Non­fic­tion

Eli’s Sto­ry: A Twen­ti­eth-Cen­tu­ry Jew­ish Life

  • From the Publisher
March 29, 2018

Eli’s Sto­ry: A Twen­ti­eth-Cen­tu­ry Jew­ish Life is first and fore­most a biog­ra­phy. Its sub­ject is Eli G. Rochel­son, MD (19071984), author Meri-Jane Rochel­son’s father. The book tells the sto­ry of a man whose life and mem­o­ry spanned two world wars, sev­er­al migra­tions, an edu­ca­tion­al odyssey, the mas­sive upheaval of the Holo­caust, and final­ly, a frus­trat­ing yet ulti­mate­ly suc­cess­ful effort to restore his pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tials and iden­ti­ty, as well as reestab­lish fam­i­ly life.

It begins with Eli’s ear­li­est mem­o­ries of child­hood in Kovno and ends with his death, his lega­cy, and the author’s own unan­swered ques­tions that are as much a part of Eli’s sto­ry as his own words. The nar­ra­tive is illu­mi­nat­ed and expand­ed through Eli’s per­son­al archive of papers, let­ters, and pho­tographs, as well as research in insti­tu­tion­al archives, libraries, and per­son­al inter­views. In the epi­logue, the author reminds read­ers that the sto­ries of lives don’t have clear chronolo­gies. They go off in many direc­tions, and in some ways they nev­er end.

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