You are invited to participate in One Book I One Community. Discover A Day of Small Beginnings, a remarkable debut novel by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum selected specifically for this Chicago Jewish Community initiative. Explore themes of Jewish faith and identity, receive a special reader resource guide perfect for your book group or own investigation, participate in related programs, and meet the author!

A Day of Small Beginnings by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum
I wondered what if a gatekeeper had remained in the Old World to tell the tale. And so began A Day of Small Beginnings.
                                                                          — from the Author's Note

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If you liked A Day of Small Beginnings, you might also like:

• Einhorn, Erin.   The Pages In Between: A Holocaust Legacy of Two Families, One Home. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
• Eve, Nomi. The Family Orchard: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 2000.
• Singer, Isaac Bashevis. The Family Moskat. New York, Knopf, 1950.

Visit JBooks.com for more suggestions on Jewish fiction and non-fiction books

Learn more about topics in A Day of Small Beginnings by exploring these resources:

Online Resources*

• NYTimes article Non-Jews Reviving Poland's Jewish Culture
• Video of The Jewish Cemetery of Dzialoszyce, Poland 
• Video of Polish Volunteers Caring for Jewish Cemeteries 
• Photos of Jews in Poland before WWII (video) 
• Video of the Jewish Music Festival in Warsaw
• YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe

*Please note that while content on these sites may be interesting, comments are not edited and may contain racist/vulgar remarks

eBooks

• Dubnow, Simon. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland v. 3, Published 1916, available through Hathitrust Digital Library

Books available in the Asher Library

• Opalski, Magdalena. Poles and Jews: A Failed Brotherhood. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1992.
• Polonsky, Antony. The Jews in Poland and Russia. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008
• Zimmerman, Joshua D. Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia, 1892-1914. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.

Articles available in the Asher Library

• Manekin, Rachel. "Orthodox Jewry in Krakow at the Turn of the Twentieth Century." Polin, 23 (2011)165-198
• Polonsky, Antony. From Shtetl to Socialism: Polish Jewry from the Partitions to the Twentieth Century. The "Golden Age" and Beyond, (1997) 16-30
• Wisse, Ruth R. "Poland's Jewish Ghosts". Commentary, 83,1 (1987) 25-33
• Zbikowski, Andrzej. "The Impact of New Ideologies: The Transformation of Krakow Jewry Between 1895 and 1914." Polin, 23 (2011) 135-163

Videos available in the Asher Library

• Come Let Us Dance (Lomir geyn tantsn) Two Yiddish Dances, Heritage, Style & Steps. Los Angeles, CA: K. Goodman, 2002.

Music available in the Asher Library and on the Web

• International Yiddish Festival, Cracow 1990. Wuppertal, Germany: Edition Künstlertreff, 1990.
• Werdyger, David. Boyaner Nigunim. Brooklyn: Aderet Records, 1980. (Synagogue music, Poland)

Encyclopedia Judaica   
You must be a Spertus student or member to access Encyclopedia Judaica online.

See these entries: Afterlife, Barreness and Fertility, Cemetery, Dance, Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., Literature Jewish, Pale of Settlement, Poland, Tombs and Tombstones