Ruth Behar - Letters from Cuba

Thursday, October 22 · 7:30pm

$10 Florida Series

Ruth Behar, United States Holocaust Museum Keynote Speaker

Letters from Cuba

The situation is getting dire for Jews in Poland on the eve of World War II. Esther joins her father, who has fled to Cuba. Heartbroken to be separated from her beloved sister, Esther writes down everything that happens until they're reunited, both good and bad: the kindness of the Cuban people and her discovery of a valuable hidden talent; the fact that Nazism has found a foothold even in Cuba. Esther's evocative letters are full of her appreciation for life and reveal her determination and rare ability to bring people together, the while striving to get the rest of her family out of Poland. Based on Ruth Behar's family history, this compelling story celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the most challenging times.

Ruth Behar, anthropologist, poet, filmmaker and writer, was born in Havana to an Ashkenazi and Sephardic family, grew up in New York, and became the first Latina to win a MacArthur Genius Grant. Letters from Cuba, is inspired by her grandmother's story of escaping Poland to make a new life in Cuba. A graduate of Wesleyan and Princeton, Behar lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.