Spotlight on CLAL
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HOW TO SPOT ONE OF US:
A Collection of Poetry
By Janet R. Kirchheimer (CLAL, 2007)
Inspired by Her Family’s Tragedy, this Moving Tribute Offers
a Legacy of Hope for Generations to Come
How to Spot One of Us (Fall ‘07), by Janet R. Kirchheimer is a collection of over 80 poems
inspired by her family’s tragedy in the Holocaust. Honoring their memory,
she provides a moving tribute to the powers of faith and hope for the
future.
Calling it a “little miracle of a book” in his introduction, Rabbi Irving
“Yitz” Greenberg, Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council
and CLAL founder, writes that while it “presents itself as poetry…it is
really Scriptural narrative.” Evoking images of the unimaginable while
offering a legacy of love, Kirchheimer, the daughter of survivors, provides
a new way to remember, with lessons for generations to come.
In his foreword of this hauntingly beautiful new book, CLAL President Rabbi
Irwin Kula quotes Theodor Adorno that, “poetry after the Holocaust would be
a barbaric act,” but that Kirchheimer proves that it can be “a holy act.” A
respected poet and CLAL’s Director of Community Development, Kirchheimer
takes the mundane experiences a picnic at the beach, a doctor’s check up,
a walk into a pizza parlor and jolts us, changing our lives. Through her
stories of her maternal grandmother, Oma Strauss, who bought her mother
red Mary Jane shoes on the way home from the American Consulate, or the
boys’ choir of the Levetzowstrasse shul she creates a new hard reality,
reverential, but with no simple catharsis. Yet, even in the face of true
evil, she invites readers with a fierce grace to preserve their humanity and
faith.
In addition to CLAL founder and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, How to Spot
One of Us was endorsed by author Rabbi Harold Kushner, historian Sir
Martin Gilbert, and poet Mary Stewart Hammond, among others. It is published
by CLAL. To order, phone 212-779-3300, x 129, go to CLAL’s
online store, or
click here. The
cost is $15.
To preview "How I knew and
When" from the How to Spot One of Us poetry collection,
click here.
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