Essays & reflections

At the time of the mass migration of Czechs to America, according to the Austrian statistics, 960 Catholics, 22 Protestants, 16 Jews and less than 1 percent of agnostics lived in Bohemia, among 1,000 inhabitants. After they came to America, the statistics looked quite differently. Take for example the Czech inhabitants in New York, where one would find, according to Tomáš Čapek, 254 Catholics, 110 Protestants, 16 Jews and 620 agnostics among 1000 inhabitants. These numbers would correspond with the statistics from 1918, according to which the Catholic Benevolent associations had 32,908 members, as compared to 123,183 members in Non-Catholic associations.

It is indisputable that American Czechs become de-Catholicized. The universally respected Catholic historian, Father František Dvorník characterized the situation with the following words: “Most Czech immigrants brought with them from their native country antipathy towards the Catholic Church, which spread over Bohemia in the second half of the 19th century and many of them had given preference to Freethinking which ended up in apathy and anti-Clerical stand.”

Tomáš G. Masaryk expressed the substantiality of the religious liberalism among the American Czechs when he wrote: ”It’s the freethinking from Bohemia that was brought on to the free American soil; a more radical freethinking from the fifties and the sixties, to be sure. It’s the freethinking of people who witnessed the revolutionary year of 1848, not only Havlíček’s freethinking, but also that of Dr. Rieger and also the freethinking of the younger Sabina, Sladkovský, Barák…. Whereas the freethinking in Bohemia ceased with liberal phrases and indolent Catholicism, the Freethinkers in America realized their strong beliefs more consistently and practically, they left the Catholicism...”

The question is how the de-Catholicization and liberalism came about? The argument that it was the result of the subversive conditions of American environment would hardly withstand, since it would contradict the experiences with Poles, who kept their Catholicism after they came to America, entirely without prejudice. The same could be said about the Slovaks. Maintaining that Czechs stayed away from churches for thrift reasons, so that they would not have to financially support the priests, because that would not explain why they would support the non-Catholic Dominations. To explain it by materialistic thinking of Czech settlers, as Habenicht attempted to do, is absolutely unacceptable. Putting the blame on the offensive behavior of some priests would be difficult to believe, considering that most Catholic priests in America were admired for their tolerance and sacrifice. The answer must be sought in the Czech past and, to some degree, in the character of the Czech people. Hardly any nation devoted greater attention to the religious question than Czechs and hardly any nation suffered more for religious reasons than Czechs. Nobody can argue with this solid reality, irrespective if it concerns a believer or an agnostic.

Bohemian history is woven with thoughts of spiritual thinkers and efforts of individuals and groups concerning introduction and maintenance of moral values, as well as with the reform of the eye-witnessed transgressions, perpetrated by some representatives of the organized Church.

Many of the thoughts and opinions of Czech thinkers and philosophers had influenced, for centuries, the development of the Western theology and philosophy and European civilization, in general. Bohemian spiritual thinkers were willing to stand behind their opinions fearlessly, regardless of the consequences. The martyr death of St. Wenceslaus, Jan Hus and Jan Nepomucký, to date is being recalled, symbolically, as examples of courage against wrongdoing and lawlessness, even at the price of one’s life. Their followers were willing to defend the views of their teachers and many of them lost their lives on the battlefield by the enemy’s army. The heroism of the half-blind Czech warrior Jan Žižka of Trocnov and the tragic departure of Jan Amos Komenský to exile, commanded respect and imagination of every Czech, regardless of his religious feelings.

It was the religious reasons that led to the greatest tragedy of the Czech Nation, the defeat of the Bohemian Estates at the Battle of White Mountain. The cruel Habsburgs sought revenge upon the rebelling Czechs by setting up the humiliating public execution of the highest representatives of the Bohemian aristocracy, to frighten the Czech Nation from any further resistance. The execution of twenty seven Bohemian leaders on the Old Town Square was the beginning of the reign of terror that the victorious Habsburgs brought to Kingdom of Bohemia.

The victorious Habsburgs were determined to forever put an end to the ’Czech heretics’ through public executions, imprisonment, torture, confiscation of property and forced exile. The freedom of territorial rights was infringed by enforced centralization, Czech nationality was extirpated by Germanization, and the last remains of Czech Reformation were rooted out by the governing Catholic absolutism. The population had been reduced to half, one third of the farmland was left untilled and the whole country became impoverished. The Habsburg rulers would rather have their lands desolate than inhabited by ‘heretics.’

This disastrous situation, lasting for three centuries, naturally, left in the minds of the Czech people deep wounds, which could not be so easily healed. It was not just a question of a religious conviction but a matter of national humiliation, in which the Catholic Church willfully took part. In this sense, de-Catholization of Czech immigrants in America, liberalism, ending in anti-Clericalism, was a natural outcome of the historical development. The idealized Czech leaders of the freethinking in America, were, most certainly, not obsessed with the notion of some vendetta against the Catholic Church, but rather, they were motivated by a genuine personal ideological conviction and desire to bring a better life and fate to the Czech people.

The first Czech spokesman of religious liberalism and rationalism in America was, without doubt, Vojta Náprstek, who, since 1852, was publishing in Milwaukee the weekly Milwaukie Flug-Blätter. He edited his paper in the anti-Clerical mode, and even though it was written in German, Czechs read it ‘voraciously.’ Náprstek was in full agreement with Havlíček’s views, in that difference that in America he could dare write more openly than Havlíček could. The periodical Slavie, published by Karel Jonáš, to a degree, continued in this tradition.

To quiet down the ultraliberal readers, Jonáš, together with Alois Kareš, decided to start a new periodical, Pokrok. Under the editorship of Josef Pastor, stiff-necked collisions occurred between him and equally unyielding priests, who, from the pulpit, admonished their faithful against the Freethinking atheists. When J. B. Zdrůbek replaced him, as an editor, the situation put an edge on. As a result of the editor’s clumsiness, it went as far as a law suit with pastor Vilém Řepiš, which left deep footprints in the ranks of the Czech community.

The Czech American Freethinkers began organizing around 1870. On October 5 of that year, the editor F. B. Zdrůbek wrote in his Pokrok periodical: “All zealots for the truth and the freedom in the entire America, on the day of the crushing fall of our freedom, even of the civil one, on November 8, gather to form the ‘Jednota’ (Union), which would give boost to our Nation, to get its former freedom and honor back!” According to Klácel, the origin of ‘Jednota’ dates to April 21, 1870, when he issued his proclamation in Slowan Amerikánský. “That was the first regiment, or the first revived root above the ground.” The Union was indeed established in 1870 and on the given day, November 8, on the memorable day of the tragic defeat of the Czechs at the Battle of White Mountain, 23 communities with 250 members, joined.

The followers of rationalism gained productive help when in 1875, Zdrůbek, together with August Geringer, in Chicago, founded the daily Svornost. Two years hence, Šnajdr’s periodical, Dennice Novověku, joined in similar spirit. During the latter’s foundation, the publisher Kořízek informed the readers: “Together with Mr. Šnajdr, I have established Dennice Novověku, the organ of radicals and the Freethinkers, in general, with firm belief that I have done my duty, as dictated to me by my conscience.” Václav Šnajdr remained active as editor of Dennice Novověku, continuously, for thirty three years, while Zdrůbek worked a total of thirty five years, as editor of Svornost. The readership and the influence of both papers transcended, by far, the border of the city. Until the ČSPS established its own newsletter, Dennice Novověku had been their official organ, as well as the organ of the women’s benevolent society, ‘Jednota Českých Dam’ (Union of Bohemian Women), which, no doubt, added to a greater influence of the Freethinkers.

If one takes into account the number of Czech papers that supported the Freethinkers’ movement, starting with Náprstek’s Milwaukie Flug-Blätter up to Pastor’s Pokrok, Klácel’s Hlas Jednoty Svobodomyslných, Čapek’s Díblik, Zdrůbek’s Svornost, Bittner’s Šotek and Iška’s Vesmír, their influence must have been phenomenal. Besides the periodicals, book and pamphlet literature also had contributed for the promotion of the Freethinker’s movement, e.g., humorist books about the creation of the world, Ingersoll’s lectures, Paine’s Věk rozumu (Rise of Reason), Strauss’ Život Ježíšův (The Life of Jesus), amusing biography of St. Anthony, Voltaire’s works, as well as those of Buechner, Hassaurek’s and Volney’s.

It is a great pity the conflict between the Freethinkers, on one hand, and the Catholics, on the other, had gone so far. It was unnecessary. The situation went so far that the entire Czech American community was polarized into two camps and the majority of the Czech inhabitants had to choose for this or that side. Who knows how far these confrontations would had gone, if the First World War had not appeared on the horizon, and with it the opportunity for the liberation of the Czech Nation from the Austrian yoke. The situation led to the point that the Freethinkers and the Catholics finally forgave each other, shook hands and, with joint determination, side by side, collaborated in the liberation of the Czech Nation.

In conclusion, let me say a few words about the character of Czech people. I categorically reject the stereotypic view, coming mainly from ill-disposed people, that Czechs are godless men, anti-Clerical, ”decayed to bone by impiety,” people without emotions and without feeling. Czechs are just the opposite! Majority of Czechs are idealistic people, meditative, and deeply religiously rooted, even though they may not attend a church. Longing for freedom, for justice, for truth, humanity and morale are the genuine roots of the Czech character and indivisible part of the Czech historical traditions, which, for centuries, had kept the Czech Nation alive and, thanks to these traditions, the Czech Nation lives on…!

When one reads the newspapers today, one gets a distinct feeling that Czechoslovakia specializes mainly in the production of tennis players and hockey players and on occasion, film directors.

This is merely an illusion. Although sports events may bring spectacular headlines, science and technology in Czechoslovakia clearly have an edge over any other sector and have an old tradition, as well. Apart from music, which has enjoyed world reputation, Czechoslovakia can look back with some pride upon a tradition of achievement in the field of science and scholarship.

Although the word Czechoslovakia appeared on the map for the first time less than 70 years ago, the roots of Czechoslovak science go back far into the Middle Ages. This is particularly true about the western part of the country which was then known as the Kingdom of Bohemia. In my remarks today, I would like to talk about this historic tradition with emphasis on the international aspects and the true international character of Czechoslovak science.

One of the chief characteristics of science is its universality. Just as with music, whose universal nature has made Czechoslovakia famous throughout the world, similarly, the universality of science accounts for at least some of the accomplishments Czechs and Slovaks have made in this area in spite of all obstacles they have encountered throughout their turbulent history.

During the Middle Ages, the Czech people were absorbed in moral and ethical problems which manifested themselves in intensive, religious beliefs which, as we all know, became a tragic issue for the Czech nation in the years to come.

Astronomy and astrology, which are closely related, best suited the inquisitive Czech mind, inclined to religious speculations and from here, there was only a short step to alchemy. On the other hand, the practical Czech minds were preoccupied with medicine, agriculture, and applied natural sciences as far as they had to depend on them.

During the 16th century, the Czech Lands were a true paradise for alchemists. Prague had become a Mecca for devoted students who wanted to perfect their art in this ancient pseudo-science. Alchemy had its followers and admirers in all sectors of society and found its powerful benefactor and protector in the person of the learned Emperor and King of Bohemia Rudolph II.

Prague, in those times, hosted such eminent personalities as Mattioli, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Keppler and many others. Among the native learned men of special prominence was held Thaddeus Hajek of Hajek, who gained his fame by an observation of a new star in 1572, whose position he accurately determined by following its passage through the meridian. Among natural scientists special mention should be made of Adam Zalužanský of Zalužany (1555-1613), an eminent physician and botanist who devised a new classification system of plants which surpassed that of his contemporaries.

In medicine, the year 1600 marks a new epoch, based on the first human biopsy performed in Prague by Prof. Jan Jesenius (1566-1621) of Slovak descent, who later was executed with other members of the patriotic Czech nobility following the Battle of the White Mountain.

Among technical fields two areas deserve mentioning, namely mining and metallurgy, which were well suited for a country rich in gold, silver and other precious metals. The famous silver mines in Kutná Hora and later the Jáchymov mines had become renowned for their silver pieces coined there. In fact, the American word “dollar” has its origin in the famous Jáchymov “thaler”. The high standards of mining and metallurgy are reflected in the work of Georgius Agricola — the author of the brilliant De re metallica, who held the position of city physician in Jáchymov. You may not know that the English translation of this work was made by Pres. Hoover, who himself was a mining engineer of some note.

Early Bohemians pioneered new scientific approaches to agriculture, brewing, and aquaculture, which were the envy of other nations, typified by a German saying “Schäfereien, Bräuhauser und Teich machen die böhmischen Herren reich”. One of the scientists who made significant contributions to the improvement of beer production was none other than the already mentioned Thadeus Hájek of Hájek, showing that no sharp demarcation existed between various disciplines and moreover, that science was closely tied with the production technology.

One event which significantly contributed to laying a foundation for scientific tradition in Czech Lands was the establishment of the Charles University in Prague in 1348 — a century and a half before Columbus discovered America. I shall return to this point later.

If it were not for the Thirty Years War catastrophe and the era of Dark Ages that followed, the Czech Lands would probably have become one of the main international centers for science and technology.

Following the defeat of the Bohemian Estates at White Mountain in 1620, scientific life in Czech Lands stagnated. In spite of the unfavorable conditions, there appeared, nevertheless, several outstanding individuals such as Marcus Marci or Prokop Diviš, an inventor of the lightning rod. Many a promising scientist or scholar left his native land of necessity to seek better opportunities in other countries.

Among the first scientists and scholars of stature exiled from the Czech Lands was John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), the last Bishop of Czech Brethren and Teacher of Nations. Comenius is primarily regarded as the pioneer of modern educational theories and methods. His lifelong endeavor centered actually not so much in pedagogical realms as in pansophy — the principle of unification of all scientific, philosophical, political, and religious knowledge in all embracing integrated system.

In his Via lucia, he proposed the establishment of a universal, free public school system, using universal textbooks which would not restrict the curriculum to secular subjects, but would train pupils for a life conscious of spiritual ends. Furthermore, he envisaged an international goal; hence, textbooks must be written in an universal language in which every word would have a definite meaning. Ultimately, his scheme was to attain not only a unified education but also secure universal peace.

It is interesting to note that while Comenius adhered in his Physics to then current ideas and rejects for example the system of Copernicus, or is interested in perpetum mobile, he has also formulated what we call today the first theorem of thermodynamics.

The prominence of this man was so far reaching that he was offered the Presidency of Harvard College, as documented in Cotton Mather’s Ecclesiastical History of New England, published in 1702 under the title Magnalia Christi Americana. Specific quote is as follows:

“That old man Johannes Amos Comenius, the fame of whose worth hath been trumpeted as far as more than three languages could carry it, was by our Mr. Winthrop, in his travels through the Low Countries, to come to New England, and illuminate this College Country in the quality of President. But the solicitations of the Swedish Ambassador diverting him another way, that the incomparable Moravian became not an American.”

The first Bohemian to settle in this country in colonial times was actually Comenius’ contemporary by the name of Augustine Herman who came first to New Amsterdam and then permanently settled in Maryland. He was a cartographer by profession who drew the first accurate map of Maryland and Virginia for which he was awarded by Lord Baltimore with enormous acreages of land in Cecil County and the title of Lord — the First Lord of Bohemia Manor.

According to some estimates, almost one third of the population of Bohemia and Moravia had been exiled abroad in the seventeenth century. The descendants of these people established new lives in their adopted countries and many of them had come to prominence. Among scientists, such person was, for example, August Kekule of Stradonitz, who is thought to be one of the founders of modern organic chemistry.

A more selected exodus from Czech Lands of professionals, particularly scientists, continued throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. You will, I am sure, recognize some names, like Chladni, Czermak, Georg Procházka, Purkyně, Rokitanský, Škoda, Albert Eduard, Sigmund Freud, Max Wertheimer, etc. Carl Rokitanský and Josef Škoda were of course the founders of the famed Viennese School of Medicine.

It was fortuitous that Jan Evangelista Purkyně, whose name is commonly mispronounced Purkinje, a physiologist of world renown, returned later to Prague where he played a leading role in the Czech National Revival.

Beginning with the nineteenth century, sciences developed in rapid pace in the Czech Lands so that at the time of the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, in 1918, the country was on a par with other industrial nations. This was an epoch of Mendel, Bolzano, Ernst Mach, Ignatius Born, Presl, Kaspar Sternberg, Frič, Preis, Čelakovský, Brauner, Votoček and more recently Heyrovský and Wichterle, to mention a few. A number of scientists from abroad were again attracted to the highly stimulating environment of Prague, including Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity was apparently largely based on the studies he carried out in that beautiful ancient city. Insufficient time does not permit me to elaborate on this subject any further. Some of our panelists are, of course, intimately familiar with this era from their own personal experience.

There are a number of scientists of Czech and Slovak descent in the U.S., some of whom have achieved world stature. For example, Frederick Novy is considered one of the pioneers of bacteriology in this country. Simon Flexner, a pathologist, originally at Johns Hopkins University, was instrumental in establishing the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research of which he subsequently became Director. His brother, Abraham Flexner, was a prominent educator; his penetrating analytical reports The American College and Medical Education in the U.S. and Canada laid the foundation for a complete overhaul of American medical education. He was also responsible for establishing the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, of which he became the first Director. Another personality of note was Dr. Joseph Goldberger, Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, who is credited with the discovery of etiology and cure of pellagra, which makes him one of the founders of clinical nutrition. Aleš Hrdlička, Curator of anthropological collections at the Smithsonian, is recognized as a founder of physical anthropology in the U.S. Among American engineers of Czechoslovak descent we find Karl Arnstein, a designer of airships; Karl Terzaghi, soil mechanics and foundation expert; and Karl Jánský, a radio engineer with the Bell Telephone Co., whose pioneer discoveries led to the development of radio astronomy. Louis Edward Levy and his brother Max Levy invented a new process of photoengraving, the Levy type and the screen process in half-tone reproductions, processes that revolutionized the graphic art industry. A husband and wife, Carl Ferdinand and Gerty Theresa Cori, were joint recipients of the Nobel Prize for their fundamental research in medicine or physiology. More recently, Dr. Gajdusek of the National Institutes of Health, who is of Slovak descent, was a recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on viruses.

