I Am Because of You

“Miriam Dobin, a beloved preschool teacher, has written a moving account of her life as a child of Holocaust survivors. Raised by a loving aunt and uncle, also survivors, while her mother struggled with illness and her father worked long days, she grew up and, finding a perfect match, raised a family of her own. Dobin feels deeply that her story carries forward the history of her people, her culture and her religion, a project accomplished with deep caring and immense love. Her tale of a family that barely survived annihilation crosses the generations, entwining stories of her parents and grandparents with those of her own children. It climaxes in a trip to Slovakia and western Ukraine, where she and her husband meet people who remember her family. Past and future converge when her newborn granddaughter is given the name Esther after Dobin’s beloved aunt. This family saga is enriched with first person accounts and photographs, maps, and documents in several Eastern European languages and English translation. The reader will want to follow Dobin’s links to YouTube to view some of that material as well as other video clips she has posted in conjunction with her memoir. This is a multifaceted project well done.”