A Jewish Journey is the memoir of Sam Ron, born Shmuel Rakowski in Kazimierza-Wielka, a tiny village, or shtetl, near Krakow, Poland, in 1924, which was overtaken by the Nazis in 1939. As opposed to other Holocaust memoirs, the book takes the form of a Q&A with students who have met him to hear his story, underscoring the importance of Holocaust education not only for Sam himself, but also for all those who will never have the opportunity to meet a survivor. It is written in a novelistic form, in order to touch the heart as well as the mind. Ron is one of the oldest living survivors of the Nazi death camps. After the war, he worked for Bericha, an organization that resettled in the Land of Israel orphaned refugees from Europe. He also served in the Haganah fighting force and was what is known as a chalutz, an early settler before the founding of the State of Israel, where he helped found a settlement and served as a soldier in the Haganah, the precursor to the Israel Defense Forces. He subsequently immigrated to the U.S. and was a successful land developer in Akron and Canton, Ohio. Now Sam lives in Boca Raton, Florida, and continues what he has done for over half a century: educating young and old about his experiences of the momentous historical events in which he has taken part. Along with his acclaimed work as a volunteer educator, until 2019, Sam Ron was a regular volunteer for the March of the Living, a longstanding educational program that takes students and adults to Poland and Israel to visit many of the same places where he survived--and thrived.
Born in Kazimierza-Wielka, Poland, Sam Ron was imprisoned in four concentration camps and helped found the modern State of Israel before becoming a land developer and a volunteer Holocaust educator in the US, Israel, and Poland. Mr. Ron is a recipient of the Elie Wiesel Award from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Caren Schnur Neile, has published six books, including her most recent, Peninnah's World: A Jewish Life in Stories, with Hamilton Books. A performance storyteller, Dr. Neile has taught storytelling studies for over two decades at Florida Atlantic University.
As Holocaust survivors share and record their personal stories, they provide the world with a new lens through which to understand history's most extreme collective example of antisemitism. Their testimonies have heightened significance in our time, as the publics attention spans shorten in the digital age; as the study of history and knowledge of the past declines; and as the assault on truth gains credibility in the public square. In A Jewish Journey, Holocaust survivor Sam Ron tells his story in an engagingly unique and personal manner, making the readers feel that they are personally interviewing him. Filled with tragedy and triumph, Sam's memoir will stand the test of time and remain as a bulwark against the threat of Holocaust denial and distortion.--Robert Tanen, Southeast Regional Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
