Eliot Rudnicki

The memory of Eliot’s grandparents (Bubbies and Zaydies in Yiddish) resides in a special place in his heart. Raised as the youngest of three siblings in Bloomfield, CT, he chose to spend endless precious hours in their company. Eliot was at once enthralled and scared by the visceral stories they told him about growing up Jewish and destitute in Eastern Europe just after the turn of the 20th Century.

In the mid 1920s, they bravely left their tiny shtetls, in which every member of their immediate and extended family lived, in search of better lives. In so doing, they had the unbelievably good fortune of fleeing before the arrival of the Nazis who annihilated nearly every relative.

Eliot’s paternal Bubbie died before he was born.  His Zaydie remarried a neighbour whom he had known for decades from his tightknit Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY.  It was as if she was sent straight from “central casting” - short, stout and opinionated with a thick accent. But, she was different from Eliot’s other grandparents - she was funny despite her stories of being imprisoned at Auschwitz. She quickly became the religious matriarch of the family - the authority on all matters of Judaism.

Bubbie died in 2005. Seven years later, a mysterious letter from Germany arrived. In his upcoming book Eliot shares not only the story of his loving connection with his Bubbie and her relationship with his family, but also the true story of who she was and the dark secrets she kept.

Eliot is a graduate of The Loomis Chaffee School and the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Atlanta, GA, with his wife Susan, the love of his life. Together, they love their three wonderful adult children and two dogs.