SUSAN BLOCH LEACH ORAL HISTORY

CHRISTA WHITNEY: Today is May 24th, 2017.  I am here -- where are we, exactly?  In Huntington --

SUSAN BLOCH LEACH:  Um-hm.

CW:  -- New York.  Is --

SBL: On Long Island.

CW:  In Long Island, on Long Island with Susan Bloch Leach.  We're going to record an interview as part of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project.  Do I have your permission to record?

SBL: Yes, you do.

CW:  Thank you.  So, I -- I wanted to start by asking you: how would you intro-- explain who your zeyde [grandfather] was to someone who didn't know who he was?

SBL: Hmm.  I would say he was my mother's father.  He was -- I didn't know him 1:00well.  I was six years old when he passed away.  So, a lot of it is what I'm told.  He was a writer, a dentist.  He was a strong personality.  I've read a lot of his books that are translated into English, mainly when my kids were little and when I was little.  So, what was the question again?

CW:  Just how you would --

SBL: How would I explain who he was?

CW:  Just intr-- yeah, like, just the basics about him.

SBL: So, yeah, that and he had -- he was from Eastern Europe, I guess Vilnius, I think, or maybe that was where my grandmother was from, but -- so, Eastern Europe, Jew.  Immigrated here when he was a young man.  So, I guess that's how I'd explain him.  Describe him.

CW:  Great.  And can you just say what his name was?

SBL: Dr. Solomon Simon, and in the family they called him Shlomo, and I referred 2:00to him as "zeyde." 

CW:  Great.  And what did he look like?

SBL: Well, from pictures or sketches and a vague memory, I'd say he had dark hair that was sort of peppery black and silver.  Kind of stocky.  That's, like, the impression I have.  Like, kind of that.  Whatever that means.  Maybe dark, a little swarthy, I guess.  Oh, I do remember he was missing fingers, 'cause as a dentist, they would hold the -- the -- it used to be paper for the -- for the x-ray, and they put the paper on the tooth and then they'd hold that little paper in place with a finger.  And then, the x-ray machine 3:00would come around.  And he'd hold that.  So, I think it -- it was radiated too many times and probably malignant or pre-cancerous or something.  So, he didn't have all of his fingers, which I always found cool.  And I do remember that.  He was missing maybe a finger and a half or something.  (laughter)

CW:  Cool.  The -- so, when would you -- I mean, what are your memories of seeing him?  I know you were young, but what are your memories of seeing him?

SBL: Yeah, I have some memories, so it's weird.  They're kind of dream-like.  I don't know if I could place them.  That's a tough one.

CW:  Well, what are the memories?  What comes to mind when you think of him?

SBL: Hmm.  It's really hard to know whether I'm making it up or whether it 4:00really happened.  I'm thinking of, like, a Passover seder, so I must have been really little, at my mother's house.  Like, a long table with everybody in the family, a lot of family members around it, twenty, twenty-five people, him at the head with a couple of different Haggadahs and a lot of arguing about how many versions of it we were going to -- I think there was a -- there was a point when things -- my aunt Mimi's always saying that they did the Haggadah in three languages.  Like, English, Yiddish, and Hebrew.  So, I think there was a lot of Hebrew, which half the family didn't understand.  So, I think there was him leading these seders -- lot of talking.  A lot of loud, intense -- what I think sounded like arguing, but I think it was probably just very heated discussion.  He smelled like Juicy Fruit and cigars to me, which I -- I think I mentioned 5:00that to you before.

CW:  Juicy Fruit gum?

SBL: He chewed Juicy Fruit gum and he smoked cigars.  And it's funny, 'cause if I smell either, I think of him now.  I don't really get to smell the two together.  I should have somebody do that for me (laughs) to see if it's, like, a stronger memory, but -- and I think all cigars smell different, and most of the time they stink to me.  Like, they're just so repulsive.  But once in a while, it'll have the same smell of his, and I like it.  So, it's like a comforting kind of smell.

CW:  What do you know about his biography, if anything, about his early life or later life?

SBL: I read what my -- most of what my uncle, David, wrote.  So, I know from 6:00that his earlier life.  I think, unless that was David's life -- now that I think about it.  I don't know much.  I have -- I know about -- I think they left -- might have even been Russia.  He was drafted into the Russian army, and so he had to get out of there.  Guess he spoke a couple languages.  Came here, worked -- gosh, what's in there?  If I was being tortured, I might be able to come up with more.

