Petrozavodsk, 1990

But I couldn’t help myself. My love of Russia began to bang up against something else: The undeniable truth that Jews had left this place in droves, in search of the religious and cultural freedom of expression. Sure, some small communities had cropped up, particularly in the bigger cities, but here in the north, Jews were an anomaly — suspicious, strange, other.

Jewish LifeJena SchwartzDecember 27, 2018lake onega, russian women, family, lineage, poetry, jewish, freedom, russian jewComment

We Need to Take Care of Our Endings

They’d likely not vacation together again, for more reasons than the woman would get into now. Needless to say, a day was just right. They stopped for ice cream before returning home, letting the summer day run long. She remembered how she used to have such a hard time saying goodbye, letting go. She still did.

Real LifeJena SchwartzJuly 9, 2018call me by your name, sexuality, jewish, nostalgia, parenting, mothering, mothers and daughters, summer, ice cream, freedom, marriage, love, relationships, anne sexton, hannah gadsbyComment

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