The organized science in the Czech Lands had its beginnings at the time of the founding of the University of Prague in 1348 by Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of Bohemia. This was the first university in central and eastern Europe. Attempts were actually already made at the end of the 13th century by the Bohemian King Wenceslaus II to elevate the existing school in Prague to a university status but the nobility opposed the idea, fearing the increased power of the clergy.

The University of Prague, from the start had an international character, being divided, following the example of the University of Paris, into 4 nations, namely the Bohemian, Polish, Bavarian and Saxon. The faculty was international as was the student body. Good contacts existed with other higher institutions of learning. Following the marriage of Ann of Bohemia, daughter of Charles IV to Richard II of England, excellent relations were established between the University of Prague and the University of Oxford. Interestingly enough, a special fellowship-type program was established at Oxford for visiting Bohemian scholars. The newly established contacts led to the Czech interest in Wicklif and thus eventually to Hus and the Hussite revolution.

Czechoslovakia can boast not only of its first university in central Europe but also of having on its territory the first technical school in Europe — and for that matter, in the entire world — which was established in Prague as early as 1707. At the instigation of Franz Joseph Gerstner, professor of the University of Prague, the school was later changed into the Royal Bohemian Institute of Technology. Similarly, the first school of mining in Europe was founded in 1733 in Jáchymov, Bohemia, later transferred to Prague and subsequently to Stiavnica in Slovakia.

The year 1771 witnessed in the Czech Lands the birth of the first Private Learned Society which in 1784 was changed into a public institution under the name of Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences. It should be noted that this was the first scientific society on the territory of the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Some one hundred years later, the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts was established — a predecessor of today’s Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The Slovak scientists, in turn, organized the Šafárik Learned Society which was a predecessor of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Two more institutions deserve mentioning, first the National Museum in Prague, established in 1818, which became a rallying point of all Czech culture in the nineteenth century. The Slovak institution Matica slovenská played a similar role in Slovakia.

Research in Czechoslovakia at present is organizationally separated into basic and applied. Research installations are grouped into three distinct categories — first, under the academies of sciences; second, under the universities; and third, under the respective ministries. The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, with its branches and numerous institutes and laboratories, is responsible for theoretical research; it seeks solutions to long-range problems which require extensive basic research, and which are of key importance to the national economy. The universities conduct both basic and applied research of a narrower character usually concentrating on specific research topics. The research activities of various installations which are subordinated to individual ministries are primarily of applied nature.

By far the greatest part of internationally recognized research in Czechoslovakia stems from the Institutes of the Academy. This government supported institution, founded in the early 1950’s, has acquired the best qualified investigators from the universities. The Academy has also attracted most of the gifted young university graduates to whom a career with an opulent Academy institute was more appealing than work at a generally lesser equipped and intellectually somewhat less stimulating university environment.

Only a few privileged graduates, usually with three years research experience, are admitted to the institutes of the Academy as aspirants, in a Soviet-inspired form of postgraduate research training. Such work leads to the postdoctoral degree of Candidate of Sciences, equivalent to the Ph.D. degree in the U.S.

The Doctorate was abolished in the 1950s because it was considered a bourgeois affectation; it was replaced by such titles as graduated physician, graduated philosopher, and so forth. In 1968, however, the Doctoral degrees were reinstated. A Candidate’s degree is now mandatory if one is to pursue a scientific career with the Academy.

The organization of the Academy includes a network of institutes devoted to basic research in practically all scientific fields; scientists devote themselves entirely to research and carry no teaching responsibilities. This form of organization brought with it many advantages as well as disadvantages, which became obvious during its first decade. The Academy has been very well supported by government funds, thanks, in part, to the strong political background of the two presidents of the Academy, Z. Nejedlý and F. Šorm. Many new buildings have been constructed for several institutes in Prague, Brno, and Bratislava, many have been completely rebuilt and equipped with new instruments from all over the world. Thus, at present, some of the most important Institutes are comparable to many western research institutes.

The separation of the Academy from the universities has isolated many of Czechoslovakia’s top scientists from graduate teaching, thus reducing the quality of university pedagogy. Nevertheless, government support has led to remarkably rapid development of several scientific disciplines under the auspices of the Academy. Several Academy institutes, and individual scientists working there, have made important contributions in their respective fields. However, because of the separation of the institutes of the Academy from the university environment, some scientists may feel a lack of the stimulation that is provided by a truly academic atmosphere.

Many people feel that the best way to maintain the rising level of scientific research in Czechoslovakia and, at the same time, raise the level of graduate education would be to give more support to university research. Bringing the universities and the Academy closer to each other should prove most profitable to both.

The applied research installations which are subordinated to individual ministries are relatively well equipped. However, despite the fact that they have sufficient operating funds, scientific work performed in these establishments has been criticized as inferior, chiefly, it seems, because of the lack of qualified personnel. One may find in such places modern laboratories equipped with the most expensive instruments, which are unused.

With the exception of the intervening 1968 period, contacts of Czechoslovak scientists with scientists abroad have been generally improving. At first this became apparent at various symposia organized in Czechoslovakia in increased numbers. An increasing number of Czechoslovak scientists have also been allowed to participate in meetings in Western countries.

I would like to turn now to the national planning of scientific and technological development. There are currently three types of plans (20-year, 5-year and 1-year) which commit virtually all of the Czechoslovakia’s scientific resources — manpower, facilities, and money. The project-based science plan is hierarchical, and consists of a number of broad interdisciplinary goals broken down into over one thousand basic and applied research projects allotted to the installation of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the universities, and the ministerial installations. The planning organization is headed by a top governmental agency, the State Committee for the Development and Coordination of Science and Technology; the Academy carries full responsibility for basic research in its own installations and at those of the universities. This all corresponds to the hierarchical divisions of the plan from top-level interdisciplinary ‘collegia’ which draft the broad goals, to project research teams and individual workers.

The Czechoslovak national system of science planning is both unique and highly interesting as an organizational model for the optimization of the deployment of national resources of science and technology. Because of the nature of science planning at such a high level, which requires that planning be both long-range and continuous, Czechoslovakia is likely to be in a favorable position once she is ready to introduce modern information processing techniques and devices to monitor efficiently the performance of planned activities and to accelerate the decision-making and subsequent planning response of the system.

At the beginning of my talk, I alluded to the universality of science. Science is not only universal but furthermore, it does not recognize nation boundaries. Indeed, such borders may be sometimes an impediment to scientific development in the respective countries. Free exchange of ideas and cooperation among scientists in different countries are sine qua non for a true scientific progress.

Science would clearly benefit from international cooperation between Czechoslovakia and the U.S. Such cooperation would also be of benefit to participating scientists individually as it would be in the interest of both countries. In this connection I would like to commend to your attention as an important resource the US-based Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences whose members can be found virtually in every major institution of higher learning here in the U.S. as well as in Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

When it comes to the US-Czechoslovak relations there are much deeper historical ties between the two countries than you may think. I am not talking here only about the democratic principles on which the First Czechoslovak Republic was founded, or the role President Wilson played in its creation. I am talking here about more personalized relationship. I refer specifically to the relationship between George Washington and Mary Philipse, a grand-daughter of a Bohemian aristocrat who emigrated to America in the seventeenth century. Mary Philipse was a rare beauty whose charm and intelligence attracted the attention of young George Washington, who fell madly in love with her. The story has it that she turned him down as a result of which the Czechs lost an opportunity of having one of their own becoming the first ‘First Lady’ in the White House. As it turned out, it was the U.S. instead, who gave its First Lady to Czechoslovakia, when Charlotte Garrigue of Brooklyn, NY married Thomas Masaryk, the first President of Czechoslovakia.

Having lived in a rural environment during my formative years, I was exposed, almost daily, to local folklore, and lived by traditions that have survived from one generation to the next. These traditions, which were so natural in a country setting, were relatively unknown among the city folks.

Just like any other nationality, Czechs have a rich folklore and throughout ages have developed numerous traditions, a number of which are still maintained. Some of them have their roots in ancient times before Christianity was rooted in the Czech lands and are connected with all sorts of superstitions. Most of these traditions relate to a specific season or a particular event.

Most important traditions are observed around Christmas time. On the eve of St. Barbara’s Day (December 4), in the rural homes it was customary for the women to dress in white robes or white sheets or dresses with their face covered by a veil. They were called “Barborky” (Barbaras). The white dress symbolized virgin purity. They carried a basket of fruits and sweets which they distributed among the children. They also carried something resembling a carpet beater which they used for spanking the naughty children, only symbolically, of course.

St. Nicholas’ Day (“Svatý Mikuláš,” in Czech), on December 6, has for centuries been connected with rewards, especially for children. Americans changed St. Nicholas to Santa Claus who brings gifts to children on Christmas Day. According to the Czech tradition, “Svatý Mikuláš” wore a full white beard and dressed in the imposing attire resembling a Catholic bishop, with a tall miter on his head and holding a long walking cane, symbolizing his rank. He was always accompanied by an angel and a devil, appropriately dressed. This dignified procession went from house to house, rewarding good children with goodies and naughty children with coal. The devil, who carried the coal, and who normally was dressed in red, looked very scary with his symbolic pitchfork and the noise he made with his rattling chains.

The main Christmas holiday for Czechs was celebrated on December 24th, known as “Štědrý večer” (Christmas Eve). This was the time for Czech and most European children to get their gifts, rather than on Christmas Day, as is customary in the United States. It was customary to fast on that day until the appearance of the first star. Children who obeyed this were promised to see “zlaté prasátko na stěně” (a golden pig on the wall). In some households it was forbidden to sweep the floor in order not to hurt or sweep away dead souls who could be present on that particular day, because they could take vengeance on the family. In the same vein, it was discouraged to paint walls, mill or thrash grains, weave cloth etc. It was also forbidden to buy or sell things, as well as to lend or to borrow anything, in order not to bring about a misfortune.

The importance of “Štědrý večer” was reflected, above all, in the rich display of varied dishes. Although the menu had its regional differences, many elements were the same. The first course was usually “oplatky s medem” (Karlsbad wafers with honey). Instead of honey, garlic or wild rose was sometimes used. Then came the mushroom or fish soup made from the head of the fish. Mushrooms were also a part of a dish called “Kuba” which was barley mixed with mushrooms. The most commonly used mushroom was “hřib modrák” (type of Boletus), which had a dark color, thus the name “Černý Kuba” (Black Kuba). The unique flavor of this dish was due to garlic. Another of the ancient dishes frequently was a pea, millet or semolina porridge. Fish, particularly carp, which is traditionally served now as the main dish, was not always available in rural households. Desert usually consisted of “vánočka” (braided Christmas bread with raisins and almonds) and apple strudel. The festive supper was started and was concluded with a prayer, spoken usually by one of the children. The table was covered with a beautiful tablecloth, on which was placed an un-sliced loaf of bread, “vánočka” and a bowl overflowing with nuts, figs, dates, dried fruit, oranges and apples, symbolically representing the harvest and richness of the land. Some of the served food was given to the cattle, some was placed on the roots of trees and some was put into the well. In some households, where superstitions prevailed, the leftover food was left on the table for “dušičky” (souls of the ancestors). My mother believed in having an even number of people sitting around the table. One extra seat was normally reserved for an unexpected guest. After we completed our meal, it was customary for Dad to cut an apple in half. If a star appeared, that signified a birth in the family. If a cross appeared, that meant a death in the family, which obviously nobody wanted. With practice, you soon learned how to cut the apple to get the desirable results. There were, of course, numerous other customs and superstitions. For example, if you threw a shoe behind your shoulder and it pointed toward the door, that meant that someone in the family would marry outside the house. If the shoe pointed in the opposite direction that meant that the future spouse would live with the family.

The customary Christmas tree was kept in a separate room and under it were placed presents. After the supper, someone rang a bell, which was the signal for children to run to the Christmas tree to see what presents they received. According to European customs, children believed that the presents were brought by “Ježíšek” (infant Jesus), rather than by Santa Claus.

On Christmas Day (December 25) which in Czech is known as “Boží hod” (“God’s feast”), practicing Christians were not allowed to work and not even the beds were made. A festive dinner was always served, consisting of some favorite Czech dish, such as goose. On December 26th, which is St. Stephen’s Day (Den sv. Štěpána), it was customary to go caroling, called in Czech “koledovat.”

As in other nations, Czechs also celebrate the end of the year “Na Silvestra,” i.e., New Year’s Eve. One of the customary dishes served at these celebrations is “dršťková polévka” (tripe soup) which goes very well with the higher consumption of alcohol. Czechs customarily like to sing, usually with an accompanying harmonica or a guitar. It was a culmination of the year, point of a change where the magic of the first day played a role. In other words, whatever you did on New Year’s Day (“Na Nový rok”), you would do the whole year. To start with, you would obviously take a bath, which the people in rural areas did not otherwise do on a daily basis. My Mother always gave us money to keep in our pocket because that would mean we would have money the entire year. New visitors on that day had a symbolic meaning. If a child or a “virgin” appeared, that was a good sign. A clear sunny day meant a good harvest. Some people tried to wear new clothing because they believed that they would always then be dressed elegantly. People normally tried to avoid eating poultry because they feared that their good luck could fly away.

The 6th of January was the Day of the Three Kings (“Den tří králů”). Children customarily dressed as three kings, Kašpar, Melichar, and Balthazar, wearing simple masks, paper crowns, beards of cotton-wool, long white shirts in place of expensive robes, tied with a red ribbon or a scarf, and one of the kings had a blackened face. The three kings normally left a sign K + M + B on the door for good luck, using blessed chalk. This was also the day for taking the ornaments down from the Christmas tree.

The period between January 7 and Ash Wednesday was known as “Masopust” (Meat Fast). The last three days of this period Czechs rejoiced, disguised in masks. This was their carnival time, when balls and country dances were held. The dance participants wore all sorts of exotic masks in such a way that they would not be recognized, in order that they could enjoy themselves to the fullest, while making fools of everybody else. In rural areas it was customary for masquerade processions to walk through individual villages, to the sound of drums and all sorts of noise, trying to bring to everybody’s attention the upcoming festivities. It was joyful, hilarious and lots of fun, especially for kids. These parades included a person dressed as a bear, “strakapoun” (colorful exotic bird), chimneysweeper, a Turk, Lord, an old man, an old woman with a basket on her back containing an infant made of cloth, farmhand with a wheelbarrow, or a plough pulled by children. Using the plough they customarily ploughed snow or mud in front of the village pub.

The concluding phase of “Masopust” started on the so called “Tučný čtvrtek” (Fat Thursday), when it was customary to kill a fattened pig. In our house we did the same. I still remember those joyous moments when, as a small child, I tried to help with making “jitrnice” (white pig sausages) and “jelita” (dark pig sausages, containing pig’s blood which gives the sausage its characteristic dark color). My favorite meat was “ovar” (made of pig’s head), “sulc” (headcheese), and scrambled pig brain with eggs and sauteed onion. There was a prevailing superstition that one should eat a lot on this day in order to be strong for the whole year. “Čeládka” (domestics) were given enough meat to take home to their parents. “Výslužka” (gifts) also included “masopustní pečivo” (Masopust pastries), “koblihy” (Czech doughnuts or fritters), fried in real butter, which were superior to any American doughnuts I have ever eaten, and “šišky” (long pastry rolls), another delicious Czech specialty.

Lent started with “Popeleční středa” (Ash Wednesday), with the characteristic fast. The 5th fasting Sunday (Judica), known as ”Smrtná” (Deadly) or “Černá” (Black), i.e. the Passion Sunday, was noted for its custom of carrying out of a death figure (Reaper). It was represented by a female figurine, known as “Mořena”, “Mařena” or “Smrtholka” or “Smrtka”, made of straw, dressed in woman’s clothing, attached to a long pole, draped with egg shells, empty poppy-heads (“makovice”), empty pods, or ribbons, in other words with useless things, symbolizing infertility. The figurine was carried out in a procession by women or children and thrown into the river or a creek, buried or burnt. Women would jump over the fire to remain healthy. The ashes were spread around the field to keep it fertile. The appropriately dressed “Smrtka” symbolized the old infertile year, later also the winter, and simultaneously was an offering to prevent future infertility and bad luck in farming.

The most joyous holiday for Christians is Easter. The Czech names for the main Easter days are: “Zelený čtvrtek” (Green Thursday, i.e., Maundy Thursday), “Bílá sobota” (White Saturday, i.e., Holy Saturday), “Velký pátek” (Great Friday, i.e. Good Friday), and “Boží hod velikonoční” (Easter Sunday). Starting with “Zelený čtvrtek” until “Bílá sobota,” the village boys would walk with “řehtačky” (rattles), “klepačky” (noise beaters), “hrkačky” (crackles), the noise of which was to substitute for bells which, according to superstition, flew to Rome. On Easter Sunday (“Boží hod velikonoční”), it was customary to decorate “velikonoční vajíčka” (Easter eggs), by painting and ornamentation, frequently using wax. The term “kraslice,” as they are usually called, came from the Russian word “krasnyj”, meaning red, because the most beautiful eggs were colored red, symbolically representing the color of blood. Actually the Easter holidays were sometimes called “Červené svátky” (Red Holidays) and the following Monday was known as “Červené pondělí” (Red Monday). In the old days, the ornaments frequently represented various protective or religious symbols, however, later they have a mostly decorative function. “Velikonoční pondělí” (Easter Monday) was connected with “pomlázka” (Easter thrashing). It was made of braided willow tree twigs, bound on the top with a ribbon. Its great elasticity symbolized freshness, smartness, and youth. It was used to “šlehat” (whip) young girls and maidens. In Moravia and Slovakia they also poured water on girls. The term “pomlázka” was also used to designate the gift with which village girls would reward the boys. This was usually in the form of a red scarf containing Easter eggs. The reward was not as much for thrashing or whipping the girls as for the results of such an act, i.e., bringing out in them their freshness, youth, and beauty. This was also an occasion for small children to go Easter caroling which would bring them Easter eggs, chocolate eggs and other sweets. The refusal to reward them gave them the excuse to use their “pomlázka” on you.

