One of my favorite things at work is unpredictable overlap. The very first time I understood how this could work was way back in 2011 not long after I started this blog, in a post about something completely insignificant–the decorative ironwork in the background of a picture of President Houston–that turned out to be quite important to how I do my work.
Just a few days ago we received a box from a relative of Hyman Rosenzweig, ’28:
Here’s Rosenzweig as a lad at Rice:
And here he is in one of the photographs that just came in:
It’s been labeled on the back, “Mercogliano, Italy. October 3, 1943.” That was some very hard fighting.
And here is a recent Rice News story about our brand new Houston Area Jewish Archive. Take a look at it and you’ll see the most spectacular thing that has arrived so far, a gorgeous 9-foot long silk service banner listing the names of over 200 Congregation Beth Jacob members who served in World War II. Need I tell you that there’s a star for Hyman Rosenzweig on it?
