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. In their "Exploring the Faith" class at First Presbyterian church in Ann Arbor, Rita Benn and Natalie Iglewitz, shared excerpts from their book to a standing room audience. They were delighted to learn that the class had the largest number of participants in attendance in its the recent history over the years. The interest of the participants was palpable through their rapt attention and thoughtful questions posed one after another. The authors very much appreciated the empathy that participants expressed to the recent upsurge of antisemitism as well as to the authors' responses during the Q & A. To listen this April 28th class session, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQAVo0MDYhA
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