It was the flash of color on a drab bench in a crowded railway station in Taiwan that attracted Allan Schwartzbaum’s attention. Especially since it was moving. An American professor, researching and teaching in Taiwan on a Fulbright fellowship, Schwartzbaum walked over to the bench, and discovered that the squirming red bundle was an abandoned baby girl. Childless after nine years of marriage, Schwartzbaum wistfully picked her up and brought her to the station manager. Later, he told his wife what happened, and they decided to find out where the child was taken and adopt her. Little did they anticipate the roller coaster of life-altering events that would be set in motion by that decision.
“The Bamboo Cradle: A Father’s Story,” was first published in 1989 and redesigned and reprinted this year by Feldheim Publishers (ISBN 978-1-68025-342-9). Managing Director Eli Meir Hollander said the hugely popular book has been updated with some additional text and color photos. “It’s a beautiful story that will be appreciated by a new generation.” Publicist Stuart Schnee said many buyers of the new edition have said they enjoyed reading the book when it was first published and now want to re-read it and give it to their children.
Schwartzbaum, who changed his first name to Avraham, tells his story with colorful descriptions of the characters he encounters, along with an academic’s analysis of the journey. The twists and turns involved in successfully adopting a Chinese baby make up an interesting if often told narrative. The unanticipated consequences of a Jewish couple adopting a Chinese baby make the book a compelling read. Baalei Teshuva become observant through many different circumstances. The Schwartzbaums came to their observant lives, reluctantly at first, after talking to Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis about converting their daughter to Judaism. In the process, they had to learn what Judaism meant to them and why it mattered.
I first read the book several years ago, and Googled to update the story. The newly reissued work does some of that for us. Beautiful photos of Devorah Schwartzbaum Goldstein, now a mother and grandmother, summarize her adult life. I would have liked more of a sequel. The book does include some excerpts from Devorah’s diaries, showing how she struggled with her Jewish-Chinese identity, but there are no connecting dots from Devorah’s adolescent angst to becoming a wife and mother. But “The Bamboo Cradle” is not Devorah’s story. Devorah writes in the preface that she was initially reluctant to have the family’s life made public, but acquiesced when her father explained to her that he was writing it “to help strengthen some people’s emunah, to give bitachon to others, and maybe even to bring some closer to Yiddishkeit by showing them how great Hakadosh Baruch Hu is and how He helps us in strange, unseen ways.” Avraham Schwartzbaum passed away in 2007. The new edition is dedicated to him by his wife, children and grandchildren, who write, “A chapter has ended. His story, however, lives on and continues to inspire.”
By Bracha Schwartz
