Events in March–May 2022
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- Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power
Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power Admiral Hyman Rickover: Engineer of Power
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March 20, 2022Marc Wortman joins us to discuss his new book.
Online registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RqbaNBI_QNygIBwzfFZnVwIn person registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/.../admiral-hyman-rickover...Known as the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” Admiral Hyman George Rickover (1899–1986) remains an almost mythical figure in the United States Navy. A brilliant engineer with a ferocious will and combative personality, he oversaw the invention of the world’s first practical nuclear power reactor. As important as the transition from sail to steam, his development of nuclear-propelled submarines and ships transformed naval power and Cold War strategy. They still influence world affairs today.
His disdain for naval regulations, indifference to the chain of command, and harsh, insulting language earned him enemies in the navy, but his achievements won him powerful friends in Congress and the White House. A Jew born in a Polish shtetl, Rickover ultimately became the longest-serving U.S. military officer in history.
In this exciting new biography, historian Marc Wortman explores the constant conflict Rickover faced and provoked, tracing how he revolutionized the navy and Cold War strategy.
Marc Wortman is an independent historian and award-winning freelance journalist. His books include 1941: Fighting the Shadow War: A Divided America in a World at War, The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta, and The Millionaires’ Unit: The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power.
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- Robert K. Sutton - Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II
Robert K. Sutton - Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II Robert K. Sutton - Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II
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April 7, 2022Robert Sutton joins us to discuss his new book Nazis on the Potomac: The Top-Secret Intelligence Operation that Helped Win World War II
Register to attend online webinar.
In partnership with the Capital Jewish Museum
The first full account of the crucial work done at Fort Hunt, Virginia during World War II, where the highest-level German prisoners were interrogated, and captured documents analyzed.
Now a green open space enjoyed by residents, Fort Hunt, Virginia, about 15 miles south of Washington, DC. was the site of one of the highest-level, clandestine operations during World War II.
Shortly after the United States entered World War II, the US military realized that it had to work on exploiting any advantages it might gain on the Axis Powers. One part of these endeavors was to establish a secret facility not too close, but also not too far from the Pentagon which would interrogate and eavesdrop on the highest-level Nazi prisoners and also translate and analyze captured German war documents.
That complex was established at Fort Hunt, known by the code name: PO Box 1142. The American servicemen who interrogated German prisoners or translated captured German documents were young, bright, hardworking, and absolutely dedicated to their work. Many of them were Jews, who had escaped Nazi Germany as children—some had come to America with their parents, others had escaped alone, but their experiences and those they had been forced to leave behind meant they all had personal motivation to do whatever they could to defeat Nazi Germany. They were perfect for the difficult and complex job at hand. They never used corporal punishment in interrogations of German soldiers but developed and deployed dozens of tricks to gain information.
The Allies won the war against Hitler for a host of reasons, discussed in hundreds of volumes. This is the first book to describe the intelligence operations at PO Box 1142 and their part in that success. It will never be known how many American lives were spared, or whether the war ended sooner with the programs at Fort Hunt, but they doubtless did make a difference. Moreover these programs gave the young Jewish men stationed there the chance to combat the evil that had befallen them and their families.
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- Webinar: Salamis & Swastikas: The WWII Letters of Staff Sgt. David E. Stoliar
Webinar: Salamis & Swastikas: The WWII Letters of Staff Sgt. David E. Stoliar Webinar: Salamis & Swastikas: The WWII Letters of Staff Sgt. David E. Stoliar
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April 21, 2022Steve Stoliar joins us to discuss his new book.
Salamis & Swastikas: Letters Home From A G.I. Jew is a remarkable collection of letters written by Staff Sgt. David E. Stoliar to his wife and baby daughter in St. Louis during World War II, from North Africa, Italy, France, Germany, and England.
Edited and with commentary by Stoliar’s son, Steve (author of Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House), the letters run the gamut from vivid war reportage to insightful analysis of anti-Semitism in Germany (as well as in the U.S.) to heartwarming adventures with his dog to heartbreaking reminders of how much he sorely misses his family to thumbnail reviews of then-current movies and songs, all filtered through the prism of a secular Jew caught in the middle of war against the Nazis.
Additionally, there are dozens of never-before-seen personal photos that bring to life the colorful people, places, and events that Sgt. Stoliar writes about in his richly detailed letters.
Steve Stoliar has been a professional writer for nearly 40 years, providing material for Dick Cavett as well as penning episodes of such television series as Murder, She Wrote, Simon & Simon, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, Legend and Sliders. He has been a consultant on a number of books and documentaries about Groucho and his various siblings. He has also written and produced documentaries on such diverse personages as John Lennon, The Marx Brothers, Elvis Presley, Shemp Howard and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Additionally, he has provided voices for various animated specials including Frosty Returns, The Oz Kids, You’re In The Super Bowl Charlie Brown and Snoopy’s Reunion. Born in St. Louis, he now makes his home in Studio City, California.
