On November 14, a diverse audience braved the chilly rainy night to attend a book talk at Schuler’s Books in West Bloomfield, Michigan. The presentation, moderated by Joy Wolfe Ensor, featured authors Ava Adler and Julie Goldstein Ellis who have Detroit area roots. The talk centered  on the importance of community, connection and kindness in enduring trauma and suffering. The readings were powerful and, as always, the lively discussion was a highlight of the evening. Audience members asked the authors and each other probing questions about the impact of recent national and world events. Who was feeling triggered by the current political rhetoric? Who has been hesitant to present as visibly Jewish (for example, by wearing Jewish stars?), and how might we overcome this anxiety? How do we skillfully navigate generational differences in our approach to hot-button international affairs? Several attendees were repeat guests, having heard a couple of our authors at previous presentations. This validated our sense that our stories continue to be important for offering new insights and lessons in our ever-changing world.

During the last week in October, Rita Benn and Ruth Wade had the opportunity to share their stories at three different venues in Florida beginning first, with a talk at Books on Books in their flagship location of Coral Gables, then followed by presentations at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Florida International Univerity Biscyane Campus and Temple Beth David Jewish Center in Spring Hill, a town 50 miles outside Tampa. Each audience was deeply engaged, with many a participant shedding tears. Irrespective of locale, the questions and discussions did not stop until the host interrupted to end our time together.  This interest in our stories continues to fuel our passion to share our book with communities across the country.  

Attention friends and friends of friends in the South Florida and Tampa areas! Rita Benn and Ruth Wade will be sharing material from their book at three different events: Wednesday October 23 in Corconut Grove at Books and Books, Thursday October 24 in North Miami at FIU, Biscayne campus and Sunday October 27 in Spring Hill. We would love to have you join them to discuss several of the themes emerging from our anthology.

Please join us for a four-session series on Zoom sponsored by the Holocaust Learning Experience of the MorseLife Foundation. During this series, contributing authors will discuss different themes reflected by the lived experience described in their book chapters and spur meaningful discussion among participants. Scan the QR code to register for the series or email [email protected]. The registration fee covers participation for all four  sessions. We hope your schedule will permit attending on most of these dates.

Contributing authors Ruth Wade, Rita Benn and Fran Berg just returned from the World Federation of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants that was held in the Toronto area. The meeting spanned three days where new learnings occured and new connections forged between the young and old attending from Canada, the US, Europe and even China and Australia. Ruth and Rita ran a workshop to help survivors, 2Gs and 3Gs mine their memories to begin to craft their life stories. We were also privileged to not only listen to clinical psychologist Irit Felsen's amazing lecture on the intergenerational impact of anti-semistism but to also watch Irene Butter share her riveting story of survival during the Holocaust to a rapt audience. A special highlight was spending precious time in close community with her and other  Survivor friends like ninety-year old Renee Grosman. The resilience of this Survivor generation continues to inspire us to rise above present moments of despair in current events and to hold true to the hope that we can create a world where peace, freedom, and tolerance will one day co-exist amongst all peoples and nations.   

On July 14, Ruth Wade and Joy Wolfe Ensor gave a brief interview on the podcast/radio show hosted by Rabbi Sam Cohon in Tucson, called Too Jewish .

The Institutue for Holocaust Education in collaboraton with the Jewish Federation of Omaha sponsored a presentation about our book for their monthly lunch and learn series. On June 20th, Fran Lewy Berg, Joy Wolfe Ensor and Rita Benn zoomed in to offer riveting readings from their chapters and respond to audience questions. We continue to be reminded of the importance in sharing our stories when we see the tears shed by audience members who are so deeply moved by our words. We are grateful to the Executive Director for this opportunity who reiterated again to us in an email: "It was a honor to learn from you."  You can view the recording of our presentation at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXuuiz7GQgI

On June 4, Temple Shir Shalom of West Bloomfield, MI welcomed authors Julie Ellis, Joy Wolfe Ensor and Ruth Taubman to read from their chapters and share the origin story of our book. Shir Shalom’s Book Club had read our book and, realizing the importance of our message, opened the gathering to the entire congregation. More than 40 people attended and joined in a very meaningful discussion on how the ripple effects of the Holocaust relate to all of us. We are grateful that our book presentation was so warmly received and found to be so pertinent to the current geo-political world situation.

On May 9, Rita Benn and Phil Barr traveled to Lakeview Michigan for a book talk at Tamarack District Library. A year and half ago, two other authors presented stories from our book here and the librarian was interested to have another set of authors present again to their community during the week of Yom Hashoah remembrance. Several of the same community members showed up a second time. The audience sat rapt and with tears as Phil read the excerpt  from his chapter in which he reflected on his father's death. One audience participant came up to us after the talk and quietly shared how grateful she felt to us for writing our book and speaking of our parents'  experiences to the folks in this rural part of the State. She described that she spent her whole life in this area, did not travel and would never have learned about our parent's resilience and trauma or their lived atrocities, had we not visited. She reported that she not only bought a book for herself but for her sister to read as well, and like many people to whom we have presented, she discussed how she needed to read the book in small bites, absorbing each story one at a time rather than sitting down to read them all at once.