THE GEM & CENTURY THEATRES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ••••••••• • • • • MOUE ___,, _i __).-J - • G)?rtsta-pas • • • • 1.-',N' .: ••••••••••••••••••••••••••• eurawt Go? NOVEMBER 17 THROUGH DECEMBER 31 South Of Between the Anschluss and Kristallnacht in Bolivia was one of the few remaining places in The Purple Rose Theatre Company Production of 7;c7;,t7;Nt' In his new book, author Leo Spitzer explores "Yoop it up for Escanaba, a Gem of a comedy." SUZANNE CHESSLER -Michael H. Margolin, Detroit News Special to the Jewish News L "Some comedies have laughs by the dozen. Escanaba has them by the gross." -Martin F. Kohn, Detroit Free Press A Hilarious Comedy BY JEFF DANIELS DINE AT THE CENTURY CLUB RESTAURANT 313-963-9800 • 333 Madison Ave. SPONSOR (248) 645-6666 www.tickelmaster.com (wig) salon...massages, facials, full body waxing, kair replacement, manicures, pedicures, ilair color & cut specialists. 20% OFT ANY MAIN SALON SERVICE. WITH TI115 AD. New clients only please. , ,y, Advertise in our Arts & Entertainment Section! r 11/5 1999 miff Air i if i f) Aff all'rt A s & Ente rt ainment 04 Detroit Jewish News Call The Sales Department (248) 354.7123 Ext. 209 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS eo Spitzer was born in Bolivia to parents fleeing Nazis in Austria, and he stayed there until age 10, when his family could enter the United States. In the late '30s, as countries increasingly closed their bor- ders to refugees, Bolivia offered a safe haven, and the influx of Jews eventual- ly reached 20,000. Although many Jews thought of the South American country as a tempo- rary stopover in their journey to a new life, calling it "Hotel Bolivia," their memories hold stories of self-realiza- tion, connection and pleasures relayed through Spitzer as author of Hotel Bolivia (Hill and Wang; $25), a book dedicated to that period and place in history. While highly personal, Spitzer's rec- ollections are buttressed by methods showing professional expertise. A pro- fessor of history at Dartmouth College, Spitzer videotaped remem- brances of immigrants and combed documentary materials found in archives, repositories and libraries in Bolivia, the United States, England, Austria, Germany and Israel. Spitzer, who has lectured at the University of Michigan, talks about his work and reads passages from his book at 1 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11, at the 48th annual Jewish Book Fair. "My desire as a historian to write about this experience has been with me for a very long time," says Spitzer. "Bolivia took more refugees in a short period of time than Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the British Commonwealth countries combined. Refugee reactions had to do with both the physical environment and being in the middle of a population that was the least European of South American nations." In many ways, the author, whose previous books include The Creoles of Sierra Leone: Response to Colonialism, 1870-1945 and Lives In Between: Assimilation and Marginality in Austria, Brazil and West Africa, 1780- 1945, attributes Bolivia's open door to Jews as a matter of luck. In the early 1930s, Bolivia had gone through a devastating war with Paraguay, and a significant part of the male population was killed or lost. After that war, there was a revolution and younger officers took over. The availability of European Jews was seen as an opportunity to use established skills to modernize the country. "There had been relatively little anti-Semitism in Bolivia [in part] because there were so few Jews that they had no idea about [the issue]," Spitzer explains. "The country pro- duced tin and other minerals impor- tant to the war effort, and the Germans wanted a foothold to tap its resources. "There were a lot of Nazi agents in Bolivia trying to get influence with the government, and the Germans used the influx of refugees as a way to stir up anti-Semitism and anti-Allied feel- L