May 1st throughout Europe has been recognized as the day of love. On the eve of this day the young men in Czech villages frequently placed birch trees, decorated with colorful ribbons, in front of the houses of their chosen girls. Sometimes, they attached them to chimneys or on top of other trees where they would be visible but hard to retrieve. This was also the time to indulge in pranks. Young men would, for example, put a hay-wagon on somebody’s roof which was quite difficult to take down. It was all in the spirit of fun and mischief.

In June the most important holiday was “Den Jana Křtitele” (Day of John Baptist), celebrated on June 24. The holiday has its roots to the pagan times, representing the beginning of summer and harvest. Evening hours are considered to be full of magic and joy to which various customs were connected. Typical was the burning of huge fires on the eve of John Baptist Day. These fires were usually set outside the village, for safety reasons. Children customarily brought used brooms from their home which were set afire and then they ran around the burning fire, while they “pálili čarodějnice” (burned witches), which were believed to be present in the air on that night. Young men and women would also jump over the burning fire to which they previously gave their offerings in the form of flowers and wreaths. Fire also symbolized the sun which at that time of the year was the strongest and the villagers wanted to make homage to it. On this night auguries were also fulfilled, and the girls foretold the fate of their loves. Plants cut on this night had extraordinary healing power. Witches were believed to be very active on that night and people tried to take protective measures, such as cracking the whip or placing a sod or a thornbush. It was also better not to lend anything to anybody on this night.

In summertime most villages held their own festive fairs, called “pouť” which were usually connected with the day of a saint to which their church was ordained. A merry-go-round and other attractions were brought to the village on such occasions and the boys competed in a shooting gallery for prizes for their girls. As a rule, small rural circuses also came and with it a bunch of gypsies which brought some excitement and also a bit of anxiety. They read from your palm but some of them had to be closely watched because they liked to help themselves to a chicken or other things which were accessible to them.

In the fall, Czech villages held their annual “posvícení”, which is the equivalent to American Thanksgiving, except that each village had it on a different day, usually on a Sunday. Most likely it took place after the harvest was brought home and most of the grains thrashed or milled, seeds sown, and fields readied for winter. It was the time not only to rest after the year’s hard work but also to celebrate a good harvest and thus reason for joy. It was not strictly a family affair but the event in which the whole village took part. On this day, relatives and friends from far would visit each other which was reciprocated so that these festivities sometime lasted the whole fall.

The “koláče” (kolaches) was the symbol of “posvícení.” They were brought to friends of adjacent villages, inviting them to the big event. The feast normally also included “boží milosti” (Czech fried cookies without yeast). The main dish was usually a goose with “knedlíky” (Czech dumplings) and sauerkraut, beer or wine. In some communities, the posvícení celebrations went on for three days, starting on Sunday and ending on Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, after mass, there would be a dance in the local pub, frequently lasting until the next morning. As a remnant of the pagan customs, some animals, such as chickens, were sacrificed. This was done with pomp, i.e., with a procession from a pub to a designated place where a trial was held against a particular chicken, accusing it of a particular crime. After reading the verdict, the masked participants carried out the official beheading of the animal. After the execution, the animal was cooked and eaten.

“Publish or Perish” is the standard motto of every active researcher or educator in the US which implies that progress of every university teacher or science investigator is measured primarily by the number of his/her publications. If he/she does not meet the expected norms, the university professor does not get tenure and the researcher is not promoted. They are subsequently asked to leave their institutions and look for another job elsewhere.

Many of my colleagues, some of whom did good research, found it extremely difficult, if not painful, to analyze their research findings and arrange them into meaningful reports or scientific papers. Some of them collected data for years, packed in boxes gathering dust, which cluttered their offices until the time they were asked to move on or out. In certain smaller institutions where teaching was considered more important, the college administrators were more tolerant and left them alone, especially after they received their tenure, even though they were not publishing.

To be able to write scientific papers presumed that you had something to write about, based on solid research findings. To conduct research required a decent laboratory, equipped with the necessary instruments and in biological research you also had to have access to animal colony and a place where you could maintain your experimental animals. For more sophisticated research you frequently needed the state-of-the-art instrumentation and equipment which was expensive, such as amino acid analyzer, spectrophotometer or electron microscope. Apart from physical equipment you had to have at least one assistant or technician to help you with your work. Without some external support, universities normally lacked such equipment and if they did they did not make it available for routine use. Similarly, they did not have sufficient resources to provide a starting young professor with laboratory assistants. Professors were thus entirely dependent on the help of their graduate students.

The only way one can obtain the necessary research resources in the US is through research grants. To obtain these is not easy and requires that you prepare a well thought out proposal which is then judged and evaluated in competition with other proposals by an external group of your peers. Such grants range from a few thousand dollars to millions. Researchers who have been successful in getting grants are highly regarded since they bring their institutions extra resources, including an overhead that permits the institution to modernize and enhance its research image. One could say that graduate education in the US is primarily supported through research by way of the research grants. It is thus not surprising that a typical professor’s progress is judged, and his promotion rendered, on his/her grants and publication record, which go hand in hand, rather than on the basis of his/her teaching ability.

In non-teaching institutions that focus primarily on research, such as governmental laboratories, e.g., NIH (National Institutes of Health), NBS (National Bureau of Standards), USDA (US Department of Agriculture), etc., the situation is somewhat different but the principles are the same. Here too, rules the credo “Publish or Perish” but an access to laboratory equipment and experimental animals is easier. When it comes to human resources that’s a different matter. To gain one or more technicians or other assistance you cannot, of course, depend on graduate students. You must earn them by doing outstanding research work and publishing first-rate papers in peer-reviewed journals to attract attention by your supervisors. If your research work contributes to the mission of the laboratory and your supervisor is in a position to help you, you may get additional help or you may be given an expensive piece of equipment for your exclusive use. Otherwise, you can apply for external grant assistance, just as the university researchers do.

As for myself, I had no difficulties whatsoever with the “Publish or Perish” concept and my publication record was always superior to my colleagues. Already while working on my doctorate at Cornell, I managed to publish several scientific studies even before my Ph.D. Dissertation was completed. I did it all on my own initiative with limited resources: a few bottles of amino acids, access to chemical laboratory and animal colony of white rats and experimental farm where I maintained baby pigs for my experimental work.

Ever since my graduate days, I have been obsessed with the notion to publish. I did not have to be told. As my publication record indicates, I was always ahead of the game.

Even after I moved to administration this urge to publish did not lessen in any way. Since I did not have access to a laboratory I focused on writing comprehensive state-of-the-art treatises and compilation of scientific handbooks, even though I was not required to do so and my publications had no impact, whatsoever, on the way I was judged by my superiors. Later, I added publications in ethnic history and culture and even ventured into publishing in Czech language.

Our son Jack must have inherited this trait, i.e., my publication obsession and fervor, as he too attained a high publication record for his age and, on his own, initiated a new agriculture and environmental series and published several state-of-the-art treatises of note.

My involvement in scientific editing and publishing, as a major effort, evolved gradually and quite naturally. It started with my initial attempts to write scientific state-of-the-art reviews which I enjoyed and which I did with relative ease. This had given me a vehicle for broadening out from a narrow bench scientist’s point of view, and look beyond a single research study, or a particular experimental approach and began thinking in terms of concepts, commonality and comparability aspects and synthesis of ideas.

It began with a comprehensive overview of the enzymes involved in the metabolism of microbodies that play a major role in the oxidative processes in the living organism. I combined forces with Zdeněk Hruban of the University of Chicago, a noted pathologist and expert on electronic structures of these organelles and we jointly started writing a review for the International Review of Cytology. We had so much material on hand that we ended up with a monograph, which was published by the Academic Press (1). The monograph was quite popular and in a relatively short time it was translated into Russian (2), of course, without our knowledge, not to speak about our approval.

From my studies on the enzyme catalase which played a key role in the metabolism of microbodies, I became interested in the enzyme synthesis and degradation which led me to the broader area of molecular turnover and degradation and synthesis of enzymes, generally. After writing several state-of-the-art reviews on the subject (3), I realized that, in spite of large body of literature on the subject, there was no major synthetic study or treatise which would evaluate the entire field and put it into perspective. This led me to the idea of publishing a state-of-the-art treatise on the subject.

Finding the publisher was relatively easy. It entailed writing a well thought out letter to a few selected publishing houses, with a convincing rationale and tentative outline of the proposed chapters. It did not take long and I had a response from a known Swiss publisher Karger AG, Basel, expressing interest in publishing the treatise. The outcome of it was a handsome monograph, entitled Enzyme Synthesis and Degradation in Mammalian Systems (4), comprised of my major contribution on “Enzyme Synthesis and Degradation” (5) and a number of other state-of-the-art review chapters, written by leading experts in their particular area. The book was extremely well received, as judged by the numerous book reviews.

This treatise offers a comprehensive review of the present knowledge of the various factors that control enzyme activity as well as the regulatory mechanisms involved in enzyme synthesis and degradation, with special emphasis on the mammalian systems. To this end it presents detailed discussions by the leading authorities in the field of such topics as the genetics of enzyme realization, the control of enzyme activity in early development and in old age, the control of enzyme activity by hormonal and nutritional factors, the regulation of enzyme activity through specific modifications in structure, enzyme induction and repression, the translational regulation of enzyme levels, enzyme turnover and the roles of synthesis and degradation in the regulation of enzyme levels, the rhythmic changes in enzyme activity and their control, factors affecting the activity and distribution and synthesis and degradation of isozymes, and synthesis and degradation of enzymes in relation to cellular structure.

The book represents a pioneer effort in the area which is relatively new but which clearly stands in the forefront of today’s biology. As such, the book should be of particular interest and assistance to both students and research workers in a wide range of disciplines including general biologists, biochemists, molecular and cell biologists, enzymologists, comparative and developmental biologists, zoologists, physiologists, pathologists, geneticists, embryologists, endocrinologists, pharmacologists and nutritionists. When reading through it should be kept in mind, however, that our purpose is not just to inform but also rather to stimulate the reader, be it a beginning graduate student or an advanced researcher, to explore, to question and, whenever possible, to test various hypotheses advanced herein, always keeping in mind the immortal words of Heraclitus that ‘there is nothing permanent except change’.

In order to make the publication more accessible from the point of view of a student or a researcher who are embarking on their first venture into the fascinating field of cellular regulation, the book has been appended with a thorough index, with which Eva and my daughter Karen helped, and a glossary. For further reading each chapter was accompanied with numerous references.

At this point, I began thinking of changing my career and move to science administration. Realizing that I would not have access to bench science research, which was the major source of information, it became obvious to me that writing scientific reviews and the state-of-the-art treatises and compiling and editing handbooks were the most logical and, in fact, the only avenue for a person with writing ambitions in a science administrative setting. This way I still could keep my hands in science and get up to date on the science advances which could be immensely helpful to me in my science administrative responsibilities, while, at the same time, I would make name for myself as a scientist.

To be sure, I was one of a kind, because none of my colleagues who pursued science administrative career had comparable ambitions, being essentially “9 to 5 people.”

After my appointment to the position of Special Assistant for Nutrition and Health in the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, it was logical to shift the focus to the area of nutrition and health and related policy issues. My first significant book in this area was a multidisciplinary treatise on Food, Nutrition and Health, published by S. Karger in Switzerland (6). Prof. Jean Mayer, a world-renown nutritionist and close advisor of several Presidents, and later president of Tufts University, was kind enough to write eight-page preface which gave the book a special boost.

The purpose of this treatise was to review and bring into sharp focus the major problems and issues relating to nutrition internationally, embracing both the health and the disease aspects, as well as the food-nutrition relationships. The book has been inspired, in part, by the deliberations of the recent White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health that dealt principally with the problems in the United States. The scope of my publication was broader, the objective being to look at the world as a whole, with an attempt to define basic problems and underlying issues, seeking fundamental principles and common ground that would be applicable generally, irrespective of national boundaries. At the same time, however, attention has been paid to relative differences in a given set of problems resulting from geographic factors.

I was able to assemble a team of twenty leading specialists from the United States and seven other countries, including Great Britain, India, Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, South Africa and Sweden, who have collaborated with me in the effort. Although the book has been carefully planned as a systematic and integrated treatise, the contributors have been given maximum latitude in developing the subject matter of their chapters. A modest degree of overlap has been deliberately introduced to permit reading individual chapters separately or in any desired order.

The book was comprised of four parts. The first part concerns itself with the functional role of nutrition, including the nutritional aspects of infancy, pregnancy, physical performance, and learning and behavior. The second part covers the pathological aspects of nutrition with separate chapters on the role of nutrition in disease, undernutrition, overnutrition and the relationship of nutrition to infection and oral disease. The third part is devoted to various facets of food and nutrition, encompassing such topics as the world food supply, food habits and food faddism, food processing, food additives and food safety. The last part of the book, which I had written, was constituted by an extensive bibliography of reviews relating to food, nutrition and health. This section has been added in anticipation that many a reader will consult the volume primarily as a reference.

As an interdisciplinary volume, I thought that it would be of interest and value to nutritionists, generally, as well as to biochemists, physiologists, internists, pediatricians, public health workers, food technologists, food economists, demographers, behaviorists, population experts, policy makers and to all those interested in the problems of international development. In as much as the laboratory jargon has been kept to a minimum, the book should also appeal to any professional or an intelligent layman who has not had specialized training in the field of nutrition.

Although the book has been conceived principally as a reference tool, it could have been easily adopted as a textbook. However, it has not been intended to be merely as a source of information for knowledge sake. More importantly, it was my hope that it would provide stimulus to researchers to explore some of the unresolved problems that confront us today; that it would guide policy makers in shaping economic and health policies of their nations; that it would give inspiration to students in their search for suitable careers; and last but not least that it would influence consumers to improve their nutritional status.

To make the publication more accessible to a reader the book was appended with a thorough index, with which my daughter Karen and son Jack helped, and list of used abbreviations. Each chapter was documented with relevant references. A particular reader desiring to pursue the topic of his interest further could, in addition, consult the bibliography of reviews referred to earlier.

Inasmuch as the book soon sold out, the publisher asked me a few years later to prepare a revised paper-back edition, which was published under the title Nutrition and World Food Problem (7).

After I joined AID, I shifted my focus more toward nutrition and food policy, in which area I published several monographs, including the treatise Man, Food and Nutrition (8) and the World Food Problem (9). This time I went to a different publishing house, namely CRC Press.

This above treatise offered a comprehensive integrated critical review of the nature and the scope of the world food problem and presents strategies and discussed various technological approaches to overcoming world hunger and malnutrition. As I pointed out in the preface, it was estimated that some half of today’s world population was afflicted to some degree by hunger or malnutrition. As a consequence of the introduction of public health measures, there has been a marked reduction in the death rates, without significant alteration in the birth rates. This has resulted in an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth, particularly among the developing nations. Inasmuch as the existing population control measures have been, so far, largely ineffective in checking the population explosion, there has been a re-emergence of neo-Malthusian thought. The newly self-appointed apostles of this philosophy were again promulgating the notion that food production will not be able to keep pace with population growth and are forecasting the inevitable famine and self-wrought doom for mankind.

A team of 24 leading authorities from the United States and eight other countries, including scientists from government, university and industrial sectors, as well as specialists from UNESCO, WHO, and FAO, who had contributed to this volume, were challenging this view. The conclusion of the book was that the earth resources and technological advances, if properly used, could not only avert such catastrophe but would actually lead to the improvement of the nutritional status and the well-being of the many now malnourished peoples throughout the world.

The book is comprised of six sections. The first section is devoted to the description of the world food problem, including such topics as the state of world nutrition, and world food consumption patterns, the state of world food production, and world population growth and future food needs. The four sections which follow concern themselves with strategies and technological measures for alleviating the world food problem. Specific measures discussed have been organized under four major headings, namely: (a) expanding food production; (b) reducing wastes and spoilage of foodstuffs; (c) using unconventional sources of food; and (d) improving nutritional quality of food. The last section deals with the aspects of food and nutrition policy.

From its inception the treatise has been conceived as an interdisciplinary effort, encompassing a multitude of areas, i.e., agricultural economics, economic geography, demography, population, dietetics, clinical nutrition, agronomy, crop science, plant breeding, plant nutrition, plant pathology, pest control, animal husbandry, animal breeding, animal nutrition, animal pathology, pest control, food microbiology, food toxicology, biochemistry, food preservation, food processing, food composition, food fortification, new food technology, and food and nutrition policy. The emphasis throughout has been on integration and synthesis rather than on detail. I felt that the book should, therefore, appeal to a large audience of readers, be they technicians, researchers, teachers, students, policy makers, or humanitarians and concerned laymen with interest in the problems of international development. Apart from its value as a guide or reference source, we feel that the volume is particularly well suited for teaching purposes. My children Karen and Jack rendered indispensable help during the compilation of the subject index.

In 1975, I came up with the idea of publishing a multi-volume series on Comparative Animal Nutrition, which would offer a comprehensive and authoritative review of the present knowledge on nutrition, encompassing the whole animal kingdom from a comparative point of view. This was a pioneering effort in an area that was relatively new and which could, through systematic effort open new vistas in our understanding in biology, in general, and nutrition, in particular. My aim was not so much to strive for completeness but rather for integration and synthesis. As a comprehensive treatise, it was my aim that it would not merely serve as a compendium of existing data, but whenever appropriate, it would also identify the gaps in our knowledge, in hope that it would stimulate further research which would ultimately eliminate them. I altogether published four volumes in the series, i.e., Carbohydrates, Lipids and Accessory Growth Factors (10), Nutrient Elements and Toxicants (11), Nitrogen, Electrolytes, Water and Energy Metabolism (12), and Physiology of Growth and Nutrition (13).

