Praise for We are Here
“A grave and beautiful accomplishment.”
—JANE BROX, judge
2013 National Book Prize from Grub Street
“Cassedy resists Lithuanian attempts to place Jewish and Lithuanian suffering ‘side by side’….She listens to all the voices and perspectives….She attempts to know and comprehend rather than judge.”
—CHRISTOPHER R. BROWNING
New York Review of Books
“Brilliantly balanced, totally engaging, and constantly penetrating.”
—PHILIP K. JASON
Jewish Book Council
“Well-researched and very up-to-date…fresh…vivid.”
—BETH DWOSKIN
Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews
“Unusually engaging…a model for the study of interethnic relations.”
—SEAN MARTIN
American Association for Polish-Jewish Studies
“Focused…dramatic…Ellen Cassedy’s quest…leads her to questions of responsibility, guilt and morality….Yiddish words, musings, and, above all, the Yiddish poetry she quotes have a subliminal effect….They add a musicality to her clear prose and additional emotional resonance….”
—NAHMA SANDROW
Hadassah Magazine
“Balanced…engaging and lucid…quite an achievement…”
—JAMES M. BOUBONIS
Lithuanian Heritage magazine
“She allows us to travel with her through a difficult and rewarding emotional and physical landscape. I truly enjoyed this book.”
—DAVID WILK
Writerscast.com
“Pioneering… will reach out to Jews, Lithuanians, and all those who care about not replaying in this new century the disasters of the century that has just ended.”
—DR. MICHAEL STEINLAUF
Author of Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust
“Challenges us to think again about what it means to remember the Holocaust in the present….”
—DR. LAURA LEVITT (Temple University)
H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews
“Immersing herself in the study of Yiddish was like a prayer for her, a connection to her people….”
—Jewish Forverts
“[A]n intimate, investigative approach…poignant.”
—Baltimore Jewish Times
“Cassedy assembles and weaves together a historical quilt that provides an important context to a complex narrative.”
—Jerusalem Post
“Deeply moving…her book offers a unique perspective…rooted in an oft-forgotten Yiddish cultural context, a tapestry of events which elsewhere too often appear as one-dimensional. Readers will doubtless be immensely enriched by her experience.”
—DR. SAULIUS SUZIEDELIS
Millersville University, PA
“A most captivating read. Cassedy offers an extraordinary perspective, human and moving, to concerns which often are hidden by tired cliches, sentimentality, or anger. A rare document.”
—SAMUEL BAK
Artist, author of Painted in Words, survivor of the Vilna Ghetto
“This eloquent book can help us to reach out, open our hearts, and rediscover one another in a spirit of mutual understanding.”
—HON. VALDAS ADAMKUS
Former President of Lithuania
“Ellen Cassedy is on to a crucial story of a new, post-Holocaust Eastern Europe, in which a few committed individuals are working to catalyze national introspection…. Ms. Cassedy asks herself and other Jews if they, too, might have reason for some self-questioning about the myths of the past.”
—DR. ERICA LEHRER
Concordia University, Montreal, Canada