The 2G Tuesdays Zoom program on November 14th, with Ruth Finkel Wade, Rita Benn and Ava Adler, was truly multi-generational. The audience was so engaged that the one-hour program went close to 2 hours before closing. This presentation was made possible by a third-generation descendant of Holocaust survivors, Michael Mantell. Inspired by the grandfather he never met, Michael, a psychotherapist and educator, has taken it upon himself to gather and feature the testimonies of both survivors and their children each month. Earlier in the fall, Ruth’s father Sidney “Sevek” Finkel, author of Sevek and the Holocaust; the Boy Who Refused to Die, shared his story of resilience together with Ruth. This month, Ruth along with her fellow authors, focused on their story growing up in the shadow of Holocaust trauma. We are encouraged that the work of ‘Never Forget’ and the lessons of inhumanity vs tolerance are being carried forth in the hearts of the third generation.
With the support of the Kurt & Tessye Simon Fund for Holocaust Remembrance of South Bend’s Temple Beth-El and the Jewish Federation, we keynoted their annual community-wide commemoration of Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) on November 12. Ava Adler, Joy Wolfe Ensor, and Avishay Hayut spoke about how our book’s messages are especially relevant in the present day, as we reel from the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, the war that followed, and the antisemitic hate that has exploded in the U.S. and abroad. The authors chose excerpts from their chapters that aimed to address the questions that so many have in this moment: What helps us break the silence and speak out when we witness horrors? What keeps us grounded and centered when so much is out of our control? How do we hold our minds and hearts open to the suffering of others, even as we are being attacked? The Q&A invited us to reflect further on our own stories and the differences we see between the survivors and the generations that followed in making sense of the Holocaust and its impact. Most important, we discussed what we can all do now to make a difference.
On November 8, the Ethnic & Gender Studies Institute of Siena Heights University (a Catholic University founded Dominican nuns) invited us to present stories from our book to their students and faculty. This program was co-sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and as well, the Department of English. Simone Yehuda, now a Professor Emerita, had taught at the university for over 40 years, so this was a homecoming of sorts for her. Along with Simone, authors and co-editors Rita Benn and Julie Ellis read excerpts of their book chapters to an audience of close to 50, all of whom were deeply engaged. We were each very impressed by the many thoughtful questions posed, particularly those by the students. For instance, they wondered how our Holocaust family history affected our response to the war between Israel and Gaza, and how they as non-Jewish persons can get involved in combatting antisemitism and spreading knowledge of survivor and 2G stories. We feel very grateful for the warm welcome of the Siena Heights community and for this opportunity to share and educate the attendees.
On her way to see her father in Tucson, Arizona, Ruth Finkel Wade made a stop in Scottsdale. She met with the Descendant’s Forum of the Phoenix Holocaust Association to talk with 2Gs about our book. The conversation and connections were lively. In talking about growing up in Chicago, one of the participants, Nanci Heiman, realized that she knew Ruth’s brother and Ruth as well. They both went to Temple Emanuel and OSRUI summer camp. Ruth read excerpts from her chapter as well as Myra Fox’s poem “Is It Essential?” This was followed by resounding agreement in the audience that “yes, it is essential.” Unfortunately, even more so now with the uptick in antisemitism we are seeing in the world today.
On October 8, the Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington Hills, Michigan invited two of our authors to offer a book presentation as an integral part of their Sunday service. Natalie Iglewicz and Joy Wolfe Ensor spoke to a raptly attentive and responsive congregation. The service was thoughtfully curated, with three musical piano interludes from a Holocaust Remembrance Suite by Stephan Beneking.
In their presentations, the authors shared not only moving excerpts from their chapters but also mementos from their parents' wartime years and early aftermath. Natalie shared a story of how, during her mother’s internment in a slave labor camp, a kindly woman had smuggled makeshift knitting needles to her — needles her mother used to knit stockings to protect herself and her sisters from the winter cold, and which she kept for the rest of her life. Natalie brought the actual knitting needles to show. Joy showed the small leather-bound journal that her mother had kept when her older brother was born, in which she promised her newborn son that she would “create a legend to secure [the] immortality” of the beloved family members who had been lost. The attendees responded to the readings and artifacts with murmurs and gasps of appreciation. Following the service, there was a lively Q&A session. One gentleman spoke to the universality of war’s intergenerational legacy by saying, "I’m 75 years old and my father fought in WW II. He liberated a prison camp in the Pacific theater, and he didn’t talk about it. In my family, WW II never ended.” It is moments like this that give our book talks special resonance and reverence. Three of our co-editors and authors, Rita Benn, Joy Wolfe Ensor and Ruth Wade, were delighted to give a Zoom book presentation on October 4 at the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) in Westchester County, NY. For Joy it was a homecoming of sorts, because her late father, Leon Wolfe, was a founding board member of the organization (then known as the Westchester Holocaust Commission), and her late stepmother, the artist Rita Rapaport, sculpted the Gates of Remembrance (a replica is shown in this photo with Joy's father's prisoner number inscribed) that are a centerpiece of the organization’s Garden of Remembrance in White Plains, NY.
The attendees on ZOOM were engaged and receptive, and asked many questions about our origin story, the writing process, and how to engage in exploring our Holocaust legacy when there is still so much information left to learn. Two participants asked for further contact with Ruth because their parents came from Piotrków Trybulanski in Poland, the same hometown as her father. Another remarked that Rita’s chapter, “Shades of Chanel No. 5,” evoked a flood of memories about her own mother, who favored that scent. The authors feel that the associations and connections that emerge as a result of sharing our stories are a gift that keeps on giving both to the authors and the attendees alike. On Sunday, October 1, 2023 Ruth Finkel Wade had the honor of speaking to the adult Sunday School class at Anona Methodist Church in Largo, Florida. Members of the class had already done their homework, calling up a video interview of Ruth’s father Sidney Finkel, before she presented. The audience of fifty listened attentively as Ruth read excerpts from our book and engaged the audience in a conversation about learning to heal from the trauma she experienced growing up. The University of Illinois Alumni Magazine published in their News & Noteworthy: Ruth (Finkel) Wade, ’82 MEDIA, edited and contributed to The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust (City Point Press, 2022), an anthology written by 16 children of Holocaust survivors. Wade and her fellow contributors began compiling their parents’ stories and decided to include their own related personal experiences. The book has received a 2022 Foreward Indies Gold Award and a 2023 Silver Award for Heroic Journeys from Nautilus Books. The Jewish Press of Tampa Bay published an article about our book on September 12. It features an interview with Ruth Finkel Wade about her experience coming to terms with her relationship with father and new found understanding of the impact that the holocaust had on him and herself. The article also shares examples of several other of our 2G authors' reflections: Julie Goldstein Ellis, Nancy Szabo, Fran Lewy Berg and Ruth Taubman. You can read the article here. |
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