From the shtetl to the microcosm, the many worlds of Roman Vishniac
May 8, 6:15pm
$18 Suggested donation for the catered dinner, Please RSVP.
Roman Vishniac is known for the iconic photographs he took of Jewish life in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe.

For over a decade in the 1960s and 70s, CST member Michael Steinfeld made weekly visits to Vishniac's New York City apartment. Sharing dinner with him and his wife Edith in their tiny kitchen, then sitting beside and working with Vishniac in his personal library of rare scientific books, Michael got to know the icon Vishniac as the man Roman, and Roman as a writer and storyteller.

Michael has recently been studying the unpublished manuscripts of several books they worked on during those visits. At this Tisch talk he will share memories of his time with Vishniac, and introduce Vishniac's accomplishments as a microbiologist and historian of science.

As part of his talk, Michael will show brief examples of Vishniac's pioneering work as a filmmaker of the invisible life of micro-organisms.

Short bio:

Michael grew up in Queens, NY, and was a librarian and public library director in New York, Massachusetts and California for over 45 years. He now lives in Santa Rosa with his wife, Elizabeth, a fiber artists and landscape designer. They have two children, Ben and Rebecca, and three grandchildren.