Jewry's Role in
Human Advancement

One century ago--to the month--Alfred Nobel drafted a
behest into his will for the annual gathering that bears his
name. What he created to award human ingenuity and
research is a touchstone for civilization and progress.
Many Jews have taken their place among history's Nobel
Laureates with pride and distinction.

ADOLF VON BAEYER
(1835-1917) b. Berlin, Germany
While also an
Organic Chemist
inspiring teacher of promising young
chemists, the gifted researcher helped
establish the new field of organic
\
chemistry. His many discoveries inclu-
ded a derivative for barbiturate sleeping pills and
synthetic indigo which nurtured Germany's huge dyestuff
industry. He went on to correctly theorize the structures
of carbon rings and benzene. Professionally active until
age eighty, the internationally respected scientist gained
his 1905 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for "the advancement
of organic chemistry and the chemical industry through
his work on organic dyes and hydroaromatic
compounds."

ROSALYN YALOW
(1921-) b. New York City
Medical Researcher The first American
woman to earn a Nobel Prize in science
(for Physiology or Medicine, 1977) was
honored for devising the noted radioim-
= munoassay (RNA). The ingenious ana-
lytical system which measures the amount of biological
substances in the blood and other body fluids spurred a
great leap forward in medical research and lifesaving
disease treatment. For example: recording hormone and
insulin levels in the bloodstream, and safeguarding stored
blood supplies from hepatitis contamination. A recipient
of more than forty honorary degrees, she was also the
first woman to win the coveted Albert Lasker Prize for
Basic Medical Research.

,1

RENE CASSIN
(1887-1976) b. Bayonne, France
Statesman and Jurist A much decorated
World War I infantry hero, he entered
the law and served as France's delegate
to the League of Nations from.1924-38.
The educator and jurist joined the Free
French upon Hitler's invasion and was appointed
commissioner for justice and education by General
Charles de Gaul. With fierce dedication to world peace
and the dignity of man, he helped author a legal program
to forestall war, headed his nation's prestigious Conseil
d'Etat and became president of the U.N.'s Commission of
Human Rights. The courageous and forceful diplomat,
showered with numerous French and international honors,
was awarded his highest recognition in 1968: the Nobel
Prize for Peace.
-- Saul Stadtmauer

Bad Girls

Marm and Polly could have put Lucky and Bugsy to shame.

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR

II I know that the State of Israel
has something called the Law of
Return, entitling a Jew to enter and
instantly become a citizen of the
country. I was astonished when
someone told me that you don't
have to be Jewish to take advan-
tage of this law. Is that true?
A: Yes and no. Not every gen-
tile can walk off an airplane and
be granted immediate citizen-
ship. There has to be a Jewish
connection.
The Knesset, Israel's nation-
al legislature, first ratified the
Law of Return in 1950. Since
then, it has been amended twice.
The original statute simply
stated that "Every Jew is enti-
tled to immigrate to Israel,"
without defining the term,
"Jew." In 1962, the Knesset
amended the Law of Return to
define a Jew as someone "born
of a Jewish mother or convert-
ed to Judaism and not practic-
ing another religion."

Q: I have been a feminist from
Day One, and as such am 100 per-
cent convinced that every society
is really directed (or should be, in
any case) by the brilliance of
women, who are inherently superi-
or to men. Case in point Who would
you rather spend an evening with,
so-called actor Pauly Shore or
Jeanne Kirkpatrick?
I thought so.
Not only do women make better
politicians, teachers, lawyers and
physicians, they even make better
gangster.
Enough already with Bugsy
Siegel and Meyer Lansky! Please
tell me about some of the famed
Jewish women criminals from
throughout history.
A: Certainly the most colorful
Jewish `bad girl" was the infa-
mous Fredericka Mandelbaum,
a 19th-century "fence" who not

4.•

"Jews are unique in that for eighteen-hundred years they
have had no country... and have, whenever there was any
pretense of equality of opportunity for them, forged their
way ahead into positions of prominence, influence and
power in business, professions, in philosophy, in art, in
literature and in government."
-- President William Howard Taft

COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF
JEWISH HISTORY
Harold Berry & Irwin S. Field, Co-chairmen
Harriet F. Siden, Secretary
Founders/Sponsors: Walter & Lea Field

Exactly who gets immediate citizenship upon arriving in Israel?

In 1970, in the face of in- only traded in stolen goods but
creasing immigration from ex- actually masterminded many
tensively intermarried Soviet of the heists, including some of
Jews, the Knesset again the most notorious of their time.
amended the law also to apply
"Marm," as she was known
to "the child and grandchild of among friends (though the press
a Jew, the spouse of a Jew and dubbed her "Ma Crime") was
the spouse of the child and born in 1818 and immigrated to
grandchild of a Jew, except a America in 1849 from Prussia
person who was a Jew and will- with her husband, Wolfe.
ingly converted to another reli-
Her American crime spree
gion."
was at its height from 1854-
It is estimated that since 1884, when it was estimated
1970, under the Law of Return, she made off with tens of mil-
about 150,000 gentiles from the lions of dollars. A modern-day
former Soviet Union (FSU) Lucky Luciano, she oversaw the
alone have entered Israel. This "work" of bank robbers and bur-
is one-third of the total immi- glars, often teaching them the
gration from the FSU.
necessary skills to make it big
Application for citizenship is in the world of crime.
not a prerequisite to receive all
A large woman with dark
the benefits and privileges ac- eyes, Marm would tolerate no
corded a Law of Return immi- foul language in her presence.
grant.
She did her best to improve the

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manners and ways of her "em-
ployees," often orchestrating the
most remarkable transforma-
tions. Under Mann's tutelage,
a crook like Mark Shinburn
could make a fortune, then qui-
etly settle in Europe as "Baron
Shindell of Monaco."
Marm also was known as the
most hospitable of hostesses,
friendly and outgoing and am-
icable — even as her colleagues
were hard at work robbing
guests.
Marm's role in the world of
crime came to an end in 1884,
thanks to the work of the famed
Pinkerton. Mann and her son
Julius were arrested in a raid,
but Marm, after posting bail,
got away the next day. She
spent the rest of her life in
Toronto, Canada (untouchable,
at the time, because of extradi-
tion laws). She died in 1894, at
age 76, and was buried in New
York.
Interestingly, Marm's hus-
band Wolfe was said to be a qui-
et, private gentleman who had
no interest in his wife's crimi-
nal activities.
Another woman in whom
you would be interested was
Polly Adler.
Born in 1900, Polly was one
of the great madams of her day,
whose friends and clients in-
cluded Dutch Schultz and
Lucky Luciano. (The former, in-
cidentally, was known to be
quite generous; the latter was
not.)
Polly operated her business,
so to speak, from her luxurious
Manhattan apartment. Decor
there was lush, the furnishings
regal and the walls adorned in
bright, often garish, colors. Free
food and drink was always
available.
Not just a madam, Polly
emerged, inexplicably, as a so-
cial commentator often quot-
ed by the press. 'They might as
well have been trying to dry up
the Atlantic with a post office
blotter," she said of Prohibition.
Polly "retired" in 1944, at
which time she took up a sec-
ond career as a writer. She died
in 1962.

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