By
– August 25, 2011
At a certain point in this carefully researched and beautifully written story of a remarkable family, you begin to feel as if you have gotten to know the people the author is writing about. You admire the exceptional accomplishments of New’s greatgrandfather, the inventor and businessman Jacob Levy, and the man who brought him to Baltimore from Lithuania, her great-great uncle, tobacco magnate and philanthropist Bernhard Baron. You become absorbed in the drama of how two men who were close friends, and whose family members married each other, could become enemies. And your heart aches at the fate of the Levy family members in Lithuania who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. Interwoven in the author’s sensitive and deeply felt quest to understand the personalities and everyday lives of her ancestors is an in-depth look at the history of the tobacco industry, which became the basis of Baron’s fortune after he moved to England in the late 1800’s.
But the emotional power of this book resides in the author’s journey back to Lithuania, to the places where her relatives and their Jewish neighbors lived and died, and to the streets of Baltimore where Levy and Baron toiled over groundbreaking inventions intended to improve the condition of the common workingman. The result is a book that celebrates the triumph of the Jewish immigrant over adversity and that truly gives a yad vashem, a memorial and a name, to Elisa New’s relatives who perished in the Holocaust. Selected further readings.
But the emotional power of this book resides in the author’s journey back to Lithuania, to the places where her relatives and their Jewish neighbors lived and died, and to the streets of Baltimore where Levy and Baron toiled over groundbreaking inventions intended to improve the condition of the common workingman. The result is a book that celebrates the triumph of the Jewish immigrant over adversity and that truly gives a yad vashem, a memorial and a name, to Elisa New’s relatives who perished in the Holocaust. Selected further readings.
Shira R. London is the librarian at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community High School in Baltimore, MD. She holds an M.L.S. from Columbia University.