Editor’s Note

In this, our first all-digital issue of B’nai B’rith Magazine, we offer a potpourri of features spanning the worlds of arts and letters, sports, social justice and history.

We present here for the first time an exchange of unpublished letters between Albert Einstein and Joseph Brainin, a journalist, writer and archivist, on issues ranging from war and peace to the hoped for Jewish homeland to internal Zionist politics. They reveal that, as our headline says, for the father of the atomic age, it wasn’t all about science.

Linking the past and present, we tell the remarkable story of 90-year-old Monica Ullman Friedman, who, as a 12-year old girl, escaped with her family from their home in Antwerp, Belgium in a daring sea rescue from Saint-Malo, on the Brittany coast, in June 1940. This was just a few weeks after the famous mass evacuation featured in the recent movie “Dunkirk.”

From Israel, we write about the government’s efforts to include persons with physical and other disabilities across all sectors of society, even the Israel Defense Forces. Back home, we profile Jerry Markbreit, a former National Football League official who got his start refereeing with a B’nai B’rith youth touch-football league and went on to officiate at four Super Bowls. Now in his 80s, Markbreit continues to motivate, inspire and consult in the sport.   

With this issue, we begin a series of retrospective columns by former B’nai B’rith presidents recalling highlights during their terms, as the organization marks its 175th anniversary.

In addition to these features and our regular columns, you will find links to related stories and videos, as we expand our coverage to encompass multiple platforms. Enjoy!

-- Eugene L. Meyer