VOLVO 850

Frankie Rosenfeld?

,

It's time to put to rest all those stupid rumors about this
president's "Jewish connection."

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Q:The other night my wife and I
were up late and couldn't get to
sleep. I was in the mood for some-
thing intellectual, and tried to con-
vince her to tune in to "All Star
Wrestling." But she insisted on
watching a 1940s movie on the arts
channel. I don't remember the
name, but it was one of those sto-
ries involving a rich white family
with a black maid named Beulah. I
was amazed when my wife told me
Beulah is a Hebrew name. What's
the story?
A: Beulah is indeed Hebrew,

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Q: Is it true that a Jew coined the
term "genocide"?
A: Yes. The word was in-

vented by Raphael Lemkin
(1901-59), a Polish-born Jew
and scholar of international
law.
In 1927, Lemkin became sec-
retary of the Polish Court of Ap-
peal in Warsaw, but in 1933
was forced to resign by Poland's
openly anti-Semitic govern-
ment.
During the Holocaust, the
Germans and their collabora-
tors killed most of Lemkin's
family in Warsaw. Lemkin
fought in the Polish under-
ground, and in 1941 made his
way to the United States. He
taught at Duke and Yale uni-
versities and served on the U.S.
Board of Economic Warfare.
In 1944, he published Axis
Rule in Occupied Europe in
which he introduced the word
"genocide." After World War II,
Lemkin organized an effort to
put the question of genocide on
the agenda of the U.N. Gener-
al Assembly. In 1948, because
of Lemkin's pressure, the U.N.
adopted the Convention for the
Prevention and Punishment of
Genocide.

Q:Months ago Tell Me Why ran
some very clever questions about
Jews with unusual names. Now
I have a challenge for you,
and I know I'm going to catch you.
It's Pesach, right, so how about a
Jew named Matza? Get it, Matza?
Ha, ha, ha. Tricked you, didn't I?

A: Of course you didn't you
lounge lizard, you.
No one can stump Tell Me
Why.
Isaac Matza was a leading
track and field star during the
1950s. A student at New York
University, in 1957 he was rat-
ed No. 8 in the world in both the
half-mile and the 1,000. The
previous year, he rated No. 10
in the world in the indoor mile.

Q: Long ago I remember hearing a
rumor (mainly from anti-Semites) that
the reason Jews were such enthu-
siastic supporters of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt was that Roo-
sevelt was descended from Jews and
his original name was Rosenfeld.
What is the truth of Roosevelt's ori-
gins?
A: Both Franklin D. and

his elder cousin,
Theodore Roosevelt,
were descended
from Claes Maerten-
szen Van Rosenvelt
(died 1659), who
was Dutch and
not Jewish. Prior
to 1648, Claes
immigrated to
North America
and had a son,
Nicholas. Active
in the political life
of what later be-
came New York
state, Nicholas
(1658-1742) changed the
spelling of the family name to
Roosevelt.

and it means "married woman."
The name is found in the
Tanach (Bible) in Isaiah 54:1,
as a common, not a proper,
noun. Isaiah uses the word
again in 62:4 as a poetic name
for the restored Land of Israel:
"But you shall be called, 'My de-
light is in her' and your land
`married' (beulah)."
The world beulah became
widely known from the King
James version, the major Eng-
lish translation of the Bible
completed in 1611, which
placed the original Hebrew
word in the text and its trans-
lation in the margin. Thus,
"...and your land, Beulah."
The Puritans were fond of
biblical names, usually drawn
from the Tanach, and the more
obscure the better. They were
the first to name their daugh-
ters Beulah. For resons inex-
plicable, Hollywood screen-
writers apparently believed
that African-American house-
maids should follow suit.
Aside from the movies, "Beu-
lah" was made famous by Mary
Lee Settle's 1968 novel, 0 Beu-
lah Land (with four subsequent
novels on the same
theme). In 1973, Lon-
nie Coleman wrote
Beulah Land,
which in 1980
was turned
into a TV
mini-series.

FDR:
Rosenvelt, not
Rosenfeld.

Send questions to "Tell Me
Why" c o The Jewish News,
27676 Franklin Rd., Southfield,
MI 48034 or send fax to 354-

