Lieberman moved to New Jersey from the Bronx in 1995 and hooked up with Jewish Times publisher Shy Kramer a year later, after meeting him at a synagogue where Lieberman was giving a talk.
Lieberman’s new book is a compilation of some of his best columns, plus a special glossary for the “Yiddishly challenged.”
“Leo’s stories really began to come alive as they were edited and compiled into book form,” said Huberman, whose company, ComteQ Publishing, produced the book. “The book helped me to identify with what it must have been like for my own parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles shortly after they came to this country.”
Lieberman draws deep for his material. “When I was a principal in a Bronx school, I had a column in the school newsletter,” he said. “It dealt with school matters and we called it ‘Chalk Dust’. Then when I became a professor at Bronx Community College I expanded this column to include memories of my youth with a message for educators. That seemed to catch on and that column continued.”
His weekly newspaper column “picks up on this idea, but is expanded greatly and talks about my childhood recollections, highlighting what was, what is and even what will be.
“My greatest hope in producing this book,” he added, “is that I can help keep alive memories of our Jewish past and our Jewish roots — and provide a continuity of our heritage for our children and grandchildren.”