Leslie K. Barry's Blog
July 10, 2023
NEWARK MINUTEMEN and An Unholy Alliance? When the Fed and Mob United to take down 1930s American Nazis.
In the 1930s, America had no system for dealing with the Nazi and Communist spies infiltrating America. FDR gave FBI director J. Edgar Hoover a budget and told him to work under the radar of the State Department to investigate the Fascist threat, all without eroding American neutrally.
The next 4 years, Hoover grabbed everything, everyone any way he could to expose the Nazi threat in America. Rabbi Wise, advisor to FDR, and Judge and Congressman Leo Perlman went to MobKing Meyer Lansky to enlist organized crime’s help the government. That was the beginning of the NEWARK MINUTEMEN, an unlikely group of boxers who disrupted the German Fascist efforts to undermine America.
In May, Leslie K. Barry was one of the keynote speakers at the FBIs celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month at DC headquarters. She shared the stage with US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate as well as her colleague Cantor Riselle Bain. Newarkminutemen.com
The next 4 years, Hoover grabbed everything, everyone any way he could to expose the Nazi threat in America. Rabbi Wise, advisor to FDR, and Judge and Congressman Leo Perlman went to MobKing Meyer Lansky to enlist organized crime’s help the government. That was the beginning of the NEWARK MINUTEMEN, an unlikely group of boxers who disrupted the German Fascist efforts to undermine America.
In May, Leslie K. Barry was one of the keynote speakers at the FBIs celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month at DC headquarters. She shared the stage with US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate as well as her colleague Cantor Riselle Bain. Newarkminutemen.com
January 18, 2022
BRINGING NEWARK MINUTEMEN TO LIFE
Newark Minutemen was inspired by my family in Newark, New Jersey. Growing up, they would tell stories about their childhood in Newark cast against the violent, desperate and complicated times during the Great Depression and into the War. They told me about what they would eat, where they shopped, how they would dress, what they did, how people felt about them, and how life was at that moment in time— a life by the way, that is almost impossible to relate to today.
Newark Minutemen is a crime thriller about a Jewish boxer recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the mob to go undercover for the Feds to stop the Hitler shadow party. It’s told through memories from childhood of stories from my mother and relatives and stories from fellow Minutemen and gangsters. It’s also authenticated by FBI documents and diaries of undercover agents.
Because much of the story was covered up by the government and bound to secrecy by the mob, there is room to stylize it to mimic the drama in a way that feels true and fabricated at the same time.
The story unfolds in the original location of Newark. By the 1930s, Newark became the center of immigration, the largest melting pot in America, fraught with poverty, disenchantment, and conflict. It was a time when Americans were looking left and right for the answer that would put food on their table. It was a time where law and democracy were on trial. As a result, a Hitler shadow party filled the void and threatened America. The government’s hands were tied and were forced to engage the Jewish Mob for help.
The grim setting brings to life the dark underbelly of urban life clashing with the American dream…wood block paved streets lined with pushcarts, food and wares for every culture, stores with sidewalk displays covered over by awnings. A rough place of poverty and danger, controlled by a powerful, but suave, feared but beloved Crime Boss- affectionately called the Gatsby of Gangsters- Longie Zwillman. He was the most powerful bootlegger during Prohibition and discovered he didn’t need that as long as he controlled city officials, judges and cops.
Newark Minutemen has a powerhouse of lead characters, realized by true characters who are simultaneously villains and heroes, depending on whose shoes you stand in.
The audience connects with nineteen-year old Yael the most. Yael is based on the two real-life Metcalfe brothers who went undercover to reveal the truth about the German-American Nazi Bund, one a newsman, one an FBI G-man. Yael is a broken young man, consumed with revenge after witnessing the violent murder of his father at the hands of German-American Nazis, left an orphan when his mother died from the news.
Yael’s trauma made him fearless. The life of a Jewish boy in America taken under the wing of the mob influences his moral compass. He channels his anger into becoming a golden-glove boxer as well as accepting a dangerous undercover mission. The devastation of losing family in a world where respect is a luxury, and jobs and school are at a premium open connection with an audience who can relate to a harsh world.
Crime boss Longie Zwillman is based on the real-life “Al Capone of NJ”, During the era of sidewalk politics in Newark, Zwillman was the law. His real-life gangster associates and men support the story.
Yael’s best-friend is Harry.- Yael’s truth-teller, moral compass, and “got your back” side-kick. He is based on my Uncle, a steadfast golden-gloved boxer with limited opportunity, but the DNA and drive to take action against wrongdoing. This is the Sam and Frodo in Lord of the Rings or Goose to Maverick in Top Gun approach.
The story has a star-crossed love affair between Jewish boxer and daughter of the enemy ala Jack and Rose in the Titanic. Krista, the heroine and daughter of the Bund leader is coming of age. Based on true character, Helen Vrooros, She is controlled by family and German-American Nazi culture, yet awakening to their ways and struggling with who she should be, especially in America.
Dramatizing the world I knew through stories, I created a story that is relatable to the average viewer.—At least the part about surviving, standing up for what we believe in, protecting a legacy. Newark Minutemen connects my family stories to a simple human desire. It explores the ugliest and purest forms of complex human beings at a time when everything feels fragile and lost.
Newark Minutemen is a crime thriller about a Jewish boxer recruited into the Newark Minutemen by the mob to go undercover for the Feds to stop the Hitler shadow party. It’s told through memories from childhood of stories from my mother and relatives and stories from fellow Minutemen and gangsters. It’s also authenticated by FBI documents and diaries of undercover agents.
Because much of the story was covered up by the government and bound to secrecy by the mob, there is room to stylize it to mimic the drama in a way that feels true and fabricated at the same time.
The story unfolds in the original location of Newark. By the 1930s, Newark became the center of immigration, the largest melting pot in America, fraught with poverty, disenchantment, and conflict. It was a time when Americans were looking left and right for the answer that would put food on their table. It was a time where law and democracy were on trial. As a result, a Hitler shadow party filled the void and threatened America. The government’s hands were tied and were forced to engage the Jewish Mob for help.
