ADAM KATZ STONE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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uppose you wanted to get together physi-
cist Albert Einstein, "stooge" Moe
Howard and composer George Gersh-
win in your living room next week. All
dead? Good point. So let's go for the next best
thing: actual personal artifacts from these gi-
ants in their respective fields (nuclear physics,
slapstick comedy and turn-of-the-century pop
music).
Let's gather hand-signed documents, letters,
photos — wisps of paper, ephemeral as yester-
day's news, but with the power to give us an in-
timate and immediate connection to these
individuals who touched our lives, who changed
forever the nature of our world.
What's that going to run you? About $8,000.
Lion Heart Autographs, a dealership in New
York, has a 1947 letter from the author of the
Theory of Relativity to American actress Ruth

Adam Katz-Stone is a free-lance writer based in

Annapolis.

PHOTOS BY DAVID DEAL

Gordon, in which Einstein speaks of the "critical "Judith" Pasta. The 19th-century prima donna
necessity for effective international control of and creator of the role of Bellini's Norma is "a
atomic energy." Price: $2,450.
legend in history," said Rabbi Loeb. While the
From the Greenwich, Conn.-based auction rabbi sometimes waits backstage for an auto-
house Alexander Autographs, you can buy a per- graph from a living diva, he paid cash for the Pas-
sonal check signed by Moe, the eye-poking fun-
ta signature, as he did for that of Yitzhak Rabin
ny man for between $50 and $75.
— one of the few non-operatic
And Lion Heart is offering for
names in his 500-piece collection.
$5,500 a signed photo of the creator
Because he purchased his Ra-
of "Porgy and Bess."
bin shortly after the prime minis-
For autograph collectors, partic-
ter was assassinated, Rabbi Loeb
ularly those interested in memorabilia of special probably paid more-for it than he would have a
Jewish significance, such artifacts would be well year before. Death tends to increase the price
worth the price. Collecting autographs "gives you of an autograph, since famous signatures, like
a deep connection to history. It touches one's other collectible items, derive their value in part
sense of immortality and makes you feel that from their scarcity.
in some way, perhaps, people's lives go on," ex-
Thus it is that Rabbi Loeb probably will nev-
plained Rabbi Mark G. Loeb, a Maryland resi- er get his hands on the one signature he most de-
dent and longtime collector of opera autographs sires. "What I'd love is a• Mozart," he said
and memorabilia.
wistfully. "But, of course, you would have to mort-
Some of the rabbi's most cherished items are gage the house to get a Mozart!"
from Jews, including a signature from Giuditta