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Portrait of a Jewish community in the deep South
A portrait of the Jews of Lexington, Mississippi
The House of David in the Land of Jesus by Robert Lewis Berman, 2007, ISBN 9781589807204, 354 pages
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO—When I recently attended 10-year-old Megan Spector’s performance as the title character in the Pickwick Players’ production of Annie, I had no idea that the musical would prove to be a portal transporting me not only to the fictional New York City of the 1930s, but also to the very real town of Lexington, Mississippi, of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Being raised in the tradition of the gracious South, Megan’s mother, Sheri Berman Spector, penned a short thank you note following publication of my review. She alerted me to watch for a separate package, which arrived a day or so later. In it was a copy of The House of David in the Land of Jesus, a historical work by her father, Robert Lewis Berman, telling of the Jewish community in the town of Lexington, Mississippi.
Not simply a historical work, the book was an introduction to the Southern Jewish way of life—in which being American, being Jewish and being Southern all are matters for great pride. Reading Berman’s book was akin to being conducted on a tour of the town deep in the Christian Bible Belt, with the guide pausing here and there to share some stories, some happy, others sad, about the tiny Jewish population.
There was one member of the Jewish community who was murdered in a robbery. Another member died in a gunfight that broke out with a fellow Jew over a commercial matter. On the plus side of the ledger, one Jewish family through a wholesale grocery business that evolved into SuperValu, a publicly traded company that owns Albertsons Markets, among others, provided numerous jobs throughout the region. Another Jewish resident got himself elected to the state Legislature. And Berman, himself, rose through the ranks of Rotary to the position of district governor.
Commencing in the 19th century, the Jewish community of Lexington eventually numbered 23 families, accounting for 89 persons at its peak. The overall population of Lexington is approximately 2,000 people.
By and large, the Jews were the merchants of this Mississippi Delta town, and like merchants throughout the United States, they filled the ranks of service clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, Masonic Lodges, and other civic improvement organizations of the town.
The Jews had reasons to be proud of these families’ accomplishments. Growing up, some of the children were the quarterbacks and head cheerleaders of the Lexington High School and they went on to distinguished college careers as fraternity presidents and student officers, before taking their places in the ranks of the professions and in business. As youngsters, they were confirmed in Temple Beth El’s simple sanctuary that calls to mind that of San Diego’s original Temple Beth Israel, now housed at Heritage Park. Both were Reform congregations, whose founders for the main part had come from Germany.
The author’s own father, Joseph Berman, had been a city councilmember in Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to Lexington, to be with his wife’s family in a time of need. He had helped to developed Atlanta into the major airport hub it is today. Other Lexington Jews became philanthropists, such as two brothers who donated a combined $10 million to Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and another Lexingtonian couple who provided funds for Ole Miss’s nondenominational chapel, on which the symbols of the Christian Cross and the Star of David are melded.
Painstakingly, Berman sketched the biographies of the Jews who lay buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lexington. But his portrait of the community did not stop there. He also interviewed Christians—as well as one Muslim family—about the nature of their relationships with the small Jewish community. White Christians were effusive in their praise of the Jews, corroborating Berman’s thesis that although there were different religions in Lexington, there really was only one majority community – so thoroughly integrated were the Jews with the majority white Protestants.
African-American residents of Lexington, who today comprise the majority of the town’s population, were more restrained in their praise—commenting that the Jews had treated them fairly in business, and had tried to be forces of moderation and reconciliation between blacks and whites during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. The words were positive, but anyone reading the interviews can sense that a gulf still needs to be bridged. Compared, however, to other areas of the South where Civil Rights conflict became violent, Lexington evidently was blessed with healthy measures of mutual trust and civility between blacks and whites.
The Muslim family interviewed were immigrants from Syria, who had formed friendships—even to the point of attending seders –with Jewish families. In fact, the Syrian-American gentleman in question suggested he might be the only transplanted Arab who has purchased Israel Bonds!
While business and social relations with the town’s Christian majority were cordial, the Jews resisted intermarriage, resulting over the generations in many, if not all, of those 23 families sharing some relatives.
Berman’s book is part civic history, part family genealogy, and it centers around the small edifice of Temple Beth El, which celebrated its centennial year in 2005. As of the book’s writing, the Jewish population of the town had dwindled to just 12 people, and realization was setting in that the community’s days were numbered. This was no one’s fault, the younger generations of Jews—including Berman’s own daughter, Sheri Spector and her family, had moved to larger cities such as San Diego, where there is greater economic opportunity.
