Journalist Helen Epstein is the daughter of Holocaust survivor and Olympic Swimmer Kurt Epstein. Helen has created a photography exhibit that will be on view at the Terezin Memorial from September 8 through November 30, 2022. Join the Museum and Helen Epstein for an illustrated talk about the process of designing this documentary exhibit, starting with one artifact – her father’s tallis in which he was a bar mitzvah in 1917. Epstein will tell the story of a provincial Jewish son of a factory owner who loved to swim and how he became a reserve lieutenant in the Czechoslovak Army and a national sports hero.
A Jewish Athlete: Swimming Against Stereotype in 20th Century Europe is available at shop.mjhnyc.org.
Born is Prague in 1947, Helen Epstein grew up in New York City, and while an undergrad at Hebrew University, was caught in the 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia. The Jerusalem Post printed her first-person account and launched her journalism career. Her work has appeared in the Sunday New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, New York, Esquire and NewYorker.com. She lectures internationally at universities, libraries, religious and civic institutions. She is the author or translator of twelve books, including the non-fiction trilogy Children of the Holocaustand A Jewish Athlete: Swimming Against Stereotype in 20th Century Europe.
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