And the story continues

All was quiet for almost two years. I had been reluctant to contact Esther Diamond. Her husband was quite ill in 2007. But on May 29, 2009 I received the following message: 

Dear Mr. Ginsburg,

I hope that this e-mail reaches you.

Where to begin...

I am the son of the late (4/23/08) Esta Saltzman (daughter of Jacob Saltzman & Zelda Krikun/Cohen) & David Lubritsky (9/23/59). Was doing a search on Google for one of my mother's Yiddish films & somehow your site came up. I was especially excited to read these 2 links: shteiman and salzman

Harry Stern & Esta Diamond (in addition to Molly Picon ;-) were at my Bar Mitzvah in 1958 & my wedding in 1967. No one ever told me (as far as I can recall) that we were related. I have Bar Mitzvah pictures of them & a wedding DVD. To make a long story short, it is mentioned in your 2 pieces that Sura Rivka's sisters were Zelda Krikun/Cohen Saltzman (my grandmother) & Henya Ruchel/Anna Rachel Krikun Kahan Saltzman (who is buried right next to my mother).

My 1st cousin, Michael Fields (son of my mother's sister Ann) & I have been working on an on-line family genealogy for quite some time. Unfortunately, the Sura?/Stern/Diamond, etc., branch of our "tree" is bare. I would love to be in touch with Esta Diamond or anyone in her family to share information about our families.

I hope I've been fairly clear, but I'd welcome any questions you might have.

Thank you for posting those stories (I was at Lincoln Center for the debut of my mother's film, Love & Sacrifice, & she was upset that she didn't introduce me in the audience!) & for your time. I eagerly await a reply.

Very sincerely yours,

Jamie Lubin

Needless to say this got my juices flowing and I replied the same day:

Dear Jamie,

 Putting together the Pokrassa family web site (and you should look at the home page:  http://yousaypokrassa.googlepages.com/home ) was at first a fishing expedition to see if I could find something about my own family. Gradually I realized that  I enjoyed the process, and became less parochial.  Reuniting the Pokrassa family after a 70 year gap was dumb luck, and very exciting.  I got the message from Kiev at about 5:30 AM on a Sunday-father's day, and by the end of that day I had arranged for two cousins, one in his late 80s and the other in his early 70s to chat, and they had never heard of each other.  This made me arrogant, and when Lilya asked me to find her family, I said "Piece of cake."  I then proceeded to forget about it. She called me a couple of weeks later on my cell while I was driving back from a wedding in NJ, also on a Sunday. By the next morning, I had located Bruce Diamond.  He had me call his mother, who was so excited to hear about Lilya.... and then she asked me to find her cousin Esta, the famous Yiddish actress.  I had never heard of your mother, and started using google, and found myself getting closer and closer, having tracked her down to film festivals in Montreal and at Lincoln Center in NY.  I pulled out all the stops to get her contact information, but was unable to do so.  But she did make the call to Esther D...  

I really enjoyed making these matches...

By the way, did you attend the Bar-Mitzvah of Bruce Diamond, or any of his sibs?

Best wishes, Aaron

And I supplied the necessary contact information 

________________________________________________

Jame replied with a message and a picture:

Thank you, Aaron. Thank you for your response & for what you do! 

Speaking of dumb luck...that's how I found your site. Slowly, I'm in the midst of sending photos re my mother's career in the Yiddish Theatre to Steven Lasky (bet you know him) for inclusion at his site http://museumoffamilyhistory.net/

I had a photo from the film Three Sisters. Steve had asked me to include a date when I sent something from a film. I did a Google search for Three Sisters, Esta Salzman, Yiddish & I think film...& your site came up!

 I'm still in the midst of figuring out relationships, but it appears that Grigory's wife, Sura, was my grandmother's (Zelda Krikun/Cohen's) sister.

    I don't recall [attend the Bar-Mitzvah of Bruce Diamond], but am attaching a photo from my Bar Mitzvah with Harry (& I believe) Celia Stern, Esther & Bruce Diamond...