Society of the Silurians LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD BANQUET The Cornell Club 6 East 44th Steet Wednesday, November 16th In Honor of RUTH GRUBER Drinks: 6 p.m. Dinner: 7:15 p.m. Meet old friends Merriment e-mail: [email protected] Reservations: Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc. an organization of veteran journalists founded in 1924 (212) 532-0887 by Charles Edward Russell, William O. Inglis, Perry Walton, and David G. Baillie. Members and One Guest $100 Each Non-Members $120 THE OLDEST PRESS CLUB IN THE UNITED STATES NOVEMBER 2011 Ruth Gruber Winner of Silurians 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award International Correspondent, Photographer on the Cusp of History Humanitarian of Heroic Tenacity By Eve Berliner

Images that haunt the mind – a hoisted flag, desperate eyes, outcries, pieces of time and memory, Ruth Gruber, at 100 years of age, a wizened, rather beautiful little butterfly, deep deep blue eyes peer-

Photograph by Ruth Gruber The exiles of Exodus 1947, barred from entering Palestine by the British, await de- portation back to . A flag of defi- ance is raised overhead. Reel Inheritance Films ing into time, her wings outstretched, Ruth Gruber, special emissary of the Roosevelt Administration, documenting frontier life in Alaska, 1941. drawn to the dispossessed of this earth, refugees of Nazi death camps and fear, Shadowed by British men-of-war and witness. In the end, the British refused Gruber would utter. no one to give sanctuary. Her epiphany, under constant threat, the Exodus was them entry and deported them back to Ruth, on that final tragic journey with the harrowing voyage of The Exodus brutally attacked by a British flotilla, leav- Germany to the refugee camps of the desolate, in her white suit and wide- 1947, a ship carrying 4,500 Jewish Holo- ing three dead, 150 injured. The war torn Elmden and Wilhelmshaven. brimmed straw hat, amid the teeming caust survivors to British Mandate Pal- vessel limped into the Port of Haifa, “I knew my life would be inextrica- masses on board the prison ship, estine in defiance of the British blockade. Gruber there with her camera to bear bly bound by rescue and survival,” Ruth Continued on Page 5

and fancied pretty girls with Summer of ‘77 shoulder-length dark hair. By Owen Moritz Thousands of women were so terrified they cut or dyed It may be hard to believe today, but in their hair blond or made a run the summer of 1977 New Yorkers feared on blonde wigs at beauty sup- for their very lives. A serial killer was ply stores. preying on young people. In slightly more Moreover, there was the than a year he killed six people, wounded manic boast that put every- seven others. No one knew what he one on edge. He sent wild looked like and the descriptions from sur- notes to Police Captain Jo- vivors were so sketchy that each new seph Borrelli and Breslin. composite drawing bore little resemblance “Sam’s a thirsty lad,” he to the previous one. We weren’t even sure wrote Breslin, “and he won’t if we were looking for Jack the Ripper or let me stop killing until he gets Jill the Ripper. There had been sugges- his fill of blood.” tions the killer might be a woman. In the early morning of I was among a number of Daily News July 31, 1977 the killer struck staffers writing speculative stories on the again, stalking a young police manhunt for someone calling him- couple to a parked car in self Son of Sam. In my case I was get- Bensonhurst. He crept up si- ting feeds from Bill Federici and Pat Doyle lently as the pair kissed and at police headquarters. Meanwhile, col- fired away at close range. umnist Jimmy Breslin was working his Stacy Moskowitz, 20, died own sources. within hours and Robert We all knew certain things about the NYPD Mug Shot Violante, also 20, lost an eye. killer—he stalked couples in secluded Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, The .44 Caliber Killer who terrorized New York City during the summer Ten days later, on Aug. 10, parking spots, used a .44 caliber revolver of 1977, and murdered six young people. Continued on Page 4 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2011 Bedbug By Malachy McCourt

Concommitant with the rise of the tea party we are now infested with the rise of that disgusting horror known as the bed- bug. Some people would rather deal with Al Qaeda than this new threat to our city. Very little is known about this verminous addition to our society except that it does like living with humans particularly con- servatives as their blood has the bitter- ness quotient bedbugs need. Our state government has passed a law requiring landlords to reveal the history of bedbug infestation in any building or apartment they have for release or rent. I can’t imagine landlords revealing anything about their close relatives the bedbug. Unlike other bugs the bedbug reputedly does not carry disease. The housefly takes a stroll on errant turd and carries some of it on its legs to your slice of bread. The mosquito sucks some malaria blood and spews it into your epidermis. The louse carries typhus and the flea is delighted to carry various other diseases. When I was a resident in some of the more colourful slums of Limerick Ireland we were hosts to all manner of bedbugs. The great writer, thespian and raconteur, Malachy McCourt. My brother Frank wrote in vivid prose about how he and my father carried a bug’s existence except when nagged to on the most luxurious of limousines to other elimination method. Suppose you mattress from the dreadful furnished room do something. My mother spent hours some of the best hotels in these United trap one of these little beasts and holding we had just moved into and beat it and catching them and crushing them on her States. They snuggle down in your lug- him firmly in tweezers, pull his legs off shook it till the clouds of bedbugs lost their thumbnails but it was impossible to imag- gage and disembark at the nearest bed slowly with another tweezers and having hold and tumbled on to the wet pave- ine an itch free, bite free night in any of where frequently they meet the love of enlisted that electronic genius your son, ment. our crowded beds. their lives