No Praise, No Blame, Just So
Produced at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Spring 2008
Aired on NPR’s Day to Day, November 17, 2008
Please click HERE to listen to NPR version.
Listen to “No Praise, No Blame, Just So”
In 1996, a brutal attack forever changed the lives of an order of contemplative nuns in Waterville, Maine. While national news coverage provided ample information about the heinous crime, the story of the nun’s unique response to the tragedy was never reported. Jessica returns to speak with the Sisters twelve years later.
On my Own Two Feet
Produced at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
Spring 2008
Listen to “On my Own Two Feet”
Debbie Seelow has worked in long-haul trucking for almost nineteen years. Jessica joined her on one of her long-hauls from Maine to Ohio and brings listeners along for the ride.
Soeurette Joseph
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
New York, New York and San Salvador, El Salvador
2005-2006
Jewish Oral History – Joseph Soeurette
Soeurette was born in Strasbourg (located in the sometimes German, sometimes French area of Alsace-Lorraine). The daughter of an esteemed Rabbi, Joseph moved with her family from Alsace to the south of France during World War II. She soon joined the French Resistance and worked to move Jewish children into hiding within France. This short clip details one of her closest calls with the Gestapo.
Gerda Guttfreund
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
San Salvador, El Salvador
2005-2006
Jewish Oral History – Gerda Guttfreund
Born in Czernowitz, once a bustling center of Jewish life and culture, Gerda immigrated with her sister and parents to Brazil in 1935. Upon arriving in Rio, Gerda remembers: “The entrance into the bay of the port was absolutely gorgeous. We were very excited. But when we stopped at the port and people from the first and second class went down to visit Rio, we thought of walking a little, because we had no money to take a tour, but the policeman stopped us from going down and said, “You are not allowed to go down. Hitler doesn’t want you. We don’t want you, either.”
She later met Heinz “Quique” Guttfreund when he was visiting his parents in Brazil. She arrived in El Salvador as Quique’s wife in 1946. In this clip, Gerda remembers the first time she saw El Salvador….this time from the sky.
Perla Meissner
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
Haifa, Israel
2005-2006
Listen to “Perla Meissner”
Perla and her sister Ruchi were the only members of her immediate family to survive the Holocaust. Upon leaving Auschwitz, they joined the Czech brigade in order to emigrate legally to then-Palestine. She joined the army upon arrival and after serving became a kindergarten teacher in Haifa. She met her future husband Werner Meissner when he was visiting Israel. She remembers: “Then I met Werner. I knew about Werner. I knew about his friends. I knew some other things. I heard about him. I even read some of his letters. That was very unusual, to know a person without knowing that you are ever going to meet him. And when I met him, I felt very comfortable. And because I was so unsure of myself, I said to myself, “This is a person I could grow old with. I would not be afraid to grow old with him.” Well, we grew old enough, we both grew old.”
Despite this love for Werner, leaving Israel would be far from easy. This short excerpt reveals some of those struggles.
Yvonne Salomon
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
Maryland, USA
2005-2006
Listen to “Yvonne Salomon”
Yvonne Salomon, born in Sarreguemines, France, married Georges “Jorge” Salomon in 1938. “ [I was] Twenty-two. And Evelyn [her husband’s cousin] was seventeen. So we went on a nonstop trip for two weeks, three weeks, to Panama. In Panama we went aboard and did a lot of shopping, things like that. We stopped in Venezuela, one port, and there we were received by big shots from the city.” In this excerpt she describes her arrival to El Salvador.
Marjorie and Stan Scherer
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
Florida, USA
2005-2006
Listen to “Marjorie and Stan Scherer”
Marjorie and Stan were some of the first North Americans to arrive in the Jewish community in El Salvador. Raised in a more liberal environment, they were not used to the somewhat orthodox religious traditions of the Salvadoran community. In this excerpt, Marjorie and Stan jointly discuss the changes they engineered during their time in El Salvador.
Daniel Guttfreund
Oral History
Produced with the assistance of a Fulbright Scholarship
San Salvador, El Salvador
2005-2006
Listen to Daniel Guttfreund
The son of Gerda Guttfreund, Dani was born in San Salvador. He came of age during the Civil War of the 1980s and remembers that tenuous time in this excerpt. He decided to raise his own family in El Salvador and returned in the mid-1990s.
Public Radio International
Aired nationally
Fall 2006
Listen to “Public Radio International”
Together with Johanna Cooper, freelance radio producer and director of ListenUp! Radio in Los Angeles, Jessica wrote and narrated a short radio piece detailing her experiences in El Salvador. Broadcast nationally through Public Radio International, Jessica’s piece was included in a Jewish New Year/High Holiday Special produced by Cooper and narrated by Arye Gross.
