. He has visited important places in the history of European Jewry, has prayed in a synagogue (the Remu Synagogue), first constructed in 1550 and still in use, has been given family birth and marriage documents from the mid-19th century, and has assisted in re-establishing the Jewish community in Poland.

Excerpts

Catalogue Information