On Tuesday, Some ‘Food for Thought’

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

Mother/daughter duo Rita Lurie and Leslie Gilbert-Lurie appeared at Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church this week to speak with community members about Lurie’s harrowing experience surviving the holocaust and Gilbert-Lurie’s memoir on the same topic, “Bending Toward the Sun.”

The event was part of the running series “Food for Thought,” a monthly speaking circuit hosted by the church and organized by Sylvia Boyd, a church elder and recent Pacific Palisades Community Council Golden Sparkplug recipient for her work on the series.

Boyd started Food for Thought after attending the funeral of a fellow church member who she learned had an incredible life story. “I was attending memorials and finding out amazing things about people I had been on outings with and had dinner with,” Boyd told the Palisadian-Post. “And I never knew these things.”

Boyd set out to create a “speaker, luncheon event” that would ensure that people with incredible life stories and experiences had an outlet to share them through. Now Food for Thought is in its third year. “It’s been an exciting ride,” Boyd said of the series.

The circuit’s first event featured an appearance from former Post editor Bill Bruns, whose distinguished career also included work for Time Magazine and TV Guide.

It went on to play host to a diverse range of speakers, from Dave Dealey—son of Naval Commander Samuel David Dealey—to a panel of acclaimed mystery writers.

Though it’s hosted at the Presbyterian church, Boyd said Food for Thought is “not a religious event.” The series is open to any speaker, “as long as they’ve got an interesting story or can teach us something that a lot of people might want to learn about.”

Gilbert-Lurie and her mother certainly fit that bill. They appeared at the church on Tuesday to share insights from Lurie’s difficult past. At 5 years old, she fled the Nazis from her home in Poland and experienced heart-wrenching tragedy while hiding (and later wandering Europe) in miserable conditions with her family.

Decades later, Lurie raised a family of her own in California, including daughter Gilbert-Lurie, now an accomplished lawyer and media executive in nearby Brentwood. The two collaborated on, “Bending Toward the Sun,” a book published in 2009 that tells Lurie’s story but also explores the multi-generational nature of trauma—the ways that Lurie’s experience ultimately impacted Gilbert-Lurie and even her own daughter.

Gilbert-Lurie told the Post that Tuesday’s event was one of “over 100” speaking appearances that she and her mother have made together. “I think we’re able to touch on all kinds of relevant topics—ranging from the relevance of how dictators and autocrats come to power in democratic societies, to the importance of celebrating and being an ‘upstander’ rather than being a bystander in this world,” said Gilbert-Lurie, who also serves on the Board of Directors for Human Rights Watch.

The author and activist said seeing her mother’s (and her own) impact on speaking audiences is a rewarding experience. She hoped the event would urge Palisadians to speak with their own parents and family members about their past. “It [feels] as if we’re really able to bridge worlds,” she told the Post. “I feel like we’re really able to make a difference.”