“Eclectic” perhaps most aptly describes Harvey Rachlin’s oeuvre. Having launched his writing career at age 26 with a bestseller, “The Songwriter’s Handbook,” Rachlin soon proceeded to the world of finance – “The Money Encyclopedia” – then advanced to history – “The Kennedys: A Chronological History” – took a detour into law enforcement – “The Making of a Cop” and “The Making of a Detective” – and finally returned to history with “Lucy’s Bones, Sacred Stones, and Einstein’s Brain: Marvelous Tales of Historical Artifacts,” which became the basis of the History Channel’s hit series “History’s Lost and Found.”
In addition to writing, Rachlin, a frequent contributor to The Jewish Press, runs the Music Management program at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, and collaborates on a weekly syndicated Jewish cartoon, “The Menschkins.”
The Jewish Press: In a recent front-page essay for The Jewish Press, “The Mystery of Golda’s Golden Gems,” you discussed Golda Meir’s most famous/notorious statements: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us” and “[W]e will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.” You pointed out that the origin of these statements is shrouded in mystery, with no one seemingly able to document when and where she said them. What made you think of researching this topic?
Rachlin: It came together in a kind of haphazard way. I was doing research for an article on the best Jewish quotes of the 20th century and I just couldn’t find any validation for the first of these two quotes.
At first I thought it was my fault – my poor research – and I was ready to give up and move on to something else, but then Jason Maoz, the senior editor of The Jewish Press, told me of the difficulties he had experienced in trying finding attribution for the second quote, and that kind of put a seal to the deal.
If Golda Meir didn’t make these statements, where do they come from?
That’s a great question. I’m not saying she didn’t say them. She might have said similar things and somehow over the years they evolved into the statements that have become so familiar to all of us. But what intrigues me is that these are two iconic statements of modern Jewish history – so why is it that there is no definitive source for either of them? It’s just perplexing.
As an expert on the music industry, how do you explain the historically disproportionate number of Jewish composers in this business?
I think the melodies in our religious services have a haunting sound to them that just permeates your guts and gets into your soul. If you have any musical inclination, I think they inspire you to compose. There have been documentaries showing that Broadway melodies by Jewish composers are actually similar to some of the standard liturgy of services.
The other thing is that Jews have a tradition of being compassionate and soul searching, and music is a very expressive form of one’s soul. They say music can be a window to the soul, so it seems it would be a natural offshoot for Jews to want to be expressive in terms of composing music.
In the 1990s you published The Making of a Cop and The Making of a Detective. What was it like for you as a Jew hanging around law enforcement institutions, which are not exactly bastions of Jewish culture?
That’s a good question. There were a couple of recruits I met who were Jewish, but mostly it was gentiles. And the whole fraternity or network of being a police officer is not very Jewish.