Beyond Courage. Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust Lecture

On Sunday, February 23, 2014 at 12:15 pm, award-winning author, Doreen Rappaport, will be speaking at Congregation B’nai Israel (CBI) about her new book Beyond Courage: The untold story of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust. The book is a stirring collection of true stories of Jews and non-Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help others during the Holocaust. The program will begin with a light lunch at 12:15 pm and the lecture will begin promptly at 12:45 pm.  Adults and children, age 10 and older, are welcome to attend.  Following the lecture, Rappaport will sign copies of her book.

            Rappaport has written many books of fiction and nonfiction and specializes in books for young adults. She is the recipient of The Washington Post Children’s Book Guild Award for Lifetime Achievement for the writing of non-fiction.  Beyond Courage has won numerous awards and was named by the Jewish Book Council as a 2013 Jewish Book Month Selection.  The Wall Street Journal called the book “beautifully designed and a sobering, bittersweet read.”  Jewish Book World Magazine wrote, “Beyond Courage is full of the kinds of stories that give you gooseflesh and … is a reminder that tremendous acts of courage were carried out by ordinary people who took a stand under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.”           

            Rappaport explained that she wrote the book because acts of resistance are not well known. “From the beginning of Hitler’s ascent in Germany and all through the war, Jews resisted the Nazis with uprisings and escapes and rebellions. Jewish partisans played cat-and-mouse with German troops, bombing military transports, shooting informers and collaborators, and dynamiting German army warehouses.”  Rappaport continued, “but resistance was not defined just by dramatic, militant events. Jews also refused to renounce their religion and celebrated their holidays in secret, set up secret schools to give their children hope for the future, became expert forgers, providing others with new identity and ration cards and devised ingenious ways to smuggle children out of danger.”           

            Congregation B’nai Israel is located at 171 Ridge Road in Rumson, at the corner of Ridge and Hance Roads. The Library Committee is sponsoring the event, which is free for members and $5 for non-members.  Registration is required by February 21, 2014. For more information about CBI and to register for the event, visit www.cbirumson.org or call 732-842-1800. For more information about Rappaport or Beyond Courage, visit www.doreenrappaport.com.  Books will be available for sale on the day of the lecture but to purchase the book before or after the event, contact River Road Books at 759 River Road, Fair Haven, NJ or visit www.riverroadbooks.net.