“A Hug from Afar is not only one family’s immigration story.”

This is the first line of the foreword of “A Hug from Afar,” a new book consisting of letters written by Claire Barkey Flash and compiled by her daughter, Bellevue journalist and publicist Cynthia Flash Hemphill.

The letters document the correspondance between Claire, a Sephardic Jewish young woman living on the Aegean island of Rhodes, and her uncle Ralph and aunt Rachel Capeluto, early immigrants to the U.S. who lived in Seattle.

Claire’s letters, written from 1930 to 1946, show a fierce determination to help her family escape the Holocaust and immigrate to the U.S. After being forced out of Rhodes, they lived in Tangier for seven years before finally making it to the U.S.

“We must absolutely leave on the 14th. Wire to our account to Tangier, Morocco, one thousand dollars to enable us to disembark through Tangier Bank … Send cable otherwise serious consequences,” reads a telegram sent by the Barkeys to the Capelutos on May 2, 1939.

The narrative is not only an untold historical perspective of the Holocaust – that of a Sephardic Jew and a young woman – but also one that resonates today, with the current refugee crisis in Europe.

“A lot of Americans are under the false assumption that immigration is easy, or used to be easy,” Cynthia said. “This book proves it’s anything but.”

Cynthia said the book also gives her a different view on her mother, who was “a very strong woman; driven and business-oriented.”

“I’m not sure that her family would have survived without her drive,” Cynthia said.

Claire passed away in 1991, and her letters were discovered when her aunt Rachel died in 1994. Rachel’s children were cleaning her house and found boxes of documents written in another language: Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, a language primarily spoken among Sephardic Jews. The letters were sent by Claire’s husband, Phil Flash, to her brother, Morris, to translate. Morris lives in Los Angeles and turns 91 this month.

Cynthia compiled the translated letters in chronological order, writing introductions to each chapter providing more details and historical context. Cynthia’s father, Phil, was a huge history fan who “never threw anything away.” He was involved with the Mercer Island Historical Society up until his death in 2015.

Phil and Claire moved to Mercer Island in 1964, and Claire worked at Country Village Day School. Cynthia graduated from Mercer Island High School in 1981. Her 84-year-old aunt, Regina Amira, lives in Bellevue and is one of only two surviving children in Claire’s family.

Cynthia will tell her family’s story in a presentation from 1-2:30 p.m. on March 8 to the city of Bellevue Cultural Conversation’s group at Crossroads Community Center, 16000 NE 10th St.

The book is available to purchase in print and e-book form at Amazon.com and through Createspace. Cynthia’s company, Flash Media Services, published the book.