From April ’12 Spotlight: Ellen Cassedy spoke about her new book We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaustat KAM Isaiah Israel in Hyde Park in March, and she is returning for a program sponsored by the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture (near Midway Airport) on Sunday, April 29.
We Are Here—the title of which is taken from the famous partisan resistance song—”Zog Nit Keyn Mol“-records Cassedy’s personal journey to Lithuania, juxtaposing the memories of relatives now living in America against the memories of Christians still living in and around Vilnius.
Although her mother’s Jewish family all fled Lithuania, Cassedy’s father’s family came from Ireland. Did her name, her complexion, and her red-gold hair help disarm people who might have been more guarded in face-to-face conversation with someone as Jewish-looking as I am?
Cassedy’s co-presenter on April 29 will be Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray, a highly-regarded novel about a Lithuanian family’s exile to Siberia during the Soviet era. For tickets, call (773) 582-6500, or visit the museum website: http://www.BalzekasMuseum.org.
To hear Chava Alberstein sing “Zog Nit Keyn Mol” in Yiddish, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wgYnYSg3Zs&feature=related
Right Photo: Ellen with KAMII Member Joan Levin
Bottom Photo: Ellen with Jan
Photo Credits: Richard Bayard Miller (3/4/12)
