What do you think?
Rate this book
Our Little Histories
When installation artist Jenifer Greenberg-Wu is approached by Belarusian tycoon Maxim Pranovitch to create a Reality show involving “Jewish people living their Jewish lives� she takes up the challenge, calling on her Israeli relative, Nadav Markovitch and his family to move into a glass walled house where they will enact Jewish practice before an audience of spectators.
Six generations earlier in a remote village in Belarus, Jennifer and Nadav’s ancestor, Raizel Shulman needs to find a way to save her three young sons from being drafted into the Czar’s army.
This is the story of what happened over those six generations.
​In seven episodes, moving backwards through the tumult of the 19th and 20th centuries, Raziel’s descendants make fateful choices as they struggle to reconcile their identity, their dreams and the constraints of their time and place. Their stories play out on a reality set in rural Belarus, 1960’s Tel Aviv, a pre-independence kibbutz, 1930’s Chicago, pre-war Vilna, turn of the century Minsk, and finally, to the tiny shtetl of Prepoisk, not as a single overriding narrative, but as a collection of small, intimate histories.
Six generations earlier in a remote village in Belarus, Jennifer and Nadav’s ancestor, Raizel Shulman needs to find a way to save her three young sons from being drafted into the Czar’s army.
This is the story of what happened over those six generations.
​In seven episodes, moving backwards through the tumult of the 19th and 20th centuries, Raziel’s descendants make fateful choices as they struggle to reconcile their identity, their dreams and the constraints of their time and place. Their stories play out on a reality set in rural Belarus, 1960’s Tel Aviv, a pre-independence kibbutz, 1930’s Chicago, pre-war Vilna, turn of the century Minsk, and finally, to the tiny shtetl of Prepoisk, not as a single overriding narrative, but as a collection of small, intimate histories.
238 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2023
3 people are currently reading
52 people want to read
About the author
Janice Weizman
2Ìýbooks13Ìýfollowers**I'm pleased to announce that The Wayward Moon has bee reissued with Toby Press. Click here to see the new edition: /book/show/2...
Janice Weizman is a Canadian-born writer living in Israel. Her first novel, The Wayward Moon, was the Recipient of the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal and the winner of the 2013 Midwest Book Award.
Her second novel, Our Little Histories, came out in August 2023 with Toby Press.
A selection of Janice's other writing, including essays, articles, translations and book reviews can be found on her website at
A graduate of the Creative Writing program at Bar-Ilan University, Janice founded and served as a fiction editor of The Ilanot Review from 2009-2019. Today, she is the curator of Reading Jewish Fiction, an online venue where she and other writers review recent Jewish-themed novels, poetry and other works.
Janice Weizman is a Canadian-born writer living in Israel. Her first novel, The Wayward Moon, was the Recipient of the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal and the winner of the 2013 Midwest Book Award.
Her second novel, Our Little Histories, came out in August 2023 with Toby Press.
A selection of Janice's other writing, including essays, articles, translations and book reviews can be found on her website at
A graduate of the Creative Writing program at Bar-Ilan University, Janice founded and served as a fiction editor of The Ilanot Review from 2009-2019. Today, she is the curator of Reading Jewish Fiction, an online venue where she and other writers review recent Jewish-themed novels, poetry and other works.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 15, 2025
Our Little HistoriesÌýis a historical novel going in reverse order, similar to Mr. Mani by A.B Yehoshua. Our Little Histories startsÌý today and goes back 5 generations, zigzagging along the family tree amongst the different branches and the different directions that the family went.
We start with Jennifer Greenberg-Wu, and her daughter Cassie. Jennifer, currently living in Chicago, is a curator of Living Installations.Ìý I found on the internet that this is actually a current type of art and not something that Weizman created for the purpose of her story. Jennifer is commissioned to create a historical setting of Jewish life in the Russian Pale of over 150 years ago. Although the entire business venture goes extremely well, Jennifer is overwhelmed by the thoughts that she really doesn't know what was going on with these people, her relatives of over 150 years ago. We are exposed to the Yiddish poem written by her grandmother 5 generations back, a talisman of sorts which accompanies the histories until we learn the story behind it. We are exposed to the fact that no one knows Yiddish anymore.Ìý By the end of the two week stint,Ìý Cassie, Jennifer's daughter is also drawn in to act in this representation, and Jennifer is aghast.Ìý Her daughter is only half Jewish by birth, less than half Jewish by looks and totally non Jewish by experience.Ìý But Nadav, the religious cousin from Israel who was employed to 'act' in this living installation defends her participation saying (Pg 27) "Judaism recognizes any person who has a Jewish mother to be a Jew.Ìý Today, there are many who accept even those who only have a Jewish father. There are blond Jews because we accept the children of Jewish women who were raped by peasants and Cossacks; there are black Jews because there are blacks who took on the Jewish faith.Ìý And there are Asian Jews, whose mothers fell in love with Asian men." To me, this felt like the ideology that ignited my Zionism â€� don't ever forget that you are Jewish because no one else will.
