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- Stories & Articles by Sonia
Articles and Stories by Sonia Pressman Fuentes
- In Memoriam: Lynn Ruth Miller.
- On July 29, 2020, the new website of the Cornell Club of Sarasota-Manatee was launched. It included Sonia's article on her friendship with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
- Sonia's article, "The Meadows has a fascinating history," appeared in the online newspaper, the Sarasota News Leader, on Sept. 13, 2019. Sonia bought a condo at The Meadows in March 1999 and thereafter spent varying amounts of time there during the winters. Beginning on Nov. 1, 2006, she lived there full-time until Nov. 1, 2019, when she moved to a nearby Jewish senior community called Aviva. In early January 2020, The Meadoword, the newspaper of The Meadows, republished that article. You can access it here.
- Sonia's article, "How Being an Immigrant Shaped My Life," appeared in the summer newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of SW Florida, published on April 3, 2019, and on its website. You can read the article in pdf format here.
- On Jan. 14, 2019, Sonia's remembrance of her late, feminist friend, Dr. Bernice "Bunny" Sandler (known as the "Godmother of Title IX"), who died at the age of 90 on Jan. 5, 2019, in her Washington, D.C. condo, was published in the "We Remember" section of the Jewish Women's Archive (JWA).
- On Nov. 1, 2018, a paperback anthology of writings by older women about their lives entitled “You’re Doing What?: Older Women’s Tales of Achievement & Adventure,” edited by Marjorie Penn Lasky, was published. In a section called " A Life of Activism," it contains a piece by Sonia named "Eighty-five years old in Sarasota County, Florida." The book can be purchased from Amazon. For purchases in bulk, Regent Press (regentpress@mindspring.com) will take orders for 10 or more books and provide them at a discount.
- Sonia's write-up of her experiences with Hurricane Irma in Sarasota in September of 2017 appeared in the Cornell Alumni Magazine of July/Aug. 2018 in the Class Notes for her class, the class of 1950, on page 69.
- On March 20, 2018, Mary Wilson, president of the Greater Orlando, FL chapter of NOW, put Sonia's write-up on how she became a feminist in the chapter's enewsletter.
- In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, 2018, The Forward newspaper shared its readers' stories, including Sonia's.
- Sonia participates in a one-hour webinar set up by the National Women's History Project (NWHP) on Jan. 13, 2016. 1) Click here to read about NWHP. 2) To listen to the oral comments and see the written comments, click on "webinar archive" toward the bottom of your screen. On the "webinar archive" screen, it is, however, very difficult to move the written comments up or down. 3) To get a clearer view of the written comments and to be able to move them up and down easily, click on "Chat Log." 4) Click on "Final PowerPoint Presentation" if you would like to see that.
- Sonia's article on the second wave of the women's movement: its origin, accomplishments, and the problems that remain--both in the U.S. and globally--appeared on June 14, 2015, on the website of the Institute for Science and Human Values.
- Sonia's write-up appeared on the Facebook page of the Red Star Line Museum commemorating the 81st anniversary of the arrival in the U.S. from Germany, via Belgium, of Sonia and the rest of her immediate family.
- "My Jewish Weekend in Sarasota," sent by Sonia to her friends, Nov. 16, 2014.
- "History Without Hitler?", Op-Ed in the New York Times and its international edition, October 26, 2014. This Op-Ed was written by Sonia's friend, Timothy Ryback, and edited by Sonia.
- "End of Life Issue," October 16, 2014.
- “Top 18 Issues Challenging Women Today,” The Shriver Report, May 5, 2014.
- Sonia’s letter of April 16, 2014, to Bishop Frank J. DeWane, bishop of the Venice, FL diocese, is on the blog of Bridget Mary Meehen.
- “The Second Wave of the Women’s Movement—Past, Present, and Future,” Women You You Should Know website, March 26, 2014.
- Sonia reminisces about her three British feminist friends, March 25, 2014.
- Sonia’s article about her trip to the Catskills appeared in the Jewish News of Sarasota-Manatee (Jan. 2014, Vol. 44, No. 1, p. 23A).
- Three-part series by Sonia in the Sullivan County Democrat, a newspaper in the Catskill Mountains of New York State.
- Sonia’s submission to the book Mother Knows Better - Sense and Nonsense from American Moms by Patti Murphy is one of over two hundred momisms in the book.
