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Recommended TV Series

These are among the TV series I’ve enjoyed, in no particular order:

Last updated: February 10, 2024

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Daniel Lubetzky, CEO and Son of Holocaust Survivor


Daniel Lubetzky, the CEO of KIND, is the son of a Holocaust survivor and a Mexican Jew. KIND makes popular fruit and nut bars. He was born in Mexico City and moved to the United States as a teenager. He’s also a Stanford-educated lawyer.

Lubetzky’s father was liberated from the Dachau Concentration Camp. When Lubetzsky was just nine years old, his father started describing his experiences during the Holocaust. His father felt that if he lived through the Holocaust, his son could hear about it even at an early age.

Lubetzky explains in his book entitled Do the KIND Thing: Think Boundlessly, Work Purposefully, Live Passionately:

Being the son of a Holocaust survivor marks you and makes you acutely conscious of our human frailty. My burning com­mitment to build bridges stems from a survival instinct: to pre­vent what happened to my dad from happening again to other human beings. Part of the reason I exist today is that my grandfather and my father were always kind to people.

KIND is privately owned and has nearly five hundred employees.

Portrait Of: The Founder and CEO of KIND - Latino USA

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Abram Enzel (1916-1994)

Abram Enzel, was born in Częstochowa, Poland on June 18, 1916 to Chaim and Faigle Enzel. Chaim worked as a Kosher butcher. They had five children; three boys and two girls. Abram was the first born. In 1939, there were 28,500 Jews living in Częstochowa, which is 124 miles (200 km) southeast of Warsaw.

The Germans entered Częstochowa on Sunday, September 3, 1939, and persecution of its Jews began at once. More than 300 Jews were killed on the following day, which became known as “Bloody Monday.” On December 25, 1939, a second pogrom took place and the Great Synagogue was set on fire. The family survived both pogroms.

On the morning after Yom Kippur in September 1942, Abram was separated from his family. One brother, Nathan, had previously been taken by the Germans to a concentration camp. The other living members of Abram’s family were gassed and cremated three days later in Treblinka, a nearby concentration camp.

The Germans sent Abram to work in a munitions plant operated by HASAG (Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft-Metalwarenfabrik, Leipzig), one of the privately owned German industrial companies that used concentration camp prisoners to manufacture armaments. HASAG was the third largest of such companies, after I.G. Farben and the Hermann Goring Werke. HASAG operated four camps in Częstochowa, Poland. The largest, HASAG-Apparatebau, held seven thousand Jewish prisoners. The wages of the Jewish forced laborers were paid directly to the SS, the elite guard of the Nazi state. In general, the policy of Vernichtung durch Arbeit (“extermination through work”) was applied. Selections were held and those no longer fit for work were killed. From July 1944 to early 1945, HASAG transferred most of its equipment and Jewish workers to Germany. No HASAG personnel were put on trial by the Allies in the later Nuremberg war crimes trials.

In 1944, the Germans sent Abram from the HASAG munitions plant to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp and from there to the Flossenbürg and Dachau concentration camps. One of Abram’s most poignant memories was of his forced move from the Flossenbürg concentration camp to Dachau, along with 500 other prisoners. In a 1973 interview with the Pittsburgh Press, Abram explained that “They made us march at first. But later they herded us like cattle on some old freight cars.” Out of the 500 prisoners who left Flossenbürg, only 18 arrived in Dachau alive, Abram among them.

On April 29, 1945, the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions and the 20th Armored Division of the US Army liberated Abram from Dachau, near Munich, Germany. The very next day Adolf Hitler committed suicide. At the time of Abram’s liberation, he weighed 78 pounds, compared with a healthy 130 pounds before his ordeal.

After the war in June 1946, 2,167 Jews had returned to Częstochowa to rebuild their community. Abram did not to return. He first recovered in Germany and then operated a grocery store in Bayreuth until 1951, when he emigrated to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

After settling in Pittsburgh, Abram met Dora Weiss, who also settled in Pittsburgh after World War II. She was born in Munkács, Czechoslovakia, now known as Mukačevo, a city in Ukraine. Her parents died in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. On June 8, 1952, they married and had a son David who was born on January 21, 1955.

Dora was later diagnosed with cancer. She passed away on July 30, 1958, at the age of 35. Abram did not remarry. In Pittsburgh, Abram worked in the H. J. Heinz plant and later moved to the Concordia Club, a private Jewish city club in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. He started as a bus boy and eventually moved up to maitre d’. The 30 years Abram spent at the Concordia Club were the happiest of his life.

