jews d
in
the
Jewish
Impact
Irwin Field updates his
father’s series about
Jewish contributions
to the world.
BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
hat’s old is new.
Starting with this
issue and continu-
ing weekly throughout the year,
the Jewish News is printing an
updated series of informational
columns about Jewish history
that originally ran in the Jewish
News in late 1990s.
The early
series, “Jewry’s
Role in Human
Affairs,” was
the brainchild
of the late
Walter Field
and is being
revived by his
son, Irwin,
Walter Field
who renamed
it “Jewish
Contributions to Humanity.”
Walter Field, who died in
1999 at age 98, was a self-made
man in many ways. As his obit-
uary noted, he was an active
entrepreneur who harbored the
soul of a philosopher poet.
Walter arrived in Detroit as
a Polish immigrant at age 19 or
20 (his family were never sure),
knowing practically no English.
In 1931, he bought a lacquer
company and grew it into Mac-
O-Lac Paint Manufacturing, the
predominant brand in Detroit
in the 1950s and ’60s; he sold
the company in 1974. He
became sufficiently proficient
in English and Jewish history
to publish A People’s Epic, a
history of the Jewish people in
rhyming verse, in 1963.
Walter also wrote two book-
lets on religious philosophy
called Gleanings from the Bible,
and two additional books of
verse, The Tale of the Horse and
Symphony of Threes.
He was close friends with
Philip Slomovitz, founder and
longtime publisher/editor of
the Jewish News and a fellow
Zionist. Walter was an early
24
January 11 • 2018
other week for two years in the
financial backer of the paper,
JN, starting in April 1998.
which started in 1942, and
The columns also ran in the
served on its community advi-
Forward, published
sory board. It’s fitting
in New York, and in
that the columns will
the Jewish Journal of
be re-run during the
Greater Los Angeles,
JN’s 75th anniversary
where Irwin Field had
year, Irwin Field said.
been board chair.
Walter developed the
columns as an educa-
REVITALIZED SERIES
tional tool.
Irwin Field grew up in
“He had come to
Detroit and attended
the conclusion that
Irwin Field
Wayne State University
his grandchildren and
for two years before
great-grandchildren
transferring to UCLA,
would not remain Jews unless
where
he
earned bachelor’s
they had something positive to
and
master’s
degrees. He has
relate to, rather than continual-
lived
in
the
Los
Angeles area
ly hearing about the Holocaust
ever
since,
where
he ran the
and other bad times,” Irwin
Liberty Vegetable Oil Company
said.
(he remains board chair)
“When he was in his 90s,
and was active in Jewish and
he started doing research
civic affairs. He and his wife,
into Jewish history and was
Helgard, were recently honored
astounded to learn that Jewish
Nobel Prize winners made up a by the Jewish Federation of
Greater Los Angeles with the
much higher percentage of the
Jewish Community Lifetime
total [about 20 percent] than
Achievement Award. They have
their percentage of the world
population. Then he found oth- four children, 13 grandchildren
and one great-grandchild.
ers who hadn’t won the Nobel
Irwin felt the time had
Prize, but had made significant
come
to reprise the col-
contributions to the human
umn
collection,
but first
endeavor.”
he
wanted
to
make
some
With his wife, Lea, and
changes.
He
renamed
it “Jewish
his children, Irwin and
Contributions to Humanity.” He
Harriet Siden, Walter cre-
dropped a few pieces, which
ated the Commission for
he felt were no longer relevant,
the Dissemination of Jewish
and added more, including
History. The group hired
columns on Jewish owners of
New York journalist Saul
Stadtmauer to write more than Major League Baseball and
National Football League
50 pieces, based on Walter’s
teams. Los Angeles writer Jared
research, that highlighted the
roles played by Jews in a variety Sichel revised the old pieces
and wrote the new ones.
of fields, including literature,
Field worked with the pub-
art, music, politics, medicine,
lishers
of the Jewish Journal to
mathematics, the judiciary and
fix
the
“look”
of the columns,
the military.
which
he
felt
was
dated. Color
In the late 1980s, Field
photos
and
drawings
have
became friendly with Jewish
replaced
most
of
the
old
black-
News publisher Arthur Horwitz,
and-white illustrations. “We
who arranged to print “Jewry’s
wanted to freshen it for a new
Role in Human Affairs” every
jn
generation,” he said.
“Walter had a passion for
the Jewish people and wanted
to assure that future genera-
tions would feel connected, in a
prideful way, to their heritage,”
Horwitz said. “His unfulfilled
dream was that every bar
and bat mitzvah child would
receive a booklet of these
Jewish achievers as part of their
rite of passage into adulthood.
“We are so appreciative to
Walter’s family that they have
updated his work and have
chosen to share it with his
home community,” Horwitz
added. “I’m hopeful the content
of the columns to appear in the
Jewish News will be repackaged
in a way that reaches and posi-
tively impacts our bar and bat
mitzvah children.”
The series, which now num-
bers 75 pieces, will run weekly
in the Jewish News starting
today on page 17. •