8 | FEBRUARY 24 • 2022
PURELY COMMENTARY
soon forget. I felt blessed to
have a role in this incredible
saga.
After the event, Sharon
Brooks wrote to me: “Sam,
you asked me a question I
never thought about before.
What if my grandfather was
able to bring the violin to
Israel? Would this music
have this new life, this
revival of spirit? Perhaps
what seemed like such an
injustice back then was a
part of the master plan.
Maybe the time wasn’t right.
This violin, this music was,
like Moses I suppose, never
intended to enter the land of
Israel.”
WHAT-IFS
This question for Sharon
led me to consider one
about a member of my own
family. According to family
legend, my grandfather
Sam was a rabble-rouser in
his youth. As a teenager in
Glod, Romania, he accrued
gambling debts and had to
skip town. He wandered
the Carpathian Mountains,
wound up at the Black Sea
and befriended a nice Jewish
girl. He convinced her family
to allow him to join them
on the voyage to Hamburg
to catch a New York-bound
ship. So, in 1921, my
grandpa managed to slip into
the United States without
paperwork. During one of
my New York tours, I took
my son Max to Ellis Island
and scoured the records
for our relative’s names.
Officially, Sam Glaser never
made it.
My “what if” question:
What if Grandpa Sam
wasn’t a gambler? Would he
have made it to the Golden
Medina to sell neckties
on a pushcart on Orchard
Street, eventually ramping
up to a large manufacturing
operation? Or would he have
been extricated from Glod
and carted to Auschwitz with
the rest of his family?
I never understood why
my relatives were passive
when the Nazis came for
them. One year, after an
Israel tour, I traveled by
train, plane and automobile
to access Grandpa Sam’s
one-horse town and find
out for myself. As I stood
there on the porch of the
two-bedroom home where
my grandpa had lived with
his 10 brothers and sisters,
a local elder in peasant garb
spotted me from a block
away. He walked right up to
me and said “Glahzer!”
Yes, all of us Glasers have
a certain look. And this man,
who used to play with my
beloved aunts and uncles,
was curious who survived
the war. It’s a shockingly
short list. I realized the war
was my rural ancestors’
introduction to the 20th
century. Could they have
fought back with pitchforks?
Thank God, Grandpa Sam
played cards.
Every note played on the
Frand violin is miraculous.
Its presence in the world is a
simple statement of rebuke
to the nations that yearn for
our destruction. The Nazis
are gone. Never again will
we wear the yellow star of
shame. Let the melodies of
the Frand Klezmorim ring
up to the heavens; I’m sure
these joyful cadences have
the angels dancing.
Sam Glaser is a performer, composer,
producer and author in Los Angeles.
He has released 25 albums of his com-
positions, travels the world in concert,
produces music for various media in
his Glaser Musicworks recording studio
and his book The Joy of Judaism is an
Amazon bestseller.
Remembering Judge Cohn
Judge Avern Cohn was my mentor/Rebbe for decades,
instructing me in some of the most important values in life:
(1) about preserving and improving our great democracy;
(2) about our good fortune in being brought up in the great
multi-cultural City of Detroit; (3) about our obligations
to follow the Jewish ethical teachings of our rabbis and
forefathers.
As a judicial colleague of Avern for the last 27 years, I was
reminded, almost daily in person, or through his “read this
and call me” missives, of the judge’s role to vigorously pursue
equal justice for all.
I will miss him. Fortunately, his presence will continue in
my courtroom, where his portrait resides.
— Paul D. Borman
United States District Judge
letters
February
In February, mir hobn 28 teg oder 29
Eib ir hot gekumen on 28, do bist zain fine,
Ober eib in 29 you came in here dayn geburstog
Will sometimes disappear
But yung oder alt the same ir vet zayn.
Mir hobn: we have
Teg: Days
Oder: or
Eib ir hot gekumen: if you came
do bist zain fine: you will be OK
Ober: but
Dayn geburstog: your birthday
Yung oder alt: young or old
Ir vet zayn: you will be.
By Rachel Kapen
Yiddish Limerick
LEGACY: THE YELLOW VIOLIN continued from page 5