Update on "Jews on First"

Because of the untimely and regrettable passing of Boston philanthropist Teddy Cutler, plans for “Jews on First” have changed. It has been converted from a play to a documentary-style presentation combining montage with hundreds of fascinating images and music, narrative by myself, and audience participation led by the author through Skype-type technology, expressing American Jewish history back to the Depression era as told through baseball. In that form it will be disseminated to temples, Jewish Community Centers, Jewish organizations, and other entities around the country to elucidate that history for persons of all ages.

More Performances of "Jews on First"

Since its premiere in April 2016 at the American Jewish Historical Society, the musical Jews on First, adapted from my book, American Jews and America's Game, has been successfully presented at the New Surry Theatre in Blue Hill, Maine; Hebrew SeniorLife in Roslindale, Massachusetts; NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham, Massachusetts; Temple Shalom in Newton, Massachusetts; and at a gala party at the home of Boston philanthropist and arts patron, Teddy Cutler, supporter of arts at Emerson College, Boston. I'm happy to report that the play will be presented under Emerson's auspices in extended performance in the near future.

"Jews on First" World Premiere

An audience of two hundred cheered the world premiere of Jews on First, the musical based on my book, American Jews and America's Game, on April 11, 2016. The premiere took place at the American Jewish Historical Society in New York City. James Sullivan's article in the Boston Globe, "Unlikely Teammates in a Musical about Jewish Ballplayers," did a wonderful job of highlighting the collaboration between me, writers Larry Jay Tish and Lee Goodwin, and composer Erin Murray Quinlan that made the musical possible.

The Genre of Biographical Cultural History

People often describe my books as oral history. I did too until I became aware that what I was doing did not fall within that definition. I searched for a correct definition, and could not find one. After considerable thought, I decided to define my work as "biographical cultural history." You might ask, "What is the difference?" Oral history is generally presented dryly as only the verbatim answers of the interviewee to an invisible interviewer. Or, if visible, the interviewer is represented only by his question. In my books, I seek to transform the interview into a short biography related as a lively conversation between the subject and me. Thus, I'm not only visible, but shifting here and there, as required by the arc of the short biography I am writing, to the third person to interject comments or information to fill in the gaps, and thus project the interview not only as a lively conversation, but as the story, in essence, of a person's life, and with his or her observations and opinions, especially within the field of their interest. I believe this to be a new genre which I have sought to define below in a more academic manner:

"Biographical cultural history" appears to be a new book genre, applicable to a multiplicity of topics. In-depth personal and topical interviews of a group of individuals chosen for their prominence in a certain cultural historical field are fashioned by the author into short biographies to reveal the essence of their lives per se and their pertinence to the topic. All are then organized and integrated to create the penultimate "biographical cultural history." In each biography the author interweaves his questions and relevant verbatim extracts of the interviewee's words into a living first person present tense conversation, with the author's third person opening and closing commentary, interstitial observations and remarks, relevant biographical, historical, cultural information, and informative illustrations. An eminent historian, cultural expert, and/or the author then may write an interpretative essay for inclusion in the book to assess the social and cultural impact of the information developed in the biographies on the present and future.

Red Sox Poet Laureate Reading

I had a great evening with George Mitrovich, founder of the Great Fenway Park Writers Series; Harry Sherr, local sports contract advisor; and Boston Red Sox entertainment and PR guru Charles Steinberg at a Writers Series event on July 15, 2015. Red Sox Poet Laureate, Dick Flavin, colorfully read from his new book, Red Sox Rhymes: Verses and Curses at the recently dedicated Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston.

"American Jews and America's Game" to Become a Play with Music

Good news! A play tentatively titled Swing! Shmendrik! Swing! is being adapted from American Jews and America’s Game for a first reading in the fall of 2015, most likely at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan, under the auspices of the American Jewish Historical Society. Well-known playwrights Larry Jay Tish (famous for his Black-Jew Dialogues) and Lee Goodwin are writing the play with music by Erin Murray Quinlan, who recently wrote the musical play Hemingway's Wife, presented in a successful run in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Tish, Goodwin, and I are producing the play which, at least at first, will be accommodated in small theaters, temples, Limmuds, and Jewish community centers across the United States, and beyond.

Archives Preserve Materials from "American Jews and America's Game"

I am pleased that seven national, local, baseball, and Jewish historical institutions have chosen to include material from American Jews and America”s Game in their archives, including the sixty-three hours of interviews recorded in Israel and across America over a more than three year period; transcripts drawn from those interviews; and the close to eighty illustrations included in the book, with all captions and credits. These institutions are:

• Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• Internet Archive, San Francisco, California
• Digital Public Library of America, Boston, Massachusetts
• Digital Commonwealth, Newton, Massachusetts
• National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, New York
• American Jewish Historical Society, New York, New York
• American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio