Darcy Fryer is our next featured speaker in the Shaare Zedek University series, presenting talks by members of our congregation who are experts in their respective fields.

Colorful characters, romance, suspense -- and some meditations on mourning. We will examine how five young adults in Britain during World War I navigated three successive crises of grief. What are the perils of grieving together and grieving alone? Do our relationships with lost loved ones continue to grow? Should we blame ourselves for "breaking faith" with the dead? Come explore these and other questions through the letters, poetry, and memoirs of a charismatic group of friends.

Darcy R. Fryer (Ph.D., Yale, 2001) teaches history at the Brearley School and edits the teaching column for Common-place: The Journal of Early American Life. She has also published several personal essays. Her current project bridges the genres of history and creative non-fiction by examining a collection of World War I letters not only to tell a historical story but also to explore dynamics of friendship, memory, mourning, feminism, religious belief, and other themes of enduring significance in our own lives.