Join us on Sunday October 18 at 1:00pm for a meeting of the Brit Shalom Book Club. ff you plan to attend, please let Hermine, Lynn Petnick, or Michelle Davis know by October 14th so we can arrange the room set-up and (of course) snacks!

Rachel Calof’s Story is an extraordinary autobiography in which Rachel Bella Kahn Calof “shares” her own personal journal. She vividly recounts her life, from her birth in Russia in 1876 to her arranged marriage to Abraham Calof in 1894, a homesteader in North Dakota.  Told in her own words, Rachel dramatically recounts the struggles, the privations, the back-breaking work, and the many challenges of farming in late 19th century North Dakota. How she managed to bear and raise nine children in a 12’ x 14’ shack (which sometimes included her in-laws and farm animals) is a testament to her tenacity, strength of character and will to survive.

Jacob Calof, one of Rachel’s sons, writes a glowing epilogue.  He recounts Rachel’s later years including the family’s increasing prosperity and move to St. Paul Minnesota and the family’s history. The book continues with the “History of Jewish Settlements in America’s Heartland” by J. Sanford Rikoon, a commentary on the patterns of Jewish immigration and settlement on Heartland farms.
Finally, Elizabeth Jameson writes a commentary on Rachel’s autobiography as having a place in the historical context of the time.