From June ’06 Spotlight: Joe Lelyveld, retired foreign correspondent and former editor of THE MEW YORK TIMES, spoke to an overflow audience at the Newberry Library on Thursday April 20. The program, co-sponsored by the Chicago Humanities Festival, coincided with the paperback release of Lelyveld’s new memoir OMAHA BLUES.
Although the book itself contains many incidents of specific interest to Jewish-Americans (Lelyveld’s father was a rabbi), the Newberry crowd was more focused on current events and Lelyveld was happy to oblige. “We were all very interested in the world during the Cold War. We wanted to know if events were good or bad for America. We no longer care about specific circumstances. Big danger! This leads to the idea that we can go into a country and ‘straighten things out.’ No big deal!”
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