Eastchester 350th Kick-Off Event Scheduled for Jan. 26

From Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc.:

Although football play-offs will be over and the Super Bowl still a week away, Eastchester, Tuckahoe and Bronxville will be holding a kick-off of their own on Sunday, January 26, at 3:00 pm! 

 

The 350th Anniversary Year of the town’s founding in 1664 will commence with a free lecture and discussion by Jane Ziegelman, author of 97 Orchard, in the Sommer Center at Concordia College.  A book-signing and community reception will follow Ms. Ziegelman’s talk.

 

As Bob Riggs, Co-Chair of Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc., expressed, “The Steering Committee hopes to focus the community on its roots and start a year-long series of events and programs that are open to all residents.  We encourage everyone to participate as we celebrate the town’s unique history and to follow the calendar of festivities that are planned by using our website at www.eastchester350.org.”

 

Chosen by the directors of the town’s three libraries as the first-ever selection for a One Book/One Community Reading Program, Jane Ziegelman’s 97 Orchard is an edible history of five immigrant families who brought their food passions to New York and managed the challenges of producing family meals in adverse circumstances.  Since each of these families lived at 97 Orchard Street, the current home of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, she placed the families in a context, tracing the immigration movement from mid-nineteenth century Germans to the Irish and German Jews and, then, to the Russian Jews and Italians who followed in the 1890‘s and early twentieth century.  The work also includes a realistic look at life at Ellis Island and the unique food terminology of the foreign-born groups that has contributed to today’s common English.

 

Copies of the book may be borrowed from the local libraries: Eastchester, Tuckahoe or Bronxville. Some are available on Kobo or Kindle for large-print readability.  For library card holders, the book may also be reserved online through the Westchester Library System.  Or, purchases may be made at Womrath’s Bookshop in Bronxville or at the college on the afternoon of the talk.

 

The lecture on January 26 is co-sponsored by Eastchester 350th Anniversary, Inc. and the Books & Coffee Program of Concordia College.