and they settle down for a while who is an expert on sound, to set up the Having fleas was the cause of great Most people keep dogs cats birds and particularly if it’s the honeymoon suite. most sensitive sound system ever devised shame in holy Limerick as it was attrib- goldfish as household pets but our pets As they are a somewhat benign mini so that the screams of the dying bedbug uted to having a dirty home. You were were the aforementioned vermin with terrorist you won’t get much sympathy if will be heard by his family and by every not allowed fleas, lice or tuberculosis be- whom we were on very intimate terms. you call upon Homeland Security to help bedbug in New York with the result that cause you would be destroyed by the vi- In some cultures the men cut their thumbs repel them and despite the fact that our they will all flee to Alaska and take ref- cious whispering gossip of your Catholic and mingle the blood in order to become country spends $2 million every minute of uge in Sarah Palin’s house. I would ad- neighbours. We moved from furnished blood brothers. Our bugs just helped them- every day on defense, the U.S. cavalry vise against letting bedbugs into your room to furnished sordid room accompa- selves at night without asking, with the will not help you in any way. house even if you are a Tea Party mem- nied by armies of hopper’s as my mother result that the McCourts are blood Bros However there is a sure way of killing ber because they don’t vote and they bite called them. Some people said you to a vast number of the vermin world. The a bedbug: you even if you feed them and they lay couldn’t have fleas and lice at the same Bible tells us that Jesus wore a seamless A. Secure two small blocks of wood eggs all over the place as well as that time; same tale as not having mice and robe which kept the lice and bugs in a 2" x 2" they are always off somewhere at the rats living in harmony. They were wrong. state of frustration as they like to hang B. Capture the bedbug movies, Sarah Palin’s jet armchairs, other We had everything that walked crawled out in seams. Where else do they reside? C. Place bedbug on one block of wood people’s luggage, luxury hotels, syna- or flew. On any given morning one look Beds of course, armchairs and the film D. Strike said bug with the other block gogues and mosques and churches and at us would indicate that measles had bro- industry is quite annoyed that the bugs are of wood until dead they use you as a walking ATM for blood. ken out during the night and dotted our slipping into cinemas now without paying E. Repeat with all other bedbugs until They are not nice and I think they fair skins with the usual red measles dots one dime. They love to travel so now they they are all dead should be deported to a place that is with- bitten as we were. are frequent flyers much to the chagrin It is not known if these creatures emit out blood. Any conservative country will My father refused to acknowledge the of the airline industry and they get rides any sounds but perhaps we could try an- do.

Let’s put aside for the moment that the chemotherapy,” US Marine Corporal treatments improve, “the cancer metaphor The Medical Wars “breakthrough” has long been a lazy sub- Ryan Dupre told the Times of London re- will be made obsolete…long before the By Robert Bazell, stitute for an adequate explanation of why porter Mark Franchetti shortly after a problems it has reflected so vividly will be Chief Science and Health an experiment or new treatment matters. bloody battle outside the Iraqi city of resolved.” Correspondent for NBC News Where does it originate? Nasiriya in the spring of 2003. Abraham Fuks of McGill University It is the most common of the military The confluence of military and medical (whose works provided me with some of It was the regular afternoon story meet- metaphors invoked in medicine and medi- language did not begin with our current the quotes above) argues that military ing a few months ago for that evening’s cal reporting most often for cancer, but by cancer “crusade.” metaphors are part of “the shift of atten- NBC Nightly News. The senior produc- association with other conditions that can “A murderous array of disease has to tion of the physician from the patient to ers along with Brian Williams the anchor be difficult or impossible to treat including be fought against, and the battle is not a the disease entity.” Because of the mili- and managing editor listen as correspon- Alzheimer’s. We have had a “War on Can- battle for the sluggard,” wrote Thomas tary metaphors, the patient’s body be- dents and producers present the proposed cer” for almost forty years. We seek to Sydenham, often portrayed , as the comes the battlefield where the heroic pieces that will make up that night’s broad- “overcome the dreaded enemy” consist- Hippocrates of England in the mid-17th physician fights “the enemy”. Meanwhile cast. Some offers make it. Others are ing of “invading” cells “overwhelming the century. “I steadily investigate the disease, the patient, like the civilian population in a changed or dropped. body’s defenses.” We work to “kill” the I comprehend its character, and I proceed war zone is reduced to the bystander of- I was offering a piece about the results invaders with “all the weapons in our straight ahead, and in full confidence, to- ten suffering extensive unintended harm. of an early trial of insulin pumped directly armamentarium.” The attack can summon wards its annihilation” Medicine could do a better job, Fuks ar- into the brain with a special inhaler as an chemical weapons (the first cancer che- These days the military metaphors stick gues, by thinking more in terms of patients experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s motherapy, mustard gas, was first devel- mostly to cancer and other incurable con- and not just the diseases that afflict them. disease. oped as a weapon of war) Treatment also ditions like Alzheimer’s precisely because Medical journalism, I would argue could “Is this a breakthrough?” Pat Burkey , calls in radiation attack and of course sur- the “wars” against them have enjoyed rela- serve its audiences better than simply de- the executive producer, asked