14 November 14, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
West Point Jewish Student Gains Fame as Researcher
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1975,
JTA,
Inc.)
A metropolitan newspa-
per recently carried a story
telling of the various ethnic
groups now represented in
the student body of West
Point. The Jewish group, it
seems, is not negligible, and
this year they erected a
sukka with the aid of West
Point engineers.
I don't know who was the
first Jew at West Point, but
among the first, no doubt,
was Albert Michaelson. The
family came from Poland at
the time of the California
Gold Rush and eventually
settled in Nevada where the
elder Michaelson had a
store. There were three chil-
dren, Albert, the subject of
this story, Charles who be-
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of Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Rebecca who achieved
some fame as a novelist.
Albert wanted to go to
West Point. Every state is
allowed a couple of scholar-
ships, but Albert couldn't
get one. The President can
make some appointments
and Michaelson decided to
take the matter up with
him. He came to Washing-
ton. Of course, he could have
called up the White House
but this was during the ad-
ministration of General
Grant and the telephone
had not yet been invented.
Another way might have
been to get a job as a Fuller
Brush salesman and knock
on the door of the White
House and when President
Grant poked his nose to the
door. he could ask the Presi-
dent to get him a West Point
scholarship. But there were
no Fuller Brush salesmen in
those days either.
So what should young
Michaelson do? He had to
meet Grant. Young Mi-
chaelson inquired about
Grant's habits. Was there
any restaurant President
Grant like to go to? But
Grant had simple tastes in
eating. After all, he had
been a poor man before the
war. There were many
times he never knew
where his next meal was
coming from. So he had
never developed any fancy
tastes. His wife's cooking
was good enough for him.
Maybe Grant spent some
time watching the base-
ball game, but baseball
was yet in it infancy.
Just when Michaelson
had about given up — isn't it
always that way — it is al-
ways darkest before dawn
— Michaelson was told that
every morning General
Grant took his dog for a
walk.
Experts Disagree
on Effect of Lost
Oilfield to Israel
Nothing could have been
better. When you take your
dog for a walk you have to
stop. Michaelson would ap-
proach him on one of these
stops.
Grant was impressed.
Michaelson assured the
President he would never be
sorry, but at West Point,
Michaelson was not a joy to
his instructors.
When Grant had been a
West Point cadet, he also
had not been a joy. In fact,
when a Congressman in-
troduced a bill to abolish
the military academy,
Grant prayed that the bill
would pass. Grant didn't
care for the military life
and neither did Michael-
son.
Michaelson was very good
at the academic courses at
West Point, in mathematics
and science. The head of the
school, criticizing him, said
if he would take as much in-
terest in the military side as
in the scientific side, he
might yet prove himself use-
ful to his country and be a
credit to it.
Michaelson never served
in the military forces but
became world famous for
his research on the speed
r .._. __, __, __.
I1
P . Y
Anyway, Michaelson was
certainly a credit to his
country.
I have said that as far as
I know, Michaelson was the
first Jew at West Point.
That is not entirely cor-
rect. Judas Maccabeus, the
hero of the Hanuka story,
was the first Jew on the
West Point grounds. If you
visit West Point, you will
see his statue among the
other great military leaders
of history.
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of light, which furnished
some of the basis for Ein-
stein's later discoveries.
Perhaps if we knew more
about light, we might not
even need West Point. We
wouldn't have war if we
had more light.
(---
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