Bessie's Letters
Correspondence from Russia
to Bessie Rapoport Schechter
1913-1935
Being at long last,
the translation
of those bundled letters,
now torn and faded,
scribed with strange, forgotten strokes,
found after sixty years
in the top drawer of
my grandmother's dresser.
and all that time,
waiting, waiting.
Compiled by her grandson,
Bill Schechter
Second & Final Edition,
1998
This compilation is dedicated to
the great-grandchildren,
the great-great grandchildren,
the great-great nephews and nieces
of the writers of these letters,
Ethan Schechter
Jamie Schechter
Jesse Schechter
Sarah Schechter
Your history is before you.
"Do not forget us."
- Mikhail Rapoport
"Remember that you have brothers and sisters here."
-Sonya Rapoport
"And everything bad we experience, the beatings and we bent
our backs, and we hide ourselves, and we hide our heads, but we are alive...We
will see the sun shine and one day the Haggadah will tell our story during
a seder."
- from an unsigned letter, most probably written by Aaron Moishe Rapoport,
Grandma Bessie's father
Title Pages, Dedication, Frontispiece
Preface, Introduction, Poem
Letters: Early years
Letters: Middle years
Letters: Later years
Postscript
