More than four hundred Russian and Romanian Jewish homesteaders settled on about eighty-five farms in McIntosh County, North Dakota, beginning in 1905. After clearing rocks and boulders, growing wheat and flax, raising cattle and chickens, and selling cream from their sod houses, most were successful enough to own their own land.
Still is a history of five generations, a family we meet first as they flee Odessa and last as they make their ways as American Jews... and Dakota farmers, as students and storekeepers, as soldiers and lawyers, and even as a teen in an international competition who stands face-to-face with Netanyahu. Rebecca Bender and Kenneth Bender answer the question recently posed to Rebecca by a newspaper reporter:
Are you still Jewish?
About the authors:
Rebecca Bender, a former securities litigator in Minnesota, now works with children, first as a volunteer Cub Scout den leader and then t-ball coach, and more recently as a special education teacher's aide and substitute teacher. Some things have never changed for her: enjoyment of history and hearing uplifting stories, taking pride in family and Jewish traditions, gratefulness and appreciation for life in America, where she and her son are free to practice their religion and work hard to achieve their goals.
Her co-author for portions of Still is her late father, Kenneth Bender, who Rebecca says would be the first to tell you that he was an ordinary guy who just worked hard and always tried his best. His story, reflected in this book, belies his modest characterization. During the last two years of his life, he hand-wrote page after page of his vivid memories. Rebecca typed up his notes with the agreed-upon compensation at the end of each of their working sessions: a shared chocolate milkshake.
Comments about the book:
"A compelling saga of Jewish family's migration from Russia to America, Still is so much more than an immigration story. This narrative relates how the Bendersky family found a haven from persecution and thrived on the Great Plains through five generations (and counting). The authors have produced a story told with verve and impressive detail. Highly recommended."
--- Terry Shoptaugh, author of You Have Been Kind Enough to Assist Me: Herman Stern and the Jewish Refugee Crisis and the forthcoming Sons of the Wild Jackass: The Nonpartisan League in North Dakota
"Jews have been exiles, homeless wanderers over the face of the earth since the Roman conquest of Judaea 2000 years ago. They dreamed of a chance to build a home on a land that wanted them. North Dakota, homesteading, the land wanted them with no preconditions or anti-Semitic hatred. A shiddach - a marriage match - was proposed and accepted. The Jews came, settled, struggled and did what few thought a Jew could do. Still is the Bender's incredible family story of pioneer Jews who came with toughness and determination, turning the soil of the hard Northern Plains to build and become one with America."
--- Jerry Klinger, President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation
STILL (as in “are you STILL Jewish?”) by Rebecca Bender and her father, Kenneth Bender, takes us on a journey through five generations of migration over 150 years.
This story takes us from a small village in Ukraine, to the city of Odessa on the Black Sea, traveling under secret arrangement to get out of Russia, choosing to homestead on the rocky prairie of south-central North Dakota, to a thriving general store business in Eureka, South Dakota (the Odessa of the North), then Kenneth Bender’s service as an American soldier in the European theatre in WWII, coming back to marry, raise a family in St Louis Park, MN, and build a successful Federated store franchise in North Minneapolis.
Then… the story of the generations of the Bendersky/Bender family comes full circle and takes us back to North and South Dakota to honor the Jewish pioneers interred in a tiny cemetery on the prairie. The spirit and dedication of Rebecca Bender in her journey of obtaining designation for the cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places is a story all by itself.
I love a book with great footnotes and excellent descriptions on many topics. This emigrant family felt they could and would be good citizens of their adopted country while observing their Jewish customs. There was nothing easy about it, but then no one expected it to be easy. Observing customs, creatively finding work options off the farm, making do, having fun, staging plays, bringing musical theatre to the prairies, learning from their neighbors, being good neighbors, sharing their religious traditions with others – all of this can be found in STILL, a fine addition to ethnic prairie literature.
--- Carol Just, St. Louis Park, Minnesota
