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This 16-year-old turned her grandmother’s Holocaust survival story into a novel
(New York Jewish Week) — In May of 1937, 7-year-old Inge Eisinger lived in a luxurious Vienna apartment with a pantry stocked with favorite foods and a staff to keep her company. Though she had a strained relationship with her mother and an absent father, Inge, who was mostly raised by her maternal grandmother Anna, was living a charmed life.
This is the scene that opens “Running for Shelter,” a young adult novel about the Holocaust written by a young adult herself: 16-year-old Suzette Sheft, who is a junior at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. In the novel, Sheft retells her grandmother’s story of surviving the Holocaust.
Published by Amsterdam Publishers, which specializes in Holocaust memoirs, the book is a delicate and powerful reminder of the importance of recording one’s family history. It’s a lesson Sheft learned too early in life: Her father died of pancreatic cancer when Sheft was just 13 and she soon realized she was forgetting all the stories he told her about his childhood.
“I fantasized about rewinding time, so I could go back and record my favorite stories about his childhood,” Sheft writes in an author’s note. “I wished I had taken the time to write these stories down when I had the chance, because his death allowed me to understand the vitality of preserving the stories of our loved ones before it is too late.”
In memory of her father, Sheft recorded the story of his mother, her grandmother Monique Sheft, who was once the Viennese school girl Inge Eisinger.
In pre-war Austria, Eisinger had been living a completely assimilated life — so much so that her parents never even told her that she was Jewish. Following the Nazi takeover of Austria, her mother managed to whisk the two of them away to Switzerland, then Paris, but soon abandoned her. After a twisting and tragic story, Eisinger eventually reunited with her grandmother and moved to a village in Central France to wait out the war, changing her name to the more French “Monique.”
Sheft’s novel ends in 1946, when the two are on the boat to New York after the war and Eisinger’s grandmother reveals to her that she and her family are actually Jewish.
In spite of this — or perhaps because of it — Sheft, who lives in Manhattan with her mom, her twin brother and two dogs, is very committed to her Jewish identity. “Although my grandmother never really practiced Judaism, my dad was very involved in the Jewish world,” she said. “He was very passionate about Jewish causes and just Judaism, in general. So I felt very connected to the Jewish world because of him.”
The New York Jewish Week talked with Sheft about what the book means to her, why its subject matter is important and what she learned in the process of putting it together.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
New York Jewish Week: What was the process of writing the book; how did the idea begin and how did you collect your grandmother’s story?
Suzette Sheft: I had heard a lot of my grandmother’s stories from my dad. I always had an interest in the Holocaust — I would go to Holocaust museums in every city I visited, and I almost exclusively read books about World War II and the Holocaust growing up. So I kind of knew in the back of my head that I wanted to do something like this, but [my father’s death] sparked and ignited the necessity of doing it as soon as possible.
As for the process, a few summers ago I spent a week with my grandmother, interviewing her every day about her escape from Austria to France. At first she shared physical elements of her life, like her apartment and her family dynamics and her school life, but then she began to talk to me about the time leading up to the war — the years before the Germans invaded Austria. As she spoke, I recorded everything she said in bullet point form and I would periodically stop and ask for more detail. The next day, at the beginning of the conversation, I would recap what we had talked about, and then allow her to elaborate or clarify the story.
Later, I wanted to widen my perspective and uncover other stories and details that she may have forgotten, so I watched an interview she did with the USC Shoah Foundation. This was really helpful because there were some details that she had forgotten or that she had left out.
Even though the book is about your grandmother’s life, you wrote it as fiction. How much of the story came from your grandmother’s details, and how much did you have to research or create on your own?
Every event that happens is true, and everything actually happened to her, but there are some small details that I embellished. For me, it was really helpful because, while I love creativity and writing, I sometimes struggle to pick an idea. So the fact that she had all these little stories, and I could expand from those, was something I loved while writing this. I had to use fiction when describing the atmosphere of certain places and also to write the dialogue because I can’t know exactly what they said or how they said it.
Do you have a favorite story your grandma told you that you made sure to get in the book?
Inge goes to a boarding school [in France] with her host family and there the children play a game where they pick someone to be the “torturer,” who is usually whoever they think the ugliest person is. My grandma had red hair and green eyes, and I guess she wasn’t the traditional standard of beauty. They picked her to be the torturer and she would have to pull people’s hair and scratch them. There would also be a queen, who was usually the prettiest girl with blond hair and blue eyes, and she would be protected. I thought it was interesting because to me it was the children’s way of understanding what was going on in the world around them. It’s a bit complicated, but when she told me this story I was completely shocked. It was really fascinating.
