Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith - Softcover

Heidi Neumark’s life changed when a few computer keystrokes exposed a generation of family secrets. Late one night while her family slept, Neumark discovered her hidden Jewish heritage—and uncovered hundreds of questions: Did her grandfather really die in a concentration camp? How did she never know her grandmother was a death-camp survivor? Why had the family history and faith been rejected and hidden?

Heidi’s search for the truth quickly became more than a personal journey; it also became spiritual. It caused profound ponderings on her thirty-year vocation as a Lutheran pastor. It was a shocking revelation that her Jewish roots and successive family loss and trauma now suddenly and inherently connected her to the multi-ethnic, marginalized community she had been ministering to for three decades.

Hidden Inheritance takes the reader on a journey that seamlessly weaves personal narrative, social history, and biblical reflection to challenge readers to explore their own identity, vocation, and theology. Neumark boldly calls readers to explore the harsh places of the past, uncover the possible buried secrets, ask new questions, forge new understanding, and discover new hope for transformation that is only possible when what has been hidden is finally brought to light.

Heidi B. Neumark is an author, speaker, and Lutheran pastor in New York City. She is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx, which won the 2004 Wilbur Award given by the Religion Communicators Council. She has chapters and sermons in numerous other books and writes regularly for The Christian Century and other journals. Pastor Neumark also serves as the executive director of a shelter for homeless LGBTQ youth. She holds an honorary doctorate of divinity from Muhlenberg College.