Background
Graenum Berger was born on 21th of April, 1908 in Gloversville, New York, United States. His parents are Jewish immigrants.
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Graenum Berger
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book
Graenum Berger Speaks on the Jewish Community Center: a Fourth Force in American Jewish Life
(American Studies, Jewish Studies, Judaism)
American Studies, Jewish Studies, Judaism
https://www.amazon.com/Graenum-Berger-Speaks-Jewish-Community/dp/B001C9UKOY/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1613235376&refinements=p_27%3AGraenum+Berger&s=books&sr=1-2
1966
Turbulent Decades - Jewish Communal Services In America 1958-78, Volumes I & Ii
(2 volumes published from selected papers of the "Journal ...)
2 volumes published from selected papers of the "Journal of Jewish Communal Services" with a historical overview by Graenum Berger. Topics range from Communal Organization to Immigration and Refugees. Volume 1 has 758 pages and Volume 2 has 1557 pages.
https://www.amazon.com/Turbulent-Decades-Communal-Services-America/dp/B000BL4PMC/ref=sr_1_6?dchild=1&qid=1613235376&refinements=p_27%3AGraenum+Berger&s=books&sr=1-6
1980
Graenum, an Autobiography
https://www.amazon.com/Graenum-Autobiography-Berger/dp/0881251232/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&qid=1613235376&refinements=p_27%3AGraenum+Berger&s=books&sr=1-3
1987
Rescue the Ethiopian Jews! A memoir, 1955-1995
(This book tells of events that transpired during the 40 y...)
This book tells of events that transpired during the 40 years of Graenum Berger's interest in the Jews of Ethiopia. It includes the letter he sent in 1977 to Prime Minister Menachim Begin followed by a public address in Jerusalem which resulted in the first migration of 100 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. It describes how a few Ethiopian Jews were secretly airlifted to Israel from Sudan in 1979 (where they had fled to escape a revolution and dictatorship), which ultimately led to Operation Moses in 1984-85, and how, in 1991, the remaining 25,000 who had been brought to Addis Ababa from their villages by the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ), were dramatically flown to Israel in two days. The book also tells the story of the AAEJ, which Mr. Berger created in 1973 to educate the Jewish world about the Ethiopian Jews and to bring pressure on Jewish leaders to achieve a solution. AAEJ proved a group of volunteers could force resettlement of Ethiopian Jews in Israel. It also organized a caucus of U.S. Congressmen and Senators to encourage the White House and State Department to play a role in bringing the Ethiopian Jews from Sudan and Ethiopia. It is clear, however, that without Israel it would have been impossible to accomplish this objective. The book describes how Israel, the United States, and World Jewry reversed their policies and finally saved 50,000 Ethiopian Jewish lives.
https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-Ethiopian-Jews-memoir-1955-1995-ebook/dp/B003MC5L8Y/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1613235376&refinements=p_27%3AGraenum+Berger&s=books&sr=1-1
2009
A Not So Silent Envoy: A Biography of Ambassador Samuel David Berger
(Reporters dubbed him, "Silent Sam," but Sam Berger's lett...)
Reporters dubbed him, "Silent Sam," but Sam Berger's letters, reports, speeches, and interviews, reproduced in this book, re-vealed him as anything but a silent envoy. Sam was born in Gloversville, New York in 1911, the son of immigrant Jewish par¬ents. A brilliant student and speaker, he studied economics and labor problems at the University of Wisconsin, later becoming a mem¬ber of the Economics fac¬ulty. At the London School of Economics he became friends with future members of the British Cabinet, Parliament, and the Labor Movement. In 1941, W. Averell Harriman asked Sam to join his Lend-Lease staff in London as a labor specialist. He dis¬tinguished himself as a Labor Attache, and in 1946 was appointed as a Political Counselor in the Foreign Service. He became an in¬timate friend of British Labor leaders, and was condemned by the British Communist Party for his influence on the British Government. He served on the European Coal Commission, and was sent to Greece to eliminate communist influence among Greek unions. He went with Harriman to Washington and served with the Mutual Security Administration. A posting to the American Embassy in Japan ended abruptly when he ran afoul of top Republican officials, and he was transferred to New Zealand as Deputy Chief of Mission. A tour in Greece followed in the same capacity. For most of those seven years in New Zealand and Greece he served as Acting Ambassador. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy appointed Sam Ambassador to the Republic of Korea in 1961, where he helped mold the dictatorship into a more democratic gov¬ern¬ment, and set the country on the road to its ex¬traordinary post-Korean War re-covery. After a short tour as the State Department Commandant at the National War College in Washington, he was ap¬pointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs. In 1968 he was selected to serve as Deputy Ambassador to Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker in the Republic of Vietnam. He spent four years in Vietnam, reaping all the negative rewards for service in that trou¬bled time. In 1972 he returned to Washington as Director of the State Department's Senior Seminar, training senior gov¬ernment and military officials for world-wide service. He retired in 1974, and died in 1980.
https://www.amazon.com/Not-Silent-Envoy-Biography-Ambassador-ebook/dp/B00CK09WQQ/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&qid=1613235376&refinements=p_27%3AGraenum+Berger&s=books&sr=1-5
2013
Graenum Berger
Edit Profileeducator social welfare executive traveler Communal administrator
Education
Mr. Berger received a bachelor's degree in 1930 from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in 1932 from the Graduate School of Jewish Social Work, in Manhattan.
Career
Born in Gloversville, New York of Jewish immigrant parents, in 1955, Graenum Berger met a group of Ethiopian Jewish students in Israel. He had known there was a Jewish tribe in Ethiopia, but knew little about them. He began reading, and writing letters, and in ten years accumulated a vast file of information.
In Ethiopia in 1965, he found penniless Jews (known as Falasha) trying to eke out a primitive living in a country that discriminated against them in every aspect of their lives.
As a Jewish communal executive who knew all the professional and volunteer leaders in the American Jewish community, he assumed all he had to do was bring the problems of the Ethiopian Jews to their attention and they would be solved. He also presumed Israel would rise to the occasion and undertake a resettlement effort.
He was wrong on both counts. So began his 35 year effort to bring the 50,000 member Ethiopian Jewish community to Israel, which eventually led to Operation Moses in 1984-1985, and Operation Solomon in 1991.
He felt they were not Jews and should not be granted the right to go to Israel under the Law of Return.
Regardless, the aliyah of the Felash Mura eventually began and continues to this day at the rate of 300 per month. Berger was given an old prayer book written in Ge"ez and a circumcision knife by the community that he originally contacted as a thanks. After 43 years of professional leadership, Berger retired in 1973.
Achievements
Works
book
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A Not So Silent Envoy: A Biography of Ambassador Samuel David Berger
(Reporters dubbed him, "Silent Sam," but Sam Berger's lett...)
2013 -
Turbulent Decades - Jewish Communal Services In America 1958-78, Volumes I & Ii
(2 volumes published from selected papers of the "Journal ...)
1980 -
Rescue the Ethiopian Jews! A memoir, 1955-1995
(This book tells of events that transpired during the 40 y...)
2009 -
Graenum Berger Speaks on the Jewish Community Center: a Fourth Force in American Jewish Life
(American Studies, Jewish Studies, Judaism)
1966 - Graenum, an Autobiography 1987
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A Not So Silent Envoy: A Biography of Ambassador Samuel David Berger
Membership
After his death, they were given by his family to the rabbi of a synagogue in New York he was a founding member of, the Pelham Jewish Center.
Connections
His survivors include his wife, the former Emma Finestein, 2 sons: Ramon Francis, Baruch
Michael, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Education
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1930
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1932