Sudden Jews: When Adults Discover Their Hidden Jewish Heritage (offsite)

Monday, April 26, 2010, 7:30 pm
Etc/GMT-7

Sudden Jews: When Adults Discover Their Hidden Jewish Heritage
A conversation with Marny Hall, Irene Reti, Jim Van Buskirk, and Cecilia Wambach

Co-Sponsored by Congregation Sha'ar Zahav

Free and at the Bureau of Jewish Educaiton, 1835 Ellis St, SF

What if you found out that an important family secret had been kept from you? Four people from very different backgrounds discuss the discovery of their Jewish heritage, the circumstances surrounding the revelation, and how it affected their lives, their relationships, and their identities.

Marny Hall discovered she was Jewish at age 30. She is a sex therapist and author whose books include The Lavender Couch, Sexualities, and The Lesbian Love Companion. Hall is also the co-author of Queer Blues.

Irene Reti is the daughter of two Holocaust refugees who hid their Jewish identities. She is the author of Keeper of Memory: A Memoir and Kabbalah of Stone, a novel about hidden Jews (conversos) in 15th century Spain. Reti is the director of the oral history research office at UC Santa Cruz.

Jim Van Buskirk, book group coordinator at the Jewish Community Library, is the co-editor of Identity Envy: Wanting to Be Who We're Not. He is currently working on an intergenerational family memoir about discovering his Jewish heritage at the age of 54, entitled My Grandmother's Suitcase.

Cecelia Wambach is professor emeritus of mathematics education at San Francisco State University. For almost eight years she has been involved in a project to research her father's ancestry, which has taken her to the Czech Republic, Israel, and Uruguay and is the subject of her forthcoming book, Hide and Go Seek: The Search for My Father's Family. 

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