Mary Antin — Russian Activist born on February 24, 1909, died on May 15, 1949

Mary Antin was an American author and immigration rights activist. She is best known for her 1912 autobiography The Promised Land, an account of her emigration and subsequent Americanization... (wikipedia)

The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them.
You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.
On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.
The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school.
We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful.