So many identities at once!

When you’re Jewish, and an American, it’s sometimes hard to know which part comes first. Are you American-Jewish? Or Jewish-American? Add another hyphen to the mix — Russian-Jewish-American — and you’ll understand a bit about the background of middle-grade book author Margaret (Margie) Gurevich of Fair Lawn, as well as the struggles of the main character of her latest novel, “Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah.”

Yasha, like Ms. Gurevich herself, is Russian-Jewish-American, but unlike the author, he hasn’t had a few decades to figure himself out. The book takes place in 1986, when Yasha is 13 and about to become a bar mitzvah. But since his family moved from the familiar comfort of Brighton Beach to suburban New Jersey, he doesn’t know where he fits in.

Being on the cusp of adolescence is challenging enough for most kids, but when your parents speak with funny accents and you’re the only Yasha in your school, it’s all too easy to feel like an outsider. Even more so when your classmates call you Drago, after the Russian bad guy from the “Rocky” movies. (It’s the ’80s, remember?)

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Ms. Gurevich writes from experience. She was also a newcomer to the United States, having emigrated from Minsk when she was 3, and moving first to Brooklyn, then to New Jersey when she was 8. In fact, hers was one of the first “Russian” families to arrive in Fair Lawn.

Why the quotation marks around “Russian”? In an ironic twist, Jews living in the former Soviet Union — like Ms. Gurevich’s family, as well as the fictional Yasha — had the word “Jewish” stamped on their identity cards, so to their fellow citizens, many of whom were virulently antisemitic, they were Jews first, Soviet citizens second. When they were finally able to escape the USSR, hoping to live freely as Jews in their new home, they were abruptly referred to as the “Russians.” Ms. Gurevich recalls how her parents were similarly dismissed as not American enough and not Jewish enough because of their Russian accents, despite being proud Jews and highly educated professionals..

It wasn’t easy for her parents to start their new life in the United States. The antisemitism of the Soviet regime was very real to them — Ms. Gurevich’s grandfather was exiled to the gulag for accepting a tallit gifted to him by an American — and they brought those scars with them. Perhaps overcompensating a bit, Ms. Gurevich’s father determined to remake himself as all-American, leaving any Russian attachments behind. He even rooted for the winning American team in the historic 1980 USA-USSR Olympic hockey match that came to be known as the “Miracle on Ice.”

But as Ms. Gurevich notes, eventually we all come to terms with pieces of our past and learn to integrate them into our present selves. And that brings us back to Yasha.

Even when he adopts the name Jake, Yasha is still an insecure teenager, struggling to belong. Sometimes, though, as Ms. Gurevich reminds us, we find connections in the most unlikely places. For Yasha, this connection comes in the form of Bernie, a resident at the senior center where Yasha volunteers for his bar mitzvah project. And what connects Yasha and Bernie? The Amazin’ Mets! Yasha is determined to get tickets for him and Bernie to see the Mets play in the 1986 World Series. Intent on accomplishing his mission, Yasha learns a lot about himself, and friendship, along the way.

Incidentally, in Yasha’s story, the Mets are not merely a placeholder for any old baseball team. Yasha comes by his fandom honestly, from his creator. Ms. Gurevich has been rooting for her Amazin’s almost since she landed on these shores, although she wryly notes that their 1986 World Series championship has been followed by quite a dry spell. Despite knowing an impressive number of Mets statistics by heart, she watched videos of old games, looking at every play and stat to be sure she got the baseball history just right. (For the record, Ms. Gurevich came to our interview sporting orange and blue baseball-shaped Mets earrings.)

And how is Ms. Gurevich able to depict the minds and hearts of adolescents just as authentically as the baseball? She gets lots of first-hand information as a sixth-grade teacher in Fair Lawn, and she clearly knows what makes tweens and teens tick. (Note: At Fair Lawn Memorial Middle School, Margie is known by her married name, Mrs. Gelbwasser. She writes her books under her maiden name.)

Her last novel, “Ain’t It Funny,” published by Penguin Workshop in 2024, centers on 11-year-old Maya, also from a Russian-Jewish family, who learns to deal with her growing anxiety in a very creative way. She’s also written two of the “Who Was?” biographies from Penguin Workshop, as well as the award-winning “Chloe by Design” series.

Unbelievably, Ms. Gurevich admits that she became an avid reader only in seventh grade — thanks to a creative teacher who opened a world (and a book cabinet) of new genres and titles to her students. Clearly, Ms. Gurevich learned that lesson well. When she proposed a Mini Book Club that would meet during recess once a month, 20 of her 45 students signed up. That’s a statistic even Ms. Gurevich’s beloved Mets would be proud of.

“Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah” is, of course, about one specific boy, in a specific time and place. It’s a very Jewish story. But as Ms. Gurevich notes, while no book can be all things to all people, it’s important to have stories where people can see themselves. We’re all struggling to belong and we’re all looking for connection.

For Yasha, this means learning that he doesn’t have to abandon his past to find his place in the present. And that is Ms. Gurevich’s message to her readers: “Embrace who you are, all parts of you. In time, like Yasha, I learned to embrace the reality of being a hyphenated American — someone who is Russian and Jewish and just as American as others.”

“Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah” will have a bar mitzvah-themed book launch at the Fair Lawn Public Library on Wednesday, March 18, from 7 to 8 p.m., for fourth- through eighth-graders. There will be snacks and bar mitzvah games, and the author will read the first chapter. Books will be available for purchase (and signing) from the Curious Reader bookstore.

It’s necessary to register to go to the party; to do so, go to fairlawnlibrary.org/children.