Even though my principal writings, initially, were of scientific character, after my retirement I devoted practically all my free time to historical writing. Actually, my interest in history got its start already in my early days in New York City, soon after my arrival there in 1950. During my first of many visits to the Czech Library, located in the “Česká čtvrť,”[1] on the East side of Manhattan, the librarian, who was of Czech extraction, recommended Josef Koudelka’s book on Augustine Herman.[2]

I read the book with great interest, “in one breath,” as the Czechs say, and became so fascinated by the life and the exploits of this first Czech immigrant in America, that it almost became an obsession with me. Ever since that time I wanted to learn everything about this unusual man and the fate of his family. Since Koudelka’s book, as I soon discovered, was not always reliable, I made a concerted effort to separate myth that surrounded Herman’s life from the facts but it was not until some thirty years later that I published my findings.

My earliest attempt at historical writing occurred in February 1953, in my third year at Cornell University, on the occasion of the infamous fifth anniversary of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. Admittedly, it was only a letter to the editor, published under the title “The Forgotten Ally of the US” in the Ithaca Journal.[3] It was a pretty good article, for a novice like myself, considering that my English was not the best. I must have gotten the point across, as several of my classmates subsequently came to see me to discuss the tragic situation in Communist Czechoslovakia. Interestingly, this was also my very first article I had published.

Since then, I had not written in the newspapers for almost forty years, until after I retired from US government. This was quite natural since my mind was fully occupied with scientific research and had no time for anything else. Furthermore, I had been taught by my teachers that my first responsibility as a scientist is to publish my findings in scientific journals and stay away from newspapers. Scientists who would publicize their scientific work through media were frowned upon and under no circumstances was it considered “kosher” to talk to reporters before one’s research results were published in reputable and peer-reviewed journals. This was part of the unwritten code of ethics of American scientists.

My interest in history got its boost in the early sixties when I was given the responsibility for organizing the program of the First Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in 1962. With the central theme “The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture,” I had to familiarize myself with the Czechoslovak cultural history in a comprehensive way and get acquainted with the leading scholars in the area. The direct product of my labor was an impressive opus The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture, published under my editorship, by a leading publisher of Slavic books, Mouton & Co. in the Netherlands.[4] I also had the pleasure of organizing the second SVU Congress and edit its enormous two-volume proceedings, titled Czechoslovakia Past and Present.[5]

In my association with SVU, together with my wife Eva, we published a number of editions of the SVU Directory, which became the bestseller among the SVU members.[6]

Other than that, I did not do any historical writing for a number of years, because I was fully engrossed then in science editing and publishing. Nevertheless, early on, I started collecting biographical information on prominent Americans of Czech and Slovak descent. The idea of working on an inventory of Czech and Slovak intellectuals abroad originated from my early days in SVU, especially when I began organizing the First SVU Congress in 1962. To make an impact, I wanted to invite the most prominent Czechs and Slovaks living abroad. The second motivating force was my desire to enrich the SVU membership rolls with individuals of note who had Czechoslovak roots. At first, I was only interested in individuals’ names, addresses and their particular expertise. As I got more deeply involved, I realized the potential value of what I was doing and began to record all basic data on each individual 3 by 5 card which with time grew into a large assembly of file boxes.[7] To be sure, this was a laborious and tedious process but it soon began bearing fruits. With the growth of my archival material I could not help but to also become more and more knowledgeable about the subject. This could not be kept under the hat too long and I soon became recognized as an invaluable resource of information, if not an authority.

To be sure, I did not collect the biographical data for the sake of collecting. I aimed at eventual publishing them in some sort of an index or a directory. My first attempt in this direction was a publication entitled Educators with Czechoslovak Roots: A US and Canadian Roster,[8] a slim publication of 122 pages, listing educators by universities and departments. It was the first compilation of its kind which brought me praise.

My next attempt was a publication entitled US Legislators with Czechoslovak Roots from Colonial Times to Present.[9] It comprised of biographies of US Legislators born on the territory of Czechoslovakia, as well as those whose ancestors emigrated from Czechoslovakia and settled in the US. Among them were also descendants of Augustine Herman.

All this work inevitably led me to start extensive research on Czech and Slovak immigrants in America, with the focus on early immigrants.[10] Originally I concentrated on my hero Augustine Herman and his descendants and gathered an enormous amount of historical[11] and genealogical data,[12] which I subsequently published.

Another immigrant on whom I spent a lot of time was Frederick Philipse, Augustine Herman’s contemporary, known as “Bohemian Prince,” who was considered the wealthiest inhabitant in New Amsterdam (present New York).

The third personality who attracted my attention was Joachim Gans from Prague who came to America already in 1585 with the first British expedition of colonists, temporarily settling on Roanoke Island in North Carolina.

About the same time, I became interested in Moravian Brethren who immigrated to America from their temporary exile in Lusatia, after escaping from their native Moravia, Bohemia or Silesia.[13] I was able to put together a fairly complete list of Moravian Brethren with the Czech roots and followed their descendants through genealogical research.[14] This also led me to the discovery that First Lady Barbara Bush was a descendant of the Moravian Brethren family Demuth who were among the founders of the town Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.[15]

I also did research on early Bohemian Jesuits who came to Latin America in the second part of the 17th and first part of the 18th centuries[16] and finally on early Bohemian Jews who started immigrating to America in the 18th century.[17]

Upon my retirement, I was approached by a Czech-American publisher with the proposition that I write short stories about famous Czech-Americans for his newspaper. I was intrigued by the idea which challenged my ego. Mind you, I had not written anything in Czech before, except for occasional correspondence with my friends. I accepted the challenge.

I had two strikes against me. On the one hand, I had to overcome the scientific rigidity in writing, common to most scientists, and adopt a journalistic mode, i.e., to write in a readable and interesting style. Secondly, I also had to get used to writing in Czech, which meant expanding my vocabulary and catch up with the latest rules of Czech grammar.

I spent more than two days writing my first article.[18] The second article went easier and from then on it went smoothly. My articles then began appearing quite regularly, mostly in Československý týdeník, later renamed to Americké Listy.

My articles must have been read as I frequently received letters from readers and during my personal encounters people told me that they read my stories regularly and how much they enjoyed them and how much they learned from them. Some of the articles were reprinted in other periodicals, both abroad and in the Czech Republic.

After a year of writing articles on selected Czech and Slovak personalities in the Czech ethnic press, some of my friends were telling me that I ought to consider publishing a book on the subject. I first thought the idea as absurd but later began toying with the idea. Although I have not heard any criticism of my Czech writing, nevertheless, I did have some qualms whether my Czech was good enough for a more sophisticated audience in the Czech Republic. It was my intention from the very beginning to publish the book in Czech, partly for symbolic reasons but also to inform my countrymen about the famous Czechs who “made it” abroad. To make a long story short, with the financial support of the Senate of the Czech Parliament, Pražská edice published a monograph of my essays in 2000, under the title Postavy naší Ameriky.[19]

While writing and publishing in Czech, I also continued publishing scholarly articles on a variety of historical subjects in English periodicals, such as Czech-American scientists,[20] Czech-American Athletes,[21] etc. On the occasion of my 75th birthday, The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences decided to publish a selection of my English articles in a monograph, entitled Czechs and Slovaks in America.[22]

As if this were not enough, around the time of my retirement, I initiated an extensive search on genealogy of our family. In this connection, I systematically contacted all my living relatives I knew about, requesting that they send me all relevant genealogical data on their families and their ancestors. In addition, I visited on several occasions regional archives in Litoměřice and in Prague which maintained church records for various villages where my ancestors lived. To insure accuracy of the old data written in German script, which was difficult to decipher, I also hired a professional Czech genealogist to assist me in this matter. In time, I amassed quite a bit of data which I put on my computer, using special genealogy software.

As I worked on our family genealogy, and our children had seen it, they told me that names of individuals and their vital data, as well as various relationships among them, have little value, unless I also provide some substantive information about them, i.e., how they lived, what they did and what they accomplished. They frequently asked about my childhood and my life in Czechoslovakia and the early years in the US.

This was the reason why I began thinking about the possibility of writing my memoirs. Actually it was almost two years before I first began putting together an outline of important events in my life which became the basis of individual chapters of my reminiscences.

Apart from my personal life and my professional career, a significant portion of my Memoirs dealt with my volunteer work for and activities in SVU. In 2006, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, the Society decided to publish this part as a separate monograph.[23]

This required considerable revision and addition of a number of new chapters to make it a comprehensive SVU history. In 2010, as I began approaching my 80th birthday, the Society approached me with the offer to publish my personal memoirs as well. I then spent several months getting the manuscript ready for publication.[24] Last but not the least, I should also mention my interest in historiography, bibliography and biography in which areas I published a number of articles and several monographs. A fairly complete listing of my historical writings up to the year 2005 was included in one of my books.[25]

The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, generally known under its acronym SVU, commemorated forty-five years of its existence in the year 2003. Since its inception in 1958, the Society has grown into a respected international organization with chapters in major cities around the world. Although the Society, until recently, functioned almost exclusively in the West, ever since the 1989 Velvet Revolution, it has expanded its activities to Czechoslovakia and its successor states, the Czech and the Slovak Republics.

The Society was officially organized in 1958, at the initiative of Czech and Slovak intellectuals living abroad, at a time when the communist regime in Czechoslovakia had repudiated the country's historical traditions and suppressed free expressions. The SVU wanted to provide a forum for free development of Czechoslovak culture in exile and make the world aware of the Czech and Slovak cultural traditions, which date back more than a millennium. Its activities, as outlined in the original bylaws, consisted of supporting and coordinating the educational, scholarly, literary and artistic endeavors of the Czechoslovak intelligentsia abroad. However, the Society was subsequently broadened into an organization open to all individuals, regardless of ethnic origin, interested in fostering Slovak and / or Czech culture.

SVU is defined as a nonprofit, nonpolitical, cultural organization, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, the free dissemination of ideas, and the fostering of contacts among people. It brings together scholars, scientists, artists, writers, students, lawyers, businessmen, and others throughout the world who have a professional, family, or other interest in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, their history, peoples, or their cultural and intellectual contributions.

Following the end of the communist regime in 1989, the SVU's functions greatly expanded. In addition to its original mission, the Society has become a bridge between Czech and Slovak professionals and those in other countries. It allows scholars abroad to benefit from contact with their Slovak and Czech colleagues, as well as helping to reintegrate the intellectual life of these two nations into the mainstream of world science, arts and letters, from which they were separated by political barriers for so long.

The impetus for organizing the Society came from Dr. Jaroslav Němec of the National Library of Medicine, who became its first secretary-general. The idea began to take shape in the fall of 1956, when a Study Section ("Studijní odbor") under the chairmanship of Dr. Václav Mostecký, was established in the Washington, DC Chapter of the Czechoslovak National Council of America. In the fall of 1957, the Study Section sent a questionnaire to thirty-five leading Czechoslovak scholars in the United States and Western Europe, concerning the possibility of organizing an Academy or Society of Czechoslovak Arts and Sciences. The response was affirmative and in fact so enthusiastic that the Study Section immediately went ahead with the recruitment of members.

By June 1958 there were already 200 members, who elected an Organizing Council ("Přípravný výbor") as their tentative representatives. Professor Vaclav Hlavatý of Indiana University was elected President, and Vratislav Bušek, former Professor of Charles University, and Rafael Kubelík, the world-renowned conductor, Vice-presidents. Dr. Jaroslav Němec was subsequently elected Secretary-General, Oldřich Černý, Treasurer, and Ivan Herben, Press Secretary. Almost all of the organizational and administrative work during these early stages of development rested on the shoulders of Dr. Němec. His task was made considerably easier by the enthusiastic support, energetic work, and ready counsel he received from Professor Hlavatý and Ivan Herben.

The original Study Section in Washington, DC later became the Washington Chapter of the Society, under the chairmanship of Dr. Jaroslav G. Polach and then Dr. Ladislav Feierabend. This Chapter, with its novel and extensive activities, has become a model for other local chapters of the Society which were soon established throughout the United States and Canada.

In the fall of 1959 the Society began to publish its regular news bulletin, Zprávy SVU, under the editorship of Ivan Herben. At the same time, Professor Rudolf Šturm of Skidmore College succeeded Dr. Němec as Secretary-General.

At the first General Assembly ("Valné shromáždění"), which took place in New York City on April 16, 1960, the members approved the Society's by-laws, according to which the Society became an independent organization. Professor Hlavatý was elected President, Professor Vratislav Bušek, Rafael Kubelík, and Dr. Felix Mikula (former aide to the Archbishop of Prague Josef Beran), Vice-presidents, and Dr. Němec, Secretary-General.

In 1961, the organization was incorporated under the laws of the State of New York as a non-profit cultural organization and it assumed the name: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc. The words "in America" were later dropped to accommodate members from Europe. The original concept of the society of Czech and Slovak intelligentsia abroad has changed into that of an organization open to all scholars, regardless of national background, who are genuinely interested in the advancement of Czechoslovak scholarship. The Society's headquarters are now maintained in Washington, DC where it has also now been incorporated.

The Prague Spring of 1968, which brought unprecedented political changes in communist Czechoslovakia, had also a profound effect on the Society's Fourth World Congress, on September 1, 1968. The Society wanted to use the occasion to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic and there were plans to also invite selected scholars from Czechoslovakia which unexpectedly permitted free expression. The subsequent takeover of the country by the Soviet troops, unfortunately, changed all that and of the invited individuals only Ivan Sviták came. He arrived from Austria, where a group of twenty-five Czechoslovak intellectuals drafted a proclamation "Manifest against Aggression", which he read to excited audience, in front of TV lights and cameramen and reporters representing major American media, and then gave a series of interviews which made headlines in US press.

The Society issued, on that occasion, a special resolution addressed to scientific and art institutions of the free world, reminding them that freedom and peace are inseparable and that any restriction of these basic values anywhere in the world, sooner or later, will impact on the entire global society. SVU expressed the hope that the world will finally come to grips with the true substance of international communism and Soviet imperialism, opposed by people subjugated by the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the Society also issued a special Memorandum which was sent to some 2000 universities around the world in which it appealed to sister universities in these words: "We urge you to help the people of Czechoslovakia in their new fight for freedom, not by the power of arms, but by the power of the word, by the power of truth, which is always stronger in the final outcome, than by tanks, and cannot be stopped by the most powerful armies nor arrested by secret police".

November 1989 was a remarkable and eventful month in the history of Czechoslovakia. After forty years of monopolistic misrule by the Communist Party, democracy was restored to this traditionally democratic land, thanks to the bloodless Prague "Velvet Revolution." This was also a turning point in the aims and the activities of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. The establishment of contacts and cooperation with Czechoslovakia in various areas of arts and sciences has henceforth become the principal focus of the Society's activities. This reorientation of the aims and the priorities of the Society was agreed upon and advocated at a special meeting of the SVU Collegium of Presidents, convened on February 2-3, 1990. At the initiative of the Past Presidents of the Society, the Executive Board established a special fund to aid Czechoslovakia. In addition, individual SVU Chapters started their own fund-raising drives, some of which were quite successful, particularly those in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA.

Following the initial euphoria, which prevailed both within and outside Czechoslovakia, there soon came realization that the country is in great economic straits. Even more importantly, there was the consensus that the cultural and scientific institutions, as well as the education system, as a whole, will need a great deal of help to be brought up to par with the Western World, from which they were forcefully isolated for more than four decades.

Inasmuch as the overall situation in Czechoslovakia was still in a state of flux, Past Presidents of the Society recommended that a delegation of experts from the ranks of SVU be sent to Czechoslovakia to establish initial contacts with the major scientific and cultural institutions and make preliminary assessment of the magnitude of problems Czechoslovakia is facing, particularly in those areas where the Society has a comparative advantage.

At the recommendation of the Collegium of Past Presidents, the Executive Board approved the creation of SVU Commission for Cooperation with Czechoslovakia and a narrower Planning, Policy and Coordination Council. The latter body comprised of Prof. Zdeněk Slouka, Chairman, and Dr. Alexej B. Bořkovec, Dr. Andrew Eliáš, Dr. Thomas Gibián, Prof. Jiří Nehněvajsa, Dr. Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., Dr. Zdeněk Suda, Dr. Michael Šumichrast, and Prof. Jan F. Tříska.

Under the leadership of Prof. Slouka, the Commission sponsored two four-week seminars in Prague and Olomouc during the first post-revolutionary summer in Czechoslovakia: an economic seminar at Charles University and a social science seminar at Palacký University. The Prague seminar for economists was led by Prof. George J. Staller of Cornell University, while the social science seminar in Olomouc was designed and led by Prof. Zdeněk Suda of the University of Pittsburgh.

The SVU Commission established close ties with the Charter 77 Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the International Institute of Education, IREX, and other organizations which have an active interest in assisting East European countries. In addition, the Commission and its Council began systematically developing cooperative links with Czech and Slovak institutions. Responding favorably to the Council's request, the Executive Board decided to hold the Sixteenth SVU World Congress in Czechoslovakia in 1992.

In June, 1990, Prof. Igor Nábělek, together with several members of the Executive Board, had an opportunity to visit President Havel, who expressed appreciation to the Society for the work done on behalf of Czechoslovak culture.

