Heman Lodinger Memorial Lecture at the Mighty Eighth
The Herman Lodinger Memorial Lecture is on October 28th at 6:30 pm at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. Lee Pollock is an award-winning historian, writer and public speaker on the life of Sir Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill is an icon of modern history. From his first election to Parliament in 1900 to his retirement as Prime Minister in 1955, he towered over the world stage, influencing almost every significant issue of his time.
The arc of Churchill’s career intersects with the most significant events in the history of the Jewish people: Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, the rise of Hitler and the catastrophe of the Holocaust, followed by the creation of the State of Israel and the lasting divisions that affect the Middle East today.
Churchill’s relationship with the Jewish people helped to define his own remarkable life and career and his decisions dramatically impacted their fate. From his earliest encounter with the Jews of England in the waning years of the Victorian age to the re-making of the Middle East in the aftermath of the Great War and the tragic and turbulent years from 1933 to 1945, Jewish issues and concerns frequently became his own. Yet even though Churchill’s admiration for the Jews and support for Zionism are well known, some contemporary critics nevertheless claim that his deeds fell short of his words at the most critical time in Jewish history.
About the Presenter
Lee Pollock was formerly Executive Director and remains a Trustee and Advisor to The International Churchill Society, a member organization with offices in Washington and London. He assumed his Executive Director role in October 2010 after serving as a Member of the Society’s Board of Trustees since 2009. A native of Montreal, Canada, Lee graduated from McGill University in 1971 with Honors in Political Science and Economics and subsequently received a master’s degree from the University of Chicago.
Lee has spoken about the life and times of Winston Churchill to audiences throughout the United States, Canada and Britain. Among his subjects have been Winston Churchill: Secrets of Leadership; Franklin and Winston: The Friendship that Saved the World; At Churchill’s Table: Dining and Diplomacy with History’s Greatest Leaders; Churchill and the Jews: Zionism, Holocaust and the Making of the Middle East; and Churchill and the Civil War. Lee and his wife, Jill Gosden, split their time between Chicago, Sun Valley and Palm Beach. They have two adult children.
About the Heman Lodinger Endowment Fund
This lecture is made possible through the Herman Lodinger Endowment Fund, established for the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force by a gift from Mr. Lodinger’s daughter and son-in-law, Holly and Paul Mandelkern. Second Lieutenant Herman Lodinger was a lead bombardier on a B-24 heavy bomber assigned to the 389th Bomb Group. His plane was shot down in July 1944, and he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner until his 1945 liberation.