Martin Herskovitz, "Son of the Shoah: Poems from a Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor" (McFarland, 2025)

Summary

As a third generation Holocaust survivor, this was an important conversation with a second generation survivor. Marty has been conducting workshops on writing memory for quite a while and that's where we met - in his workshops with Jewish Ethiopians in Israel. Son of the Shoah: Poems from a Second-Generation Holocaust Survivor is his emotional reckoning with his parents and the world as being born into a world of pain and distance. At times I saw my own parents in the discussion and at times I would hear my friend whose family is descended from Jews tortured in the Inquisitions. 

This was an intimate and powerful discussion which will help the field of memory and Holocaust studies.

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Drora Arussy

Drora Arussy, EdD, MA, MJS, is the Executive Director of Jewish Tapestry. Drora hosts the Ayuni:Voices of our Jewish Grandmothers podcast. She has produced eight online courses and organized international academic conferences in NY, across Israel, Cambridge (UK),and Rabat (Morocco). Drora hosts the Reclaiming Identity podcast. She is the co-editor of the Jews and Muslims in Morocco: Their Intersecting Worlds (Lexington Press, 2021) and author of Leah Nassi of Lisbon, a historical novel (Amazon, 2022). Her passion for pride in one’s identity is at the core of her endeavors.

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