If You Can Make It, Mr. Harris… So Can I, Second Expanded Edition – Edited and Compiled by Ellen Palestrant

Sam (Sammy) Harris, one of the youngest survivors of the Holocaust, speaks to thousands of adults and school children every year.  Among the numerous letters he receives are those from hundreds of students who have been inspired by Sam’s courage and positivity.  When Ellen Palestrant read these letters, she was struck by what they strongly illuminated:  kids today are hungry for the values and character traits Sam epitomizes – and not the material values of cynical marketers with which they are constantly bombarded.  Nor should kids be the unsuspecting recipients of messages of hate for the “other” broadcast by conspiratorial political and religious leaders and their colluding supporters.  An insidious mind-grab exists and Sam Harris is the perfect antidote.

A Teacher’s Guide and Workbook is also available.

Reviews

“The story of Sam Harris has directly touched the lives of thousand of school children who will be better adults because of the values they have learned from him.”

– Dr. Christopher Koch, Illinois State Superintendent of Education

“Thank you, Sam Harris, and thank you, Ellen Palestrant, for bringing to us this book of hope and immense humanity.”

– Linda Chapa LaVia, State Representative, 83rd District, and Chairperson, Elementary and Secondary Education Committee

“Sam is a miracle…the miracle is how Sam withstood the full force of the world’s worst outpouring of evil without losing his humanity. Sam is a miracle because he was witness to unspeakable, unmanageable horror, and in place of vengeance and hate, he filled his heart with compassion and loving-kindness. Would that all mankind could learn from Sam.”

– Richard Kaufman, Psychiatrist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Division of Psychiatry, Emeritus, University of Chicago

“Sam Harris is proof that one life can produce change in the lives of everyone they touch, no matter what their ethnic heritage. His story is remarkable for what it says about the goodness in the human spirit, and especially for how the message translates so directly to the consciences of young people of all backgrounds.”

– William Delgado, State Senator, 2nd District, and Chairperson, Senate Education Committee