Unpacking the Suitcase
Exploring our Stories
At birth we are all handed a bag that someone else packed. We carry it without questions for a long time until about middle age, at which point we have collected so much baggage of our own we begin wondering why this bag is so heavy. Why are we carrying it? If we're lucky, there's someone left to ask about the contents. As the people of the book, it is incumbent on us Jews not only to explore our history but also to record it. Telling stories, writing stories and reading stories— that is our legacy as Jews.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of the literary thriller, Don’t Ask and the short story collection, Tell Me a Story, Tell Me the Truth, Gina Roitman co-authored the biography Midway to China and Beyond, as well as the memoirs of several child survivors of the Holocaust. Her essays and poems have appeared in anthologies and magazines including Poetica, Wherever I Find Myself, Moment, the Forward and OftheBook Press.
In 2013, she was the subject of the award-winning documentary, My Mother, the Nazi Midwife and Me (available free on YouTube). Since 2017, Gina has led continuous workshops on memoir writing for Generations After of Greater Washington, DC and the Quebec Writers Federation. For more about Gina, go to www.ginaroitman.com