Category: photography

The Soup Kitchen Of Boynton Beach Needs Diapers

Meet Enrique Zuznetta, executive director of The Soup Kitchen of Boynton Beach, a privately funded place where people can eat and obtain supplies. Many bring food, thinking that is what they need. But the place also distributes clothing, personal care items and cleaning supplies.

To whom, you ask, does the Soup Kitchen serve? I never ask. If someone comes they get. But the people are financially challenged, unable to make ends meet. Some may not even be, well, you can figure it out.

We always ask his what he needs. He always says baby things: diapers, wipes, toys, baby clothes. He’d like to expand, but, as you can figure out, this is FL, a vast place with no heart and little charity.

Now, you could send diapers or wipes or a check to them directly by one clicking your Amazon Prime account or you could send them to me (9205 Clearhill Road, Boynton Beach FL 33473) and I will deliver them. The only thanks you get are the ones you give yourself for disinterested generosity.

Do a mitzvah today.

Tom Wolfe, Lenny Bernstein and the Black Panthers

I lost my friend Tom Wolfe this year. Not that we were that close, but we were more than just reader and writer friends. I helped him, along with other lawyers, develop Sherman McCoy for Bonfire of the Vanities.

I might have given him some insight into Larry Kramer, the Jewish ADA (I was a Jewish ADA), and into Judge Myron Kovitsky, a Bronx judge who refuses to be influenced by the press, the public or publicity-seeking prosecutors patterned after Justice Burton Roberts, a judge I had been honored to know when I was a Law Secretary and to appear before when I became a criminal defense attorney.

Burt, by the way, took no shit from anyone. One of a kind. I wish I could have been him. He was bigger than life.

On my bookshelf is an autographed copy of the book. You might remember the bail argument where the DA wants $250,000 and the Judge sets $10,000. You might also remember what happened to the case, but that’s for you to look up.

Tom also figures in my personal tragedy, something he told me he would write about but never did. He called me right after Komar/Oliver died to provide emotional support. We had lunch together several times and went for walks. Few other people wanted to have anything to do with me. I am honored by his friendship and what he taught me about writing, reading and style.

 

Tom comes to mind for a couple of reasons. First, I went to see BlacKKKlansman. It’s story that deals with three groups: Black Panthers, Cops and the KKK. Second: Tom used the phrase Radical Chic  to dishonor those in the upper classes who would profess support for love of those fighting class and race wars while living trendy. The term appeared in an article written by him about a party at Lenny Bernstein’s 13 room Park Avenue duplex penthouse to raise money for the Panthers legal defense, called Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s. Third, today, is Lenny’s Birthday. He’d be 100.

Want some parallels. Too many abound. Like the Central Park Five, the Pahers were acquitted. Lenny took a lot of shit for his support of left wing causes and even the Rabbi who supported him got death threats. Unite the Right occurred in Charlottesburg a year ago in August. And, Donny Douchebag supports the White supremacists, including David Duke whom he purports not to have heard of.

Do more to stop hatred and racism. It happens at a cost.

 

Auschwitz Bedroom

Typhoid and dysentry and who knows what else. No sheets. No blankets. Shit through the slats. Next day, move the bodies from the gas chamber to the crematorium. Take a wiff. Listen in. Workers died from disease, exhaustion and malnutrition. Many killed. Replaced. How did the Nazis do this? Few stood up for fear of death, never thinking about others. The autocrats took over, spreading their lies about the Jews. Only Aryan children were allowed to survive. Horrific understates the evilness.

Auschwitz Banal #1

Gas Chamber

So, it looks like a room that has fallen into disrepair, but is isn’t. People shed their clothes, their jewelry, their eyeglasses, canes and everything that they had, and led their children and their friends and families and fellow Jews into this space to be gassed. The door was shut. The gas released. And they suffered a painful and miserable death. It took about 20 minutes.

Auschwitz Escapee Dies

Herman Shine died. He was one of the few to escape from Auschwitz. Less than 150 did. 1,100,000 didn’t. Some never made it to the gate. They died on the transport or were killed when they got off the train. Some were tortured by Mengele or raped by the soldiers before being executed. Shine was lucky to be young,fit and had help. The less lucky, children, the elderly and handicapped died quickly. Most died painfully from the gas.

The Jews weren’t the only ones killed here and in the camp across the tracks. Intellectuals went first. Gypsies, Russians, Polish sympathizers and other nationalities. No one said boo or boo hoo.

We will never understand how it happened or why. Our job is to honor the dead and to make sure it doesn’t happen again.