The Advocates with Ben Frank, "Russia, Putin, Another Cold War?"

My guest is Ben G. Frank, journalist, travel writer and author of Klara’s Journey, which tells the story of a 17-year-old-girl who must travel alone across Siberia just after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

Ben G. Frank, author, journalist, is considered one of this country’s most distinguished travel writers and commentators on Jewish communities around the world.With the publication of The Scattered Tribe, Traveling the Diaspora from Cuba to India to Tahiti & Beyond, he breaks new ground in reporting on far-flung exotic Jewish outposts. He is the author of A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe 3rd edition, A Travel Guide to Jewish Russia and Ukraine and A Travel Guide to the Jewish Caribbean and South America. (Pelican Publishing Company) Frank, a noted Jewish travel writer, traveled through Russia and the Ukraine, Siberia and the Russian Far East, China and Japan, as well as Canada, before writing this historical novel. The telling of the story, the secrets of the Rasputnis family, the deadly struggles of a young girl to find her father, the characters who seek fulfillment in overcoming jealousy and sibling rivalry, make Klara’s Journey, a read about human destiny.

A former newspaper reporter with the New Haven Register and Elizabeth Daily Journal, he has published articles in Hadassah Magazine, Reform Judaism Magazine, National Jewish Monthly of B’nai B’rith, Jewish Frontier, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Jewish Press, Jewish Exponent, Jewish Week, as well as The New Haven Register, Inside Chappaqua Magazine, and Inside Magazine, Philadelphia, PA.His books have been cited and reviewed in the New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, Associated Press, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Miami Herald, Palm Beach Post, andLauderdale Sun-Sentinel.Frank has given talks at Jewish Book Fairs, synagogues and temples. His many lectures include, “Tolerance and Identity: Jews in Early New York, 1654–1825,” at the Museum of the City of New York, as well as a talk at the 92nd Street Y. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and TV talk-shows. He is a B.A., cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and an M.A. graduate of the Center of Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University. He has been active in such professional organizations as the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Overseas Press Club, the American Jewish Public Relations Society and the Pacific Area Travel Association. Frank is president of The Frank Promotion Corp., a public relations firm, specializing in radio-tv talk-shows. He lives with his wife Riva in Palm Beach County, Florida. The couple has two sons, Martin and Monte, and four grandchildren.