CW:  Don't worry about it. (laughter) This isn't torture enough?  (laughs)

SBL: No, no, this is fine.  But I'm saying, what else is in there about his young life?  He had a lot of siblings.  I know one of them moved -- when they left the Old Country, he had a brother, Binyomin, who went to Israel.  Could we go there?  Let's go there and interview him.  And so, there's another, like, 7:00leg of the family that we've met.  I've never been to Israel, but I have 'til I'm twenty-five on Birthright Israel, so I have a couple more years, still.  And there are cousins and things like that from -- from that side.  From his side of the family, from another sibling.  And I think he had an aunt -- I had an aunt, Rosie, that was, like, a cousin or -- it was neat.  There were just people around that were -- that all spoke like him, but had a very thick -- your classical Jewish guy accent.  [BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW:  You mentioned you knew his stories from your childhood, right?  So, what --

SBL: Yeah.

CW:  -- what do you -- what did he write?

SBL: Mostly, I remember the -- the children's stories, like "The Wise Men of Chelm" and "More Wise Men of Chelm" and "Still More Wise Men of Chelm," I think 8:00-- was something that I came back to with each of my children and pulled them out and read those stories.  There -- there were particular stories, that I even think about now.  Like, there's one with the bagel -- oh, that -- yeah, I guess that would be the fool, where there was a bagel and they went looking for the hole, and the guy had the hole and I had -- I loved the illustrations.  The really simple line drawings and the guy putting hay in his boots.  And "Shmerl the Fool" was another one.  I mix them up, which is which.  There was another one with a lobster, which I think was funny, 'cause they didn't eat lobster.  And I think that had something to do with eating a lobster, which I can -- I remember watching a commercial -- visiting my bubbie [grandmother] in Miami Beach.  Used to ship me down there every year.  And they were watching -- it 9:00was a Red Lobster commercial, and I'm watching this, just, like, "Ooh!"  And bubbie just goes, "Feh!"  Like -- it was funny.  So --

CW:  So, what are -- what are they like, the stories?

SBL: What are the stories like?  I'd say they're very -- they're -- they're entertaining.  There was -- I should have re-read them before this.

CW:  It's okay.

SBL: I suppose they -- they had a -- a moral.  Like, they were fables, not just -- this happened.  I'm now definitely going to pull them out and re-read them.  And I get a royalty check every month, which is wild.  And it's anywhere -- not every month, I'm sorry.  Every year, so -- and it's divided between -- one, two, three, four, five, six -- like, between the eight cousins of this generation.  And it's anywhere between eighty and a hundred and fifty 10:00bucks from the continued sales of his -- of his books.  So, it's kind of a neat little thread back to him.  Encourages me to want to publish stuff I've written, you know?  Just to think that -- I don't know, seventy-five years from now, I'll have a grandkid that could get a check and go get a facial with it or something, you know?  Like, "Thanks, grandma!"  (laughs) [BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW:  You read the stories in English, right?

SBL: Yeah, I don't read -- I can remember zeyde and bubbie, although it's usually said bubbie and zeyde.  So, I can remember them speaking Yiddish.  And I have a fair amount of Yiddish understanding and I have a lot of words, which I've used around the house, and it's incredibly adorable when I hear my kids use 11:00them.  But I don't read the Hebrew or Yiddish in that alphabet.  I can read some of it transcribed, and I just sort of -- yeah, I wouldn't have enough understanding to read it in another language, like my cousin, David. 

CW:  Can you tell me about your bubbie a little bit?

SBL: Yeah.

CW:  What was her name?