In September of the same year, Prof. Zdeněk Slouka led a delegation to Czechoslovakia, comprising of a working group of the Council which included Prof. Jan F. Tříska, Prof. Paul Trenský, Dr. Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr. and Prof. Anton Novacký, as was originally recommended by the Collegium of Presidents. This working group further extended the Society's cooperative links with the Czech and Slovak universities, academies of science, governmental agencies, and a variety of institutions. At the outset of the visit, the working group held two conferences at Charles University. The first was attended by about 30 rectors, pro-rectors and deans of most Czechoslovak universities and by the officers of both science academies. The second included over forty leading scholars and scientists. Subsequently, the group went to Bratislava where it held comparable meetings with the officials and scientists of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovak universities and representatives of the Ministry of Education. Out of this work, extending over two weeks and including visits to dozens of Czech and Slovak educational research institutions, the working group of the Council prepared an extensive report entitled: "Czechoslovakia: Knowledge, Skills and Learning - Critical Assessment of Needs and Absorptive Capacities." The report, with specific recommendations, was made available to various funding agencies, foundations and endowments.

In 1991, the Society also activated its SVU Research Institute and put Zdeněk Slouka in charge. The Institute did a lot of work in Czechoslovakia, especially in the first post-revolutionary days. Among other, it conducted a 7-year series of workshops on research management and the art of "grantsmanship" in Prague, Brno, Bratislava and Košice, with the participation of researchers, university administrators and science policy makers, representing practically every major university in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as the Czech and Slovak Academies of Sciences.

The general membership meets each year at the annual General Assembly, the highest statuary organ of the Society. Its governing bodies, the Executive Board and the Council, are elected every two years. All SVU officers work as volunteers and receive no compensation from the Society.

Present membership of the Society is some 3,000. It is scattered throughout the world, but concentrated in the U.S., Canada and Europe, the majority being associated with academic or research institutions. SVU members can be found in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Grenada, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Mexico, England, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Israel, Iraq, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Japan, South Africa. Since the Velvet Revolution, we also have a large membership in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Among the more than sixty names on the SVU Honor Roll are outstanding individuals such as historian Francis Dvornik, historian Otakar Odložilík, linguist Roman Jakobson, conductor Rafael Kubelík, pianist Rudolf Firkušný, opera singer Jarmila Novotná, artist Oskar Kokoschka, mathematician Václav Hlavatý, literary scholar Rene Wellek, social scientist Karl W. Deutsch, playwright and President Václav Havel, novelist Egon Hostovský, novelist Milan Kundera, writer Bohumil Hrabal, poet and Nobel Prize laureate Jaroslav Seifert, composer Eugen Suchon and scores of others of international renown.

Although the Society takes pride as having in its midst many outstanding intellectuals and professionals, the Society is no elitist group. It is a democratic and open society that admits anyone who subscribes to its aims.

In recognition of outstanding record as scholars and scientists, the Society may elect selected SVU members as Fellows of the Society, upon recommendations of their peers.

Throughout its history, the Society has had numerous local chapters worldwide, including such locations as Washington, DC, Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Albany, Cleveland, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Central Texas, Minneapolis, Lincoln, NE, Spillville, IA; Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Vancouver; Melbourne, Sydney, Perth; Wellington; Pretoria; London, Stuttgart, Basel-Bern-Zurich, Vienna; Prague, Brno, Plzeň, Olomouc, Bratislava, Košice, and Prešov; and even in Tokyo, Japan.

Since its inception, the Society has been true to its nonpolitical character and intends to do so in the future. This in no way mitigates the Society's firm adherence to fundamental values and principles of a democratic political culture. As reaffirmation of its stand, the General Assembly, convened at the Millennium SVU World Congress in Washington in 2000, approved the following statement: "Projecting its past record into the future, the Society shall protect its nonpolitical stance by (1) not subscribing to any political ideology nor affiliating with any political party, movement, group, or their functions, while cooperating with all who share and promote the values held by the Society; and (2) not allowing itself to be guided by or to become the instrument of any government of other power based organizations, while maintaining friendly and productive relations with those of democratic persuasion and record. In all of its undertakings, the Society shall continue its efforts toward enhancing the values of human tolerance and of freedom of spirit and thought. Without them, cultural growth falters and enlightened democracy decays."

To be sure, SVU has always been in the forefront whenever there was a question of violations of human rights or personal freedom. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 SVU sent out a Memorandum to 1000 universities in the free world protesting against the occupation and against the decline of public morality in the world, and pleaded for help for the increasing numbers of refugees escaping from Czechoslovakia. Similarly, it protested against persecution of Czech and Slovak intellectuals and the Chartists, against imprisonment of Václav Havel, as it always did whenever basic human rights or the Helsinki Accords were violated. In 1990, when Czechoslovakia considered break up into two separate entities, SVU strongly urged the nation against such action. More recently, SVU has launched an effort toward reestablishing civil society in the old homeland.

The reputation of the Society was firmly established after its successful First World Congress, held April 20-22, 1962 in Washington, DC, and attended by more than 200 scholars, scientists, and artists throughout the world. There were some sixty papers read at these meetings, their subject ranging from linguistics to sociology and science. I had the responsibility for arranging the program.

This was followed by the Second Congress on September 11-13, 1964, on the campus of Columbia University in New York City. I had the pleasure again of organizing the program. This time, about 120 papers were presented by scholars - not just by the Society members but also by a number of invited guests from all over the United States, Canada, South America, Australia and Western Europe. The papers covered most major fields of intellectual endeavor, including history, literature and linguistics, music and fine arts, social sciences, and the biological and physical sciences. A special feature of the program was a symposium "Czechoslovakia and its Neighbors: Nationalism vs. Federalism," in which many distinguished scholars of different national background debated the issues which led to nationalistic conflicts in East-Central Europe. Another symposium was organized to evaluate the era of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Finally, the situation in present Czechoslovakia, i.e., the cultural, social, economic, political, and international aspects, was examined during three separate sessions. Another feature of the Congress was a Czechoslovak Literary Evening, to which the leading contemporary Czech and Slovak writers and poets living abroad were invited to read from their works. There were two exhibits at the Congress, one featuring Czechoslovak fine arts and the other books on Czechoslovakia, as well as books and music by Czechoslovak authors and composers abroad.

Since then, every even year, the Society has convened a SVU World Congress. The program includes presentations of scholarly papers, discussion panels, concerts, artistic exhibits and social events. The lecture program covers a wide range of subjects and disciplines, providing platforms for vigorous exchanges of views. The lectures, seminars and symposia, as well as printed materials, are generally presented in English.

The first fifteen World Congresses were held in the U.S. or Canada, usually on university campuses. In 1992 the SVU Sixteenth World Congress was held for the first time, in Prague and Bratislava, a major event bringing together more than 400 active participants from overseas and some 1,000 from Czechoslovakia. The Seventeenth World Congress, also held in Prague, had as its central theme "Czech and Slovak Contributions to World Culture". Apart from this topic, the program also included specialized scientific workshops and conferences in such areas as medicine, agriculture, forestry, and environment.

Practically all subsequent conferences were held in the Czech Republic or Slovakia. Thus 1996 Congress was held in Brno, the 1998 Congress in Bratislava, the 2002 Congress in Plzeň and the 2004 Congress in Olomouc. In the Millennium year 2000, the SVU Congress was convened in Washington, DC.

The SVU has now established the practice of convening a special Regional Conference every other year, usually in between the World Congresses. These conferences are smaller than the congresses and are usually focused on specific topic.

In 1999, a conference entitled "Czech and Slovak America: Quo Vadis?," was held at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in conjunction with the visit of President of Czech Republic Václav Havel. In 2001, there was a conference at the University of Nebraska with the general theme "The Czech and Slovak Legacy in the America: Preservation of Heritage with the Accent on Youth." The last conference, convened in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on June 26-28, 2003. The conference, which was organized under the patronage of the Presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics, Václav Klaus and Rudolf Schuster, respectively, at Coe College, had as its general theme "The Czech and Slovak Presence on America: A Retrospective Look and Future Perspectives." Another conference was organized in North Miami, Florida, on 17-20 March 2005. The Conference with it central theme "Czech and Slovak Heritage on Both Sides of the Atlantic" was held in conjunction with the Festival of the American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club of North Miami. It was co-sponsored by the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad under the aegis of both, the Czech and the Slovak Presidents, Václav Klaus and Ivan Gašparovič, respectively.

For its members, and included in the membership fee, the SVU publishes a newsletter in the English and Czech/Slovak languages. In addition, the SVU members, as well as others, may subscribe to an English periodical of scholarly and literary substance, the semi-annual Kosmas - Czechoslovak and Central European Journal.

During the communist era in Czechoslovakia the Society published a Czech and Slovak literary and humanistic periodical Proměny-Premeny (Metamorphoses) for nearly thirty years, which frequently included articles by forbidden authors and which was widely respected among intellectuals in the oppressed Czechoslovakia. A recently updated SVU Directory, now in 8th edition, lists over 3,000 biographical entries. It features a historical chronological overview of SVU officers and various activities of the Society, including its publications and SVU awards. It includes detailed subject and geographical indexes of members.

Among its books, mention should be made of René Wellek's Essays on Czech Literature, the Anthology of Czech Poetry, edited by Alfred French, the voluminous SVU Congress Proceedings, edited by Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., under the title, The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture and the two-volume set Czechoslovakia Past and Present, Joseph Chada's The Czechs in the United States, Roman Jakobson's Studies in Verbal Art, Matthew Spinka's English translation of Jan Amos Komenský's (Comenius) The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, Peter Kussi's translation of Arne Novák's Czech Literature, and Anthology of Czech Prose, translated and edited by William E. Harkins, Václav Havel's essays Do ruzných stran: Eseje a články z let 1983-1989 and Charta '77, 1977-1989, edited by Vilém Přechan.

Transformace české a slovenské společnosti na prahu nového milenia a její úloha v současném globálním světě. Sborník vybraných příspěvků 21. světového kongresu Společnosti pro vědy a umění. 24.-30 června 2002 Plzeň. Pod záštitou prezidenta České republiky Václava Havla. Plzeň: Zapadočeská univerzita v Plzni, Fakulta humanitních studií, 2003. Publisher: Aleš Čeněk, Dobrá voda u Pelhřimova, 2003. Print: Jaroslav Samek, Pelhřimov.

Evoluce člověka a antropologie recentních opulací. Sborník panelu 21. Světového kongresu Československé společnosti pro vědy a umění. Plzeň, 24.-30. června 2002. Editoři: Vladimír Sadek, Patrik Galeta, Vadimír Blažek. In: Biologická anropologie Sborník 1. Katedra sociální a kulturní antropologie, Fakulta humanitních studií ZČU v Plzni. Publisher: Aleš Čeněk, Dobrá voda u Pelhřimova, 2003. Print: Jaroslav Samek, Pelhřimov.

Essays on Czech Music. By Zdenka E. Fischmann. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs, 2002. Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York. 187 p.

Chut' ztraceného domova - The Taste of a Lost Homeland - An Anthology of Exile Poetry. A Bilingual Anthology of Czech and Slovak Exile Poetry Written in America. Compiled and edited by Věra Bořkovec. Washington, DC: Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), 2002. 170 p.

Czechs Americans in Transition. A collection of papers based on presentations made at the 1997 Conference of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Belton, TX on July 12-13, 1997. Edited by Clinton Machann. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1990. 136 p.

SVU Directory. Organization, Activities and Biographies of Members. Compiled by Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., Eva Rechcígl, and Jiří Eichler. Washington, DC: SVU Press, 2003. 368 p. — An impressive publication comprised of some 3,000 biographical entries of individual members, listing their addresses, telephone numbers and e-mails, apart from information of their education, publications and the areas of their expertise. It includes classification of members by subject and by geographical location. In many respects, it represents the "cream of the crop" of the Czech and Slovak intellectuals and other professionals interested in Czech/Slovak matters and affairs. An indispensable source of information for scholars, students and professionals interested in the thing Czech or Slovak. The SVU Directory, now in its 8th edition, has always been the SVU bestseller and it is the best business card SVU has to offer its members.

Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorabilia. Olomouc-Ostrava: Centrum pro československá exilová studia při Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, 2004. 142 p. — Listing of historic sites and monuments in the US that have some bearing on Czech immigrants, their life and activities in their new homeland. Based on comprehensive survey, undertaken by SVU, in cooperation with the major Czech-American organizations, associated with the National Heritage Commission, as part of their effort to preserve the Czech heritage in the US. Important resource for scholars and students and community leaders.

Czechoslovak Archivalia, 2 Vols. Olomouc-Ostrava: Centrum pro československá exilová studia pri Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, 2004. 206 p., 368 p. — Listing of US-based archival materials and library holdings relating to émigrés and exiles from the territory of former Czechoslovakia and relevant holdings bearing on their ancestral land. Based on comprehensive survey undertaken by SVU in cooperation with the National Heritage Commission. The first volume encompasses US government repositories, university-based collections, collections maintained by public museums and libraries, collections of ethnic and other cultural organizations. The second volume covers personal papers and collections, including notable personalities, as well as lesser known individuals, emigrants and exiles, who have distinguished themselves in public life and professions. It is an indispensable resource for scholars and students.

The Transformation of Czech and Slovak Societies on the Threshold of the New Millennium and their Role in the Global World. Selected Papers from the 21st World Congress, University of West Bohemia, Plzen, Czech Republic, June 23-30, 2002. Edited by Jan P. Skalný and Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2004. 640 p. — It includes selected English papers from the 21st SVU World Congress. As the general theme implies, the aim of the Congress proceedings was to look at the Czech and Slovak society, from various aspects, with the perspective of the future in the new Millennium. In addition to the main theme, there were other sessions relating to Czech and Slovak matters, including the Czechs and Slovaks abroad and the preservation of Czech and Slovak cultural heritage abroad. Various facets covered encompassed history, politics, law, economics, business, civil society, women's issues, religion, environment, information technology, international relations, media and journalism, etc. There was hardly a subject or discipline that was not included. A separate section is devoted to Czech and Slovak Americans on Behalf of their Homeland.

Czech and Slovak American Archival Materials and their Preservation. Proceedings of the Working Conference on Czech and Slovak American Archival Materials, held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies, Washington, DC, 2003. Prague: Prague Edition Ltd., 2004. 166 p.

The new SVU Website at http://svu2000.org was established by Mila Rechcígl and Jiří Eichler at the end of the year indicated in its Internet address. In the first two years of operation, SVU Website was visited by nearly eighteen thousand visitors and at the end of 2003 the count exceeded 25,000. The website provides basic information about SVU and its various activities. In addition it is an excellent source of information on Czech and Slovak history and culture and other matters relating to Czechs and Slovaks. It also provides a wealth of information on Czechs and Slovaks abroad, especially in America, genealogy, etc.

To date, the Society has organized twenty-two SVU World Congresses, thirteen European and nineteen American and Canadian conferences, over thirty art exhibits, more than fifty musical and drama productions, and more than twenty book displays. Furthermore, it has published some one hundred books and monographs, four periodicals, besides sponsoring or providing support to some eighty other publications. There must have been more than 3,000 lectures presented at various SVU World Congresses and Conferences, some of which were in the context of symposia or discussion panels. In addition to the above, each Local Chapter has organized meetings, lectures, discussions, exhibits and social functions. This is a remarkable achievement, indeed.

In the opinion of many, SVU does not have an equal in the history of Czechs and Slovaks. The Czechs in America, even during the period of their greatest upsurge, were unable to achieve anything like this, nor did the Czechoslovak exile during the World War II, when the money was available. For that, matter I cannot think of any other nation which would create anything comparable.

Since the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the Society has been instrumental in assisting the fledgling democracies in reestablishing the normal functions of a free society, through material assistance, lectures, seminars, and workshops, and most of all, through the personal expertise and experience of its members. This emphasis will continue in the future.

The Society also recognizes, however, its obligations toward Czech and Slovak emigrants, as well as members of other ethnic groups who migrated from the territory of the former Czechoslovakia, and is committed to supporting certain activities for the preservation of their cultural heritage and the fostering of their cultural contacts with the Czechlands and Slovakia.

Above all, the Society is interested in encouraging young people, whether they are Czech and Slovak students who want to enhance their educational opportunities abroad, or North American students or those of other nationalities who wish to make Czech and / or Slovak culture the focus of their professional careers.

Rechcígl, Miloslav, Jr. and Eva Rechcígl, Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences 1958-1988. Washington, DC: SVU Press, 1988. 73 pp.

Rechcígl, Miloslav, Jr. "Milestones in the History of the Society," in: SVU Directory 1992. Edited by Eva Rechcígl and Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr. Washington, DC: SVU Press, 1992, pp. 4-76.

Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., Eva Rechcígl and Jiří Eichler. SVU Directory. Organization, Activities and Biographies of Members. 8th ed. Washington, DC: SVU Press, 2003. 368 pp.

Rechcígl, Miloslav, Jr., Ed. The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture. The Hague-Paris-London, Mouton & Co., 1964. 682 pp.

Rechcígl, Miloslav, Jr., Ed. Czechoslovakia Past and Present. Vol. I. Political, International, Social, and Economic Aspects. The Hague-Paris-London, Mouton & Co., 1968. 878 pp.; Vol. II. Essays on the Arts and Sciences. The Hague-Paris-London, Mouton & Co., 1968. 879-1889 pp.

