Alana Newhouse
By Alana Newhouse
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Life Deracination Chic
Critic and writer Elizabeth Hardwick passed away this week, and the New York Times obituary features a classic quote from the Lexington, Kentucky native: “Even when I was in college, ‘down home,’ I’m afraid my aim was — if it doesn’t sound too ridiculous — my aim was to be a New York Jewish intellectual,”…
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Life A Living Lens: Who’s That With Yitzhak Shamir?
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…
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Life A Living Lens: Austin, Texas
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…
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Life A Living Lens: Houston
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…
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Life A Living Lens: San Diego
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…
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Life A Living Lens: File Under Fate?
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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Life A Living Lens: Fort Myers, Fla.
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…
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Life A Living Lens: Rockland County, N.Y.
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…
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