SBL: Lena.  Lena, I think her maiden name was Fishelman or Fischer.  My father's mother -- one of them was Fishelman and one of them was Fischer.  It's kind of funny.  Probably the same kind of name.  So, bubbie was -- I loved bubbie.  We were tight.  So, I used to go down and visit her -- probably once I was old enough for them to stick me on a plane alone, which -- I was probably 12:00six and a half.  I don't know, seven.  I was very independent.  And I used to go and visit her every year, for about a week or ten days, whatever the Christmas vacation was.  And we were very connected.  She loved to bake.  She was a really, really good baker.  So, we would bake together.  I know how to do, like, blintzes and honey cake and ch-- not cheesecake.  Honey cake, sponge cake.  So good.  What else?  She did brisket and the classic things that'll give you a heart attack, all that stuff.  No vegetables.  She did not know what to do with a vegetable.  You just overboil it 'til it's, like, baby food.  That's -- that was a vegetable.  There was -- yeah, mainly, like, desserts, baking.  She loved to walk.  She'd get up super early, and she was little and compact.  Like, no body fat.  And she'd wear these, like, little tailored dresses.  And she had had rickets as a kid, so she had bow legs, and 13:00arthritis.  Like, her hands were kind of gnarly.  And she wore no makeup, ever.  Wasn't fussy.  She would do her hair and then leave it.  Strong accent.  She had -- she spoke English.  Apparently re-- could read and write in -- in a bunch of languages.  Maybe younger -- I don't know if she had Russian.  Hebrew, Yiddish, English, I guess, at least those three.  She was -- she read a lot.  She was funny.  Kind of like a quiet funny, you know?  She was more of a background person.  And -- and she had an irritable, snarky over-layer, you know?  Just like this kvetchy bubbie.  But she was very -- with me, it was just that outer kvetchy layer, and then inside was this sweetness.  And -- loved watching people eat her food.  I remember one time, 14:00when we were in -- in Miami Beach, and she made this huge thing of blintzes, meat blintzes.  And my cousins were there, Danny and David and maybe Billy, I don't know.  'Cause they had another grandmother that also lived in Miami Beach.  And they came to visit, and she had put out this huge thing of blintzes.  Think it was there.  Might have been in their Great Neck home.  It was somewhere -- I -- merging memories.  But -- and then, the boys were just wolfing down these blintzes.  And she'd act annoyed but be so proud that they wanted more.  But it was very -- she was kind of sexist and conservative and traditional, 'cause if one of the girls had a little too many, it was, like, hmm.  I don't know if it was, like, leave it for the boys or -- but she had, like, kind of a delineation of what was feminine and what was masculine.  And, I mean, I guess we all do.  So, she could be sort of judgey.  But, I don't 15:00know, she passed away -- I'm trying to think of when.  I got married in 1991, and I think she was still alive at that point.  She died before I had my kids.  But we -- I -- yeah, I really loved my bubbie.  And I miss her.  I do.  I think about her a lot.  I think about her little snarky, kvetchy, lovable cuteness.  And little.  She was very little.  [BREAK IN RECORDING] And so, she was in a place that was really pretty close to here, and I used to go and grab her and take her out for visits.  And we'd go get ice cream and go walk in the park.  And she was still really cute.  She was very cute.  And then, sort of similarly, my mother had a sort of similar condition.  And I -- 16:00same thing.  It was, like, my mom was local.  She never went anywhere outside the home.  We cared for her -- mainly my dad cared for her and I'd go and visit.  And it's funny, I used to have these sort of flashback kind of feelings of going and grabbing bubbie and taking her to the park and grabbing an ice cream and just goofing around and spending a half a day.  And then I'd do the same thing with my mom, a few hours.  It was neat.  It was, like, that -- so, I tell my kids -- it's, like, Hannah, my middle one.  I'm, like, "You got me," right?  (laughs) I want to make sure I'm covered.  My oldest won't -- she'll be, like, somewhere.  And Becca, she'll be, like, yeah, oh, I forgot.  (laughs) Hannah will be on it, my middle one.  And my son will -- I don't know where he'll be.  He's, like -- won't even -- he'll come visit me once a year if 17:00I'm lucky.  This is when I'm ninety.  [BREAK IN RECORDING]

CW:  I'm curious about the Yiddish that you heard a little bit of growing up.  What did -- what was -- did you have any thoughts about Yiddish or feelings about what Yiddish meant to you when you were growing up?