- Sonia’s article about the travails of The Forward after Superstorm Sandy appeared in Der Bay (Vol. XXIII, No. II, Mar.-Apr. 2013, p. 12).
- NOW (National Organization for Women) Founder Sonia Fuentes Gives Back To Education.
- "A heart-healthy diet is easier to adhere to than it may seem, especially with plenty of grocery and restaurant choices in Sarasota," December 7, 2012. (To see this article, which first appeared in the online Sarasota News Leader, once the large picture appears, scroll down to the article.) On April 27, 2015, the article was published on the website of Vegan Everyday Stories. On May 22, 2015, a shortened version of the article appeared on the website of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
- “A Journey of Discovery,” Sonia’s article about her September 2011 week’s trip to Germany exploring Jewish life in Germany, published in two parts.
- "Finding My Identity as a Feminist" - This article appeared in the online magazine, Identity, on September 21, 2011.
- "My Story" - This article appeared in HavaMag, Issue 4, August, 2011.
- To access the article:
- Click on the arrow to the right until it takes you to the Table of Contents on the left.
- Click on the first item in the Table of Contents, which is the article about Sonia, on page 10.
- When you come to the article, double click on each page to make the type readable.
- To access the article:
- "First Woman: Sonia Pressman Fuentes," appeared at the end of July 2011 in Ms. JD, an e-zine for women law students and lawyers.
- “Judging Our Future: Supreme Women Move Up,” about the increasing percent of women judges on the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts, went online in the Café section of On the Issues e-zine on December 21, 2010. In February of 2012, the article was added to the featured news & comments section of the website of Cornell University’s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice.
- "Advancing Rights: 1964 Marks the Beginning of a New Era" - This article was published in On The Issues Magazine, Café section, on August 25, 2010, in celebration of Women’s Equity Day, the 90th anniversary of suffrage, August 26, 2010.
- Sonia has written articles for Scitable, a website for women in science, or been introduced as a resource on women and employment law for Scitable, as follows:
- Sonia decries American women’s ignorance of the legal rights they have achieved since the early 1960s and lists those rights. (August 13, 2013)
- Sonia discusses breast implant ruptures and leaks. (Mar. 21, 2011)
- "Sonia Pressman Fuentes on Pregnancy Leave, Parental Care Leave, and the Law" - Sonia explains the law on leave and benefits in connection with pregnancy, delivery, and post-delivery. (July 28, 2010)
- Correction to posting of June 3, 2010, introducing Sonia as Scitable’s resource on women and employment law. (June 4, 2010)
- Sonia is introduced as Scitable’s resource on women and employment law. (June 3, 2010)
- "My Life After Divorce" - Sonia discusses her life after divorce for a “Divorce and Women’s Success” series. (2010)
- "A Negative Experience, A Positive Outcome" - The lucky day Fuentes was fired. (2009)
- "First Wedding at the Fontainebleau," an unpublished anecdote, November 23, 2008.
- Added as a Luminary on inspiremetoday.com, Oct. 2009, and updated in Nov. 2013.
- “If You Build It, They Will Come—The Birth of A Yiddish Club,” published in Der Bay, The International Anglo-Yiddish Newsletter (Vol. XVII, No. 9, Nov. 2007). Sonia starts a Yiddish Club in Sarasota, FL. Also published in the Gantseh Megillah. (Nov. 14, 2007, Issue 8.10)
- "My Fortuitous Escape from the Holocaust and My Life Thereafter" - This article is published on a Web site called "Women and the Holocaust." (2006)
- “A Love Letter to Ostuni” (2005)
- "My Visit to Piltz" - A sequel to "A Visit to Piltz." (2005)
- "Three-hour Tour Turns Unforgettable" - This article, by Fuentes, recalling the saga of her trip to the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford estates in Ft. Myers, FL, appeared in The East County Observer, a newspaper in East Manatee and Sarasota Counties, Florida, January 16, 2003.
- "A Special Bond" - Sonia wrote an article about the water exercise class she attended at the Y on Potter Park Drive in Sarasota starting in 2003.
