When Clare Kinberg discovered her estranged Aunt Rose’s death certificate in 2016, she unlocked a family story that had been hidden for generations. That discovery became “By the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family,” which Kinberg will share at MaTovu on Oct. 25.

To get the most out of the evening, here are three things to know before you go.

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The family secret at the heart of the story

Rose, an Ashkenazi Jewish woman, married Zebedee Arnwine, an African American man in the 1930s. For that, she was cast out by her family. Kinberg says she should have grown up knowing Rose and her husband’s family as relatives — “machatunim” in Yiddish — but instead, her aunt’s existence was erased.

“My Aunt Rose, my father’s sister, and I are both white American Jews who chose to make family with African Americans,” Kinberg says. “Rose and I both had to learn to see that in America, every interaction is affected by race and racism.

“When I found out at age 20 that my father’s sister had been outcast because she had ‘run off with a Black man,’ I realized that for my father and his family, racism was more powerful than family ties,” she adds. “The family had a red line. The color line.”

The history behind the memoir

Because Rose and Zebedee were gone by the time Kinberg uncovered their story, the book is steeped in history — connecting one marriage to the larger forces of segregation, racism and antisemitism in America.

“For the very few interracial couples in the 1930s and 1940s, like my Aunt Rose and Mr. Arnwine, troubles could be neither fully shared nor separately siloed,” Kinberg explains.

Rose was still living in St. Louis in the early 1930s, which makes the local context especially relevant. In 1932, Black picketers stood outside a Woolworth’s on Franklin Avenue, carrying signs that read, “Don’t shop where you can’t work.” On the same day, a St. Louis Jewish paper reported on Nazi picketers in Germany targeting Woolworth’s stores, wrongly believed to be Jewish-owned.

“Looking back on this juxtaposition, you see pressures that caused each community to focus on self-preservation,” she says. Those same pressures shaped the lives of Rose and Zebedee, whose marriage stood at the intersection of both struggles.

Bringing the story into the present

For Kinberg, this book isn’t only about the past. Her wife and daughters are descendants of the African diaspora, so Rose’s story resonates in her own family today.

“Jewish tradition teaches us that telling stories creates memories that shape who we are and who we will be,” she says. “I imagine a Jewish future where those of us who have been perceived as marginal — because of anti-queerness and anti-Blackness or other biases — are recognized as essential to Jewish community.”

Why this matters

By walking in with these touchpoints — the hidden family secret, the historical backdrop and the contemporary echoes — you’ll catch more of the layers in Kinberg’s talk. Instead of just hearing a reading, you’ll experience the book as a guide through memory, history and identity.

What: “By the Waters of Paradise” book launch
Where: Matovu, 4200 Blaine Ave.
When: Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
To attend: Online registration is requested