The next snapshot takes us to Tel Aviv, a generation back to Nadav's mother Yardena in 1968. Yardena is Israeli born, newly married and pregnant with her first child.Ìý We are also introduced to Tamar, Yardena's mother who escaped the Holocaust by moving to Israel before the Nazis destroyed Europe. But she left her family behind and they all perished in the Holocaust. As is typical of this period of time and especially in Israel, the Holocaust is not discussed and Yiddish is swept under the rug.Ìý This shapshot has Nancy (Jennifer's mother) visiting Yardena and Tamar. Weizman excels in describing each snapshot in the voice of its time. Here she captures Nancy, the American hippie, coming into feminism, against war. Nancy's persistant inquiries lead them together to recapture this Yiddish poem written by Tamar's great grandmother.ÌýÌý Although Yiddish is a dying language, at this point there are still people who can read and understand the poem. We are also exposed to another branch of the family, Gabriel and Dora and their two children who perished in the Holocaust, despite their families efforts to get them out of Europe.
The next snapshot is 1946.Ìý WWII is over but the State of Israel has yet to be declared.Ìý Now it is Tamar telling the story, living on a kibbutz, the socialist Zionist dream. She is approached by a survivor from Germany and reveals secrets she was barely willing to admit to herself. The descriptions make imagining the scenes so very plausible. This is when Tamar takes the Yiddish magazine with the poem written by her great grandmother and donates the magazine to the Yiddish library.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
The next snapshot is a lateral move, from Tamar to her cousin Gabriel, the branch of the family that had no survivors from the Holocaust. It is in Vilna March 1939Ìý The snapshot opens with a description of Tamar's letter urging Gabriel to leave Poland and Gabriel and his wife's reaction. (pg 95) "The Zionists are constantly insisting that disaster in Europe is just around the corner," I said to Dora.Ìý "It's part of their ideology.Ìý Why else would anyone take the trouble to abandon the civilized world and eke out an existence in the desert?"Ìý This is the third reference to these pleas to Gabriel to leave Europe. We are given a good description of the civilized modern life they are living as modern Polish Jews on the eve of the war. Gavriel is an intellectual, teaching literature in the local high school.Ìý But this does not protect him from the rampant anti-Semitism;Ìý he gets beaten up by local hooligans.Ìý And yet, they do not seem to be able to visualize the catastrophes that await them.Ìý Gavrial writes (pg 120) "Yet we know that difficult days await us.Ìý The army is mobilizing and it seems we will soon again be at war.Ìý We've been told to stock up on enough food supplies for two weeks.Ìý At night, alone with my thoughts, I am filled with fears."
The next snapshot is again a lateral move to the cousin in American.Ìý Nat is in Chicago Sept 1938. Yiddish is still alive but dying a slow death.Ìý His mother buys tickets to a Yiddish play with the hopes of meeting his American born girlfriend.Ìý Nat receives a letter from the cousin Gabrial in Vilna, asking for a copy ofÌý Walt Whitman poems.Ìý Can Europe really be disintegrating if this is what he is requesting? Again, Weizman has excelled in creating a vibrant picture of the scene in Chicago with the description of the dinner party Nat and his girlfriend Sally go to.
The next snapshot takes us back another generation to 3 first cousins who are meeting for the first time in Minsk in 1896.Ìý They are in their late teens, early twenties. One lives in Mogilev, one in Minsk and one in Propoisk, Belarus.Ìý Elkie, Nat's mother is a socialist, Aryeh, Tamar's father is a Zionist and Yoyna, Gavrial's father Ìýis a Talmud scholar.Ìý They have a memorable Shabbat together which seals their ties to each other to stay in touch with letters for the next 20 years. The poem from their grandmother is put together and published by Itzik Grupstein, Aryeh's father. The poem is pulled together having been separatedÌý with one verse being given to each son, with Yoyna discovering the meaning behind the poetry. This is the talisman which the great great grandmother wrote and it floated down 5 generations despite the fact that it was written in Yiddish a language that eventually died.
