When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers

"During the 1930s, the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut, a Jewish cultural think tank founded in Wilno, Poland (now Vilnius, Lithuania), decided to conduct some research on Jewish youth culture by holding an autobiographical essay contest aimed at young people 13 to 21. The grand prize would be 150 zlotys (equivalent to $1,000 today) for the “most truthful entry.” Tragically, the award ceremony – scheduled for Sept. 1, 1939, the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland and kicked off World War II – had to be canceled. Nearly 80 years later, these six contestants’ essays were resurrected via comic artist Ken Krimstein’s fluid brushstrokes and cinematic narratives. Unflinchingly examining gender and class bias, spiritual beliefs, political affiliations, the conflict between faith and worldly love, these mesmerizing accounts reflect the young writers’ deep commitment to depicting the Jewish experience as hauntingly complex and endlessly vital."