David moved to Washington, DC in 1979 and Abram moved to Washington soon after his retirement from the Concordia Club in 1981 to be near his son. Abram passed away on May 10, 1994 in Washington, DC, the capital of the country that liberated him.

Abram’s oral history is available online from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Another oral history is in the American Jewish Committee Oral History Collection, which is part of the New York Public Library (Dorot Jewish Division). This collection includes over 6,000 hours of taped interviews.

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Remembering Pittsburgh’s Concordia Club

The Concordia Club was a part of Jewish life in Pittsburgh from the late 19th century until 2009.

Foundation on Pittsburgh’s North Side

In 1874, a group of approximately forty Jewish men, primarily of German origin, met to organize an association, whose purpose, according to its charter, was “to promote social and literary entertainment among its members.” The first president of the Concordia Club was Josiah Cohen, a prominent teacher, lawyer, and judge. Jacob Eiseman was president in 1884, when the club was chartered. The majority of the Club’s early members and almost all of its early officers were members of Rodef Shalom Congregation.

Establishments such as the Concordia Club sprang up across the United States at a time when Jews were typically denied membership in prominent social and business clubs. Such discrimination was common in most major cities in the United States, including Pittsburgh. The Duquesne Club, in downtown Pittsburgh, did not begin to admit Jews until 1968. The Concordia Club was sometimes called the “Jewish Duquesne Club.”

The Concordia Club’s first location was a rented home on Stockton Avenue in Allegheny City, now the North Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh. At that time more than 95 per cent of the Club’s membership lived in Allegheny City. By the late 1870s the club had grown sufficiently to need a dance hall, which was created through renovation of the original structure. The Stockton Avenue clubhouse property was purchased by the club in 1890 but a new building was later erected on the same Stockton Avenue site, at a cost of approximately $75,000. At that time, the club had 175 members.

Move to Oakland

During the next 20 years, the Concordia Club became a significant social institution for the Jewish community, even as the community’s demographic center was shifting from Allegheny City to Pittsburgh’s East End communities, particularly Squirrel Hill. By 1913, when the Concordia Club moved to its new location on O’Hara Street in the Schenley Farms district of Oakland, more than 95 per cent of its members lived in Squirrel Hill. The new clubhouse was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1913, with a gala banquet. The building contained a banquet hall, ballroom, library, lounges, sleeping quarters, billiard rooms, and bowling alleys.

When the Concordia Club moved into its building on O’Hara Street in 1913, it was described as one of city’s most opulent with notably elegant china, crystal and linens along with profuse flower arrangements. A 1915 article in the Jewish Criterion commented that the new club was “entirely complete with billiard rooms, banquet hall, rest and lounging parlors, reading quarters and sleeping accommodations.” Later the club would add to its interior by installing elaborate dark-stained oak paneling rescued from the Fort Pitt Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh when the hotel was demolished in 1967.

The Club over the years staged elaborate themed dances, vaudeville performances, musical stage revues, amateur theatrical productions and holiday parties. Private social functions of all sorts were held in the clubhouse, which continued to be a gathering place for Pittsburgh’s Jewish community. At its peak, the club had nearly 300 members.

Sale to Pitt and Renovation

After 135 years, the Concordia Club voted to sell the historic building to the University of Pittsburgh due to declining membership and financial shortages. It closed its doors on December 14, 2009.

Pitt undertook $5.8 million in upgrades, preservation, and renovations that were completed in April, 2011 and provided almost 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) of space in order to help alleviate shortages in student group event, meeting, and office space at the William Pitt Union.

Upgrades included tearing out walls, updating the heating and cooling systems, replacing the roof, and upgrading the lighting. The first floor contains the oak paneled space for studying or socializing as well as a dining room that can double as a meeting room. A staircase, with original wood railings, leads to a second floor contains a 450-person capacity, sound system-equipped ball room – shown above – that includes an open balcony, arched windows, and a small stage. From a previous renovation more than 50 years ago, the ballroom contains three chandeliers, one larger than the others, and a number of sconces. Renovations to the ballroom included restoring access to the balcony, applying gold leaf trim to the wall panels, and a restoration of the chandeliers, including replacement of the light bulbs with LEDs, by the original lighting fabricator located in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.

The basement of the Student Center is used as a storage area for student groups. The facility also houses the Math Assistance Center, the Freshman Studies Program, and the student Writing Center.

Pitt’s renovation of the Concordia Club was very respectful of the Club’s history. The University preserved the Club’s gorgeous oak paneling and its elegant ballroom which continue to be enjoyed by the Pitt community, which now dominates the Oakland section of Pittsburgh.

