Featured speaker Dr. Sima Goel shares her story on Oct. 29

Author and inspirational speaker Iranian-born Dr. Sima Goel will share her story of escape, courage, and freedom on Tuesday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. in a free, community-wide presentation on the Schultz Campus for Jewish Life. As an Iranian teenager, she crossed the most dangerous desert in the world rather than accept the restrictions of life in Iran of the early 1980s. Shortly after turning 17, Dr. Goel and another teenage girl traveled, hid and made their way past smugglers, rapists and murderers out of Iran into Pakistan and then on to the West. In her memoir, she shares how life in her beloved home changed inexorably from a paradise to hell.

Goel fulfilled a promise she made to herself on a night of her desert crossing: to share her story with as many people as possible and to tell of the power of faith, hope, and perseverance. Once a penniless political refugee, now an established Montreal professional, she shares her belief that an authentic life requires freedom of choice, the most precious commodity of all.

The Oct. 29 communitywide presentation is made possible through the generous support of the Miriam G. & Lawrence G. Bateman Memorial Fund for Jewish Education. Please RSVP at www.jewishakron.org