A Remembrance by Emanuel Geltman
Rader, Jack
Our colleague Jack Rader died on September 24 at the age of 73. Beyond our association as editors of Dissent, there is the pain of losing a close personal friend with whom I shared good times...
...At ORT, where he became assistant director, he wrote a brief history of the organization, used his vast knowledge of world affairs, became particularly interested in Israel, and, in ORT's training schools here and abroad, took students beyond the "primitive" industrial skills first envisioned by the founders to education reflecting modern needs...
...Jack, of course, was in the socialist alcove...
...He never spoke of it afterward, but it was there, always in the back of his mind...
...We offer condolences to his family...
...He was dealt a brutal blow by the death of an adolescent son from leukemia...
...Raised on the Lower East Side (before it became the "East Village"), Jack attended Seward Park High School and went on to City College in the days when the "alcoves" along the cafeteria were alive with debate among political groups—socialists versus communists, other groups...
...Sustained by the love and devotion of his wife Susan, Jack carried on as well as he could—letters in place of conversation—and his interest in world affairs (and Dissent) never flagged...
...They lived in what was essentially a black neighborhood and both worked with neighbors and co-workers in forming a socialpolitical club, which, when I visited it, was a lively mix of political and social engagement...
...Returning to New York, Jack went to work for American ORT (an organization founded in Czarist Russia to teach Jews industrial skills...
...We also joined, and left, the same political organizations—notably the Workers party, later the Independent Socialist League (the "Shachtman group"), which played an important role in our lives...
...Back home he had hoped to pursue academic studies on the Far East but instead moved for a time to Philadelphia with his wife Margie (who died several years ago), and worked in a shipyard...
...Bedeviled all his life by bouts of illness, he bounced back each time with zest...
...Jack served in the Navy during World War II, stationed for a time in Japan, which led to a particular interest in the Far East (and sushi...
...How he loved the dinners we had with our late comrade, Stanley Plastrik (without whom Dissent could not have been launched), both of them extraordinarily well informed about politics and world affairs...
...Then a foul blow...
...then the end...
...The decibel count was high, the arguments were intense and educational...
...138 • DISSENT...
...At editorial board meetings, he couldn't speak, but he could listen, and write notes...
...He hung in for about three weeks...
...In recent years, he was again laid low by a series of illnesses that left him with impaired speech...
...Beyond our association as editors of Dissent, there is the pain of losing a close personal friend with whom I shared good times and bad...
...For myself, I share the grief of Susan and his family...
...With them, I mourn the loss of a companion with whom I shared so much over some 50 years...
...Having overcome strokes and operations, in early November he was hit by a truck while crossing a street near his home...
Vol. 38 • January 1991 • No. 1
