6. Roosevelt appointed Herbert Lehman, of the Lehman Brothers family, to manage refugee aid at the end of the war because he thought it would be enjoyable to watch Germans beg a Jew for food. Of course, he also really liked Lehman as a person. Lehman was succeeded as the leader of UNRRA by Fiorello LaGuardia who, as it turns out, was a Yiddish – speaking Jew (and a polyglot who spoke a ton of other languages.)
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As you can see, I put nothing but fun anecdotes in this review. That’s because there isn’t anything else in Sebestyen’s book. He doesn’t have the intellect to create any sort of an overarching narrative and, instead, tries to connect disjointed anecdotes about 1946 with the help of the banal idea that all politicians are imperfect and all human beings are deeply flawed.
Ultimately, the book fails because the author never manages to rise to the level demanded by his challenging, complex material.
Clarissa's Blog 
La Guardia had a lapsed Catholic father and and a Jewish mother, so according to orthodox standards he was Jewish by birth. He was also an ardent Zionist who died before the modern state of Israel was created. (Two locations in Tel Aviv are named in his honor. ) But for whatever reason, his parents raised him as an Episcopalian, and he practiced that religion all his life.
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I had absolutely no idea that he was a Jew and a Zionist. But I did wonder how he managed to be so effective with such an Italian name. 🙂
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I heard La Guardia as name of Tel Aviv location, but had no idea who he was.
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He’s the most famous New York mayor who has an airport named after him.
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