Tom's Fair Isle Hat and Joseph Kastein

Here it is all done! The band turned under beautifully and makes a nice, firm edge.

We had a very interesting phone call today.  Bear with me with the geneology, I'm sure I'll mess some of it up.  I picked up the phone when it rang and a man asked if I was related to Kastein.  I said I wasn't but my husband was, sort of  (Tom's mother had married Joseph Kastein after she and Alfred Vogl divorced.  Joseph Kastein was an author of some note on Judaism and Judaic history).  It turns out that this man was a relative of one of Kastein's son by his first marriage.  And when cleaning out his mother/aunt's (not real clear) attic came across old photo albums of Kastein in Germany and did not know any one who might care about them.


This is Joseph Kastein / Josef Kastein / Julius Katzenstein  Tom says he doesremember Joseph looking this emaciated, but we have very few pictures of him.

Anyhow, a Google search by our caller on Joseph Kastein turned up our webpage (there are quite a few references to Kastein on the web, but ours is the second entry) with the reference to Tom's mother (Shulamith Kastein) and Tom.  The man then Googled Tom to find our phone number and called up.  I remain astounded by the power of the web (even though I've been predicting it for decades!)

A couple of years ago someone emailed who was thinking about doing a biography of Joseph Kastein.  Tom answered with what little he knew about the man, and we would let the researcher know about this wonderful find - but the email vanished several computers ago.  Let us hope that the researcher knows enough to have a standing Google search set up on Joseph Kastein - if he does - he will see this blog entry and get in touch!