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It’s 1900, and sixteen-year-old Helen comes alone in steerage across the Atlantic from a small village in Lithuania, fleeing terrible anti-Semitism and persecution. She arrives at Ellis Island, and finds a place to live in the colorful Lower East Side of New York. She quickly finds a job in the thriving garment industry and, like millions of others who are coming to America during this time, devotes herself to bringing the rest of her family to join her in the New World, refusing to rest until her family is safe in New York.
A few at a time, Helen’s family members arrive. Each goes to work with the same fervor she has and contributes everything to bringing over their remaining beloved family members in a chain of migration. Helen meanwhile, makes friends and—once the whole family is safe in New York—falls in love with a man who introduces her to a different New York—a New York of wonder, beauty, and possibility.
Mary Helen Fein was born in Riverdale, New York, in 1943. Her father was from a large New York family, and in 1939, he was the first Jewish boy to attend Georgia Tech. At school in Atlanta, he met Mary Helen’s mother, a beautiful 16-year-old Atlanta girl. Upon his graduation, they married and moved to New York. Mary Helen was born soon after. She attended schools in New York, and she has a B.A. in English Literature from Temple University, an MS in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and for two years, she studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, America’s oldest art school.
Today she lives in Northern California where she writes, paints, and draws. Mary Helen is a Certified Zentangle Teacher and holds small classes in this meditative art form. In addition, she is authorized to teach Insight Meditation. She is active in her local Buddhist community, Mountain Stream Meditation. Mary Helen is a Community Dharma Leader and often gives talks and leads sitting groups and meditation classes for Mountain Stream Meditation.
In 2023, Mary Helen completed her third book, a memoir of her life entitled Moments of Knowing. This book is currently being published and will be available soon.
In the summer of 2020, Mary Helen completed her second novel, Stitching a Life, An Immigration Story. This is an historical novel, based on the life of her grandmother, Helen Breakstone Fein. Helen came all alone through Ellis Island to New York City’s Lower East Side as a young girl in the year 1900. Gradually she worked to bring her entire family to New York. Jews everywhere were flocking to the New World to escape the virulent anti-Semitism of Europe and Russia. Helen worked hard in the garment industry, married her true love, and lived a long and productive life. Her story is the story of how immigrants worked hard and made The United States a great country. You can purchase Stitching A Life here on Amazon.
In 2014, Mary Helen completed her first novel, Loss of Deliverance, the story of a young woman’s adventures in the drug trade during the 1960s. You can purchase Loss of Deliverance here on Amazon.
All proceeds from the book go directly to supporting Save Ellis Island's mission to restore the 29 buildings in the Historic Hospital Complex.