The grim setting brings to life the dark underbelly of urban life clashing with the American dream…wood block paved streets lined with pushcarts, food and wares for every culture, stores with sidewalk displays covered over by awnings. A rough place of poverty and danger, controlled by a powerful, but suave, feared but beloved Crime Boss- affectionately called the Gatsby of Gangsters- Longie Zwillman. He was the most powerful bootlegger during Prohibition and discovered he didn’t need that as long as he controlled city officials, judges and cops.
Newark Minutemen has a powerhouse of lead characters, realized by true characters who are simultaneously villains and heroes, depending on whose shoes you stand in.
The audience connects with nineteen-year old Yael the most. Yael is based on the two real-life Metcalfe brothers who went undercover to reveal the truth about the German-American Nazi Bund, one a newsman, one an FBI G-man. Yael is a broken young man, consumed with revenge after witnessing the violent murder of his father at the hands of German-American Nazis, left an orphan when his mother died from the news.
Yael’s trauma made him fearless. The life of a Jewish boy in America taken under the wing of the mob influences his moral compass. He channels his anger into becoming a golden-glove boxer as well as accepting a dangerous undercover mission. The devastation of losing family in a world where respect is a luxury, and jobs and school are at a premium open connection with an audience who can relate to a harsh world.
Crime boss Longie Zwillman is based on the real-life “Al Capone of NJ”, During the era of sidewalk politics in Newark, Zwillman was the law. His real-life gangster associates and men support the story.
Yael’s best-friend is Harry.- Yael’s truth-teller, moral compass, and “got your back” side-kick. He is based on my Uncle, a steadfast golden-gloved boxer with limited opportunity, but the DNA and drive to take action against wrongdoing. This is the Sam and Frodo in Lord of the Rings or Goose to Maverick in Top Gun approach.
The story has a star-crossed love affair between Jewish boxer and daughter of the enemy ala Jack and Rose in the Titanic. Krista, the heroine and daughter of the Bund leader is coming of age. Based on true character, Helen Vrooros, She is controlled by family and German-American Nazi culture, yet awakening to their ways and struggling with who she should be, especially in America.
Dramatizing the world I knew through stories, I created a story that is relatable to the average viewer.—At least the part about surviving, standing up for what we believe in, protecting a legacy. Newark Minutemen connects my family stories to a simple human desire. It explores the ugliest and purest forms of complex human beings at a time when everything feels fragile and lost.
December 4, 2021
The True Lost Story about Newark Minutemen
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195... In the 1930’s, America had barely stumbled out of Prohibition when the Great Depression brought the once proud country to its knees. Cities were a den of unrest, unemployment was at an all-time high, homelessness was rife and hate was increasingly rampant. A divided America lost trust in their government. Hopeless people looked to the left and right. Organized crime propped up a wobbly democracy. Prohibition had made the mafia cash-rich while the crash of 1929 had drained the rest of the country. In a world run by street politics, the Italian and Jewish mob called the shots.
Starting in 1933, the Nazi party from Germany filled the chasm with a shadow party in America called the German-America Bund. The Bund believed all Germans outside Germany were united in a racial community and bound to the Fatherland by common blood. Germans everywhere were Germans first and secondly citizens of a particular country. Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn served as the American Hitler and mimicked him. Convinced the gods had chosen him to unify his racial brothers in America, he dedicated himself to bring National Socialism to the United States. He preached hate and blamed Jews for Bolshevism, the economic depression and for controlling all important institutions of American life, especially the press, the motion picture industry, the theater, and politics. He encouraged the 500,000 plus German-American immigrants to rise-up and return America to pure ideals. He proposed “to build an Aryan movement under the swastika to liberate America from the Jews.”
The flamboyant and militant Kuhn ran the organization like a dictator and built a multi-million-dollar corporation called the German-American Bund that funneled money to build the German War machine. Kuhn trained and marched thousands of uniformed militia men across America, staged rallies, published propaganda and plastered posters, turned real estate into camps to indoctrinate youth and force them to “multiply the race” and built an inner circle of SS-like assassins to purify America. Membership in the Bund required Aryan stock, free of black or Jewish blood and Catholic affiliation, and complete submission to the decisions of the Bund leader. Kuhn claimed to have a quarter of a million men in his organization armed and ready for action. Radio spread his brand of hate speech and sectarianism to a far wider American audience. Despite Congressional Committee investigations and hearings, the first amendment protected their words and actions. Americans closed their eyes.
With a violent threat inside the homeland, the government had no choice but to approach the mob for help. They entered an unholy alliance- offered head of the Jewish mob, Meyer Lansky, money to stop the problem. He refused the money, nodded off the Italian mob and simply asked the government to look the other way. Nowhere was the problem felt more than Newark, NJ, where German and Jewish immigrants made up over half of the 200,000 strong population. Lansky engaged the powerful and charismatic Newark mob boss, Longie Zwillman. In addition to bootlegging, gambling, protection and racketeering, the notorious Zwillman controlled the Jewish boxing network made up of the greatest boxers in America. Zwillman organized his prize-fighters– known as the Newark Minutemen - into a street fighting resistance to fight the reign of terror and disarm the German-American Bund. Newark Minutemen were disciplined, organized and available at a “minute’s” notice.’’ ORDER HERE: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
May be an image of 3 people and text
Starting in 1933, the Nazi party from Germany filled the chasm with a shadow party in America called the German-America Bund. The Bund believed all Germans outside Germany were united in a racial community and bound to the Fatherland by common blood. Germans everywhere were Germans first and secondly citizens of a particular country. Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn served as the American Hitler and mimicked him. Convinced the gods had chosen him to unify his racial brothers in America, he dedicated himself to bring National Socialism to the United States. He preached hate and blamed Jews for Bolshevism, the economic depression and for controlling all important institutions of American life, especially the press, the motion picture industry, the theater, and politics. He encouraged the 500,000 plus German-American immigrants to rise-up and return America to pure ideals. He proposed “to build an Aryan movement under the swastika to liberate America from the Jews.”
The flamboyant and militant Kuhn ran the organization like a dictator and built a multi-million-dollar corporation called the German-American Bund that funneled money to build the German War machine. Kuhn trained and marched thousands of uniformed militia men across America, staged rallies, published propaganda and plastered posters, turned real estate into camps to indoctrinate youth and force them to “multiply the race” and built an inner circle of SS-like assassins to purify America. Membership in the Bund required Aryan stock, free of black or Jewish blood and Catholic affiliation, and complete submission to the decisions of the Bund leader. Kuhn claimed to have a quarter of a million men in his organization armed and ready for action. Radio spread his brand of hate speech and sectarianism to a far wider American audience. Despite Congressional Committee investigations and hearings, the first amendment protected their words and actions. Americans closed their eyes.
