Our New Year’s Club Meeting on January 2nd was an exciting and well attended public event featuring three New York college professors who are spearheading the battle against the abuses of the left on college campuses. The meeting topic dealt with anti-American leftwing indoctrination and preserving free speech for all. Here are the videos of the inspiring presentation.
Mitchell Langbert is an Associate Professor of Business at Brooklyn College
Nicholas Giordano is a Professor of Political Science at Suffolk County Community College.
Bob Capano is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at CUNY Colleges.
Installation of 2020 Club Officers and Board Members
This article by Mitchell Langbert, is an opinion piece in The College Fix, a higher-education news website of veteran journalists helping beginning journalists committed to the principles of a free society.
Professor Langbert will be speaking at the QVGOP New Years Club Meeting on Academic Freedom, a free event, open to the public, on Thursday Jan. 2nd. More information.
Editor’s note:Late last year, throngs of angry leftist students and social media warriors demanded that Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor of business at Brooklyn College, be fired for joking on his personal blog about the Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations. Today his fall 2019 semester classes are overbooked and during the last 10 months he’s juggled several scholarly projects. The effort to ruin him failed. Here’s his story.
‘Indeed, you haven’t lived until you’ve been burned in effigy’
I spent my early life in left-wing neighborhoods in New York City and Woodstock, NY, but by the time I attended Sarah Lawrence College in 1973 I was questioning collectivism. I witnessed one corporate headquarters after another exit New York City because of high taxes and regulation. As well, Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago opened my eyes to the blood-drenched shadows of socialism. In my twenties I read all I could about the Austrian economists and the Founding Fathers while I pursued a corporate career that ended because so many New York firms were moving to Atlanta.
So, after nine years in corporate America, I decided to get a Ph.D., but I realized that a career in academia, especially in the Northeast, required strict adherence to left-oriented ideology. Unfortunately, having landed a few academic jobs, I was unsuccessful at cloaking my views.
More recently, having read de Jouvenal’s On Power, I concluded that decentralization of federal power will be crucial to the rejuvenation of individual liberty. One concern is the living Constitution theory. Hence, the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh last fall was a wonderful, miracle-on-ice moment, courtesy of President Trump. When the left and its media attacked Justice Kavanaugh, I made a joke about the allegations on my blog.
Someone was trolling my blog, and in response, there were campus protests. They also pounced while I was at the podium. The New York City-based newspapers (see here, here, here and here) joined in. I had been receiving publicity for work I had been doing on the absence of Republicans from higher education, but the intense media interest was a surprise. I received about 200 hate emails, including several threats. These were paradoxical because the writers were outraged that I had made light of the Kavanaugh sexual assault allegations, so they threatened me with sexual assault. One leftist named Carol D wrote: “Sir, I relish the thought of a gang of boys becoming men at your assholes expense. History will pull back your lizard skin and your pathetic attempt at being relevant will be exposed as nothing more than a losers fame grab.” The left-wing concern about words that harm is evident in Carol D’s work.
Protesters at Brooklyn College on Thursday demanded that Mitchell Langbert, an associate professor of business, be fired for his blog post about sexual assault. Photo credit: Holly Pickett for The New York Times
My initial response to the media phone calls and left-wing hate speech was, of course, stress, as well as some fear that I might lose my job. Within a few days, these were alleviated by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which told me that not only do public employees have First Amendment protection but also that any contact from the college, such as an investigation, would justify First Amendment litigation. As well, I was referred to an attorney who told me that I should retain his firm only if the college administration broke the no-contact rule, which it didn’t. There were a couple of additional protections that frustrated protesters: First, the City University of New York has an academic freedom provision in its bylaws. Second, I have academic tenure.
One of the distortions in the media coverage was the implication that a large number of students supported the protests. In fact, only a couple of hundred out of 18,000 students at the college participated in the protests. About two or three percent of the college’s student-and-faculty body signed an online petition to have me fired. The other 97 percent did not spend a minute on the question. Many students were on my side, but because CUNY’s left-wing administration suppresses conservatives, these students were silent.
In thinking about how to respond to authoritarian attacks, practical concerns are important. The best defense against suppression is private resources. Back in the 1970s I knew a couple who had worked at the U.N. but was fired from the U.S. Embassy during the McCarthy era. They took their resources and founded a retail store that built on their international connections. Since I am close to retirement, I was not worried financially. Dissenters in an authoritarian climate need to strategize how to accumulate resources that enable them to remain independent.
I made one major gaffe: an apology. When I wrote the blog, I meant it as humor. A friend convinced me to write that I had meant the blog to be satirical in the tradition of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” I later discussed this with a libertarian economist who had been attacked in the Las Vegas newspapers, and he agreed that one should never apologize. Apologies give the pro-Antifa media an additional wedge. (See this.) When the mainstream media attacked Stephen Moore in the context of his Fed appointment, he kept apologizing, and I wish he hadn’t.
