Page 6 - Jewish News_January 2022

6A January 2022 FEDERATION NEWS

People of the Book author/lecture series continues

with focus on humor and media

By Gayle Guynup
he People of the Book series rewarded by seeing their collections later, his daughter Béatrice was de- was actually a genuine convert, which
of in-person and virtual events, plundered and their families deported ported to Auschwitz with her husband I discovered in reading a remark-
Tsponsored by The Jewish Fed- to concentration camps. In this evoc- and children. They were all murdered. able letter she wrote to a childhood
eration of Sarasota-Manatee, starts ative account, McAuley shows how Reading more and more about the Ca- friend three months before her arrest
the new year with four renowned au- mondos, I discovered that they were in 1942. These are the moments that
thors. The first event will be held via part of a network of Jewish families make writing history so fascinating.
Zoom on Wednesday, January 5 at that had each left a major art collection You think you know someone’s story,
7:00 p.m. with James McAuley and to France between the Dreyfus Affair and then you realize you know nothing
his book, The House of Fragile Things. and the arrival of the Nazis in 1940. at all.
This will be followed by an in-person Those collections struck me as part of What do you hope readers take
event on Thursday, January 6 at Tem- a deeper, more profound story. away from reading The House of
ple Beth Sholom at 7:00 p.m. with Ira What was the most surprising Fragile Things?
Rosen and his book, Ticking Clock: thing you learned during your re- I hope readers come away with a
Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes. The search for the book? sense of empathy for the characters in
final event of January, An Evening One of the most important things the book. These were men and women
with Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, was just how vitriolic and mainstream who tried – against all odds – to create
will feature Zweibel and his book, antisemitism was during this period in something beautiful in an increasingly
Laugh Lines: My Life Helping Funny France. As I delved deeper into the pe- hostile environment. In the aftermath
People be Funnier, and will be held at riod, I was amazed by how hostile the of the Holocaust, the collections they
Temple Emanu-El on Tuesday, January James McAuley climate was toward the families and the left behind are inescapably tragic. But
11 at 7:00 p.m. Jewish art collectors contended with a characters I was writing about. I came the question these treasure troves pose
James McAuley: powerful strain of antisemitism. to see that for at is nevertheless a haunting one, which
The House of Fragile Things What led you to write this book? least a number of is whether it’s ever possible to ful-
James McAuley is a European Affairs I first had the idea for the book them, their col- ly grasp our times, or whether we’re
columnist for The Washington Post and when I happened to visit the Camon- lections were pri- doomed to misread, misinterpret and
a contributor to The New York Review do Museum in Paris. It’s an absolutely vate refuges from misunderstand.
of Books. He recently received his doc- beguiling place – a stunning beautiful a cruel outside Ira Rosen:
torate in French history at the Universi- collection of 18 -century art, not to world. I was also Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes
th
ty of Oxford, where he was a Marshall mention a flawlessly designed house. reminded of how at 60 Minutes
Scholar. The House of Fragile Things But it was the stories of the people who inscrutable peo- Ira Rosen, a two-time Peabody Award
recounts the history of Jewish art col- once lived there that stayed with me. ple always are, in winner, worked with CBS for more
lectors in France from 1870 through Moïse de Camondo, the founder of the the past and present alike. Béatrice de than four decades. In June 1980, he be-
the end of World War II. During this museum, donated it to France on his Camondo, for example, had converted came producer and writer for the pop-
time, a number of prominent French death in the mid-1930s in honor of his to Catholicism during World War II, ular news-magazine show 60 Minutes.
Jews invested their fortunes in France’s fallen son Nissim, who died fighting as did a number of Jews to avoid Nazi He also worked for Primetime and CBS
cultural artifacts and were ultimately for France in World War I. A decade persecution. But I had no idea that she continued on next page

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