- "I Lucky Everything: The Story of a Real `Miss Saigon'" - Along with a manicure, a reminder of how immigrants revitalize our nation. (2002)
- "A Visit to Piltz" - This article is about Fuentes' August 2001 journey to her parents' birthplace, a village called Piltz in Poland. (2001)
- "How I Built a Life in Retirement" - Sonia had a difficult time adjusting to retirement, and then she entered the best years of her life. (2000)
- "How I Published My Memoir: A Lawyer-Feminist's Story" - This is the story of the six years Fuentes spent in researching, writing, publishing and marketing her memoir and making the transition from being a lawyer to a writer and public speaker. (Also see: "How I Got Published in South Africa) (2000)
- "A Seder in Shanghai" - Fuentes participates in a seder in a most unlikely city, Shanghai, China. This piece appeared previously in JoyZine and on Harry Leichter's website. (1999)
- "HUD Goes to the Moscow Trade Show" - This article was originally published in Sparks 28. March - April, 1999. (1999)
- Breast Cancer and Ruptured/Leaking Breast Implants - The story of Fuentes' experience with breast cancer. (1998)
- "Three United States Feminists: A Personal Tribute" - This article is about Fuentes' most memorable encounters with Alice Paul, the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, and Catherine East (1998).
- "Representing Women," a 17-page article, originally published in Frontiers, A Journal of Women Studies (Vol. 18, No.3, Nov. 3, 1997), by the Washington State University Press, was Sonia’s first published article about women’s rights. You can read it here. (Scroll down past the first page to access the article.)
- "House of History" (written in 1996) -- A history of the headquarters of the National Woman's Party (NWP). The house, most recently known as the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument and previously known as the Sewall-Belmont House, was for many years the headquarters of the National Woman's Party. However, at the end of 2020, NWP ended its existence and transferred its functions to the Alice Paul Institute in New Jersey.
- "Magnolias" - A Washington, DC, love story. (1996)
- "Family Past Unfolds Like Detective Story" - Research Leads to Ship's Records, a Movie and Snapshots. (1995)
- “Impressions: The Status of Women in Southeast Asia,” published in the Common Law Lawyer (no longer in existence), Sept.-Oct. 1978. (To enlarge the print on machines using Windows, hold down the control button of your computer while moving the wheel of your mouse. If viewing through Adobe Acrobat, enlarge the text with the plus button, or use the percentage dropdown list.)
- In March 1970, an article called “Job Discrimination and the Black Woman” written by Sonia under her maiden name was published in the NAACP’s Crisis magazine. In June 1970, Pauli Murray introduced that article into the record of the House Special Subcommittee of the Education Committee chaired by Rep. Edith Green.
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Sonia Pressman Fuentes
A Visit to Piltz
by Sonia Pressman Fuentes
In the 1970s, after my father's death, when I told my mother that I planned to go to Poland someday, she said, "What for?" Both she and my father had been born in Poland in a shtetl [village] called Piltz, but to my mother Poland meant poverty and antisemitism.
My mother died in 1975, but the urge to visit Poland stayed with me. This pull to return to my roots was, of course, not unique to me. Many, if not most, people share it. Frank Viviano, the author of Blood Washes Blood, A True Story of Love, Murder, and Redemption Under the Sicilian Sun, wrote as follows about his trip to the Sicilian town of Terrasini, where his family had lived for generations:
"I can't really explain why I've come here, to a village where I know no one and have no past of my own."
It was a drive to complete my life, to go back to where it all began, for my parents and therefore also for me.
But I was torn by the decision. I knew of Poland's antisemitism, in the past and today. Poland was also currently anti-feminist. Why should I, a Jew and a feminist, go to a country with a long history of antisemitism and a current backlash against women's rights?
On the other hand, Ellen Friedland, the co-producer of a PBS documentary about a Polish synagogue, wrote me that Poland was "magical" and encouraged me to go.
Conflicted as I was, I made plans to go to Poland on August 11, 2001, on a two-week Elderhostel Jewish Heritage trip, and arranged for a side trip to Piltz. I wanted to see and step foot in the shtetl where both my parents had been born and married and where my grandparents had lived. Furthermore, the first chapter of my memoirs (Eat First--You Don't Know What They'll Give You: The Adventures of an Immigrant Family and Their Feminist Daughter), takes place in Piltz. I based it on what I remembered of my parents' stories but I wanted to see how close my recollection was to the truth.