Survive the attack I did. Within six months a Wall Street Journal editorial cited my work; a Texas public policy foundation hired me to do a study of a back-to-work training program; I continued to work on a project with friends at Heterodox Academy and the University of Maryland; Lou Dobbs of Fox Business put my name on the TV screen when discussing one of my articles on faculty political affiliation; and the National Association of Scholars, for whom I have written in the past, asked me to write an essay about the student protests at Sarah Lawrence College. As well, the Glazov Gang asked me to do a series of podcasts (and here and here), which have each gotten a couple of thousand hits. My classes have filled to the brim for the past two semesters, and this fall semester my courses are overbooked with waiting lists.
There were, of course, some adverse reactions as well. A young representative of a famous conservative foundation said that he did not want to work with me anymore, and a couple of people I had worked with or corresponded with in the past became cool. On the other hand, one of my friends, a well-known Austrian economist, was envious that the students had lumped me in with Kavanaugh and Trump in the protest. Indeed, you haven’t lived until you’ve been burned in effigy. On balance, the event enabled me to separate the cowardly chaff in my network from the imaginative wheat.
Having gone through the experience unscathed and better off, I am concerned that many others who have been outed by the left-wing, authoritarian mob lack defenses. My case is exceptional because of my public university, First Amendment, and tenure protections.
I have contacted a number of leading conservatives and suggested that steps be taken to organize a support-and-activist group. Such a group could include a response group that might overwhelm media and corporate Antifa sympathizers with protest emails as well as an advisory group that could provide guidance to victims. So far, I have heard nothing back. Unfortunately, conservative and libertarian leaders continue to suffer from a political wimpiness that ensures failure. Ultimately, we need to ask whether the moral compass of a media based in New York City is of value or relevance.
Mitchell Langbert is associate professor at Brooklyn College. He lives in West Shokan, New York.
The Queens Village
Republican Club stands with people of all faiths, but now at a time of rampant
anti-Semitic attacks, we stand up in outrage and stand up for justice with the
2 million people of Jewish faith in New York State. Violent anti-Semitic
attacks were committed by perpetrators who were released without bail even
before the new bail reform law kicks in on January 1, 2020. Last night, at a
celebration of the seventh night of Chanukah, we witnessed a bloody
anti-Semitic attack at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg
in Monsey, NY where 5 people were severely wounded. Recently we witnessed
at least 13 vicious anti-Semitic attacks in New York State and many more on
college campuses across the country.
The recent wave of criminal justice activism has gone way too far! Our club is
outraged as we are witnessing the breakdown of law and order due to the
feckless policies of the Democrats running a one-party government in our city
and state. The outcome of Democrat Party rule is that New York City and New
York State are going in the wrong direction. We see the consequences of
bail reform, and radical leftist policies calling for closing Rikers,
freeing 1000’s of inmates, defying ICE, and even abolishing our
police force, where criminals are emboldened to commit atrocious
anti-Semitic acts with impunity and are released without bail.
The left is mobilized and organized, and they have taken every
Democrat elected official hostage. We believe the only way to fight back is to
organize, recruit and register Republicans! We need a strong organization of
Republican county committee activists who can get out the vote to elect
Republicans who can make policy changes in our government that effect our
everyday life. We must turn the tide!
This is the time to act, and we will do so. We ask all our club members and
friends to stand with us and the Jewish people of New York!
Join Professor Langbert, featured speaker at QVGOP’s New Years Club Meeting on Academic Freedom!
THURS. JAN. 2, 2020 at 7:30 PM At: Young Israel of Holliswood – Holliswood Jewish Center 86-25 Francis Lewis Blvd., Holliswood, NY 11427 CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
I grew up in Long Island City, Queens,
just south of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district. I began my political life as a left-wing
Democrat. In 1972, when I was 18, the
Vietnam War was raging, and anti-war protests were the rage. However, I soon noticed that the left was
more image than substance, more a matter of signaling than of achieving virtue. After I graduated from college in 1975, I
read Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, took a corporate job, and watched
Abraham Beame and the Democrats oversee the city’s bankruptcy, which was due
to Beame’s accounting; public sector
unions; Robert Moses’s urban redevelopment policies; and a decades-long
commitment to taxes, regulation and welfare.
Because of the exodus of corporate
headquarters from New York, in 1986 I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in my field, human
resources. The instruction I received at
Columbia Business School was first-rate, but when I entered the professional
academic world at a university in New York’s North Country, I realized that the
march to the left had progressed past the point of no return. Left-wing feminist professors, often based in
“studies” programs (gender studies, ethnic studies), routinely harassed untenured,
conservative professors. A glance across a hallway was a reason for a formal
sexual harassment complaint. Professors who questioned preferential policies
were subject to “investigation” by the college’s human resource
department. Professors who questioned
the official, left-wing narrative were subject to whispering-and-defamation
campaigns.
Because of political harassment, I left
the North Country after two-and-a-half years, and after two brief stints at New
York-area colleges I began a career at Brooklyn College in 1998. During the ensuing 21 years I suffered a
number of left-wing attacks, including a demand that I resign from a departmental
personnel committee because I insisted that job candidates have credentials
relevant to the department’s field (business administration) rather than just have
racial or gender credentials; a formal investigation because I said that
slavery did not contribute to long-term American economic ascendancy (the more
horrific and profitable slavery in the West Indies not having led to economic
success there, for instance); and a national media campaign to fire me, led by
a pro-Antifa professor, because I made light of the accusations against Justice
Brett Kavanaugh.