For people your age, why do you think Holocaust education is still relevant and important?
Some people my age don’t know anything about the Holocaust. I recently came across a statistic that talked about how little Gen Z knew about the Holocaust. There’s also been a spike in antisemitism and a decrease in awareness of history. For example, with Kanye West, who has a lot of followers, saying antisemitic remarks, a lot of people are going to just go along with what he says. There’s also just been a lot of hate crimes towards Jewish people, especially during COVID.
Lastly, the number of living Holocaust survivors is diminishing by the day. Gen Z is the last generation probably that is ever going to have the ability and the opportunity to speak with Holocaust survivors before they’re all gone. It’s important that we share this book now and then we educate people now before it’s too late.
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The post This 16-year-old turned her grandmother’s Holocaust survival story into a novel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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California Democrat Scott Wiener Accuses Israel of ‘Genocide’ in Sharp Reversal Following Debate Backlash
California State Sen. Scott Weiner. Photo: Screenshot
California State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat seeking to succeed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the US Congress, announced on Sunday that he believes Israel’s military campaign in Gaza meets the definition of “genocide,” a sharp reversal from a recent debate in which he declined to use the term.
Wiener’s declaration came after a contentious candidate forum last week in San Francisco, during which he declined to answer a direct question about whether he believed Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. That hesitation was met with jeers from the audience.
In a video posted Sunday on the X social media platform, Wiener, who is Jewish, said he had “stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore,” citing the “devastation and catastrophic death toll” in Gaza as justification for using the term. Weiner also accused Israeli officials of making “genocidal” statements while justifying their military operations against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and claimed that Israel schemed to “destroy Gaza and push Palestinians out.”
The state senator also acknowledged the emotional weight the word holds for many Jews, given its origins in describing the Holocaust.
For years, I’ve condemned Netanyahu and his extremist government and the devastation they’ve inflicted on Gaza. It’s why I’ve been clear I won’t support U.S. funding for the destruction of Palestinian communities. I’ve stopped short of calling it genocide, but I can’t anymore. pic.twitter.com/71nIt6K527
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 11, 2026
Denying accusations of genocide, Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.
Wiener’s accusation of genocide marks a complete reversal not only from his recent debate answer but also from a new profile of him published in The Atlantic, in which he denied accusations of genocide lobbed at Israel and decried the weaponization of the war in Gaza as a “purity test.” He compared such ideological mandates to medieval attempts to divide the Jewish community between “good Jews” and “bad Jews.” Weiner also argued that Jewish liberals are being pushed out of progressive spaces if they don’t demonstrate sufficient hatred for Israel.
“If part of your Jewishness is, you know, that you support the homeland of the Jews and the home of one-half of all Jews on the planet, then that makes you a bad Jew,” Weiner said. “If you’re not willing to use the exact language that we want you to use, then you’re a bad Jew.”
The article came out on Sunday, the same day of his social media post accusing Israel of genocide.
Weiner has been a frequent target of anti-Israel demonstrators. In October, a group of agitators confronted the state lawmaker and accused him of supporting “genocide.”
Mallory McMorrow, a Democratic candidate for US Senate in Michigan, similarly lamented that accusations of “genocide” against Israel are becoming a “purity test” within Democratic primaries. She argued in a new interview with Detroit Public Radio that there exists a “broadly shared goal among most Michiganders, that this violence needs to stop, that a temporary cease fire needs to become a permanent cease fire, that Palestinians deserve long term peace and security, that Israelis deserve long term peace and security.”
However, the candidate argued, “I also feel like we are getting lost in this conversation, and it feels like a political purity test on a word — a word that, by the way, to people who lost family members in the Holocaust, does mean something very different and very visceral.”
McMorrow, who has previously claimed she agrees that Israel committed a so-called “genocide” in Gaza, suggested that some candidates in the race are “using this as a political weapon and fundraising off of it.” Abdul El-Sayeed, a progressive Democrat in the Senate race, has condemned Israel for committing “genocide” and has called for an arms embargo on the Jewish state.
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Megyn Kelly Gushes Over Nick Fuentes: ‘There Is Value to Be Derived From That Guy’s Messaging’
Megyn Kelly hosts a “prove me wrong” session during AmericaFest, the first Turning Point USA summit since the death of Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona, US, Dec. 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin O’Hara
Megyn Kelly expressed her sympathies for white nationalist Nick Fuentes and antisemite Candace Owens, two Holocaust deniers who are rising in popularity among millennials and Gen Zers, in a video interview with fellow right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson published last week.
