Youngstown, OH

Published On: March 18, 2016|Categories: MRFF's Inbox|Comments Off on Youngstown, OH|

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Dear Captain Weinstein (Mikey):
 
I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and I can honestly say that it had the best interfaith relationships I have ever been privileged to live among.
 
Although I’ve lived in NYC for the past 35 years, I keep in touch with many people from grade school and high school, and they’re active on 
Facebook.  I plan to go online tonight and tell them what I know about you.  Everyone I know is civilian, but Youngstown is still a place where military service counts.
 
So does getting along among the different faiths.
 
I’m glad you’ve done this.  I’m sure my father, who was an Army officer and a JAG, would have laughed, made a few calls, and shaken your hand.
He once listened to an evangelist on TV preaching against a local option election, called the station demanding equal time, was told “Attorney Shwartz, this is religion.”
 
“Religion ****!” said my father. “If you don’t take him off the air, I’m coming down to the station, and you’re putting me ON.”
 
The Reverend Mr. Humbard was removed.
 
He’d have been pleased.
 
In addition to Youngstown’s Catholic and Protestant communities, it has a sturdy Muslim community, and  Jews have been there since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first synagogue was founded in 1865. It was not the one my grandfather founded, but the one we went to.
 
Just some intel about the place…I can tell you about some of the lawyers…

(name withheld)

 

Good morning (name withheld)!

 

Thank you for your wonderful email in support of Mikey and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It is a breath of fresh air amongst the numerous judgmental, hateful, anti-Semitic rants–filled with death threats–he receives on a daily basis.

 

You’re father sounds like a hoot, would’ve have been best buds with Mikey and welcomed into the MRFF family.

 

Youngstown sounds like a wonderful place to live where harmony amongst the different religions abounds.

 

We are doing our best to make the military as harmonious as Youngstown but it is an uphill battle.

 

You made our day!

 

Blessings,

 

Pastor Joan

MRFF Advisory Board Member

 

Thank you, Pastor Joan.

 

My father wound up at the Bulge because his Colonel at Ft. Benning refused to tolerate Jewish officers in his staff.  Dad pulled himself up to his full 5’5” (on a good day) and formally requested a transfer overseas.  He and another lawyer in Youngstown, the late Robert Weimer, whose son William Weimer is still active in the community, both retained H (Hebrew) on their dogtags at a time when men were being urged to discard them.  Attorney Weimer was German Jewish, a native German speaker, and OSS. Both men spent time behind enemy lines.

 

Thank you for listening.

(name withheld)

 

Dear (name withheld),

You’re father sounds like what people were called in my younger days as a “spitfire”…someone who doesn’t take anybody’s stuff and stands up for himself.

 

He’d fit right in here. :)

 

Love it!

 

Pastor Joan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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