Monday, January 22, 2018, 7 to 9:00 p.m.
“Innocent Spirit” by Alicia Steinberg and
“Kindergarten” by Victor Perera

Last fall, UNR Prof Darrell Lockhart recommended “Oy Caramba!” a collection of translated short stories by Jewish Latin American authors from ten countries [edited by Ilan Stavans]. Many of the stories evoke the theme of being a religious minority person in a majority Christian land.

Alicia Steinberg lived in the largest Jewish community south of the border, Argentina. Her story Innocent Spirit describes a young Jewess navigating life in a Catholic girls’ high school. But school is school, and girls are girls, so despite the protagonist’s claim of a fictional Catholic family that her compatriots doubt, she finds acceptance.

From the smaller Jewish community of Guatemala, author Victor Perera writes stories inspired by his boyhood. In Kindergarten, a five-year-old boy loses the carefree life he had with an Indian nanny and starts public school. At that school, he faces Christian classmates who have absorbed their parents’ and religious leaders’ anti-Semitic bigotry.

Discussion Leader: Alan Liebman

Host: This month’s meeting will be at the gracious home of Emma Auriemma and Jim McKay in ArrowCreek [southwest Reno].

RSVP Required: To reserve your seat(s), receive a  PDF copy of this month’s story and travel directions, please e-mail your name(s) to  RenoJewishStory@AmericanSuperior.ORG before sundown, Friday, January 19th.

The Club can accommodate 17 attendees at this meeting, so please remember your reservation is a pledge to attend. Social time after the discussion. Refreshments served.

NEXT Club Meeting [mark your calendar!]: Monday, February 26, 2018, 7 to 9:00 p.m.