The final snapshot is of the grandmother herself Raizel in Propoisk, Belarus in 1850. We learn of the awful predicament of Jewish boys who were kidnapped into the Czar's army and Raizel's heroic decision to split up her boys to different families to save their fates since the Czar did not kidnap sons who were the only male children of the family. Ìý
After following this poem backwards in the generations, we are finally shown the poem:Ìý
I drew a green clover from the black earth
New and fresh, with three green leaves
I plucked each one and wished a wish
And scattered them to the windÌý
I saw three ducklings
Playing on the shore
They waddled into the river and swam off
One swam west, one east and one to the warm south
I saw three stars in the night sky
looking down on me with their light
and though they were so far away
they knew the reasons
for all I had done.
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
We start with Jennifer Greenberg-Wu, and her daughter Cassie. Jennifer, currently living in Chicago, is a curator of Living Installations.Ìý I found on the internet that this is actually a current type of art and not something that Weizman created for the purpose of her story. Jennifer is commissioned to create a historical setting of Jewish life in the Russian Pale of over 150 years ago. Although the entire business venture goes extremely well, Jennifer is overwhelmed by the thoughts that she really doesn't know what was going on with these people, her relatives of over 150 years ago. We are exposed to the Yiddish poem written by her grandmother 5 generations back, a talisman of sorts which accompanies the histories until we learn the story behind it. We are exposed to the fact that no one knows Yiddish anymore.Ìý By the end of the two week stint,Ìý Cassie, Jennifer's daughter is also drawn in to act in this representation, and Jennifer is aghast.Ìý Her daughter is only half Jewish by birth, less than half Jewish by looks and totally non Jewish by experience.Ìý But Nadav, the religious cousin from Israel who was employed to 'act' in this living installation defends her participation saying (Pg 27) "Judaism recognizes any person who has a Jewish mother to be a Jew.Ìý Today, there are many who accept even those who only have a Jewish father. There are blond Jews because we accept the children of Jewish women who were raped by peasants and Cossacks; there are black Jews because there are blacks who took on the Jewish faith.Ìý And there are Asian Jews, whose mothers fell in love with Asian men." To me, this felt like the ideology that ignited my Zionism â€� don't ever forget that you are Jewish because no one else will.
The next snapshot takes us to Tel Aviv, a generation back to Nadav's mother Yardena in 1968. Yardena is Israeli born, newly married and pregnant with her first child.Ìý We are also introduced to Tamar, Yardena's mother who escaped the Holocaust by moving to Israel before the Nazis destroyed Europe. But she left her family behind and they all perished in the Holocaust. As is typical of this period of time and especially in Israel, the Holocaust is not discussed and Yiddish is swept under the rug.Ìý This shapshot has Nancy (Jennifer's mother) visiting Yardena and Tamar. Weizman excels in describing each snapshot in the voice of its time. Here she captures Nancy, the American hippie, coming into feminism, against war. Nancy's persistant inquiries lead them together to recapture this Yiddish poem written by Tamar's great grandmother.ÌýÌý Although Yiddish is a dying language, at this point there are still people who can read and understand the poem. We are also exposed to another branch of the family, Gabriel and Dora and their two children who perished in the Holocaust, despite their families efforts to get them out of Europe.
The next snapshot is 1946.Ìý WWII is over but the State of Israel has yet to be declared.Ìý Now it is Tamar telling the story, living on a kibbutz, the socialist Zionist dream. She is approached by a survivor from Germany and reveals secrets she was barely willing to admit to herself. The descriptions make imagining the scenes so very plausible. This is when Tamar takes the Yiddish magazine with the poem written by her great grandmother and donates the magazine to the Yiddish library.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
The next snapshot is a lateral move, from Tamar to her cousin Gabriel, the branch of the family that had no survivors from the Holocaust. It is in Vilna March 1939Ìý The snapshot opens with a description of Tamar's letter urging Gabriel to leave Poland and Gabriel and his wife's reaction. (pg 95) "The Zionists are constantly insisting that disaster in Europe is just around the corner," I said to Dora.Ìý "It's part of their ideology.Ìý Why else would anyone take the trouble to abandon the civilized world and eke out an existence in the desert?"Ìý This is the third reference to these pleas to Gabriel to leave Europe. We are given a good description of the civilized modern life they are living as modern Polish Jews on the eve of the war. Gavriel is an intellectual, teaching literature in the local high school.Ìý But this does not protect him from the rampant anti-Semitism;Ìý he gets beaten up by local hooligans.Ìý And yet, they do not seem to be able to visualize the catastrophes that await them.Ìý Gavrial writes (pg 120) "Yet we know that difficult days await us.Ìý The army is mobilizing and it seems we will soon again be at war.Ìý We've been told to stock up on enough food supplies for two weeks.Ìý At night, alone with my thoughts, I am filled with fears."
