Nothing Could Stop Her: The Courageous Life of Ruth Gruber
Yiddish Yiddish is the language of Ashkenazi Eastern and Central European Jews It is written in the Hebrew alphabet and uses some Hebrew words But it is also closely related to German It originated in Europe in the area that today is Germany around the tenth century Eventually it became the main language of Jews living in Poland Russia and many other European countries About 11 million people spoke the language before the Holocaust wiped out large populations of Yiddish speakers in the 1930s and 1940s The language lives on though with about 600,000 Yiddish speakers worldwide There are Yiddish theater companies Yiddish musical groups and even board games in Yiddish were closed but Ruth's parents kept theirs open They only closed their store for certain important Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur and the first day of Passover Every Saturday Ruth's grandfather Zayda Gruber would take her to shul synagogue She'd sit with him downstairs because although men and women sat separately young girls could sit with the men Ruth loved chanting the Hebrew prayers even though she didn't understand the language In those days only boys attended Hebrew school After shul her mother served a lunch of gefilte fish chicken soup and boiled chicken Then Ruth and her sister Betty who was two years older would walk six blocks to visit their mother's parents Their grandmother Baba Rockower fed them pastries talked about her life in Russia and read them articles from the Yiddish newspaper NOTHING COULD STOP HER 10
On the Jewish holidays when the store was closed the whole family went to shul On these days Ruth and Betty sat upstairs with their mother and the other women while their father and brothers were downstairs with the men Ruth wished she could be with the men like she was on Saturdays Ruth adored her father David Gruber was six feet tall with a red mustache gray green eyes and a soft voice that he never raised Ruth's mother Gussie ruled the family She had never finished school but was smart and taught her children the value of hard work Ruth's first lessons in helping others came from her father Once a month he sent money to relatives in Poland and Russia And every spring he asked his children for the clothes they weren't wearing so he could send them to Europe If Ruth didn't want to part with a dress or coat he would say Send it They need it more than you Ruth's world opened up when she entered public school Her first grade teacher was a young Black woman who taught a class of Jewish Irish Polish and Black girls Coney Island Adventures In the summers Gussie would pack a picnic basket gather her five children and assorted neighborhood kids and take them on the trolley to the beach at Coney Island There she would spread a blanket and rest while the children splashed in the surf Ruth loved those days at the ocean and loved her mother for giving them to her 11 BROOKLYN
One day Ruth's teacher knocked on the door of the Grubers apartment Ruth hid behind the bedroom door as her mother and the teacher spoke Did she do something wrong Mrs. Gruber asked No no I just wanted to tell you to take good care of her She loves books so much I'm sure that someday she's going to be a writer Ruth never forgot those words In 1920 the United States government made drinking or selling liquor illegal Mr. Gruber closed his liquor store and began working in real estate Meanwhile the children were getting too big for the small house Irving was five Ruth was eleven Betty was thirteen and Bob and Harry were growing into young men In 1921 the Grubers bought a house on Bushwick Avenue It was only a mile away from Moore Street but to Ruth it was a new world Historic Tensions Poland was sandwiched between two powerful neighbors Russia to the east and Germany to the west Both these countries invaded and controlled parts of Poland in the 1700s and 1800s After World War I Poland regained its independence But many Poles remained suspicious of Germans and Russians And many Protestant Germans distrusted Catholic and Jewish Poles NOTHING COULD STOP HER 12
Without realizing it the family had moved into a German neighborhood On spring and summer days Ruth's brothers played softball in the street with the neighborhood boys Ruth and Betty became friends with the boys sisters All the shopkeepers were German including the man who ran the candy store where the family bought ice cream and Ruth's favorite dessert charlotte russe sponge cake topped with whipped cream Everyone got along But meanwhile in Germany a man named Adolf Hitler was telling crowds of cheering people that Jews were evil and that his goal was to destroy all the Jews in the world 13 BROOKLYN
