Virtual Q+A with Pinchas Blitt

Undergraduate classes from York University, University of Ottawa, and Trent University met virtually with author Pinchas Blitt to ask questions and share reflections on how reading his memoir, A Promise of Sweet Tea, has shaped their understanding of the Holocaust.

Professor Rebecca Margolis from Monash University (Australia) gave a keynote lecture to open the event.

This event was open to the public for viewing, but questions were restricted to professors and students in the participating classes.

View the recording under the Post-Conference Updates tab above.

About A Promise of Sweet Tea:
A Jewish community comes alive in this vividly told story of a childhood interrupted by the Holocaust. In his wry and evocative prose, Pinchas Blitt conjures Kortelisy — a humble, vibrant village in the backwoods of western Ukraine. Young Pinchas lives in fear of Cossacks and wolves and the local antisemitic children, but he finds belonging in the rich texts and traditions of his ancestors. When the Soviets invade, Pinchas’s life is infused with new meaning as he innocently devotes himself to the teachings of Comrade Stalin. Then the Nazis arrive, and Pinchas witnesses his beloved village being brutally attacked. As his family seeks safety in the marshes and forests, their precarious existence brings Pinchas face to face with his own mortality and faith, and with a sense of dislocation that will accompany him throughout his life.

About the Author:
Pinchas Eliyahu Blitt was born in Kortelisy, Poland (now Ukraine) in 1931 or 1932. Pinchas and his family immigrated to Canada in 1948 and settled in Montreal, where he attended teacher’s college and law school. In addition to a long career as a lawyer, Pinchas was involved in the Yiddish theatre community in Montreal for many years. Pinchas has three children. He lives in Montreal with his life partner, Gisele.