Volume XXI, Issue IX | www.thejewishvoice.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
MOTHER’S DAY
5 Iyar 5775 | April 24, 2015
David Kertzer wins Pulitzer BOSTON (JTA) – Historian David Kertzer won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography detailing how Benito Mussolini’s secret relationship with Pope Pius XI influenced the Italian dictator’s persecution of his country’s Jews. Kertzer, a professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, was recognized in the biography-autobiography category for “The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe.” Also recognized, for fiction, was Anthony Doerr for another book on World War II, “All the Light We Cannot See,” a complexly woven and emotionally powerful novel set in occupied France and Nazi Germany. The prestigious journalism and literature awards were announced April 20. Kertzer based his book on research into papal documents from the inter-war years released by Pope John Paul II and other material. The Pulitzer committee called it “an engrossing dual biography that uses recently opened Vatican archives to shed light on two
David Kertzer men who exercised nearly absolute power over their realms.” Kertzer told The Brown Daily Herald, “The ‘eye-opening’ revelation constitutes a concrete example of Pius XI provoking statesanctioned anti-Semitism in the years leading up to and during World War II.” Kertzer’s 1997 nonfiction book, “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,” won the National Jewish Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is being made into a film by Steven Spielberg based on a script by Tony Kushner.
Reps. Mia Ackerman and Aaron Regunberg, far right, pose with, from left, Rabbi Wayne Franklin of Temple Emanu-El, Jewish Alliance of RI Community Relations Director Marty Cooper and Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger at the State House.
Bernd Wollschlaeger brings powerful story to community Holocaust event BY PATRICIA RASKIN Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger was the keynote speaker for the 31st Annual Rhode Island Interfaith Commemoration of the Holocaust on April 15 at Temple Emanu-El. This year’s
commemoration honored the memory of the 6 million Jewish victims and millions of others who perished in the darkness of the Shoah. Now a Jew by choice, Wollschlaeger was born the Christian son of a World War II German
tank commander. Wollschlaeger’s father, a third generation warrior, received Germany’s highest military honor, the Iron Cross, which was pinned on his uniform by Adolf Hitler himself. STORY | 29
When El Al flew to Tehran
BY URIEL HEILMAN JTA – Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, fell on April 23. In honor of the Jewish state’s 67th birthday, we present, in no particular order, 10 little-known aspects of its history.
1. El Al used to fly to Tehran.
Iran and Israel enjoyed mostly good relations until the Islamic
And nine other things you may not know about Israel’s past
revolution that overthrew the shah in 1979. Iran recognized Israel in 1950, becoming the second Muslim-majority country to do so (after Turkey). Iran supplied Israel with oil during the OPEC oil embargo, Israel sold Iran weapons, there was brisk trade between the countries, and El Al flew regular flights between Tel Aviv and Tehran.
All that ended a week after the shah’s ouster, when Iran’s new rulers cut ties with Israel and transferred its embassy in Tehran to the Palestine Liberation Organization. Even after 35 years of hostilities, however, Iranians have less antipathy toward Jews than any other Middle Eastern nation. A 2014 global anti-Semitism survey by the
Anti-Defamation League found that 56 percent of Iranians hold anti-Semitic views – compared to 80 percent of Moroccans and 93 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. For more on Israelis in Iran, check out the 2014 documentary “Before the Revolution.”
2. Israel is home to hundreds of Nazi descendants.
At least 400 descendants of Nazis have converted to Judaism and moved to Israel, according to filmmakers who made a documentary about the phenomenon several years ago. In addition, others converted to Judaism or married Israelis but do not live in the Jewish state – for example ISRAEL’S PAST | 28