SBL: Well, it was definitely the language that my parents spoke when they didn't want us to know what they were talking about, which is why I learned it.  I like it.  I just like having another layer of language.  It wasn't really taught, although my -- I didn't go to Hebrew school.  I went to, like, a Sholem Aleichem Folk School growing up.  It was Sunday school.  It was just different.  Like, the other Jewish kids I knew went to temple and they were learning Hebrew, and they were having a traditional bar or bat mitzvah.  I didn't do any of that.  So, the place I went was some language, culture -- we 18:00did learn some Yiddish.  My bat mitzvah project was writing about something Jewish and then reading my paper.  So, I wrote about the immigration of the Jews to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which was when my grandparents immigrated, I guess in the late 1800s, maybe.  No.

CW:  A little later, probably.

SBL: Do I have my math off -- 1900s?

CW:  He was born in 1895, so probably be a little, like --

SBL: Yeah, so the early 1900s.  So, I wrote a paper on that when I was, I guess, twelve.  And it was -- and then, the other thing I did that was very Jewish was I went to this camp, starting when I was eight or nine.  When I was 19:00eight, I went to a YMCA camp.  When I was nine, they sent me to Camp Boiberik, which was Upstate New York, in Rhinebeck, New York.  And it was a very big part of my life.  And it was Yiddish-based.  So, it was a camp -- a socialist, Jewish camp -- [BREAK IN RECORDING] Boiberik was really an amazing part of my life.  And so, zeyde would lecture, bubbie would stay.  She continued staying and going for summers after zeyde died.  My mother had been a counselor there, or maybe a division head.  Mimi went to camp there.  Uncle David went to camp there.  Mimi's -- I don't know if all of them went or some of them went.  So, anyway, it was a big part of my childhood up until I was about fifteen or sixteen years old.  [BREAK IN RECORDING] The point of the camp was to infuse 20:00the next generation and continue the traditions of Yiddishkayt -- speaking Yiddish, singing Yiddish.  [BREAK IN RECORDING] We had a ceremony at the end of every single summer, at the end -- like, the last week in August called the "felker yontef [holiday of nations, lit. "folks' holiday"]."  And every bunk would have a country assigned.  So, you would either -- they would put together usually two bunks.  So, either the sister bunks that were the same age if it was a big enough group or a sister bunk and a brother bunk.  And you'd get a costume and learn a song that sounded like it was from that country in Yiddish, and we would perform it and dance it and paint a huge plaque and do, like, a little parade.  And the oldest group was called "Yidn [Jews]," and they represented the Jews from around the world.  So, it was really about we are all 21:00one human species and it doesn't matter whether -- it was, like, Jews around the world, but I think on a deeper level it was about the connection between all people around the world and Yiddish being spoken in every country, probably, with a different flavor also unified -- connected Yiddish with, like, humanity and oneness and -- but which is funny, because Jews often have such a -- us and them attitude, you know?  It -- I don't know if other religions have this thing where there's one word if you're in and one word for everybody else.  So, it's like you're either a Jew, which is you're a Jew, or you're a goy, which is just you're not.  So, it's like a -- us and them, you know?  [BREAK IN RECORDING] A lot ab-- like, what I'm about now.  So, I guess it was probably pretty formative.  And I was saying before that we would get -- each group would get a 22:00costume and a song and a dance.  So, I remem-- so, we were Thailand, we were Japan, we were Appalachian Mountain people.  What else were we?  We were five or six different things.  And I can sing some of them.  So, what's the one that I remember?  The Japanese was, (singing) "Shif shifl, shifl, sheyne vigt zikh in di vaser reyne tsu di hekhele.  Af di vinte linde, linde.  Shvebt er sholem far di kinder -- sholem-shire, tsu dem hekhele.  Iya da, iya da, iya da.  Ya hō ya, hare ya hō ya. [Boat, little boat, little boat, rocking beautifully in the clean water, on its way to the temple.  In the wind, the lindens, the lindens.  It floats peacefully for the children -- singing peacefully, to the temple.  Iya da, iya da, iya da.  Ya hō ya, hare ya hō ya]" -- we had these movements -- (singing) "Ha ya hō ya, hare ya hō ya" and then -- okay, that was one.  And then, there was an Appalachian Mountain people, (singing) "Mir kumen fun di berg, mit kirkes in di hent, la-li tudem, 23:00tudem, la-li tudem-day [We come from the mountain, with pickaxes in our hands, la-li tudem, tudem, la-li tudem-day]" -- oh, I don't have the rest of it at the moment available to me.  If I was with my bunkmates, we would have it.  [BREAK IN RECORDING] Our musical director was Joshua Waletzky, yeah, who we still see when we have camp reunions.  He goes up and he plays, and really, it's quite picturesque.  Like, we all sort of gather around the piano and sing all of the camp songs.  And we did -- Shabbat was Friday night.  Shabbos services was Friday night and Saturday morning, and everyone wore their Shabbos whites.  In the afternoon, you would makhn shabes [prepare for Shabbos, lit. "make Shabbos"], starting, I don't know, at about -- after lunch.  And the -- there was a girl's hill, up the hill, and boys were not allowed on girls' hill.  So, it was really very magical.  Just girls running around in towels and getting their whites on.  And, again, when I'm at Omega now, I think -- when I see all the kundalini yogis in all of their whites, it's like that overlap, that layer 24:00of sort of purity and -- so, the Jews did it every week and the kundalinis keep it going all the time, in their whites.  And the singing, again, like that thread of -- 'cause I do this kirtan [Sanskrit: recitation], which is -- Bahkti Yoga -- which is this connection to chanting to the divine -- and Shabbat, which is, like, the holy -- kind of weekly service of remembrance and praise to God -- which, for me, was all song.  It was just all of the songs that we would sing with Josh, all in Yiddish.  There was one really special -- sort of a chant song that the elste-elstes [eldest older ones] would walk in every Shabbat, so they'd be all in their whites, all beautiful.  The girls had long hair, all straight, and everybody would be all farputst [dressed up], and they'd walk in 25:00holding candles.  And they would do this in Yiddish and English, where they'd walk in and they'd say, "Come let us sing, let us sing out together.  Come let us lift up our voices once more, away from the weekday of worry and trouble with a heart that is free, with a heart that is pure."  So -- and then the Yiddish was "Kum, lomir zingen, ale in eynem, kum [Come, let's sing, all together, come]" -- "Come, let us" -- my God -- "Kum, lomir zingen, ale in eynem, kum" -- I can't even do the Yiddish.

