Run, Boy, Run

Title: Run, Boy, Run
2004 Batchelder Honor Book
Author: Uri Orlev (translated: Hillel Halkin)
Published: 2003
Group: Jewish
Cultural Indicators: (1)Srulik is the name of the main character. In Jewish culture the Srulik figure represents Israel and serves as an antithesis to antisemitic stereotypes. (2)Srulik is from the Warsaw ghetto. During World War I Nazis isolated and controlled Jews by confining them to segregated areas called ghettos which are characterized by poor living conditions. (3) This fiction novel is an historical account of a young Jewish boy's survival during the Holocaust under the Nazi Regime. (4)During WWI Jews were forced to wear the Star of David to indicate their Jewish identity. The Star of David is a symbol of Judiasm. Judiasm is customarily practiced by Jews. Yosele, Srulik's friend from Warsaw says that his mother, "made a living by sewing and selling the blue stars of David that Jews had to wear on their sleeves." (5) Traditionally, circumcision was a Jewish custom. Srulik is warned not to expose himself in the nude lest his Jewish identity be revealed by his circumcision. (6)Yiddish is a distinct Jewish language. Srulik is concerned that his accent might reveal that he is Jewish, "Srulik suddenly realized why Shleymi had told him not to talk to Poles. 'Do I talk Polish like a Jew too?' (7) Hebrew is traditionally spoken by the Jewish in prayer and in formal education. "When he was little, Srulik had gone to Hebrew school." (8) Under the Nazi regime, German government organized an internal police security known the gestapo to control the Jewish population. Srulik and his family try to escape the Warsaw ghetto but, "The Germans caught him and his mother...and brought them to the Gestapo. His mother was given a whipping and they were returned to the ghetto." (9) An influence of the Germans, sausage is a staple of the Jewish diet. "Run, Boy, Run" makes severals references to sausage. (10) The Nazis were thought to be very fund of vodka. In the novel, vodka is offered by the Jews to the gestapo as a bribe to avoid punishment.