Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for her Mother’s History

"People are trapped in history,” wrote the African-American writer James Baldwin, “and history is trapped in them.”

Helen Epstein will speak about how a journalist approaches the genealogical project referencing her book Where She Came From: A Daughter’s Search for her Mother’s History— a biography that weaves together the story of three generations of women, the social history of Czechoslovakia’s Jews, and the history of the Holocaust. It is a case study in how a family history can be created even in cases where there are no documents – only stories.

Helen Epstein is a journalist and author whose nonfiction works include the trilogy Children of the Holocaust, Where She Came From, and The Long Half-Lives of Love and Trauma. She has written for publications including The New York Times and The Jerusalem Post, and taught journalism at New York University, where she was the university’s first tenured female professor of journalism. She lives in Massachusetts.

Presented by the Schwalb Center for Israel and Jewish Studies, the Department of History, and the School of Communication.

Food and drinks will be served. Free parking will be provided in Lot E next to Henningson Memeorial Campanile (clock tower).