On July 12 and 13, 1997, I had the pleasure of organizing, jointly with Clinton Machann, an SVU Conference, entitled “Czech-Americans in Transition: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future.” The conference was held in conjunction with the historic celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas (SPJST) in Belton, Texas. At this conference, educators, historians, social scientists, librarians, and other scholars joined with businesspeople and community leaders to discuss key issues facing Czech-Americans and Slovak-Americans today: the preservation of language, folklore and folk art; ethnic history and genealogy; fraternal and cultural activities; the establishment and maintenance of archives, libraries, and cultural centers. As a result of the deliberations, the Conferees came up with a Proclamation, co-signed by Presidents of SVU and SPJST, which included the following language:

“United in a commonality of purpose, the undersigned believe that this historic event will mark the beginning of a warm friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation between the SPJST and SVU. Like other citizens of the United States and Canada, nations which thrive on cultural and racial diversity, the members of our organizations realize that there is no conflict between our loyalty to and love for the country where we live and our desire to preserve the rich and distinctive cultural heritage of our ethnic origins. We are also hopeful that activities such as the conference in Belton will enhance the social, cultural, political, and commercial relations between North America and Central Europe. In this spirit, we will do our best to preserve the Czech, as well as the Slovak, cultural heritage in North America, and we call on all interested men and women to help us in this endeavor - particularly in efforts to encourage our children to learn about their heritage and to establish and promote cultural and language programs at universities throughout the United States and Canada, as well as educational exchanges with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Following the Velvet Revolution of November 1989, the members of many Czech and Slovak organizations in the United States and other Western countries felt that their work was done, but this feeling was premature. Our work has only begun, and cooperation among our various organizations is essential. We propose to establish a Cultural Heritage Commission, which would initially consist of representatives from the SVU and SPJST and later incorporate representatives of other major Czech and Slovak organizations in North America. “

Two months after this conference I suggested to the Czech Ambassador Alexandr Vondra, who participated in the Texas Conference, to have a follow-up conference which we would entitle “The Czech Republic and Czech Americans on their Way to a Common Future,” to which he readily agreed. The conference was held at the Czech Embassy in Washington on 18-19 October 1997.

At the official invitation of Ambassador Vondra, officers and representatives of Czech American organizations throughout the US met with the Embassy officials and government representatives from the Czech Republic, including Senator Michael Žantovský, to discuss strategies for broader cooperation. Close to 100 participants gathered for two days to discuss the ways of preserving the rich heritage of the past generations of Czech-Americans. Promoting strong relations between the Czech Republic and the United States also ranked high on the agenda of the conference reflecting the historic moment for the CR: an invitation to become a member of the NATO marks the return of the Czech Republic to the family of Western nations. The participants showed strong support for this cause. The Conference approved two resolutions, one calling for the US Senate to give its full and unequivocal support to the candidacy of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland for admission to the North Atlantic Alliance. The second resolution focused on the preservation of Czech-American cultural heritage emphasized support for the establishment of the cultural Commission. A partial text of the latter Resolution is reproduced below:

“... We who have participated in the Washington Conference resolve to support the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences and the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas in establishing the Cultural Heritage Commission. The Commission will aid already existing organizations in gathering and disseminating information, coordinating and publicizing their efforts to preserve Czech heritage, and suggesting new strategies for joint action (e.g., surveying historic sites of particular significance to Czech-Americans). The continuing neglect and destruction of archival records, gradual decline of the Czech language in America, and disappearance of some of the traditional Czech-American organizations make this an urgent mission.

The Washington Conference reflected Ambassador Vondra’s commitment and

confer with the guardians of Czech heritage, pride, and culture in the United States with the goal of strengthening cultural, economic, and political ties between Czechs and Americans. Topics of discussion included issues related to the preservation and development of the Czech heritage in the United States, including historical sites and monuments; the political influence of the Czech-American community; and the possibility of future economic and political cooperation between Americans and Czech business and political leaders.

United in a commonality of purpose, we believe that this historic event will strengthen ties between the United States and the Czech Republic. Like other citizens of the United States, a nation which thrives on cultural and racial diversity, the members of our organizations realize that there is no conflict between our loyalty to and love for the country where we live and our desire to preserve the rich and distinctive cultural heritage of our ethnic origins. We are also hopeful that activities such as this conference will enhance the social, cultural, political, and commercial relations between the two countries.

In this spirit, we will do our best to preserve the Czech cultural heritage in North America, and we call on all interested men and women to help us in this endeavor - particularly in efforts to encourage our children to learn about their heritage - and to establish and promote cultural and language programs throughout the United States, as well as educational exchanges with the Czech Republic.

Armed with a strongly worked resolution from the 1997 Embassy’s Conference, I then went ahead with approaching the major Czech-American organizations with the request that they join the newly established Commission.

Knowing how sensitive various organizations and their officers were, I was very careful in my correspondence not to give the impression that we want to somehow rule their organization but rather stressing that the proposed Heritage Commission is just an umbrella organization whose main task was to assure that something is being done towards preserving our common cultural heritage. We had no interest in interfering with any of their ongoing activities. The Commission was to aid already existing organizations in gathering and disseminating information, coordinating and publicizing their efforts to preserve Czech heritage, and suggesting new strategies for joint action (e.g., surveying historic sites of particular significance to Czech-Americans). I pointed out that the continuing neglect and destruction of archival records, gradual decline of the Czech language in America, and disappearance of some of the traditional Czech-American organizations make this an urgent mission. On the advice of our legal counsel, we planned the Commission as an informal and voluntary entity, without any bylaws or incorporation, otherwise, because of various legalities, we would not have been able to come to a quick agreement. Just about all major societies, that I contacted, enthusiastically, accepted our invitation and promised their support. The list of the organizations that joined is given below:

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas (SPJST) Czechoslovak National Council of America (CNCA) American Sokol Organization (ASO) CSA Fraternal life (CSA) Western Fraternal Life Association (WFLA) Czech Catholic Union (CCU) Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas (RVOS) Czech Heritage Society of Texas (CHST) Czech Educational Foundation of Texas (CEFT) Texans of Czech Ancestry (TOCA) Czech and Slovak Heritage Association of Maryland (CSHA) Bohemian Benevolent Literary Association of the City of New York (BBLA) Moravian Heritage Society (MHS) Nebraska Czechs, Inc. Nebraska Czechs of Wilbur (NCW) Oklahoma Czechs American Czech-Slovak Cultural Club of North Miami (ACSCC) American Friends of Czech Republic (AFoCR) Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, Prague (CSUZ) Náprstek Museum, Prague

Of all the organizations, that I contacted, only genealogists dragged their feet, particularly the Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International. We had an endless back and forth correspondence with them, during which they demanded all sorts of information on legal aspects, size of our paying membership and even inquiring about our finances. They finally gave us a negative response, claiming that they have their own work to do, and their own priorities, of which the preservation of Czech/Slovak cultural heritage in America is not one. Not even the intervention of the Czech Ambassador himself affected their position. Considering their unexplainable attitude, I subsequent severed my association with them, although I used to be their member from the very beginning and was a frequent contributor to their periodical.

This survey was the first part of our large effort to preserve Czech and Slovak cultural heritage abroad, undertaken by SVU, in cooperation with the National Heritage Commission. I had the pleasure of directing it, and, in fact, also carrying it out. The effort was endorsed by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad702 and the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided partial funding. The effort was prompted by the concern for the sad state of Czech historical monuments and memorabilia, as well as for the continuous loss of historically important archival materials regarding the life and work of the Czech immigrants and their descendants. Although the focus is on Czech memorabilia, considering the frequent difficulties in separating Czech from Slovak materials, the relevant Slovak and Czechoslovak materials were also to be included. We eventually hoped to enlarge the project to cover all Slovak materials with cooperation from the Slovak-American organizations. Although some of the Czech ethnic organizations provided us with some useful information, for the most part, I was left with the responsibility of finding the pertinent information. Some information is based on the personal visitation of the relevant sites, while other comes from a variety of secondary sources, published or unpublished. The task was completed by the end of 1999. The results of the survey were included in a special report, entitled “Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorabilia. A Tentative Listing.” The report, which contained some 112 pages, was printed only in a few copies and was made available only to the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is a tentative listing of historic sites and monuments that have some bearing on Czech immigrants in America, their lives and activities in their new homeland. The sites include historical buildings, schools, museums, churches, cabins, synagogues, cemeteries, libraries, community halls, parks, gardens, monuments, statues, historic markers, commemorative plagues, etc. The listing was arranged by individual states and cities. Whenever possible, each entry included the location of the site with some descriptive material and an historical account. This was the first attempt ever to compile such listing, and, as such, it is obviously not complete. In some instances, because of the pressure of time, I could not do more than simply identify the site, while in other cases, the exact address may be missing. Moreover, it is more than certain that a number of other Czech-related sites may exist which I have not been able to identify. Information which came from secondary sources will need to be verified and the current status of such sites will need to be ascertained. The revised and considerably enlarged report was later published as a monograph, under the title Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials, by the Palacký University in Olomouc in 2004, on the occasion of SVU World Congress. The compendium was organized alphabetically by the individual States of the Union and within each State by the cities or villages in which some historic sites could be found. Whenever possible or available, entries included information on the following: location, description, historical significance, and Registry (if relevant). As was clearly evident from the listing, the Czechs have been in the US from the very beginning. In fact, evidence indicates that the first colonist from Bohemia, named Joachim Ganz, put foot on American soil – on the Roanoke Island, NC - as early as 1585,some 35 years before the arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Although this first settlement on the US territory on the Outer Banks features a Festival Park with Adventure Museum, Settlement Site and History Garden, there also should be a historic marker here dedicated to the Bohemian adventurer and scientist Joachim Gans. In contrast, there are a number of places in New York and in Maryland which remind one of the work of the first permanent settler in America, Augustine Herman from Prague, who became famous for executing the first accurate map of Maryland and Virginia. Moravian Brethren, too, left visible footprints in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and many other locations, some of which unmistakably bear Czech or Bohemian names, which are included in the present compendium. Although many of the early settlements disappeared or were incorporated into larger towns, a number of them still exist today. With the increased interest in preserving America’s ethnic heritage, there is an effort on the way to save as many historical buildings and other monuments and sites of historical value as possible, as well as to mark the lost sites with historic markers

The survey of the existing archival materials, bearing on the Czech and Slovak presence in America, was sponsored by SVU, in cooperation with the major Czech-American organizations, associated in the National Heritage Commission. The undertaking was a part of the overall SVU effort toward the preservation of the Czech and Slovak cultural heritage abroad. The survey, which had full endorsement by the US Commission for the Preservation of the America’s Heritage Abroad, received partial financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. The focus of the survey was on the US-based archival materials and library holdings relating to émigrés and exiles from the territory of former Czechoslovakia and the relevant holdings bearing on their ancestral land. Although the initial focus was exclusively on the Czech element, I soon discovered the difficulty of differentiating archival material into Czech or Slovak, considering that many an individual played a role in Czechoslovakia, as a whole, irrespective of his or her ethnic background. Consequently, I decided to cover all emigrant and exile groups from the territory of former Czechoslovakia, irrespective of their ethnicity, in our survey. My initial approach was to prepare detailed survey forms and then send them to all Czech-related organizations and institutions which were thought to have archival material or publications bearing on the Czech presence in America. Despite the considerable effort put into this, including extensive follow-up via letters, telephone and electronic contact, the result was “zilch.” The probable explanation for this is the fact that practically all ethnic organizations are run by volunteers and amateurs without much professional training. Furthermore, most of their holdings are relatively small and no inventories exist.

Interestingly enough, even such major Czech repository as the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids did not, as yet, have inventory. In case of the Archives of Czechs and Slovaks in Exile, maintained by the University of Chicago, for which any inventory existed, I was told that it would take at least $100,000 to prepare one. The situation with the holdings maintained by the ethnic organizations was even worse. For example, I had been trying, for several years, to have the chief executive officer of one major Czech organization tell me what kind of material they keep in their archive, but without any success. Be that as it may, I soon discovered that a majority of Czech, and for that matter, Slovak, repository collections are, for the most part, university or government-based. It was therefore logical to search for and through various Slavic and East European collections maintained at selected American universities and other institutions. Some of these collections have detailed inventories, which is reflected in our listing. In addition, we also found several public libraries and other institutions possessing Czech-related material. Thus, the various Moravian archives, which have an obvious connection with the Bohemian Brethren, Unitas fratrum, and Moravia, have not been systematically inventoried or studied by Czech scholars. To be sure, one would have to be fluent in German. The same thing can be said about various archives relating to German-speaking people, such as Leo Baeck Institute or other American Jewish archives. Czech scholars who are knowledgeable in the German language and Hebrew would find it worthwhile to explore these rich, albeit unknown, information resources. I have completed the task in the early part of the year 2000, with the preparation of the Report, “Czechoslovak American Archivalia. US-Based Archival Material Relating to Émigrés and Exiles from the Territory of the former Czechoslovakia and Relevant Holdings Bearing on the Ancestral Land. A Tentative Listing.” The listing was divided into seven major categories, i.e., government repositories, university-based collections, collections maintained by public museums and libraries, collections of ethnic organizations, personal papers and collections, repositories abroad bearing on the subject, and finally the virtual archives on the Internet. Rules governing each of these categories are quite different; some allowing an easy access, while other require specific permission. Holdings at government institutions are usually maintained exceptionally well and this is also true about mo The largest category in our listing was entitled “Personal Papers and Collections.” These are personal papers and other documents of prominent personalities maintained in various repositories, usually under the individual’s name. The compilation is based strictly on compiler’s familiarity with the individuals’ names and their accomplishments. As a rule, these are distinct collections, and you wouldn’t find them under Czech or Slovak collections. For a researcher, these collections may be, in fact, of greater value than general Czech and Slovak collections. Since a number of archivalia and library holdings, bearing on the subject, are also kept in selected institutions in the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well as in other European countries, I thought it appropriate to include such major repositories in our listing. Some of these repositories have already inventoried their stock and actually published catalogs of their holdings. Now, that computers are gaining momentum, in practically every walk of life, we deemed it necessary to also include in our listing the virtual archives on the Internet. So far, only one reputable archive exists bearing on thing Czech or Slovak. With time, more such archives will be in evidence. Just as in the case of Czech-American historic sites, one should consider the present listing as tentative. The user should realize that this is the first effort of its kind and that no compilations of Czech or Slovak materials heretofore existed. It has taken the compiler an enormous effort, including correspondence, personal or telephone contact, and above all, a systematic and painstaking research to find relevant collections, based on compiler’s intimate knowledge of Czech and Slovak ethnic immigration history. The compiler is well aware that this is only a beginning and that the work will have to continue. Nevertheless, the listing represents an important step forward. It is a firm foundation to which more information can be added. Frankly, one cannot but be impressed with the information that has already been gathered. There is plenty of information on hand for many years of scholars’ intensive work. With the increased interest in preserving America’s ethnic heritage, there is an effort afoot to save as many historical buildings and other monuments as possible. We should equally, if not more so, be concerned with preserving our spiritual legacy, i.e., archival material and other precious documents bearing on the life and contributions of our ancestors. It is not so much the material that is already being maintained in some government or university archives, but it is the material about which we don’t know, material which is hidden in some box or stashed away in an old file in the basement or cellar of a former officer of some ethnic organization. It is a challenge for anyone to find these lost treasures!

Just as my previous survey relating to Czech-American historic sites, on the occasion of SVU Congress in Olomouc, Palacký University published the present survey of archival materials in a book forms, actually as 2 volumes, under the title Czechoslovak American Archivalia (2004).

In the days 22-23 November 2003, SVU, together with the Embassies of the Czech and Slovak Republics in Washington, DC, organized a special working conference related to the preservation of Czech and Slovak archival materials in America.

This was indeed a Czech-Slovak undertaking because, on the first day, the Conference took place on the grounds of the Czech Embassy and on the second day on the grounds of the Slovak Embassy, with the Czech Ambassador Martin Palouš and Slovak Ambassador Rastislav Káčer participating.

This was truly a working conference, as clearly expressed by Senator Moserová, who said that this was the first useful conference of that year, one which made sense and had a definite purpose. The Conference was attended by specialists and representatives of the most important archival institutions, both in America and in the Czech and Slovak Republics which dealt with the documentation of the Czech and Slovak America or with the relationships between Czechoslovakia and its Succession States and America. The importance of the Conference was evident in that Czech and Slovak media reported on its proceedings each day and even carried an interview with me, in my coordinator’s role of the Conference. “

There are many archival materials throughout America, and we are afraid that they might be destroyed...... ninety percent of the material can be found in the basements and attics of individuals and society officers,” the statement I made at the outset of the conference, was, in fact, the impetus, which made me propose the conference, to begin with, as I told the ČTK (Czech Press). I then went on to say that often these very individuals and society presidents are not aware of the importance of the historical value of these documents and that their offspring will later discard them as worthless trash.

One of the purposes of the Conference was to bring this impending danger to the attention of Czech and Slovak ethnic organizations in America (numbering several hundreds) and to inspire them to a cooperative effort to preserve these valuable documents for the future. After all, we are dealing with some basic information about the life, suffering and work of the Czech and Slovak settlers in America, about the work of Czechoslovak exiles in America, and about the relations between the US and our homeland, which must be preserved because they are an indispensable part of our joint Czech, Slovak and American culture. These documents are irreplaceable since most of them only exist in their original form.

The United States has truly a great interest in preserving these documents which was proven by the presence of so many representatives of important American institutions and the fact that the Conference was organized under the auspices of the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, with its Chairman Warren L. Miller in attendance. It should be noted that Mr. Miller had been appointed to this function by the President of the US.

The representatives of the Czech Republic, as well as the representatives of the Slovak Republic, have the same interest and many of their archival institutions would welcome receiving these materials. As I pointed out during the meetings, there is so much material that it cannot be deposited in a single archive. What matters is that the material be deposited in a secure place, that is well taken care of and made available to the public, regardless of where it is deposited.

This unique Conference, doubtlessly, served its purpose and surpassed even the expectations of the organizers. It was the first time that the most important ‘players’ on both sides of the Atlantic were able to meet. These were not only archivists and scholars, but also government representatives, community leaders and members of various Czech and Slovak ethnic organizations in America. This was the first important step taken for forming a working base for cooperative work toward the single goal of preserving these valuable documents for the future.

As a result of this Conference, its participants unanimously adopted a Resolution which stressed the importance of preserving the referenced archival materials for the future and spelled out the agenda and enumerated concrete steps toward the attainment of this goal. As was clearly stated, the proposed actions are feasible only with the full participation of the Czech and Slovak communities in the US and Canada.

The Conference ended with the appeal to all respective Czech and Slovak ethnic organizations in the US and Canada, and for that matter, other comparable organizations worldwide to lend their hand for this common and significant endeavor. The mechanism for such cooperation is already in place in the recently created umbrella organization “The National Heritage Commission” to which most of the important Czech American ethnic organizations belong. It would be desirable to have the Slovak organizations join in as well.’