Berman presented in the book a proposal that the historic temple building be moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where it might serve as a branch of the Los Angeles-based Museum of Tolerance, and perhaps as headquarters for the small Hillel chapter at the Ole Miss campus.
Last Yom Kippur, with only four members, the 104-year-old congregation announced it no longer had sufficient membership to enable regular services.
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I asked author Berman what reaction he had received from Ole Miss about his idea. He replied as follows:
“My wife Sondy and I have had two meetings with The Chancellor of The University of Mississippi, one this past November 2009, and the second one this past April 28th.
“The University has agreed to send us a Memorandum of Understanding that they will take possession of the Sanctuary’s contents, move them to Oxford where The University is located, insure and store them until funds can be obtained to build the Center and Museum of Tolerance. It has already agreed to locate it on a prominent site on University property and furnish on going maintenance. It has three years to raise the funds and begin the major project. We feel if The University takes possession, it will find the funds, as The Chancellor has stated he will personally be in charge of the fund raising.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World
The Jews Down Under~Roundup of Jewish news of Australia and New Zealand
- Garry Fabian
Compiled by Garry Fabian
Shechita outlawed in New Zealand
WELLINGTON, New Zealand , May 28 — he days of a Jewish mother making the traditional chicken soup for the family Friday night Shabbat dinner have come to an end for New Zealanders.
The country has issued a new Animal Welfare Commercial Slaughter Code which stipulates that commercially killed animals must be stunned before slaughter.making halachic slaughter impossible. The new regulations take immediate effect.
Whereas Kosher beef will be able to be imported into New Zealand, the country clearly stipulates that the importation of chickens is banned.
Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence of Sydney’s the Great Synagogue was formerly spiritual head of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation.
He told J-Wire: “There is a strong body of veterinary and animal welfare research which continues to confirm shechita as a humane method of slaughter of the highest standard. Further, the NZ government and its animal welfare advisors have failed to answer substantial challenges by scientists of international repute to the research and the premises on which its recent determination has been made. Significantly, tests have not been done on animals under shechita conditions.”
The National Animal Welfare Advisory Council (NAWAC) report on which the minister made his decision recognised “that the rights of the New Zealand Jewish community to practise its religious beliefs accorded by the Bill of Rights Act must be balanced against animal welfare considerations.”
It stated that there were alternatives short of an outright ban on shechita available to the government. Nonetheless, the minister has chosen the most extreme option.
“There is no balance. A deliberate decision has made to override the Jewish community’s acknowledged rights. This is a case of misplaced values, bad science and bad legislation.”
John Hellstrom, the Chairman of the National Animal Welfare Advisory committee said: “The Code sets out general principles and recommendations for best practice, ensuring animals do not suffer unreasonable or unnecessary pain and distress when they are killed.”
He told J-Wire that in New Zealand Halal meat for the Muslim community is not affected as the animal is stunned before being slaughtered.
There is no direct appeal against the decision which is effective with 24 hours of publication but there could be an opportunity for a judicial review to consider if the banning of Shecita is contrary to New Zealand’s Bill of Rights.
The chicken soup the Jewish community grew up with will be no more.at least in a Kosher format.
Hellstrom said: “Whereas there is no problem with importing beef there are a couple of diseases which concern New Zealand with respect to chickens. The only chicken meat which is imported has been processed but unprocessed chicken cannot be brought into the country.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry told J-Wire that “the MAF understands that commercial Shechita of poultry has not taken place in New Zealand for some years due to a lack of interest.”
“Not true” says Sydney-based Rabbi Moshe Gutnick who is the acting President of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia.
In his role as Rabbinic Administrator of the Kashrut Authority of Australia and New Zealand, Rabbi Gutnick has made many trips to the New Zealand city of Invercargill where the kosher ritual killing has taken place for years. He told J-Wire: “We send shochtim from Sydney on a regular basis and I can assure you that chickens were slaughtered as well as meat-producing animals. This decision by the New Zealand Government, one which has a Jewish Prime Minister, is outrageous. We will be doing everything possible to get this decision reversed. One of the last countries I would have expected to bring in this blatantly discriminatory action would have been New Zealand.”
