Author Anita Friedman to Discuss "Rywka's Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto"

Palo Alto, CA–September 9, 2015–Author Anita Friedman will appear at the Schultz Cultural Arts Hall of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto Wednesday, September 30 at 7:30 PM to discuss her book “Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto.” The diary is an astonishing historical document and a moving tribute to the many ordinary people whose lives were forever altered by the Holocaust.

A Red Army doctor found a handwritten notebook in the ruins of Auschwitz after its liberation and took it back with her to the Soviet Union. It was in her private possession for more than seventy years until it was discovered after her death by her granddaughter, finally being translated and published by Friedman just last year.

Handwritten in a school notebook between October 1943 and April 1944, Rwyka Lipszyc’s diary detailed the brutal conditions that Jews in the Lodz ghetto, the second largest in Poland, endured under the Nazis: poverty, hunger and malnutrition, religious oppression, and, in Rywka’s case, the death of her parents and siblings. The diary is also a coming-of-age story, in which a young woman expresses her curiosity about the world and her place in it and reflects on her relationship with God—a remarkable affirmation of her commitment to Judaism and her faith in humanity. The diary ends literally in mid-sentence. What became of Rywka is a mystery.

Anita Friedman will sign copies of the book after her presentation. Tickets are available at www.paloaltojcc.org/friedman: $12 for students, $25 for the general public and $45 for priority seating, priority in the book signing line and a copy of the book.

The event is being produced in partnership with Kepler’s Books and Peninsula Arts & Letters.

Dr. Anita Friedman Dr. Anita Friedman leads Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the largest and oldest family service institutions in the United States. She oversees the JFCS Holocaust Center, which is dedicated to remembrance, research, and education about the Holocaust, and has served as the president of the Koret Foundation and has also been a Mayor’s appointee as Commissioner of the San Francisco Human Services Commission.

About the Oshman Family JCC

The Oshman Family Jewish Community Center (OFJCC) on the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life serves the South Peninsula through educational, social, cultural, fitness, sports and other programs. The OFJCC provides a common ground for Jewish institutions, other local groups, organizations and individuals to work, learn and play together for the betterment of the whole community. For more information, visit www.paloaltojcc.org or call (650) 223-8700.