The Conference Proceedings, which I edited, were published in record time in Prague. Inspired by our work, our Czech colleagues in Prague decided to hold a similar two-day symposium in the Czech Republic, as a part of SVU World Congress in České Budějovice on 27-28 June 2006. The Symposium papers were subsequently published by the National Archive in Prague. I had the pleasure also contributing a paper to this collection.

As a direct result of the Working Conference on Czech and Slovak American Archival Materials, which convened in Washington on 22-23 November 2003, a new Consortium was established, composed of the archival institutions in America, as well as in the Czech and Slovak Republics, that have professional interest in the subject.

The overall aim of the Consortium was a genuine concern for the preservation of the Czech and Slovak archival materials in America, as well as other parts of the world.

As jointly agreed, specific objectives of the consortium include:

1. to provide a platform and forum for communication and discussion of issues among the Consortium members;

2. to establish working linkages and encourage cooperation among the archives at universities and public libraries and other relevant institutions maintained or supported by government or private sector;

3. to establish an information system to help the archivists and the scholars, as well as the donors, about the availability of the existing archives and their inventories and the policies of the relevant archival institutions;

4. to assist with the surveying of Czech and Slovak American archival materials kept in private hands;

5. to publicize the need to preserve the relevant materials among the ethnic organizations and other potential donors and to foster the efforts leading to their eventual transfer to a suitable repository;

6. to assist with collection development and acquisition, including the efforts to prevent needless duplication and scattering of the same or similar archival materials at different repositories;

7. to assist with collection description and assessment, and with the preservation and with the preparation of suitable guidelines and setting the standards;

8. to assist with publishing information about the archival materials;

9. to sponsor conferences and workshops;

10. to develop a joint digitalized database

The tentative list pf the members of the Consortium is given below:

USA : American Sokol - Proposed; ČSA Museum and Library – Proposed; Hoover Library, Stanford University - Blanka Pasternak; Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), University of Minnesota - Daniel Nečas; Jankola Library – Proposed; Jednota – Proposed; Leo Baeck Institute - Frank Mecklenburg; Library of Congress - Helen Fedor; Moravian Archives – Proposed; The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - Amy Schmidt; National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library - David Muhlena; New York Public Library - W. Siemasczkiewicz; Slovak Cleveland Institute & Library – Proposed; Sokol New York Library – Proposed; Czechoslovak Society of Arts and sciences (SVU) - Miloslav Rechcigl; Texas A&M University Library - David Chroust; University of Chicago – Proposed; University of Nebraska Library - Katherine L. Walter; University of Wisconsin - Milan Hauner; US Holocaust Memorial Museum - Henry L. Mayer

Canada: University of Ottawa - M. Mark Stolarik

Czech Republic: Czech Academy of Sciences - Archives – Proposed; Center for Study of Science in Exile, ASCR & Charles University; Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Zdeněk Lyčka, Tomáš Kryl; Czech Ministry of Interior - Lenka Linhartová, Vácslav Babička – Proposed; Czech National Archives (SUA) - Jiří Křesťan, Michal Ďurovič; Czech National Museum – Proposed; Czech National Library – Proposed; Czechoslovak Documentation Center - Vilém Prečan – Proposed; Institute of Contemporary History, ASČR - Přemysl Tůma; Libri prohibiti – Proposed; Masaryk Institute – Proposed; Náprstek Museum – Proposed; Památnik Národního písemnictví – Proposed; Palacký University - Karel Konečný. Slovak Republic: Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences; Matica slovenská – Proposed; Slovak Foreign Policy Association - Pavol Lukáč; Slovak Government - Lubica Bartalská – Proposed; Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Archives - Jozef Sedlon; Slovak National Archives - Proposed Subsequently, I sent the following open letter to Presidents of Czech and Slovak American organizations throughout the US.’

Ever since its founding in 1958, our Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) has been concerned with what to do with its archival material, the volume of which has steadily been increasing. The situation came to focus after the Society abolished its office in New York and the materials, including books, were brought to Washington where they were stored in individual members’ houses - basements, attics and garages. This was only a temporary measure until the Society would find a permanent place for their storage.

After the end of my two-term Presidency in 1978, I myself accumulated a large amount of SVU documents which I kept, to my wife’s dismay, in my study. In as much as I have continued working for the Society in various capacities, I kept accumulating more and more material so that, after several years, there were so many boxes in my room that we had difficulty walking around, not to speak about the possibility of cleaning the room.

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, none of the SVU Presidents, nor any other officer, came forth with an idea for the solution. It was not until my return to SVU Presidency in the mid-nineties, when I made the preservation of our Czech and Slovak heritage abroad one of our priorities, that I became involved in the matter in earnest.

After conducting a comprehensive survey of Czechoslovak-related archival materials in the US, I came to realization that many of the archival materials in the US are in great danger of being destroyed or lost, unless they are deposited in some permanent repository for safekeeping. SVU would be one of the victims.

From that point on, I began searching for a suitable place where the SVU archives could be deposited so that the materials could be preserved for the future. I talked to a number of my friends and acquaintances at various universities and other institutions and, in addition, browsed on INTERNET for pertinent information. I did not confine my search to the US alone but also considered the possibility of moving the materials to the Czech or Slovak Republics.

Among the various possible sites that came to mind were institutions like Hoover Institution in California, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia,719 Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) in Minnesota. National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library in Cedar Rapids, Czech and Slovak Archives in Exile at the University of Chicago, Library of Congress and several university libraries that maintained Czech and/or Slovak collections. In the Czech Republic, I broached the subject with archivists at the Academy of Sciences of ČR, the Czech National Archives, the Náprstek Museum, The Institute of Contemporary History, all located in Prague, and at the Czechoslovak Exile Studies Archives at Palacký University in Olomouc. Of these institutions, the Czech Academy, the State Central Archives and the Palacký University were eager to get our materials. Under normal circumstances, I am sure, we would have considered their offers quite seriously. However, after what I heard from my colleagues of their experiences with the Czech and Slovak repositories, I was reluctant to move our material there, partly because their repositories were not up to par with the modern American facilities and partly because of their overwhelming and hopeless bureaucracy. There was also the question of transportation and its costs, which would be considerable.

Of the American repositories, from the very beginning. I favored the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC) at the University of Minnesota, which I had the chance to see in 1999, on the occasion of SVU Conference, in which President Havel participated.

For over 35 years, the Center has worked hard to collect, preserve and make available to researchers, from all over the United States and the world, archival materials documenting the experience of various immigrant communities, including the Czechs and Slovaks - and their descendants in America. The IHRC recently moved to the Elmer L. Andersen Library on the Minneapolis West Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota. The building is a new, state-of-the-art archival facility where the documents find a safe home, designed to provide an ideal environment for their preservation (constant air temperature and humidity, minimal exposure to light and dust, security features, etc.).

The collections receive professional care by the IHRC staff, which includes a Czech born archivist. Once the materials are sorted, organized, placed in non-acidic file folders and containers, and catalogued, their location at a major research university provides opportunities for academic researchers to generate scholarly articles and books contributing to the better knowledge of the history of the ethnic Americans.

In the meantime, I also became acquainted with the Czech IHRC archivist Daniel Nečas who introduced me to his superiors. They were very much interested in SVU-related materials, as well as in my father’s correspondence, which I kept in our basement since his death in 1973. We then engaged in correspondence, discussing the conditions, which led to their firm offer to accept our material, as well as that of my father’s, for their archives. They did not ask for any money for the maintenance, although they hinted that other organizations had given the IHRC financial support and even created special study funds to enable the students and scholars to do research in their archives. Our Executive Board subsequently gave its approval for the SVU materials to be transferred and deposited in the IHRC archives.

The collection contains the archive of the early SVU records (maintained by long-time SVU Secretaries General Jaroslav Nĕmec and John Lexa), meeting agendas and minutes, executive committee elections records, personal files of SVU members, correspondence pertaining to organizing the SVU World Congresses (beginning with the Washington, DC, Congress of 1962), membership applications, event announcements and programs, detailed information about the SVU publication program, which was under the direction of Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr., etc. Also well covered are the presidency terms Dr. Rechcígl, Jr., has served as the SVU president (1974-1978, 1994-present). The print section of the collection encompasses the published production of the organization, including complete or near complete sets of the SVU newsletter, Zprávy SVU, the SVU Bulletin, the Promĕny (Metamorphosis) journal, the Kosmas journal, and various monographs, almanacs and commemorative publications. Audio-visual material includes photographs, tapes of Voice of America radio programs, recordings of lectures, interviews, etc.

The SVU archive, presently comprising ca. 75 linear feet of archival and published material, is a major addition to the IHRC Czech and Slovak American collections, an excellent resource for the study of the Czech and Slovak exile communities in the United States and Canada as well as in other countries of the world where emigrants from the former Czechoslovakia found their new homes after World War II. SVU President Rechcígl plans to arrange for more archival material - pertaining to both national (and international) SVU headquarters as well as his presidency and the organization’s local chapters - to be deposited at the IHRC in the future.

The IHRC arranged for the transport of our material to Minnesota. Actually they sent their Czech archivist Daniel Nečas, accompanied by his father-in-law, with a moving van to pick up the material. The transfer took place around November 2, 2002, just before the start of the severe winter for which the state of Minnesota is famous.

They filled the van completely, up to the rim, with some 100 packing boxes and several filing cabinets, a sizeable volume of which came from our house. The other boxes came from Thomas Gibian’s attic, and George Glos’ and Andrew Eliáš’ basements. Additional material was brought to our house by Vĕra Bořkovec and Dagmar White.

In announcing this to our membership, we pointed out that the material that we had deposited in IHRC repository related primarily to SVU central archives, with realization that lots of additional SVU materials was still kept by individual SVU Local Chapters, as well as by former SVU officers. It would be an obvious advantage if all SVU material would be kept together in one place. Consequently, I called on all SVU officers to kindly assemble all of their historical material and send it to University of Minnesota to be included in the SVU Archives. It did not take long and the IHRC Website announced the acquisition of our archival material on their Website, which read as follows:

IHRC Acquires Archive of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) Three major archival collections have arrived at the IHRC. Dr. Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., of Rockville, MD, currently serving as president of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU: Společnost pro vĕdy a umĕní) donated his own papers, the papers of his father, Miloslav Rechcígl, Sr., and the archival records of the SVU. SVU Archive, ca. 1958 - present. Ca. 75 linear ft, manuscript and print materials.

This acquisition makes the IHRC the repository of the records of one of the most significant Czechoslovak organizations founded by the post- World War II exiles from the former Czechoslovakia. The SVU, headquartered in Washington, DC, was formed in 1958 after a period of preparatory negotiations by Dr. Jaroslav Nĕmec and others in the Czech and Slovak American communities. Originally, it was viewed as an initiative within the well-established Czechoslovak National Council in America, focusing on constructing a platform for the newly arrived intellectuals from Czechoslovakia, among them well-known literary scientists René Wellek, professor of linguistics at Yale; Roman Jakobson, professor of linguistics and Slavic studies at Harvard and MIT; music conductor Rafael Kubelík; physicist Václav Hlavatý (collaborator with Albert Einstein); Max Brod, interpreter, editor and one of the closest people to Franz Kafka; pianist Rudolf Firkušný; writer Egon Hostovský; Alice Masaryk, daughter of the first Czechoslovak president; diplomat Ján Papánek; and many others. The organization still exists today with membership of several thousand in dozens of countries.

Most of the documents that had been deposited in SVU Archives came primarily from the collections maintained by Dr. Jaroslav Nĕmec, Dr. John G. Lexa, Prof. René Wellek, Prof. Leopold Pospíšil and Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr. I therefore made another urgent appeal to SVU Local Chapters and past SVU officers to send to IHRC any material relating to SVU activities, reminding them that such material has historic value and that SVU cannot afford to have it lost.

In the middle of July 2005, Daniel Nečas, Assistant Archivist of the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), came to Rockville, MD to pick up the remaining documents, publications and other SVU archival materials and my own correspondence that had been kept in our house. The load comprised some 100 packed boxes, weighing over a ton. With the addition of this material to our archives in IHRC, most of the centrally maintained SVU material has thus been preserved for the future.

Since the local chapters have also accumulated significant material, I again made an appeal to them to send it to Minnesota so that all the material can be kept together.

One of the major unresolved issues that was brought up by our Working Archival Conference in Washington in 2003 was the paucity of funds to prepare inventories of the existing archival collections and to enable scholars and students to conduct research in the archives. Having this in mind, SVU, which has recently deposited its archives at the University of Minnesota’s Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), has used the of the SVU Florida Conference in 2005, to announce the establishment of a special Czech and Slovak Archival Study Fund at IHRC. In my capacity as SVU President, I had the pleasure of presenting a check, in the amount of $10,000, to Director of the Center, Prof. Rudolph Vecoli, at the banquet, attended by some 300 persons, including the representatives from the Czech and Slovak Embassies and other dignitaries, from the Czech and Slovak Republics, as well as a number of the Czech/Slovak American community leaders.

It was hoped that the SVU’s example would be infectious to inspire other Czech and Slovak ethnic organizations to join in this important and noble endeavor. When the Fund will reach the level of $25,000, the University of Minnesota will start matching these donations with their own money. Just before I stepped on the platform to announce the SVU donation, I was gratified to get a commitment from Prof. Jan Hird Pokorný, on behalf of the American Fund for Czechoslovak Relief (AFCSR), to give a comparable amount to IHRC next year.

As reported earlier, Mila Rechcigl, one of the founders and Past President of many years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) was planning to donate his SVU Files, as well as his private papers and books from his private library to University of Nebraska Library. It has now happened. On Monday, January 18, 2016, a humongous moving van, belonging to BEKINS Co., arrived in front of the Rechcigls’ residence. Two able packers completed packing the boxers, loaded the van and after 5 hours or so of hard work, the van was on its way to Nebraska.

This is the way the University of Nebraska introduced our donation:

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Archives & Special Collections is well known for Czech collections built by Joseph S. Svoboda, the first archivist of the University. At one time, one in five Nebraskans was from Bohemia or Moravia. Until now, collections have dated from the 19th Century through the Communist period in Czechoslovakia. Among archival materials are the papers of Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak emigrants to America; oral histories and materials of Czech exiles who fled the Nazis or the Communists; and significant book collections on art, literature and history.

Because of the importance of the Czech language, UNL has digitized several Czech American newspapers, found online at http://nebnewspapers.unl.edu, and provides online finding aids to manuscript collections in both English and Czech languages. Translations have been supported by UNL’s Modern Languages & Literatures Department, where Czech language and culture have long been prized.

“With the gift of the books and papers of Miloslav (Mila) Rechcigl, one of the founders of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences (SVU) and a tireless advocate of Czech-American activism, UNL’s collections gain a contemporary focus. His generosity and commitment to scholarship and the Czech heritage of Nebraska are deeply appreciated.”

Some years back (2002), The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), at the initiative of the then SVU president, Dr. Míla Rechcigl, deposited its archival material at the Immigration History Research Center (IHRC), University of Minnesota. When they ran out of space, the remainder of the archival material, which was supplemented with the missing material so that the archive was complete, was deposited at the University of Nebraska Library, Lincoln, in 2016.

Míla Rechcigl, who, in addition, has maintained his own SVU files, now (2017) donated them, together with other historical and research material, to the Palacký University, Olomouc, i.e., to the Center for Czechoslovak Exile Studies, which has established significant archival collections in this area. This way, the Czech and Slovak scholars in the Czech and Slovak Republics will have access to the most important historical material pertaining to the activities of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), at arm’s length. Some of Míla Rechcigl’s material, such as Zprávy SVU, has been provided in multiple copies, so that the other institutions may be able to complete their collections in an exchange for other publications.

In all successful bilateral dealings, negotiations and agreements, the following rule “It takes two to tango” is a sine qua non. In this connection, Míla Rechcigl wishes to acknowledge his appreciation to His Magnificence, Dr. Jaroslav Miller, Rector of the Palacký University for his foresight and willingness to accept the material on behalf of Palacký University and to H.E. Hynek Kmoníček, the Czech Ambassador to the US, for making the necessary arrangements for the transport of the material from Washington, DC to Olomouc.

As discussed earlier, I have been planning to send my publications, together with the remaining SVU archival material, I still had, to the National Archives in Prague. See my chapter “My Activities in 2020” for details. The National Archives is a state administration office as well as a central state archives directly controlled by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Taking into consideration spheres of activities of the Archives and owing to the fact that it is directly linked with the work of the central archive institutions of the Czech state (continuously from the early Middle Ages), the National Archives holds a prominent position among public archives of the Czech Republic. The seat of the National Archives is in Prague.

Among the repositories where I deposited my material, this repository has been definitely the most important one, most certainly in the Czech Republic. I have discussed the matter with Jiří Křesťan, Head of the Archival Section, whom I knew from before, who was delighted to get the papers, I have assembled for them. To make the collection as complete as possible, I have spent quite a bit of time in copying the missing documents from my computer where I had them stored.

I had invaluable assistance from the Czech Ambassador Hynek Kmoníček and his staff who helped me to make the necessary arrangements and to also pack the material and then wait for suitable time when a Czech plane would lend in Washington DC which would transport it to Prague. Everything went smoothly up to the time of Coronavirus spread, Because of the travel restrictions, we had to wait until the situation would clarify. In the meantime, the packed boxes with my papers and books were kept in the Czech Embassy.

The Society to which I devoted more time than to any other was the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). In fact, I have devoted to this Society over sixty years, having been at its cradle and having held leading positions in it.

Although I had written a comprehensive eyewitness account of SVU History, On Behalf of their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU, it is appropriate that I, at least, mention here some of the highlights of my involvement.

