Lunch & Learn Series: Torah for Tomorrow
Tables Turned on Them: Jews Guarding Nazi POWs in the United States
Wed / Jan 27 / 12:00 pm
Rabbi Savenor and Dr. Michael J. Greenberg
Zoom
Uncover the history of Jewish GIs, unsung heroes who displayed a sense of justice, humility, civility, and perseverance during their tours of duty. Uncover their motivations for performing verbal tikkun olam (repair of the world) with the Nazi POWs, despite the dangers of going into POW compounds unarmed and experiencing anti-Semitic taunts. Also learn how these experiences affected the GIs’ post-war lives. With anti-Semitism on the rise in the United States and Europe, the Jewish GIs model how we might positively respond to this reality.
Dr. Michael J. Greenberg earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois- Chicago. He worked for more than 36 years in the food industry as a scientist at Quaker Oats and as R&D Director/ Technology Fellow at the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. As a scientist, he is listed as an inventor on over 60 U.S. patents and as an author of numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. Since his retirement, he has applied his scientific skills to finding facts and substantiation for Tables Turned on Them, his first nontechnical publication. Dr. Greenberg has been deeply engaged with his synagogue and the greater Chicago area Jewish community for over 30 years.