Very rarely is a law enacted in anticipation of a disaster; they are almost always due to a tragedy that has already happened. …

Last November, I participated in a cemetery indexing project in one of the sections of Mt. Zion Cemetery in Queens, New York that had become overgrown and neglected when the burial society that owned it had gone defunct. There, a grave caught my eye- while the motif of a young…

A 47-year-old leather importer and his wife arrived in New York City on a business trip. Most likely exhausted from the long bus journey from Mexico, they checked into a midtown hotel where the businessman noticed that he had a headache. He took some medication and went to sleep, probably…

In April 1950, a Russian citizen named Rose Glickstein applied for American citizenship in the United State District Court located in Newark, New Jersey. She was 49 years old, a divorcee; her divorce having been finalized only four months prior. Her now ex-husband had naturalized in 1931, but as per…

There is a joke that I am almost required to begin this with- and so I will, because I cannot resist a joke, especially not one so well-worn as this: A Jewish man arrives at Ellis Island. He has been told by his brother, who is already in America, that…