The newest and most com­plete ver­sion of The Ruda­shevs­ki Diary, with its remark­able trans­la­tion by Solon Bien­feld and its rich intro­duc­tion by Samuel D. Kas­sow, is a book that should find its way to every high school Eng­lish class­room. Yit­skhok Ruda­shevs­ki, the book’s four­teen-year-old author, writes thought­ful­ly and beau­ti­ful­ly, and his long­ing, pas­sion, and hopes for a bet­ter future are inspi­ra­tional. As he and all the oth­er ghet­to res­i­dents con­front the dread­ful choic­es they must make to sur­vive each day, Ruda­shevs­ki writes with an under­stand­ing and an empa­thy far beyond his years.

The sto­ry of the Vil­na Ghet­to is giv­en short shrift in Amer­i­can class­rooms, and the hope is that this hon­or will give that his­to­ry in gen­er­al and this young man’s too-short life in par­tic­u­lar pride-of-place in schools and uni­ver­si­ties. This unique diary, found in the attic that was his final hid­ing place, is both a nec­es­sary his­tor­i­cal arti­fact and a stun­ning por­trait of one young and beau­ti­ful per­son. ​“At any moment,” his last entry reads, ​“the worst can hap­pen to us.” The worst did, indeed, hap­pen to him. Let us be sure that the sto­ry of his courage and his intel­lect are not lost to us.