Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival to host author Barbara Gilford
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> Congregation Shaara Tfille and The Jewish Community Center of Saratoga Springs will host author Barbara Gilford at 7 p.m. on Aug. 18 via Zoom as part of the 2021 Saratoga Jewish Cultural Festival.
In her Holocaust memoir, “Heart Song,” Gilford tells the story of the Buchsbaum family. By exploring the family she never knew, she illuminates the familial, psychological loss of the Holocaust through photographs and excerpts from her grandmother Clara Buchsbaum’s correspondences. They follow her journey to her heartbreaking end while celebrating the fortitude and resilience of those who died and those who survived.
When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, the Buchsbaum family fractured, taking different paths to escape the threat. Intelligence was not enough to survive; bad decisions could prove fatal. As Clara fled to Italy in 1939, she found protection in the mountain village of San Donato Val di Comino where the local residents sheltered 28 Jewish refugees. Clara’s many letters to her son John, who had escaped to England, reflect her deep love for him and her relentless efforts to obtain a visa to a country beyond Europe’s borders.
These allowed Clara to sustain an unimaginable optimism despite separation from her beloved family and an uncertain future.
Gilford intertwines her own story of discovering her family and mourning their loss. “Heart Song” shares the consequences of inherited grief to create a legacy of love.
As a teacher, psychotherapist and journalist, Gilford has contributed more than 200 articles to The New York Times. She tells her family’s story in high schools, colleges, at Holocaust centers and for an array of organizations.
Gilford considers the pandemic to be a boon for writers, artists and those who find, in solitude, an opportunity to grow, to deepen and expand their very selves.
Sponsored by a generous grant from the Jewish Federation of Northeast New York, the event is complimentary.