I had the privilege to be introduced by Herman Taube, a longtime contributor to the Forverts. In his short speech, Taube — a prolific poet — told the audience that his relationship with the paper began on April 18, 1947, four days before its fabled 50th anniversary (see above picture). As Taube and his wife,…
At the event in Cherry Hill, I ran into Vicki Zell, who had a story about the subjects of one of my favorite photographs in the book: a very serious-looking couple named the Sutins, pictured “celebrating” their wedding anniversary. As it turns out, they are the ancestors of — stay with me — Vicki’s father’s…
I received a call a few weeks ago from a cantor named Solomon Mendelson, who identified himself as the man in the photo with Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky on page 295 of “A Living Lens.” But the back story, as told to the Forward’s Aaron Greenblatt, is even more interesting: In 1978, after a Soviet…
I recently received a note from Elaine Winik of Florida, whose daughter Penny Goldsmith heard me speak in Westchester on October 24. At the end of the talk, Goldsmith bought a copy of the book and sent it on to her mother, who writes: I would like to make one correction. The “unidentified woman” in…
Austin is known as the live music capital of the world, so perhaps it shouldn’t have surprised me that the two blog-worthy experiences I had were both music-related. First, I was approached after my shpiel by a beautiful, and beautifully pregnant, woman who announced, “I think I might be your cousin.” (Better than “I think…
My event in Houston was a thrill, in part because Arts & Culture program director Marilyn Hassid had mounted an exhibit of some 50-odd photographs from the book in the lobby of the JCC. A week later, it bore fruit when Chana Pollack, our brilliant and devoted archivist, received a call from a man named…
San Diego’s Jewish book fair — run by the ebullient, wonderful Jackie Gmach — is considered one of the best in the country, and it did not disappoint. At a brunch before my presentation, I was approached by a man holding a picture frame (one more time and I’m calling it a trend). He introduced…
I just received the following note from Julian Voloj, a wonderful photographer who—in addition to being the husband of former Forward staffer Lisa Keys—also contributed many of the contemporary photos found in the last chapter of “A Living Lens.” He wrote: “A few days ago, I received an e-mail in Spanish from a distant relative…
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