A Living Lens: From Science to Art in Two Generations
By Alana Newhouse
Next month, the office of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer will host a show in its gallery of work by Lynda Caspe. In addition to being a respected painter and sculptor, Caspe recently wrote to inform me that she is also the granddaughter of one of the Forverts’s first science editors, Dr. Abraham Caspe.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.”
February 6, 2008, 2:21pm
A Living Lens: The Forverts Reunited Shlomo Artzi’s Family, Too
By Alana Newhouse
Last week, I posted the story of how the Forverts reunited Israeli writer Nava Semel’s family. What I didn’t know then — but do now, thanks to our archivist extraordinaire, Chana Pollack — is that Semel is the sister of folk-rock star Shlomo Artzi. Chana also passed on this great video of Artzi singing in Yiddish with a bunch of Hasidim:
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.”
January 31, 2008, 4:26pm
A Living Lens: The Forverts Reunited Nava Semel's Family
By Alana Newhouse
From the mailbag: I just received a note from Israeli author and journalist Nava Semel. Ms. Semel was writing to alert us to the publication of her new book, “Israisland,” but she included a story that she rightly surmised might interest me.
“My American grandfather found out that his abandoned son survived the Holocaust through an article in the Yiddish Forward in 1946,” she wrote. “My late father Itzhak Artzi was then a young Zionist leader and he gave an interview to Forward correspondent in Paris. The interview was published in New York and my grandfather saw it. Forward is indeed responsible for uniting my family and ending the split.”
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.”
January 24, 2008, 1:52pm
A Living Lens: A Globe-Trotting Rabbi
By Alana Newhouse
I received a lovely note today from Dov Burt Levy, a columnist for the Jewish Journal North of Boston, who passed along the review he wrote of “A Living Lens.” Readers should, of course, peruse the whole piece, but there’s a lovely tidbit at the end that I can’t help but highlighting:
Because the Jewish world is so large and I was born a long time after 1890, I hardly expected to find anyone in the book I knew personally. However, I was taken aback (and delighted) to find on page 203, my rabbi during my Air Force service in Paris in 1955-56. Captain Harry Z. Schreiner was pictured greeting two army nurses after Rosh Hashanah services in Korea. It’s a small world.
Indeed.
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.”
January 15, 2008, 2:03pm
A Living Lens: Her Father Finally Meets Liz Taylor
By Alana Newhouse
From the mailbag: “Dear Ms. Newhouse: I recently received a phone call from a family friend that he had received a copy of A Living Lens as a gift,” wrote Anne Feferman of South Bend, Ind. “To his astonishment, he found a picture of my father, Henry Feferman, on page 234. In the photo, he is standing with Father Cavanaugh, who was President of the University of Notre Dame, and presenting him with artwork by Steinholtz. I was totally taken aback, only to be further shocked when I saw his photo was directly across from a picture of Elizabeth Taylor — whom he adored.”
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.”
January 7, 2008, 3:20pm
A Living Lens: Virginia Beach
By Alana Newhouse
This might be my all-time favorite story from the book tour. During the Q&A session in Virginia Beach a woman in the back of the room motioned to me. “I just wanted to thank you for a lovely presentation, and to tell you that I brought my aunt with me today” — at this, the woman next to her coquettishly raised her hand — “she has a picture of herself reading the Forverts in 1948! At the age of 18! She’s been showing it off for six decades. When we heard you were coming to town, we got a subscription to the paper, and of course she brought the photograph with her today.” I was just as excited as they were, and I told them to make sure to show me the picture during the book signing after the event.Sure enough, as I was signing books, I saw the aunt walking toward the table. She was holding the photograph like a treasure and, after introducing herself as Barbara Helfant, presented it to me with ebullient pride. I looked down at the picture and smiled.
“Mrs. Helfant, how’s your Yiddish?” I asked.
“Oh, I don’t speak Yiddish. I just picked up the paper at Lieberman’s Royal House in Mount Freedom, N.J. Why?”
“Because the newspaper you’re reading in this photo is not the Forverts. It’s the Tog, one of our competitors.”
I inscribed her book, “To Barbara Helfant — After 60 years, FINALLY a Forward reader.”
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.”
December 31, 2007, 3:23pm
A Living Lens: Rockville, Md.
By Alana Newhouse
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, both refugees from World War II, disembarked from the S.S. Ernie Pyle, they were approached by a young writer named Isaac Metzker, who asked to interview them. Taube noticed Yiddish letters on the paper stuffed in Metzker’s pocket, and he asked the newspaperman what sort of publication it was. The rest, as they say, is history: Taube contributed to the Forverts for next 60 years.
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.”
December 26, 2007, 5:13pm
A Living Lens: Cherry Hill, N.J.
