On February 27, Rita Benn facilitated a workshop through Zoom to 15 participants from the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn who wished to begin to explore their life through writing. While this workshop was originally developed by Rita and her training partner Ruth Wade for 2Gs, it was easily adapted for this group who were largely non-2Gs. No matter the family of origin background, the participants described how much they valued the experience. It was not just the remembering and writing stimulated through the prompts that were appreciated, but the sharing of these memories with one another. The workshop activities spurred interactions that invited participants to connect more deeply to one another. As one participant expressed, "I made a new friend". Another remarked that they may have known each other from other events but never felt really like they knew each other. "We grew up in the same area but I was amazed to see how our experiences were so totally different. I never would have thought that".  Mining memories through writing and sharing is a powerful way to build community. We hope other organizations will take advantage to offer this type of workshop.

On February 25, authors Natalie Iglewicz and Joy Wolfe Ensor met with a group of eighth-graders and their parents from Ann Arbor Temple Beth Emeth’s religious school. They opened their presentation with stories and photos of their parents’ lives in Poland before World War II, and followed up with inviting students to compare and contrast their lives to those of young Jews who lived during that time. Shifting to the wartime era, Natalie read excerpts from her chapter that highlighted lessons she learned from her parents about acts of lovingkindness. Joy’s excerpts centered on how her mother and aunt's creative writing kept their humanity alive during unimaginable suffering, imparting lessons for future generations. The authors also shared treasured personal family artifacts from this time period - ceremonial Kiddush cups that Natalie’s father managed to carry with him throughout the war, and fragments of original papers on which Joy’s mother and aunt wrote poetry in the camps. The students approached these objects with a level of respect and tenderness that was deeply moving. The authors concluded by encouraging the students to use their shared stories to explore how they can show up for others and themselves when encountering challenges in their own lives. Below are the photos of the artifacts shared and a couple of responses that students expressed in thank you notes to the presenters.

On February 7th at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida, Ruth Finkel Wade discussed the gifts and challenges of growing up with Holocaust survivor parents. She read excerpts from The Ones Who Remember and engaged the participants in a rich conversation about living in the shadow of trauma. Ruth enjoyed sharing a 1978 photo of her with her survivor father in which you can see the twinkle in his eye that he still exudes today at age 92. All the participants expressed their appreciation in hearing about their evolving relationship and the experiences of the other authors described in the book. One person shared, “I never thought about what it was like after the war and how certain traits – good and bad are passed on.”