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Show Joel Shapiro 5/26/82 tp 1 pg 8 of that period respond to the larger community. Those kinds of responses which he learned as a youngster no doubt helped him achieve in this community when he settled down here and became a merchant, first as a wholesaler and manufacturing , and then as a retailer. He was in that period of the 20 ' s ; the kind of Jew who made no bones about who he was as a Jew, but who, in his public life, never wanted to rock the boat. It's a little different than we see things now. My father had a tremendous sense of what is correct, social jus tice and so forth. Roosevelt became a hero in his time ••• when he came along . But, publically he was a-political, and when I began to function around him, even after I came back from the army, and participated in some political activities -- it always bothered him a little bit. He came from that -- he was the kind of guy, he blessed both parties. Whoever came in representing everything was all right. He wanted to be a submissive -- I hate to use the word ' submissive Jew', because he wasn't-- but he learned,in the public part of him, not to ••• what ••• like I hear him say, "the brush"; he learned not to mess "in the white man's affairs." And I think that was not uncharacteristic of, as I remember, of the time of my youth •• "don't rock the boat." Just as you read, or heard from others, or read in Louis Zucker's notes, I remember the incident very clearly with Louis Zucker. It was called The Communism of the University of Utah. I forget which incident which he recounts in that --Jew and Zion stories -- I don't remember that part of it. I remember that incidence very well, because both my mother and father --we were very close friends with the Zuckers. Both my folkers were very close friends with the Zuckers. But, I knew ••• Louie was embarrassing people, not Louis~ embarrassing. The attention that was called down on him embarrassed people because he was pushed out in front. Why should a nice Jewish professor, the first one they ever had, even be labeled by the scared conservative as being a pinko, a red? That incident -- well, he talks about it in that Jew and Zion thing. That took place about 19 -let's see, when are the dates he came here? L He came in '28. JS All right, so this is right around '31, probably. But, I remember cause my mother and father were talking about it : "what has that |
