Between Germans and Czechs
German? Czech? Jewish. Join Marsha Rozenblit as she explores the fraught concepts of nationalism, language, and identity faced by the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.
German? Czech? Jewish. Join Marsha Rozenblit as she explores the fraught concepts of nationalism, language, and identity faced by the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.
Join us as Jack Burkert shares the story of a dynamic industry that unfolded in Baltimore in the second half of the 19th century, one which continued until its gradual disappearance more than one hundred years later. The garment industry became the industrial power house of the city, employing a major percentage of its workers, and dominating the men’s clothing business throughout the United States. The story of these companies is a story of immigrant tailors building businesses, of newly arrived immigrant workers employed in them, and the strife between labor and management.
In the last store in a defunct shopping mall, 91-year-old Sonia Warshawski – great-grandmother, businesswoman, and Holocaust survivor – runs the tailor shop she’s owned for more than 30 years. But when she’s served an eviction notice, the specter of retirement prompts Sonia to resist her harrowing past as a refugee and witness to genocide. A poignant story of generational trauma and healing, BIG SONIA also offers a laugh-out-loud-funny portrait of the power of love.
Please join us as we welcome Michael Dobbs, author of The Unwanted: America, Auschwitz, and a Village Caught in Between. He will speak on his powerful book which tells the story of a group of German Jews desperately seeking American visas to escape Nazi Germany, and is an illuminating account of America’s response to the refugee crisis of the 1930’s and 40’s.
Talk followed by book signing – copies will be available at Esther’s Place, the JMM Shop.
Men’s and women’s experiences varied greatly during this terrible period—both how they were treated by the Nazis and how they responded. Join us for an exploration of the ways women’s biological and sociological differences from men were reflected in their responses to the Holocaust.