With a violent threat inside the homeland, the government had no choice but to approach the mob for help. They entered an unholy alliance- offered head of the Jewish mob, Meyer Lansky, money to stop the problem. He refused the money, nodded off the Italian mob and simply asked the government to look the other way. Nowhere was the problem felt more than Newark, NJ, where German and Jewish immigrants made up over half of the 200,000 strong population. Lansky engaged the powerful and charismatic Newark mob boss, Longie Zwillman. In addition to bootlegging, gambling, protection and racketeering, the notorious Zwillman controlled the Jewish boxing network made up of the greatest boxers in America. Zwillman organized his prize-fighters– known as the Newark Minutemen - into a street fighting resistance to fight the reign of terror and disarm the German-American Bund. Newark Minutemen were disciplined, organized and available at a “minute’s” notice.’’ ORDER HERE: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
May be an image of 3 people and text
October 9, 2021
Newark Minutemen novel: Driven by Avenge
☆☆☆☆☆
☆☆☆☆☆ 5 out of 5 stars.
BBefron
Driven By Avenge
Why won’t America wake up? After 5 years of living with the memory of his father’s twitching legs bounce against the old bootlegging boat and the rope squeezing the skin under his 5 o’clock shadow, the revenge pounds Yael’s head like a hammer. But it’s the charred Swastika on his Pop’s chalky chest that shapes avenge like sculptor’s hands and soothes his pain.
In America, the Great Depression has robbed many of their dignity. And made men go places they had only seen in those new film theaters, now close enough to walk to from any Newark apartment. But as eighteen year old Yael punches his best friend above the Star of David on Harry’s boxing shorts, he knows exactly where he is going. He has joined the resistance of Jewish boxers called Newark Minutemen. They work for MobKing Longie Zwillman down in the third ward fighting against the Nazi soldiers marching down Main Streets with their hands saluted in the air. If the FBI is willing to pay the Jewish mafia under the table to topple Hitler’s German American satellite called the Bund, it’s almost too late. But between first amendment rights and the divide between those who refuse to go into another war and those who just want food on the table, there’s no choice. Hands are tied.
Yael’s choice to fight is simple. That is until he gets hit with a right hook of emotions for Krista, the daughter of the Nazi party leader. His friends warn him not to cross the line, but when he goes undercover and trains to become the Bund’s secret police, the horrors drive him to rescue Krista from her Nazi youth camp in Long Island. But between her betrothed Nazi officer and a foreign culture, the star crossed affair is doomed for failure.
Newarkminutemen.Com
☆☆☆☆☆ 5 out of 5 stars.
BBefron
Driven By Avenge
Why won’t America wake up? After 5 years of living with the memory of his father’s twitching legs bounce against the old bootlegging boat and the rope squeezing the skin under his 5 o’clock shadow, the revenge pounds Yael’s head like a hammer. But it’s the charred Swastika on his Pop’s chalky chest that shapes avenge like sculptor’s hands and soothes his pain.
In America, the Great Depression has robbed many of their dignity. And made men go places they had only seen in those new film theaters, now close enough to walk to from any Newark apartment. But as eighteen year old Yael punches his best friend above the Star of David on Harry’s boxing shorts, he knows exactly where he is going. He has joined the resistance of Jewish boxers called Newark Minutemen. They work for MobKing Longie Zwillman down in the third ward fighting against the Nazi soldiers marching down Main Streets with their hands saluted in the air. If the FBI is willing to pay the Jewish mafia under the table to topple Hitler’s German American satellite called the Bund, it’s almost too late. But between first amendment rights and the divide between those who refuse to go into another war and those who just want food on the table, there’s no choice. Hands are tied.
Yael’s choice to fight is simple. That is until he gets hit with a right hook of emotions for Krista, the daughter of the Nazi party leader. His friends warn him not to cross the line, but when he goes undercover and trains to become the Bund’s secret police, the horrors drive him to rescue Krista from her Nazi youth camp in Long Island. But between her betrothed Nazi officer and a foreign culture, the star crossed affair is doomed for failure.
Newarkminutemen.Com
September 18, 2021
To Tweet or no to Tweet. That's Been the Question for a Long Time.
Newark Minutemen As Americans, we are free to give and receive ideas in books, art, films, music and information. But free speech was never meant to be without boundaries. There are checks that protect order, general welfare, and the persecution of citizens based on their race, religion or gender. Where is the line?The challenge with free speech is that everyone weighs in with their own moral and religious perspectives. Free expression has had its share of revision from labor, gender, political, race and national security debates. Often context is forgotten and media opens a floodgate for every view imaginable. For instance, schools will challenge “offensive or dangerous” material that was written decades prior.
Today, "to be or not to be a public soapbox" for political viewpoints is weighing on social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook. Because these companies are private, they can restrict their customer’s content. Some companies are deleting messages and then being smacked with lawsuits for doing so. Recent bills have been passed banning social media companies from censoring posts.
It’s not the first time in history that a corporation’s speech rights have been questioned. A timely historical novel called NEWARK MINUTEMEN https://newarkminutemen.com reminds us of a divided era when the German-American Bund, a private company protected under the first amendment, threatened national security.
During the 1930s, Hitler was harvesting a colony in America for his Nazi empire under the private corporate structure of the German-American Bund. At the helm of this organization that mimicked the administrative hierarchy of the Nazi party and created a blueprint for mobilization, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn served as CEO. The Bund claimed to show loyalty to America by displaying the US flag side by side with the German swastika flag
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-prJd5g4_TS....
Kuhn organized six divisions under the banner including a German propaganda newspaper, a nationwide militia that marched tens of thousands of Nazi-uniformed soldiers with arms in the air down American streets, held rallies to attack the Roosevelt administration and groups with differing views, fought boycotts of German goods, stockpiled weapons and created a real estate company that built twenty-five Hitler youth camps across America to indoctrinate children with Nazi ideals and raised millions of dollars that flowed back to a Germany arming for war.
https://www.thoughtco.com/thmb/Qjf_vn...
