Oliver B. Pollak, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and a lawyer, is a correspondent now based in Richmond, California.
His books, available on Amazon, include:
*A State of Readers: Nebraska’s Carnegie Libraries
* A Year at the Sorbonne: A Proustian Life
*Conflict in Vietnam: An Historical Perspective
*Empires in Collision
*Jewish Life in Omaha and Lincoln: A Photographic History
*Nebraska Courthouses: Contention, Compromise and Community
*Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe
*Theses and Dissertations on Southern Africa
*To Educate and Serve: The Centennial History of Creighton University School of Law, 1904-2004
*University of Nebraska at Omaha (With Les Valentine)
*Welcome to Omaha
He also contributed to
*Journal of Burma Studies Vol 3: Rise of a Mainland Trading State
*Western States Jewish History, Vol XXXIII, Number 2
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — We identify role models in the family, high school, college, graduate school, law school, synagogue, and in our chosen professions. As we meet new people they may join the pantheon; when some fall from grace, we may be forgiving but they are no longer role models. Someone said, ‘when you […]
Choosing our role models and mentors Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodBy Oliver Pollak SAN FRANCISCO — The 25th Annual Laborfest in San Francisco, held in July, is a month long celebration with 55 programs of remembrance, struggle, accomplishment and martyrdom. California Historical Society director Anthea Hartig opened an event at the CHS quoting James Baldwin – “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and
The chicken farmer who was tarred and feathered Read More »
Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USABy Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — I started writing this in 2010 on the occasion of my 67th birthday about the unpredictable nature of what we give away and then need in the future. Retiring from Nebraska to California in 2016 only enlarged the scale of this conundrum. Now almost 75 I think this
Book, wine collections stir, comfort the soul Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA
By Oliver B. Pollak POINT REYES STATION, California — I had heard on NPR that Steve Costa and Kate Levinson wanted to sell a bookstore they had owned since 2002 in this delightful Northern California coastal town, and get on with new life opportunities. In 2016 they interviewed prospective buyers. Karen and I looked at
How to identify Jewish writers Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Salute, an Italian restaurant in Marina Bay, lost its lease under parlous circumstances and closed. On the last two days they prepared hundreds of free last suppers. It was crowded. The valet parking area was overwhelmed. Our table seated five Jews and one son of a Nazi. All
Diverse diners bid adieu to beloved restaurant Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — We come to the books we read from many directions. It could be newspaper and magazine reviews, suggestions from trusted friends, NPR reviews, looking at bookstore recent arrivals, ‘the book club is now reading,’ gifts from friends and family, looking over shoulders on the airplane, going to book
How we choose the books we read Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver PollakTasting the Past, The Science of Flavor & the Search for the Original Wine Grapes by Kevin Begos. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, ISBN 9781616-205775, 277 pages, $26.95 By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant in Berkeley was the 2nd stop on a three-week, nine-event book tour traversing Florida, California and New York.
Searching history for original wines Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
Persecuted. Engaged. Married. Marriages of convenience in exile by Sabine Bergler and Irene Messinger, Jewish Museum Vienna, 2018, 147 pages. By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California.– We marry for love, romance, money, and to procreate and extend family lineages. Marriages of convenience (MOC) are embedded in politics, survival, citizenship, and migration. Marriage and Nazi domination evokes
Escape by marriage: how some fled the Nazis Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak
By Oliver Pollak RICHMOND, California — Two weeks in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Austria netted hardly any souvenirs. And not for want of opportunity. The Jewish gift shops in Cologne, Prague, and Vienna were well stocked. But we travel as light as we can, going and returning. Most souvenirs have a short half-life. Will you still love it tomorrow? In Israel
Plenty of souvenirs at home; didn’t need more Read More »
International, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
By Oliver B. Pollak VIENNA, Austria — I am now the same age as my father was when he died, 74. For the first time, I am walking around his birthplace, Vienna, with my sister, gazing at the city he loved and cherished. He hummed his favorite melody Wien, Wien (Vienna, Vienna) which debuted in 1914
Grandparents loved Vienna (Wien) despite all Read More »
International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
By Oliver B. Pollak HANNOVER, Germany and TEREZIN, Czech Republic — Our roots trip has dispersed with cousins going separate ways to Berlin, Munich, and Rome. My party of five headed to Hannover and Theresienstadt, a path my grandfather took in 1942 and in reverse in 1945. Grandfather, Dr. Felix Bachmann, with his new English
Hannover to Terezin, roundtrip please Read More »
International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
By Oliver B. Pollak MESCHEDE, Germany — The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Eslohe Football (soccer) club was pretext for the Goldschmidt and Bachmann family reunion in Germany. Two Goldschmidt brothers were charter organizers. Eight cousins and 13 of their spouses, children, significant others, and friends took the better part of two days to celebrate, schmooze and
A Jewish- Christian family reunion along the Ruhr Read More »
International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak
By Oliver B. Pollak COLOGNE, Germany — In 1933 Cologne counted 20,000 Jews. In 1989 it had 1,358 Jews. Today the city of over a million, with the influx of Jews from the Former Soviet Union, has about 4,600 Jews.The Holocaust produced catastrophic trauma. Post-war Germany maintains a leading position in rescuing people from persecution in their homelands, many from majority Moslem
Cologne’s amazing Jewish culture Read More »
International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
© Oliver B. Pollak COLOGNE, Germany — I took four books with 1939-1942 hooks on our Germany-Prague-Vienna trip, more than I usually take, and no New Yorker. The recent article by Alex Ross, “How American Racism Influenced Hitler,” was an almost take it along, but it’s on line. My wife gave me the usual caring
Book- packing through World War II Europe Read More »
International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak