Recording Voices and Documenting Memories in New York City, January 2012

Recording Voices & Documenting Memories staff have been gathering interviews in New York City and environs over the past two weeks. Here are but a few of the nicest materials gathered:


Joseph Ben-David feeding pigeons in Prague, circa 1933

Joseph Ben-David (born Josef Polák) was raised in a Jewish family in Prague until the outbreak of WWII in 1939, when he fled to Palestine.


Photo of Joseph on ship to Palestine, October 1939

Joseph came to the United States in 1954, where he worked at first as a printing ink maker (a trade he had inherited from his father in Czechoslovakia). In 1973, he founded the Church of Humanism, in which he remains active to this day.


Portrait of Joseph Ben-David in New York City, January 2012

Otto Ulc (also known as Ota Ulč), meanwhile, came to the United States in 1960, after working as a judge in Czechoslovakia. He is the author of numerous books, including The Judge in a Communist State: A View from Within.


Selection of books by Ota Ulč released by 68 Publishers

One of Otto’s first jobs in New York City was at (the now defunct) Vašata Czech Restaurant on East 75th Street.


Otto in uniform at Vašata Restaurant, 1960s


Business card from Vašata, courtesy of Otto Ulč

Otto now lives in Binghamton, NY where he is retired following a career teaching political science at SUNY Binghamton.


Katerina Kyselica, New York City, January 2012

Katerina Kyselica came to the United States in 2001 after working as a lawyer (and, prior to that, a professional swimmer) in the Czech Republic. She settled in New York City two years ago, where she now heads the dob2010 initiative, promoting new Czech and Slovak design in the States.


Peter Sís DJing in Poland, 1960s

Peter Sís arrived in the United States in 1982 to make a film in Los Angeles. When he decided to remain in the country after his travel visa expired, his first offer of work came from Milos Forman, who asked Peter to design the poster for his Oscar-winning film Amadeus. Before settling in the United States, Peter had worked as a DJ (with his own show on Radio Prague) and had himself won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his animated short - Heads.


Portrait of Peter Sís in his studio, January 2012

Today, Peter lives in Connecticut and works in Manhattan. Watch out for clips from his and these other interviews on the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s web pages over the weeks to come.