The Promise of the Present and the Shadow of the Past

About the Book

“[Barbara] did not fi t the classic model of an immigrant who becomes acquainted with America through school or work, learns English, falls in love with and adopts America’s values, and is helped along in many cases by an American spouse. First of all, I was not an American. We became American together; if anything, rather than lead, I lagged behind. More important, like me, she came [from Germany] to this country fully bilingual, with considerable familiarity with its history and society, and a developed set of values. America ‘fi t’ those set of values; she did not have to discover them.” “This book is in large part for those familiar with Barbara’s community service and political work who wish they had known her longer or more closely. … This book is also for the many whom Barbara would have wished to know personally—those committed to community service who, like herself, believed strongly in voting rights, human rights, and women’s rights, who shared her limitless curiosity, and who loved history as much. The book is at the same time about my own journey. I traveled not only wherever she went during this journey, but in her constellation. I met in the process her spiritual kin, people linked to her by history, alleys she had not gone into, and relationships she had not fully explored.” (Introduction)

About the Author

Bension (Ben) Varon, an economist, was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey. He met Barbara Frass, the subject of this book, at the University of Pennsylvania, which they were both attending in 1961. Th ey were married in 1962 and moved to Northern Virginia when Mr. Varon joined the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Mr. Varon is the author of three monographs on his Varon heritage and Cultures in Counterpoint: Memoirs of a Sephardic Turkish American, Xlibris, 2009. He continues to live in Fairfax, Virginia and can be reached through Benvaron@aol.com.