Tikvah Fund Memorial Day Special ICYMI: No Living Sephardim Allowed: Do You Know John Langeloth Loeb, Jr.? Tikvah Fund Trumpscum Rabbi Meir Soloveichik Does!
David Shasha
No Living Sephardim Allowed: Do You Know John Langeloth Loeb, Jr.? Tikvah Fund Trumpscum Rabbi Meir Soloveichik Does!
We just received word of a special Memorial Day ceremony from formerly-Sephardic Congregation Shearith Israel to take place at the historic Chatham Square cemetery:
https://www.shearithisrael.org/events/memorial-day2023/
I was curious to learn about the two men who will be leading the ceremony.
The first is John Langeloth Loeb, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Denmark:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Langeloth_Loeb_Jr.
It is a truly fascinating choice that speaks precisely to Soloveichik’s radical Right Wing obsessions.
Guess who appointed Loeb ambassador?
That’s right.
Ronald Reagan!
And guess what institution Loeb founded?
https://gwtoday.gwu.edu/institute-religious-freedom-will-move-education-programs-gw
That’s right.
The George Washington University Institute for Religious Freedom!
The Center for Jewish History, AKA “The Sephardic Morgue,” has all you need to know about the illustrious Loebs:
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/19997
Here is some further information on Daughter of the South Adeline Moses Loeb:
https://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/28/1953/adeline-moses-loeb
And, believe it or not, I was actually able to find information about Loeb’s partner in the event, Carl Singer:
And do you know why Singer was chosen?
Singer volunteers for many organizations in addition to his work with JWV, including employer support of the Guard and Reserve where he is county chairperson. He is president of the Passaic-Clifton Jewish Memorial Chapel—a community-run, not-for-profit funeral home, and is on the board of the Talmudic Yeshiva of Philadelphia.
That’s right.
The Talmudic Yeshivah of Philadelphia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmudical_Yeshiva_of_Philadelphia
And who founded the Yeshivah?
https://matzav.com/philadelphia-yeshiva-selects-new-mashgiach/
All the heavy hitters!
Yeshiva of Philadelphia, one of the prominent mekomos haTorah in the United States was founded in 1953 at the behest of the Lakewood rosh yeshiva, Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l. The yeshiva is currently led by the rosh yeshiva, Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky, who together with his fellow rosh yeshiva, lhbcl”c, Rav Elya Svei zt”l, raised a generation of talmidei chachomim and marbitzei Torah.
And so it is that the SI Memorial Day event at the historic Chatham Square cemetery will be led by three Ashkenazim who apparently know nothing about Sephardim and have no concern with the cemetery’s illustrious history.
That history can be found in Rabbi David De Sola Pool’s Portraits Etched in Stone:
https://www.amazon.com/Portraits-Etched-Stone-David-Sola/dp/0231019149
The 1952 book, published by Columbia University Press, remains out of print.
I have prepared a special resource sheet dedicated to De Sola Pool and his work:
https://groups.google.com/g/davidshasha/c/4sgyA6BOz14/m/HQC26sLCAQAJ
Perhaps Soloveichik could have found some Sephardic military veterans by contacting the Sephardic Home for the Aged:
Which is also apparently run by an Ashkenazi!
https://sfoa.org/about-us/#our-staff
Indeed, given the Washington Heights connection, maybe Soloveichik helped Joshua Hoffman get the job:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-hoffman-98b91233
Are there no Sephardim left in Sephardic community institutions?
That is what it means to have The Tikvah Fund in charge of the oldest congregation in America:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1inwIdB46odydf4p-7ahzdzqmiBcJz4KT9wNMiY-TJWw/edit
Erasing Sephardic history is key to the process.
As Soloveichik’s fellow Tikvah Jewish Fascist Dara Horn would say: “People Love Dead Sephardim”!
David Shasha