By Phyllis Chesler
Despite thunderstorms, rain, and flash flooding, at least fifteen very good people came to my home to celebrate Ibn Warraq’s new book about Churchill. The publisher, Rebecca Bynum, the founder of New English Review Press, was here as well.
The evening served as a salon of sorts—my living room was filled with glittering and intense conversation.
Despite my every worry, it all worked out. Rebecca-the-principled flew here from Nashville. G. Murphy Donovan, the retired Air Force intelligence officer and national security expert, and his wife, Anabelle Lee, took a bus all the way from Washington D.C. Laurie B. Regan, the indefatigable Middle East Forum’s webinar moderator, took a train and a taxi to get here from her home on the Hudson, which was flooded out. Jonathan Leaf, novelist, playwright, and essayist, came together with his art-maven and book-designer wife, Christina, from downtown Manhattan. Fern Sidman, the editor of the Jewish Voice, “shlepped” from far, far out in Brooklyn. Israeli culture critic Rahel Shargal somehow found her way here from Queens, an area exceptionally hard hit by the rainstorms.
A group of dear people crossed Central Park from the West Side and arrived here, none the worse for their travels: Nahma Sandrow (one of our three co-hosts), a theater scholar, emerita professor, and opera librettist, arrived early to help set up as did her photographer, playwright, and Wall Street Journal photography critic husband, William Meyers. Sublime wordsmith Michael Skakun gamely crossed Central Park as did the eminent Peter Wood, the President of the National Association of Scholars and an anthropologist.
Merle Hoffman, feminist entrepreneur extraordinaire and author, arrived dressed to the nines, which, for her, is quite usual. My partner, Susan L. Bender, Esq., joined us as did my son later in the evening.
I was impressed, moved really, by how these talented people did not let mere rainstorms keep them from what they had hoped they’d find here—intelligent conversation with highly literate people, the sort who are engaged in the issues of the day with passion and commitment.
The publisher spoke briefly and the author spoke at greater length.
I wish that all my readers could have been here too, but here’s what we can do: I’ve taped Ibn Warraq’s enormously erudite and charming mini-lecture about his book. You may listen to it if you follow this link, (towards the bottom of the page.)
First published in Phyllis’ Newsletter
