OTHER MINS

LEADERS OF GREAT NATIONS

Within the last two centuries, statesmen of Jewish extraction served as
heads of government in nine countries on three continents. Australia
elected Sir Isaac Isaacs, a distinguished public official, as its governor-
general. Italy was represented by Prime Minister Luigi Luzzati and twice
during a single decade by Prime Minister Sidney Sonnino. Austrian
Bruno Kreisky was both foreign minister and chancellor of his nation, and
Kurt Eisner served as Bavaria's head of state.
Bela Kun took the helm of the post-World War One revolutionary
Hungarian -government. And Palestine was led by Sir Herbert Samuel,
while The Marquis of Reading administered India under the British
regency. England and France also offered seats of power to:
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
(EARL OF BEACONSFIELD)
(1804-81) b. London, England Prime Minister
The founder and leader of his nation's
Conservative Party was a dominant figure in the
political life of England. Equally, his essays and
satirical novels, particularly Coningsby (1844)
and Sybil (1845), earned a permanent place in
English literature. As a prime minister for two :-:;•*.
terms (1868 and 1874-80), the astute and witty Disraeli mesmerized the
country with his dream of England's imperial future.
Largely through his efforts, Britain became the dominant owner of
the Suez Canal (1875), and Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of
India one year later. Her deep affection for him was legendary, and she
raised him to peerage. Although baptized at twelve, his admiration and
sympathy for kinsmen never waned. Disraeli strongly supported Jewish
Emancipation in Parliament and insisted that Semitic formed a strong bond
between the English and Jewish peoples.
His second administration was memorable for social justice (trade
union and health acts) and international diplomacy. Disraeli quelled
European unrest after the Turkish-Russian conflict, and helped enrich
England via its vast colonial empire. In fierce political opposition was the
Liberal Party's William Gladstone, a prime minister on four occasions. A
great orator and moralist who irritated the queen, he often crossed swords
with Disraeli who more than held his own in stinging debates.
Adding more dimension to a vivid life, he married and remained
deeply devoted to a descendent of Italian Jews twelve years his senior.
LEON BLUM
" • • •
(1872-1950)
b. Paris, France Premier In the
•
image of Disraeli, Blum entered politics and
▪ helped reconstruct the French Socialist Party for
which he acted as parliamentary spokesman.
• From that history-making event forward, he rose
in rank and became premier in 1936, representing
a coalition called the Front Populaire which he
had organized. And Blum also enjoyed a second
career as a writer: as an essayist, poet, and literary and drama critic.
The first Socialist and Jewish premier of France left his office
thirteen months later when Parliament denied his request for emergency
powers to end his nation's steep economic decline. He previously enacted
such reforms as the 40-hour workweek, paid vacations, collective
bargaining and state bank nationalization. His progressive legislation
angered right-wing business interests which ignored Germany's growing
threat. Their political slogan more than hinted at anti-Semitic hostility:
"Better Hitler than Blum."
A month-long return to high office coincided with Austria's
downfall, and Blum was arrested, tried and imprisoned by the Vichy
government after the Nazi takeover in 1940. Eventually transferred to
Buchenwald, he was rescued after five years' internment by American
troops and was hailed as a courageous patriot by his countrymen.
Following liberation, he reemerged as a politically moderate senior
statesman who served as vice-premier and as special ambassador to the
U.S. Blum had blazed the way for others of Jewish descent who later led
his nation: Rene Mayer and Pierre Mendes-France.
- Saul Sladtmauer

3/29
2002

48

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A Night In Jerusalem

Jerusalem

tation. I looked at the stars for a
own the winding streets
few moments, and, inexplicably,
of this storied capital
turned and entered the bar that I
city, they sit in cafes and
had been leaning against.
restaurants, talking and
As I looked at the menu, I heard
sipping coffee and trying to escape
an ambulance. A waitress peeked
the angel of death that is just
through the window and cell
around the corner. Seething with
phones began to ring. Then a dozen
rage and stalking the innocent, this
ambulances raced by from the
angel of death carries a Koran. And
direction of the Old City, and, from
underneath his overstuffed jacket
my seat inside the bar, I witnessed
are enough explosives to
that uncomfortable
shatter the lives and spirit of
moment that Israelis have
a city of peace.
long shared publicly. A
Such is existence these days
man placed his hand on his
in Jerusalem, when a
wife's shoulder as tears
Saturday evening dinner
rolled down her cheeks.
means pondering what it
One by one, people began
would be like to be blown to
to leave, and I followed
pieces. My Israeli friends had
them out the door.
arrived at 9 p.m. to inform
The ambulances were on
STEVEN
me that they'd canceled our
their way to Moment
ROSENBERG restaurant, which had been
plans for dinner. We had
Special to the one of the restaurants on
thought of going to either
the Shanty or the Moment,
Jewish News
my agenda just 90 minutes
two of Jerusalem's trendy
earlier.
restaurants, but, said my
Five minutes from where
friend Tzvya, "I have a bad feeling
I stood, 10 souls lay scattered on
about tonight."
the Jerusalem street. They had
Then he drove off into the dark-
ended the Sabbath with a renewed
ness.
hope that their neighbors would
I ventured out anyway, walking
not place bombs on their bodies.
up the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall,
They had guessed wrong.
which looked like a ghost town at 9
From our homes in America, it
p.m. After my dinner in an empty
seems so awful and horrible and
restaurant, the owner thanked me
distant, and after we see the pic-
for being brave enough to come to
tures of the carnage we drink our
Israel. I told him he was the brave
coffee and go to work. Here, life
one, and that it was an honor for
stops, and people hold vigil as they
me to visit his country.
watch the live coverage on TV, and
But our conversation was cut
anxiously write down the numbers
short when his friend drove up to
of the hospitals where the injured
the sidewalk and told us Israeli
are brought.
radio had announced there was a
I came to Jerusalem to ask people
suicide bomber on his way to
about life during the latest intifada
Jerusalem.
(uprising). It's a subject they talk
An odd report, I thought, but
about all day long. Everyone seems
still, I started to walk back to my
to know someone here who was
hotel, down Ben Yehuda, looking at
killed or injured in a terrorist
the faces of young soldiers, at beg-
attack. They talk about world opin-
gars and teens and con men playing
ion and an inevitable full-scale war
three-card monte. They didn't look
against the Palestinians. They also,
worried; they'd heard this before.
quietly, inquire about American
I pushed on down Jaffa Street,
Jews. "Why have they deserted us?"
across from the Mayor Ehud
they ask.
Olmert's office, where a suicide
I can't give them any answers. I
bomber sent Bus 18 into the heav-
can't tell them that paid profession-
ens in the '90s. The stillness of the
als in American Jewish organiza-
night lulled me into a state of medi- tions took Israel off the table a long
time ago, and that most Americans
Steven Rosenberg is a journalist
Jews think I'm crazy to come to the
based in Boston. He is working on a
Jewish homeland.
film about Israeli victims of
I could never explain it to them. ❑

D

Palestinian terror.