As I have noted in a recent piece in The
College Fix, the attacks against me failed, and since then my work has been
covered by Lou Dobbs, the New York Post editorial page and elsewhere. Notice, though, that I have tenure, have
favorable student evaluations, and have published 30 academic articles. A more
recent hire would not have been likely to survive. When the New York Sun closed, the
city lost the only newspaper that had paid attention to left-wing academic
abuses.
Meanwhile, I developed an interest in
academic reform. Together with Phil
Orenstein, I campaigned for an academic bill of rights in the early 2000s, and
I began to pursue research on education.
My recent research concerns faculty political
affiliations. The origins of left-only
universities can be traced to two early twentieth century foundations: the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Rockefeller’s General
Education Board. These foundations
provided financial incentives to secularize universities, and the New Deal,
which used universities as left-oriented ideological-mediating institutions,
cemented the incentives. Subsequently,
Democrats and RINOs have provided ongoing moral and financial support to
academic groupthink. At present,
virtually no Republican donors work as professors in the four leading
universities in 30 states that I have recently sampled.
Things are far gone in both higher and K-12 education, but the Department of Education, even under our beloved president, has not done enough to systematically study how far. I am asking Republicans to pressure Betsy DeVos and elected officials to begin to study what can be done. So far, the DOE under Secretary DeVos has implemented Title IX reform, but little more.
Mitchell Langbert is an Associate Professor of Business at Brooklyn College. His research recently has focused on political affiliations of professors and executives. His Blog features insights into politics, current events, the economy and higher education.
Elizabeth Pipko Centinello, who told me in our interview in Manhattan last week., couldn’t ever had dreamed of becoming a model as she was awkward and shy most of her life. Photo used with permission from Elizabeth’s Instagram account: @elizabethpipko
Life had been filled
with fame and fortune for the writer and model Elizabeth Pipko. In 2013, at the
age of just 17, she wrote and self- published, her first book, “Sweet Sixteen”,
a collection of deeply personal poems. A
year later, she composed a second book, also exclusively of poetry, titled, “About
You”, which was described in Arian Huffington’s “Thrive Global” newsletter as
among the “best books to read before you sleep.”
The same year she
published “Sweet Sixteen”, Pipko signed a contract to model for Wilhemia
Models, a top agency in the profession. Within months, photos of Pipko began
appearing in major fashion magazines, including DT, Maxim and Esquire. The
following five years proved even kinder to Pipko’s modeling career; her growing
legions of fans could find pictures of her on the pages of People and Vanity Fair and on
the covers of Supermodels SA and L’ Officiel.
“I couldn’t ever have even dreamed of becoming
a model because I was an awkward and shy person most of my life”, stated Pipko,
as we began our interview in Manhattan last week. “So becoming a model became
even more than a dream come true for me”.
In early summer of 2016, however, Pipko, made what
was to be a life changing decision, putting that dream come true at risk. It was a decision which she believed she had to
keep hidden from the heads of the modeling and fashion industries, afraid that
if her secret was uncovered, she would never be allowed to work as a model
again.
That secret was
simply that Pipko had decided to work on the campaign for then presidential
candidate Donald Trump. Pipko, who told me that she had little interest in
politics before then, explained what motivated her to work for Trump, although fearful
that it could end her modeling career.
“I had always considered
myself to be a non-political person”, she stated. “I was immersed in the world
around me, finding similarities between myself and those on both sides of the
political aisle, and therefore choosing to pay very little attention to current
day politics.
“And then”, she
further explained, “I saw Donald Trump on television. He was discussing his
promise to bring jobs back for Americans and his plans to always keep America
first. And when I heard him also promise
that he would tear up the Iran Nuclear deal and work to regain our once
incredibly strong relationship with our greatest and most loyal friend, the State
of Israel, I was incredibly impressed, and he won my total support.”
Pipko was in fact so
impressed that a few days later she walked into the candidate’s campaign headquarters
in Trump Towers and signed up to work as a volunteer in the building’s call
center. “The slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ kept ringing in my ears, because
I believed that if Donald Trump won, he would deliver on that promise”, she recalled.
“So every hour and every day that I worked on the campaign to get this great
man elected president was an honor for me as a loyal American, who never
imagined herself, at just 21 years old, to be in such a position.”
After serving as a volunteer for 2 months, the
Trump campaign offered Pipko a salaried position as the coordinator of campaign
volunteers throughout America.
“I jumped at the
offer and accepted the job”, stated Pipko. “But having over the past year heard
virtually every executive, agent and model and even friend in the industry
repeating the same canard about how evil Donald Trump is, I knew that if I
wanted to keep modeling, I had to keep my new job a secret”.
By chance, however, Pipko encountered one of the few models in NYC who shared both her political views and fears. “In the summer of 2016, I was working at campaign headquarters at Trump Towers when I ran into a top male model whom I had known from Wilhelmina”, Pipko remembered. “When we spoke, I found that, he like me, was working for Trump because he believed that Trump would fulfill his promise to make America great again. Also, like me, he knew that if the folks in the modeling industry ever found out what he was doing, his career would be over. Our conversation reinforced my decision to keep my work for the Trump campaign a secret.”