Immediately following the murder of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year, Owens began promoting the conspiracy theory of Israeli involvement, sentiments likewise promoted by Carlson.
“And then came Candace Owens. And she really drives people crazy. She drives them crazy,” Kelly said, provoking snickers from Carlson. “Very angry. I didn’t call her out for Israel possibly being involved with Charlie Kirk. Well, I didn’t call her out because I was totally fine with those questions being raised.”
Kelly then raised her open palm to her face and declared, “And still am!”
Carlson cackled again in response and Kelly continued, insisting, “But I am. I’m sick of this bulls–t. I’m allowed to have questions about what if anyone aligned with Israel or from Israel might have had to do with Charlie’s death.”
Kelly: “I am sick of this ********! I am allowed to have questions about what if, anyone, aligned with Israel or from Israel might have had to do with Charlie’s death.”
She’s gone, folks. Stop giving her the benefit of the doubt.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) January 8, 2026
In October, Florida state Attorney General James Uthmeier announced charges against Nicholas Ray of Spring, Texas for alleged death threats made with a “zionistarescum” X account against Jewish conservatives identified online by Owens as allegedly involved in Kirk’s murder.
There has been no actual evidence showing Israeli complicity in Kirk’s murder, for which Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged. He was romantically involved with his transgender roommate, and prosecutors have reportedly argued that Kirk’s anti-trans rhetoric was a key factor that allegedly led him to shoot the Turning Point USA founder.
Kelly also praised Fuentes during her conversation with Carlson.
“He’s very interesting and he’s very smart,” Kelly said of Fuentes, who has praised Adolf Hitler. “And on a lot of things there is value to be derived from that guy’s messaging. I’m sorry, but he actually has a lot of things he talks about that you’re like ‘that’s not a bad point about our country.’”
Adopting a mocking affectation, Kelly said, “I won’t condemn and say that Candace Owens is hateful. They want me really, really badly to condemn Candace Owens. And I’m sorry to break it to them but I am responsible for what I say. Not for what anybody else says. I am not Candace Owens’s policeman. And by the way they’re kidding themselves that if just one more voice will say something nasty about Candace she can finally be controlled.”
In response to right-wing X influencer Ian Miles Cheong (who has 1.2 million followers and reportedly posts from Malaysia) sharing a clip of this statement, Kelly raged back: “You’re a pathetic misinformation whore. I was explaining why young white men are listening to Fuentes & made clear that while I believe he makes interesting points about the govt etc I was not speaking about his thoughts on Jews, women, blacks etc. F–k you & your lies.”
In December, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) released a report analyzing online support for Fuentes, suggesting he has received a major boost from inauthentic amplification by anonymous actors in foreign countries such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia. For example, the research revealed that “in a sample of 20 recent posts, 61% of Fuentes’s first-30-minute retweets came from accounts that retweeted multiple of these 20 posts within that same ultra-short window – behavior highly suggestive of coordination or automation.”
Earlier this month, Owens blamed Zionists for inspiring US President Donald Trump to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
On Tuesday, Fuentes wrote on X in reference to Venezuela: “Your oil, our choice. Forever [American flag rmoji],” a reference to his infamous popularization of the phrase “your body, my choice” among his Groyper followers.
Fuentes described his views on Venezuela on Jan. 3, explaining that while he thought the military action “initially seemed like a solid operation to cleanly, bloodlessly, and quickly remove Maduro from power last night” he thought “this new policy of ‘running Venezuela’ with US soldiers sounds like a massive over-commitment. I have zero confidence in nation-building. Big mistake.”
The next day Fuentes continued on X, articulating his foreign policy vision of banditry, fantasizing, “Now that Venezuela has been liberated, we must send every single Venezuelan illegal, refugee, and criminal back home. Take the oil, remigrate the foreigners.”
On Sunday, Fuentes promoted another conspiracy theory, asserting that “the chaos in Iran is totally astroturfed by Israel and the US for regime change. This was always their endgame after over a decade of industrial sabotage, sanctions, political subversion, & espionage. Why do you think Iran wanted nuclear weapons? To prevent this exact scenario.”
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Fundraiser for ICE agent who killed Renee Good includes antisemitic attack on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey
(JTA) — Supporters of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot and killed Renee Good, a U.S. citizen, in Minneapolis last week are flocking to an online fundraiser to, in its organizer’s words, “Defend the Agent Who Stopped a Deadly Attack on America’s Border Enforcers!”
Included in the fundraiser’s pitch: antisemitic language directed at the city’s Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey.