David Zwartz chairs the Wellington Jewish Council. He told J-Wire: “I am sure there will objections made that this action is an
infringement of the right of Jews to observe their religion.”
For New Zealand’s Jewish mothers and grandmothers who have added love to the Shabbas chicken soup with its giblets there will be only a simple and far less involved procedure. Hellstrom added: “Kosher chicken soup cubes are obviously processed so there will be no problem importing them.”
Shechita is banned in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
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Ethics or religion in schools
SYDNEY, 3 June A debate over religious education has flared, as 10 public schools piloted an ethics course as an alternative to religious instruction this term.
Although many children remain enrolled in special religious education (SRE), some students opt out of these classes, wasting time at school because of no secular alternative.
While this program is still in a trial phase, Jewish SRE provider Academy BJE expressed concern.
Meanwhile, representatives of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) and Jewish schools met NSW Education Minister Verity Firth on Monday to discuss how students were recruited to the course. Firth was reportedly supportive of the community’s concerns.
“Our position is that Jewish children should not be targeted to leave their SRE classes and invited to opt for the ethics classes instead,”
JBD chief executive Vic Alhadeff said.
“The default position should be that Jewish children automatically attend SRE classes, and that the only way they can choose the ethics course is through their parents expressly requesting in writing that they do so.
Alhadeff said the JBD supports the initiative, but their “concern is to protect and preserve Jewish continuity”.
At the moment, it is only proposed to offer ethics lessons to students in years 5 and 6 who are not already receiving religious instruction.
Close to 50 per cent of Jewish children in NSW are taught by Academy BJE, according to principal Rachele Schonberger, but she is worried that with an ethics program, Jewish students might miss out on learning about their heritage.
“We want to give them access to the beauty of Judaism,” she said, adding that ethics classes have nothing to do with Jewish morals, history or spiritualism, which “distinguishes a Jewish child from one that is not”.
Lesley Holden, a parent at Crown Street Public School in Surry Hills and the pilot coordinator of the school’s community group, told The AJN she believes that students who are not involved in SRE classes are essentially discriminated against because they are not engaged in any meaningful activity at that time.
Holden said that, as a parent, she was “quite upset that there was no meaningful alternative for her son while scripture classes were on”.
In a media statement, Firth said ethics classes are intended to encourage students “to think and talk about things like fairness, honesty, care, rights and responsibilities”, rather than introduce a competing theology.
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Melbourne Communal Appeal abandoned
MELBOURNE, 3 June – Plans to introduce a Victorian Jewish communal appeal have been scrapped after research revealed the Melbourne community raises more money than Sydney.
New South Wales’ Jews have raised funds to support communal endeavours via the Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA) since the 1960s and for decades, discussions have raged whether its southern neighbour should follow suit.
A subcommittee of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) was set up in 2008 to explore the prospect of a communal appeal in Melbourne. In March this year, the subcommittee was given a push by some of the Jewish community’s most generous donors, led by David Smorgon.
Smorgon, together with other donors, funded the appointment of a top consultant to speak to 14 community organisations and confidentially go through their finances.
The results were announced to the JCCV and donors last week.
“Our funding is pretty much on par with NSW funding, therefore there doesn’t seem to be a great need to go to a communal appeal,” JCCV president John Searle said. “A communal appeal would not raise more money. In fact, it might raise less money.”
The example Searle gave was that if 10 organisations call the same household during the course of the year, they may raise $100 each, but if a Victorian communal appeal were to call, it is unlikely to receive a $1000 donation from the same family in one lump sum.
He admitted “there is a fair bit of surprise coming out of this report. It is shattering all the myths.”
Smorgon added he was pleased to “once and for all get the facts” and that the idea of a Victorian communal appeal can now be “put to bed”.
“The findings are reassuring because they show the strength of the community,” he said.
David Balkin, the president of the NSW JCA, indicated the report was not as clear-cut as it appears.
“They say they raise slightly more than we do, but Melbourne has a much richer community than us,” Balkin said. “They have far more billionaires than we do and they are a bigger community. We shouldn’t be the benchmark because if Melbourne had a JCA like we do, they would raise more than they do today.”
Despite answering one question, the report raised a number of other issues.
Smorgon said it revealed that the fundraising burden was not being spread around. “We’ve still got too many people who don’t give.”
Searle listed other concerns, including that the next generation of philanthropic families will not support the Jewish community like their parents and grandparents have done; the substantial fundraising struggle faced by smaller community organisations and schools; the future of bequests; and how to go about central communal planning without having control of the purse strings.
