Rafael Alvarez, Author at JMORE

A 92-year-old Owings Mills resident, Frieda Henig Stern is shown here at Attman's Deli on Lombard Street in August of 2018. (Photo courtesy of Macon Street Books)

Editor's Note Opinion

Frieda’s Story

September 28, 2018September 21, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

“We lived on the third floor of the deli,” said Frieda, noting that the family for whom the store remains named — also Holocaust survivors — had sponsored the Sterns’ arrival and lived on the second floor.

As a boy growing up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Peter M. Semel was thrilled by the sight of Jackie Robinson playing for the Dodgers and breaking the color barrier. (Photos courtesy of Semel Family)

Editor's Note Opinion

Drugs, Horseradish & Death

August 27, 2018August 21, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

Peter Semel was the son of a textile merchant. The two great historical events of his 1940s Brooklyn childhood were the ballgame at age 5 when he watched Jackie Robinson play the national pastime, and the creation of the State of Israel.

Little Free Library at 3811 Keswick Road, Baltimore (Photo by Joel Nadler)

Arts & Life Books The Arts

Paperbacks, Pilates & Pottery

August 1, 2018July 19, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

In Reservoir Hill — one of the Jewish community’s early jumps after dropping anchor in East Baltimore — stands one of those oversized birdhouses called a Little Free Library.

"Beyond Despair: Three Lectures and a Conversation with Philip Roth," by Aharon Appelfeld

Arts & Life Books The Arts

Appelfeld and Roth Leave the Library

June 27, 2018June 19, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

Aharon Appelfeld once said that while the Holocaust hovered over virtually all of his work, a more pervasive theme was loneliness.

Leonard Schleider's favorite treat: Sliced hard-boiled egg with lettuce and mayonnaise on toast (Photo courtesy of Macon Street Books)

Editor's Note Opinion

Serving Up Mitzvahs

May 23, 2018May 21, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

A proud and still tough (though not gruff) ex-Marine, Lenny Schleider, 81, once self-published a book of poetry so his loved ones would know how deeply he felt about them in case he hadn’t made it explicit.

The building that was the Bridge is scheduled for demolition (Photo by Jim Burger)

Editor's Note Opinion

The Bridges Fall Down

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

The narrow diner at 353 North Calvert St. – slammed every weekday afternoon with patrons eating real crab soup, stuffed green peppers and turkey clubs from birds roasted onsite – did business between a florist and a shingle-over-the-front-door law office.

Seder plate (Courtesy Edsel Little, Flickr Creative Commons)

Editor's Note Opinion

Pesach in the Old Neighborhood

March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

“The Haggadah is absolutely about sharing our history with the next generation,” said B’nai Israel’s Rabbi Mintz. “And it’s a good idea to personalize it with stories of a family’s ups and downs.”

The Abel Wolman Municipal Building in Baltimore (Photo courtesy Flickr)

Editor's Note Opinion

Memories of an Abel Grandpa

February 28, 2018February 16, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

Abel Wolman, who died 29 years ago last month at age 96, brought about the standardization of chlorinated drinking water (with chemist Linn H. Enslow), advised more than 50 foreign governments on public water policy and in 1975 was awarded a National Medal of Science.

"The Shape of Water" is set in Baltimore. (Publicity photo)

Arts & Life

The Shape of Water in Crabtown, USA

February 19, 2018February 28, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

While the once-and-future Baltimore will always be as real as a broken water main on your way home, the time in which this drippy love story is set might be as good as it ever gets in our fair and stubborn town.

"Return of the Giants," by Barry Chamish, 2000

Editor's Note Opinion

UFOs and the Sages

January 25, 2018January 16, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

Over the years, the possibility of intelligent life on other planets has fired up the disciplined imaginations of Jewish thinkers from Maimonides to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Rafael Alvarez's completed 2017 journal and brand new 2018 journal. (Photo by Macon Street Books)

Editor's Note Opinion

365 Blank Pages

January 5, 2018January 5, 2018 Rafael Alvarez

Bittersweet chestnuts await when I search for an idea vaguely remembered from journals long deposited in the china closet: The signatures and well-wishes – for health, for happiness, for peace — of those no longer with us, a simple schoolbook transformed into a tome of blessed memory.