Pipko continued to
keep that work a secret for two more years- until love intervened. On December 26th, 2018, she married
Darren Centinello, also a Trump campaign staffer, whom she had met and fallen in
love with during the campaign.
“My personal and
political life became intertwined when I fell in love with Darren”, she reflected. “So, after our wedding, I knew the time had
come to put my concerns about my modeling career out of my mind and announce publicly
that I had proudly worked for and continue to proudly support President Trump.”
That appearance on Fox and Friends did in fact put an end to her once flourishing modelling career. But Pipko had no regrets.
Within the first day of the column’s
publication, Pipko received the reaction she had both feared and expected for
the then past 2 years. “There were many people in the industry, some of whom I
had thought were close friends, who sent me emails saying the most terrible
thing about me”, she recalled. “And when I tried to contact some other friends
whom I had not heard from hoping for their support, my emails and phone calls
were never returned.”
Pipko intrepidly moved on to the TV media,
where the following day she appeared on the Fox station news talk show Fox and
Friends. There Pipko explained why she had made the decision to put her
modeling career in jeopardy by revealing that she had worked on the Trump
presidential campaign. “I explained to the hosts and the audience”, she stated,
“that I had come to the realization that my work on behalf of a great candidate
who ended up becoming President of the United States and {supporting}, all that
he was doing for our great country was far more important to me than a
modelling career.”
That appearance on Fox and Friends did in fact
put an end to her once flourishing modelling career. But Pipko had no regrets. “I was never offered another modeling
assignment after my appearance on Fox and Friends”, she told me. “Yet I was
fine with that. I was ready to begin a new phase of my life.”
Starting this past March that “new phase” of
her life evolved into a political crusade, now known as “The Exodus Movement”. Pipko,
who is an orthodox Jew, a self- described “proud Zionist”, an outspoken critic of
the powerful anti- Israel faction of the Democratic Party, and, as we already know, a loyal Trump
supporter, described the purpose of The Exodus Movement, which now has branches
in 12 states containing large Jewish populations, which include California,
Florida, New York and New Jersey.
“We are asking
American Jews and our allies to fight anti- Semitism, which has become
frighteningly unmistakable in the political left of the Democratic Party”, she
asserted. “Our goal is to fight that growing and vile anti-Semitism by supporting
political candidates who will proudly stand up for Jewish Americans and our
great ally, the State of Israel. {Thus} we are leading an exodus of Jews and
their friends from a party {The Democratic Party}, which continues to fail to
take our concerns to heart.”
Still, Pipko acknowledged that The Exodus Movement faces an uphill battle trying to convince Jews, who have in the past supported Democratic candidates by an almost 4- 1 margin, to vote to re-elect President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, she told me that she remains undaunted. Stating that The Exodus Movement and similar organizations have exposed what she repeated to contend is the anti- Israel bias and the anti- Semitic rhetoric of the powerful leftist extremist members of the Democratic Party, she asserted, “It remains our goal to be able to convince Jewish Democrats to reconsider their political allegiance and vote for President Trump in 2020.”
Pipko is presenting that same message to the audiences of her old friends at Fox and several other news channels, where she appears as a frequent guest. “I am asked my opinion on a variety of different issues on these shows” she noted. But then she added that the opinion that she most commonly shares with the hosts and viewing audience is that “President Trump has truly made good on his promise to make America great again.”
With those final words, it became even clearer
to me that Pipko continues to be free of care about what her former bosses,
colleagues and friends in the fashion and modeling industries think of her or
her political views.
Robert Golomb is a nationally and internationally published columnist. Mail him at MrBob347@aol.com or follow him on Twitter@RobertGolomb
NEXT GENERAL CLUB MEETING: THURSDAY JANUARY 2, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Young Israel of Holliswood – Holliswood Jewish Center 86-25 Francis Lewis Blvd., Holliswood, NY 11427
Free event open to the public!
NEW YEAR’S CLUB MEETING:
ACADEMIC FREEDOM FOR ALL!
Combatting left-wing anti-American indoctrination. Featuring New York City college professors who are spearheading the battle against the abuses of the left on campus!
Featured Speakers (complete bios below):
Mitchell Langbert
Associate Professor of Business at Brooklyn College. His research recently has focused on political affiliations of professors and executives. His Blog features insights into politics, current events, the economy and higher education.
Nicholas Giordano
Professor of Political Science at Suffolk County Community College. His weekly political podcast, the PAS Report, was created to fill the vacuum of neglect by dishonest media outlets.
Bob Capano
Adjunct Professor of Political Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Kingsborough Community College. District Director to former Congressman Bob Turner and current political columnist with Brooklyn Courier Lifenewspapers.
plus
Installation of 2020 Club Officers & Board Members
Coffee and refreshments will be served. Gift shop will be open.
SPEAKER’S BIOS:
MITCHELL LANGBERT
Mitchell Langbert is associate professor of business at the Brooklyn College Koppelman School of Business.
Professor Langbert is studying the political affiliations of university professors. A 2016 piece in Econ Journal Watch has been covered in the media. A more recent piece about foundation influence on higher education will appear in Industry and Higher Education in 2018. An empirical study of the political affiliation of elite liberal arts college faculty will appear in Academic Questions.
Previously, Professor Langbert’s research has focused on human resource management pedagogy, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and quality improvement in the history of human resource management.
