Miriam Libicki

In October 1942, thirteen-year-old Rózia Handelsman (Rose Lipszyc) manages to escape certain death as her family is being deported from their home near Lublin, Poland. Alone and terrified, she flees to a neighbor’s house and is reunited with her aunt, Róza Finkielsztajn. With the help of friends and strangers, the two Roses adopt false identities and disguise themselves as Polish gentile sisters. Against all odds, they survive the war in a forced-labor camp in Nazi Germany. A collaboration between award-winning graphic novelist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc, this book illuminates a crucial part of our shared history with care, honesty, and creativity.

In her first collection of graphic essays, Miriam Libicki investigates what it means globally and culturally to be Jewish, dating from her time in the Israeli military to her tenure as an art professor. Toward a Hot Jew is a new high watermark in autobiographical comics and shows Miriam Libicki as a powerful witness to history in the tradition of Martjane Satrapi and Joe Sacco.