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His home did not survive the Eaton Fire. But one precious family heirloom did.

JL;DR SUMMARY Josh Kotler faced the devastating loss of his Altadena home in the notorious Eaton Fire, which consumed over 6,500 structures in Northeast Los Angeles. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Holocaust SurvivorsHanukkahMenorahJewish ResistanceJewish SurvivalFamily HeritagePasadenaBielski PartisansEaton FireAltadena

Places mentioned

Pasadena, California, United States
"At left, the remnants of the Kotler home in Pasadena."
Altadena, California, United States
"As Josh Kotler sped away from the inferno closing in on his house in Altadena, regret was already sinking in."
New York, United States
"It had been a fixture of Kotler Hanukkah gatherings since Josh, now 39, was a kid growing up in New York."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"After the war, the Kotlers moved to Bari — a city in Southern Italy — and then immigrated to the United States."
Los Angeles, California, United States
"The Eaton Fire had laid waste to northeast Los Angeles, part of a catastrophic series of blazes in the city that killed at least 24 last week."
Bari, Italy
"After the war, the Kotlers moved to Bari — a city in Southern Italy — and then immigrated to the United States."
Belarus
"They had been part of the Bielski partisans, Jewish resistance fighters who battled the Nazis in the forests of Western Belorussia  modern-day Belarus."

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Cairo Item ID 41524
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-01-14 05:30:46 UTC
Curated 2025-01-14 08:31:31 UTC