Balkin certainly agreed with Searle’s final point.
“I’ve seen the report and I can understand what they are saying, but they are missing out on the planning,” he said. “Donors give us money as an intermediary because they think we know what the needs of the community are better than they do.
Balkin also took a swipe at the JCCV, indicating Sydney’s equivalent, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, benefits from increased funding.
“Clearly the most obvious example of the consequence is our JBD, where we have a well-respected and well regarded advocate for our
community at the state level and Victoria has always struggled with that.”
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Celebrating eight decades
MELBOURNE, 3 June – With Temple Beth Israel (TBI) celebrating its 80th birthday this week, the emphasis is on youth, as the synagogue looks ahead to its next eight decades.
Australia’s oldest Progressive congregation works closely with the Leo Baeck Centre, Bentleigh Progressive Synagogue and Kedem, the three other congregations of the Victorian Union for Progressive Judaism (VUPJ), and is a major voice on the Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ), which serves Australia and the region.
But in an era of membership turnover across Melbourne’s synagogues, and a proliferation of smaller minyans, long-established shuls of all stripes are struggling to hold the interest of congregants and to draw in new worshippers.
Finding tomorrow’s leaders can be a challenge that begins in the cradle, and TBI’s leadership team are doing all they can to meet it.
Rabbi Fred Morgan, TBI’s senior rabbi, harked back to the recent Shavuot morning service, and a ceremony celebrating the beginning of the life cycle. “We invited all babies born over the previous year onto the bimah for a special blessing with parents and grandparents, under a tallit, which was a really beautiful event,” he said.
In the words of TBI’s executive manager Art Feinman, the shul’s Matan program, for children who do not attend a Jewish day school, is a place “to plant the seeds”.
Feinman also spoke about “leadership born out of music” through Junior Chazzanim, a group of teens who provide musical Shabbat accompaniment once a month.
Dana Bar-Zuri, shaliach of the VUPJ and Netzer in Victoria, said sending 21 Melbourne youngsters to Israel for a 10-month leadership program – among a total of 33 nationally – is a record.
Jerusalem-born Bar-Zuri arrived last year to take up her role. In coordination with Beck Fiala, Netzer’s Melbourne head, she runs educational programs, including twice-yearly seminars on Jewish and Zionist issues, and monthly forums on “hot topics” in Israel.
“I try to bring them a lot about the Progressive community in Israel and to see what type of issues they are dealing with, and compare it to the issues the Progressive community in Australia, especially in Melbourne, are dealing with,” Bar-Zuri said. Bar-Zuri said TBI teens relate strongly to projects promoting tikkun olam (repairing the world), and to topics such as the conversion bill
controversy and Women of the Wall.
“As Australian Jews, they feel very comfortable being Progressive, but they really want to know what it’s like to be a Progressive Jew in Israel – it’s very different.”
Max Gross, who has been appointed VUPJ youth activities coordinator, focuses on congregants and prospective congregants aged in their 20s, organising a mix of activities including Shabbat dinners, Zohar discussions and social outings. He also arranges youth groups to attend services.
With his Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) background – he was president of AUJS at La Trobe University – his aim is to attract and hold an age group that congregations find difficult to keep interested. Gross has identified “a very positive trend in
more young people coming to synagogue services”.
Feinman sees work with teens and 20-somethings a foundation for “a growing interest and real involvement in TBI in the 30s and 40s age group”.
On a more formal level, TBI president Brian Samuel believes in succession planning. He pointed to young professionals such as Dr Fairlie Wayne, David Marks and Ian Moore on the TBI board, as “people we can come back to in later years and ask to take a senior role”.
The addition of Rabbis Gersh Zylberman and Rayna Gevurtz to the team some years ago attracted young newcomers, and with the couple’s departure for the US, Samuel said a search committee will seek a new, young associate rabbi.
According to Rabbi Morgan, the cumulative focus on teens, young adults and people in their 30s and 40s is a sound basis for future development.
“We have exceptional leadership at present on the board, and teams working in social justice, pastoral care and hospital visiting,” he said.
He also noted that the TBI Friendship Club, a social group for those on the other side of middle age, is now 10 years old and welcoming
more than 100 people each session. “That’s the future too.”
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Jewish students brace for negative reactions
MELBOURNE, 3 June – An escalation in tension around Australian university campuses is expected in the wake of the Gaza flotilla raid.
Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) vice-chairman Glen Falkenstein warned students need to be aware and report any incidents.
“If a student is harassed or intimidated on campus, then we encourage them to contact their campus AUJS president or their equity and diversity unit.”
Falkenstein said there has already been increased activity on campus. Meanwhile, in order to best confront verbal attacks or hostile conversations over the flotilla crisis, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies has emailed background information and interview
transcripts to community members.
The information provides legal background, indicating that “Israel is currently in a state of armed conflict with Hamas” and as such
“maritime blockades are a legitimate and recognised measure under international law”.
Israel exercised its right to enforce its blockade after passengers on the boats provided “clear intention to violate the blockade by means
of written and oral statements”.
They have also circulated transcripts of official Knesset press responses from Israeli Government spokespeople.
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Marching on Melbourne’s streets
MELBOURNE, 3 June – Australian cities became marching grounds for anti-Israel rallies this week in response to the Israeli navy’s raid on a flotilla attempting to break the Gaza blockade.
In Melbourne, about 300 protesters waved placards and brandished Turkish flags in a peak-hour demonstration on Tuesday night.
Protesters were continually warned off tram tracks by police, with some waving posters bearing slogans such as “Boycott Israel” in front of tram windows.
The demonstration, organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), was flanked by a heavy police presence, and eventually ended at the State Library.
Rather than officially attending the protests, members of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) spent the evening calling
talk-back radio stations and writing to newspapers to counter the negative media in the wake of the crisis.
National chairperson Liam Getreu said the organisation decided they would “rather influence public opinion in the media than put up posters that will just be torn down”.
“We wanted to be smarter and rather arm people with facts,” he said
Warned by police not to attend the protest, Betar members in Sydney opted to hold a vigil outside the Turkish consulate in Woollahra. They held signs with slogans such as “Enough support for terrorism” and “Floating guerrillas not a peace flotilla”.
“It was a spontaneous protest in support of Israel and against the lies being spread about Israel’s intentions,” Betar’s Ari Briggs said.
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Cross-border kosher contention
SYDNEY, 7 June – New South Wales Kashrut Authority (KA) administrator Rabbi Moshe Gutnick has moved to diffuse tension between Melbourne and Sydney rabbis.
But he was adamant he does not regret distributing a letter, signed by 10 rabbis and the organisation’s director, in response to
rumours that Sydney’s Adass Israel community would not accept the kosher status of meat prepared in the Harbour City and plans to establish a breakaway authority.
Tensions flared after, for the second time in recent months, an ultra-Orthodox Sydney family employed a Melbourne caterer under the supervision of the Melbourne-based Adass Israel Rabbi Avrohom Zvi Beck.
An Adass representative told The AJN that the family did so because catering was cheaper than Sydney kosher catering.
He added that Sydney Adass Rabbi Shalom Silberberg had agreed to oversee the food once it arrived in Sydney, although it was to be prepared in Melbourne using Melbourne kosher meat.
This sparked a cross-border war of words, with the KA responding to unconfirmed claims that the Adass family had gone with a Melbourne caterer because it did not accept the kosher status of Sydney meat.
In addition, there was talk that Rabbi Silberberg was establishing another kosher authority.
However, the Adass rabbi refused to confirm whether that was the case, saying only that his work is in “its infant stages at the moment”.
“I really don’t want to comment,” he said. “I don’t know what is going on and I don’t want to embarrass anyone.”
Melbourne Adass Israel member Benjamin Koppel said he too was unaware if Sydney was establishing its own kosher authority.
“We only know what is in the public domain,” he said, adding that while the communities carry the same name in both states, they are autonomous.
However, this did not stop the KA examining in explicit detail the different shechitah (ritual slaughter) practices used in Sydney and in Melbourne in its letter. They quoted a review prepared by an American rabbi into a Melbourne’s kosher meat practices.
“The OU [Orthodox Union] shechts at a maximum of 750 birds an hour per shochet, some require as low as 600 birds an hour. In Melbourne, the rabbi found the amount being shechted was 1000 per hour!”
It said the rabbi also found chickens in Melbourne are being soaked in water at the wrong temperature.
But Koppel, who saw the rabbi’s report, said “he was very satisfied with all he saw”.
“He suggested a small number of enhancements and cost-saving measures.”