CW:  It's okay.

SBL: Away from the weekday with -- that is (UNCLEAR) I have all the lyrics somewhere.  And even now, it's, like, sometimes we'll do some of these songs in my family at the end of a Passover or something, when we start singing, just the Boiberik people, and I've printed out words and stuff.  [BREAK IN RECORDING] That camp is still kind of alive in a lot of ways for me, 'cause it now became Omega Institute when the camp went under, and I'm very connected to Omega.  And when I'm there, I sometimes have given walking tours to people of what was 26:00remnants and relics from Camp Boiberik.  There are little spots that have Hebrew writing on the buildings.  It's pretty cool.  So, yeah, I like -- I like the language.  I like hearing it.  I appreciate that there are still people -- well, I guess in Israel, it's a language -- alive.  Here, in New York, it's, like, a sub-language for communicating if you're in fashion, if you're -- people just use it.  So, if anybody uses it and they have any slight mispronunciation, I'm -- pronunciation, I definitely correct them, you know?  Like, if -- if they'll say "hutzpah" it's, like, "Excuse me?  It's 'chutzpah.'"  But -- and, like, what do I know?  But I know, like, from hearing it in growing up. 

CW:  Do you remember the -- at Boiberik, the "untern boym [under the tree]," the lectures that were -- 'cause there was another part of the camp that had --

SBL: Yeah.

CW:  -- lectures, right?

