Prohibition Wine: A True Story of One Woman’s Daring in Twentieth-Century America

This slim volume of personal history is not quite what the title indicates. What’s most interesting is not the brief period of time when the author’s grandmother, Rebecca, made and sold bootleg blueberry wine, nor even the fact that she was arrested and brought to court on related charges, nor even the surprising ruling by the judge. What I most appreciated is the carefully constructed context of Rebecca’s life. Despite scant historical records, we learn how and why her family fled the Russian Empire to find slightly better circumstances in the U.S. Knapp succinctly lets us know the constraints under which Rebecca lived, first as a dutiful daughter and then as a trapped wife and mother. When she is widowed, the family’s perilous existence is placed in even greater jeopardy and she does what she must to help them survive. Readers who are interested in history, especially among Jewish immigrants, will find< em>Prohibition Wine: A True Story of One Woman’s Daring in Twentieth-Century America a quick and fascinating read.