The Next Pair of Shoes

Froyim handed Fraidel Leah a package. “I don’t want my son to go barefoot in the streets as the other children do. I hope I’ll see you again before he needs his next pair of shoes."

He planted a kiss on his son’s forehead, then climbed up onto the wagon.

Ruthless pogroms and unbearable poverty force idealistic shoemaker Froyim Grinburg to leave his wife, Fraidel Leah, and their infant son to establish a more promising life abroad. But constant setbacks — tragedy, theft, and the unavoidable Great War — delay their reunion. With emunah and determination, the young couple makes one difficult decision after another, forging on despite their pain.

In this heartwarming historical novel, based on a true story, talented author Chaya Rochel Zimmerman takes readers on a compelling journey through the early 1900s — from a close-knit Polish shtetl to the lush, grassy farmland of Argentina; from the crowded tenements of downtown Chicago to the hustle and bustle of New York’s Lower East Side. Step into Froyim and Fraidel Leah’s shoes as they struggle to build a brighter future, one footstep at a time.