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
(c) Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — I wanted to do something nice for my wife. That’s the Jewish part of this story. She went to the doctor and to exercise. Her cordovan Dansko clogs were mighty scuffed. I would put life into them. A Caymus Winery wood box held rags, brushes, Kiwi black, brown, and […]
Shining my wife’s shoes Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
© Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Kippot are among the dozen or so things I have mindlessly acquired over the years. Orthodox Jews cover their heads in public and in worship as a sign of humility before God. Conservative Jews and increasingly Reform Jews cover their heads in synagogues and temples. We acquire skullcaps,
Keeping the kippot Read More »
Jewish Religion, Oliver PollakDonald H. Harrison, 77 Miles of Jewish Stories, History, Anecdotes & Tales of Travel Along I-8. (San Diego, 2017) By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California –There are book length guides to Jewish Italy, Germany, Poland, Eastern and Central Europe and New York City. Now there is a 338-page Jewish guide to a portion of San Diego
A book to take on the road Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Oliver PollakJustin Spring, The Gourmands’ Way, Six Americans in Paris and the Birth of a New Gastronomy; Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2017) © Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — This exuberant, well written, knowledgeable, and educational romp along French mid-century trans-Atlantic food and wine trails is a delicious book on the Gallic influence on food and
The Jew in the kitchen and wine cellar Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and FoodElizabeth Rosner, Survivor Café, The Legacy of Trauma [and the] Labyrinth of Memory (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2017) 270 pages, $26 © Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Elizabeth Rosner comes to trauma study under unique personal circumstances. Her father, Carl Rosner originally of Hamburg, was freed from Buchenwald concentration camp at the age of 15 in 1945
When trauma is transmitted parent to child Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak(c) Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — 2017 was an amazing year for five almost supernatural personal interactions. The story satisfies a long pent up interest in simultaneity. It certainly is better than 100 years ago, 1917, when America pitched into Europe’s war At Passover in Jackson, Wyoming I gave a drash at the Second Seder
2017 a year for Jewish mysteries, rumination Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
(c) Oliver Pollak PORTLAND, Oregon — In the Summer of 2017 we took a 5,500-mile road trip. Richmond, California to Vancouver. The California and Oregon coasts were beautiful. Fish and chips galore. Right turn to the Trans-Canada Highway to a wedding in Winnipeg. Right turn to Omaha, Nebraska. Right turn and back to California. We
Holocaust museum completes memorable Portland trip Read More »
Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USA
Editor’s Note: This inaugurates a new series of stories where a Jewish writer searches out Jewish art in museums, galleries and libraries. (c) Oliver B. Pollak SAN FRANCISCO –We joined San Francisco’s De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor. On Thursday between Christmas and New Year we spent an afternoon at the much applauded exhibited
Segal’s Holocaust exhibit is gateway to museum art Read More »
Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Oliver PollakBy Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — I am helping in the preparation of an exhibit at the Richmond Museum of History — “Pioneer Jews to the Present: Jews of Richmond and Contra Costa County.” I am reaching out to San Diego Jewish World readers who may have memories, photographs, artifacts or stories about Richmond and
Contra Costa County Jewish history exhibit seeks help Read More »
Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, USARemembering and Forgetting Names (c) Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — We lived in Nebraska for 42 years. In 2016 we moved to Richmond on the East Bay in Northern California to be near our children and grandchildren, and less extreme weather. Long driveways, tending the lawn and trees, shoveling snow, borrowing tools, wine on back
Slipping memory for names Read More »
Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food
© Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — The November 2016 election rekindled my 1960s haiku habits. I may take the name “17 Syllable human.” An email announced Chabad’s 5 pm Menorah candle lighting at Hilltop Mall in Richmond. Latkes, song, Jews. Tuesday morning another Chabad email stated there would be candle lightings in 798
By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — One Saturday in November in the 22-story five-star Sule Shangri La in Yangon, Myanmar, I breakfasted on an Indian egg dosa and my favorite Burmese confectionary, semolina. In the lobby I read the New York Times International edition. Page 4, was about the plight of the Rohingya on
Never again? We must speak out about the Rohingya Read More »
International, Oliver Pollak© Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Australian, New Zealand and Canadian films take a while to migrate to the US. This can be agonizing, even more than waiting for next seasons Downton Abbey. Season closers leave hooked viewers on the edge of their compassion and anticipation. We’ve binged on A Place to Call Home, set in
Here’s to Australia TV’s ‘A Place to Call Home’ Read More »
International, Oliver Pollak, Theatre, Film & Broadcast© By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Sports, recreation, athletics promote healthy living, competition and social networks. They can be lifelong habits, even obsessions. When a team member dies they are missed, mourned, and remembered by the remaining teammates. You will not get this from reading newspaper obituaries. Joseph Goldstein and Peter Craig are examples.
Important parts of life obituaries tend to omit Read More »
Obituaries & memorials, Oliver Pollak, Sports & Competitions, USA