tit ertai Voted Best Challah Bread By the Detroit Jewish Readers! On The Bookshelf How about showing your child's teacher your appreciation? Send her a gift basket or cookie tray. ' • `This Jewish Life' 10 % O ff Any sweet tray or gift basket or cookie tray In her first book, Birmingham's Debra Darvick voices the true, life-affirming stories of more than 50 individuals, recounting the joy Judaism brings to their lives. Not good with a uy other offer. 1 coupon per customer. Expires June 22,.?,003 Great.for graduations birthdays and other special occasions! , 6879 Orchard Lake Rd. in the BoardwalkPlaza 248-626-9110 720630 B an g kok 0 a?...\ Sala Cafe THAI CUISINE Buy One Lunch or Dinner & Get a Second for 50% OFF I. One per customer • Expires 6/30/03 27903 Orchard Lake Rd. (NW corner of 12 Mile) Farmington Hills (248) 553-4220 Open 7 days a week Mon-Sat 11 am - 10 pm Sunday 4 pm - 9:30 pm 720640 subscribe today and save almost 40%0FF the cover price! 248.351.5174 SUZANNE CHESSLER Special to the Jewish News A youngster discovering love letters, a woman visiting Israel and a World War II veteran worshiping in a French synagogue have some things in common with 49 other people tracked down by writer Debra Darvick. All have gone through life-altering experiences that intensified their positive feelings toward Judaism and are the subjects of essays in Darvick's first book, This Jewish Life: Stories of Discovery Connection, and Joy (Eakin Press; $19.95). Samantha Ashley, of Huntington Woods, dis- closes how a packet of letters gave life to a murdered Holocaust victim she would never meet. Kay Harris, also of Huntington Woods, explains why a trip to the Middle East affirmed her decision of years earlier to convert to Judaism. Jules Doneson, of Farmington Hills, tells about the significance of receiving the cloth, six-pointed star that a young French girl no longer was forced to wear. While Darvick's book holds many stories of people living in Michigan, there also are many essays about individuals based elsewhere, from a Midwest farm to the Vatican. "I was browsing in a bookstore a number of years ago and came across a book called Family: Everyday Stories About the Miracle of Love," Darvick, 47, explains about the origin of her anthology. "That book is a collection of stories told by people transformed by kindness, pro- tection or intervention. "I wondered why there wasn't a book with similar, life-affirming stories from a Jewish viewpoint. Eventually, through a series of coin- cidences, I found a person with an interesting story, and that got me hooked." Darvick, a Birmingham freelance writer whose articles regularly appear in the Detroit Jewish News, collected tales from people she knew and found others through the Internet and periodicals. Seven years passed from the time she began her project until the day of publication. The book begins with Darvick's description of the bris of her son, Elliot, now a college stu- dent at Washington University in St. Louis. The event took place in Michigan, where she and her husband had recently moved, and the family was elated at how many new, Detroit friends became involved in their celebration. "I would interview a subject and re-create the story in the first person," Darvick says. "When I felt the story was ready, I would call my sub- ject and read the story over the phone. I went after the truth of each piece and tried to repre- sent that accurately." While Darvick took some literary license in retelling experiences, she also decided that she would divide them into chapters according to holidays and life-cycle events. With this for- mat, she could simultaneously introduce the stories and provide information about Judaism to help readers understand the religion. "I feel honored to be part of this book," says Ashley, a Wisconsin college student who used a relative's letters as the basis of her bat mitzvah presentation. "I believe telling the story of my great-uncle gives him the voice silenced by the Nazis when he was a young man." While Darvick learned about Ashley through a newspaper article, she knew Harris personally. "We talked several times about my [Israel] trip, and the first go-round of writing was very differ- Debra Darvick: "I thought that if I could just show readers, via moving testimonies, what they could be a part of, then maybe, just maybe, some would be spurred to check out this world called Judaism."