It bothered us, and we asked about the missing grave markers later that afternoon, when we arrived in Vilna. Strange, but there was only one metseyve, one tombstone, marking the graves of the tens of thousands of Jews who must have laid buried there. The only remnant of Jewish life we could find was the old cemetery, an empty field on the outskirts of town, overgrown with weeds, with a children’s playground at the far end.

They were afraid, Sasha explained, that we were descendants of the town’s earlier inhabitants, come to reclaim the empty homes their neighbors had expropriated after the war.Īnd where were the Jews of Vilkomir ? Dead, dead, every man, woman, and child, rounded up and shot by German soldiers on a single summer day in 1941. In America people sometimes think I’m Irish in Eastern Europe they could tell from a hundred yards away that were Jews, and as a result no one in Ukmerge wanted to talk to us. Then I read this, from Aaron Lansky’s memoir Outwitting History. I wrote thousands of rambling words, and felt dissatisfied with them. When Rashika asked me to write a blog post about Jewish representation, I really struggled with where to start. SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, PLEASE PROCEED TO READ HER INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN and THOUGHT OUT POST. A while ago, after reading Lerner’s short in Gambled Away, I invited her to do a guest post about why representation in literature is important to her and being the kind, wonderful soul she was, she agreed to do it. Hi friends! I don’t want to say much because I want this to be Rose’s space to talk but brief background. Tuesday, DecemRose Lerner on Jewish Representation in Media Posted by Rashika

Gambled Away by Joanna Bourne