WHC is thrilled to welcome author Letty Cottin Pogrebin to kick off our 2022-2023 Amram Scholar Series on Sunday, October 23 at Temple.

This lecture will also be available by livestream by visiting our streaming page.

RSVP is requested

RSVP HERE

About the Book

The word shan­da is defined as shame or dis­grace in Yid­dish. This book, Shan­da, tells the sto­ry of three gen­er­a­tions of com­pli­cat­ed, intense 20th-cen­tu­ry Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of pub­lic humil­i­a­tion either drove their aspi­ra­tions or crushed their spir­it. In her deeply engag­ing, aston­ish­ing­ly can­did mem­oir, author and activist Let­ty Cot­tin Pogre­bin expos­es the fiercely­guarded lies and intri­cate cover­ups woven by dozens of mem­bers of her extend­ed fam­i­ly. Begin­ning with her own long­suppressed secret, the sto­ry spi­rals through the hid­den lives of her par­ents and rel­a­tives — reveal­ing the truth about their ori­gins, per­son­al trau­mas, mar­i­tal mis­ery, aban­doned chil­dren, reli­gious trans­gres­sions, sex­u­al iden­ti­ty, rad­i­cal pol­i­tics, and sup­pos­ed­ly embar­rass­ing ill­ness­es. While unmask­ing their cha­rades and dis­guis­es, Pogre­bin also show­cas­es her family’s remark­able tal­ent for rein­ven­tion in a nar­ra­tive that is, by turns, touch­ing, sear­ing, and sur­pris­ing­ly universal.

​“Shan­da is a beau­ti­ful med­i­ta­tion on the mys­ter­ies that fam­i­lies car­ry, and that, cumu­la­tive­ly, help shape a peo­ple.” — Yos­si Klein Halevi

Click here to purchase this book through WHC’s Mitzvah Mall

About the Author

Presented in partnership with the Jewish Book Council.