By Alana Newhouse
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 significant other, Carol Meiselman of Boynton Beach, Fla. “These are my great-grandparents,” said Meiselman, in a recent interview with the Forward’s Aaron Greenblatt. Meiselman explained that they came from a shtetl called Smilovitchi, in present-day Lithuania, and immigrated to America around 1906, settling in Albany with their seven children. This family photo hung on Meiselman’s walls for years, without her ever realizing it had been published in our newspaper.
Meiselman told the Forward that a cousin gave her “A Living Lens” as a gift and, as they leafed through the book, she immediately recognized the picture. “We found it purely by accident,” she said. “It did some good, though, because we bought umpteen copies of it.”
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.”
December 5, 2007, 12:28pm
A Living Lens: Serenading Sharansky
By Alana Newhouse
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 court sentenced Natan Sharansky to 13 years in the gulag, the then-refusenik and current Israeli politico allegedly replied, “Next year in Jerusalem.” For Mendelson, these words proved a source of inspiration. Mendelson and the Cantors Assembly took Sharansky’s text and transformed it into a cantorial production, which they performed around the world. In Jerusalem, they appeared in front of a packed house, including notables such as former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and none other than Sharansky himself, who was accompanied by his elderly mother. Mendelson recalled that the former refusenik arrived late into the show, and Kollek had to be jostled out of slumber to greet him.After the show, Mendelson, who was president of the Cantors Assembly at the time, met Sharansky backstage, and remembers the picture being taken — though “how it got in the Forward I’ll never know.”
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.”
December 3, 2007, 3:33pm
A Living Lens: Who’s That With Yitzhak Shamir?
By Alana Newhouse
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 the photograph with Prime Minister Shamir (page 277) is about to be identified. I am that woman and, as national chairman of the Woman’s Division [of the UJA] from 1972 to 1975, I had the privilege of meeting many of Israel’s leaders. Not world-shaking but I just thought I would set the record straight. Even without identification, I am happy to find myself in such a wonderful book.
We’re happy to have you, Mrs. Winik — especially now that we know who you are.
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.”
November 28, 2007, 3:28pm
A Living Lens: Austin, Texas
By Alana Newhouse
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 you might be the father,” I guess.) She then mentioned that her sister is the lovely and talented Ladino singer Sarah Aroeste. Both are indeed my cousins, from my [Sephardic side, of course…]
Later, at the book signing, a young musician named David Lazaroff introduced himself and asked if, in my forays into the Forward archive, I remembered seeing any pictures of a singer named Emma Shaver, who was also his grandfather’s older sister. I said I didn’t, but would ask our archivist Chana Pollack. Not only did we have a photo; we had three, one of which told the tale of a remarkable chapter in this remarkable woman’s life.The only sibling born in Russia before her family immigrated to the United States, Emma Shaver (alternative spelling, Schaver) became a successful concert singer.
November 20, 2007, 5:00pm
A Living Lens: Houston
By Alana Newhouse
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 David Gottlieb, who, while walking through the halls of his community center, noticed a poster of the Josiah Wedgewood ma’apilim ship — with himself on board as a 17-year-old “sailor.” According to Chana, “despite having his own collection of images from that trip, he had none from the point of view of the port in Haifa showing the ship’s exterior, the protest banners and passengers — including himself.” Chana sent him a jpeg of the picture as a keepsake, and then set about researching how, in his travels, Gottlieb had never managed to turn up this image. She’s found lots of ma’apilim ships, but none of the Josiah Wedgewood (and none from this vantage point). Could we have stumbled on a gem? Will send updates when I get them.
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.”
November 19, 2007, 4:35pm
A Living Lens: San Diego
By Alana Newhouse
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 himself as David Nourok, and explained that his father, Israel Nourok, originally from Shalvi, Lithuania) was a linotypist at the Forverts. Which explains the photo in the frame of a young David at his graduation from James Monroe High School in 1951. “It helps to know people in high places,” he said.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.”
November 15, 2007, 4:23pm
A Living Lens: File Under Fate?
By Alana Newhouse
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 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.”
November 14, 2007, 7:00pm
A Living Lens: Fort Myers, Fla.
By Alana Newhouse
1. Before my event, which was sponsored by the Jewish community of Lee and Charlotte Counties, I was taken to dinner by a group of lovely women. Among them was Sara Krivisky, who, as a young girl growing up on the Lower East Side in the 1970s, took part in a City Arts project that still stands today: the mural on the eastern wall of the Bialystoker nursing home on East Broadway.
2. Spot the Relative, Round 87: Lee Taslitt of Fort Myers recognized his previous wife’s uncle as one of the Skolnick brothers pictures on page 169. The boys had attracted press attention, in the Jewish community and elsewhere, because all four of them were in the army — a phenomenon that filled people with unique dread after the Sullivan boys tragedy.
