Pixorium Success Story: “Mazel Tov on Creating a Family Story Masterpiece!”

“In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

While “Life is a Story. How do You Tell Yours?” has been Pixorium’s tag line since its founding in 2006, no one has embraced it like Drs. Barry Silverman and Ron Goldstein.

In a mere 17 months, the core team of three (the Drs. and I), ably assisted by six family members and our intrepid and talented graphic designer, Rick Robbins, created a gorgeous, readable 264-page book. Truly, a family story masterpiece that succeeded in doing just as Barry envisioned – a book to bring the growing family closer and create a legacy of the 20th century Southern and American Jewish experience.

How did it happen? It started as Barry recently described:

“About two years ago, I realized that, with all the national discussion on emigration, the concern for allowing poor uneducated immigrants into the country, and for allowing (those) families to bring other family members, were the very circumstances that existed when my own family immigrated in 1906 from Zabludow, in the Bialystok region of Russia, where pogroms were murdering Jews. My immigrant family members were poor and spoke only Yiddish.

What also concerned me was the first generation who came to this country was dead and my generation, their grandchildren and the last who knew those first immigrants personally, was aging. How could I be sure my grandchildren knew the story of their ancestry and connect with cousins spread coast to coast? Families are the building blocks that create our community, religious and civil….

I wanted to create a book that had the family ancestry, pictures and stories about every member of the descendants of Elka and Shmuel Yankel Goldstein, … a book that could be handed down from one generation to the next.”

My journey with Barry and The Family of Shmuel Yankel Goldstein, From Zabludow to Atlanta, California and Beyond began June 28, 2018 – my first meeting with Barry. He described his vision for a book. We reviewed samples of books I’d created with other families, discussed the book creation and production process and a potential timeline. Finally, we spoke about potential content – essays and photos, yes, but what else to make the book compelling? – and how best to solicit that content. Here’s a bit of Barry’s email to the family, sent the day after our initial meeting:

“Dear Family; We have started the second phase of building our family…book. I have hired a professional…who… will help and advise us as we create the album…I would like you to start collecting pictures, letters, newspaper articles, and especially short stories about family. As you get back in touch, we will talk about the stories you would like to include about your family.

The album will have an introduction which will include stories about the family origin in Europe, trip to USA, life in Bialystok, Poland at the beginning of the 20th century, the 1906 pogrom, and the Zabludow synagogue, interesting facts mixed with family stories. Then there will chapters for each child of Shmuel Yankel Kaveleriski (Goldstein) – Avram Mayer, Mary Dena, Morris, Joe, Irving, Ida, and Rose. These chapters will include information and pictures of all family members we can identify to the latest grandchild. Hopefully pictures of family and Jewish life, business and professional lives, and first homes and grand homes, famous recipes, and great parties. Examples would be Ida’s Shabbat dinners and her mandel bread, Rita and Marvin’s break the fast including the night of the Yom Kippur war…I hope you can get to work on this, talk with family and start sending me materials by the end of summer….”

Later that summer, Barry realized this project demanded a co-leader – it was just too big for him to do singlehandedly. Fortunately, his cousin, Dr. Ron Goldstein, excited by Barry’s vision and also living in Atlanta, agreed to co-lead the project. I first met with Ron on August 31, 2018 and our core team was set.

Co-editors and cousins Barry Silverman and Ron Goldstein

Beginning September 2018, Barry, Ron, and their family assistants, contacted 100+ adult family members from literally coast-to-coast. While some members were excited by the vision and the opportunity for contribution, others were understandably busy with other priorities. Fortunately, Barry and Ron, while gracious, were tenacious, requesting and collecting 1800+ images (both tangible and digital photos, newspaper clippings, recipes, etc.), 128 essays and untold captions. The 1000+ tangible image pieces were scanned and returned to the family member who lent them. A video (from a 2008 family reunion) and an interview (on cassette tape, of Ida Levitas, child of Elke and Shmuel Yankel) were transcribed. The 128 essays were written, received and copyedited.

