Monday, June 8, 2015

good reading from blog readers

Just got this from a reader who'd just read Finding the Jewish Shakespeare. Good to know it's still out in the world, making its slow way around.

Congratulations on Jewish Shakespeare. Finished it last night, and as with all books that are so enjoyable, wanted there to be at least one more chapter. Its very moving but also such a work of research and beautifully told. Its also an important work that captures a number of historic and cultural moments and movements. Thank you!

No - thank YOU.

And many thanks to another blog reader, Pam from the province of Quebec, who wrote that she and her daughter attended one of the First Nations Truth and Reconciliation sessions at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal and wanted to share the experience with us all.

As Stella and I strode down St. Catherine Street and turned left towards the "Queen" we seemed to be caught in a magnetic pull towards the event, the streets were alive with people drawn to its special significance, its powerful reckoning. 
We had no idea what awaited us, every floor and conference space, every elevator and escalator, all nooks and crannies buzzing with energy, with love and sorrow, and hope. Who could know, how could we ever know or understand?
Photocopiers, archivists, representatives of all the "Christian" denominations. Piles of papers, schools yearbooks, people seeing for the first times their transcripts, their lives. I cannot tell you the power on every floor coursing through the mass of people. Grief, sorrow, connection. The hum of the photocopiers spewing paper would have made you proud. In the beginning was the word! How to move forward, how to love and care? 
I know that it takes love and guts to look at how we have failed to make the mark, how we have allowed systematic cultural genocide to become government policy. We move forward. I applaud the effort, the intention, and outcome.

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