A Jewish Refugee in New York

A Novel

Kadya Molodovsky, Anita Norich

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780253040756
• eBook ISBN: 9780253040770
• Subtopic: Literature General

"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." —Jeffrey Shandler, author of Anne Frank Unbound
Rivke Zilberg, a twenty-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 United States, 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 Molodovsky 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 United States during WWII, Molodovsky points readers to the social, political, and cultural tensions of that time and place.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• A Jewish Refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg’s Journal
• About the Author