Genendel Krohn is the author of numerous children’s books, in which she retells classical and contemporary Jewish stories in an engaging way. The most relevant of her books for this time of the year is When We Left Yerushalayim, which tells about the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in a way that even young children can understand and relate to, without feeling overwhelmed by the atrocities. Below, Genendel Krohn tells us about herserlf and her writing.
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I was born in Baltimore, grew up in Miami Beach, and lived in Eretz Yisroel for nine years after my marriage, where I taught in various seminaries. Since then, I’ve been living in Waterbury, CT. I teach third grade Hebrew studies during the school year and run the learning program in Camp Malka during the summer months. In addition, I spend a lot of time writing, as a Binah Magazine Parasha columnist and as an author of soon-to-be 13 books.
People often ask me how I became a writer if my father-in-law – and not my father – is the famous author and lecturer, Rabbi Paysach Krohn. As it happens, both of my parents are excellent writers and they helped me develop into a writer.
Another question I often get is: When are you writing a novel? The answer is that I never will.
As a child, I never thought I enjoyed reading because most of the books we were forced to read in school were fiction and I never had any interest in getting emotionally involved in a story that was merely the product of someone’s imagination. Until today, I have no interest in fiction. I enjoy reading inspirational stories about real people and those are the types of stories that I write – whether they’re about people who lived long ago or people who are alive today. I put tremendous effort into researching the stories that I write, something I have learned from my father-in-law.
My most recent release, Honorable Mentschen: A Torah-Based Guide to Derech Eretz and Social Skills, took me the longest to write from all my books. Over the course of teaching third grade for many years, I’ve observed the behaviors of my students. By now, I have a pretty good handle on the way elementary school children interact socially, and have seen my share of both negative and positive behaviors. For years, I took notes on actual scenarios that I witnessed in order to teach my students how to behave properly. After accumulating all that material, and seeing how I was in fact able to train my students to behave with more derech eretz, using specific, every-day examples, I decided that I wanted to share the wealth with others. I think that one of the reasons the book has been so well-received is because children see themselves in the scenarios and recognize their own behaviors.
I believe that children are eager to do the right thing, but they simply need to be trained. In this comic-style book, children learn how to behave at a Kiddush, how to be a good guest and host, how to sympathize with a friend, how to speak to an adult with derech eretz, and so much more. Parents, teachers, and therapists are using this book to help cultivate within their charges proper behavior and social skills. And believe it or not, many adults have told me that it has helped them too by making them into more sensitive people!
I hope to have the zechus to continue teaching and writing for many years to come!
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More books by Genendel Krohn: