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Cleveland native to lead global fight against anti-Semitism
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BY: MARILYN H. KARFELD, Senior Staff Reporter
In the mid-1990s, Gregg Rickman tenaciously directed the Senate Banking Committee’s public inquiry into the Swiss banks’ role as financier for the Third Reich.
As legislative director for Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), Rickman instructed researchers to dig through the National Archives to prove that Swiss banks looted the dormant bank accounts of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The South Euclid native told the researchers that their “difficult, tedious and complex” task was to find evidence that World War II was the “greatest robbery in history.
“It is our duty and our obligation to those who can no longer defend themselves to solve this crime, once and for all ... to seek justice,” Rickman wrote in a 1996 letter.
That’s the dedication and commitment that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Rickman will bring to his newest assignment. Last week, Rice swore in Rickman, 42, as the nation’s first special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world.
The position was created 18 months ago in the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, co-sponsored by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.)
Congress passed the legislation over the objections of the State Department. Officials there feared the new post would just create more bureaucracy; they said it was redundant since monitoring of human rights was already ongoing.
Rickman’s appointment will help push combating anti-Semitism near the top of the State Department’s agenda, say Jewish leaders who lobbied for the creation of his position.
“Without continued US leadership, I’m not sure how much attention will be paid by our friends in Europe and elsewhere to anti-Semitism,” says Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, which advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states and Eurasia.
Matthew Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, predicts Rickman will introduce the issue into bilateral or multilateral discussions.
Rickman brings to his new post a strong background in advocating for Jewish issues. In 1996, as the Swiss bank inquiry began, he learned about Project Safehaven, a World War II-era US intelligence operation that tracked Swiss-laundered Nazi gold and other assets smuggled out of Germany. Rickman wanted to find evidence that Swiss banks still held deposits from bank accounts belonging to Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
On day two of searching through Safehaven documents in the National Archives, Miriam Kleiman, also a native Clevelander, found the smoking gun. She called Rickman to tell him about a list of 182 Jewish names with World War II-era Swiss bank accounts. Adjusted for inflation and interest, Rickman learned the bank accounts in that one document added up to over $29 million.
“Gregg would leave work and spend entire days at the Archives, day after day,” says Kleiman. “He’d take a stack home and read them on weekends and at night. His wife was about to deliver their third child, and he was at the Archives. It was a passion, not a job. It was a mission.”
In his new job, Rickman says he will implement and create policies to confront anti-Semitism. “One way to do that, as Secretary Rice said at my swearing-in, is inoculating against anti-Semitism through education by teaching children tolerance and respect.”
He suggests trips to the Nazi death camps in Poland as one way of educating non-Jewish youth about the effects of anti-Semitism. He made such a journey in 1994 with his father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor.
“It was his first time back since he was liberated,” Rickman recalls. “It was very emotional. What an effect would a trip like that have on school children?”
As a child, Rickman recalls listening to his grandfather’s horrific tales about fleeing deadly Russian pogroms. It interested him in history. But the lessons of the past also taught him “that anti-Semitism left unchecked resulted in disaster,” Rickman said during his swearing-in ceremony
Anti-Semitism shows up as acts of discrimination, bigoted lies in textbooks, vandalism and assaults, notes the new envoy. He isn’t sure yet how he’ll address all of them. But he’s certain that “every government has to take decisive action to stop this. We’re going to do the best we can.”
Monitoring is part of his job title. Creating a list of such hate-mongering acts is important, Rickman says, and statistics on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents were compiled in a January 2005 State Department report. But the special envoy, who resides with his wife Sonia and their three children in Maryland, expects his new role will also be to “shine a light” to prevent future anti-Semitism.
For instance, Saudi Arabia continues to publish textbooks virulently disparaging other religions. According to a recent study by Freedom House, the books are used in Saudi schools and Saudi-run schools in Washington, London and Paris.
