Dreams Bigger Than the Night by Levitt Paul M

Author:Levitt, Paul M. [Levitt, Paul M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publishing
Published: 2015-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

Arietta and Jay celebrated the New Year, 1936, in a muted mood. Despite Jeremiah Mahoney’s best efforts, the Amateur Athletic Union had voted 58.25 to 55.75 to support the Olympics, a two-and-a-half-point margin. (In July 1936, Ernest Lee Jahncke was expelled from the International Olympic Committee for his opposition.) After the vote, Avery Brundage issued a statement implying that a boycott would encourage anti-Semitism in America. “There are maybe five percent of the population which is Jewish. A study of the records of the Olympic Games shows about one-half to one percent of the athletes are Jewish. And responsibility for actions of this kind [a boycott], right or wrong, would be charged to the Jews, I think.”

What Berlin and Rolf Hahne quickly realized was that in spite of the vote, the pro-boycotters would continue their campaign until the day the boat set sail for Germany carrying American athletes. Rolf Hahne’s mission, therefore, continued, made all the more difficult by Arietta’s refusal to cooperate or even meet him.

Until early spring, she and Jay continued to see each other, though newspaper work taxed his time. During that period he wrote numerous reviews and articles, without a byline, a situation that actually suited him because his editor had asked him to cover the Nazi movement in Newark, and he had no desire to be mugged or even worse. In addition, at the paper’s behest, he was following the murder investigation of three men, allied to the cause of the boycott, gunned down at a Chinese restaurant by a lone assailant, who had escaped. The men, all Catholics, had helped Jeremiah Mahoney rally their fellow congregants to continue opposing the Nazi Olympics.

Given his deficient German, Jay persuaded Arietta to accompany him, in his role as Richard Wagner, to meetings of the Friends. The paper even agreed to pay her. Aware of the risk he was running by putting Arietta and Axel in the same locale, he convinced himself that Arietta no longer cared for Axel. But he did become suspicious when she predicted the increasing radicalization and fragmentation of the Friends, who in fact eventually became the nucleus of the Bund. And his suspicions grew when Axel stopped attending meetings and she began to break dates. For reasons unknown, Jay and Arietta’s affair seemed to be cooling.

Wishing to turn up the heat, he suggested they dine at the restaurant in the Robert Treat Hotel. Arietta had suggested a less swank place on Elizabeth Avenue, but he wanted to put on the dog. She wore a red velvet dress and he a three-piece black suit. In the cab he took her hand, and she smiled. At their table, she looked around a great deal; but he could see nothing amiss. During dinner, they disagreed about some silly things and migrated to the topic of a movie that he had once reviewed, Our Daily Bread, which celebrates a commune that makes its own bread.

“If the Depression continues,” he said, “I think we’re going to see more films like it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.