Letters To Rifka Summary

In Letters to Rifka, a young Jewish girl along with her family flee their homeland in order to evade the present military draft and ethnic persecution prevalent in Russia. Refusing to join the military efforts posed a looming threat to Rifka and her family. In the event of the Russian soldiers hunting them down, Rifka’s family decides to emigrate to the United States in order to elude national punishment or even death which is common amongst individuals that belong to the same cultural background. In pursuit of a better life and increased security, the family journeys to the United States, only to be separated by mandatory health screenings, typhus, and timely detainment along the way. In this passage, Rifka is self-aware of the immoral ethics

Evident in Rifka’s writing, the prevalent hostility and the social climate was at times anti-Semitic. Suffering from hunger, theft, and illness, Rifka's story reflects on a child's ingenuity and perseverance in the face of cultural discrimination. From the Declaration of the Rights of a Child, the article determines from the text a few rights being taken from Rifka. One of the most common rights that were stripped from Rifka is Principle 10 which describes a lack of tolerance, friendship, and brotherhood found amongst the Russian community. The absence of protection made Rifka’s development as a child a physical and emotional struggle for any young girl to endure. Through her development, the reader can see that Rifka received criticism within her country which led to alienation. These harsh circumstances made her become a social victim. It was important to identify the themes within this non-literary text because it is important to understand that, historically, children had little to no rights. Cross-examining both texts made me see that improving rights for children has encouraged a healthier