Join the University of Iowa (UI) Jewish Studies Network, an International Programs affinity group, for a special event with author Clare Kinberg.
Reading and discussion at Prairie Lights
Date & Time: Monday, February 23, 2026, 7 – 8:30 p.m. (CST)
Location: Prairie Lights Books (15 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City)
Kinberg will read from her novel, By the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family, and share reflections on uncovering long-hidden truths within her family’s history.
Clare Kinberg is a white Jewish woman whose wife and daughters are descendants of the African diaspora. When she discovered her estranged Aunt Rose’s death certificate in 2016, she unlocked a family secret that had been hidden for generations: her white Jewish aunt had married a Black man. Kinberg's exploration of the intertwined forces of segregation, racism, and antisemitism, through generations of one family's history, resulted in this beautiful and timely memoir.
"By the Waters of Paradise is both an intimate memoir and a history of racism, religion, and politics,” shared Lila Corwin Berman, the Paul & Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History and director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History at the School of Arts and Science at New York University. “Kinberg 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.”
This event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Network, International Programs, and the UI Departments of American Studies; Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies; History, and Religious Studies.
About the Author
Clare Kinberg has been an organizer in the lesbian, feminist, and anti-war movements for more than 40 years. She is the publisher and editor of the Washtenaw Jewish News, a monthly newspaper in southeast Michigan, and from 1989-2011, was editor of the international literary/political biannual Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal. For many years she worked as a librarian and teacher and as director of religious schools in various Jewish denominations. Her writing on Jewish culture, the Jewish Labor Bund, and Israel/Palestine has appeared in Tablet, Sh'ma, Bridges, and Detroit Jewish News, and many other publications.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa–sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Daniel Vorwerk in advance at 319-497-1619 or daniel-vorwerk@uiowa.edu.