There was an ominous threat to America, yet nothing could be done- Even when Kuhn turned the iconic Madison Square Garden into a Nuremberg-like rally on Washington’s birthday in 1939. Why? Any American child could tell you the answer —First amendment rights protected freedom of speech and assembly. The government’s hands were tied and with a split Supreme Court, challenges were chilled.
Finally, the government approached the Jewish mafia who had the acumen to recognize injustice and the resources to stop it. They created a resistance of Jewish boxers called the Newark Minutemen (NewarkMinutemen.com) who fought against and thwarted the German-American Nazi protesters and raised awareness. With heightened awareness, public opinion pressured the law to block corporations from free speech. Even though the Bund ignored the law, resistance became legal.
What this meant for corporations at large was under freedom of press, a fictionalized 1930s Twitter, for instance, could choose to post or not post views of fascists, communists, socialists and capitalists. Then the government could censor the posted messages and perhaps even force the unposted.
In 2010, that changed and corporations gained freedom of speech rights as a result of a political campaign-spending debate. In Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, the ruling turned to the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo case that ruled political spending is protected under first amendment freedom of speech rights. Citizens United held that “corporations have a First Amendment right to free speech because they are "associations of citizens" and hold the collected rights of the individual citizens who constitute them.”
While fictional 1930s Twitter message could be censored by government, after the 2010 law change, a social media company such as Twitter had the choice to post all or none of their posts. without government censorship.
While the first amendment allows this, other democracies were shocked. Both the German Chancellor and French Finance Minister insisted that lawmakers, not CEOs of social media companies should determine speech. Given Americans are known to trust their government less than Europeans, this inevitably influences the definition of free expression. But not every EU country agreed. Right after Twitter removed then-President Trump’s account. Poland changed their laws to only allow "illegal" content to be removed.
Under US law, should corporations have freedom of speech rights or not? Should social media have a different classification than other corporations? To date, newspaper, television and radio still retain freedom of speech rights and government cannot intervene. Should these media hold different standards than social media?
Free expression is one of democracy’s most important rights. But it begs the question of who should be protected from government censorship?—should it be only private citizens or also corporations who are presently defined as collective citizens. Should free speech include only legal speech, or should it also include grey speech that might be dangerous?
The original purpose of freedom of speech came from the argument that truth will prevail when ideas can be freely expressed. History such as the 1930s propaganda that incited race, color and religious hatred reminds us there is a dangerous, even deadly line. Regardless of the message, how do we decide when freedom of speech rights threaten other human rights?
July 4, 2021
The New American Dream
A few years back, I had to make an emergency trip to Ecuador for my 18 year old daughter who became sick during her gap year. I've travelled a lot, but this time When I came home through customs and saw the big American flag hanging down, I smiled. I dug out my notes to remember my thoughts. God bless America and Happy 4th of July!
Sure we have problems. Violence. Racial wars. Gender inequality. Education woes. Abusive Leaders. Security breaches.
But at least we have a system that tries.
I spent the last 2 weeks hearing about corrupt governments who create jobs but then charge 3x so they can skim the top. I learned about leaders who place friends in all the power positions. I learned about propaganda that claims 6% unemployment rather than the real 60% because the math includes people who work 4 hours a week. I learned about a lack of infrastructure such as dangerous transportation where looters steal your luggage on a bus trip as they distract you into buying candy. I learned about the prejudices across South America that send populations running for asylum. I watched children learn about sustaining their own disaster stricken towns in order to survive in lieu of learning higher education.
At least we have a system that works together even when we are working apart.
True , as a team, we are capricious.
We demean the 1% who have more than they could ever spend while we disregard those who can't afford to eat. We disparage the elderly and ill while preaching for welfare. We devalue immigrants who complicate our economy while insisting on productivity. We criticize race and gender conflicts as we attack the status quo. We criticize the media while insisting on the truth. We demand free public education while expecting excellence for all. We use fear to win votes while we fear all options.
Yes we are not always fair. But we are predictable.
And at least we have a system that tries. Tries for things like;
Personalization with privacy
Propagation with Sustainability
Customization with efficiency
Innovation without chaos
All in all
Freedom without danger
Maybe the American dream isn't to receive a good economy so everyone "can have".
Maybe it's more about a change in each of our own mindsets.
Maybe it's ok to NOT live in the biggest house or drive the most admired car or travel to the most exotic place or get the most coveted job.
Maybe it's NOT about 1st asking what do I want to be when I grow up, and NOT 1st asking what will make me happy , and NOT 1st asking which presidential candidate is going to put the most money in my pocket.
But rather 1st asking what legacy can I leave?
Maybe that's the new American dream
Newark Minutemen is a story about legacy. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
Sure we have problems. Violence. Racial wars. Gender inequality. Education woes. Abusive Leaders. Security breaches.
But at least we have a system that tries.
I spent the last 2 weeks hearing about corrupt governments who create jobs but then charge 3x so they can skim the top. I learned about leaders who place friends in all the power positions. I learned about propaganda that claims 6% unemployment rather than the real 60% because the math includes people who work 4 hours a week. I learned about a lack of infrastructure such as dangerous transportation where looters steal your luggage on a bus trip as they distract you into buying candy. I learned about the prejudices across South America that send populations running for asylum. I watched children learn about sustaining their own disaster stricken towns in order to survive in lieu of learning higher education.
At least we have a system that works together even when we are working apart.
True , as a team, we are capricious.
We demean the 1% who have more than they could ever spend while we disregard those who can't afford to eat. We disparage the elderly and ill while preaching for welfare. We devalue immigrants who complicate our economy while insisting on productivity. We criticize race and gender conflicts as we attack the status quo. We criticize the media while insisting on the truth. We demand free public education while expecting excellence for all. We use fear to win votes while we fear all options.
Yes we are not always fair. But we are predictable.
And at least we have a system that tries. Tries for things like;
Personalization with privacy
Propagation with Sustainability
Customization with efficiency
Innovation without chaos
All in all
Freedom without danger
Maybe the American dream isn't to receive a good economy so everyone "can have".
Maybe it's more about a change in each of our own mindsets.
Maybe it's ok to NOT live in the biggest house or drive the most admired car or travel to the most exotic place or get the most coveted job.
