Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project

by Jack Mayer

Overview

DIrena Sendler portraituring World War II, Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, organized a rescue network of fellow social workers to save 2,500 Jewish children from certain death in the Warsaw ghetto. Incredibly, after the war her heroism, like that of many others, was suppressed by communist Poland and remained virtually unknown for 60 years.

Unknown, that is, until three high school girls from an economically depressed, rural school district in southeast Kansas stumbled upon a tantalizing reference to Sendler’s rescues, which they fashioned into a history project, a play they called Life in a Jar. Their innocent drama was first seen in Kansas, then the Midwest, then New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, and finally Poland, where they elevated Irena Sendler to a national hero, championing her legacy of tolerance and respect for all people.

Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project is a Holocaust history and more. It is the inspirational story of Protestant students from Kansas, each carrying her own painful burden, each called in her own complex way to the history of a Catholic woman who knocked on Jewish doors in the Warsaw ghetto and, in Sendler’s own words, “tried to talk the mothers out of their children.” Inspired by Irena Sendler, they are living examples of the power of one person to change the world and models for young people everywhere.

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Sixty percent (60%) of the royalties from the sale of Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project are donated to the Irena Sendler/Life in a Jar Foundation. The foundation promotes Irena Sendler’s legacy and encourages educators and students to emulate the project by focusing on unsung heroes in history to teach respect and understanding among all people, regardless of race, religion, or creed.

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2011 KANSAS NOTABLE BOOK AWARD:
Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project has been selected as a 2011 Kansas Notable Book. This award, presented by the Kansas Center for the Book, honors outstanding titles by Kansas authors or about Kansas.

2011 da VINCI EYE AWARD:
Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project received the 2011 da Vinci Eye Award, one of the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, for superior cover art. Congratulations to book designer and graphic artist Winslow Colwell.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013338906
Publisher:	Long Trail Press
Publication date:	03/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	396
Sales rank:	224,610
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Jack Mayer began practicing pediatrics in 1976 in Enosburg Falls, Vermont, a small town in eastern Franklin County on the Canadian border. His was the first pediatric practice in that half of the county. He was a doctor there for ten years, often bartering medical care for eggs, firewood, and knitted afghans. From 1987 – 1991 he was a National Cancer Institute Epidemiology Fellow at Columbia University School of Public Health in New York City, researching pediatric environmental toxicology and the molecular biology of cancer. Most of his scientific writing was done during those four years. He was also a member of Columbia’s General Pediatric Group Practice.

Dr. Mayer returned to Vermont in 1991 and established Rainbow Pediatrics in Middlebury, where he continues to practice primary care pediatrics. He is a J-term adjunct faculty for Middlebury College pre-med students. Throughout his career, he has written short stories, poems, and essays about hiking in Vermont (the Long Trail) and his years in pediatric practice. He was a participant at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 2003 and 2005 for fiction, and in 2008 for poetry. He lives in Middlebury with his wife, Chip. They have a grown son, Alex.

Editorial Reviews

The monument to Irena Sendler was raised neither in Poland nor in Israel, but in the hearts and deeds of young Americans. Jack Mayer’s inspiring book brings to life the true story of high school students in Uniontown, Kansas and a Polish Holocaust rescuer. The teens conceived the theatrical performance called Life in a Jar. Their message was simple: one who goes against evil and rescues goodness, changes the world.

Jacek Leociak

This is a story of history rescued. It rekindles our faith in humanity. Every high school student and teacher should read this book. We all should.

Michele Forman

An extraordinary story of heroism during the Holocaust, and its transformative role in the lives of three high school students in contemporary Kansas ... Jack Mayer masterfully weaves these two separate but intimately connected stories into one larger saga that provides us with a unique lens into the Holocaust and its meaning and relevance in today’s world. It will inspire all who read it, especially the young.

Francis Nicosia

Jack Mayer has done a remarkable job in bringing to life the heroic figure of Irena Sendler, whose noble legacy seems to have reached into unlikely places with affecting and unpredictable results. Meticulously researched, this story has been told with grace and passion by Mayer, who brings a wealth of compassion to his book.

Jay Parini

Kansas teenagers rediscover a forgotten Holocaust heroine in this moving historical drama. . . Mayer’s superb novelization of her exploits elevates social work to the intensity of a spy thriller. . . Writing in vivid but restrained prose, Mayer describes this agonizing situation with understated pathos. . . his rendition of Irena’s story has an inspirational power of its own. A gripping real-life tale of extraordinary courage that had an enduring impact.

Kirkus Review