Annual Rabin/Brill Lecture: Paper Love: an exploration into family identity, myth, and memory

Tue, April 18, 2023 7:00 PM at JMC Library

Years ago, journalist Sarah Wildman came across a cache of letters her refugee grandfather had hidden away from the family during the Second World War and the immediate postwar period. Dozens were from one woman: Valy, Valerie, Scheftel, a fellow medical student, and the woman he left behind when he fled Vienna in the fall of 1938. Wildman set out on a search for that woman’s story, combing through archives in Europe and America, through letters and ultimately, interviewing eyewitnesses. In her book, and her talk, Wildman addresses the wounds still open for third generation descendants of the war - victims and perpetrators and bystanders -- and looks for ways to tell a single story in an effort to combat erasure.

20 complementary books will be available for the first students, faculty, and community members who contact us at jewishst@msu.edu to read it before the event. The books will also be available for purchase and signing at the event.

The event is both in-person and livestreaming on YouTube: Serling Institute for Jewish Studies (serlinginstituteforjewishs8606).