The thread that holds

The thread that holds

I was born Gloria Bernardi, but my father was born Jacob Moses Schwartzman. When he came to America and became an opera singer in the years just before World War I, it was a time of smoldering antisemitism. He decided that the name Giacomo Bernardi would look better on theatre marquees than Jacob Moses Schwartzman. Bernardi became a name that opened doors, soothed suspicion, and allowed him to...