But I didn't know where Piltz was. My research revealed that there appeared to be two towns named Piltz--one in Kielce province and the other in Katowice province. Furthermore, while Piltz was the name my parents used, the Polish names were different. It was generally referred to as Pilica, but was also called Pilitsa and Pilitz. In addition, there was another town called Pilzno. I could not tell which town was my parents' shtetl.
I decided to visit the Piltz that was northeast of Bedzin (Bendin in Yiddish), Katowice, and Sosnowiec since I'd often heard my father mention those towns. I learned a good bit about the history of this Piltz and its Jews. The name of the settlement was already noted as Piliciam in the year 1228. In 1897, its population was 3,950, about 68 percent of whom were Jewish. Before the war in 1939, its Jewish population numbered about 2,500.
In Kiddish Hashem: Jewish Religious and Cultural Life in Poland During the Holocaust, by Shimon Huberband, Jeffrey S. Gurock and Robert S. Hirt, the authors state that Piltz was an "ancient Jewish community" with a Jewish cemetery dating back several hundred years and a very old and "exquisitely built" synagogue. Renowned Talmudists served as its rabbis. A note stated: "During the first expulsion [of Jews] of January 5, 1940, the Nazis killed, shot, confiscated Jewish possessions, etc. During the second half of 1942 the community was totally liquidated. The few remaining Jews were sent to the Maidanek death camp."
In addition to visiting Piltz, I decided to see if I could find any record of my parents. But I expected that my entire search would be fruitless: I wasn't sure the Piltz I was going to was in fact my parents' shtetl, I knew my mother's maiden name was Dombek [little oak] but I didn't know its Polish spelling, and I wasn't certain of the spelling of the names of any of my grandparents. I had not a single address or personal contact.
On August 12, 2001, I arrived in Poland. There followed almost two weeks of memorable activities in Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, Cracow, and other cities, including visits to the Warsaw and Cracow ghettos, the Jewish Historical Museum, the Nuzhik Synagogue in Warsaw, Oskar Schindler's factory in Cracow, and the deathcamps of Treblinka, Majdanek, and Plaszow.
On August 24, the tour group was going to Oswiecim to visit Auschwitz but that was the day I had arranged for my trip to Piltz. As I bid "Good-bye" to the members of the group that morning, they all said they were anxious to hear what I would find in Piltz. I nodded, certain that I would find nothing. I set off for Piltz with my driver, and Krystyna, my 70-ish Polish interpreter.
As we entered Piltz, we were struck by the loveliness of the town. There was no hint of the atrocities against the Jews that had taken place there. After we drove past the charming market square, I saw a sign in front of a building that said "Biblioteka." "Hey, there's a library," I said to Krystyna. "I'm a writer. Why don't we go there?" The driver let us out and I began walking up the driveway to the library, followed by Krystyna.
Krystyna pointed to another sign that listed the library's hours, which indicated that on Fridays, the day we were there, the library didn't open until 11:00 a.m. (It was then 10:15 a.m.). I kept walking. I hadn't traveled to Poland and then to Piltz to be stopped by a sign. Krystyna, not understanding, again spoke to me and pointed to the sign. "That's not for me, Krystyna," I said, and kept walking. At that, a window on the second floor of the library opened and a dark-haired woman stuck her head out. She was the librarian, and she motioned for us to come in.
Her name was Anna, and meeting her was one of those special moments life throws you every once in a while. Anna, a beautiful woman who appeared to be in her forties, welcomed us with warmth. I introduced myself and Krystyna and told her the reason for my visit. She was very devoted to Piltz and said it meant a great deal to her that I had written about Piltz in my memoirs and had come to visit. She told me that Piltz's current population consisted of 2014 people, not one of whom was Jewish. This shtetl, once the site of a vital Jewish community, now had not a single Jew.
Anna began looking up my family's names in various books and as she did I shared with her my mother's reminiscences about the town. During much of the conversation, Anna had tears in her eyes. When she was unable to find any record of my family, I remembered my telephone conversation with Joachim Russek, the non-Jewish head of the Center for Jewish Culture in Cracow, before I left for Piltz. When I told him of my interest in looking for family records, he suggested I see the mayor. Now I mentioned this to Anna. She called the mayor's office and arranged for me to see the woman in charge of the Office of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Anna and I took some pictures together, and she walked Krystyna and me outside. We hugged good-bye--this time we both had tears in our eyes--and drove to the mayor's office.