SBL: So, there was camp side, there was guest side.  And zeyde lectured on guest side.  But before -- 'cause he died when I was six.  So, I know that bubbie used to go up and rent a little cottage, 'cause I do remember seeing her when I was probably nine, and her being on guest side.  So, she was still coming at that point.  And I know that they had Lake Theater, which is where -- it was a smaller theater than the main auditorium, where they had lectures.  So, I don't really -- I know he was there, which I think is really cool.  And then, I -- going back to Omega as an adult -- 'cause I went for workshops for years.  I went -- the first time I found Omega was because Boiberik had a reunion there.  And then, I kept going back and I got involved, really, in all 28:00these other things from Omega, like Kirtan, and I got really more immersed in yoga and mindfulness and meditation and dance and improv.  Like, I've taken so many workshops, and brought my kids, and then went as staff.  So, I go there -- I was there last season, from June to October.  I'm going back again this year.  Both of my daughters were staff there, their gap year after high school.  They lived and worked there.  And -- I made a t-shirt that combines the Ome-- Camp -- the Camp Boiberik  logo with the word omega with a little "Om" and it's in the Boiberik colors, which were blue and white, the color of the Israeli flag.  So, I wear that sometimes when I'm feeling the merging of Boiberik and Omega.  I wear it around at Omega.  But it's funny, 'cause if I 29:00really sound like I know what I'm talking about with Boiberik, people are always, like, well, how old are you?  (laughs) 'Cause it was, like, for them -- like, if I'm talking to somebody who's twenty-five, it's like ancient history.  But I did have a conversation with Skip Backus, who's one of the founders of Omega Institute last season, and I was talking to him about it at the year-end party.  And he's funny.  He was busy.  He was bartending at this staff party, but he keeps saying, "I want to hear more about Boiberik."  So --

CW:  Do you have any sense of what your zeyde's reputation was?  'Cause -- in the Jewish world?

SBL: Well, I know he had a very big fan, this woman Gella Fishman, who recently passed away.  When I'd see Gella, I think there was just this love -- if she 30:00ever spoke about zeyde it was like how people talk about Jesus, you know?  Like, "Oh!"  There's such respect and admiration.  I don't know too many other people, other than my family, who are involved in that world.  So, I don't -- I can't really give you -- I don't have any more information about that at all.

CW:  Why do you think people still read his chil-- the stories?

SBL: I think they're good.  They're solid, they're -- they're very readable.  People still like connection to their roots.  So, if that someone is of -- they're buying it, I guess, now for their kids.  So, you know, I have nieces 31:00who are in their early thirties or whatever, and they're having kids.  So, maybe they like that connection and -- 'cause it's so easy.  Just each generation -- I see how things get really watered down.  My gran-- zeyde, he was really not a religious Jew, even though he wrote for rabbis and he studied the Bible.  I mean, I would actually love to talk with him.  My interest as an adult has gotten really more into yoga and the eight limbs of yoga and the yoga philosophy, and I see -- what comes up a lot are, like, the teachings of other prophets.  And I don't have a Jewish yogi that I can talk with.  I'm looking for one.  Most of them are from the -- from Christianity, and they talk about 32:00Jesus and -- not a lot, but it comes up -- like, the overlap of the basic tenets of what's the point of religion and what are the -- like, in yoga, it's the sutras, but in Yiddish there would be, I guess the Talmud and the other prophets who have words that are the wisdom of the people.  I was talking to my dad the other day, actually, about this, because I feel like my Judaism was very cultural.  It was the food, it was the music.  There was Israeli dancing that we did at camp.  There was camp, there was my Yiddish, Sholem Aleichem Folk School growing up.  But there wasn't ever much discussion about the values, about -- I mean, basic values, you know?  Like, get educated and become a doctor.  That's pretty much the value, if you want to have value.  Or you 33:00could be a lawyer if -- you know, that's fine, too, 'cause we need lawyers.  But I have a friend who -- my friend who has my dog, actually, who's, like, a super Jew.  And we talk a lot -- he's a physicist, and really into Judaism.  And sometimes, we talk about that overlap of -- like, there's a yoga sutra called -- oh, what's the name of it?  It'll come to me.  But the one, it -- "ahimsa," "doing no harm."  And included in that is no gossiping.  So, no negativity.  And no blaming, things like that.  And we were talking about that sutra once or, you know, that philosophy in yoga.  And he connected it with this very famous Lubavitcher rabbi who basically said you shouldn't even have a negative thought.  And -- and I was, like, this is a Jewish thing?  No 34:00negativity?  Are you kidding me?  I feel like I grew up in a household of kvetsheray [complainers].  Like, what's -- what isn't right?  Like -- and a lot of -- we did discuss philosophy, we discussed bigger issues.  You can run the gamut of superficial down to deeper thought.  But what was the question?

CW:  That's -- (UNCLEAR).

SBL: No idea (laughter) what the question was.  (laughter) I mean, do you know what the question was?

CW:  We were talking about why people read his stories, actually, but that's fine.

SBL: I think, yeah, just that -- that connection and the searching and -- and what was an interest in the history, if it's yours or other people's. 