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- Exhibit Opening: Jewish Americans in Military Service During Vietnam
Exhibit Opening: Jewish Americans in Military Service During Vietnam Exhibit Opening: Jewish Americans in Military Service During Vietnam
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May 5, 2022Discover the stories and experiences of Jewish Americans who served in the Vietnam Combat Zone and around the world from 1959 to 1975 in our new exhibit.
Reception from 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Ribbon Cutting at 3:00 pm
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- JXJ Film Screening: Picking Up The Pieces and 2 other events
JXJ Film Screening: Picking Up The Pieces JXJ Film Screening: Picking Up The Pieces
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May 15, 2022Discount code: NMAJM2
PICKING UP THE PIECES
Tickets and information: https://www.jxjdc.org/events/picking-up-the-pieces/
Screening:
Sunday, May 15 11AM at Edlavitch DCJCC
*15 minutes of work-in-progress screening followed by a 45 minute conversation with: Director Aviva Kempner, Editor Lucia Fox Shapiro, niece Delaney Kempner, and Professor Emanuel Thorne.
Synopsis: Picking Up the Pieces is the story of director Aviva Kempner’s mother, Hanka Ciesla, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Catholic and her uncle, Dudek Ciesla, who survived Auschwitz. After liberation, they miraculously found each other in Berlin.
American Jewish military journalist Harold Kempner witnessed and wrote about their reunion, and eventually fell in love with and married Hanka. The film depicts how the survivors rebuilt their lives and how their descendants felt the need to share their stories.
JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello
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May 15, 2022Discount code: NMAJM2
Synopsis: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello residence stands as a complex and paradoxical symbol of democracy. Designed by Jefferson, built and tended by enslaved people, the palatial Virginia plantation was presidential retreat, retirement home, and Jefferson’s final resting place.
After it was sold due to mounting debts, Uriah Phillips Levy—a Jewish naval officer and fervent believer in Jeffersonian ideals—became its unlikely owner, restoring and saving the estate from ruin with the help of his family. The story behind this national treasure confronts the racism and anti-Semitism that remain part of the national narrative.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/G0cC8U_ei1A
JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello
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May 15, 2022Discount code: NMAJM2
Synopsis: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello residence stands as a complex and paradoxical symbol of democracy. Designed by Jefferson, built and tended by enslaved people, the palatial Virginia plantation was presidential retreat, retirement home, and Jefferson’s final resting place.
After it was sold due to mounting debts, Uriah Phillips Levy—a Jewish naval officer and fervent believer in Jeffersonian ideals—became its unlikely owner, restoring and saving the estate from ruin with the help of his family. The story behind this national treasure confronts the racism and anti-Semitism that remain part of the national narrative.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/G0cC8U_ei1A
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- JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello
JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello JxJ Film Screening: The Levys of Monticello
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May 17, 2022Discount code: NMAJM2
Synopsis: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello residence stands as a complex and paradoxical symbol of democracy. Designed by Jefferson, built and tended by enslaved people, the palatial Virginia plantation was presidential retreat, retirement home, and Jefferson’s final resting place.
After it was sold due to mounting debts, Uriah Phillips Levy—a Jewish naval officer and fervent believer in Jeffersonian ideals—became its unlikely owner, restoring and saving the estate from ruin with the help of his family. The story behind this national treasure confronts the racism and anti-Semitism that remain part of the national narrative.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/G0cC8U_ei1A
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- Livestream Event - National Jewish Community Observance of Memorial Day
Livestream Event - National Jewish Community Observance of Memorial Day Livestream Event - National Jewish Community Observance of Memorial Day
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May 30, 2022From the Revolutionary War through today, American Jews have served nobly in all branches of our country’s military—and many are among our nation’s fallen heroes. It is incumbent upon America’s Jewish community, therefore, to mark Memorial Day for both its national and its Jewish significance.
During this year’s Jewish American Heritage Month National Jewish Community Observance of Memorial Day, we will honor the multi generational service and sacrifice of the Seixas family, hear from Gold Star Families, experience performances from the United States Naval Academy Glee Club, and hear prayer’s chanted by a Jewish military chaplain.
This program is organized by the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History, Operation Benjamin, JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, a signature program of the JCC Association of North America in partnership with the National Museum of American Jewish History and Jewish American Heritage Month.
Registration Required – Click Here