Today is Rosh Chodesh Shvat- the new moon of the month of Shvat.  An appropriate day to remember Ted Mann, another COVID-19 victim.

Except Theodore (Ted) Mann was 92 when he died.  Which could mean his COVID-19 was way less than pleasant.  But, except for the way he died, he managed to have a pretty full life.

Why would I say that?

Well, let’s start by remembering that Mann managed to escape from Czechoslovakia.  Before the Nazis made life miserable for Jews there.

After graduating from law school (1952), he cofounded a law firm in Philly. (He retired as a lawyer in 2007.)  There he was a commercial litigation specialist- and, yet, he still provided pro bono assistance for ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) cases and American Jewish Congress issues.

Among his early cases were efforts to change the blue laws in America (1960) and to stop bible readings in public schools (1963).

The Blue Laws (which I had never experienced until I moved to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the early 1970s) prohibited stores from opening on Sundays.  The problem was that Jews were already shut down on Shabat (Saturday) and wanted to get customers to buy their wares on Sunday- and whose customers were more than willing to do so.  But the predominantly Christian states disallowed that practice.  So, Mann litigated the case, Brownfield v. Braun, in front of the US Supreme Court.  In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion holding against Mann’s position, claiming that Blue Laws did not violate the Free Exercise of Religion Clause in the Constitution.  (They claimed the Sunday closing was secular in nature.  Yeah, right.  Thankfully, a dozen years later saw the elimination of Blue Laws across the USA- with the exception of Pennsylvania, which still has the law on its books – but unenforced. So much for that vaunted liberal Warren court.)

The 1963 case, Abingdon School District v Schempp, involved a different [yet similar in scope] provision. Pennsylvania law required the reading of the bible to start each school day.   This case got combined with one from Maryland with similar provisions, when it was litigated at the Supreme Court level.  This case was decided 8-1, with Justice Clark authoring the majority opinion averring that this violated the First Amendment. (That hasn’t stopped a bunch of folks from continuing the practice.  Hello, West Virginia...)

Ted Mann also advocated for the two state solution (one for Jews, one for Arabs) for Israel and Palestine, as part of his efforts advocating with Jewish organizations.  (Among his efforts was service as the President of the American Jewish Congress in 1987; that year the group met with Prime Minister Yitchak Shamir, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Jordan’s King Hussein. He, like I, was never a fan of Benyamin Netanyahu. He also served as Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.)

But, the real reason I knew about Ted Mann was his efforts to cofound a major charity- Mazon.  (Mazon means food in Hebrew: the sobriquet of Mazon is “A Jewish Response to Hunger”.  It is among my go-to tzd’akot, charitable organizations.)  The organization has been around for 35 years now, working to eliminate hunger in America, Israel, and Palestine- and to ensure that US Veterans, who now form a major constituent among the homeless, get ample care and food.  Mann recognized this organization could be a vital component of the Jewish commandment for Tikun Olam- repairing the world, making it a better place- bit by bit each and every day.

Mann wrote a book, using a quotation from Rabbi Hillel (If I Am Only for Myself),  that described the Jewish pursuit of social justice from 1944 to 2012.

I just made yet another donation to Mazon in his honor. May his memory be a blessing for us all.

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