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[Le français suit]At a time when Canada is tightening its borders (and the US has effectively shut its doors to refugees), a dual art exhibition and book talk consider little known Jewish refugee histories from the Soviet Union.
Long-time LA-based immigration journalist and author of The Wanderers, Daniela Gerson, will discuss with McGill Jewish Studies chair Christopher Silver how her new book covers a pivotal Soviet passport which changed the fate of the biggest group of Jews to survive the Holocaust — and its echoes in contemporary refugee crises.
The book talk will also consider the recent opening of "Seam Allowance," Rob Shostak’s art installation rooted in his grandfather’s Soviet passport and asks how memory forms and fades; how we orient ourselves within spaces and systems larger than ourselves; how stories emerge through process and form.
Registration is on a pay-what-you-can model from $3 per person. Early registration is encouraged as capacity is limited.
Copies of "The Wanderers" will be available for sale. Refreshments will be provided.
Daniela Gerson is an award-winning reporter whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Public Radio International, and the Financial Times, among other outlets. An associate professor of journalism at California State University, Northridge and editor-at-large at Zócalo Public Square, she previously worked as a community engagement editor at the LA Times and as a staff immigration reporter for the New York Sun. She has also directed programs at the intersection of civic engagement and news representation for the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School and the City University of New York’s Newmark School. Daniela co-founded Migratory Notes, an immigration newsletter, and spent more than a year reporting from Berlin as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation German Chancellor Scholar and an Arthur F. Burns Fellow. Visit Daniela's website.
Christopher Silver is the Segal Family Associate Professor in Jewish History and Culture and Chair of the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University. His first book Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music Across Twentieth Century North Africa was published in 2022 with Stanford University Press and was the winner of the 2023 L. Carl Brown AIMS Book Prize in North African Studies. He is the author of numerous, prize-winning articles on Jewish and North African history, the Jewish-Muslim relationship.
Presented in partnership with the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University and Sylvan Adams YW-YMHA. This event has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.
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À l’heure où le Canada renforce ses contrôles aux frontières (et où les États-Unis ont, dans les faits, fermé leurs portes aux réfugiés), une double exposition d’art et une présentation de livre se penchent sur des histoires peu connues de réfugiés juifs originaires de l’Union soviétique.
Daniela Gerson, journaliste spécialisée depuis longtemps dans les questions d’immigration à Los Angeles et autrice de *The Wanderers*, s’entretiendra avec Christopher Silver, titulaire de la chaire d’études juives à l’Université McGill, sur la manière dont son nouveau livre traite d’un passeport soviétique déterminant qui a changé le destin du plus grand groupe de Juifs à avoir survécu à l’Holocauste — ainsi que de ses répercussions sur les crises contemporaines liées aux réfugiés.
La présentation du livre abordera également l’inauguration récente de De fil en frontière, l’installation artistique de Rob Shostak inspirée du passeport soviétique de son grand-père, et s’interrogera sur la manière dont la mémoire se forme et s’estompe; comment nous nous orientons au sein d’espaces et de systèmes qui nous dépassent; comment les récits émergent à travers le processus et la forme.
L’inscription se fait selon un modèle payez ce que vous pouvez à partir de 3 $ chacun. Il est recommandé de s’inscrire à l’avance, car le nombre de places est limité.
Des exemplaires de The Wanderers seront en vente. Des rafraîchissements seront offerts.
Cet événement a été rendu possible en partiegrâce au gouvernement du Canada.
Cet événement se déroulera en anglais.
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Event venue
4129 boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC, Canada, Quebec H2W 1Y7
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