Imagine My Joy

About the Book

The story of Yitzhak and Gita Pearl Cramer, Shimon Levi and Dobeh Blinick and their descendants is the account of one extended family but also a reflection of its times. Told in large part through first-person recollections, this family history traces the events that shaped two centuries, from Vitebsk and pre-revolutionary Czarist Russia to mid-20th Century North America. More than the author suspected when he began his research, the family progenitors and those who followed were directly affected by the major currents of the past 200 years: the edicts, anti-Semitism and heavy-handed policing of the Russian czars; the tragedy of world war; the great 19th century escape from grim impoverishment and discrimination in Europe to the bright hope of North America; economic blight and later post-war achievement. This story –  reflecting the passions, dreams and humor of these people – is their legacy.

About the Author

Lawrence S. Freund is the great-great grandson of Yesel Blinick and Shlomo Yosef Gasilovsky of Vitebsk (and Elias Freund of Bohemia). He was born in New York in 1940, the son of Edith Blinick and Milton Freund, and is a graduate of Queens College (NY) and Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He was a long-time writer, correspondent and editor for the Voice of America, based in Washington, London, Belgrade and New York. Mr. Freund is married to Gloria L. Berkenstat Freund, great-great granddaughter of Dawid Berkiensztat and Ester Horowicz, Mordekhai Berkiensztat and Kreindl Kempner, Layzer Glixman and Hana Rozanski, Lewek Ejlenberg and Byna Lewkowicz, Zelek and Gitl Pilcowicz (all of Poland). They are the parents of Karen and Merrill Freund, grandparents of Ben and Sam Freund (the sons of Merrill and his wife Jessie Ruoff Freund).