I collect (American) Judaic lapel buttons.
I have approximately 3000 unique items. Each one represents a different moment in the American Jewish experience.
Periodically I share them here.
My uncle was named after Mendele Mocher Sforim (the “Grandfather of Yiddish literature”). His older brother, my father was always called Nathan or Nate, though he was named Nechemia. I’ve not found anyone on the family tree for whom he was named, and coming from the anti-religious family he did, I’m almost certain that he was not named for the prophet. So while the anniversary of my father’s birth is not for a few weeks, his yahrtzeit coincides with someone who was something of a culture hero of his, whose birth we commemorate this day on the Hebrew calendar: the 29th of Iyyar.
Like my father, Isaac Leib Peretz (May 18, 1852 — 3 April, 1915) was a writer, on the side of “Labor” as opposed to “Capital”, a man who felt close the “the folk”.
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