Odessa, Odessa follows the fates of two sons from a proud lineage of rabbis and cantors in a shtetl near the Black Sea in western Russia.
As two brothers emigrate out of Russia to escape anti-Semitism, one chooses America and the other Israel/Palestine. The generations move forward in the twentieth century, from New York to Brighton Beach and Los Angeles, as children and gandchildren assimilate into a new culture. A sweeping tale of love, faith and tradition, Odessa, Odessa reveals how the mysterious ties that hold a family together can help them survive the heartache of separation and loss, and how secrets about heritage can finally be uncovered.
A multigenerational immigrant story of a family, joined by tradition and parted during persecution, that remain bound by a fateful decision to leave Odessa.
Barbara Artson is a retired psychoanalyst who calls San Francisco her home. She regularly contributes essays and reviews of films and books to professional journals. In addition to a PhD in psychology, she holds BA and MA degrees in English literature, and taught Shakespeare as a graduate student while also completing the unfinished Dickens novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood, years before the musical production on Broadway. Like Dora in Odessa, Odessa, Artson’s mother stitched elastic to the waistbands of women’s bloomers.
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Passing the Torch describes the remarkable achievements of public university students from marginalized populations who transcend oppression and poverty to become powerful leaders for social justice. Ruth and Bill Goldman drew upon their expertise in mental health and higher education to launch a scholarship program in the San Francisco Bay Area which provides assistance to people of color, recent immigrants and others from marginalized populations, in order to help them become leaders for social change.
In addition to tuition assistance, they offer a package of wrap around benefits to replicate the support higher income students receive from their families. To date, every single participant graduated from college and more than seventy percent earned graduate degrees from prestigious universities. Ruth Goldman’s personal story as a Holocaust survivor and Bill’s as the grandson of Jewish refugees who fled discrimination inform the program and draw a parallel to the plight of modern day refugees and the disenfranchised seeking opportunity in the United States today. Passing the Torch shows how the New Leader Scholars overcome poverty and discrimination in order to acquire an education while sustaining their idealism as they strive to achieve greater equity and justice for all.
Ruth Goldman is chair of the New Leader Scholarship Advisory Board and professor emerita of psychology at San Francisco State University. Her retirement from teaching inspired creation of the New Leader Scholarship.