Students from Rambam Mesivta’s Writers’ Guild and Meet The Author Book Club skipped their dinner and savored the opportunity to spend some one-on-one time with bestselling writer Edwin Black, author of IBM and the Holocaust. They asked him, “What is the secret of writing?” He answered, “rewriting,” explaining that he writes and rewrites a sentence multiple times until he feels it expresses exactly what he wants to convey in the most succinct manner possible. He compared it to a sculptor who hews away at a rock until the image emerges.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Black headed downstairs to address the entire mesivta. The topic of his talk was “The Balfour Declaration: 100 Years Later.” During his interactive presentation, he peppered the crowd with questions and was amazed by the students’ knowledge of Jewish history in general and Israel in particular.

With a well-prepared PowerPoint presentation, he took the students back thousands of years to the inception of the land promised to our forefathers and later settled in the time of Joshua. He recounted the history of both the Ottoman and British empires and the impact it had on the land of Israel.

The 1919 agreement between King Faisal and Chaim Weizmann was discussed and analyzed. That agreement carved out two separate geographic areas, a swath of land in the area which is now Syria, which would be controlled by King Faisal, and a Jewish State in the land of Israel. Although both parties signed the agreement and a picture of them standing together was shown, the agreement never took effect and was later denied and disavowed by Arab leadership.

Mr. Black demonstrated that the Arab world never began referring to those living in Israel as Palestinians until the 1960s. “There never was a Palestinian people living in Israel,” said Black, a noted historian. Among the proofs to this point was a headline from the New York Times around the time Israel had declared itself a state. The headline referred to the fact that the Arab world was boycotting Palestinians–with “Palestinians” being a reference to the Jewish population in Israel.

He also drew attention to the fact that over 900,000 Jews were evicted from Arab lands in 1948. “Most left everything behind and were only permitted to take out a minimum amount of money,” said Black, who wrote another book titled the Farhud, detailing the events of the time.

Students listened enthusiastically to everything that Mr. Black had to teach them. Mr. Black lauded the students for their interest and knowledge, saying, “Of all the high schools I visit, the Rambam students are tops.”

The lecture was made possible by coordination with StandWithUs, a college campus Israel advocacy group. Not surprisingly, the Northeast regional coordinator of that organization is a Rambam alumnus, Avi Posnick.

When the lecture was over, Mr. Black and his entourage departed for Manhattan to prepare for his next series of lectures. He will be testifying before Congress shortly thereafter.

Rambam was privileged to have such a knowledgeable, dynamic historian share important information about Israel that is rarely highlighted in the media. His special presentation was greeted with a rousing ovation at the inception and later at the conclusion of his speech.

The lecture was sponsored by Shalom and Iris Maidenbaum and Jonathan and Marcy Farrell. 

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