forebears now feels like an urgent part of my calling. Aſter the sleepless night of my
dlelit table, my wilderness journey continued with some things falling into place and much that remains unsettled and unsettling. My entire ministry has included
Author Heidi Neumark recently discovered her Jewish heritage. Top left is her grandfather, Moritz Neumark, who died in a concentration camp. From him, clockwise, are her father, Hans Neumark; Hans with his mother, Ida; and author Neumark first with her grandmother and then standing between her parents, Hans and Barbara.
work for social justice—in South America, the South Bronx and now at a Manhattan church with a shelter for homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth and undocu- mented immigrants. I’ve always been drawn to voices that others ignore. Now I see that the silenced cries of my murdered grandfather and other lost Jewish ancestors have reached out to me through the voices I can hear.
Hearing the echoes of history I also hear other echoes of their history in the hate-speech used to demonize and dehumanize today. I feel much more viscerally sensitive and alert to anti-Semitism within and beyond the church. Silence is no option, and bearing witness to the story of my Ashkenazi Jewish
midnight discovery, it was time to pull myself together and show up at church. As the little ones ran up the stairs for “Wee Worship,” I realized that I wasn’t the only one in church that morning who is haunted by questions and longing to know more about my roots. A little boy poking around in
the basket of musical instruments is asking questions about the father who leſt before he was born. A pre- schooler clinging to her mother was adopted from the other side of the world where her birth mother leſt her carefully wrapped in a purple quilt on the side of the road. Tree rambunctious little boys come in with their parent, who is fine with them calling her “Dad” even though she is now a woman. I’m hardly alone in wresting with
issues of identity. Troughout the morning I looked out on people of all ages filled with their own ques- tions over things leſt unsaid and unexplained, aching to know more. I’ve been blessed to uncover much of my hidden inheritance, and yet for now we all see through a glass darkly and await the day when we will know as fully as we are known.
Author bio: Neumark, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan in New York, is author of Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith, released this month by Abingdon Press.
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