My maternal grandmother, Tania Brightman, was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, in the early part of the 20th century. She lived through numerous pogroms and the Russian Revolution. After her father was killed, her mother took her and three of her siblings on the long journey to America. Like Batya and her family, they boarded a ship in Riga. And my grandfather Morris Brightman—also Russian-born and reared—was a woodcarver. Although never a professional, he loved to work with wood, and his garage woodshop, littered with sawdust, crammed with his tools and his many projects, was steeped in his passion. The parallels between their lives and Batya’s end there. But these are the biographical threads that I used to weave my own tale. If fiction can be described as the charmed intersection of the real and the imagined, then I hope that in telling Batya’s story, I have done credit to both.
Timeline
1817:
The Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens. Students study a system of communication that later becomes known as American Sign Language.
1867:
Frederick Savage creates the modern carousel with horses that go up and down.
1880:
Helen Adams Keller is born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At the age of nineteen months, she loses her hearing and her sight due to an illness. She never regains them.
1880-1914:
A large wave of Jewish immigrants arrives in the United States from eastern Europe.
1880-1920:
These decades are known as the golden age of carousels in America.
1885:
The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor on June 19. It is a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States.
1897:
William Morrison and John C. Wharton, candymakers from Nashville, Tennessee, invent cotton candy.
1903:
Luna Park, an amusement area in Coney Island, opens. Fires frequently ravage the area. Coney Island suffers major fires in 1903, 1907, 1908, and 1911.
1904:
The first underground line of the New York City subway opens on October 27.
1914:
World War I breaks out in Europe.
1917:
The Russian Revolution begins.
1918:
World War I ends.
Glossary
bimah: the platform in the synagogue from which the Torah is read
blini: thin Russian pancakes
challah: a bread eaten on the Jewish Sabbath and on major Jewish holidays
cheder: a traditional elementary school for boys, teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language
erev: Yiddish for “evening”
katzeleh: Yiddish for “little cat,” a term of endearment
kopeck: an old Russian coin, about the value of a penny
pierogi: Russian dumplings stuffed with meat, cheese, or other fillings
pogrom: a form of violent riot or mob attack, either approved or condoned by the government, directed against a particular group. Jews were the targets of pogroms in eastern Europe well into the 20th century.
shtetl: Yiddish for “village”
shul: a Jewish house of worship
tochter: Yiddish for “daughter”
Torah: the first of three parts of the Hebrew Bible. The Torah is divided into five parts, or books.
verst: an obsolete Russian unit of length. It is defined as being 3,500 feet, which is about two-thirds of a mile.
About the Author
Yona Zeldis McDonough was born in Hadera, Israel, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. Educated at Vassar College and Columbia University, she is the author of eight novels for adults and 30 books for children. Her short fiction, essays, and articles have appeared in many national and literary publications. She is the fiction editor of Lilith, a feminist Jewish magazine.
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