Oliver Pollak

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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:

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*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

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Reading on my Jewish family vacation

By Oliver B. Pollak OCEANSIDE, California — What does family vacation mean? It used to be an oxymoron ranking with giant shrimp, military intelligence, and other improbables. Destination vacations, national parks, beaches, mountains, desert, camping, rv’s, condos, five-star resorts, spas, lodges, ranches with bunk houses, and time shares all compete for our wonderment. We drive, […]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food

San Francisco cookbooks reflect city’s diversity

By Oliver B. Pollak SAN FRANCISCO — Erica Peters, author of San Francisco, A Food Biography (2013) and Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam Food and Drink in the Long Nineteenth Century (2012), gave a presentation at San Francisco’s three-year-old, gorgeously designed, American Bookbinders Museum in the Yerba Buena district, wedged in between Clementina and Folsom

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food

The chicken farmer who was tarred and feathered

By 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

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Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA

Diverse diners bid adieu to beloved restaurant

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

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA

Searching history for original wines

Tasting 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.

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food

Escape by marriage: how some fled the Nazis

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

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak

Plenty of souvenirs at home; didn’t need more

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

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International, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food