Posted July 14, 2015

 

After his first wife Margit died in 1981, 47-year-old Frank Levy found himself staring out of an airplane window on his way to New York from London. “I realized then, oh, my goodness, if anything should happen to me now, my kids and grandchildren – which I didn’t have at that time – would never know their family background.”

 

And what a background it is. When he was a child, he and his family fled Nazi Germany and suffered hard times as refugees in the Middle East before immigrating to the United States. Many of his family members and friends who did not leave were not as fortunate. In the States, Levy became a successful businessman in the textile machinery industry and experienced his shares of ups and downs along the way – reinventing himself several times to get ahead.

 

It was a story worth telling, if to only his lineage, he thought. So he began writing down thoughts and memories, in hopes of one day having his life story documented. Then, after marrying Marilyn Gottlieb in 1991, he began to put into her head the idea of writing his biography. After all, she had a master’s degree and a successful career as a publicity writer at New York ad and P.R. agencies. At first, she wasn’t interested.

 

“But one day, he said, ‘you know, I’m not going to bother you about it again. I’m going to hire a lady to write the book,’ ” Gottlieb told me last week by phone from their home on Long Island, N.Y. “And I said, ‘like hell you are!’ ”

 

So, for the next four years, Gottlieb made it her mission to write her husband’s biography. But, in order to do it properly, she thought, she needed to go back to college, which she did. While working on her second master’s degree in creative writing and literature, she began to interview Levy, immerse herself in research and write the book.

 

The result: “Life With An Accent: One Immigrant’s Quest To Belong,” published in 2013. And Levy, owner of Quogue, N.Y.-based Stellamcor, Inc., which represents textile machinery companies internationally, said he is pleased with the tome. “She did a wonderful job,” he said. “I was very happy to have it written.”

 

The book is more than a biography, though – it’s an important piece of historical nonfiction that walks the reader through a certain time and place with a certain Jewish family. It takes you to Berlin, when Hitler was transforming Germany into a police state, and explains why and by what means the Levy family fled. And much of it is told through the lens of a young boy, who at the time did not realize the danger that was around him. The story also takes you on their journey to the British Mandate of Palestine, then to America, where the family finally settled for good. And, just as importantly, Levy’s relationships forged with friends around the world is highlighted nicely.

 

Levy’s career in textiles is also covered extensively, and the book helps you understand how this man, now 80 – but still with the inquisitiveness of a child and a deep passion for this industry – has been successful.

 

“People are interested in this book because it shows what immigrating does to a child who has no choice in the decision and yet their whole life is affected by it,” Gottlieb said. “And that was one of the things that I learned in writing the book. The other thing was that if you don’t read the paper or don’t follow the news online or don’t watch it on TV, what’s happening in the world trickles down and impacts everyone somehow.”