Professor Langbert has published in Econ Journal Watch, Journal of Business Ethics, Academic Questions, Journal of Economic Issues, Journal of Labor Research, Benefits Quarterly, Academy of Management Learning and Education Journal, and Human Resource Management Journal.
Click here for a complete listing of Professor Langbert’s scholarly activities, professional accomplishments, books and publications.
NICHOLAS GIORDANO
Nicholas Giordano is a Professor of Political Science at Suffolk Community College and host of The PAS Report Podcast. Recognized and well-respected for his analysis, Professor Giordano appears on radio and television to provide analysis on current issues and trends within government, politics, international relations, homeland security/emergency management, and social/cultural related issues. In addition, he is regularly called on to speak at events to provide expertise on critical issues facing the United States.
It is Professor Giordano’s passion that led him to start The PAS Report. Sick of an advocacy news media that wants to dictate to people how to think, Professor Giordano started The PAS Report because of his unique ability to breakdown complex political issues and simplifying those issues to appeal to everyday Americans. By introducing facts, the listeners can come to their own conclusions.
Prior to teaching, Professor Giordano served as a Catastrophic Planning Lead for the New York State Office of Emergency Management (NYS OEM) within the Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services and coordinated response activities with local emergency management officials. He served as a liaison between New York State, local governments and federal departments/agencies. Professor Giordano’s accomplishments are far-reaching and include senior leadership during response operations, maintaining situational awareness, and leading a number of planning initiatives so that EM officials more effectively prepare for, respond to, and recover from an incident.
BOB CAPANO
Bob
Capano is an experienced educator, professional business manager, and
well-respected community
leader. He was born, raised and educated in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. For over 15
years, Mr. Capano has been an Adjunct Professor of Political Science with the
City University of New York. He currently is a manager with Red Apple Group,
Inc.
He
served as District Director to former Republican Congressman Bob Turner and was
the Brooklyn Director to former GOP Congressman Vito Fossella. He was also the
Director of Community Boards and Community Relations with former Democratic
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
Mr.
Capano was a Republican candidate for City Council in Brooklyn’s
43rd District in 2009 and 2017. In December 2016, Mr. Capano
appeared on the Fox News Channel with Tucker Carlson to oppose Mayor de Blasio’s
effort to open “Supervised Injection
Facilities,” which would have
allowed heroin addicts to shoot up in local neighborhoods. His opposition
mobilized public opposition.
Mr.
Capano has an impressive record of community service
and a long history of civic leadership. He served as President of the 68th
Precinct Youth Council, which provides over 1,100 children in southwest
Brooklyn with recreational baseball and soccer programs. He also chaired the
Civic Affairs Committee of the Bay Ridge Community Council and was Vice
President of the Bay Ridge Consumer Federation. Bob also served as a member of
the 68th
Precinct Community Council for close to 10 years.
The December 5, 2019 annual Holiday Dinner Party of the Queens Village Republican Club featured Elizabeth Pipko, founder and president of The Exodus Movement, Ann Schockett, newly elected president of the National Federation of Republican Women and Steve Mayo, radio talk show host. Here are the videos of their presentations.
Editor’s Note: This is syndicated columnist’s Bob Golomb’s latest column as published in The Published Reporterand other media honoring the life and legacy of highly decorated World War II Veteran, Phil Kahn.
“…having had the opportunity to fight to defend America alongside so many of the most decent and most courageous Americans who have ever lived”, he stated, “has been the greatest honor of my life.”
A recent photo of Kahn holding a picture of himself wearing his uniform in the Pacific. Photo credit: the Kahn family.
The world in which Philip Kahn and his twin brother Samuel- the sons of
Jewish Polish immigrants- were born in New
York’s Harlem Hospital on December 15, 1919 was in the first year of
recovery from the most brutal war of then recorded human history. That war, World
War 1 (also referred to as the First World War), fought from July 28 to
November 11, 1918, involved Germany, Austria- Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman
Empire in a global battle against the Allied Forces- Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania,
Japan and the United States (which first entered the conflict in April 1917).
While by that memorable November
11th day that WW1 was won by the Allied Forces (celebrated today as
Veterans Day) approximately 37 million people had been killed, including more
than 110,000 American service men and women, several months after the war ended,
the world was inflicted with even greater suffering caused by still another
great catastrophe. However, unlike WW1, that other catastrophe, which was to
tragically impact upon the Kahn family, was not the result of the cruelty of
humankind but rather the result of the cruelty of nature.
That nature generated mercilessness
was bred in the Spring of 1918 by a contagious, deadly strain of the avian
influenza virus. Originating in China, the virus quickly spread a plague of
misery and death throughout every nation on the planet. By the time this
plague, named the “Spanish Flu”, ended in the summer of 1919, it had infected
an estimated 500 million people- approximately one- third of the world’s population
at the time- and killed between 40-50 million people, including in the range of
675,000 Americans.
One of those Americans was Samuel Kahn, who
died from the virus 3 weeks after his birth.
