Writing Women Into History

Tablet Magazine
March 25, 2022

Rokhl’s Golden City: Changing how we think about the past—and whose stories matter—can move narratives from the margins to the center

The Light of Days was an instant hit and a New York Times bestseller. Written in a vivid, cinematic style, the book has already been picked up for a movie adaptation by Steven Spielberg’s production company. And while the stories of the women in the book were never hidden, they have mostly lingered uneasily on the margins of Jewish memory—which seems all the more strange in retrospect, given the excitement that The Light of Days has generated among readers today.

Central to The Light of Days is the story of the kashariyot, or couriers, the young women who carried news and smuggled material between ghettos and later planned attacks, rescued Jews, and procured weapons for Jewish fighters. The stories Batalion uncovered are nothing short of jaw-dropping in their demonstrations of wartime bravery.