Chapter 01

As he recounted the day Moishe died, my father seemed to transport 80 years, back to his home in Jedwabne.

MW = Michael Waterston, AW = Alisse Waterston, author.

It’s strange how something that seems unimportant—a torn scrap of paper—can come back at some later time to have so much meaning.

This is the cover of the program for the feature film Fiddler on the Roof that my father kept amongst tons of other paper items—personal writings, magazines, financial papers, legal documents, photographs—mementos of his life. The Fiddler on the Roof booklet was more than just a movie program; it signaled something significant that I would need to explore.