A Living Lens: File Under Fate?


“A few days ago, I received an e-mail in Spanish from a distant relative in Israel. Since my father got into genealogy, we are now in touch with relatives all over the world. David Lederman, who wrote me the e-mail, lived for a long time in Latin America, and since my Hebrew is hardly existent, we communicate in Spanish.
For years now, David, who is retired, documents our family history. He has a collection of rare photos, and among these images was a picture of his maternal grandfather, Nachum Levi Nussbaum, published in the Forward (see picture). He did not know the exact date, but only that it was taken at a Rally at Madison Square Garden some time before 1946, the year Nachum died in New York.
When the book “A Living Lens” came out, David decided to buy it – not that easy if you live in Israel – and to see if the photo was reprinted in the book. Unfortunately, the book did not include this photo, but on page 15 he found a photo of the Forward archives. One of the folders on this picture had the label ‘Rally at Mad. Sq. Garden — 1938.’
Maybe the original of the photo was in this folder, David thought, and in order to find out about it, he wanted to see if he could contact maybe the photographer who took it — and saw my name. Coincidence? Fate? I don’t know, but a nice story to share.
For those of you who read German, see Julian’s blog post here.
Alana Newhouse, the Forward’s Arts & Culture editor, is touring the country, speaking about her new book “A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life From the Pages of the Forward.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The ADL reversed its support for Trump’s student deportations. You should too
-
Fast Forward Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block some weapons sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction earliest known kiddush cup
-
Opinion Trump’s new tariffs on Israel are a BDS dream come true
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.