Maybe it's NOT about 1st asking what do I want to be when I grow up, and NOT 1st asking what will make me happy , and NOT 1st asking which presidential candidate is going to put the most money in my pocket.
But rather 1st asking what legacy can I leave?
Maybe that's the new American dream
Newark Minutemen is a story about legacy. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
July 3, 2021
What if Hitler had taken over America?
Dystopian stories such as Man in the High Castle, Fatherland and Plot against America glamorously vilify a victorious Third Reich. If America had been absorbed into the real rising Nazi empire, there is little doubt that Hitler would have accomplished his Final Solution and would have became supreme emperor of the world. In fact, It almost happened.
During the Great Depression, Hitler recognized that the entire world was ripe for a change. Democracy was not putting food on the table. His central racial program required Lebensraum or living space in order for the Aryan race to survive (just like animals and plants). He planned to take Russia and Eastern Europe. This involved not only capturing land but also exterminating inferior races and guaranteeing the rise of the German master race. And his plan went further. With his mantra “German blood above all”, Germans abroad would shape their lives according to Nazi principles and subsume the host country—presumably including the United States.
During the 1930s, Hitler nurtured a shadow party in the US. He exploited an unemployed country robbed of dignity who was still fresh from the devastating Great War. America acquiesced to his promises, dismissed his crimes and underestimated Hitler’s convictions. Was his strategy stealth by design or were Americans swatting away the irritating truth? Even after 1938 Kristallnacht, the barbaric destruction, humiliation and imprisonment of Jewish society in Germany, why didn’t America awaken? A threat that would lead to an extermination ploy against an entire culture. At home, why did citizens allow evil to cultivate in their backyards? And most profoundly, why have few heard about this Hitler satellite and the ominous threat against America? To answer these questions, we must understand the context of the time as well as the function of the pawns—Hitler’s Final Solution and where America fit into Hitler’s juggernaut.
After some missteps in the early thirties, Hitler tapped Fritz Kuhn as the American Fuhrer of the German American Bund. This Nazi party managed the “colony” of America. A charismatic Kuhn wrapped Nazi ideals up in American patriotism and promised a true, great America, the one the founding fathers had promised.
Combined with the new medium of radio, Kuhn powered Hitler’s propaganda machine to orchestrate a single message to the masses, garner subgroups under the Bund banner and generate momentum.
Kuhn asserted Hitler's rule of Führerprinzip (leader principle) that demanded absolute obedience of subordinates.He divided the US into three sections called Gaue with leaders reporting up his pyramid structure. He also trained a paramilitary force modeled after the SS called the Ordnungs -Dienst. Soldiers outfitted in smuggled Nazi uniforms marched through towns across America with their arms in the air professing the fight for a racially pure America. The goal was to gain a foothold, gather intelligence and disarm Americans into accepting a new culture. Whether people supported the Bund or not, first amendment rights protected the rising influence. In fact the government’s hands were so tied they enlisted the mafia to provide an underground resistance group—a group of Jewish boxers called the Newark Minutemen (see Newarkminutemen.com)— to combat the threat.
As a business leader, Kuhn turned his party into a corporation made up of six revenue generating companies which included membership, publishing and boycotting subsidiaries as well as a real estate arm. The events and activities generated millions.
In his early reign , Kuhn bought 25 pieces of
“German soil in America” and modeled them after Hitlers Nazi youth camps. American and Swastika flags flew side by side waving on the slogan “obligated to America, tied to Germany.” Like Hitler, Kuhn believed the youth was the future carriers of German racial ideals in America. Children dressed in Nazi-style uniforms, practiced paramilitary maneuvers, and sang "Deutsch land, über Alles." Physical and mental abuse toughened up the young troops. In later FBI reports, it was also revealed that the camps were used to engage youth to proliferate the Aryan population through sexual relations. In direct conflict with American citizenship, when German-American boys of the Bund turned 18, they were forced to conscript with the German military under the blood brotherhood law of Germans. In other words, whether you were inside or outside German borders, you were German.
In every camp, Mein Kampf and Junges Volk magazines stressed the German contribution to America’s history, vaunted German heroes, praised the Aryan race, degraded and dehumanized the Jews, Catholics and Blacks as lesser human types, maintained that public school teachers were communists, and lauded the new German world view.
The German American Bund emboldened the Reich with a pipeline for funding war and sabotaging the US. The Reich architected a money scheme where German-Americans could buy a special high interest Reich mark through major banks. This money was backed by the lootings from fleeing Jews and other condemned citizens of Germany.
With 20/20 hindsight, we now clearly see the intentions for the piece of property that Hitler called his American colony, and the design it played in realizing his Final Solution.
During the Great Depression, Hitler recognized that the entire world was ripe for a change. Democracy was not putting food on the table. His central racial program required Lebensraum or living space in order for the Aryan race to survive (just like animals and plants). He planned to take Russia and Eastern Europe. This involved not only capturing land but also exterminating inferior races and guaranteeing the rise of the German master race. And his plan went further. With his mantra “German blood above all”, Germans abroad would shape their lives according to Nazi principles and subsume the host country—presumably including the United States.
During the 1930s, Hitler nurtured a shadow party in the US. He exploited an unemployed country robbed of dignity who was still fresh from the devastating Great War. America acquiesced to his promises, dismissed his crimes and underestimated Hitler’s convictions. Was his strategy stealth by design or were Americans swatting away the irritating truth? Even after 1938 Kristallnacht, the barbaric destruction, humiliation and imprisonment of Jewish society in Germany, why didn’t America awaken? A threat that would lead to an extermination ploy against an entire culture. At home, why did citizens allow evil to cultivate in their backyards? And most profoundly, why have few heard about this Hitler satellite and the ominous threat against America? To answer these questions, we must understand the context of the time as well as the function of the pawns—Hitler’s Final Solution and where America fit into Hitler’s juggernaut.
After some missteps in the early thirties, Hitler tapped Fritz Kuhn as the American Fuhrer of the German American Bund. This Nazi party managed the “colony” of America. A charismatic Kuhn wrapped Nazi ideals up in American patriotism and promised a true, great America, the one the founding fathers had promised.
Combined with the new medium of radio, Kuhn powered Hitler’s propaganda machine to orchestrate a single message to the masses, garner subgroups under the Bund banner and generate momentum.
