Non­fic­tion

Have You No Shame?

  • Review
By – January 26, 2012

Rachel Shukert’s first book gives read­ers an unusu­al look at grow­ing up Jew­ish in a small town in Nebras­ka. Here is Shuk­ert at eight years old, wan­der­ing around muse­ums on fam­i­ly vaca­tions instead of vis­it­ing Dis­ney­land; and as a teenag­er con­vinc­ing her Pol­ish doc­tor that she mere­ly has a stom­ach ache and isn’t preg­nant. Shuk­ert also recalls mem­o­rable vis­its to her grand­par­ents dur­ing Han­nukah, when her grand­moth­er would cook enough for an army and spoil her and her sis­ter with too mas­ny presents.

From a young age, though, Rachel showed signs that she was des­tined for some­thing big­ger than life in Oma­ha. In ele­men­tary school she took it upon her­self to teach Eng­lish to refugee chil­dren from East­ern Europe. Her non stop imag­i­na­tion and cre­ative mind helped her reach New York City, where, many obsta­cles lat­er, Shuk­ert suc­ceed­ed in pub­lish­ing sto­ries and writ­ing plays that have been per­formed from Mass­a­chu­setts to the Netherlands.
Rachel Orbach is a sopho­more at Emory Uni­ver­si­ty. She has writ­ten for Fresh Ink, a sup­ple­ment to the Jew­ish Week, and would like to pur­sue a degree in journalism.

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