Bessie's Pillow
by Linda Bress Silbert
2013
About
May this pillow bring you peace.
So reads the pillow entrusted, in 1906, to 18-year-old Boshka Markman as she prepares to board a train in Vilna, Lithuania. One of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants who will leave Europe to escape persecution, she travels to America alone.
This is not just a story about a pillow, however. A masterful blending of history and life in the early 20th century as seen through one woman’s eyes, it is also a story of resilience—one that reminds us that no matter when or from where we came to America, we are not so different. This is not only Bessie’s story—it is ours.
Based on the true story of Bessie Markman Dreizen, this story crosses genres like few others, offering a glimpse of what it was like for the thousands who came to America between 1880 and 1920 and a front-row view through a child's eyes at the persecutions endured by the Jews of the Pale of Settlement at the hands of the Russian Czar.
But this book's greatest gift is education not only of the mind...but of the heart. As Bessie says in the prologue, no matter what challenges we may face, "Happiness will come again."
So reads the pillow entrusted, in 1906, to 18-year-old Boshka Markman as she prepares to board a train in Vilna, Lithuania. One of hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants who will leave Europe to escape persecution, she travels to America alone.
This is not just a story about a pillow, however. A masterful blending of history and life in the early 20th century as seen through one woman’s eyes, it is also a story of resilience—one that reminds us that no matter when or from where we came to America, we are not so different. This is not only Bessie’s story—it is ours.
Based on the true story of Bessie Markman Dreizen, this story crosses genres like few others, offering a glimpse of what it was like for the thousands who came to America between 1880 and 1920 and a front-row view through a child's eyes at the persecutions endured by the Jews of the Pale of Settlement at the hands of the Russian Czar.
But this book's greatest gift is education not only of the mind...but of the heart. As Bessie says in the prologue, no matter what challenges we may face, "Happiness will come again."
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