After stating that Good had engaged “in a blatant act of domestic terrorism aimed at killing or maiming the men protecting our borders from the endless invasion,” the description continued: “But this didn’t happen in a vacuum — it’s the direct result of anti-American traitors like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (who is Jewish) fanning the flames of resistance.”
The description went on to call Frey a “sanctuary city traitor” and states, “His rhetoric empowers violent agitators, turning Minneapolis into a warzone for our heroes enforcing the law and deporting the hordes that weak leaders like him protect.”
The fundraiser was posted Jam. 7 on GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding website popular with right-wing causes, and has raised more than $186,000 of its $200,000 goal as of Monday afternoon. The co-founder of GiveSendGo, Jacob Wells, has promoted the campaign extensively and claims to have corresponded directly with the ICE agent, Jonathan Ross.
“God bless you all! Keep sharing,” Wells wrote on the social network X, receiving positive responses from the actor Dean Cain, among others.
After being circulated online and verified by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the clause “(who is Jewish)” was removed from the description of Frey late Monday.
The campaign’s organizer is named as “Tom Hennessey,” and appears to have launched the fundraiser before Ross himself was identified. The campaign does not name Ross.
An account named “TomHennessey69” on X who has claimed credit for the fundraiser bills himself as a “white independent journalist” and “soap enthusiast.” In addition to a stream of anti-immigration rhetoric, Hennessey has also made several antisemitic posts, including one on Monday that blamed Jews for the recent Hanukkah mass shooting in Australia.
“Notice the pattern? Jews arrive in Australia, flood it with non-Whites. Non-Whites rampage—eventually turning on Jews. Jews then push new anti-semitism laws aka free speech bans, gun control to disarm Whites, and ban White nationalist groups for noticing,” Hennessey wrote, adding, “Australia, not a good look for jewish diaspora, many such cases.” In another reply to his post, Hennessey endorsed a neo-Nazi account’s pro-Hitler message.
Hennessey has also used similar language as the fundraiser’s to describe his own Jewish opponents.
Online, the GiveSendGo link has been promoted by figures including Turning Point USA pundit Jack Posobiec and Minnesota-based right-wing journalist Liz Collin.
It is not the only fundraiser to have been set up by self-proclaimed supporters of Ross since Good’s killing. A separate campaign without antisemitic language launched on GoFundMe, a more mainstream crowdfunding website, has raised more than $467,000 to date since its launch on Friday.
The largest donation to date on the GoFundMe fundraiser, $10,000, came from Bill Ackman, the Jewish activist investor who has become a prominent advocate against antisemitism.
“I am [a] big believer in our legal principal [sic] that one is innocent until proven guilty,” Ackman wrote on X over the weekend, in a post about why he donated. He added that he had “intended to similarly support the gofundme for Renee Good’s family” but that “her gofundme was closed by the time I attempted to provide support.”
Comments online suggest that the two fundraisers for Ross may be linked and may have a direct line to Ross himself.
In a Sunday update, the GoFundMe campaign’s organizer, Clyde Emmons, wrote, “the creater [sic] of the givesendgo fund has direct contact with Johnathan! so I am in contact with him gave him my number and he said he would pass it onto John himself so I can finally add him as the beneficiary so he can get these funds he deserves.”
On X, Collin wrote that she was in contact with both organizers and that the GiveSendGo campaign is “now the preferred method to donate to the ICE agent.”
The fundraisers for Ross were launched partly as a response to a GoFundMe for Good’s family, which raised more than $1.5 million before its organizers closed donations.
“Renee was a Christian who knew that all religions teach the same essential truth: we are here to love each other, care for each other, and keep each other safe and whole,” that campaign’s organizers wrote.
Comparisons between ICE agents and Nazis or the Gestapo have grown since the agency has stepped up its presence in American cities under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans. Some Jewish communal leaders, including several in Minnesota, have vocally criticized ICE’s actions, with a few linking them to the memory of the Holocaust.
Since Good’s killing, Frey has vocally criticized ICE’s presence in Minneapolis, using an expletive in a press conference as he urged the agents to leave. The fundraiser’s description of the mayor notes this, also blasting Frey for his executive orders.
“These agents are the tip of the spear in reclaiming our country from the illegal invasion—deporting criminals, invaders, and threats that politicians like Frey invited in and shield,” the description states.
It concludes: “Stand tall: Donate today to send a message that we back the men removing illegals and invaders from our soil, no matter the sabotage from mayors who put foreigners over Americans. No apologies, no retreat—Mass Deportations Now!”
The post Fundraiser for ICE agent who killed Renee Good includes antisemitic attack on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey appeared first on The Forward.