Fool Oprah Once…
Oprah is a woman of many talents, but spotting fakes, apparently, isn’t one of them. Three years after selecting James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” for her on-air book club — only later to learn that the so-called memoir contained more than a few fabrications — the “Queen of Talk” has, once again, been had.
Over the weekend Berkley Books canceled the memoir of Herman Rosenblat, a Holocaust survivor whom Oprah twice featured on her daytime show. Rosenblat’s book “Angel at the Fence” recounted a Nazi-era love story and post-war reunion. But after the veracity of that tale was called into question in The New Republic, the author recanted his story and the publishing house nixed plans for the book’s February 3 release.
Rosenblat had written about the little girl who helped save his life by tossing apples over the fence of the concentration camp where he had been imprisoned; as the story goes, the two would meet on a blind date more than a decade later. They have been married for 50 years.
The Rosenblats appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 1996 and 2007 — and the talk show host deemed their romance “the single greatest love story” she had ever heard.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
