In the shtetl young boys were sent to cheder to learn Jewish prayers and study from the Torah. Their teacher was called a melamed. Girls, however, remained at home. Their days were filled with household chores and young siblings to care for.

This story is based on the true story of my mother Gita (Gitel) Aron, a"h, and her brother Yitschak (Izzy) Aron, a"h, who lived with their family in the 1920s in a shtetl called Miory in Poland. My mother was the only girl in the Miory cheder.

She and her brother were young adults during the Holocaust and survived in the forests of Poland as brave partisans. There were no other survivors from their family.

After WW II both brother and sister sailed to America and settled in New York. They remained very close throughout their lives and raised remarkable families.

May the voices of the children and parents who read this story of Gitel and Izzy be a tribute to their legacy.