Philip Kahn, whom I interviewed in
his daughter’s western Long Island home last week, described how the tragedy
haunted him and his family throughout their lives. “From my earliest memories, probably beginning
at 3 or 4, I can recall my father and mother discussing their grief over losing
my twin to this awful disease”, he remembered. “Their conversations about him
remain in my mind. And until this day, I continue to wonder about what type of
great person Samuel would have grown up to become, had he lived.”
Fortunately, the family had previously been blessed with two older sons-
Jack, born in 1914 and Louis in 1915. Kahn told me that despite the sad
lingering memories of the loss of his twin brother, he led a wonderful life
growing up in the upper West Side of Manhattan, living with his father, who
owned a local bakery, his mother, a homemaker, and his 2 older brothers. “My mother
and father, who had immigrated to America years before with their families to
escape the growing anti- Semitism in Poland”, Kahn stated, “taught my brothers
and me to enjoy every piece of American life. And what enjoyment we had. They took us on day trips throughout every
borough in the city. We especially loved Brooklyn, where our most enjoyable
summer destination was to the beaches of Coney Island, and then we would take a
short walk to eat hot dogs and French fries at Nathans. Most importantly”, Kahn added, “My parents
taught us to follow and cherish our Jewish faith and to love and be loyal to
the great country of America that had opened its doors of freedom and
opportunity to them.”
As the world began moving in the
tragic path of a second World War in the 1930’s, Kahn would, before he even reached
his 21st birthday, be given the chance to prove that he had learned
his parents lesson of love and loyalty to his nation. In Asia, Imperial Japan launched
the genocidal conquest of Manchuria, which they followed in 1937 with the even
more brutal invasion of mainland China. In Europe, Fascist Italy, extending its
reach into Africa, invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
And in 1939, in the same beleaguered continent of Europe, Adolph Hitler’s
murderous Nazi army invaded Poland- an action that triggered England and France
to declare war on Germany. World War 2 had just begun.
Kahn was convinced that America,
which had remained neutral in the conflict up to that point, would soon be
forced to end that neutrality and enter the war to defeat the German, Italian
and Japanese Fascist nations (which upon the signing of an alliance pact in
September 1940, became known as the “Axis Powers”). “I would go to the theatre
and watch the movie reels showing the Germans murdering thousands of innocent
civilians – many of them my Jewish brethren, showing the Japanese committing
mass murder in the Pacific, and the Italian army slaughtering people in Africa”,
he recalled. “I knew that America, the
greatest, strongest and most moral nation in the world, would not sit passively
by as the evil forces of the Axis waged a war to take over the world. I knew
that the day would soon come when the United States would join the battle to
defeat this evil.”
In 1940, 1 year before what he had forecast to be the “day that would
soon come”, Kahn enlisted in the United
State Army’s Aviation Cadet Pilot Training Program in Fort Gordon, Georgia, which
provided him with training on aerial combat. “I was trained to be a flight chief which
involved learning about all the aspects of piloting, co- piloting, engineering
and grounding a plane.” Still, there was an equally important lesson
he learned. “Training together with
hundreds of Americans coming from all parts of the country, the kinds of people
I had never met before”, he stated, “I saw first- hand how decent and
courageous my fellow Americans were, and I made many friends.”
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1945, killing 2403 Americans, followed 3 days later with Germany’s
declaration of war against America, Philip, as many of those courageous
Americans with whom he had trained, was sent off to the battle in the Pacific, while
others were sent to Europe. Serving
alternately as a co-pilot, crew chief and aerial engineer, Kahn flew 14 perilous
missions over Japan, dropping tons of murderous firebombs over heavily civilian
populated cities. Kahn, who had been
promoted the rank of sergeant by then, told me that these bombings left him
with conflicting emotions. “I felt these lethal aerial attacks were a
justifiable payback for Pearl Harbor. And I knew that they would help shorten
and win the war. But I couldn’t get it out of my mind that we had killed many
civilians, including, men, women and children, who did not have a chance to
escape our onslaught”, he said.
Kahn standing alongside a fighter plane he had co-piloted. Photo taken by a fellow serviceman.
Kahn told me that during his time
in combat he often thought and worried about his older brothers who were soldiers
fighting the Germans in Europe. That worry, which of course, was probably
shared by every American whose family member was fighting against the Germans, ended on May 7th 1945, the day Germany
surrendered to America.
Remembering that day Kahn, who was
stationed in an air base in an island off the Japanese mainland at the time,
stated, “When I heard the news that Hitler and his genocidal empire had been
destroyed, I felt a great sensation of joy and pride as an American. Also, having
learned some frightening details about the genocide of European Jewry, I
thanked God that American troops had liberated hundreds of thousands of survivors.
In addition, I believed the Americans,
including my two brothers, who had fought so valiantly in Europe would soon be
returning home.”
That belief was premature. Seeing their closest ally go down to defeat
did not make the Japanese consider surrender, even as daily American bombing
raids were reigning death and destruction throughout their major cities.
Realizing the suicidal tenacity of the Japanese, American generals began drawing up plans for a
massive invasion of the land of their Asian enemy. Expected to take a year and
cost one million American lives, the plan involved transporting most of the
troops from Europe, probably including Philip’s brothers, to join American
forces in Asia for a massive attack against mainland Japan.
