Thursday, December 4th
6:30 PM
Members – $3
General Public – $5
Come celebrate the book release of BJ Yudelson’s “With an Outstretched Arm” The book relates how chance encounters propelled her, people and books inspired her, and tragedy tested her, challenging her to ask difficult questions. How can she balance the ethical and ritual sides of Judaism? Will she always feel like an outsider? How can she overcome the existential loneliness that follows her young daughter’s death? Where can she find God’s outstretched arm?
Recollections of Passover seders mark her gradual ascent up the ladder of tradition. The springtime rituals become springboards to discuss her religious changes as she moves from city to city and becomes a wife, mother, and grandmother. Ultimately, she eschews easy answers, learns to live with the discomfort of ambiguity, and embraces the community that she comes to see as God’s outstretched arm in action.
Here are what others have to say about the book:
“Written with honesty, intelligence, and grace, With an Outstretched Arm will break your heart and put it back together again. B. J. Yudelson’s writing captivates and enlightens, but most of all, resonates. A story of love and loss, family and faith, this memoir is a story for us all.” Sonja Livingston, author, Ghostbread
“BJ Yudelson’s Outstretched Arm, smites and embraces. An extraordinary writer faces the joys and tragedies and existential questions of her life without flinching and has produced one of the most honest and moving memoirs one could read. It is not only the story of a search for Jewish identity and meaning on the broadest of American landscapes; it is a fearless voyage of self exploration – searching for whatever meaning and solace we can take from our suffering and our joy.” Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner, Author of Wrestling Jacob, (A Literary Psychological Reading of Genesis) Ben Yehuda Press
“With An Outstretched Arm is the compelling story of one woman’s journey through life. B. J. Yudelson’s memoir reminds us that the One who created us will see us through the complexities of this journey and that often our family of faith becomes the living reality of the grace, love, and support of the One.” Pastor Ron Domina, Bethel Christian Fellowship, Rochester
“B.J. Yudelson has written a sensitive, heartfelt, deeply engaging account of her spiritual journey and family life. Honest, open, and very real as she describes tragedy, she comes through with her love for her life and her family intact. I was gripped throughout.” –Stephanie Wellen Levine, author of Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls
For more information on B.J. Yudelson, head over to her website at http://bjyudelson.com/