Sources:

See also, Abram Enzel (1916-1994)

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A Useful List of Blogging Platforms

Manuel Moreale, an Italian freelance developer and designer, posted this list on his blog. He’s been blogging since 2017. I can’t tell what platform he’s using and I’m curious.

See also, Blogging Platforms.

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Even Smart People Get Scammed

Cory Doctorow:

I was tricked by a phone-phisher pretending to be from my bank, and he convinced me to hand over my credit-card number, then did $8,000+ worth of fraud with it before I figured out what happened. And then he tried to do it again, a week later!

You can’t be too careful. I think it’s great that at least some folks share what happened to them. It serves as a warning to us all.

See also:

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French Language Resources for Francophone Francophiles

I have found these resources helpful for keeping up and improving my French. This list is a work in progress. I welcome suggestions of other resources.

TV Series

Film

News

Music

YouTube

Last updated: February 15, 2024

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Migrating from Substack to Ghost

Molly White left Substack and went to a self-hosted Ghost1 newsletter, in large part over its policies. I applaud her for leaving Substack. It’s better to have your own home on the internet.

Molly explains step by step how she did it. It was a lot of work and not as easy as Substack would have you believe.

If you are thinking of starting a publication, the open web is, in my opinion, the way to go.

I had a couple newsletters on Substack, which I deleted because of its tolerance of Nazi supporters. They were small newsletters, one of which shared news about the Holocaust. I may start again on Ghost. I will never again build a house on someone else’s property.

  1. Molly considered WordPress but prefers JavaScript to PHP and finds WordPress bloated with features she doesn’t need or want. ↩︎

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Hommage aux victimes du 7 octobre en France

Discours d’Emmanuel Macron aux Invalides.

Cet hommage intervient quatre mois jour pour jour après l’attaque du groupe terroriste islamiste palestinien, qui a entraîné la mort de plus de 1 160 personnes, tuées par balles, brûlées vives ou mutilées, en majorité des civils et déclenché un conflit toujours en cours à Gaza.

Le président de la République a bien fait. Très émouvant.

Times of Israel

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Why Are So Many, So Comfortable Telling Israel What to Do?

Hillary Clinton via The Times of Israel:

Netanyahu should go. He is not a trustworthy leader. It was on his watch that the attack happened. He needs to go, and if he’s an obstacle to a ceasefire, if he’s an obstacle to exploring what’s to be done the day after, he absolutely needs to go.

The world’s only Jewish state will need to decide for itself who will lead Israel just as the United States will need to decide who will lead it.

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Respond or Remain Silent?

There are many hot button issues now. People are very divided. It’s worth thinking about what you will do when someone says something or writes something with which you strongly disagree.

Adam Newbold suggests it may be better not to respond:

When you respond, your noble intentions lead you to believe that you’ll counteract the noise with something nicer. But in the end, you’ll just wind up amplifying the noise. And you’ll never feel better afterward.

His post is about online communications but I think his suggestion applies equally to interpersonal communications.

Having said this, sometimes silence could be seen as acquiescence with something you just can’t agree with. Then some response may be needed. Even so, it’s worth considering if silence is the best approach, especially online. And if a response is warranted, does it need to be a nuclear attack?

See also, Manton Reece.

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BlueSky Now Open to the Public

Nick Heer:

Bluesky does not need to become more popular than behemoths like Twitter or Threads to be successful. Twitter itself proved that: it was big, sure, but despite operating nowhere near the scale of Facebook or Instagram, it was disproportionately influential.

Bluesky’s interpretation of a text-based social network is compelling. It is familiar, fast, and feature-rich, without being overwhelming.

See also: The Washington Post and the BlueSky Blog.

I am on BlueSky in case you’d like to follow me there. The iPhone app is fast and beautiful. For me, this is an experiment. I hope it turns out better than Twitter.

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Visiting Washington, DC

Places to Visit

Learning About Washington

Places to Stay

Four Seasons: Best Hotel in Washington

Events and Activities

Last updated: February 13, 2024

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'Seven Ages of Paris' by Alistair Horne

Reading: Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne 📚 I’m listening this in the form of an audiobook. It’s a detailed and fascinating history of Paris, ably narrated by Derek Perkins. Gregg Rutter recommended the book and I’m glad he did.

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Be Careful if You Travel with Expensive Stuff

If you travel with expensive equipment, please be extra careful. This photographer — Manny Ortiz — was the victim of camera theft ($16,000) on a train in Italy. I am glad Manny shared his story.

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Comparing Weather Forecast Accuracy

ForecastAdvisor shows you the accuracy of the major weather forecasters, including Accuweather, AerisWeather, Foreca, the National Weather Service, Open Weathermap.

