Who are your readers, a friend asked me recently. He is not Jewish, which perhaps explains the question.I gave a pat answer: Young and old; men and women; observant and secular; liberal and conservative; survivors and their offspring; families that often trace their history through three generations. The usual; you\’ve met them all. I waved away the question.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
David Margolick, writer of books and articles on legal issues for The New York Times and Vanity Fair, has hit a raw nerve with his haunting book, \”Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rights\” (Running Press). The book is an account of the scalding impact of one song – a song about a lynching – on scores of Ameri-can activists, writers, musicians, artists and intellectuals.
Around the end of August, every year for the past 20 years, the Chabad Telethon comes around. It gets so you can\’t drive anywhere without seeing the purple banners featuring the silhouette of a man wearing tzitzit and dancing joyously to some unheard song.
Among students, this is the time of year for new shoes, new backpacks and new haircuts. And schools approach September with fresh paint and revamped goals.
Sculptress Harriet Zeitlin and painter Pat Berger share a lot in common. Friends for many decades, both artists have worked for more than 50 years, have had extensive teaching experience, were active in organizations championing artists\’ rights in the 1970s, lost their husbands in the 1990s. They even own terriers (Pilot and Dori, respectively).
Some 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention took time out from politicking to participate in a hands-on workshop in democracy and diversity, initiated by a Jewish institution. The workshop was based on the youTHink program, in which public school students use the arts to grapple with social issues and then act out their new awareness to initiate projects that will further responsibility and tolerance in their schools and communities
It was, without a doubt, the worst five days of my life.
The enthusiasm that greeted the nomination of Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the Demo-cratic vice-presidential candidate was fully shared by Errol Fine.
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