me. gery. tively few successes. In the seminal work claring whether or not a finding is “break- I was about to respond when just in time The military medical metaphor ex- on this subject “Illness as Metaphor,” Su- through” (through the enemies defense). I noticed the suppressed smirks on enough change goes in both directions. We hear san Sontag wrote that the military meta- Certainly at NBC my views on the matter faces around the table to realize that I was often of “surgical” airstrikes which equate phors for cancer persist as a “vehicle for are known all too well. being set up. So I stopped myself from to a cancer doctor removing all the tumor our insufficiencies” regarding our attitudes My report on insulin as a potential treat- uttering my typical, expected rant about with as little healthy tissue as possible. But about death as well as an array of social ment for Alzheimer’s did air that night al- “breakthrough” being the ultimate mean- inevitably in cancer treatment as with and economic challenges. Just as tuber- though like almost everything in medical ingless cliché in science and medical re- bombing runs there is often “collateral culosis carried a metaphor of romantic research the early findings must be re- porting. I saved myself from a part in the damage.” death before the advent of antibiotics to peated in a larger, longer study. Stay tuned afternoon’s entertainment. “The Iraqis are sick people and we are treat it, Sontag predicted that, as cancer for further breakthroughs. NOVEMBER 2011 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 3

Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Sandy The Question Box Koufax, and the Bobby Thomson- Ralph Branca dynamic still are. By Ray Corio Here’s a sample question: Ever wonder about the aver- age weight of major league umpires? If a Dodger fielder dropped a foul Or if a perfect game can include pop during Sandy Koufax’s perfect an error by the winning team? Or game against the Cubs in 1965, would why baseball players spit so often? the perfect game be spoiled? Quite a few readers were curious The answer: Hardly, so long as about those and other such sports-re- Koufax retired the batter and every lated matters, I learned, during my “in- other one without anyone reaching terim” term tending to The New base. But the fielder would be York Times SportsMonday Question charged with an error for ‘’prolong- Box from 1984-1993. ing the player’s at-bat.” So there Over a range of more than 400 col- would be an error for the winning team umns, distilled from an average of 15- in a perfect game by the winning 20 letters a week, I answered roughly pitcher. 2,000 questions. But one I never an- And this one: Did Bobby Thomson swered stands out: which sport elic- hit any other home runs off Ralph its the most questions? Branca in 1951 before the pennant- Baseball, unquestionably. By a city winning ‘’shot heard ‘round’ the and country mile. It made up more than world” in the playoff against the 85 percent of the letters submitted. Be Dodgers? it Super Bowl week, Kentucky Derby The answer: Thomson hit two oth- week, the N. C.A.A. basketball tour- ers off Branca that season, one in nament, the Olympics or World Cup, the first playoff game two days ear- readers wanted to know “If a runner lier. Interestingly, Branca allowed 19 on second base with one out leaves homers that year, 11 to the Giants, the base too soon....” and Thomson hit 8 of his 32 homers The national passion for the na- Oklahoma’s record 47 game winning streak came to a stunning end in 1957 with a off the Dodgers. tional pastime was just dandy for me, touchdown by Dick Lynch, rolling around right end from 3 yards out, one of the greatest For one question, I got the an- a lifelong sports nut encased in a touchdowns in collegiate football history. swer directly from the subject, Dick baseball shell. So when S. Lee Lynch, whom I met at my Kanner retired in 1984 as the Ques- chiropractor’s office (apparently a fre- tion Box editor at The Times, this assis- quent hangout for ex –football play- tant sports editor, naturally, was asked ers). to pinch-hit until a successor emerged. Lynch was a former Notre Dame halfback and defensive back, whose What an at-bat! 3-yard touchdown run against Okla- homa in 1957 ended college football’s By the time the column was retired longest winning streak at 47 games. nine years later, I had been nicknamed A reader wondered if Lynch had ever “Mr. Box” and designated as the played at running back during his ca- staff’s go-to guy for any reporter or reer with the New York Giants in editor in the entire newsroom. the National Football League. Beyond the newspaper, friends and “I never had a down in the relatives also caught on. “Hey Ray, pros,” Lynch told me, pointing out I’ve got one I bet you can’t answer,” that the Giants were so successful became a daily challenge, and nuisance. that they kept him at defensive The column, born when back and kick returner. Lynch man- SportsMonday was created in 1978, aged 37 interceptions and scored 7 invited readers to submit questions on touchdowns, but the player who any aspect of sports: statistics, carried the day for Notre Dame records, rules or strategies. Sounds never carried the ball from scrim- dry, even by Times standards, so I mage as a pro. would enrich the answers with a That answer was obtained easily, smile or two. And a cartoon by Tom but others, like the weight of umpires Bloom with a witty caption helped, too. and the penchant for spitting in base- Letters arrived from all types, par- The great Sandy Koufax’s perfect game for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the ball, wound up in my can’t-answer ticularly doctors, teachers and retir- Chicago Cubs on September 9, 1965. file, along with one I received a year ees; lots of retirees. after the column had been phased There were inquiries from Brazil out. It came from a marketing con- (basketball), Canada (curling), and the sultant in Englewood, N.J., a fre- entire United States (fencing, boxing, quent contributor: six-day bicycle races, etc.) Even a “Hey, what happened to Ray question from my former high school Corio and his Q&A?” mathematics teacher, who remem- bered me from the school