Kuhn asserted Hitler's rule of Führerprinzip (leader principle) that demanded absolute obedience of subordinates.He divided the US into three sections called Gaue with leaders reporting up his pyramid structure. He also trained a paramilitary force modeled after the SS called the Ordnungs -Dienst. Soldiers outfitted in smuggled Nazi uniforms marched through towns across America with their arms in the air professing the fight for a racially pure America. The goal was to gain a foothold, gather intelligence and disarm Americans into accepting a new culture. Whether people supported the Bund or not, first amendment rights protected the rising influence. In fact the government’s hands were so tied they enlisted the mafia to provide an underground resistance group—a group of Jewish boxers called the Newark Minutemen (see Newarkminutemen.com)— to combat the threat.
As a business leader, Kuhn turned his party into a corporation made up of six revenue generating companies which included membership, publishing and boycotting subsidiaries as well as a real estate arm. The events and activities generated millions.
In his early reign , Kuhn bought 25 pieces of
“German soil in America” and modeled them after Hitlers Nazi youth camps. American and Swastika flags flew side by side waving on the slogan “obligated to America, tied to Germany.” Like Hitler, Kuhn believed the youth was the future carriers of German racial ideals in America. Children dressed in Nazi-style uniforms, practiced paramilitary maneuvers, and sang "Deutsch land, über Alles." Physical and mental abuse toughened up the young troops. In later FBI reports, it was also revealed that the camps were used to engage youth to proliferate the Aryan population through sexual relations. In direct conflict with American citizenship, when German-American boys of the Bund turned 18, they were forced to conscript with the German military under the blood brotherhood law of Germans. In other words, whether you were inside or outside German borders, you were German.
In every camp, Mein Kampf and Junges Volk magazines stressed the German contribution to America’s history, vaunted German heroes, praised the Aryan race, degraded and dehumanized the Jews, Catholics and Blacks as lesser human types, maintained that public school teachers were communists, and lauded the new German world view.
The German American Bund emboldened the Reich with a pipeline for funding war and sabotaging the US. The Reich architected a money scheme where German-Americans could buy a special high interest Reich mark through major banks. This money was backed by the lootings from fleeing Jews and other condemned citizens of Germany.
With 20/20 hindsight, we now clearly see the intentions for the piece of property that Hitler called his American colony, and the design it played in realizing his Final Solution.
June 6, 2021
Newark Minutemen: A Reader's Guide
A Reader’s Guide
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis. Radio played a critical role in unifying one message to many.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
14. Who were the Newark Minutemen boys?
Newark Minutemen by Leslie K. Barry
Set between the Great wars in 1930s Newark, New Jersey, Newark Minutemen layers a star crossed love affair doomed for failure over the backdrop of a country ripped apart by economic turmoil of the Great Depression.
Leslie K. Barry’s richly imagined based-on-true novel begins in 1933 America at the triple bewitching hour of Hitlers reign, FDRs presidency and the dusk of prohibition. Through the eyes of the character, the reader looks on as the young protagonist, Yael Newman, witnesses his father branded with a Swastika by German American Nazis at the Newark bootlegging docks.
The perspective then changes to the young German Immigrant Krista Brecht who watches her father burn down a bookstore in Newark as he beats his uniformed chest.
At the time, Americans were divided between a socialist vs fascist approach to healing America’s economic woes. The fascist activities were often dangerous and manipulative but government’s hands were tied by first amendment rights. As a result, most Americans ignored marchers and rallies. What Depression-struck Americans had not realized was that Nazi Germany had planted seeds in America many years before Germany had fired a bullet to begin WW2.
With a self-proclaimed American HItler at the helm, Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant living in New York, the Reich created a multi-million dollar national presence called the German-American Bund. Kuhn managed and unified tens of thousands of American-Nazi Bund members into hundreds of cells in every American city and managed 25 Nazi youth camps across the US. These camps indoctrinated youth with Nazi ideology, culture and military training. Kuhn’s six-company corporation generated millions. He exploited US resources like the NRA and National guard to equip his army with guns and training. Later, the FBI tracked millions of dollars in leading banks to Germany that proved ties between the American Bund and German Nazis. Radio played a critical role in unifying one message to many.
Finally the FBI approached the Jewish mafia, one of the few factions during the depression with money and power. The G-men engaged the mafia to join in an unholy alliance to help thwart the rising Nazi party.
The most promising weapon for the mafia was a band of Jewish boxers in Newark, NJ. They were managed by the enchanting Mob King, Longie Zwillman who was often referred to as the Gatsby of gangsters. The Newark Minutemen trained to fight the Nazis taking over America. They were called up at a moments notice to topple rallies and infiltrate the German-American Bund.
In the story, the reader then joins Yael five years after his traumatic experience. In a life driven by avenge, tempered by justice, he joins the Newark Minutemen. During one of the fights he knocks into Krista Brecht, the daughter of a German-American Nazi high command. Their paths cross again and he and his sidekick Harry Levine take Krista and her sister on a night to remember. The tension between their worlds turns from innocent into an explosive rumble and vendetta between the Minutemen and a gang of young American Nazis.
As a romance between Yael and Krista form, the world pulls them apart. At the most basic level, Yael struggles against a life of racism. Further, Krista’s world wants Yael’s people dead. Coming full circle, Yael is recruited to go undercover and bring down the German-American Bund and it’s leader. Then he learns the gut-wrenching truth about who killed his father. In a twist, Krista's identity spirals when she learns her own truths.
In Newark Minutemen Leslie K. Barry writes with a historical sweep and intimacy that are skillfully combined through four character’s narrations—Yael, Krista, gangster Longie Zwillman and Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn. Through different voices, the reader gains perspective from all sides, creeping empathy into uncomfortable places. As the novel explores the convulsive collision of history and romance, readers take a chilling look at devastating events that were occurring in America, including the greatest enemy of all—complacency.
Questions for Discussion
The discussion questions that follow are designed to enliven your group's discussion of Leslie K. Barry’s extraordinary new novel, Newark Minutemen.
