MaTovu is thrilled to celebrate the release of By The Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family by MaTovu Builder Clare Kinberg. Join us for a book talk, refreshments, and a chance to purchase the book from Left Bank Books.

By the Waters of Paradise is a riveting family history that paints a startling portrait of racism and antisemitism and the lasting effects across generations. In 2016, author Clare Kinberg discovered her estranged Aunt Rose's death certificate on the internet. What followed was an unearthing of contradictions of what "family" means in a segregated United States. In the 1930s, Rose, an Ashkenazi Jewish woman, married Zebedee Arnwine, an African American man. The Arnwines faced a multitude of barriers due to their interracial marriage, and Rose faced familial and community ostracization for her choice. Her siblings, including Kinberg's father, kept her existence a secret from their children while building a strong sense of family and reinforcing the segregation between Jewish and Black communities. Some eighty years later, Kinberg, whose wife and daughters are descendants of the African diaspora, traced the life and legacy of her aunt. This masterful memoir weaves the genealogical and historical journeys of Rose and Zebedee with discussion of Rose and Kinberg's Jewish ancestry in Romania and Ukraine and investigates their mutual decisions to settle their interracial families in Michigan. By the Waters of Paradise is more than just a memoir—it is a reckoning with racism in a day and age when it is needed more now than ever. “By the Waters of Paradiseis bothan intimate memoir and a history of racism, religion, and politics, Kinberg reveals her aunt’s story with sensitivity. She discovers the jagged intersections of Jewish and Black history in the United States, where white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and capitalism delimited each group’s opportunities in turn—and sometimes in startlingly entangled ways.”—Lila Corwin Berman, professor of history and of Hebrew and Judaic studies, New York University

About the Author: Clare Kinberg is a writer, editor, and activist. She is the publisher and editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News and was the editor of Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal from 1989–2011.

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