Jewish Life & Learning

Unexpected Passages: Family Narratives Through Comics

Name: Unexpected Passages: Family Narratives Through Comics
Start: 2024-07-07T16:30:00-04:00
End: 2024-07-07T18:00:00-04:00
Location: Edlavitch DCJCC

All Ages, Adults (18+), Young Professionals (21-45), Older Adults (65+)

Date : Sunday, Jul 07

Time : 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Location : Edlavitch DCJCC
1529 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC

Join comics artist Rachel Scheer for a reading, conversation, and workshop on how to tell family narratives through comics. Rachel's debut graphic novel Unexpected Passages tells the story of her grandfather Irving's remarkable escape from Poland during the Holocaust, while reflecting on her own Jewish history growing up in the United States as the granddaughter of a survivor. The book explores Rachel's family's Yiddish history and her mother's long journey toward translating Irving's Yiddish wartime letters. Kept for more than…

Join comics artist Rachel Scheer for a reading, conversation, and workshop on how to tell family narratives through comics. Rachel's debut graphic novel Unexpected Passages tells the story of her grandfather Irving's remarkable escape from Poland during the Holocaust, while reflecting on her own Jewish history growing up in the United States as the granddaughter of a survivor. The book explores Rachel's family's Yiddish history and her mother's long journey toward translating Irving's Yiddish wartime letters. Kept for more than 50 years, the contents of the letters turned out to contain more questions than answers about Irving as a young refugee. Click here to learn more about Unexpected Passages.

Rachel will begin with a conversation about her work and will then guide us in a workshop to create our own family narrative comics.

About Rachel: Rachel Scheer is a comics artist and elementary school teacher based in Seattle. Rachel’s comics have been published by Edutopia, The Stranger, the Seattle Weekly, Fantagraphics, and more. She is a recent recipient of a Trailer Blaze artist residency and 4Culture grant for her graphic novel Unexpected Passages.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Rabbi Atara at acohen@edcjcc.org.