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Is Anything Illuminated?

JL;DR SUMMARY Akiva Schick reflects on the complex endeavor of tracing Jewish ancestry through a reflection on Judd L. Teller's depiction of Hungarian Jews and Adam Sobsey's memoir, "A Jewish Appendix." 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

Jewish IdentityMemoirHeritageTravelHungarian JewsEuropean Jewish HistoryFamily RootsJudd L. TellerAdam SobseyHungarian History

Places mentioned

Budapest, Hungary
"...my wife and I took a trip across the old Hapsburg Empire through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest."
Prague, Prague, Hlavní mešto, Czechia
"...my wife and I took a trip across the old Hapsburg Empire through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest."
Vienna, Austria
"...my wife and I took a trip across the old Hapsburg Empire through Prague, Vienna, and Budapest."
Ukraine
"...my ancestors old villages (one of them is buried in whats now western Ukraine)..."
Romania
"...a trip he and his wife decide to take to Romania, where some of Sobseys family originated."
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
"The book culminates in a trip to Pittsburgh, where he unearths a more satisfying story of his family..."
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Cairo Item ID 85044
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2026-06-17 05:41:18 UTC
Curated 2026-06-17 08:31:32 UTC