The State Department’s John Hanford, ambassador at-large for international religious freedom, has been working on the anti-Semitic textbook issue, says Rickman. The new envoy expects he’ll be traveling frequently to meet with government officials, non-governmental organizations and private citizens to help fight anti-Jewish sentiments.
The son of Charlotte and Richard Rickman, the anti-Semitism envoy earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Russian and Middle Eastern history at John Carroll University. In 1990, he finished his course work for a doctorate in international relations at the University of Miami. But his doctoral dissertation was put on hold when he went to work in Washington.
His 1999 book Swiss Banks and Jewish Souls provided an insider’s look at the negotiations surrounding the $1.25 billion Swiss bank settlement. He wanted to delve deeper into Holocaust-era restitution.
“I thought I’d do it as a two-fer: write my dissertation and make it into a book,” he says with a chuckle.
The 700-page dissertation (he was awarded his Ph.D. in 2004) was cut in half to become his second book, Conquest and Redemption: A History of Jewish Assets from the Holocaust. The book, which publishes in September, details how Nazi Germany and other countries established procedures and other obstacles to delay restitution for Jews robbed of artwork, insurance and real estate.
After D’Amato lost his re-election bid in 1998, Rickman went to work for Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). Then, he became congressional liaison and communications director for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees US-run channels such as the Voice of America.
Later, he served as director of congressional affairs for the Republican Jewish Coalition. Most recently, he returned to Capitol Hill to head a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating the scandal-ridden United Nations oil-for-food program.
“Gregg is a scholar, humanitarian and consummate Washington insider,” says Kleiman. “He is the perfect match for this important position battling anti-Semitism.”
Working on Holocaust and Jewish issues has been fulfilling, Rickman acknowledges. Comparing Holocaust compensation to the injustice, he recognizes the impossibility of saying how much is enough.
“Can you affix a number to a Jewish life? You can’t. No amount will bring a person back.”
Prevention of such calamities remains the best hope for humanity, he says.
“More than six decades after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is not just an historical fact,” said Rice during Rickman’s swearing-in ceremony. “It is a current event.”
-with JTA reports
mkarfeld@cjn.org
As legislative director for Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.), Rickman instructed researchers to dig through the National Archives to prove that Swiss banks looted the dormant bank accounts of Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The South Euclid native told the researchers that their “difficult, tedious and complex” task was to find evidence that World War II was the “greatest robbery in history.
“It is our duty and our obligation to those who can no longer defend themselves to solve this crime, once and for all ... to seek justice,” Rickman wrote in a 1996 letter.
That’s the dedication and commitment that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Rickman will bring to his newest assignment. Last week, Rice swore in Rickman, 42, as the nation’s first special envoy for monitoring and combating anti-Semitism around the world.
The position was created 18 months ago in the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, co-sponsored by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.)
Congress passed the legislation over the objections of the State Department. Officials there feared the new post would just create more bureaucracy; they said it was redundant since monitoring of human rights was already ongoing.
Rickman’s appointment will help push combating anti-Semitism near the top of the State Department’s agenda, say Jewish leaders who lobbied for the creation of his position.
“Without continued US leadership, I’m not sure how much attention will be paid by our friends in Europe and elsewhere to anti-Semitism,” says Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, which advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states and Eurasia.
Matthew Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, predicts Rickman will introduce the issue into bilateral or multilateral discussions.
Rickman brings to his new post a strong background in advocating for Jewish issues. In 1996, as the Swiss bank inquiry began, he learned about Project Safehaven, a World War II-era US intelligence operation that tracked Swiss-laundered Nazi gold and other assets smuggled out of Germany. Rickman wanted to find evidence that Swiss banks still held deposits from bank accounts belonging to Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
On day two of searching through Safehaven documents in the National Archives, Miriam Kleiman, also a native Clevelander, found the smoking gun. She called Rickman to tell him about a list of 182 Jewish names with World War II-era Swiss bank accounts. Adjusted for inflation and interest, Rickman learned the bank accounts in that one document added up to over $29 million.
