By Cory Schneider
Remember that story about the bungling thieves who tried to steal an old Jewish shopkeeper’s Passover wine supply but were foiled by his helpful neighbors? Well, neither did children’s-book author Anna Olswanger—until she did a little digging into her family’s past.
When her father died in 1981, Olswanger lost access to the family stories he kept tucked away in his memory. To reclaim them, the Memphis, Tenn., native began genealogical research that brought her to St. Louis, where her father’s grandparents settled after leaving Lithuania in the early 20th century. During her research, she found an old article from a Yiddish newspaper that told the story of the near-burglary of her great-grandfather’s saloon, located on the corner of 14th and Carr, in 1919.
“It was a hidden story,” she says. “It was a wonderful example of finding out who the real human beings are in your personal history.”
And so Olswanger did what came naturally: She turned the story into Shlemiel Crooks, a children’s book that was published last spring and will be “performed” at the New Jewish Theater on February 5.
It never occurred to her to tell her family’s story in any other way.
“I think you get this sense of community—that people took care of each other,” she says, “but, also, you understand the delight there is in life.”
