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February 13, 2012
Binyamin Rose: Back to the Bunker: How a life-risking act by a Christian family during the Holocaust saved a family and built a thriving community a world away
Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
March 23, 2005
/ 12 Adar II, 5765
On a fast train
By Paul Greenberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
My sister in her inimitable way said it on some family occasion when we were sitting around trying to figure out if a character actor from the 1940s was still living. It was irritating, not being able to remember whether we'd read his obituary. "You never know," she complained, "who's here any more."
Long before Einstein, most of us realized time was relative. As you grow older, it picks up speed till it's rushing past like a freight train. Or rather a passenger train hurtling through the fast passing days and nights and years. And you can't always remember who's still on board.
Somewhere on the list of passengers are all the personages, celebrities and, yes, character actors you grew up with and feel you know — even if they don't know you. They may be up in the sleeper or back in the club car, or eating off white linen in the diner while you're stuck in coach trying to remember who's still here, but you're all traveling together.
The passenger's interest in who's still on board and who got off at the last stop seems to increase with age. But even when young I found myself paying avid attention to the more prominent obituaries in the paper. I'm not sure why, but they exerted a powerful fascination, as if I could arm myself with a knowledge of the past for what awaited in the future. After all, those who've come before us know the lay of the land. They should; they shaped it.
Maybe that's what King Solomon meant when he said it is better to go to the house of mourning than the house of joy. Ends are so much more educational than beginnings.
If the obituaries don't offer the suspense of other news stories, they're richer in lessons. It's like looking at history through a rear-view mirror, after the shocks have been absorbed, instead of having it loom ahead.
Now I don't just read obituaries but write them. And the challenge is to sort through the facts for the unique significance of each life. And for what each has to say about the times, theirs and ours.
We both shape and are shaped by our times. Consider those two giants of American nuclear research, Hans Bethe, a recent subject of the obituary page when he died at 98, and his colleague Edward Teller, who got off the train back in 2003.
Both refugees from the Nazis, they collaborated on the creation of the world's first nuclear weapon at Los Alamos, helping win the race for the atom bomb against their German colleagues.
But then they parted ways — dramatically. Hans Bethe led the school of thought in the scientific community that opposed the arms race with the Soviets, while Edward Teller became the leading scientist in favor of winning it. Bethe opposed the development of the thermonuclear H-Bomb, while Teller became the Father of the H-Bomb.
Bethe and Teller were just as divided over the wisdom of developing anti-ballistic missiles, creating space-based weapons, and the usefulness of arms control treaties. Both remained ardent advocates of the peaceful use of nuclear energy, but that was about all they had in common in their later years.
What was the root of the postwar differences between the two? Maybe it had something to do with their origins:
Bethe was from comfortable, civilized Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine, and knew first-hand the threat to civilization that the Nazis represented, but he'd had no personal experience with Communist tyranny.
Teller, born in strange, cosmopolite Budapest during the twilight of Emperor Franz Joseph's long reign, had experienced both fascist and Communist rule in Hungary, and learned to fear and detest both. As a young scientist, he had sought refuge, believe it or not, in Germany — before having to leave there in turn when Hitler came to power.
Bethe didn't feel Communism's danger in his bones, the way Teller did. Which may explain their different attitudes toward the arms race with the Soviets. After the Axis powers were defeated, Hans Bethe returned to the classroom with only occasional forays into nuclear weaponry.
In contrast, Edward Teller would spend the next half-century making certain America won the nuclear arms race, no matter how hard he had to politick as well as experiment. For that he was called a Dr. Strangelove, while Hans Bethe was hailed as a saint, which he certainly was. (Communism loved the saintly; it grew fat on them.)
The moral of these very different, much alike, and thoroughly intertwined lives might occur to any close reader of the obituaries: Experience, or maybe just geography, is politics.
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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.
Paul Greenberg Archives
© 2005, TMS
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