On an autumn day in 1890, Daniel Baldinger, a 35-year-old married Orthodox man living in Krakow, reached a monumental decision: he would divorce his wife of ten years, Reizel, because she had not borne him any children. Daniel was soon remarried to a much-younger wife, Lieba, who eventually grew to love him and worried that…
Yiddish letters knit together ‘A Thousand Threads’
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When he turned 18, Tsvi Shapiro decided to leave his home shtetl of Butrimantz rather than be conscripted into the Lithuanian army. With a half-brother working as a lawyer at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society in New York, he should have had an excellent chance of being admitted into America and fulfilling his dream of…
Lives Remembered: Photographs of a Small Town in Poland
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The collected photographs of Zalman Kaplan, who ran a studio in the town of Szczuczyn, Poland between 1898 and 1939, might never have been considered remarkable or been made the focus of a traveling museum exhibit, had it not been for the almost complete destruction of Szczuczyn’s Jewish community of 3,000 souls during the Nazi…
Two guidebooks from Ruth Ellen Gruber
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After several years stationed in Europe as a freelance political journalist, American writer Ruth Ellen Gruber was startled to discover that a magnificent old synagogue had been restored in the Hungarian town of Szeged. “I never had any inkling that such a synagogue could exist outside of a major city,” she recalled. Shortly afterwards, she…
Mildred Wyman’s Forest of Trees
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What does it take to produce a three-volume family history that extends to nearly 900 pages? In the case of Mildred Wyman, who recently self-published a triple-decker family history titled A Forest of Trees, it has taken eight years of intensive research and writing, dozens of taped interviews with relatives, and the editorial discipline to…
From Kamenets-Podolsk to Winnipeg: The History of the Lechtziers
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Reuven Lexier, a Toronto orthopaedic surgeon, recently published this handsome 150-page volume that documents his family’s experience in Canada from the moment his great-great-grandparents, Shimon and Chana Lechtzier, settled in Winnipeg with their four sons and two daughters in 1882. Lexier spent about 10 years gathering the 196 photographs, archival documents, newspaper clippings and memorabilia…
Film: Sister Rose’s Passion
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It’s easy to see why this 40-minute documentary was nominated for an Oscar last year (2004): the story of Sister Rose Thering, an 84-year-old Dominican nun from rural Wisconsin who influenced the Vatican to retire its centuries-old bias against Jews, is powerful and compelling. Even as a girl, Sister Rose couldn’t understand how Catholics could…
Film: Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi
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Shot in 2002 and released last year, Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi is a charming coming-of-age comedy by Israeli director Shemi Zarhin, who wrote the script in “five unusual days” in 2001. Sixteen-year-old Shlomi Bardayan (Osri Cohen) is an unappreciated pillar of strength whose family leans on him so fully that, except for a wise old grandpa,…
Film: Mendelsohn’s memorable Judy Berlin
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It’s hard to convey the essence of Judy Berlin (1999), though not the excited reactions it tends to generate. An American-made black-and-white feature written and directed by Eric Mendelsohn, Judy Berlin focuses on the intertwined lives and aspirations of a curious ensemble of characters (some Jewish) living in a Long Island commuter town called Babylon…
Victoria Day: Celebrated author Bezmozgis writes, directs film
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David Bezmozgis, celebrated author of the prize-winning book Natasha and Other Stories, was on skates in North York Centennial Arena recently, along with a camera crew and a group of teenaged actors in skates and hockey uniforms. All were involved in filming a scene from Victoria Day, a feature film that Bezmozgis is directing, based…