newspa- per. That led to a reacquaintance. Another reader wondered if I was related to Ann Corio, the legendary stripper from burlesque days. It’s a question I’ve been asked many times, and the answer is still, ‘’Not even barely.” As for sports questions, they of- ten demanded research, which often turned up an irony or interesting note that upstaged the original ques- tion. This was all pre-Internet, so my sources were record and rules books, as well as phone calls to team media directors (not so good), halls of fame (better), headquarters for the sports (even better), the Elias Sports Bureau (always reliable) and often major league umpires like Marty Springstead (the best). I learned never to dis- The “shot heard round the world,” Bobby Thomson’s pennant-winning, epic home run for agree with umpires. the New York Giants against Ralph Branca of the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds Over the years, I also learned on October 3, 1951. It endures as perhaps the most dramatic play in baseball history. Barney Stein how truly popular Babe Ruth, Ted Thomson seen here in ecstatic embrace with Giants manager, Leo Durocher. Losing pitcher Ralph Branca. PAGE 4 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2011

tective explained, and “it was a gift from Son of Sam Terrors a buddy” in May or June, 1976. He had Continued from Page 1 also been trained in guerrilla warfare, 1977, by a turn of fate, I was assigned to which could explain his stealth moves in the 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift as a vacation fill- tracking his victims. in. The fateful evening started slowly. But A front page proof came up. A toward midnight we were hearing mur- copyeditor, Harry Demarsky, didn’t like murs from headquarters that detectives the headline–thought it had Berkowitz ar- were pursuing a lead in Yonkers. We were rested and convicted–and so told O’Neill. getting leaks–the suspect was a post of- The editor redid the headline to its iconic fice worker and investigators had found state: NAB MAILMAN AS .44 his battered car. KILLER. The news travelled fast. We awaited We learned how police broke the case. an official press conference. But 1977 A vigilant dog-walker had come forward was an election year and Mayor Abraham four days after the Bensonhurst attack B. Beame, fighting for his political life, and told police she remembered seeing a wanted to be on hand for the announce- cream-colored Ford Galaxy parked ille- ment. That meant nothing definitively un- gally near a fire hydrant. The killer til after 1 a.m. “looked right in her face,” a detective said. Meantime, rumors of an arrest were New York Daily News Berkowitz’s car had been ticketed and swirling and I was told to start writing. Serial killer, David Berkowitz, Son of Sam, who stalked and killed his victims, set off a detectives were able to trace the ticket Like a mirage, the news room filled up panic that consumed the city. back to Berkowitz’s Yonkers address. with veteran reporters, offering their ser- the suspect’s name from police. I turned At 5:10 a.m., a police official con- vices for one of the great news stories of to Brian Kates, in the next seat, who was firmed the .44-caliber gun seized in that or any era. Editor Mike O’Neill ar- phoning everyone he knew in Yonkers Berkowitz’s car was the weapon used in rived from his home in Westchester, a where he used to work. the murder of his last victim. Also in his copyboy having dropped him off at The “Do you have a name for the perp?” I car was the trove of a sick mind: A pair News before parking his car. asked. of men’s underpants, soiled maps, news- O’Neill promptly bumped Bill Umstead, “Yes,” he answered. “David paper clippings of his six murders–and the the night assistant managing editor, from Berkowitz.” parking ticket. the news slot–a humiliation the late It was one of those jarring moments. New York Daily News Continued on Page 6 Umstead never forgot. Some minutes Any name is possible. But Berkowitz? I The rampage of murder comes to an end. later, into the now busy and humming knew a few people named Berkowitz and news room, came a police officer in uni- none of them was a serial killer. inserts and urgent updates were added form, escorting a black youth. Finally, well after 1 a.m., in a scene of through the night. He asked to see O’Neill. “He was driv- bedlam, the mayor made the announce- Staff members called the victims’ fami- ing your car,” the officer told the editor. ment that his constituents were aching to lies for comment. When we got infor- “Do you know him?” hear: “I am happy to announce that the mation that Berkowitz may have grown “Yes,” O’Neill said. “He’s my driver.” people of the City of New York can rest up in the Glen Oaks section of Queens, More facts were coming in from Doyle easily this morning because the police have reporters scoured the now-quaint cross- and Yonkers sources. The suspect, ar- caught the person known as Son of Sam.” street phone book for the names of resi- rested outside his Yonkers apartment, had Back in the news room, O’Neill dents to call. A reporter was dispatched told detectives: “Well, you got me.” In- shouted, “Keep writing.” Pages were to Glen Oaks, presumably to knock on side his cluttered car, cops found not only added to the news hole to make room for doors at 3 a.m. and ask if anyone knew the Bulldog .44 caliber weapon, but also sidebars and pictures. Berkowitz. Another tip: he had attended a fully loaded submachine gun and a let- My lead remained unchanged. (“A 24- high school in the Bronx. These develop- ter addressed to Suffolk County police. year-old, gun-loving mailman was arrested ments became grist for the following He apparently planned to hit the late last night as Son of Sam, the .44 cali- day’s editions. NYPD Police File Hamptons next. ber killer who has terrorized New York Another mystery was solved. Where The first Son of Sam letter to Captain Meantime, it occurred to me that in the for more than a year and murdered six did Berkowitz get the weapon? He had Joseph Borrelli of the New York City Police pell-mell fury of writing we didn’t have young people. ‘Well you got me…’”). But served with the Army in Vietnam, a de- Department.