The next snapshot is again a lateral move to the cousin in American.Ìý Nat is in Chicago Sept 1938. Yiddish is still alive but dying a slow death.Ìý His mother buys tickets to a Yiddish play with the hopes of meeting his American born girlfriend.Ìý Nat receives a letter from the cousin Gabrial in Vilna, asking for a copy ofÌý Walt Whitman poems.Ìý Can Europe really be disintegrating if this is what he is requesting? Again, Weizman has excelled in creating a vibrant picture of the scene in Chicago with the description of the dinner party Nat and his girlfriend Sally go to.
The next snapshot takes us back another generation to 3 first cousins who are meeting for the first time in Minsk in 1896.Ìý They are in their late teens, early twenties. One lives in Mogilev, one in Minsk and one in Propoisk, Belarus.Ìý Elkie, Nat's mother is a socialist, Aryeh, Tamar's father is a Zionist and Yoyna, Gavrial's father Ìýis a Talmud scholar.Ìý They have a memorable Shabbat together which seals their ties to each other to stay in touch with letters for the next 20 years. The poem from their grandmother is put together and published by Itzik Grupstein, Aryeh's father. The poem is pulled together having been separatedÌý with one verse being given to each son, with Yoyna discovering the meaning behind the poetry. This is the talisman which the great great grandmother wrote and it floated down 5 generations despite the fact that it was written in Yiddish a language that eventually died.
The final snapshot is of the grandmother herself Raizel in Propoisk, Belarus in 1850. We learn of the awful predicament of Jewish boys who were kidnapped into the Czar's army and Raizel's heroic decision to split up her boys to different families to save their fates since the Czar did not kidnap sons who were the only male children of the family. Ìý
After following this poem backwards in the generations, we are finally shown the poem:Ìý
I drew a green clover from the black earth
New and fresh, with three green leaves
I plucked each one and wished a wish
And scattered them to the windÌý
I saw three ducklings
Playing on the shore
They waddled into the river and swam off
One swam west, one east and one to the warm south
I saw three stars in the night sky
looking down on me with their light
and though they were so far away
they knew the reasons
for all I had done.
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2023
Our Little Histories attempts to connect the complex relationship between modern Jews and their heritage. I found the story exciting, intriguing, suspenseful and breathtaking. With each chapter I finished, I was sorry to part from the characters. Weizman draws the fascinating story of the life of a Jewish family spanning 165 years, in which each chapter is set against the background of the events of the period. The book portrays each generation’s struggle to survive and overcome the difficulties, crises, and tragedies of their time.
A must-read.
A must-read.
May 19, 2024
In the early 19th century, most Jews in eastern Europe resided in small villages (shtetls) where Orthodox religious life was the norm. Historians have explained how social, political, and intellectual developments led to a large migration in the early 20th Century from Eastern Europe to North America, with smaller numbers moving to the land that became the State of Israel by the middle of the 20th Century. Most of those who remained in Europe were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in the Holocaust. Large majorities of the descendants of the Jews who migrated to North America and Israel do not at all fit the Orthodox mold that had been the norm in the shtetl.
Some fiction focused at the human level, of which Janice Weizman’s Our Little Histories is a superb example, can illuminate how these changes came about. The book is a family chronicle told in seven linked short stories set in different years and different places, starting in Chicago in 2015 and moving back in time to a small shtetl in 1850.
A key feature of the book is its stance against nostalgia. The first story describes a kind of “reality� performance planned by a non-religious Jewish woman living in Chicago and staged in a small locale in Belarus. The performance takes place on a set that recreates the internal furnishings of a typical shtetl home, where the actors are a religious family. Audiences pay to watch short segments of the action through one-way mirrors, and are charmed by a nostalgic depiction of family Jewish life, with a cycle of prayers, food preparation, meals and other homey personal interactions.