“The plan was a poorly kept secret. We knew that the Americans, possibly
my own 2 brothers who had just defeated Hitler, would once again be called upon
to possibly die for their country. But
we knew, just as those of us fighting in the Pacific, they would be ready, willing
able to fight to the death to defeat our enemy”, stated Kahn.
That “fight to the death” never had to be fought. On August 6, 1945, American pilots, flying a
B-29 bomber aircraft, dropped an Atom Bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima,
killing more than 90,000 people; On August 9th, with the Japanese
still refusing to surrender, American B-29 pilots dropped a second Atomic Bomb,
this one over Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. And finally, on August 15th, the
Japanese announced their unconditional surrender, putting an end to a war that claimed
more than 85 million lives throughout the world, including those of more than
300,000 Americans.
Kahn, who shortly after the
surrender co-piloted several reconnaissance missions over these 2 annihilated
cities, told me that while the horror of death and destruction he observed from
his plane still troubles him to this day, he remains convinced that America’s
use of these horrific weapons was justified. “The sight of tens of thousands of dead human bodies
and the sight of debris from the obliterated homes and buildings has haunted me
to this day”, Kahn lamented. “Yet, I believe that the estimates of the large
number of casualties America and their allies would have sustained in an
invasion were correct. So, dropping the bombs, I remain convinced, was our only
option.”
The highly medal decorated Kahn like, most of his fellow 16 million WW2
American heroes, went on to live a normal life after the war. He got a job,
which he kept his entire working life, as an electrician for Local 3 in New
York City; married his high school sweetheart, Rose; raised 2 daughters with
her; and now has 6 grandchildren and 4 great- grandchildren, with two more soon
arrive.
A display of the medals Kahn was awarded during the war. Photo credit: the Kahn family.
Reminiscing about his one hundred- year life, Kahn, who recently lost his
wife after 73 years of marriage, stated, “I feel that I have been a blessed
man. My parents and brothers were loving
and supportive. My wife was kind and beautiful. My children, grandchildren and
great- grandchildren are the joy of my life. And the greatest blessing of all -we
live in America.”
While I found Kahn to be extremely modest throughout the interview, he seemed unable to conceal his pride when he noted that his WW2 valor been documented in the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the Cradle of Aviation in Long Island and in the Intrepid Museum in Manhattan. “I have felt very gratified to have my military service recognized by our nation. And having had the opportunity to fight to defend America alongside so many of the most decent and most courageous Americans who have ever lived”, he stated, “has been the greatest honor of my life.”
Robert Golomb is a nationally and internationally published columnist. Mail him at MrBob347@aol.com or follow him on Twitter@RobertGolomb
Last week we witnessed three auspicious
anniversaries. November 11th was the 100th anniversary of Veterans Day, marked
by the annual Veterans Day parade in Manhattan, one of the largest in America. President Trump was the first sitting U.S.
President to attend the event and address America’s veterans. We are eternally grateful to our veterans who
served and sacrificed fighting for freedom.
The week was also marked by the 30th
Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a pivotal moment leading to the
downfall of Communism and the light of freedom emerging in Eastern Europe. During
the same week, Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, a violent pogrom against the Jews of Germany in
November 1938, also marked its anniversary. German authorities looked the other
way without intervening, and the world remained silent giving Hitler the green
light to advance his plans for the systematic murder of six million Jews during
the Nazi Holocaust.
We partake in these events and remember
once again that freedom is not free. President Ronald Reagan warned: “Freedom
is never more than one generation away from extinction” and in the hallowed words
of Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing,” a timeless quote from over 200 years ago that stands as words
of warning against the sin of succumbing to political apathy. However, the actual language went more like
this: “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall,
one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
Today, we see that the appalling conditions
in our country, our city and state warrant that “the good must associate.” Now is
the time for all good patriotic Americans to proudly stand up and associate into
organizations and movements to save our country, defend our values as Americans,
and resist the socialist trends of the times.
Thankfully, this optimistic trend of
good people associating is happening here and now! Not only does this describe
the successful workings of the Queens Village Republican Club, but all throughout
the nation, Americans are uniting and fighting to take our country back. Hope
is not lost. There is a rebirth going on today, on Main Street, U.S.A. The #WalkAway
campaign, Blexit, and The Exodus Movement are the names of just a few of these positive
associations to light the fire of hope and freedom in the hearts of all good
American citizens.
Brandon Straka, 2019 Lincoln Dinner American Patriot of the Year
We remember Brandon Straka, who just
hosted a jam-packed Hispanic American Town Hall in Congressional District 14, AOC’s district in Queens,
to reveal that the Hispanic community largely holds conservative values. Brandon,
a former New York liberal and Hillary supporter, who walked away and
transformed himself into a proud patriot and Trump supporter, received the
acclaimed American Patriot of the Year Award at our March 2019 Lincoln Dinner.
Since then, his #WalkAway movement has grown into a tidal wave of Americans from
nearly all ethnic and minority communities, who are following Brandon’s lead to
think critically and independently. 1000’s are dissolving their loyalties to a
political party driven by hate and intolerance, that manipulates emotions and
controls our thoughts by dividing us by race, gender, and sexual orientation,
and undermines the will of the people with its phony witch hunt against the president.