use of such words, and phrases, “sad old Society of the Silurians Observations from Down Under hag” and “evil witch,” struck this writer Officers 2011-2012 one of Mel- as raw, and edgy. President bourne’s crime Testimony during the dramatic trial had TONY GUIDA families. Here revealed a riff between ‘Tuppence’ and First Vice-President is a 60-ish Judy Moran. ‘Tuppence’ had paid his sis- HERBERT HADAD woman who ter-in-law $4000 dollars a month follow- Second Vice-President GARY PAUL GATES has lost two ing the death of his brother, and nephews, Secretary sons, and two but he grew tired of that near decade- JOAN SIEGEL husbands in long arrangement, and confronted Judy Treasurer this city’s in early 2009 about it. Judith Moran, who MORT SHEINMAN gangland wars lived the lavish life of a gangster’s moll, Board of Governors LEO MEINDL of recent had believed ‘Tuppence’ had access to a GOVERNOR EMERITUS years. Judith fortune of ‘Black’ money “stooked” away LINDA AMSTER BETSY ASHTON Moran was (as the local papers put it) by her late gang- IRA BERKOW found guilty of ster husband, Lewis. The secret stash of EVE BERLINER planning out so-called ‘Black’ money has not been JERRY ESKENAZI ALLAN DODDS FRANK the gangland- found, and the fate of Desmond RICKI FULMAN style murder ‘Tuppence’ Moran, is now in the record LINDA GOETZ HOLMES Radioman Eric Williams, now broadcasting from , Australia, of her brother- books. MYRON KANDEL BERNARD KIRSCH with former President Bill Clinton. in-law, What also strikes me is the use of cer- ROBERT D. McFADDEN Desmond tain English words and phrases one would BEN PATRUSKY By Eric Williams ‘Tuppence’ Moran, in broad daylight, on never see in an American publication. Committee Chairpersons a calm weekday afternoon in Ascot Vale, Phrases such as a ‘Standover man,” used Awards Melbourne, Australia – When looking a wealthy Melbourne suburb, in June for the muscle, or enforcer by a gangster, EVE BERLINER at the local newspapers, and viewing the 2009. comes to mind. A “punter,” or gambler, Dinner newspapers from back home online, the Moran, 66, had received a stiff 26 year and the act of “punting” is another that MORT SHEINMAN Legal late New York Times columnist, William sentence in August of this year, and the jars the senses. One sentence by An- KEN FISHER Saffire, would have a field day. Now I local papers screamed with headlines, drew Rule, the noted Herald Sun associ- Membership am not professing to come anywhere near and sub-titles, depicting Moran as, “A sad ate editor, and crime reporter, who is also MORT SHEINMAN the brilliance of the late master of the ori- old hag with a tragic past.” While the the co-author of the UNDERBELLY Nominating MYRON KANDEL gin of various English words, but one thing Herald Sun court reporter, Paul Ander- books, would make an American reader Silurian Contingency Fund Trustees becomes clear for this ex-pat: I may be son, started the first paragraph of his re-read the following sentence several LARRY FRIEDMAN, in an English speaking nation, but we do story with a quote, “Judy Moran was an times. “Judith Moran had already moved CHAIR NAT BRANDT not speak the same language. Or write it, evil witch who deserved a lonely death in in with another violent career criminal, JOY COOK for that matter. This is especially true in jail.” Lewis Moran, who had graduated from MARK LIEBERMAN the matter in which headlines are written, This is not to say that American, and pick pocketing and standover to whole- MARTIN J. STEADMAN or the reporting of certain events. especially, New York City newspapers, sale and retail drug dealing to subsidise Silurian News EVE BERLINER, EDITOR One case in point is the recent sen- in general, do not use harsh terms when his punting.” If you didn’t know what tencing of Judith Moran, the mother of describing the act of a bad guy. But the Continued on Page 6 NOVEMBER 2011 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 5 Witness to History Continued from Page 1 Runnymede Park, a mother figure to them all. Her powerful story and searing photographs of the Jewish refugees sur- rounded on all sides by a barbed wire cage, raising the Union Jack flag – the flag of Great Britain – upon which they had defiantly painted the hated Swastika – was published by the New York Her- ald Tribune on its front pages in Paris and New York, picked up by the Associated Press, and seen around the world! It’s been an epic life. * * * It all began on September 30, 1911 in Brooklyn, New York, Ruth, one of five children born to Gussie and David Gruber, émigrés from Russia with aspirations for their daughter. They resided at 14 Harman Street in Bushwick in an insular loving Jewish world and Ruth dreamed of being a writer. Her father gave her a little upstairs space to work and Green- wich Village on Harman Street was born. A poet at age 15. But Ruth had to get away. She had to get out of Brooklyn. She had to get away from her family and the cocoon where she couldn’t breathe. She loved her fam- ily but she needed to break free. In 1931, Ruth won a fellowship from Photograph by Ruth Gruber Refugees awaiting forced deportatation from Haifa, 1947. the Institute of International Education to study in , Germany where she iled in the Yakut Autonomous Soviet So- back, and bathe again in the Yenisel at Arabia [Gruber not permitted entry] – lived with a German Jewish family, the cialist Republic of.Yakatsk. She inter- Molokov Island, take midnight walks in with another month of deliberation in Herz’s, and their daughter, Louisa, and viewed and photographed the exiles. Igarka, work with its newspaper people Switzerland. They toured the displaced won a Ph.D in one year’s time from the There were said to be tens of thousands and pioneers, get up at dawn at a polar person camps of Germany, many filled University of Cologne. At age 20 she of prisoners all over Yakutkia Republic, station, swim in the Arctic Ocean and rush with orphaned children. They went to became the youngest person in the world Gruber pushing deeply into the Soviet Arc- back to a steaming breakfast shouting Dachau. They attended the Nuremberg to receive a doctorate. The subject of her tic, traveling to Igarka, near the Arctic “Zdravstvuitye” until that full-mouthed Trials of the German war criminals, thesis: “: The Will to Cre- Circle. greeting seems to ring across the Arc- Gruber staring into the face of Hermann ate As A Woman.” Ruth was mesmer- With the outbreak of World War II in tic.” Goering, head of the German Luftwaffe, ized by her courage to write as a woman 1941, Ruth Gruber was asked by Harold * * * dressed in his immaculate blue uniform and believe in herself as a woman. L. Ickes, President Roosevelt’s Secretary In 1944, while war and Holocaust stripped of its medals. Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” be- of the Interior, to become his special as- raged, Gruber was assigned a secret mis- Ben Gurion testified before the Com- came her bible. She would ultimately sistant. Shortly thereafter, she was dis- sion to escort 1,000 Jewish refugees from Continued on Page 6 be invited to tea by Virginia Woolf, the patched to Alaska! The ostensible pur- Europe to the United States, in what would image of Virginia in her long silk gown pose of her exploration was to determine be a harrowing voyage of sanctuary. Act- lying in front of the fireplace, a cigarette ing on executive authority, President between her fingers, endures still; the Roosevelt secretly circumvented the gov- letters they exchanged, one of her life’s ernment policy of strict quotas that kept treasures. our doors effectively sealed against East- The most ominous, portentous experi- ern European Jews, and moved to give ence of her year-long stay in Germany, shelter to 1,000 Jewish refugees. He never to be erased from the mind, was dropped the project in the lap of Interior her attendance at an enormous Hitler Secretary Harold Ickes who assigned rally in 1932. Hitler on the march, the Ruth Gruber to lead the mission. Ickes Herz’s, her German host family, near formally declared Gruber to be a Gen- hysterical at her unyielding determination eral. In the event the military aircraft in to go. She traveled by herself across the which she was flying to Europe was shot Rhine, and there, in a huge fair grounds down by the Nazis, her life would be pro- filled with hundreds of thousands of tected by the Geneva Convention. Photograph by Ruth Gruber people, she was seated in an area re- Throughout the 13 day rescue, the served for German citizens. She found Army troop transport Henry Gibbins was Holocaust refugees, imprisoned by the British in the hold of the Runnymede Park, herself remarkably close to the podium, hunted by Nazi seaplanes and U-boats. which will transport them back to German surrounded by tens of thousands of brown In the end, the refugees were locked be- refugee camps,1947. Gruber was the only uniforms, SS troops with Swastikas em- hind a chain link fence with barbed wire journalist permitted on board by the blazoned on their arms. At last, the doors Courtesy of Ruth Gruber at Fort Ontario in Oswego New, York, the British to accompany them on their terrible journey. flung open and Hitler entered, surrounded A young Ruth Gruber at her typewriter. threat of deportation at war’s end a cruel by thirty bodyguards. A total silence fell reality. Gruber fought on, lobbied for the upon the stadium. No one dared to speak the feasibility of homesteading wounded United States to give them permanent or move. and shell-shocked returning American refuge. She could never forget that voice. It soldiers to the Alaska Territory. Gruber When the war ended the Oswego refu- was unlike anything she had ever heard . documented frontier life and the unique gees remained in America. Piercing and almost subhuman, terrify- role of women, traveling the Alaska fron- This was the only attempt by the ing in its fever pitch of emotion and evil, tiers. She fell in love with Alaska. She United States government to shelter Jew- its mad crescendo screamed over and became enchanted with the Eskimos and ish refugees during the Second World over: “Death to the Jews. Death to their way of life, and the powerful role War. America!” that women played in their society. * * * * * * Upon her return to the United States, In 1946, Ted Thackrey, editor in chief Gruber returned to the United States the U.S. House of Representatives of The , asked Gruber to and at age 24 was personally asked by blocked the pay of Dr. Ruth Gruber de- cover the work of a newly created Anglo- Helen Rogers Reid, publisher of The New claring, “It was time to stop the propa- American Committee of Inquiry on Pal- York Herald Tribune, to join that great ganda of Communism.” Her new book, estine. paper’s staff as a special foreign corre- “I Went to the Soviet Arctic,” expressed The Committee was to decide the fate spondent. “Communistic philosophy.” of 100,000 Jewish refugees who were liv- Gruber became the first foreign cor- “Any of us who vote to pay this ing in European camps as displaced per- respondent to fly through Siberia into the woman’s salary is not fit to sit in the sons, [DPs]. The Commission traveled Soviet Arctic! The year,1935. Stalin’s House of Representatives,:” shouted throughout Europe, Palestine and the Arab long rumored Gulag was expanding. Rep.Taber. countries for four months, collecting tes- Photograph by Ruth Gruber Gruber penetrated the Siberian Gulag, in- Here is the book’s closing sentence: timony in Munich, Cairo, Jerusalem, Tyre Families from Romania reunite in Haifa terviewed Soviet political prisoners ex- “But I know that some day I shall go [Lebanon], Haifa, Baghdad and Saudi port, 1951. PAGE 6 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2011

