Author Archives: Ben
What’s in a name?
[Author’s Note: This essay, like several I’ve written, is liberally sprinkled with Yiddish words, transliterated with English letters via the standard system adopted by the YIVO Institute many decades ago. In most places I’ve translated the word(s) in a parenthetical immediately thereafter]. WHAT’S IN A NAME ? goes the popular refrain. Redolence, I say. Taste […]
Mid-Manhattan Library – From Billy Graham to the Baal Shem Tov
Posted in Talks & Events
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A Pesach’s Worth
The Passover holidays are upon us at the end of March and I’ve some urgent business to transact. Does anyone know how to get in touch with the Bureau of Weights and Measures of the Yiddish-speaking nation? Time is short ! Perhaps I’d best apply to the French Academy of Sciences for my particular need. […]
Mid-Manhattan Library presents Who’s Your Daddy
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Tagged Call Me Daddy
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The Great Unwashed
Walk the moonscape of far East 38th Street today: the sidewalks are empty, devoid of life, though the streets hum and clog with traffic at rush hours as the entrances and exits to the Queens Midtown Tunnel spill forth. Those who emerge from the taxis and limos are well-scrubbed, their private baths drawn and terry […]
Posted in Essay Categories, Lost New York
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The Putnam Examiner: Tabloid Tale from the ’20s Subject of Talk at Mahopac Library
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Jewish Exponent: And All That Jazz Age
Jewish Exponent August 27, 2009 And All That Jazz Age by Michael Elkin
Listen to Joe Franklin interviewing me on Bloomberg Radio
Joe Franklin did a terrific interview on Bloomberg Radio in the summer of 2007. Listen in at http://www.adrive.com/home/downloadfile/200602689
Gold In Them Thar’ Hills…
Back at the start of this year I received the email I’d been waiting for. Out of the blue, a woman from San Diego, California surfaced identifying herself as Emma Cunningham’s great-great-grandaughter. Sure I said to myself… Another notoriety seeker. But like a good historian, I followed it through. Cunningham is a mighty common name, […]