For my area, ForecastAdvisor said Foreca, which is new to me1, is the most accurate. I’m trying it out.

  1. Foreca collects weather data and creates its own weather forecasts by combining meteorological expertise with data science. ↩︎

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Why Publish?

Why I Do This - Sulluzzu:

But why do I feel the need to publish this writing? Why do I not just write these in a diary or journal?

I think the answer is that writing to publish, and the idea of someone reading it, helps me to make it the best writing I can. I don’t actually know how many people read these little articles but you (whether you are real or not) are important to help me distill these thoughts down to their essence.

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Paris: Walking Along the Seine

I have loved Paris for more than 40 years. About seven years ago, I stumbled across Paris, Paris: Journey into the City of Light. The author, David Downie, is an American who has lived in Paris since 1986. He loves Paris deeply and knows it far better than I do.

Downie likes to walk. His book is divided into “Paris People”, “Paris Places” and “Paris Phenomena.” It is the places that interested me the most. For example, Downie describes a long walk along the Seine that I decided to replicate. It transformed my view of Paris because I learned how much of the city revolves around the river. I also learned just how small the city is geographically and how it seems that almost every centimeter of the city has been lovingly cultivated.

The walk begins at France’s gigantic national library — Bibliothèque nationale de France. This is the largest library I have ever seen; it houses more than 15 million books and journals. It is located near the Métro station Bibliothèque François Mitterrand right along the Seine. But not much else is nearby. The location feels desolate, modern and suburban, although the library remains within Paris’s Périphérique or beltway.

However, it was unclear to me from reading the book where the walk ended so I emailed the author who cheerfully responded with the details and even suggested a nice, reasonably priced restaurant for lunch right along the walk. The restaurant is La Fregate and is at the only spot on the walk where you have to go up to the sidewalk from the river.

I watched the city transform from stark, modern suburbs and eventually came upon Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower and on to its terminus at the Pont Mirabeau. I will never forget Le Pont Mirabeau after reading Guillaume Apollinaire’s poem in high school breathing life and love into the bridge. Seeing Le Pont Mirabeau at the end of this day-long walk was special.

The entire walk was about 10 km or 6.2 miles. The transformations within that short distance speak volumes about Paris.

At Downie’s suggestion, I also visited Buttes-Chaumont park which is even more impressive than Mr. Downie describes. He knows Place des Voges like the back of his hand so that chapter is exceptional.

On top of the wonderful details that make Paris come to life, Downie’s prose shows a love and mastery of the English language that I appreciate. This gem of a book will teach you so much about Paris and make you want to return again and again or just to go to Paris and remain as Downie has.

You can see some photographs of Paris I’ve made over the years here.

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Remembering a High School French Teacher

Ms. Graves, the French teacher, loved talking about Paris. She had one time been married to someone who we thought was rich because she had gone over to France, studied, visited, eaten great food, lived a life that she retold to us with a big smile, reliving each memory before a classroom full of fidgety, pimple-faced high schoolers, passing notes back and forth, trying to do as little as possible. I loved her stories and loved thinking about visiting the places she talked about, the Eiffel Tower of course, but the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre, eating cheese from just one store that sold cheese, salamis from one store that sold meat, croissants from the bread shop, it all sounded so wonderful.

Paris with Scott - explaining his long lasting love of Paris.

My first high school French teacher was Mrs. Stewart. She was always so positive and encouraging. I looked forward to each class. She instilled and encouraged a love of the language and culture that have stayed with me. I am very grateful.

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Film: ‘Möbius’

I’m adored the French TV series “The Bureau” (“Le Bureau des Légendes”) created by Éric Rochant. I’ve started exploring Rochant’s other work hoping for similar entertainment.

Rochant wrote and directed a 2013 spy film called “Möbius” starring Jean Dujardin and the stunningly beautiful Belgian actress Cécile de France.

Dujardin portrayed George Valentin in the 2011 award-winning silent movie “The Artist”. Dujardin won numerous awards for that work including the Academy Award for Best Actor. That was the first time a French actor won that award. 

Rochant relies on familiar actors in both “The Bureau” and “Möbius.” Brad Leland portrays a senior CIA official both in both pieces. And the wonderful Ukrainian actor Aleksey Gorbunov, who plays Karlov in seasons 4 and 5 of “The Bureau,” plays a similar role in “Möbius.”

So if you can’t get enough of “The Bureau”, check out Möbius. “Möbius” isn’t in the same league as “The Bureau” but it’s a very enjoyable spy story filled with intrigue and romance.