However, later stories, set in earlier time periods, highlight the dangers of pogroms and other outbursts of violence directed at Jews in 19th and 20th C. Eastern Europe, even before the rise of Nazism. The final story, set in 1850, vividly describes the fears created by Czarist-organized kidnapping of 12-year-old Jewish boys for lengthy service in the Russia army. The boys taken were torn away from their families at a still tender age, with many not surviving to ever see them again. Attempts to hide to avoid being seized often led to tragic deaths. By the time one finishes the book it is clear how incomplete and therefore false was the depiction of shtetl life presented in the 2015 reality performance.
Janice Weizman had carefully researched her subject and her writing is characterized by well-developed characters and historic settings, with the stories sometimes taking surprising turns not expected by the reader. The writing is engaging, illuminating and thought-provoking. Our Little Histories is highly recommend.
Some fiction focused at the human level, of which Janice Weizman’s Our Little Histories is a superb example, can illuminate how these changes came about. The book is a family chronicle told in seven linked short stories set in different years and different places, starting in Chicago in 2015 and moving back in time to a small shtetl in 1850.
A key feature of the book is its stance against nostalgia. The first story describes a kind of “reality� performance planned by a non-religious Jewish woman living in Chicago and staged in a small locale in Belarus. The performance takes place on a set that recreates the internal furnishings of a typical shtetl home, where the actors are a religious family. Audiences pay to watch short segments of the action through one-way mirrors, and are charmed by a nostalgic depiction of family Jewish life, with a cycle of prayers, food preparation, meals and other homey personal interactions.
However, later stories, set in earlier time periods, highlight the dangers of pogroms and other outbursts of violence directed at Jews in 19th and 20th C. Eastern Europe, even before the rise of Nazism. The final story, set in 1850, vividly describes the fears created by Czarist-organized kidnapping of 12-year-old Jewish boys for lengthy service in the Russia army. The boys taken were torn away from their families at a still tender age, with many not surviving to ever see them again. Attempts to hide to avoid being seized often led to tragic deaths. By the time one finishes the book it is clear how incomplete and therefore false was the depiction of shtetl life presented in the 2015 reality performance.
Janice Weizman had carefully researched her subject and her writing is characterized by well-developed characters and historic settings, with the stories sometimes taking surprising turns not expected by the reader. The writing is engaging, illuminating and thought-provoking. Our Little Histories is highly recommend.
December 11, 2023
Our Little Histories is the best work of historical fiction I've read in years. While the book is exhaustively researched, Weizman's copious knowledge of Russian Jewish life doesn't overwhelm a perfectly-paced plot - or, rather, a series of intersecting story lines. Our Little Histories, with its eye for detail as well as ear for authentic-sounding dialogue, does what fiction is supposed to do: It takes you there. Like all great story tellers, the author manages to strike that magical balance between depicting a particular time and place and touching on such universal themes as love, loss, hope, and - ultimately - redemption. Our Little Histories is precariously close to being a modern masterpiece.
August 20, 2023
Our Little Histories
The Toby Press, Israel, 2023
ISBN 078-1-59264-599-2
Paperback $18.70
Janice Weizman's "Our Little Histories" is a delightful book. It is Weizman's second novel. She won two Awards for her first one and deserves more for this second. The story tells seven tales of Jewish family members in different cities over 165 years. Many are non-observant Jews but they are people with whom observant Jews and non-Jews can identify. Each described event is eloquent and very moving. Each is funny and sad. Each reveals the difficulties faced by the family member inflicted upon them by non-Jews. The stories rang from Chicago in 2015, to Tel Aviv, Israel in 1968, to Kibbutz Givat, Israel in 1946, to Vilna in 1939, to Chicago in 1938, to Belarus in 1896, to the story of a triplet's mother in Belarus in 1850. What pulls the tales together is a brief document, a poem written in three stanzas. The triplet's mother gave a third to each of her three triplets when she had to disown them and give them to three other families for adoption to save their lives. I found it almost impossible to put the book down after I began reading it.
