Extraordinary feedback from a previous column

I have been writing my Everywhere column for the Heritage Florida Jewish News for almost 20 years. It began in the early 1980s and continued until just after the High Holidays of 1997, when I suspended writing the column in favor of devoting more time to a growing family and law practice.

I resumed writing the column in February 2018 after the kids were grown and well on their way to following their own dreams; and I entered the ambiguous state of semi-retirement.

One of the great pleasures of writing this column is the feedback I get from readers of all walks of life and certainly from many different perspectives. Some applaud and others deplore a particular opinion or position in a column; but none has seriously challenged the accuracy of the underlying facts, which form the basis of my view on a particular issue.

In addition to the pleasure I receive from interacting with my readers, I enjoy the many points of view shared with me that have helped me learn, broaden, reinforce and in some cases, change my perspective on a particular issue.

Interestingly, on one occasion, an e-mail from a highly regarded community leader challenged the title to a column I wrote as frivolous and insensitive, but omitted any criticism as to the content and views expressed in the column itself.

After deep reflection of both the title and content of the subject column, it led me to a related subject that was the gist of a second column that ended up being a necessary follow-up to the first column and which reinforced and justified both the title and content of the first column.

Last week, I received an extraordinary e-mail from the UK. (I was unaware Heritage had that wide a circulation!) It was from The Rt. Hon. Lord Howard of Lympne CH QC.

Lord Howard has a long and distinguish political and government service resume, having been a member of Parliament, leader of the Conservative Party (in opposition) and having served in numerous high level government positions in both the David Cameron and Margaret Thatcher governments. He was elected to the House of Lords in 2010.

Lord Howard had come across a column I wrote about two years ago titled “A woman named Betty” (Feb. 22, 2019 issue) who was a Holocaust survivor from the city of Ruscova in Rumania, and who subsequently emigrated to America after being liberated from the Auschwitz extermination camp.

In his e-mail to me, Lord Howard, who was born in England, identified himself as a descendant of a prominent Jewish family surnamed Hecht from the city of Ruscova, the same town in which Betty had been born and raised. Lord Howard’s great-grandfather had owned the mill in town to where the town-folk brought their grains and corn for milling into flour.

Lord Howard, whose commoner name is Michael Howard, indicated he was interested in determining whether Betty was acquainted with his family. While it does not appear that Lord Howard was actively connected to the Jewish community during his professional years, he now apparently became interested in the history of his Jewish forbears and the life they lived in pre-war Ruscova.

While Betty, at 93, was unable to recall being acquainted with his family, she referred him to her 80-minute, taped oral history interview, archived at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn509176​

Lord Howard told me he listened to Betty’s oral history interview in its entirety, and it gave him a great understanding of his family’s life in Ruscova and of his own Jewish background and roots.

This survivor interview, along with thousands of others, is an invaluable resource for family connections and for historic research. These oral histories are not only testaments to the occurrence of the Holocaust, but tell a vibrant story of the beautiful Jewish communities that had existed for millennia in Europe prior to their annihilation by the Nazis and their all-too-cooperative local allies.

If you wish to comment or respond you can reach me at melpearlman322@gmail.com. Please do so in a rational, thoughtful, respectful and civil manner.

Mel Pearlman holds B.S. & M.S. degrees in physics as well as a J.D. degree and initially came to Florida in 1966 to work on the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He has practiced law in Central Florida since 1972. He has served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando; was a charter board member, first vice president and pro-bono legal counsel of the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Central Florida, as well as holding many other community leadership positions.