Great article! I love the last paragraph, the one about the secret vegetable - priceless.

Gott in Himmel! That article is so full of stuff I could respond to, I'd never be able to keep my response as short as the article itself. Ms. Fine Collins is an impressive writer. She gives her dinner host too much credit, I think, when she speculates that he thought the "getting over the Holocaust" question was just a nice way to make conversation with a Jewish guest. I'll leave it at that.

I'm glad she ends with the "secret vegetable" story. Even if the Russian believes it's true, it's a light touch to a piece densely evocative of convoluted emotions and thoughts.

There was certainly a more established Jewish community in Washington, D.C.-- but the portrayal of Southern WASP attitudes towards Jews was true there as well: the difference being that a city like Washington is a bit more cosmopolitan than Kentucky, and that tends to mellow things out a little bit.