Clare Kinberg will read from her new book, By the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family, and will be joined in conversation with Lisa Heineman. Telling Kinberg’s story of how, in 2016, she discovered her estranged Aunt Rose’s death certificate on the Internet and “[unearthed a series of] contradictions of what “family” means in a segregated United States,” By the Waters of Paradise is praised by Lila Corwin Berman, professor of history and of Hebrew and Judaic studies of New York University, as “an intimate memoir and a history of racism, religion, and politics, Kinberg reveals her aunt’s story with sensitivity.”

Clare Kinberg is the publisher and editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News, a monthly newspaper in southeast Michigan and from 1989-2011 was editor of the international literary/political biannual Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal. For many years she worked as a librarian and teacher and as director of religious schools in various Jewish denominations. Kinberg has been an organizer in the lesbian, feminist, and anti-war movements for more than 40 years. Her writing on Jewish culture, the Jewish Labor Bund, and Israel/Palestine has appeared in Tablet, Sh’ma, Bridges, and Detroit Jewish News, and many other publications.

Lisa Heineman is a Professor of History and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Co-Director of the Jewish Studies Certificate at the University of Iowa.