Grandma stories, and the gaps they bridge

You may have heard folks talking about their grandma stories, especially folks from various diasporas. But if you don’t know where these stories come from, or why they’re so important in diasporic cultures, or why they’re called grandma stories—well, then, pull up a chair and stay a while, because have I got a story for you. The term diaspora comes from the Greeks, from a word that means “dispersion.” And, oh, how apt that word is, to describe how peoples and cultures such as the exiled Jews and...