While Eric Silver from Melbourne’s Solomons Kosher Butchers – the only producer of kosher chickens in Victoria – would not comment
publicly -, other rabbis said the KA letter misquoted the report.
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Klugwant, the head of the Organisation of Rabbis in Australasia kashrut subcommittee, said he found the situation “most disturbing and extremely disappointing”.
But Rabbi Gutnick said the KA’s letter had been taken completely out of context. “There should be absolutely no tension between Melbourne and Sydney,” he said. “The letter was crystal clear that we hold the Melbourne rabbinate in the
utmost respect. On behalf of the rabbinate of the KA, we eat the Melbourne shechitah when in Melbourne.
“The sole purpose of the letter was to point out that those who are trying to suggest that the Sydney chickens are inferior are simply incorrect.”
He called those who have misinterpreted the KA’s letter “mischievous and misrepresenting our position”.
“Perhaps those whose agenda it is to try and say that our shechitah is not good are trying to deflect from the essential issue by fomenting discord between Melbourne and Sydney.”
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Fabian is Australia bureau chief of San Diego Jewish World
San Diego’s historic places: Admiral Baker Field, Part 2
Admiral Wilder Baker
By Donald H. Harrison
Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Who was the Admiral Baker for whom Admiral Baker Field with its two golf courses is named?
His son, also named Wilder Baker, replied in a telephone interview from Darien, Connecticut, that in the U.S. Navy, Admiral Baker perhaps was best known as the chief of staff to Admiral John S. McCain, whose grandson, John McCain, became a senator from Arizona and the 2008 presidential candidate.
Admiral Baker (1890-1975) was among the senior officers in the theatre at the time of Japan’s surrender in 1945, having led a task force that attacked the Japanese home islands. Before the U.S. entered World War II, he helped develop tactics for anti-submarine warfare while escorting American convoys to England and dodging German U-boats.
For all the wartime action he saw, it was Admiral Baker’s peacetime role as the commandant of the 11th Naval District that resulted in his name being immortalized at the recreational facility located on what had been a portion of Camp Elliott.
When the postwar decision was made to designate a portion of Camp Elliott as Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and to decommission other portions of the camp, Baker urged that a portion of the facility be set aside for the recreational needs of active duty military personnel and retired members of the Armed Services. Over the ensuing decades, Miramar was turned over to the Navy, and then back to the Marine Corps, while decommissioned portions of the huge base eventually were developed into the community of Tierrasanta and left in its natural state as Mission Trails Regional Park.
Baker retired with the rank of vice admiral in 1952 and joined the senior management of Solar Aircraft for several years thereafter. He became active in civic affairs, particularly as president of the San Diego Symphony, and as a board member of the Community Chest (United Way), Scripps Clinic and YMCA, said his son, an East Coast advertising executive who today owns an advertising consultant agency.
The admiral loved to play golf “but you didn’t want to emulate it,” his son chuckled. “He was a hacker. … One of the stories was how he once shot a hole in one—it was up at Mare Island (in the San Francisco Bay area) off a water tower.”
Whether the story of the fortuitous ricochet shot is true or apocryphal, it is an accurate description of the admiral’s game, said his son.
The admiral and his son played together several times on the golf course bearing his name. “It started as a nine-hole course, mostly dirt,” the son remembered. It grew to 18 holes and then a second course was put in.
Another of the family’s favorite stories about the admiral concerned a time they went up to a favorite vacation spot on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. “He was still on active duty, and people knew he was an admiral,” his son said. So you can imagine the townspeople’s amusement the day that “he went down to get in the canoe, but let the boat slip away from the dock (with his foot still on it) and fell into the lake.”
The townspeople used to tease the admiral about the incident, but he took it in good grace. In the military, subordinates used to say that he was “direct” in his approach to people and fair, his son said.
When the admiral lived at North Island Naval Air Station, he liked to shoot skeet and often tried to get his son to come along. But the younger Wilder Baker wasn’t fond of that sport, “so he would get hold of a friend of mine who lived in Coronado, Nick Reynolds,” who became famous as a member of the Kingston Trio.
Wilder Baker said he was pleased to learn that Admiral Baker Field now is cooperating with the Audubon Society for the protection of wildlife species and the ecology.
Coincidentally, he said, his own wife, Vanda, is on the committee of the Weebern Country Club in Darien working to have that facility likewise certified in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. This article appeared previously on examiner.com
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