1. What effects does Barry achieve by blending personal history and historical fact?
2. Why has this history buried in American history? Why has it never been told?
3. What is the effect of the story beginning and ending with the the same moment of Presidents Day 1939?
4. How would the world be different if Fuhrer Kuhn and the German American Bund had achieved their objectives?
5. How does Yael reconcile accepting someone who is supposed to be his mortal enemy? How does Krista deal with her identity during the impending relationship?
6. What are the most difficult images in the story? Physical? Emotional?
7. How do you feel about the Yael’s journey of avenge? What are the moral complexities of right and wrong in this story?
8. What motivates Fuhrer Fritz Kuhn? What makes home charismatic to his followers? What makes Longie Zwillman charismatic? How are these two alike and different?
9. In what ways are Longie and the mafia heroic? How do they respond to the crises? How are they able to bring their community together?
10. What do the historical details and cameos of the story add?
11. Much is at stake in Newark Minutemen— the fate of America's minorities especially Jews, the larger fate of Europe and of Western civilization, but also how America will define itself. What does the novel suggest about what it means to be an American, and to be a Jewish American?
12. What does the flashforward to the end of ww2 add to the novel?
13. Hatred is timeless. What is relevance in this story to hatred in society today?
14. Who were the Newark Minutemen boys?
April 19, 2021
Sharing different stories of the same novel to different readers
One of the reasons my publicist was excited to pitch Newark Minutemen and was so successful in getting coverage around the world is because he understood I had so many different audiences.
Getting press for a new novel is challenging. You have to get past the noise and fit in with the noise at the same time. When I was launching Newark Minutemen, I identified all the types of readers who would be interested in the story and crafted a different reason to love the story for each.
Here's how I did it:
Newark Minutemen is based on a true family story that took place during the Great Depression. It's about my Uncle who was a Jewish boxer in Newark, NJ who was recruited by the mob and government to join a resistance group against the rising German-American Nazi party. Along the way he falls in love with the daughter of the enemy. Newarkminutemen.com
I crafted messages around;
a) BASED ON TRUE: Family story and the families who lived through the 1930s and their sons and daughters who had heard pieces of the story. There was an especially large Jewish audience around the Newark area and who had ties to popular Weequahic High School.
b) JEWISH: General Jewish culture and Holocaust interest in that Nazism in America that was seeded during this time and how the story shows American's response.
c) BOXERS: the history of immigrants and Boxers and the prevalence of Jewish boxing champions in the 1930s
d) MAFIA: Mafia and the unholy alliance between mob and government. I leveraged America’s fascination with the mob and the mob’s role in propping up American during the Great Depression
e) ANCESTRY: I did much of the development of my characters with the help of ancestry.
f) SETTING: The setting of Newark and what it was in the 1930s
g) GREAT DEPRESSION AND SIMILARITIES OF TODAY: Historical context of the Great Depression and the American divide that the Hitler Satellite of the German American Nazi Bund was able to fill
h) MULTI-GEN: This is my Mom’s story, I wrote it, one daughter designed the cover, one daughter wrote and performed the theme song
i) MOVIE: The movie in development.
j) ANTI-SEMITISM: The time-told story of hatred and anti-semitism. Authoritarianism in the world. Should we be complacent?
k) PHILIP ROTH: Prequel to Philip Roth’s Plot Against America. This became a TV series in Jan of 2020 and the release of the Philip Roth biography released 2021.
l) COMPARABLE STORIES: Similarities to Peaky Blinders and Inglorious Bastards and star-crossed love affairs like Titanic and West Side Story
m) LOCAL: Local author stories
n) THE DEAF COMMUNITY: My daughter is deaf in one ear and one of the main characters is also deaf in one ear.
I hope one of these messages touches you, today. Here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
Below are some of the news links that show how the different angles were shared:
VARIETY News Movie deal and book launch
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
NJ.com
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
Holocaust channel
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7TmfZ...
Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/story-...
Getting press for a new novel is challenging. You have to get past the noise and fit in with the noise at the same time. When I was launching Newark Minutemen, I identified all the types of readers who would be interested in the story and crafted a different reason to love the story for each.
Here's how I did it:
Newark Minutemen is based on a true family story that took place during the Great Depression. It's about my Uncle who was a Jewish boxer in Newark, NJ who was recruited by the mob and government to join a resistance group against the rising German-American Nazi party. Along the way he falls in love with the daughter of the enemy. Newarkminutemen.com
I crafted messages around;
a) BASED ON TRUE: Family story and the families who lived through the 1930s and their sons and daughters who had heard pieces of the story. There was an especially large Jewish audience around the Newark area and who had ties to popular Weequahic High School.
b) JEWISH: General Jewish culture and Holocaust interest in that Nazism in America that was seeded during this time and how the story shows American's response.
c) BOXERS: the history of immigrants and Boxers and the prevalence of Jewish boxing champions in the 1930s
d) MAFIA: Mafia and the unholy alliance between mob and government. I leveraged America’s fascination with the mob and the mob’s role in propping up American during the Great Depression
e) ANCESTRY: I did much of the development of my characters with the help of ancestry.
f) SETTING: The setting of Newark and what it was in the 1930s
g) GREAT DEPRESSION AND SIMILARITIES OF TODAY: Historical context of the Great Depression and the American divide that the Hitler Satellite of the German American Nazi Bund was able to fill
h) MULTI-GEN: This is my Mom’s story, I wrote it, one daughter designed the cover, one daughter wrote and performed the theme song
i) MOVIE: The movie in development.
j) ANTI-SEMITISM: The time-told story of hatred and anti-semitism. Authoritarianism in the world. Should we be complacent?
k) PHILIP ROTH: Prequel to Philip Roth’s Plot Against America. This became a TV series in Jan of 2020 and the release of the Philip Roth biography released 2021.
l) COMPARABLE STORIES: Similarities to Peaky Blinders and Inglorious Bastards and star-crossed love affairs like Titanic and West Side Story
m) LOCAL: Local author stories
n) THE DEAF COMMUNITY: My daughter is deaf in one ear and one of the main characters is also deaf in one ear.
I hope one of these messages touches you, today. Here's the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/163195...
Below are some of the news links that show how the different angles were shared:
VARIETY News Movie deal and book launch
https://variety.com/2020/film/news/ne...
NJ.com
https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2020...
Holocaust channel
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC7TmfZ...
Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/story-...