Between January and June 2019, I constructed the magnificent puzzle that became this book. Soon, I began to call the Goldsteins “the octopus family” – the parents’ and their seven children’s stories were eight arms holding the history of the Jewish immigrant experience of the 20th century, including escape from 1906 pograms to America, moving west to California, having major roles in the 1960s Civil Rights movement in Atlanta, and success in medicine, dentistry, politics, business and academia.

But stories of success alone do not make compelling reading. The Goldsteins are also blessed with talented writers, who told stories of the reality of 20th century Jewish immigrant life, including a murder, a Jewish madam in burgeoning California matching Jewish boys with Jewish picture brides in Denver, a harrowing experience with the KGB in Russia, and blatant anti-Semitism in dental school.

Through it all was family – required attendance Aunt Ida’s Shabbat dinner if you were in Atlanta or Passover with cousins in cities you visited for school or work. Whether you were in Boston, Sacramento or South Bend, there was a Goldstein cousin happy to share stories and blessings. Or, in Barry’s case, warmly welcome you to the wedding of a cousin you’d never met. Love, the oil, cement, and music of Nietzsche’s quote, made tangible.

Though we’d decided on the design concept in April 2019, I began handing off chapters of the story to Rick in late June. “Here Rick,” I said, handing him digital folders of essays and images, “make this look as amazing as the stories and photos.” And that he did.

Ron, Barry and I agreed early in 2019 on the book debut date – November 29, 2019 – at The American Hotel in Atlanta, once owned by Irving and Marvin Goldstein, Ron’s father and uncle. The printer, Booklogix, expected us to provide the print-ready files right after Labor Day in order to make the deadline. It wasn’t just because of the heat that Rick and I worked up a sweat during the summer of 2019 – designs and changes flew back and forth between us and Ron and Barry. We met that September deadline, happily handing off the print-ready book files.

At every step of book production, technology is both the blessing and the curse. It was the back cover color that gave us fits for this book – the printed color was just wrong. The print-ready files were right – somehow the press wasn’t reading the files correctly. Fortunately, thanks to Rick, the printing crew, and a few calls with the press manufacturer, the Zabludow synagogue printed correctly, not as bright pink.

The strangest thing about my work is I readily recognize people who have no idea who I am. After 17 months, I couldn’t wait to meet the cousins in person. In many cases, I knew how they fit in the family tree better than they did.

Ron and his wife, Judy, arranged a lovely late afternoon event in the ballroom of the hotel. Seventy-five cousins were expected. Very few knew me. Many of the rest asked, “Are you a cousin? I’m…” and introduced themselves. I was the only non-family member in the room.

As we handed out the books (enclosed in a lovely zippered tote), the lively conversation subsided as heads bowed over the book and into each other.

How do you know if your book is a success?

You silence a noisy ballroom….

Did Barry and Ron also succeed in bringing the family closer by sharing the stories of their family’s experience? Here’s Graham Levitas, great-grandson of Ida Levitas, second youngest child of Elke and Shmuel Yankel, on this question:

“Being part of this family has been a blessing my whole life. Imagine discovering that the same family dynamic exists in other parts of the country, completely synonymous to your own childhood – with the same love and care for the namesakes, same traditions, and goofiness. Not to mention the incredible recipes that are continuously passed down into the 4th and 5th generations.”

Graham, who lives in Atlanta and present at the November debut, was so excited by the book that he traveled to California in early February 2020 to attend the California cousins’ book debut party, despite knowing only a few of those family members.

And consider Josh Blum, living in California, who didn’t know until recently he was even part of this family. Imagine discovering 40 cousins who were delighted to welcome you and being given a book with a detailed family tree so you could see where you fit in, along with 128 stories and hundreds of photos of your people and history.

A family’s life is a story, with breadth and depth rarely imagined and impact rarely tapped. Few families are fortunate enough to have members with the vision, drive and tenacity to create a masterpiece and lasting document that shares the stories and the love. The Goldsteins, however, have such members, and are very fortunate indeed.

And I, now known as “Jiffy Goldstein” by the way, am just delighted to have been a part of this family story masterpiece.

Mazel Tov!

The core team – Barry, Jiffy and Ron – at the November 2019 debut

The able assistants and Jiffy for the California book debut, February 2020