Richard Polirer
Richard Polirer holds an MA in History and has served as an Adjunct Instructor of History at various colleges over his many years “up north.” A Florida resident for three decades, he lectures to community groups on American and European History. He is an ordained pulpit Rabbi, and he speaks on many topics of Jewish interest as well. He has a wide-flung landscape of knowledge and expertise across the curriculum.
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GI Jews: How Jews Served In WWII And Changed The US
Learn how the American Jews were changed by their service in WWII, and how they changed America when they returned home. From “Eating Ham for Uncle Sam”, to the development of the “Three Fighting Faiths”, and the rocky road for recognition as Jews and Americans during the war and thereafter, see the changes that accompanied Jews’ WWII military service.
America’s Greatest Trials: The Rosenberg Communist Spy Trial
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the specter of worldwide Russian Communist influence and espionage once again, as it had after WWI, hung heavily over the populace of the United States. McCarthyism was in the air, and Americans were clearly were scared of the renewed Red Menace. Enter the Rosenbergs, Julius and Ethel. Were these very ordinary looking parents of two young boys really evil Communist spies in disguise? And if so, what was to be done to root out the evil in our midst? Learn how the Rosenberg case and its spectacular spy trial influenced a generation — or more — of Americans, and set the tone for our future interaction with Russia, previously our WWII “valiant ally” turned worldwide menace.
How New York City “Became Jewish”
Did you know that New York City was once nearly 40% Jewish? Learn how the trickle of Jewish migration to the “Golden Land” became a flood, and how the “Greenhorns” became Americans and influenced the growth of America’s greatest city– and were influenced by it, as well.
White Bread: The Food That Made Americans Great
Bread is the staff of life, they say. Did you know that it was also a cultural, gastronomic, and political revolution by the early 20th Century. If you grew up on Wonder Bread or just heard its commercials on TV or radio, you will marvel at the phenomenon of food production that actually helped “make” America!
Going Bananas: How We Begat the “Banana Republics”
Learn how the Yellow Fruit came to our shores and conquered a hemisphere. Behold the sprawling saga of the not-so-humble Gros Michel, as it was called, and the strange cast of characters– like Sam the Banana Man and United Fruit — whose edgy exploits spawned the strange phenomenon known as the Banana Republics, shaping our hemisphere’s politics and economies for decades, to this very day.