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.”
November 14, 2007, 6:53pm
A Living Lens: Rockland County, N.Y.
By Alana Newhouse
Three anecdotes from my event at the Rockland County JCC:
1. Caption Correction, a Teensy Bit Late: As guests were piling in, I noticed a man walking toward me with a large frame. When he got a little closer, I recognized its sepia color — the distinguishing mark of the pages of the Forward’s Sunday photography section. (The section, also known as the roto or rotogravure, is one of the reasons we have such a vast, rich collection). The picture on the top right showed a young boy and girl lighting a menorah with two adults, and the caption read: “Their First Hanukkah Celebration on U.S. Soil: Mr. And Mrs. Hendel with their children, refugees from Yugoslavia, shown celebrating the Festival of Lights at the emergency Refugee Shelter in Oswego, N.Y. The boy in the picture was, of course, the man now standing in front of me — who had come to the event to tell me we got the caption wrong. His name is William Kremer, and he is pictured not with his parents and sister, but with his aunt and uncle (the Hendels) and his cousin. I know it’s about 60 years overdue, Mr. Kremer, but you’ve got your correction.2. What the F!: Vera Boehm never spoke or read Yiddish. And so, when her grandfather asked her to go to the store and pick up his copy of the Forverts, she had to think fast. How would she know which one it was? Young Vera came up with a great solution while staring at the paper’s masthead: She zoomed in on the shape of the pheh, the first letter of the word Forverts in Yiddish, figuring she’d just hunt for its replica on the newsstand. Unfortunately for Vera, there was another newspaper at the time that started with a pheh — the communist paper known as the Freiheit. She can still hear her grandfather yelling…
3. Calendar Chaos: Natalie Stein’s mother came to America from Russia in 1908, at age 4. By the time she got to middle school, she noticed something amiss, and decided to turn to the Forverts for help: “When,” she asked in a letter to the editor, “is my American birthday? I know I was born on erev Shavuos 1904.” Sure enough, a reply came soon after: May 29, 1904.
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.”
November 14, 2007, 6:43pm
A Living Lens: Lawrence, N.Y.
By Alana Newhouse
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.”
I was then approached by Martin Jacobs, who pointed out his grandfather among the men gathered for minyan at the Wall Street Synagogue. Jacobs’s grandfather, the late Benjamin Koenigsberg, was an attorney for 65 years who also served as chairman of the board of education at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on the Lower East Side, where Jacobs began studying in 1953. But this wasn’t just any school. The students at Rabbi Jacob Joseph had a prime view into the Forward Building on East Broadway.As a student, Jacobs remembers gazing out of the school’s rear windows into the building’s third floor, and watching as men wearing little white cone-shaped hats would unload flat-bed trucks of enormous cylindrical paper roles for upcoming newspaper issues and then grab lunch at the famed Garden Cafeteria.
“I peered into that building every day for 15 years on the way to school,” he said. “It was a part of my life.”
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.”
November 5, 2007, 9:06pm
A Living Lens: First Stop, Rochester, N.Y.
By Alana Newhouse
“Everyone we knew read the Forverts. After my father was finished with it, my mother would use it to wash the floor, and one of my earliest memories is of walking on that sea of Yiddish letters…”
“My sister! The woman in this picture, right here, that’s my sister!”
“Miss, I’m 98 years old, and I just want to tell you that the Bintel Brief taught me what a lesbian is.”
Since April, I’ve been visiting bookstores, synagogues and other venues around the country in support of our new book, “A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward”. At nearly every stop, someone from the audience has stolen the show. I’ve been entertained, enlightened and harangued, brought nearly to my knees with laughter and to tears more than once. These stories — some devastating, others hilarious, nearly all poignant — are simply too good to keep to myself.
And so beginning this week, as I travel around the country on a tour organized by the Jewish Book Council in celebration of Jewish Book Month, I will be filing regular dispatches from the road. The first one is the most personal, and the longest, but don’t be alarmed. The rest of the entries will be short, unburdened by too much of my own prose. Instead, I’ll try to offer plain retellings of what I think are some very unplain questions, anecdotes and statements. Always the statements. Indeed, this tour has confirmed my long-held maxim that you know you’re at a Jewish event when the first person up at the mike at the Q&A begins, “I don’t have a question, I have a comment.”
October 21—Rochester, NY
The entries in this blog will be animated by history — that of the American Jewish community at large, of course, but also of our newspaper and the individuals who share their stories with me. So it seems particularly fitting that one of my first stops on the Jewish Book Fair circuit was to be in Rochester, one of my own ancestral lands.
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