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