“Honoring the Past: A Journey of Discovering My Jewish Identity” is the topic of a free public lecture by April Borisewitz at ETSU’s Carroll Reece Museum from 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27.
This lecture is in conjunction with “Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators,” a traveling documentary exhibition and project of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission (THC), which is on display at the Reece Museum through Nov. 29.
Born in Danbury, Conn., Borisewitz lived in Sandy Hook, N.J., until age seven, when her family moved to Watauga, Tenn. She earned her bachelor’s of general studies degree at ETSU in 2000.
Borisewitz traveled to Antwerp, Belgium, to meet a surviving great-uncle and was inspired by this trip, which included visiting her father’s birthplace and walking through the gates of Auschwitz, where her great-grandmother had immediately perished.
Her grandmother was one of the few who survived Auschwitz, and her father was a hidden child – a child raised by a non-Jewish family for survival – during those times.
Encouraged by an ETSU professor to further her education, Borisewitz received her master’s degree in Holocaust and genocide studies in 2002 from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.
Today, she shares with others the knowledge she has acquired during her travels, studies and family research.
She has “discovered the meaning of persecution and what it means to be Jewish in a world full of prejudice against ‘the other,'” she says, adding that her purpose is to “honor her family’s legacy, ensuring that their memory will not be forgotten.”
The “Living On” exhibit is sponsored locally by the Reece Museum and ETSU’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Services (CASS), of which the museum is a part, as well as ETSU’s Department of English, the B’nai Sholom Congregation and several anonymous donors.
The black and white photographs by Robert Heller include images of 74 individuals from throughout Tennessee, all of whom were survivors of the Holocaust, U.S. Army witnesses, hidden children, or refugees prior to liberation in 1945.
The exhibit also includes biographies of each, along with maps of Europe showing birthplaces and locations of ghettos and concentration camps.
The Reece Museum is on Gilbreath Drive near the ETSU Foundation Carillon. Three parking spaces are reserved beside the museum for patrons of both it and CASS. Visitors should obtain a temporary parking permit at the Public Safety building located at the main campus entrance on University Parkway.
Regular museum hours are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday.
For more information or for special assistance for those with disabilities, call (423) 439-4392.

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