A large, expressionless woman was sitting behind a desk in the Office of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. I told her what I was there to find and wrote down the names of my family members and the approximate birth dates of my parents. The woman brought six huge books down from a nearby shelf to her desk and arranged them by year, starting with 1891. She found nothing in the first two books, and then while she was reviewing the 1893 book, she said, "Here it is." The writing was incomprehensible to me because it was in Russian since Piltz was under Russian control at the time. She read aloud that in 1893 my maternal grandfather, Itzhak-Moshe Dombek, had registered the birth of my mother, Hinda Leah Dombek, as March 15, 1892; that he and her mother were both forty years old at the time, and that her mother's name was Szandla Czeschkowska. My hands flew up to my cheeks. I was after all, in the right shtetl; my mother had actually been born there and I was there to see it!
We were, however, unable to find any record of my father.
After lunch, we drove to the Jewish cemetery. The driver took us to a street, stopped the car and motioned for me to enter the adjacent grounds. There was a white fence around the area, broken at the point the driver asked me to enter. I did not believe this land overgrown with grass and underbrush could be the entrance to a cemetery and was fearful of entering. But the driver insisted and, hesitantly, I entered. As we walked in, we did indeed see grounds filled with gravestones. I took many pictures of the gravestones, although I could not find--and did not really expect to find--my grandparents' gravestones. I cannot read Hebrew, so I was not able to read the names on the gravestones. But I had no doubt that I was standing in the cemetery where some of my grandparents (and perhaps other ancestors, too) were buried. Only as we were leaving did I notice the black metal entrance gate with a Star of David lying on the ground.
Then we drove to the Piltz River. When my parents first met, they had taken a fifteen-minute walk. I did not know where they walked, so in my memoirs I had them walk to the Piltz River. Now I was able to stand at its banks. It was a narrow, shallow river at the point where we stood but meaningful to me all the same.
That evening, back in Cracow, I met with Joachim at the Center for Jewish Culture and told him of my experience. He gave me a paperback book, Cmentarz Zydowski W Pilicy, edited by Leszka Hondo and published by the Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Cracow in 1995. This 328-page book, part of a series on Polish-Jewish Studies, contains pictures of all the gravestones at the Jewish cemetery in Piltz with information on the deceased in Polish and Hebrew, along with an index of names. The idea for the book came from two young men from Olkusz, a town near Piltz. They suggested that since there were neither funds nor personnel to maintain all the Jewish cemeteries in Poland, an inventory of the gravestones in each such cemetery be documented in books. The book on the cemetery in Piltz was the first such book.
After my return to my Potomac, Maryland, home, as I was reviewing my research material, I was again puzzled by the conflicting information I had received on the two Piltzes. Only this time I was able to solve the mystery. Warren Blatt, editor-in-chief of Jewish Gen, Inc., had the answer. There had only ever been one Piltz! But the internal provincial borders changed over the years. That's why Piltz was at various times in the provinces of Radom, Kielce, and Katowice, and is today in Slask province.
On August 4, 2001, before my trip to Poland, I had heard Richard Bernstein, on Book TV, discuss his book Ultimate Journey; Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment. Bernstein said:
Travel is a metaphor for a deeper search.
Travel is a way of finding yourself.
You have to go far in order to come back to yourself.
He was right on all three accounts.
© 2001 Sonia Pressman Fuentes. This article was published in the March/April 2002 issue of Outlook, Canada's progressive Jewish magazine; the Kielce-Radom Special Interest Group Journal of jewishgen.org, an issue devoted to Piltz (Vol. 6, No. 2, Spring 2002); in Heritage Writer, a newsletter published by Inkspotter Publishing in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (Vol. 2, Issue 4, Oct. 2005); and in the Algemeiner Journal (May 4, 2007), a weekly newspaper targeted to the Orthodox Jewish community.
Alex Oldfield, a Canadian who was on the tour to Poland with Sonia, is a skilled amateur photographer and took pictures throughout Poland. They can be seen here: http://www.alexoldfieldphotography.com/f903627103
Read the sequel to this article, "My Visit to Piltz, Poland."