This is my family’s true story, although I have presented it in fiction form

Book: My Sister in China

Author: Rebbetzin Danielle S. Leibowitz, together with her daughter, Devorah M. Rothenberg

Publisher: Feldheim

The book in two lines

A fictionalized account of the true story of a family’s separation and reunification with a daughter. Monique’s childless sister, Francine, takes Monique’s daughter Collette from France to China against the family’s wishes. Illness and World War II prevent them reuniting, and Collette grows up very differently than her Orthodox siblings. Can they ever rise above the rift, and can Monique forgive her sister?

The author in three lines

Rebbetzin Leibowitz moved with her family to New York from France shortly before World War II began. A graduate of Bais Yaakov Seminary and Hunter College, she taught secular studies for many years. More recently, as a great-grandmother several times over, Rebbetzin coauthored a biography of Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan with Devora Gliksman.  Her first husband was Rabbi Yehuda Cohen ztz”l, principal of Yeshiva of Eastern Parkway. She later remarried Rabbi Henoch Leibowitz ztz”l, Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim in Queens.

Your writing space

Since 2005, I live in the building of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens, where my husband was the rosh yeshivah. I work on a computer table in the Rosh Yeshivah’s study. Everyone laughed when I was busy writing my first book, but now that it’s in stores, they take me seriously.

Why did you decide to write this book?

This is my family’s true story, although I have presented it in fiction form. The reason I decided to write it — after all these years — is that I’d just written the book on Rebbetzin Vichna Kaplan and found myself in a writing mood. One book led to another.

Also, people were curious. Whenever I mentioned that I had a sisterwho grew up in China, listeners assumed I meant Shanghai. But Tientsin, where my sister Collette lived, was an entirely different world. One of my grandchildren once wrote this story up for a school assignment on family history, and the teacher couldn’t imagine it was true. My daughter got a call from the principal, and had to verify it. I realized this was a story that should be told.