is the subject of a searching and ac- claims, no other persons have ever been Gruber 2011 Honoree claimed. 2010 documentary portrait en- Tabloid Sensation charged. He contended he got his orders Continued from Page 5 titled, “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Continued from Page 4 to kill from neighbor Sam Carr’s black mission, as did Chaim Weizman and Golda Journey of Ruth Gruber.” Dawn came up through the big win- Labrador retriever–hence his Son of Sam Meir. Ruth Gruber, one of the great humani- dows of the Daily News Building. It was moniker. Reputed to be a model prisoner, In the end, the twelve members of the tarians of the 20th century, a renowned now the morning of August 11th. The Berkowitz is serving life in prison. Commission unanimously agreed that photojournalist of immense poignancy thunderous presses downstairs were still A postscript. Dreary news stories ex- Britain must allow 100,000 Jewish immi- and power, fearless. There is in Ruth a running. Then, suddenly, we were told to ploring Berkowitz’s upbringing, drug use grants to settle in Palestine. President deeply felt sense of self as a Jew, as a stop. “Hold your notes,” someone yelled. and demons ran for days without relief. Harry Truman im- woman, and as a human being. She was From unionized drivers came word that Then, six days after his capture, on Au- plored Great Britian a feminist pioneer of immense courage, at 7 a.m. their night was finished. With gust 16, 1977, Elvis Presley died. The re- to open the doors of her life consumed by rescue, sanctuary their stranglehold on delivery, there was lief in the office was palpable. The King’s British Mandate of and liberation of the victimized, the no other way to distribute the paper. death brought a new cycle of stories, while Palestine. hunted, her dedication to the fate of Many drivers also worked shifts at Berkowitz’s saga, though not his murder But the British those she covered profound. Murdoch’s Post, an evening paper. spree, drifted into history. Foreign Minister, Her great hurt, she would tell the New The Son of Sam edition flew off the , would York Times in February of 2001, is that newsstands. The Daily News had been not relent. the United States of America did not act selling fewer than 2 million copies a day New Members Courtesy of The answer was to give refuge to the desperate, top offi- since the mid-1970s, down from the highs “No.” cials of the State Department deliber- of its halcyon days. But it’s a safe guess Ruth Gruber Jon Anderson Britain renounced ately, delaying the visas of Jews, the vi- the paper sold more than 2 million copies Ruth Gruber Writer, Columnist, Chicago Tribune, Contributing its Mandate over Pal- sas of thousands of people who ulti- on Aug. 11, 1977. No one doubted we Editor based in New York, Time & Life magazines, estine. It no longer wanted to rule. mately perished in Nazi concentration could have sold more if the drivers stayed Montreal Bureau Chief, Correspondent, Reporter and The nascent created its camps, a tacit acquiesence by the United on the job. Columnist, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Daily News, own Committee – the United Nations States government to the annihilation of In the end, Americans saw a paunchy, currently, independent writer. Special Committee on Palestine – Jews. nerdy-looking man with a disturbing smile Joseph Berger UNSCOP. “They knew what was going on. who had set off the greatest manhunt in Reporter, Columnist, Editor, New York Times, Reporter, Tribune owner Helen Reid assigned They knew about the death camps. They city history. Berkowitz admitted to some Newsday, Reporter, New York Post. Author of three Gruber to accompany UNSCOP as a spe- could have saved hundreds of thousands. of the crimes, but not all. He claimed books, Silurian Peter Kihss Award winner 2011. cial foreign correspondent, traveling, once “The indifference haunts me, it haunts members of a satanic cult were involved. Elliot Brown again, to Europe, Palestine, Egypt, Leba- me every day.” While some experts put credence in his Entertainment Lawyer, Reporter, UPI -New York, non and Syria. Reporter, Chicago Tribune, Chicago American, Pocano On November 29, 1947, the 58 mem- Daily Record, Harrisburg Evening News and the Philadelphia Inquirer. bers who comprised the United Nations prisingly, had no coverage of the dramatic General Assembly began voting on the Thoughts Down Under events that took place in Melbourne’s cen- Roberta Hershenson Partition of Palestine into separate Jew- Continued from Page 4 tral business district, at all. Freelance writer, Arts/Culture, Columnist, “Footlights,” ish and Arab entities, Gruber, in the press ‘standover’ or ‘punting’ meant, you would In a quote right out of former New York The New York Times, Contributing Writer to the Times, Opera News, The New York Sun, Classical Singer and section overlooking the proceedings, as 33 be lost. Mayor Rudolph Giuiani’s playbook, others. Contributing photojournalist, The New York nations including the United States of Then there was one hilarious quote of Melbourne’s Lord Mayor, , Times. America and the , voted Yes, an elected official who referred to a col- called the protesters “disruptive,” and that 13 No votes, largely from the Arab states, league he had differences with, as a the original group of occupiers had been Carol Lawson 10 Abstentions, Great Britain among “Gormless git.” Gormless, of course, taken over by “professional protesters who Adjunct Instructor, Writing, , Reporter, New York Times them. means one who is stupid, and who is not were likely to cause trouble in the City The State of Israel was born. the sharpest knife in the cupboard. The Square.” He defended the tough tactics Jane Weston Linsky * * * quote made headlines all across Victoria, by the state-run Victorian police in clear- New York Times Staffer, Sunday Magazine, Culture Through the ensuing years, Ruth’s as it was about land rights for Aboriginals ing the City Square, tactics that have been Department, Arts & Leisure Section, Editor, Sunday Television magazine work has remained relentless – covering the two elected officials had clashed over. widely criticized in the public arena. the Yemenite “magic carpet,” transport- The word Gormless may be a far cry from Also in the public arena is the sharp criti- Bill Madden ing of 50,000 Yemenite Jews to refuge in the Yiddish word “Shumuck,” but both cism of public gambling, or punting. But Sports Columnist, New York Daily News, Sports Israel on “wings of eagles,”[1949], the words do pack a punch. again, here