​We are delighted that  our book has been recognized as a Finalist in the 25th annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. Our book is in the top 12 selected for the best anthology published in 2022. "After more than 2,500 individual titles spread across 55 genres were submitted for consideration, the Finalists were determined by Foreword’s editorial team....This year’s Finalists represent the top offerings in each genre, from debut author publishers to established university and independent presses,” says Publisher Victoria Sutherland. “It’s really a wonderful tribute to the independent voices that don’t often get the recognition they deserve." All finalists can be found at: https://www.forewordreviews.com/awards/finalists/2022/   Winners will be notified on June 15th.

On March 28th we were honored that the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum sponsored a program with three of our authors at Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation in the Chicago area. Ruth Finkel Wade, Eszter Gombosi and Phil Barr spoke to an audience of descendants of survivors, family and friends. They read from their book The Ones Who Remember; Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust and engaged with the audience, sharing the gifts and challenges of growing up with their survivor parents. 
 

Sponsored by EMU's Center for Jewish Studies with Psychology as a departmental co-sponsor, and the Ann Arbor chapter of ORT America, authors Rita Benn, Fran Lewy Berg and Avishay Hayut were invited to share their experiences in writing their stories to a mixed audience of EMU faculty, students and community members. The recording of their March 27 panel presentation and Q & A is available here.
The authors were enthused in particular by the personal discussions they had with several non-Jewish college students during their book signing. A student of Polish background talked about the interest happening in her home town of Lublin to learn about the history of the Holocaust. She shared that she was buying our book to send to her mother living in Poland. Another student majoring in psychology and international relations indicated she wanted to read our book to learn more about this period in history because of her specific interest in trauma, and potential work with people who might have a somewhat similar history in terms of displacement and loss of home. Still another student's interest was deeply personal. Originally of Mexican and German descent, she hoped to better understand the history of her German ancestry from a Jewish perspective. This interest amongst the university students affirmed the importance in educating these young people about the Holocaust.

On page 7 of the Washtenaw Jewish News, Robert Erlewine, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Eastern Michigan University (EMU), speaks about the importance of our upcoming book talk on March 27th. "Personal narratives have an ability, perhaps unmatched, to bear witness to horror." On that same page, there is an article about our April fundraiser event where we will celebrate the establishment of the Irene Butter Fund for Holocaust and Human Rights Education Fund. The featured speaker at the event is Ruth Messinger, former Executive Director of the American Jewish World Service. Her talk is entitled, The Fight for Human Rights: Past, Present and Future.