JUNEAU, Alaska - s4story -- While a graduate student in Physics at Yale, Richard Hatch, whose hobby was magic, found a card catalog reference in the Sterling library to a book on Jewish magicians, published in Berlin in 1933. Given the date and place of publication, he assumed it was an antisemitic tract,and only much later learned the truth: that it was written to celebrate the achievements of the many outstanding Jewish magicians such as Houdini and that its author, Guenther Dammann, a young amateur magician, and his family had become victims of the Holocaust. He began translating the book into English, wanting to preserve the knowledge it contained and honor its author. Marriage, a performing career, multiple moves and raising two children with his wife, violinist Rosemary Kimura Hatch, distracted him from that task, but the Covid pandemic finally gave him the time and space to focus on finishing his translation. Lectures about his project in Hamburg, Germany and Columbus, Ohio brought it to the attention of New York Times reporter David Segal, who wrote a long profile of Hatch and his project that was published on June 24, 2024. The translation is now being edited for publication by Tannen's Magic in New York City, one of America's oldest existing brick-and-mortar magic shops, originally run by two Jewish brothers, Irv and Lou Tannen. The publication is scheduled for late Fall 2026 to coincide with the opening of an exhibit on the topic of Jewish magicians at the Jewish Museum of Amsterdam.

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Since those initial lectures, Hatch has spoken about Dammann and his book at the Holocaust Museum of Houston, at Synagogues in Shreveport, Louisiana and Park City, Utah, and for magicians in Frankfurt, Germany and most recently in Vienna, Austria. On Monday, May 4, 2026 he will be speaking about "Guenther Dammann and The Lives of Jewish Conjurers" at Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Juneau, Alaska, beginning at 7 p.m. Richard will include some performance pieces inspired by the Jewish magicians he discusses. The event is free and open to the public but donations to the local food pantry are encouraged in lieu of an admission fee.
For more information on Congregation Sukkat Shalom, the only synagogue in Southeast Alaska, visit its website:
https://www.sukkatshalomalaska.com/

For more information on Richard Hatch, visit his website:

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https://www.hatchacademy.com/magic/