Eugene Pogany

It is the universal and timely story of identical twin brothers who are born Jewish and baptized Catholic as young children in post-World War I Hungary until their lives diverge forever in the midst of the Holocaust; one brother-Pogany's father-is persecuted as a Jew, renounces Christianity and returns to the religion of his birth while his twin becomes a Roman Catholic priest who finds shelter in Italy under the wing of the saintly healer and mystic, Padre Pio. Even after immigrating to America, the brothers remain estranged-unable to heal the resulting personal conflict between them at a time when Catholics and Jews were still incapable of repairing their own historically troubled relationship.

A finalist for the 2000 National Jewish Book Award, "In My Brother's Image" is a story that encapsulates the drama of a family torn apart by the Holocaust. What Elie Wiesel has called "poignant and powerful" and the Boston Globe "a gripping, wrenching tale" is psychologist Pogany's probing, deeply personal and, in the end, redemptive effort to penetrate and heal the discord and silence within the previous generation of his family, even as he focuses a wider, impartial lens on the age-old rupture between Jews and Catholics.

Pogany has written for both academic and popular journals, as well as the secular and religious press in the U.S. and Europe on subjects relating to Jewish-Christian relations, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism. He has spoken to nearly a hundred audiences in synagogues, churches, Jewish community centers, universities and libraries, as well as appeared on numerous radio and TV programs. His speaking venues have included the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Miami International Book Fair, and the Los Angeles Consulate of the Republic of Hungary. Lawrence Lowenthal, of the American Jewish Committee, has remarked, "I have rarely heard such a powerful and moving presentation, simply mesmerizing, not only because of the content of the author's talk, but because of his beautiful speaking style." Sister Rose Thering of Seton Hall University praised Pogany's story as "exceptionally moving...his message is an everlasting one."