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 SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, California — At the entrance a combo of 60-year-old musicians played 1970s music and younger people sipped their wine and drank their beer. The six of us, three couples, were ushered to the much quieter and conversation inducing ‘wine cellar,’ a room on the main floor with walls […]
Jewish owner/chef at Tannins Italian Restaurant Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodBy Oliver B. Pollak SAN FRANCISCO — The 38th annual San Francisco Jewish Film festival is in full swing. From July 19 to August 5, Bay Area theatres in San Francisco, Albany, Palo Alto, San Rafael, and Oakland will screen 67 Jewish films from 22 countries. One of the films is a restored 87
‘The City Without Jews’ screens 90+ years later Read More »
International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy 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
San Francisco cookbooks reflect city’s diversity Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodBy 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