like to be Muslim in America. Mo
(Mohammed) Amer (a Palestinian),
Preacher Moss (an African-
American Muslim) and Azhar
Usman (a Chicago-born Southeast
Asian Muslim of Indian descent)
poke fun at themselves, their
communities, government, human
nature and the tricky predicament
of living in America after 9-11.
Usman, raised in the Jewish
enclave of Skokie, Ill., calls himself
"an honorary Jew," noting that his
old friends tell him he turned out
more Jewish than half of them: "I
got the beard going. I keep strictly
kosher. And I went to law school."
Truman, Too
In a recent column, I reported that
when Sen. Barack Obama served in
the Illinois Legislature, he assisted
an Orthodox Jewish colleague by
performing tasks that a Shabbos-
observant Jew cannot do on the
Sabbath, like opening electric doors.
•U lU eA e U
grandmother she never
had. Koppel never got to
know her father's parents,
who were Jewish, although
her father always assured
her she would have loved
them. Koppel's mother
converted to Judaism
when she married.
Koppel asks,"How often
do you get to know some-
one as a young woman
and then meet them at
90?"
The diarist has outlived all the friends
and lovers in the pages. Her husband
passed away two years ago. How does
she feel, at 92, about having her intimate
thoughts, once kept under lock and key,
exposed to the public?
"It has been fun; it has added zest to
my life; it has brought back some of the
passions of my youth and made me feel
me feel more alive than I have in years. I
am probably one of the most excited old
women in the world." E
- VSL111 0 1 9E1 4 4 31 L
"Florence's metropolis
was a vast theater, like
one of the lost wonders
of the world. It was
alive with painters,
playwrights and jazz.
Ideas and art mattered.
People rushed to the city
because the mere thought
of it burned a hole in
their souls. My New York
seemed out of tune, on
its way to become a strip
mall filed with Paris
Hilton look-alikes," Kopel writes.
When Koppel first visited Florence in
her Westport, Conn., home, she found
her "unexpectedly glamorous The
older woman greeted her with a warm
hug and soon sat down to reread her
words, pausing to read aloud lines like
"Have stuffed myself with Mozart and
Beethoven — I feel like a ripe apricot
— I'm dizzy with the exotic."
"You've brought back my life,' Howitt
told Koppel, and then the outspoken
woman wondered how she had led
an ordinary life, filled with tennis and
bridge, rather than the creative endeav-
ors she had envisioned.
These days, the two women get
together every few weeks and have
done appearances together in connec-
tion with the book, including the Today
show. Koppel now sees Florence as a
best friend, confidant, guide, the Jewish
Saturday, November 8, 2008 8pm
Ford Community & performing Arts Center
15801 Michigan Avenue
Tickets: $29-$59
For tickets call 313-943-2354 or order
on-line at www.dearbornfordcenter.com
1424SC
Lily Koppel appears at the
Jewish Community Center's
Jewish Book Fair Tuesday,
Nov.11, at 10:30 a.m. in West
Bloomfield and at 1 p.m. the
same day in Oak Park.
He is not the first
presidential aspi-
rant to do so.
In histo-
rian Michael
Beschloss' 2007
book, Presidential
Courage, a chap-
Harry S
ter is devoted to
Truman
President Harry
Truman's decision, in the face of
considerable domestic opposition,
to give diplomatic recognition to
the State of Israel in 1948.
Beschloss writes that Truman first
got to know Jewish people when he
was a teen in Independence, Mo.,
and a religious Jewish family, the
Viners, moved in next door. Young
Harry became close friends with the
Viners' teenage son and was "con-
stantly" in the Viner home – getting
his "first taste of matzah, gefilte fish
and kugel." So, when Shabbos came,
Harry was happy to help the Viners
by doing little tasks. —1
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October 2 • 2008
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