CW:  And why did you read it to your kids?  Read the stories?

SBL: Well, they were free.  Somebody gave me them, you know?  My mom probably 35:00gave me a couple copies.  So, it was -- 'cause it's part of who I am.  Knowing him, I feel like also I like to have that -- the connection.  If I have any family heirlooms, I always tell my kids who it wa-- whose it -- whose it was.  Like, who it belonged to, what they were like.  Think it's part of our own desire -- maybe for immortality, in a way.  Like, we are all mortal, and I feel like we live on through our ideas, through our art, through our family members if you're lucky enough to kind of reproduce.  And you'll have heirs or genetic -- your genetic material is still there.  So, you know, my zeyde is genetically in me and in my children.  And there's something that feels, to me, special about that.  So, the same way, his ideas continue on through his books, through 36:00that little royalty check.  It's kind of like this little voice from -- from who I was.  Who -- you know, who -- I don't know, whatever.  You know what I mean?

CW:  Yeah.

SBL: Past --

CW:  Is there anything else -- I mean, anything in you that you see connected to him in your own personality?

SBL: I do love to write, and I write a lot.  I had really bad boss who gave me the worst criticism ever, and she told me I wasn't a good writer.  And it was funny, 'cause I just was, like, "Excuse me?  Excuse me?  Like, my grandfather was a writer," you know?  I just -- well, (clears throat) I can write, and I think it's very sort of validating when you have an ancestor that -- that has 37:00done something at a certain level, professionally recognized -- whether it was or not, even.  So, like, he was a dentist, I feel like -- so therefore, I and any of my kids are capable of doing that, at least, that could -- get into that, kind of education or -- I have a lot of creative arts -- (stomach gurgles) (laughter)

F:   Got that one.  (laughter)

SBL: Oh, good.  I want -- just have that.  (laughter) I just want that.  (laughter)

CW:  That'll be in the (UNCLEAR).

SBL: Cut out everything else about the Jewy stuff.  (laughter) just want that.  So, I think -- yeah, I -- writing is an art.  So, I -- I have that part 38:00of the creativity, I can see, is coming from him.  And --

CW:  Cool.  Can you just mention those -- you mentioned that he would sometimes get things in exchange for his --

SBL: Oh!

CW:  -- work.  Can you explain that?

SBL: Yeah, which is funny, 'cause actually -- now, we were just talking about.  I sort of do a similar thing.  So, as a dentist, he had a dental practice, and he had at least one patient who was the classic starving artist, and I think must have had very bad teeth or a lot of dental issues.  So, he accepted artwork.  So, he -- for the dental work.  So, there are charcoal commissions, oil paintings, with this artist, which I think is also so amazing.  And I was a professional photographer.  I used to shoot weddings, among other things.  And 39:00it's funny, because I had one client who asked if I would do a barter for art.  I can't even believe I didn't take it, because he passed away and the art is actually really valuable.  But I didn't like it.  So, I framed his wedding invitation and he signed it and wrote to me.  And I remember, at that time, thinking, like, of that connection, that my zeyde did it.  And I do, also now, still have photo shoots where I barter.  But it was neat that it was for art, which still lives on, which I still have and will have.  And I think that showed a sort of compassion, as well, that he was able -- that he appreciated this person's art.  Hopefully, he liked it.  I don't -- I don't know.  And I can't believe I didn't learn from that example and accept that other painting.  40:00But truthfully, at this point, I would have -- 'cause I didn't like it, I would have sold it and spent the money anyway.  So -- but I'll make sure to remind my kids, "Take the art.  Be compassionate and kind to artists, especially if they have more art than they do cash."

CW:  Is there anything else you want to -- want people to know about your -- about Solomon Simon?

SBL: God, my stomach's gone crazy here.

F:   I can't hear it.

SBL: Oh, good.

F:   Yeah.

SBL: Wow.  Hm.  He didn't drive.  So, they used to drive from Brooklyn down to Miami Beach.  I guess they sold that house.  I remem-- (stomach growls) you catching that?

CW:  That one.

F:   That one.

CW:  Okay.

