Tag: Israel 70th Anniversary
Tom Lantos (1928 – 2008)
Tom Lantos’s mother was one of 440,000 Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis. Lantos joined the anti-Nazi underground and survived. But when he learned of her death, he was not embittered. He remained positive...
Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016)
Elie Wiesel was great not because of his prodigious talents as a writer or his profound wisdom as a thinker. He was great not because of his sublime character, which combined the dignity of...
Ben Hecht (1894–1964)
Ben Hecht was a prolific journalist, novelist and playwright. He was one of Hollywood’s most sought-out and successful screenwriters, with many of his creations now considered classics.
Hecht’s life took a sharp turn in 1941...
Eugene V. Rostow (1913–2002)
A great legal mind can be used in many ways. Eugene Rostow used his to aid the cause of American democracy—and Israel.
Born into an immigrant family in Brooklyn, N.Y., Rostow soon revealed himself to...
NYC Mayors: Fiorella LaGuardia (1882–1947), Ed Koch (1924–2013) and Rudy Giuliani
The Jewish people had no better friend than Mayor of New York Fiorella LaGuardia. The “little flower,” as LaGuardia was called, spoke Yiddish and was a progressive champion of the rights of Jews, particularly...
Zev Wolfson (1928–2012)
Zev Wolfson immigrated to New York City at the age of 17 after being deported by the Soviets from Lithuania to Siberia during World War II. Despite his impoverished youth, Wolfson quickly became an...
Abba Hillel Silver (1893–1963)
Most of the great Zionists were, above all, men of action. But Abba Hillel Silver, a crucial figure in the history of Zionism, was also an outstanding scholar, the full-time rabbi of a large...
Bayard Rustin (1912 – 1987)
One of the most important leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, Bayard Rustin was a consistent advocate for Israel and a determined opponent of anti-Semitism.
Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Rustin moved to Harlem in...
Lynn and Charles Schusterman (1935–2000)
The great medieval sage Maimonides noted the importance of both the “welfare of the soul” and the “welfare of the body.” Though spiritual matters were ultimately on a higher plane, the spirit could not...
James Angleton (1917–1987)
James Jesus Angleton, was born in 1917 in Boise, Idaho, and served in the CIA for more than 30 years, since its inception in 1947.
Maintaining the rank of counter-intelligence chief for more than two...