Grace Paley, 84, dies.. NY Times obit here She was a writer, poet, feminist Jewish radical who was idolized by many of us who grew up in Greenwich Village in the late 50's & early 60's. She had been in the War Resisters League and honored last year by the Jews For Racial & Economic Justice. For a recording of Paley reading her own work including the short story "Friends," click here. Katha Pollitt has a good reminis in the Nation together with a Paley poem you should read right now .

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomo Vanzetti, Italian anarchist-oriented union organizers were executed 80 years ago on August 23, 1927. They’ll be remembered at Union Square at 6PM Thursday Aug. 23, 2007.-+

Genocide Remembered. Do not omit reading this moving story by the LA Times’ Maria La Ganga about a nazi holocaust survivor who remembers concentration camp life at the end of hers (via The Columbia Journalism Review.)

Genocide Forgotten The Anti-Defamation League has very reluctantly left the camp of Armenian genocide deniers. Until a few days ago, ADL policy denied that the 1.5 million Armenians killed under the Ottoman Empire were victims of genocide. Probably concerned with fostering good relations between Israel and its ally Turkey, ADL Director Abraham Foxman fired its New England director for not blaming equally the Otttomans and their victims (Try substituting Nazis & Jews). The resulting outcry forced ADL and Mr. Foxman fold. they now agree that genocide occurred but continue to oppose a US Congressional resolution which would expressly recognize that. If its not directly about Jews, the ADL is just short-sighted. See also coverage by Scott Horton and Richard Silverstein . Also the Forward's Jennifer Siegel here.

Lucho. A few weeks ago at a public reading session at the Periodical Room of the NY Public Library, I heard a story which has now been published in the Boston Review. Lucho by Patricia Engel still is a strong story by an author who has sympathy for her characters and an ear for dialog.