HONOR THY MOTHER AND FATHER

Grandparents are among those suffering the most from the Covid-19 pandemic. Forced, to stay away from their grandchildren even during the Jewish holidays, they ask themselves, “How can I pass along our heritage and love of family without contact?” The pandemic caused photographer, Fran Ages, to contemplate not just her mortality but, like many matriarchs, how to preserve the closeness of her family that, over decades, she had worked so hard to build. 

She remembered a stack of nine sacred Hebrew books that she had rescued from her mother-in-law’s childhood home. In the early 1970s, the extended Appel family was notified that their grandfather’s home was being emptied of its contents and whatever was not removed by the end of the week, would be discarded. Fran was the only family member who arrived. Despite not being able to read Hebrew, nor raised in an observant home, her instincts told her that a stack of worn-out old books from Eastern Europe was a treasure to be preserved. For nearly the next half-century, despite a few moves and downsizing, she continued to guard these Hebrew books, not knowing what she would ever do with them.

While being confined to her home under lock-down restrictions, she remembered those nearly discarded sacred books, and they began whispering that they too have a soul and a story needing to be shared. As Fran began photographing them, she wondered where did they come from, what do they say, and who were the people who held them?