Battling The Evil Eye
JEWISH SUPERSTITION from page 12
PATRONS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS - II
Even in today's more tolerant climate there lingers among many successful
Jews in commerce and industry the vestige of a self-protective ghetto
tradition: intimacy and trust largely confined to the immediate family.
Such a historic alliance built the international fortune and power of the
fabled Rothschilds. Yet another tradition stressed charitable giving, a ritual
for the family of AMOCO founder Louis Blaustein whose son Jacob also
helped frame the UN Charter's human rights provisions.
Nathan Cummings, originator of the world-famed Sara Lee
cheesecake, joined his three children in forming a foundation generously
supporting art museums and health care programs. Sales in nearly 3,000
Rite Aid pharmacies contribute to the civic causes of company founder
Alex Grass and his family. Jack and Pearl Resnick, whose real estate
ventures helped shape New York's skyline, led in funding the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine. And major donations by Morton Mandel
and his brothers who pilot industry's chief source for unique electronic
parts, enrich educational systems in the U.S. and Israel. Others :
EUGENE MEYER
(1875-1959) b. Los Angeles, CA Banker, Pub-
lisher and Government Official Entering t
financial world with a gift of $600 from his father,
the Yale graduate cleverly invested in securities
that appreciated to $50,000 with which he bought
a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. By age
forty his net gains from undervalued stock
purchases swelled to $60 million on their timely
sales. Bolstered by prestige and wealth, Meyer became a leading organizer
of Allied Chemical Company, and influenced the growth of the nation's
copper mining and auto industries.
It was then that White House doors swung open to his business
acumen. President Woodrow Wilson named him director of the War
Finance Corporation which later helped farmers weather the postwar
depression. President Calvin Coolidge retained him to salvage the scandal-
ridden Federal Farm Loan Board. President Herbert Hoover appointed him
to the Federal Reserve Board. Meyer also served under Presidents Harry
S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Perhaps he is best known as the 1933 buyer of the failing
Washington Post which, as publisher and editor, he restored to health and
transformed into a national institution. A communications empire, later
managed by his daughter, Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Graham, was
also built during his reign: Newsweek magazine, a Florida TV channel and
several radio stations.
SAMUEL BRONFMAN
(1891 1971) b. Brandon, Canada Industrialist
Seagram Company Ltd.,
and Philanthropist
headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, is today the
world's largest producer and distributor of
distilled spirits. Its dynamic leader launched his
teenage career in his father's hotel business which
he left for an opportunity in a mail-order liquor
enterprise. He acquired a distillery and in 1928
enlarged his company by purchasing Joseph E. Seagram & Sons. Under his
stewardship, Seagram prospered and grew to be the dominant distiller in
North America, and he soon became an internationally prominent figure
within his industry.
Business interests only partly held the magnate's attention.
Bronfman was equally dedicated to charitable works benefitting hospitals,
universities, museums and many other national and Jewish related causes.
The even-handed philanthropist gave as bountifully to the Canadian
Welfare Council and Red Cross, as to the Zionist movement and Canadian
Jewish Congress over which he presided. His influence within government
led to mass immigrations into Canada of war orphans and refugees.
In the image of father, successor Edgar Bronfman further grew
Seagram's economic power after settling in New York in 1955. And as
president of the World Jewish Congress, he effectively campaigned to
expose Kurt Waldhiem's Nazi links, restore confiscated Jewish properties
and force Swiss banks to return concealed Jewish assets.
- Saul Stadtmauer
-
10/8
1999
Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson
14 Detroit Jewish News
Driven by fear
colloquial pronunciation of kein ayin
hora — comes up time and time again.
To be Jewish is to be on guard;
Roughly translated, the phrase
),
there's
always another disaster
means "may the evil eye stay away.
looming.
It's said if anyone speaks of their good
"A lot of what we do, wear, eat
fortune in family, business or health.
and say probably originated as a
For example, if a woman says she has-
way of protecting ourselves against
n't been sick for three months, she
things over which we have no con-
immediately must add the words
trol," Frankel says.
"kerma hora," or else she will get sick
Eleanor Minkoff of Farmington
right away.
Hills, speaking at the Stage and Co.
The fear it represents, Tsoffar says,
Restaurant & Delicatessen in West
is that if you cannot "contain" your
Bloomfield, says her mother's long-
success, it will be taken away from
held superstitions remain an often-
you, much like the idea of hubris in
told family story. For reasons
Greek mythology.
that Minkoff cannot recall, her
"The basic issue is that good is
mother
would never let anyone
limited," she says. Its not like in the
turn
back
once they had left
Garden of Eden, where good was
the house.
everywhere, just scoop down and
"One time, I had just had
pick it up. In this life, if I've got it,
my hair done and I was going
then you don't have it."
to apply for a job," she said.
The same concept applies to the
"It
was pouring rain out and I
practice of spitting three times after
wanted
to come back in to get
talking about good fortune.
an
umbrella.
I told her I knew
Trachtenberg notes that human sali-
exactly where it was, but she
va was thought to have anti-demonic
Wouldn't let me in. So I did-
and anti-magical powers. And,
n't get the job."
of all mystical numbers,
Trachtenberg men-
three is the most power-
tions this superstition
ful. The practice of
in his book, citing
uttering an anti-
it as an outgrowth
demonic "p-p-p"
of the fear of
occurs in Polish
demons that
Catholic as well
live outside the
as Jewish tradi-
settled com-
tion.
munity. If a
Rabbi
man inter-
Shraga
rupts a jour-
Simmons, a
ney
and returns
rabbi from Aish
home,
these
HaTorah, a
demons might
Torah institute
be introduced
headquartered in
into the home.
Israel, says these
As Jewish peo-
habits have practical
ple
have
assimilated
applications as well. "It's a
they've tended to lose some of
good idea to be careful about
their connection with the
boasting of our own success
past, and their old supersti-
because the sad reality is that
A hove.-
tions — but they have
many people are jealous and,
This eye was
often been quick to pick
in order to feel better, they
thougl ht to give
up new ones.
protec Lion from
will secretly wish for you to
Rabbi Yedwab inadver-
evil spirits.
lose what you have," he says.
tently
added to one "very
"Flaunting oneself simply
unaffiliated" family's store of
invited the possibility of the 'evil
superstition several years ago when
eye."' For Frankel of JPS, the evil eye
he conducted a funeral for their
represents a quintessential dilemma
father.
for monotheistic religions: What is
"The wind blew up at the
the nature of evil? "If you believe that
gravesite
and blew my kippa into
there's only one God, then that God
the
open
grave,"
Rabbi Yedwab
has to be responsible for evil as well
"Then,
with
a lot of feeling
says.
as good," she says. "Deep down, I
and dignity, each of the sons walked
think many people can't reconcile this
up and threw their kippot into the
notion. So the evil eye and other
grave. I didn't have the heart to say
superstitions were created to account
anything." ❑
for evil in the world."