Kids entralled at ‘Horn for Louis’ event

Children’s author Eric Kimmel got a chance to read his book “A Horn for Louis” to a crowd of approximately 70 Jewish New Orleans religious school children, parents and teachers on Sunday, November 23 at Temple Sinai.

Judge Jacob Karno, left, speaks about his family’s influence on Louis Armstrong as his wife Vicki, author Eric Kimmel and JCDS principal Sharon Pollin look on. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Kimmel based the work in part on the real life story of the Karnofsky family, an immigrant Russian-Lithuanian family of New Orleans Jews who befriended the  young and impressionable future jazz great Louis Armstrong. Emphasizing his own Jewish values, Kimmel delighted in relating to the children that the Karnofskys did so at a time when racial barriers were rarely broken in the Crescent City.

The event was sponsored jointly by the New Orleans Jewish Day School, the Jewish Children’s Regional Service’s P.J. Library program and two members of the original Karnofsky family, retired judge Jacob Karno and his wife Vicki.

Karno, whose father shortened the family name, never actually met the cousins and great uncle and great aunt, spoken about in the story and also recounted in the recent CCJN SOURCE 5775 story “Satchmo and the Star.” Nevertheless, he related to the gathering how his own father told him the story and recalled with some excitement how his father brought him as a very young child to meet Armstrong in February of 1949, when the jazzman reigned as King of Zulu.

With several biographies including historic photos of Armstrong and a copy of SOURCE 5775, which contains never before published photos of his family members, Karno spoke passionately about his family and their impact on the boy who would become an international ambassador for jazz music.

Sharon Pollin makes a point as children’s author Eric Kimmel, left, winds down his talk. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Although Kimmel blurred some of the facts in the story for the purpose of making the book more dramatic and appealing, the core story is substantially correct. According to several members of the Karnofsky family advanced Armstrong the money for his first cornet after his metal kazoo he often played broke apart.

The children’s author stated that the Karnofskys negotiated the purchase of the horn for Armstrong and presented it as a gift to him. This literary device allowed him to suggest that Armstrong was upset at being a charity case; that the youngster wanted to earn the horn. As he continued reading his story, Kimmel expanded on his supposition. When Armstrong runs away from embarrassment at being given the horn, Kimmel has a Karnofsky family member state that they benefited from a loan from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) rather than accept charity. Knowing they had benefited from a loan that was paid back, Armstrong becomes satisfied that he, too,  would earn the horn by paying it off in installments. (Editor’s note: the generally accepted date for the founding of HIAS is either 1902 or 1904, which would be several years after the Karnofsky family arrived in New Orleans.)

Kimmel, also read from his best-selling book “Herschel and the Hannukah Goblins” and his latest Chanukah book, “Simon and the Bear,” a story based in part on a young man whose body was recovered on a floe in the North Atlantic Ocean following the sinking of the S.S. Titanic.

Second lining through Temple Sinai. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Jewish Community Day School principal Sharon Pollin served as emcee for the event and emphasized the Kimmel story by distributing colorful kazoos for the children. Beignets were passed around the room before a Louis Armstrong tribute band came into the room and performed, eventually leading a second line procession through the building.

Religious school participants were then led back to buses to transport them back to their respective schools.

Kimmel signed copies of his books at the Temple Sinai event before leaving and also gave a reading of his other books at Octavia Books at 2:00 p.m. That event was co-sponsored by Octavia Books and the New Orleans Jewish Community Center.