A Well-Read Woman Quotes

“when you do marry, don’t marry a man to change him, marry a man whom you think you can like as well as love, and one who shares your opinions on such basic matters as politics, religion (or the lack of it) and the place of women in society.16”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Librarianship was not just a job for her, but her tikkun olam, the Hebrew phrase for "repairing the world.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Ruth, just ten years old at the time, heard that it was happening. She set out to see it for herself and described the heaps of books set on fire in the road. She was stunned to see this happening in her hometown, the world-famous city of books, and did everything in her might to not cry as she passed by and watched.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Librarianship was not just a job for her, but her tikkun olam, the Hebrew phrase for “repairing the world.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“In her application to Berkeley’s School of Librarianship, she wrote that watching book burnings and reading banned books had inspired her to become a librarian.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“When asked which authors were her favorites as a teenager, she replied: “Everybody who was forbidden: Lion Feuchtwanger, Max Brod, Leon Trotsky . . . and what we did was we passed around the paperbacks. We read them, and as we finished reading, we tore up the pages and destroyed them so we wouldn’t get caught.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Research into Ruth Rappaport’s life led me to a seemingly endless array of sources in many archives and in multiple languages. I started with her oral history and tried to verify the stories she told. As it turned out, some of them were impossible to track down in other sources, and I’ve tried my best to reconcile the sources I could track down with Ruth’s own words.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“And you know, I’m not scared. You know why? I pretend I’m a spectator. I’m not in this war; I’m watching this war. And that gets me off the hook—I don’t have to worry.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“the United States, backing the majority decision of UNSCOP, announced at the UN its support for the Partition Plan, a resolution declaring that a new Jewish state in Palestine should be established along with an Arab state and international control over Jerusalem and Bethlehem.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“a new Jewish state in Palestine should be established along with an Arab state and international control over Jerusalem and Bethlehem.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Now that you are working for a Jewish organization you might become very cynical at what you see about the vast gap between the very un-idealistic behavior of the people who work for idealistic causes. It requires a great deal of faith in humankind to work for one of the Zionist organizations and yet keep to Zionist ideology.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Ruth, it is very difficult to live with anyone who has views diametrically opposite to yours on politics or any kind of issues which excite great emotional overtones and loyalties.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“A remarkable array of well-known people passed through Buchenwald or died there: writer Elie Wiesel, theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, French prime minister Leon Blum, as well as many other writers, politicians, artists, actors, doctors, and members of the resistance from across Europe.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Your two best friends, your two least jealous friends, are your parents, but you will learn that too late.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“My father was totally unrealistic. ‘Hitler’s going to last six months, and the Germans will know when to bargain.’ God almighty! I mean, never mind. When I remember, I still get angry. Because there was no excuse for being that much of an ostrich!”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“The older generations, particularly those who were native Germans, were not so supportive of Zionism, because it implied that Jews could not fully assimilate into German society. They worried that it gave Germans a pass on their responsibility to be a fully democratic, inclusive nation.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport

“Miss R. is a compulsive talker, without any terminal facilities, completely self-centered, not receptive to criticism, was a disturbing force in her class; uninterested in the needs or rights of others.”
― Kate Stewart, A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport