Library Corner
The Complicated Legacy of Anne Frank
April 17, 2025
For millions around the globe, the face of Anne Frank – bright, sensitive, and all-too-young – is instantly recognizable. For many, she represents the six million Jews, including 1.5 million …
Art and Adventure in a Time of War
March 10, 2025
By Robin Jacobson. Perched majestically on a rocky hilltop, the Abbey of Montecassino has kept vigil over Italy’s Liri Valley for nearly two thousand years. During the Second World War, …
Secrets and Lies
March 3, 2025
By Robin Jacobson. After Sasha Vasilyuk’s grandfather died in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2007, her grandmother made a shocking discovery. In an old briefcase stashed under a bed, she found a …
Portrait of an Artist and his Jewish Patrons: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
January 21, 2025
By Robin Jacobson. As a celebrated portrait artist, John Singer Sargent had his choice of commissions at the turn of the twentieth century. The most aristocratic, glamorous, “high society” figures …
Cracking Codes and other Capers
December 18, 2024
By Robin Jacobson. At a book event in 2019, a librarian posed a fateful question. She asked the assembled authors whether they might like to collaborate with another writer one …