April 9, 2021
Authenticity Builds our Relationship with Historical Fiction Characters
Authenticity in historical fiction transports us beyond when and where. Authenticity lets us meet the characters. When we read genuine characters, we open ourselves and want to share their fears, their kindness and their wickedness. We gain relationship. In writing Newark Minutemen with my 90 year old Mom, our goal was to send the reader back to the Great Depression. Together, we relived the smells, the tastes and the touches. But most importantly, we relived the "who."
Here's a sample:
"On the trolley toward the docks, I clutch the suitcase between my legs so it won’t bounce. The window is frosty, but I can see Prince Street of the Third Ward where we used to live. Carts begin to line the curbs next to the shops. Pop says in this part of town they still don’t have hot water upstairs in the apartments like we do.
We pass the live poultry market where I often shop with Mama to buy chicken for Friday dinners. When we’re at the market, Ma sticks her hand in the cage and picks the chicken with the most fat on the bottom. The butcher chops it’s head off and plucks the feathers. My oldest brother Marty can’t stand all the blood splattered in the sawdust, but it doesn’t bother me.
The trolley clacks past dry goods stores, soda fountain shops, movie houses, bakeries, breweries and synagogues. We stop for passengers. As bodies pack the trolley, the accents of Russians, Irish, Germans and Italians collide. I can’t help but breathe in the hodgepodge of baked bread mixed with freshly gutted fish. Last week, I picked out a fish at the market. My ma smelled the gills and made me throw it back into the tank. Mama drives the butcher crazy. She embarrasses me when she makes him clean out the meat grinder every time. Still, he admires her.
I draw a triangle on the frosty window with the finger that sticks out of my glove and wipe away the film inside the shape. Through the cleared glass, I spot men waitin’ in the soup lines. Their knees judder against their baggy clothes like a car engine without enough fuel. Jobs are rare these days. My father and uncles are lucky. They’re bootleggers for Longie Zwillman. Pop calls Longie the King of the Jewish mob. Pop makes good money at the docks where runner boats drop booze. That’s illegal. The cops don’t bother him though, because Longie takes care of everyone. With my finger, I add an upside-down triangle to make a star.
Just as I arrive at the foggy Newark bay docks, an old war truck swerves around me. “This ain’t a place for a kid!” the gunman hangin’ off the side yells at me. The curlin’ fog reminds me of ghosts clawin’ for my throat. Through it, it’s hard to spot any ship riggin’. I can only see the tips of bouncin’ bows. I balance myself along a braided boat line that guides me down the dock toward Pop’s runner boat at the end of the pier. I swing the suitcase to pitch me forward. As I near the boat, the mist shifts just enough for me to see my tall father. Next to him another man scratches the red stubble across his face. They’re securing ropes over the side of their boat.
When Pop opens a thermos and fills two cups, I’m close enough to sniff the roasted coffee, but he still doesn’t know I’m here. The opportunity is too good to pass. I smile to myself and spring into the boat, landin’ with a bang. Pop and the man swing around with guns aimed at my head. I dodge the flyin’ coffee just in time.
“Drek!” Pop curses. “Yael Newman! You know better than that.” He and his mate tuck the guns back under their shirts into their waistbands. Red-faced, he won’t look at me.
With my heart in my throat, I try to break the ice. “You forgot your clothes-bag, Pop. I brought it for ya.” I hold his scuffed suitcase high like a trophy. My brother’s sweater swings across my knees.
Here's a sample:
"On the trolley toward the docks, I clutch the suitcase between my legs so it won’t bounce. The window is frosty, but I can see Prince Street of the Third Ward where we used to live. Carts begin to line the curbs next to the shops. Pop says in this part of town they still don’t have hot water upstairs in the apartments like we do.
We pass the live poultry market where I often shop with Mama to buy chicken for Friday dinners. When we’re at the market, Ma sticks her hand in the cage and picks the chicken with the most fat on the bottom. The butcher chops it’s head off and plucks the feathers. My oldest brother Marty can’t stand all the blood splattered in the sawdust, but it doesn’t bother me.
The trolley clacks past dry goods stores, soda fountain shops, movie houses, bakeries, breweries and synagogues. We stop for passengers. As bodies pack the trolley, the accents of Russians, Irish, Germans and Italians collide. I can’t help but breathe in the hodgepodge of baked bread mixed with freshly gutted fish. Last week, I picked out a fish at the market. My ma smelled the gills and made me throw it back into the tank. Mama drives the butcher crazy. She embarrasses me when she makes him clean out the meat grinder every time. Still, he admires her.
I draw a triangle on the frosty window with the finger that sticks out of my glove and wipe away the film inside the shape. Through the cleared glass, I spot men waitin’ in the soup lines. Their knees judder against their baggy clothes like a car engine without enough fuel. Jobs are rare these days. My father and uncles are lucky. They’re bootleggers for Longie Zwillman. Pop calls Longie the King of the Jewish mob. Pop makes good money at the docks where runner boats drop booze. That’s illegal. The cops don’t bother him though, because Longie takes care of everyone. With my finger, I add an upside-down triangle to make a star.
Just as I arrive at the foggy Newark bay docks, an old war truck swerves around me. “This ain’t a place for a kid!” the gunman hangin’ off the side yells at me. The curlin’ fog reminds me of ghosts clawin’ for my throat. Through it, it’s hard to spot any ship riggin’. I can only see the tips of bouncin’ bows. I balance myself along a braided boat line that guides me down the dock toward Pop’s runner boat at the end of the pier. I swing the suitcase to pitch me forward. As I near the boat, the mist shifts just enough for me to see my tall father. Next to him another man scratches the red stubble across his face. They’re securing ropes over the side of their boat.
When Pop opens a thermos and fills two cups, I’m close enough to sniff the roasted coffee, but he still doesn’t know I’m here. The opportunity is too good to pass. I smile to myself and spring into the boat, landin’ with a bang. Pop and the man swing around with guns aimed at my head. I dodge the flyin’ coffee just in time.
“Drek!” Pop curses. “Yael Newman! You know better than that.” He and his mate tuck the guns back under their shirts into their waistbands. Red-faced, he won’t look at me.
With my heart in my throat, I try to break the ice. “You forgot your clothes-bag, Pop. I brought it for ya.” I hold his scuffed suitcase high like a trophy. My brother’s sweater swings across my knees.
