From April ’09 Spotlight: The theme of this year’s Metropolitan Chicago ORT fundraiser is “Jewish Roots in Faraway Lands,” featuring two young writers: Ariel Sabar and Sadia Shepard. Sabar is the author of My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq, and Shepard is the author of The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and a Sense of Home.
Both books describe traumatic family dislocation. Sabar’s father is forced to flee from the ancient town of Zakho, while Shepard’s mother is forever exiled from her home in Bombay. And yet, a few decades later, these two children are adults raising children of their own in America. Each book is fascinating, and their parallel storylines reverberate.
ORT’s luncheon, scheduled for Sunday April 26, is open to the public, so call (847) 291-0475 if you’d like to make reservations, or visit their website: http://www.ortchicago.org
