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The Charlotte Jewish News - June/July 2002 - Page 5 A Daughter’s Journey to Reclaim the Past What if you never knew your grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles? What if you knew you were Jewish but you never talked about religion? This is how Fern Schumer Chapman lived her childhood, empty and unfulfilled. During the recent Spring Lecture, sponsored by the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation, women in our community got to meet the author of Motherland, Fern Schumer Chapman and hear her compelling story of a mother/daughter jour ney to reclaim the past. “It’s a great story and it’s a Allison Lemer, Roberta Rogers and Stefanie Reiner. II, while her mother escaped. Fern felt disconnected from her mother, because to her, if a mother didn’t have a sense of history, her child wouldn’t really know who she was. When Fern was pregnant with her third child, her mother approached her with the offer of returning to her hometown in Germany. The trip turned out to be the key to repairing their relation ship, and for Fern to discover who Event co-chairs Ellen Engelhard! and Cheryl Alley. compelling story, but it offered many more gifts — it brought me a sense of who my mother was...” says Fern Schumer Chapman. Fern Chapman was a journalist, Julie Levine, Cheryl Alley and Lynn Edelstein. her mother was. Her mother began to open up — she told Fern the painful story of the day her parents sent her away, and how they stood on the dock, growing smaller as her ship sailed away. For Fern’s mother, one of the great gifts of the trip was that she no longer needed to hide the sto ries she felt were too painful to discuss. Fern felt that a lot of the hurt and anger between them evaporated because of this trip. Now that she has a sense of her mother’s history, Fern no longer feels like her mother is a stranger - now she’s a hero. If you missed the lecture, you can read more about Fern in her book, Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust: A Daughter’s Journey to Reclaim the Past. Author Fern Schumer Chapman with co-chair Cheryl Alley. making her living by getting the answers, but her mother’s story remained a mystery. Her mother was so pained by her early life in Germany that she avoided talking about it. All Fern knew was that her grandparents had been killed in concentration camps in World War Linda Seigel, Donna Foster, Lenora Stein Donna’s parents. and The Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte Women’s Division Shalom Y’all Newcomers Committee Hosts Newcomer Family Pool Party Sunday, June 23 11:30 AM at the home of Liz and Brad Winer 5411 Mirabell Road For more information, please call Mamie Moskowitz in the Federation office at 704-944-6764. FAMILY. People you care about. People you share something in common with. People you would go out of your way to help if they were hurting. Do you think of your fellow Jews in Israel as family? You should. We have so much in common. Our heritage. Our religion. Our values. And now that the darkness of terrorism has spread a cloud over our land, we share something else with our brethren in Israel. We feel their pain. And they ours. Our family is hurting. Please do what you can to help. Visit. Advocate. Support. Pray. ISRAEL EED US PLEDGELINE: 704-944-6757 Online: www.jewishcharIotte.org Of GteEAIER Qiarloite ISRAEL EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN piedge $ to the Israel Emergency Campaign Name Address. City E-mail.... Stale. ..Zip. — HELP US HELP OTHERS! Clip and mail to: Jewish Federation, 5007 Providence Rd, Charlotte, NC 28226. Your payment is due by December 31, 2002. Please make checks payable to Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte and write "Israel Emergency” in the memo. Of GbEfflER Charlotte
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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June 1, 2002, edition 1
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