Candace Owens, founder of BLEXIT
Candace Owens and her Blexit movement that
is encouraging millions of black Americans to exit the Democrat Party, has
Republicans applauding and Democrats terrified of the president’s rising poll
numbers in the black community, with one pollster placing the president’s
approval rating at a high of 36%. Candace is a charismatic conservative
firebrand, who like Brandon was a liberal until she heard candidate Trump at a
campaign rally in 2016 ask black America: “What the hell do you have to lose?”
and started her thrilling journey exiting from decades of Democrat’s deception
and media brainwashing, and who is now encouraging millions to do the same. Candace
is on our shortlist of luminaries invited to keynote our upcoming 2020 Lincoln
Dinner on March 22nd. Mark the date on your calendar for this magnificent
annual event!
Elizabeth Pipko, founder of The Exodus Movement
Elizabeth Pipko, whose front-page essay is featured in this issue of the Eagle, is the founder of The Exodus Movement, and is an international model, former Trump campaign staffer, and media star. Elizabeth is a proud millennial Jewish American, who is teaching others to stand up for what they believe and think for themselves, and to make their Exodus from the rising anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism of the left and the Democrat Party. We are excited to have Elizabeth speaking at our December 5th Holiday Dinner Party. Please help spread the message of The Exodus Movement with a contribution, and join us on December 5th and bring your friends!
Our club is also on the forefront of the battle winning hearts and minds over to the Republican side on Main Street, Queens. Literally. We are planning inspiring meetings and a glorious 2020 Lincoln Dinner, as well as marching in local parades, joining Trump 2020 rallies, handing out flyers, registering voters, building our county committees, recruiting Republicans, organizing and fighting to take our country back. The movement we are leading is to rebuild the Republican Party, to vote Republican, and win local elections, so we can change the radical policies that are making conditions in New York worse, and to hasten the new Republican renaissance in NYC! Join us and be part of these patriotic movements!
Join Elizabeth Pipko and celebrate the holidays at the QVGOP Holiday Dinner Party: THURSDAY DEC. 5, 2019 at 7:30 PM At: Young Israel of Holliswood – Holliswood Jewish Center 86-25 Francis Lewis Blvd., Holliswood, NY 11427
$40 Per Person RSVP Required: www.QVGOP.org or contact Jim Trent: 718-343-8830 or jtrent8830@aol.com
My parents and grandparents came to the United States from the Soviet Union about 40 years ago. They sacrificed all that they had so that I could one day be born in the greatest country in the entire world. Growing up, my father would often tell me about his first few years in the United States, having to decide on some days whether to take the subway home or to buy himself dinner, as he could not afford to do both. His stories always ended with the same few words – “It was all worth it, because you were born an American.”
My grandfather, a famous
artist back in Russia who was not allowed to paint the images that he dreamed
of, had a very specific hope – to come to America and to be free to live an
openly proud Jewish life. Back in Russia, he often painted in the dark and in
secret, terrified that the authorities would catch him painting what was not
allowed and punish him. He dreamed of a life in the United States, with the
liberty and freedom to believe in whatever he chose to believe in, and for his
children and future grandchildren to be able to do the same.
Now I have the honor to
live a life full of advocacy for the things that mean the most to me, being a
proud Jew and a proud American. No matter what happens in our world, I will
never let my parents’ and grandparents’ sacrifices be in vain. It is my job to
not only continue the legacy that was left for me, but to fight to show others
the beauty and strength that comes with being a PROUD Jewish American.
We are living in difficult
times. Antisemitism is on the rise and our country is more divided than ever.
But we must not give up. We owe so much more to all those that came before us,
and all those that will come after us! We owe everything we have to those that
fought and died for the freedoms that we enjoy today, and I will never allow
those around me to give up on the future of the greatest country in the entire
world.
All of us must look in the mirror and ask ourselves, why are we voting? And who
are we voting for? Is it for ourselves and the strange attachment that we have
to the Democratic Party despite its many empty promises over the last few
decades? Or is it for our future children and grandchildren, and the future of
our amazing country? Has the left given you what you voted for? Or have they
disappointed you, like they have disappointed many? It’s time to take our
country back. And to vote ONLY for those that support us. Not just with their
words, but with their actions!
It is time for us to come
together! It is time for us to use our voices and our hearts to mend the spirit
of our country back together and to make sure that we leave a better country
behind for all future generations. There should be no hate left in our hearts,
only spirit and pride in our great nation. A nation that welcomes all people,
no matter where they come from or what they believe in, a nation that has given
so much hope to so many around the world, and a nation that I love with all
of my heart.
Join me on December 5th at the Holiday Dinner Party at Young Israel of Holliswood at 7:30 pm hosted by the Queens Village Republican Club and let’s celebrate our great USA!
Elizabeth Pipko, Founder & President of The Exodus Movement, featured on Fox News, is an international model, former Trump campaign staffer and fiercely proud millennial Jew.
Join Elizabeth and celebrate the holidays at the QVGOP Holiday Dinner Party: THURSDAY DEC. 5, 2019 at 7:30 PM At: Young Israel of Holliswood – Holliswood Jewish Center 86-25 Francis Lewis Blvd., Holliswood, NY 11427
$40 Per Person RSVP Required: www.QVGOP.org or contact Jim Trent: 718-343-8830 or jtrent8830@aol.com
