Ellen Cassedy


Praise for
Ellen Cassedy
as a Speaker


“Terrific... I haven't talked to anyone who wasn't impressed, engrossed, fascinated ... the best I've heard in 5-plus years of helping to organize these things. [Ms. Cassedy] took a complex, delicate subject and crafted it in a way that was not only fair and balanced, but also heymish and thoroughly engaging. A major-league talk.”
--Andy Cassel, Kol Ami Congregation, Melrose, PA


“A splendid introduction to our community about how history stays with us.”
– Dr. Saulius Suziedelis, Director, 28th Annual Conference on the Holocaust, Millersville University


“Quite incredible presentation. What I especially loved is how well you combine what took place during the Holocaust with the years since through your experience.”
– Mary Johnson, Facing History and Ourselves


“...substantive, eloquently presented…”
– Charles Obrecht, Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies, Baltimore, MD


“Combining erudition, a love of Yiddishkeit and a journalist's eye for detail and nuance, Ellen Cassedy gave our congregation a a gripping tale – professional, engaging, very thought-provoking, and eminently worth hearing.”
--Rabbi Elias Lieberman,
Falmouth Jewish Congregation, E. Falmouth, MA


"Outstanding...beautifully highlighted with photographs and music. Now you've got me investigating where my grandparents came from."
-- Rebecca B. Holmes, Am HaYam, Orleans, MA

To book Ellen Cassedy as a speaker: cassblum@​aol.com

Ellen Cassedy
Writer . Speaker

photo by James Tkatch

"Facing History, Finding Hope"

A talk by Ellen CaSsedy


From the place where Jewish culture once flowered comes a heartening account of binding up old wounds and building a better world.

Ellen Cassedy, a Washington, D.C.-based writer for The Forward, Hadassah, and other Jewish publications, went to the old Jewish heartland of Vilna looking for answers about her own family's Jewish past, but discovered a larger story: how Jews and gentiles today are reaching across disparate heritages and finding ways that all of us can use in moving beyond the conflicts of the past.

Ellen Cassedy's talk about her moral journey into Lithuania past and present is accompanied by vivid photographs. She immerses us in an effort to bind up old wounds, as Jews and gentiles alike seek to build a better world in a place notorious for its Holocaust history. She asks:

How do we judge the bystanders, collaborators, rescuers – and ourselves?

As we carry forward the memory of the Holocaust, how do we avoid perpetuating the hatreds of the past?

What kind of connection should the descendants of the victims have to a land where Jewish culture was annihilated?

What do we gain, and what do we risk, by forging such connections?

To book Ellen Cassedy as a speaker: cassblum@​aol.com

Please click "Biography" on the toolbar to learn more about how Ellen Cassedy connects the stories of ordinary people with social issues.

Selected Works

Articles
“We Are ALL Here: Facing History in Lithuania”
A society grappling with Holocaust history has something to teach us all.
“Home, In So Many Words”
Studying Yiddish in the Old World – a way to touch the past
“Honoring the Everyday: My Daughter's Yidishe Bat Mitzvah”
Mother and daughter embrace the lives of their ancestors with a Yiddish-flavored bat mitzvah
Film
"Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn"
Qualified for an Academy Award nomination. See www.beautifulhillsofbrooklyn.com. Celebrating the spare beauty of a small but important life