Francine Wolfisz is the Features Editor for Jewish News.
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Strange Fruit did more than just propel Billie Holiday’s fledgling music career – it sparked a debate that became the beginning of the civil rights movement.
While the song was written into history books for perpetuity, including being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978, the story behind
Strange Fruit’s Jewish composer and lyricist, Abel Meeropol, has largely been forgotten over the decades.
Interest in the song has now resurged thanks to Sky Original’s new biopic,
The United States vs Billie Holiday, which places
Strange Fruit right at the heart of the plotline.
The author and her husband, Eric, at their wedding in Wisconsin in 2019.
It was Christmas morning, not the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, that broke me. My husband, Eric, his sister and I gathered around the fire in our home in Illinois, coffees in hand and cookies within arm’s reach. It had been the deadliest, most infectious month of the COVID-19 pandemic yet, as patients struggled to breathe in their hospital beds and raspily said goodbye to families through phone screens and window panes. Eric had suddenly lost his uncle to the virus a few weeks ago. So it was decided: We would spend Christmas away from the extended family, nestled in our tiny, tested bubble, and call into the celebrations while the rest of the family gathered with one another as they did most weekends, pandemic be damned.