The Toby Press, Israel, 2023
ISBN 078-1-59264-599-2
Paperback $18.70
Janice Weizman's "Our Little Histories" is a delightful book. It is Weizman's second novel. She won two Awards for her first one and deserves more for this second. The story tells seven tales of Jewish family members in different cities over 165 years. Many are non-observant Jews but they are people with whom observant Jews and non-Jews can identify. Each described event is eloquent and very moving. Each is funny and sad. Each reveals the difficulties faced by the family member inflicted upon them by non-Jews. The stories rang from Chicago in 2015, to Tel Aviv, Israel in 1968, to Kibbutz Givat, Israel in 1946, to Vilna in 1939, to Chicago in 1938, to Belarus in 1896, to the story of a triplet's mother in Belarus in 1850. What pulls the tales together is a brief document, a poem written in three stanzas. The triplet's mother gave a third to each of her three triplets when she had to disown them and give them to three other families for adoption to save their lives. I found it almost impossible to put the book down after I began reading it.
March 18, 2024
I was immediately drawn into the story both in its style and intriguing storyline. By having each chapter progressively move back in time and told from a different speaker, Weizman weaves together an intriguing complex tale. I immediately became engaged in connecting the pieces of the puzzle that tells a Jewish story of a family across time and place. Accompanied with a family tree that appears at the beginning of the book, I found myself tracing the family story and delving into the profound questions raised about topics including Jewish identity, continuity, religious tradition, assimilation, the place of Israel and the Diaspora.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the exploring how three branches of a family in 19th Century White Russia carved out different paths for themselves and their descendants.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the exploring how three branches of a family in 19th Century White Russia carved out different paths for themselves and their descendants.
January 15, 2025
I absolutely loved this book. I read this author's first work, 'The Wayward Moon', when it first came out, and was impressed with its atmosphere, attention to detail and its story development. 'Our Little Histories' is very different. It is vast in its chronology, moving backwards through time through a number of generations of a Jewish family whose origins lie in Eastern Europe. The common thread, a poem written by a mother to her 3 sons as she heartbreakingly splits up her triplets in order to save them from having to serve in the Russian army, is hauntingly created. The device of going backwards in time is intriguing, and provides a stimulating challenge to the reader to imagine how the passage of time leads from one section to another. Weizman has sketched the quintessential Jewish story, and has done it in a masterly manner. It is highly recommended.
October 1, 2023
This is a book which spoke to me and I suggest will speak to many other readers. Why? I start with the historical truth to the premise of the book. The author has taken a very real part of Russian history relating to 25 years of military service coerced on Jewish boys, as early as 12, and from that fact created a captivating story about a family faced with this reality. The mother in Our Little Histories opts to do something most mothers could not do. Now, it is a novel and yet, you can bet that this very same problem was one that many Jewish families in White Russia, the Pale of Settlement, faced once upon a time. Janice Weizman weaves a fascinating tale about the the three sons and the fate of their descendants. What a treat! Who of has not thought about the lives of our ancestors and the issues facing them in the old country. This was one very real issue. Congratulations to the author for her attention to detail, her penetrating insight and her vivid story telling. This is a winner.
April 8, 2024
Seven unique and beautifully-written stories tracing members of a Jewish family backwards in time and across the continents. I thoroughly enjoyed each story on its own, as well as the delicate thread that connected them all. There was much to learn about Jewish life in different places and at different times, as portrayed by realistic characters.
I highly recommend this book to individual readers and book clubs.
I highly recommend this book to individual readers and book clubs.
August 13, 2023
I couldn't put down Weizman's book. I loved it. This intricately woven montage of stories spans the generations of a Jewish family. At times suspenseful, at times tender and heartbreaking, the narrative shifts and surprises as it twists through different moments in a family's history.
October 24, 2023
A fascinating mosaic of modern Jewish history. Seven stories, each fascinating on its own, combine to create a touching, thought-provoking composite portrait of how Jewish history has evolved in recent generations.
January 29, 2024
This clever story moves backwards in time, to reveal the characters' roots. Readers of literary fiction, Jewish fiction, and historical fiction will enjoy. Great for book clubs.
March 15, 2025
Beautifully written. I found myself not wanting one chapter to end, only to enjoy the next even more. The pieces come together in such a satisfying way.
February 22, 2024
Jewish history is filled with fascinating tales. Sometimes, though, it takes fiction to make these stories come alive: a novel can fill in thoughts and emotions to which historians rarely have access. That’s shown in two recent novels; “Our Little Histories� by Janice Weizman (The Toby Press) offers both a personal and public view of more than a century of Jewish history, while “Ravage and Son� by Jerome Charyn (Bellevue Literary Press) focuses on the emotions and actions of those living in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
See the rest of my review at
See the rest of my review at
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.