Talk:Victor Herman

Communist sympathies?

The article claims that 300 Ford auto workers who had "Communist sympathies" were sent to the Soviet Union under the deal that Ford made. Tim Tzouliadis' 2008 book "The Forsaken" says otherwise -- that these were actually just arbitrary Ford workers from the River Rouge plant, who knew that another round of layoffs was coming and accepted relocation due to a combination of seemingly generous pay and seemingly secure work during the Great Depression. There were certainly many Americans (thousands) who went to the Soviet Union to "build socialism." However, given Ford's known hatred of Communism, it seems highly unlikely that he employed 300 workers known to have Communist sympathies in the first place. Jsamans (talk) 19:14, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

Sounds reasonable, I can't find a source to back up the claim in the article. Modified it to this, as his father did express socialist leanings and a desire to help the Soviets, in Herman's memoir. With that said, it seems likely most of those who went to Russia were equally pro-socialist in outlook as the job required significant sacrifices that a paycheck alone would probably not have been enough for most people. -- GreenC 14:44, 19 August 2020 (UTC)

Jewish Ukrainian

The sources do not name any places. And a Ukrainian Jew born in Kasrilevka, could have lived, say, in Warsaw or in Kishinev, which was also part of Russian Empire (and the Pale of settlement). Therefore we should not do any guesswork, despite looking plausible. --Altenmann >talk 00:09, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

P.S. If examples you want, me have them for you: Mordechai Rokeach from Belzer dynasty (you know where בעלזא is, right? hint: the first letter is U) had eventually become Bilgorayer Rav. (Of course, this example is a bit wobbly, because Ukrainian Jews and Polish Jews will never agree whose בעלזא is, but with due assiduousness I can find you a suitable Jew from Tshopovitsh (or gotcha! from Tshan: Art Shryer)). --Altenmann >talk 00:09, 28 March 2025 (UTC)

Guessing what the NYT source is trying to say. That he was Jewish, and emigrated from the territory of Ukraine. Or he was of Jewish-Ukranian ethnic background, and could have emigrated from anywhere ie. France. Many Jews in eastern Europe moved to western Europe before WWII to escape the pogroms, and many kept going to the USA and elsewhere. The NYT source is ambiguous. Until we have some clarity, I don't thing we should include anything about Russian Empire because it may be implying something that is not accurate, and not mentioned in the source. -- GreenC 01:49, 28 March 2025 (UTC)