SBL: That's crazy.  I should've had my banana.  I remember their house in 41:00Brooklyn, which is the house where my mother grew up.  I went back there one day to look at it, couple years ago.  Was interesting to see the neighborhood.  I didn't really -- it didn't click with any memories, but I do have some old photos in the house.  There are photos which -- I had an interest in photography pretty young.  It started when I was probably around ten or eleven.  So, I used to take pictures at camp, at Boiberik.  I used to take movies.  Like, I had a little video camera back then, or film -- it was film.  And so, there are pictures -- starting when I was, like, in high school, maybe, around fifteen, sixteen, I -- all of our family photos -- and there were a lot of them.  A real lot, especially considering it wasn't so easy, you know?  There weren't digital cameras.  It was all film and printing and everything.  42:00And just boxes, and they were a mess.  And I took it upon myself to sort of become the -- the -- the -- I don't know, family historian of the photographs.  So, I cleaned the photos and I got archival photo albums and put them into these albums.  And I've always wanted to sit around and write things, like, who remembers what and who was who?  So, my dad does have those photo albums now, still.  You should maybe pull them out.  And if there's any photographs that you would want for this project, just get, like, a little Post-It note and, you know, put a -- put a little note on that and I can scan them and send them to you.

CW:  Great, thanks.

SBL: Those photos.  But I -- I think -- those always feel very neat, and I feel very lucky to have these old -- old images of them.  Him.  Do I have anything 43:00else?  I guess it would be neat to know more about his life and his friendships and relationships.  He seemed like a very interesting person with a lot of opinions and a lot of knowledge ranging from dentistry to Judaism to politics to cultural events and his writing.  I think he'd love that this is made, this -- that this project is happening.  I think it's exciting.  It's neat to me that this is, so many years later.  I like -- everybody -- people get so caught up in their own day-to-day and their own lives, and I constantly take little videos on my phone (clears throat) of things that I'm doing that are just awesome.  I 44:00never go back and look, 'cause there's always something new that day or something new to read, or I'm going to re-read something and the "New Yorker" arrives, or there's something on Facebook.  And it's -- it's good, I think, to have that balance between the past and what was and making sure it's not lost, especially when it was really -- (stomach growls) especially (laughs) -- especially when it was wonderful and there's value there and we still -- especially young people, I think, get so caught up in their own lives and their own sort of narcissistic -- that's a bad word.  Self-absorption of what they're interested in and what they do.  So, it's nice that it's preserved, so when people come back around and want more interest in their past, it'll be there.  So, thank you.

CW:  Thank you.  I had one other thing I wanted to ask and now I forget.  Oh, yeah, I was just curious, to close the loop about Yiddish, what -- does Yiddish 45:00have a role in your life now?  What does it mean to you today?

SBL: Oh, it -- it's kind of like profanity.  It's like another excellent creative layer, another -- another crayon in my Crayola box of words that I can use and express myself.  And I mention my connection to yoga, and I'm learning more and more Sanskrit, which is really cool.  And I -- interestingly, I feel like I want this information about the -- almost like the -- like, the yoga sutras, I'd love to have more of that in Judaism.  And whenever I talk -- try to talk to my dad about this yoga wisdom, he constantly brings it back to Judaism.  So -- and -- but he doesn't have it.  He doesn't know.  But I do want to try to find people or somebody who does -- this friend of mine that I 46:00was mentioning, the super Jew, my friend Ofer.  He knows a lot.  Like, he was talking about this Lubavitcher rabbi, and -- but that's really more Hebrew, and I know your question was about Yiddish and how it is involved in my life.  You know, it's to -- it -- it's to joke around.  It's to sometimes be fun and silly and to feel still Jewish when -- I can definitely pull it out when I want to be a Jew.  And I love -- I used to go -- when I was a professional photographer, like, for real, actively -- and I'd go to B&H.  If I wanted to get a good price, I'd just start talking Jew, you know?  "So, nu," you know, whatever his name was, you could -- "so, is this the best you can do, take [really]?  Come on!"  Like, you -- like, there's, like, this Jew code and they like it and I like it, and then they work with you.  It's like this little inside circle of Jews.  You all might think it doesn't exist, but it does. 

CW:  Great, well --

SBL: Connection.

CW:  Yeah.  Well, a groysn dank [thank you very much].

SBL: Thank you.

[END OF INTERVIEW]