Chelsea Cowan

Where the Hedge Ends Chelsea Cowan

Rachel Aron faces the impending closure of Milner's East-end synagogue. A figurehead of their small harbour-town community in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, and the temple wherefrom thirty-one-year-old Rachel serves as cantor and whose familial legacy spans three generations. Rachel protests the closure with a fanatical zealous that echoes the known and unknown stories that mark her ancestral line like ink to flesh. The mosaic of Rachel's lineage bears witness to multi-generational narratives (from an Israeli kibbutz to the Minsk ghetto) that unfold only to dissolve and collapse onto another, revealing the fragile borders between. When a familiar voice appears to Rachel, she is led to recover Kiruv Ha'richokim (bringing close those who are far away) only to find gray at the centre of the cyclamen. Where the Hedge Ends explores cultural and religious themes of Zionism, belonging, duty, fundamentalism and mysticism.