September
On The Bookshelf
A Little Like Magic September 14 and 15
The Famous People Players
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Pam Tiflis September 16
Continental Divide
The Sunshine Boys
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The Sunshine Boys September 20,21,22
Travel author Ben G. Frank
explores the Jewish worlds
of Western and Eastern Europe.
Starring Dick Van Patten and Frank Gorshin
Gnarly Woods Wind Trio September 23
Jerry Lee Lewis September 28
SANDEE BRAWARSKY
Sponsored by RadioFIRST WSAQ-FM
Special to the Jewish News
Jerry Lee Lewis
W
Mandy Patinkin October 1
ho travels knows much," the
Jerusalem sage and teacher
Ben Sira wrote in about 180
B.C.E. His words have been echoed
and affirmed over the centuries by
scholars, writers and adventurers who
journeyed outside the boundaries of
their ordinary lives. Many would agree
with Samuel Johnson's variation, "In
traveling: a man must carry knowledge
with him, if he would bring home
knowledge."
"I think of myself as a modern-day
Benjamin of Tudela," author Ben G.
Frank exclaims. His reference is to the
12th-century rabbi who enjoyed trav-
eling the known Jewish world and
recording his impressions about the
Jewish community, its history, people
and their relationships with their
neighbors.
His information-packed volume, A
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Mandy Patinkin
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"I just had to find out what so many
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Travel Guide to Jewish Europe
D anny Raskin
99
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Frank, who loves to travel, does all
of the research for these books himself.
The new edition of the European
guide, which features information on
50 cities, includes Bulgaria and
Romania for the first time.
When he visits cities, Frank makes a
point of not only visiting places of
interest but of meeting with Jews,
attending Sabbath services and social
functions. He urges tourists to not just
take tours of buildings, but to inquire
about and participate in community
and synagogue events.
The author, who runs his own public
relations firm and lives in Chappaqua,
N.Y., notes that many Jewish travelers,
even if they don't regularly visit syna-
gogues and kosher restaurants at home,
like to do so when they travel abroad.
Perhaps, he says, it's out of nostalgia, or
identification, or the need to do some-
thing Jewish on a long trip.
Now 67, Frank started developing
his wanderlust in 1952, on his first
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(Pelican; $23) has just been
updated and reissued in its
third edition. A Travel Guide to
Jewish Russia 6 Ukraine was
published last year.
Both books combine practi-
cal information — routes,
hotels, sites, kosher restaurants,
museums, monuments, syna-
gogues, organizations and
more — and historical and
cultural background on places
visited that provide a useful
context.
The text is also peppered
with travel anecdotes, portraits,
Jewish contributions to the places and
little-known facts, along with photo-
graphs. Unlike more general travel
guides, these also include advice for
roots-oriented travel.
In his introduction, Frank notes that
in Western Europe, the Jewish commu-
nity struggles with assimilation, while in
Eastern Europe, "the Jewish community
is being reborn despite higher rates of
mixed marriages. It is seeking to educate,
locate, and greet Jews who voluntarily or
involuntarily have hidden and may still
hide their Jewishness." He speaks of a
strengthening of those communities.
The author
urges tourists
to not just
take tours
of buildings,
but to inquire
about and
participate
in community
and synagogue
events.
trip to Israel. He made his way to the
Middle East by way of Newfoundland,
London, Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles
and Naples, and then on to Haifa.
As a journalist, he returned to
Europe many times and began compil-
ing these books in the mid-1980s,
after doing a travel brochure for the
French government tourist office on
France for the Jewish traveler.
His next project? Frank is thinking
about a guide to the Jewish Caribbean
and South America, venturing to many
places that his namesake and predeces-
sor didn't get to leave ibotprints.
❑