Despite the fact that most American Jews trace their family to Poland, there are many misconceptions about Polish history and the history of Polish-Jewish relations. In this talk, Leon Chameides will highlight certain aspects of Polish and Polish-Jewish history, with illustrations on how members of his family were affected by them. Co-sponsored by Connecticut Voices of Hope and the Emanuel Synagogue.
Dr. Leon Chameides was born in Poland and spent the war years hidden in a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic monastery. He went to England in 1946 and came to the United States in 1949. He was Director of Pediatrics at Hartford Hospital for 10 years. He is the author of two books: Strangers in Many Lands, which is a family and personal history, and On the Edge of the Abyss, which is a translation and annotation of essays written by his father, Rabbi Kalman Chameides, between 1932 and 1936.