52 Ancestors Week 22 – So Far Away

The theme for Week 22 (May 28-June 3) is So Far Away. This theme, frankly, didn’t do much for me. I’m used to the idea that my family moved around, not always voluntarily. For example, Jews were expelled from Kaunas Guberniya in Lithuania during World War I. So my grandmother’s brother, Nachum Fainstein, was born in Slutsk, near Minsk. The family returned to Lithuania after the war. Nachum survived the Kaunas ghetto and Dachau and DP camps in Italy and eventually went to Israel.

Lots of my relatives ended up in Israel, the U.S., South Africa, and various parts of Latin America (Cuba, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico). Frankly, people went where they could. I feel lucky not to have experienced exile. Though, with the way the current administration is handling things…