Out & About
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Agnieszka Barbara Legutko-Olownia swung by the Center for Jewish History’s gala by way of Krakow. Last year, Ms. Legutko-Olownia, a Catholic born and raised in Poland, gave a tour of Auschwitz and Krakow’s Jewish quarter to New Yorkers Susan and Alan Patricof, a prominent couple in Democratic fund-raising circles (the two hosted a Kerry fund-raiser at their Hamptons home over the summer). They were immediately taken with the young scholar.
Now their roles have reversed and the Patricofs are the guides. They invited Ms. Legutko-Olownia to the Center for Jewish History and plan to take her to see “Fiddler the Roof” on Broadway next.
Ms. Legutko-Olownia had become interested in Jewish culture when her father brought home an audiotape of the 1971 “Fiddler” soundtrack.
“It was only available in Poland a few years ago,” she explained, “and I listened to it over and over.”
She fell in love with Sholom Aleichem’s tale of Teyve the Milkman and began to study Yiddish. The language became the focus of her academic career: Over the summer, the 27-year-old moved to New York to become one of five graduate students in Yiddish Studies at Columbia University.
Wednesday’s benefit, a celebration of the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in North America, offered partygoers plenty of opportunities learn about Jewish life. There were exhibits on Isaac Bashevis Singer (whose stories were the subject of Ms. Legutko-Olownia’s master’s thesis) and Jewish baseball players. There was music of American-Jewish composers such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Weill, and Bob Dylan performed by the Rafi Malkiel Quintet.
And, of course, there was food. The meal “from the Jewish-American kitchen” included poached salmon, braised flanken mignon, and desserts including hamantaschen and macaroons.
The event drew 200 guests and raised $825,000 for the center, led by Executive Director Peter Geffen and Chairman Bruce Slovin. Members of the dinner committee were Karen and William Ackman; Tracey and Bruce Berkowitz; Mr. Slovin and his wife, Francesca; Diane and Joseph Steinberg; Edward Steinberg, and Michele Cohn Tocci. The center houses the collections of the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, the Yeshiva University Museum, and the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research.
