JReads with Monica Gebell

What is Jewish Rochester reading?

Come to JReads, our new community book group, and find out!

This month’s event features Monica Gebell, Jewish Federation’s Executive Director of the Levine Center to End Hate.  Monica will review and discuss Georgia Hunter’s book, We Were the Lucky Ones.  This event is an opportunity to discuss the book before Hunter’s January 27, 2026 visit to Rochester.

It is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.

As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.

Cost: Free
Registration Required

This project was made possible by an IGNITE! Jewish Rochester Community Impact Grant funded by the Jewish Federation of Grater Rochester’s Annual Campaign for Jewish Needs.