is the use of the word that will Reporter, UPI secret airlift of 120,000 Iraqi Jews to Is- What also packs a punch is the strik- make an American reader look twice. From Kate McLeod rael, [1951], the North African exodus ing similarity between what one reads in elected officials to the clergy to public ana- Board of Governor, Overseas Press Club Foundation, off the coast of Tunisia and the ingather- American publications, and in newspapers lysts, they all criticize the proliferation of Reporter specializing in Automobile industry: ing of Jews from Romania, the Soviet on these shores, regarding the recent the ‘pokie’ machines across Australia. Contributor, The Houston Chronicle, Chief Executive and Motion magazines, and online news websites Union and [1951 to 1988]. Ruth Wall Street events. Paul Pokie machines are what Americans know ForbesAuto.com,Thecarconnection.com and would be the chronicler of every major Krugman, the economic columnist for the as the ‘one armed bandit,’ found in the Autobytel.com. Columnist, Girl Driver USA, syndicated Jewish emigration to Israel. New York Times, referred to commen- gambling halls in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, in newspapers and online. * * * tary by critics as widely spread over the and in Yonkers, New York, close to the race Robin Reisig The little birch bark cradle had been political spectrum from, say, NPR, to track. Gambling is big in Australia. So much Lecturer, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, given as a gift to Ruth in 1935 by an old CNBC to the Fox News Cable Network. so, that even the Australian Football League Reporter, Washington Post, Village Voice, The Ameri- woman named Marfa Mokhaolovna in a Krugman referred to what he called, “a (AFL) has a hand in the pokie machine can Lawyer magazine and the Southern Courier. small village near Yakutsk in the Soviet weary cynicism, a belief that justice will business. One could not imagine the NFL, Contributing writer “News of the Week in Review,” Arctic. never get served, (that it) has taken over NBA or Major League Baseball in the U.S. “Book Review” and “Travel” sections, The New York Times, Copy Editor, and Editor Feature Page and The 104-year-old Yakut woman casti- much of our political debate.” having a hand in such business. Opinion Sections, Newsday and New York Newsday. gated her for not being married and Much could be said about critics of the This is not a criticism; I am just noting warned her sternly, “Don’t wait too long.” spin-offs on these the differences here between the two Richard Stern She brought out a beautiful birch bark shores, like, Chris Berg, the widely re- countries in the matter of sport and gam- Senior Editor, Forbes magazine, Columnist at the Daily News, Editor, Institutional Investor. Director, Stern & cradle and said she had rocked every one spected voice of reason found in The Age bling. There was no such event here, like Co., a media communications business. of her 20 children in that cradle. It was newspaper in Melbourne. Or, in contrast, the 1929 World Series, where members constructed of birch bark ingeniously by the Australian Rush Limbaugh- of the Chicago White Sox team had carved to fit a baby’s body. There was a wannabe, Andrew Bolt, whose shrill com- cheated, and thrown that championship hole at bottom’s end which emptied into a mentary that there is an absence of spe- contest intentionally, to benefit bookies, In Memoriam birch bark potty. cific demands by the protesters should and organized crime. “It’s yours,” said the old woman. translate into not taking them seriously. AFL clubs in Victoria control about William Alexander Ruth carried Marfa’s cradle back to Yet, reaction to that stance from both 2,500 out of the more than 30,000 pokie New York and sixteen years later rocked pundits has brought a surprising storm of machines in this Australian state. Public Gloria Clyne her own children, Celia and David, in it, criticism from both readers of the news- records indicate that Victorian clubs, such George N. DeGregorio who passed the revered tradition along to papers that carry their critiques, and the as Collingwood, the Western Bulldogs, Sidney J. Frigand Ruth’s grandchildren, Michael and Lucy, broadcast organs that air their views. and Hawthorn earn up to $30 million dol- her daughter’s children, Joel and Lila, her The Rupert Murdock-owned Herald lars each in annual pokie revenue. New Bill Gallo son’s. Sun screamed with the headline, MAD- laws to restrict the amount punters can George Kimball An unconventional spirit, Ruth Gruber NESS, as the Occupy Melbourne sit-ins gamble are on the table, and owners of Marvin Smilon married Philip H. Michaels at the age of reached a head with the arrest of 95 people. some of the AFL teams are not happy 40 in 1951. He is the father of her chil- New York Daily News-like photos of the about it. This proposal, supported by Joseph Wershba dren. Her second marriage to Dr. Henry skirmish dominated the first seven pages Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has caused J. Rosner in 1974, occurred after her first of the paper. Mounted police on horses a crisis, and threatens to bring down her husband’s death. had surged through the crowd of roughly office. Ruth Gruber is the author of 19 books 500 Melbournians, accompanied by attack What is clear to this observer is that Society of the Silurians about the worlds she has traveled and the dogs, pepper spray, and batons. The more language, politics, the media, and public PO Box 1195, history she has witnessed. She was hon- sedate AGE placed the story on page officials mimic each other in similar Madison Square Station New York, NY 10159 ored in 2010 by the International Center three, with few photos, and little commen- ways. They may say it in different ways, 212.532.0887 of Photography with a major exhibition of tary. While the national newspaper, THE and use different words, but the result in www.silurians.org a lifetime of her photographic work. She WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN, quite sur- public policy and message is the same.