“Gregg would leave work and spend entire days at the Archives, day after day,” says Kleiman. “He’d take a stack home and read them on weekends and at night. His wife was about to deliver their third child, and he was at the Archives. It was a passion, not a job. It was a mission.”
In his new job, Rickman says he will implement and create policies to confront anti-Semitism. “One way to do that, as Secretary Rice said at my swearing-in, is inoculating against anti-Semitism through education by teaching children tolerance and respect.”
He suggests trips to the Nazi death camps in Poland as one way of educating non-Jewish youth about the effects of anti-Semitism. He made such a journey in 1994 with his father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor.
“It was his first time back since he was liberated,” Rickman recalls. “It was very emotional. What an effect would a trip like that have on school children?”
As a child, Rickman recalls listening to his grandfather’s horrific tales about fleeing deadly Russian pogroms. It interested him in history. But the lessons of the past also taught him “that anti-Semitism left unchecked resulted in disaster,” Rickman said during his swearing-in ceremony
Anti-Semitism shows up as acts of discrimination, bigoted lies in textbooks, vandalism and assaults, notes the new envoy. He isn’t sure yet how he’ll address all of them. But he’s certain that “every government has to take decisive action to stop this. We’re going to do the best we can.”
Monitoring is part of his job title. Creating a list of such hate-mongering acts is important, Rickman says, and statistics on worldwide anti-Semitic incidents were compiled in a January 2005 State Department report. But the special envoy, who resides with his wife Sonia and their three children in Maryland, expects his new role will also be to “shine a light” to prevent future anti-Semitism.
For instance, Saudi Arabia continues to publish textbooks virulently disparaging other religions. According to a recent study by Freedom House, the books are used in Saudi schools and Saudi-run schools in Washington, London and Paris.
The State Department’s John Hanford, ambassador at-large for international religious freedom, has been working on the anti-Semitic textbook issue, says Rickman. The new envoy expects he’ll be traveling frequently to meet with government officials, non-governmental organizations and private citizens to help fight anti-Jewish sentiments.
The son of Charlotte and Richard Rickman, the anti-Semitism envoy earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Russian and Middle Eastern history at John Carroll University. In 1990, he finished his course work for a doctorate in international relations at the University of Miami. But his doctoral dissertation was put on hold when he went to work in Washington.
His 1999 book Swiss Banks and Jewish Souls provided an insider’s look at the negotiations surrounding the $1.25 billion Swiss bank settlement. He wanted to delve deeper into Holocaust-era restitution.
“I thought I’d do it as a two-fer: write my dissertation and make it into a book,” he says with a chuckle.
The 700-page dissertation (he was awarded his Ph.D. in 2004) was cut in half to become his second book, Conquest and Redemption: A History of Jewish Assets from the Holocaust. The book, which publishes in September, details how Nazi Germany and other countries established procedures and other obstacles to delay restitution for Jews robbed of artwork, insurance and real estate.
After D’Amato lost his re-election bid in 1998, Rickman went to work for Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.). Then, he became congressional liaison and communications director for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees US-run channels such as the Voice of America.
Later, he served as director of congressional affairs for the Republican Jewish Coalition. Most recently, he returned to Capitol Hill to head a House of Representatives subcommittee investigating the scandal-ridden United Nations oil-for-food program.
“Gregg is a scholar, humanitarian and consummate Washington insider,” says Kleiman. “He is the perfect match for this important position battling anti-Semitism.”
Working on Holocaust and Jewish issues has been fulfilling, Rickman acknowledges. Comparing Holocaust compensation to the injustice, he recognizes the impossibility of saying how much is enough.
“Can you affix a number to a Jewish life? You can’t. No amount will bring a person back.”
Prevention of such calamities remains the best hope for humanity, he says.
“More than six decades after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is not just an historical fact,” said Rice during Rickman’s swearing-in ceremony. “It is a current event.”
-with JTA reports
mkarfeld@cjn.org
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