A Typical Extraordinary Jew

As a child of Holocaust survivors, I read this book with great interest and personal involvement. In a loving act of storytelling, Calvin Goldscheider and Jeffrey Green have resurrected the memories of the late Shmuel Braw, a Holocaust survivor to whom they became powerfully attached as worshipers in a Jerusalem synagogue. A man brimming with tales, Braw recounts his extraordinary narrative of pain, survival and triumph, bringing the authors and their readers into direct contact with his indefatigable spirit and stubborn attachment to life. His story and personality, so ably captured here, will echo in your memory long after the book is closed. -- Samuel Heilman, distinguished professor of sociology, Harold M. Proshansky Chair of Jewish Studies, CUNY Queens College and The Graduate Center
This book by Calvin Goldscheider and Jeffrey M. Green is a moving account of a Polish Jew whose life experience traversed the tragedies, ambiguities, and dilemmas of twentieth century Jewry. . . . Braw's experiences reflect the ways modern Jews have struggled with religious observance, Jewish identity, [and] belonging in gentile and in Jewish society. Goldscheider and Green do an extraordinary job [of] preserving Braw's voice, his Yiddish-inflected English, and his character. They weave quotations from him-gleaned from extensive interviews-into a carefully crafted narrative which always remains true to the joy, the sadness, and the plucky spirit of their subject. Especially moving is the account of Braw's experience in a Soviet labor camp during World War II, an experience which is not well known in Holocaust accounts, but had its own share of horror and despair. Goldscheider and Green should be commended for trying to understand this extraordinarily interesting twentieth century European Jew. -- Marsha L. Rozenblit, Harvey M. Meyerhoff Professor of Jewish History, University of Maryland