Family Story Finder
The sweep of family history across the generations
Arnaud Clerc
Joe Liebman’s son made his own name in the Parisian jewelry trade—and carried on the Rue de Saussaye tradition
Bilingual blogging—my French collaborator
Historical blogging makes strange bedfellows. A French jewelry critic and I were both interested in the history of the Clerc jewelry business during the Nazi era
If walls could talk—75 years in a Parisian villa
Insider dealings in the French jewelry trade. Swank cocktail parties for the Nazi elite. A rough-cut Jewish jeweler and his ebullient new wife. Where Henry Kissinger met Le Duc Tho.
Janis Brenner—a Ratner in motion
An innovator in modern dance and choreography since breaking in with the Murray Lewis Dance Company in the 1980s. The Ratners moved geographically. Janis moves artistically.
Long Beach—taking in the Klein family
During the Depression, families helped each other out. The Kleins moved in with the Rubys in Long Beach.
Sandy Klein
A precocious Ratner girl takes on life in midcentury America.
Seymour Rabinowitz and Harriet Berkowitz
Seymour, also called Samuel, was partly estranged from the family. He worked as a truant officer in the New York City schools. His daughter Harriet Berkowitz discovered our blog and contributed a trove of precious documents.
The Klein family in the 1940s
Leon Klein continued to work for American Spirits as its upstate New York sales representative