![]() ![]() What it is about shtetl life in Eastern Europe (we’re Ashkenazi Jews, that’s our background), what it is that really prepared Jews to make such a rich contribution to the arts, to science, to psychiatry at the beginning of the twentieth century. Shalom: Why do you think there is such a big emphasis on arts and culture in Jewish families? MS: I don’t know, it’s actually something I’ve discussed with my father a few times. But this attention to community and to arts and culture, felt very connected to a Jewish perspective, and to the tradition in the 19th and 20th century of Jewish artists and Jewish thinkers. He had this sort of famous (in my family) line, he would say “you must suffer,” whenever we were going through sort of a rough time in terms of making ends meet or finding the confidence and conviction to keep going. My grandfather really encouraged me to write and to pursue the arts. ![]()
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