The Inheritance

by Israel Rosen, Elliot Rosen (Editor), Neal Karlen (Foreword)

A young boy, Elliot Rosen, watched his Zayda (grandfather) writing in Yiddish and drawing pictures with his fountain pen in a book that was kept hidden and secret. After his Zayda’s death in 1948 the book was kept from the young boy’s eyes. In 1960, when the boy’s Bubba (grandmother) died, the book was taken by the boy’s oldest uncle Max, and no one wanted to talk about it. In 1979, Uncle Max gave the book to his youngest brother, Dave (the boy’s father), and the next day, Max died. The young boy, now a married man, took the book and made it his responsibility to get it translated. Now, after many decades, Elliot Rosen has been able to bring the amazing story of survival and life’s journey of Yisroel Ayzik Rosen (Israel Rosen) to the public. This extraordinary work about a man whom Neal Karlen describes as a mensch in the book’s brilliant foreword, might only be one man’s story, but it is also every immigrant’s story in one way or another. It is tearful, painful, and sometimes depressing, yet funny, uplifting and ultimately spiritual.

340 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 24, 2023

Reviews

[Steven E. Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the best “Jewish stories” are tales of Exodus, as is this – a story of challenging choices in the face of plagues, deprivation and hardship, strange encounters in strange lands, the power of family near and far, and a persistent and abiding love of truth and justice informed by faith in an all–mighty and fearsome God. What makes this story exceptional is its telling in a kind of transliterated American Yiddish seemingly stitched from rags collected by the narrator’s grandson – his inheritance. Reads like sorrowful but uplifting music. Beautiful.

[Bill Silverman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Rosen kept his faith in God and maintained a moral steadfastness during his mostly difficult life. He lived from 1870 to 1948, and this autobiography of his life in Eastern Europe and America, originally written in Yiddish for his family, is an uplifting window into those times.