Adrienne Rich

All during World War II

I told myself I had some special destiny: . . . .

I was growing up safe, American

With sugar rationed in a Mason jar

split at the root white-skinned social christian

neither gentile nor Jew

through the immense silence

of the Holocaust

I had no idea of what I had been spared . . .

From “Sources”

Join us around the Zoom “table” for a new two-part series on Split at the Root: Adrienne Rich and Jewish Identity.  Rich is one of the most influential feminist poets of the 20th century. We will explore her essay “Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity” in the first session and then her very accessible autobiographical poem, “Sources.” In both, she grapples with her own Jewish identity as the child of an Episcopalian mother and a non-observant Jewish father. In both sessions, we will also have a chance to explore our journeys of self-definition.

Barbara Lesch McCaffry will facilitate these discussions on Zoom on Fridays January 17th and 31st from 12 noon-1:30 p.m.  Handouts will be sent to you when you register.

Barbara Lesch McCaffry, Ph.D, taught in Sonoma State's interdisciplinary program, the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies, as well as in the Departments of English, American Multicultural Studies, Global Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is currently the Dean of Ner Shalom’s Beit Midrash: Lifelong Jewish Learning.