Sarah’s Ten Fingers

In the early 1900s, Sarah, a single mother of six children, is trapped in the bloody upheaval marking the death of Czarist Russia and the birth of the Soviet Union. Facing bigotry, poverty, and bloody revolution, Sarah determines to escape the catastrophe engulfing her and her family. She vows to bring them to America.

In this memoir, author Isabelle Stamler traces her family’s roots back to the small Belarussian hamlet of Vashisht, telling their story of the journey from Russia to a new life in New York City. From the Great Depression through World War II and beyond, Sarah’s Ten Fingers narrates the trials and tribulations faced by this determined mother seeking a better existence for her family.

Sarah’s Ten Fingers recalls Sarah’s tenacity, strength, and intelligence—traits that have been replicated in her progeny, who are now teachers, lawyers, doctors, accountants, business owners, and writers. It portrays fifty years in the lives of a family that was brought out of hell by a pious Jewish woman seeking to attain the Golden Land.