Jewish Contributions to Humanity

book review

@

1948 War

Two books give insight.

#19 in
#24
in a a series
series

Jewish
Scientists Who
Explained
Medical Mysteries.

HERMANN JOSEPH MULLER (1890-1967).

M

ay 14 marked the 70th anni- equipped, best-organized and best-led
versary of the establishment military in the Middle East.
This dispels a historic notion of a
of the modern State of Israel
and many commemorations and cele- rag-tag Israeli military.
Along the way, Morris also shows
brations have taken place in Israel and
that, while few in number, Arab
around the world. Indeed,
forces, and in some instances
there is a lot to celebrate,
Israeli forces, had committed
but it is good to remember
war crimes against civilians.
that Israel was only secured
A good history should evoke
after it successfully defend-
questions and critical thought,
ed itself in the 1948 War of
and Morris’s work certainly
Independence.
does that.
That war is still, by far,
One of the best memoirs
the most devastating war in
of 1948, a best-seller in Israel
Israel’s history. Nearly 6,400 Mike Smith
Detroit Jewish News
in 1962, is now available in
Israeli military personnel
Foundation Archivist
English: Days of Lead: Defying
and civilians, or 1 percent
Death During Israel’s War of
of the nation’s citizens, lost
Independence by Moshe Rashkes
their lives. More than 15,000 were
(Apollo Publishers, 2017). Moving
wounded. In the Yom Kippur War,
away from the big picture of strategy
for comparison, the casualties were
and state politics, Rashkes writes
roughly half that of 1948.
about the war in an immediate sense
There are many books on the
— the war on the ground where a
War of Independence, but two have
soldier is faced with two primary
received acclaim, and one of those
missions: to survive and to fight for
books, a lot of criticism. In these two
the man standing next to him.
volumes, however, a reader can find
Rashkes’ narrative is that of an
an excellent overall perspective of this
18-year-old soldier facing the bitter
crucial Israeli conflict.
fighting early in the war, on the road
1948: A History of the First Arab-
to besieged Jerusalem. This is a most
Israeli War by Benny Morris (Yale
University Press, 2008) is, perhaps, the personal story. Rashkes was indeed a
soldier who was seriously wounded
best single volume of the military his-
in the war; he later became chair-
tory of the war. It is a lengthy, schol-
man of the IDF’s veterans’ organiza-
arly read. Morris narrates the war in
detail from its beginning in November tions. Rashkes’ rendition of how it
feels to be in combat, see the deaths
1948 until armistice agreements con-
of his comrades and have the pain
cluded in July 1949.
of wounds is, to say the least, deeply
A self-proclaimed “new historian,”
moving. One cannot read this rather
Morris reaches some controversial
conclusions. He believes the war soon brief book without thinking of one
question: How did the IDF do it?
developed a religious and cultural
How did they overcome the suffering,
dimension and that if the Arabs sur-
the deprivations and the deaths they
rounding the nascent state had their
witnessed?
way, they would have eliminated any
The 1948 War for Independence
trace of a Jewish state in Palestine.
was monumental, and the modern
This was a supreme motivator for
State of Israel stands as a testament to
Israel’s soldiers and sailors. But,
the war’s impact and result. Reading
Morris also concludes that by the
these books provides good insight
end of the war, the Israeli Defense
into the nature of the war itself and
Forces (IDF) had developed from a
how it affected the participants. •
militia into the most powerful, well-

b. New York, New York. d. Indianapolis, Indiana.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1946.
Mr. Mutant.
An expert in genetic mutations, Muller discovered in 1926
a clear link between radiation, including x-rays, and danger-
ous, sometimes lethal, mutations. He was awarded the No-
bel Prize for this finding in 1946. This discovery had an im-
pact on doctors who frequently used x-ray machines and on
scientists’ understanding of how environmental factors can
impact genetics. He practiced science in the Soviet Union for
a short time in the 1930s, but was forced out after Stalin was
unhappy with some of his scientific theories. Muller became
a prominent voice during the Cold War, warning about the dangers of nuclear fallout and
radiation poisoning.

OTTO FRITZ MEYERHOF (1884-1951).

b. Hanover, Germany. d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1922.
Connecting the dots of biology and energy.
Raised, educated, and trained in medicine in Germany,
Meyerhof won a Nobel Prize in 1922 for his and physiologist
A.V. Hill’s discovery that lactic acids (which build up in mus-
cle tissue following exercise) metabolize faster when more
oxygen is present. His discovery that an enzyme that helps
produce lactic acid was the same enzyme that helps ferment
alcohol in yeast was amazing evidence of the unity of bio-
logical life across organisms. Along with two other scientists,
he discovered the glycolysis process, a key step in the later
discovery of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is a compound that plays a fundamental
role in providing chemical energy for metabolism, and is considered by biologists to be the
“energy currency” of life.

HANS ADOLF KREBS (1900-1981).
b. Hildesheim, Germany. d. Oxford, United Kingdom.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1953.
He explained how food energizes us.

As was the case with so many German scientists in the
1930s and 40s, the Nazis expelled Jews like Hans Adolf Krebs
from prestigious academic and research positions. In 1932
before departing the University of Freiburg. Krebs, along with
Kurt Henseleit, discovered the Urea Cycle—the first ever docu-
mented metabolic process. Krebs showed how the body gets
rid of excess nitrogen through the expulsion of urea, which
is excreted with urine. Krebs’s greatest contribution, though,
came in England in 1937 at the University of Sheffield, where he discovered the citric acid
cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle, which explains how cells derive energy from sugars,
fats, and proteins, and how the food we eat sustains us. Krebs’s achievement has helped
us understand health and disease at a deeper level, and has helped treat inborn errors of
metabolism, the name for genetic orders that make it difficult for some people to properly
convert food into energy.

Original Research by Walter L. Field Sponsored by Irwin S. Field Written by Jared Sichel

jn

May 17 • 2018

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