The Hare with Amber Eyes

In The Hare with Amber Eyes, celebrated artist Edmund de Waal investigates his illustrious family history, their journey from Odessa to Vienna and Paris in the 19th century, and how they lost everything during the Holocaust except a collection of rare Japanese netsuke, which were rescued by a family maid. This collection is now the subject of an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York.

In this talk, de Waal will be joined by well-known attorney, philanthropist, and genealogist E. Randol Schoenberg for a discussion about the book and family history, the exhibition, and how family heirlooms can function as storytelling devices to perpetuate the legacy and memory of a family throughout generations.

About the Speakers

Edmund de Waal is an internationally acclaimed artist and renowned for his bestselling family memoir, The Hare with Amber Eyes (2010). He has been awarded the Costa Book Award for Biography, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize for Non-Fiction. The book under discussion is the basis for an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, by the same name, on view until May 15, 2022

E. Randol Schoenberg, attorney, philanthropist, and Jewish genealogist, is best known for his role in the restitution of the “Woman in Gold” portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer to Maria Altmann. He is a grandson of the composer Arnold Schoenberg