The Jewish connection

Strauss was of Jewish heritage, and thus the American Jewish Archive at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati also has files on Strauss. I spent a couple of days there this week, pouring over their files. Kevin Profitt was very helpful in connecting me with the material. He subsequently took vacation in San Francisco and was inspired to take a walk across the GGB!

The files contained pictures, articles, and many 1927 letters and telegrams attesting to Strauss' bridge-building skills addressed to the Port Authority NYC. Happily the AJA also had some photos, postcards of the Redwoods, about which Strauss wrote a poem dated October 2, 1932 and also sheet music for a setting of the poem by Oscar Rasbach. The AJA gave permission to use this material with acknowledgement. In fact Kevin even arranged for them to digitize it and provide it to me on a CD.