Thus, already in 1960-62, I served as secretary of the newly organized Washington D.C. SVU Chapter. While doing that, I was, simultaneously, responsible for organizing the program of the Society’s World Congress, held in Washington, DC in 1962. Subsequently, I also prepared the program for the Second SVU Congress held in New York in 1964. Both Congresses were a great success which put the SVU on the world map.

I also edited the lectures of both Congresses and arranged them for publication, under the title The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture and Czechoslovakia Past and Present. The publications received acclaim in the American academic circles and greatly contributed to the growing prestige of the Society worldwide.

I was also involved, one way or another, in most of the subsequent SVU World Congresses, including the SVU Congresses in Prague, Brno, Bratislava, Washington, Plzeň, Olomouc and České Budějovice, and was responsible for publishing some the Proceedings.

Early on, I was put in charge of the publication program of the Society which initiated publishing of a number of important titles, particularly in English. Beyond that, following the First SVU Congress, I was regularly elected to membership on the SVU Executive Board, holding the position of Vice President.

In 1974, when the Society found itself in financial straits, and its existence was threatened, the Nomination Committee persuaded me to run for President, in the hope that my youth and exuberance would get SVU out of its critical situation. I was elected for two two-year administrative periods, and I am glad to say, that with the help of the vigilant Executive Board, we were able to put SVU on firm footing.

After taking a break for some twenty years, after the Velvet Revolution, the Society pressured me to come back at the time when it got again into financial difficulties and when growing apathy prevailed among its members. I then served, continuously, in the capacity of SVU President from 1994 to 2006, when I decided to step down from the SVU leadership.

Together with my late wife Eva, I published eight editions of the SVU Biographical Directory, the last of which was printed in Prague in 2003. Actually, we wrote one more edition, three years later, which is available in digital format, as an e-book. I was also instrumental in launching a new English periodical Kosmas - Czechoslovak and Central European Journal.

It was my idea to establish the SVU Research Institute, which played an important role in the first years after the Velvet Revolution of 1989. Under the sponsorship of the Research Institute, together with my colleagues, I conducted a series of seminars about research management and the art of ‘grantsmanship’ for scientists and scholars, as well as for the administrators, and science policy makers, at Czech and Slovak universities, the Academies of Sciences, and the Government.

I was also instrumental in establishing the National Heritage Commission with the aim of preserving Czech and Slovak cultural heritage in America. Under its aegis, I had undertaken a comprehensive survey of Czech-related historic sites and archival materials in the US. Based on this survey, I prepared a detailed listing, Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorials which was published through the courtesy of Palacký University in Olomouc (2004). The second part of my survey, bearing the title Czechoslovak American Archivalia, was also published by Palacký University (2004).

In this connection, I also organized several important conferences, one in Texas in 1997, the second in Minnesota (1999), the third in Nebraska (2001), the fourth in Iowa (2003) and the fifth in Florida (2005).

The 1999 Conference, entitled ‘Czech and Slovak America: Quo Vadis?’ was organized in conjunction with President Havel’s visit to Minnesota. The Florida conference, ‘Czech and Slovak Heritage on Both Sides of the Atlantic,’ organized jointly with the ACSCC of North Miami, was co-sponsored by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, under the aegis of both Presidents of the Czech and Slovak Republics.

Through my initiative, a special ‘Working Conference on Czech & Slovak American Materials and their Preservation’ was held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies in Washington, DC in November 2003. It was an exceptionally successful conference which led to the establishment of the new Czech & Slovak American Archival Consortium (CSAAC).

“We did not just talk about it – We actually made it happen.”

Upon assuming SVU Presidency at our General Assembly Meeting in June 2002, I stated that I would make SVU’s initiative “Accent on Youth” our number one priority. I am pleased to report that the newly elected Executive Board has given the idea their full-hearted support.

It is my desire not only to revitalize the SVU ranks with young people but to eventually put them in the leadership roles. The young people are capable to organize our conferences and congresses, take charge of specific projects, edit monographs, etc.

We are obviously not starting from scratch. Some groundwork has already been laid, thanks to last year’s Youth Advisory Committee chaired by Anna Vysoká and by activating our SVU Forum run by Amy Garrett. Through our deliberate efforts we have also been extremely successful in the recruitment of young people and their rolls are continually growing.

We are now entering the second phase of our initiative — a proactive stage — in which we want to get the young people involved in all aspects of our work. I am therefore calling on young people to come forward and get involved. There are tremendous opportunities for anyone who has ideas and is interested in doing something that is worthwhile while also advancing his/her own professional career.

In this connection, the SVU Executive Board has already appointed a special Search Leadership Committee whose function will be to seek potential leaders among the younger generation to succeed us, whose time has come to retire from leadership roles.

In the same vein, we would also like to constitute a new committee composed entirely of young people worldwide to help us with the next rejuvenation steps and with the preparation of a meaningful agenda for the future. Anyone who would like to participate in such a committee, please let me know.

A logical place for the young people to start are our SVU Local Chapters. Although a number of these chapters are doing an outstanding job, there are some which do very little. The age factor obviously plays a role here. Not too long ago, several of our chapters ceased to exist primarily because of the inability of the local members to find suitable leaders and partly because of the unwillingness of the previous officers to let new people take over. Chapters which are currently showing poor performance may follow them soon, unless some corrective action is taken. Here is a real opportunity for young people to change the trend by stepping forward and offering help. We have already advised these Chapters of the necessity to enlist assistance of younger generation before it is too late. Consequently they may be receptive if you volunteer for some of the functions and/or activities.

What the young people can do has been amply demonstrated in Nebraska where the young people assumed leadership positions in the newly organized Nebraska Chapter. In less than 10 months they have had 26 different activities to their credit which outdistance all the other SVU chapters throughout the world.

We had similar experience during our last SVU World Congress in Plzeň in June 2002. As I stated in my appraisal, “Plzen with Flying Colors,” the Congress was a smashing success, which was due not in a small part to the young people, working under the leadership of Dean Ivo Budil.

It was the army of his young people — there must have been some fifty of them - all of whom attend the University of West Bohemia, who made the difference. They seemed to be everywhere, handsome looking with pleasant smiles and helping hand, many of whom spoke flawless English. Most of them sat behind a whole array of computers, both at the registration desk and in the press room. They were not only computer literate, but many of them were also real pros. Some of these young people were in evidence already upon our arrival at the Prague Airport carrying highly visible signs “SVU World Congress” for easy identification. They were there on Saturday and Sunday, guiding the Congress participants to buses which took them to Plzen.

One of the innovations of this Congress was the daily Congress Bulletin, consisting of 6 10 pages, prepared in the SVU Press Room, under the guidance of Mgr. Přemysl Rosůlek and his able student staff. The responsibility for the registration rested on the shoulders of Ing. Jan Černý and his student helpers. The students were also in plain evidence in every academic session tending the audiovisual equipment and making sure that everything moved smoothly. And finally, several young people tended the sales of books, not to speak of the countless invisible mundane activities they were involved with during the organizational phases of the congress....

In a category of its own, stands our capable Webmaster, Jiří Eichler, who has done wonders with our SVU Website and who can serve as the prime example of what a young person can do if given an opportunity.

In this spirit, I call on young people to get involved. Apart from doing something really worthwhile, you would also gain a unique experience and make personal contacts that may be helpful to you later on. Don’t stand by - the train may pass you by!

We would also welcome if you would pass the word among your friends and tell them about the advantages and benefits, they would gain from SVU membership which is still only $5 in case of students. Some of these benefits include:

1. to present papers in SVU conferences and world congresses; 2. to submit papers to the SVU English periodical Kosmas; 3. to periodically report on their progress and work in SVU Newsletter (actually we have a special column entitled “Focus on Our Younger Generation” for which we solicit success stories); 4. to participate in student essay contests; 5. to consult with many of our knowledgeable members at universities and other institutions throughout the world; 6. to assist in organizing future SVU congresses and conferences; 7. to work on special projects; 8. to become active in various SVU Committees or become SVU officers.

You may, of course, have additional ideas. We welcome specific suggestions on how else SVU could be helpful to students and young people starting their careers, on both sides of the Atlantic. The possibilities of your involvement are unlimited, and your initiative is encouraged. Send your suggestions or comments to the following address: SVU1@aol.com

Mila Rechcigl, SVU President

One of the most important aspects of the recent highly successful SVU World Congress in Washington was the participation of young people. They all made a very good impression, and, to my knowledge, they enjoyed our Congress as well. Some of you were there. Several sessions were actually organized by young people, thanks to Bruce Berglund and Anna Vysoká.

We would obviously like you, as well as other young people, to participate in our future activities. In order not to lose the momentum we are in the process of establishing, with the help of Anna Vysoká, a special database of the interested and promising young folks who have roots or professional interest in Czechlands or Slovakia. Your input into the database is welcome.

Without waiting for its completion, we are considering creating a smaller nucleus of interested young folks who would put on their thinking caps on how to get young people involved in specific SVU activities. One option may be to establish a special section within SVU, a sort of ‘SVU Yuppies,’ which may sound corny, but it may attract other young people to join. In this connection, I would welcome any volunteers who would like to help us in this endeavor.

Apart from Anna Vysoká, several other young people are already involved in SVU activities, including Jiří Eichler of Prague who is helping us build a new SVU Web Site and Karel Zástěra of Plzeň/Prague who has taken the initiative of establishing a new SVU Chapter in Plzeň. The latter will also play an important role in the next SVU World Congress. By joining SVU (Dues for students are only $5), young people can benefit a lot.

Many opportunities were enumerated in my earlier Memo.

We welcome specific suggestions on how else SVU could be helpful to students and young people on both sides of the Atlantic, with their studies or research, or with their starting careers.

In connection with special projects, it would be useful, for example, to prepare student guides, one for students in CR and SR planning to study in the US and Canada; and another for Americans planning to do research in Czech or Slovak Republics. A listing of available grant agencies may be of definite value. Perhaps some of you would be interested in working on projects like this with us. We are also thinking of launching a new SVU Forum on our Web Site and consider establishing new electronic publication series. The possibilities of your involvement are unlimited, and your initiative is encouraged.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. You can e-mail me on: rechcigl@aol.com

All the best,

Mila Rechcigl

SVU President

Most people seem to be content going to work, coming home, pottering around the house a bit and then taking it easy. With the advent of television many a family spends an inordinate amount of time in front of their TV sets, watching soap operas, old movies and sports events. In the US, the favorite pastime for men is attending baseball games, playing golf, fishing or washing their cars. European men, in turn, spend their free time in local taverns, sipping beer and discussing politics.

I must have been made of a different cloth. I have long lost all my mechanical inclinations and skills and, consequently, shy away from attempting to do any repair work around the house, preferring to call our good friend Zdeněk Sádlík who always comes to the rescue. My agricultural instincts have also deserted me and thus I have left all the gardening pursuits to Eva who is good at it and seems to enjoy it. As for baseball, I once made a deliberate effort, while still at Cornell, to attend a few games and develop interest in the game. However, these efforts were in vain. For some reason, I find the game extremely dull and boring, if not a waste of time, and, to this day, I have not even bothered to learn the rules.

Although we have done our share in socializing, frankly, I have never enjoyed just sitting around and talking about trivial matters or bad weather. For the same reason, I have never cared much for long vacations. Although I occasionally yearn for solitude which allows me to do some thinking and soul searching, after ten days of “doing nothing,” it is simply too “exhausting” for me, and I have the urge to return to my ‘normal’ routine. To put it simply, my personality does not allow me to be idle for any length of time. As long as I was a bench scientist and active researcher, I spent every available minute in a library to learn what’s new in science and “dreaming up” new ideas for experiments or writing papers. Even in those busy days, I found extra time for all sorts of extracurricular activities, including my involvement in the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU).

Before I shifted my career to science administration, I usually brought home some “homework” and, all of a sudden, I had a block of free time on my hands that I had to fill. This is a long-winded explanation why I began to get interested in science editing and publishing treatises and handbooks and all sorts of other projects. Having said that, this does not mean that I did not spend prime time with my family and our children, I love my family and, as the children grew up, we have spent splendid times together, especially on weekends and during our vacations. When they reached the teenage age and began considering going to college, we spent many a day together, discussing their future plans. Jack, in particular, liked to walk with me on our traditional Sunday walks, during which we discussed everything from scouting, school subjects to his aspirations.

When I was a bench scientist, I did my share reviewing articles by other scientists which were being considered for publication in specific journals. Frankly, this is considered a part of any scientist’s portfolio. Reviewing articles by one’s colleagues or peers in a given area is called a peer review.

The purpose of such reviews is to assure that the articles are worthy of publications. The peer review involves examining the author’s hypothesis and the assumptions on which the hypothesis is based, evaluation of experimental design and methodologies used, the examination of the experimental data and finally, the assessment of the authors’ conclusions and interpretations. It is not a pro forma review, by any means. It is a very thorough analysis which may take some time. In some cases, one needs to also check the authors’ previous papers, as well as papers by other investigators to ascertain that they are properly interpreted, particularly if the paper under consideration is based on it. Reviewing of the manuscripts is done anonymously so that one can be quite open in his/her criticisms.

Closely related to evaluation of other scientists’ manuscripts is the evaluation and writing of the book reviews, with the exception that the book reviews are published under the reviewer’s name. This too is considered to be a part of a bench scientist’s responsibilities. I had my share in reviewing books as well. Just as in the case of manuscripts, the books for review are sent to the reviewers by editors of the respective professional journals. There were occasions, however, when I came across an interesting book which I would review on my own initiative and then send it to an appropriate journal. They would normally accept it and publish it.

When I moved to administration and became in charge of the research program of our Agency, the peer review became my major tool in assessing the scientific quality of the submitted research grant proposals. In this case, however, I ran the entire peer review process, rather than being just one of the peer reviewers.

It was also my responsibility to check on the performance of individual reviewers to assure that they have done their homework and that they are objective, which meant that I had to be well acquainted with each proposal and be present during the proposal review or have someone else be there on my behalf.

Running a peer review process also meant that I had to select the appropriate experts capable of judging the proposal under consideration. There had to be the right match. The ideal thing was finding a person who worked exactly in the same area as the researcher who submitted the proposal.

With experience, I became a real pro in this. I developed a huge data base of reviewers, covering all sorts of disciplines, comprising literally thousands of scientists in universities, government labs and industry.

In reviewing proposals, we maintained the highest standards of ethics, including the confidentiality of the data. It was quite all right when the reviewers were outspoken, but one had to guard against them being destructive which may occasionally happen. It is therefore axiomatic that there is no conflict of interest.

My entry into abstracting began on July 29, 1959, when I wrote to American Chemical Society asking about information regarding abstracting articles for Chemical Abstracts. In those days it was considered an honor to be an abstractor for the prestigious Chemical Abstracts. It should be noted that this service was done gratis, without any compensation. I wrote to them that I was fluent in the Czech language and that I would be willing to abstract either one journal regularly or a few articles from several different sources, provided the material was in my field. I listed the following areas of my interest: nutrition, biochemistry, physiology, biochemistry of cancer, and amino acid metabolism.

My offer was accepted, and I received my first assignment on November 10, together with a copy each of their Directions for Abstractors and The Little CA. They informed me that I would regularly receive papers by assignment cards that “will be the start of an adventure that you will find challenging, rewarding, and useful.” Brief abstracts that are informative rather than merely descriptive or indicative were the goal.

The first article I abstracted came from a Slovak journal Pol’nohospodárstvo (Farming), entitled “Calcium and phosphorus metabolism in laying hens on hypocalcemic diets.” In response to my first effort, I received a letter from the CA Editor Charles L. Bernier: “Congratulations on a fine start into abstracting. Your first abstract was given to one of our staff editors. He says that you did a fine job. He said also in praise that, although the original article had an English summary, you did not use this summary since it was inadequate but rather prepared an abstract which followed CA’s requirements and style. Further assignments will be sent to you as the opportunities arise.”

From that point on, I was receiving regular assignments from a variety of periodical literature, including Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis, Sborník Vysoké školy zemědělské a lesnické v Brně (Acta Universitatis agriculturae et silviculturae, Brno), Sborník Československé akademie zemědělských věd. Lesnictví (Collection of the Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Forestry) and Sborník Československé akademie zemědělských věd. Živočišná výroba (Collection of Czechoslovak Agricultural Sciences. Animal Production).

On June 8, 1960, I received a letter from CA offering me as a whole-journal assignment Scripta Med. Fac. Med. Univ. Brunensis et Olomucensis which I accepted after I had the chance to look at a sample copy of the periodical.

Simultaneously, I informed the Editor that I would also consider abstracting additional journals, such as Československá fyziologie (Czechoslovak Physiology), Výživa lidu (People’s Nutrition), Časopis lékařů českých (Journal of Czech Physicians), Sborník Československé akademie zemědělských věd. Živočišná výroba (Collection of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Animal Production), Gastroenterologie a výživa (Gastroenterology and Nutrition), Physiologia Bohemoslovenica, Československá biologie (Czechoslovak Biology) and Československá onkologie - Neoplasma (Czechoslovak Oncology - Neoplasma). In response to my offer, CA agreed to assign to me Sborník Československé akademie zemědělských věd. Živočišná výroba and Československá biologie. With reference to Výživa lidu and Gastroenterologie a výživa, I was told that the journals were not available to CA.

Soon after I began receiving Scripta medica and Živočišná výroba for abstracting, but rather irregularly, due to poor contacts with the Czechoslovak Republic. Occasionally they also sent me for abstracting Sborník Československé akademie věd. Veterinární medicina (Collection of Czechoslovak Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Veterinary Medicine) and Activitas nervosa superior, which were clearly outside of my field. Other times I was asked to abstract articles from Československá dermatologie (Czechoslovak Dermatology). As long as the articles were in my field, I had no problem in understanding the Czech or Slovak original text and in preparing appropriate abstracts. Otherwise, it took me much more time because I was not versed in the field and the ordinary dictionaries did not contain specialized scientific terminology. On several occasions I sent them, on my own initiative, information about the then published new Czech books, such as Učebnice fysiologie pro studující lékařství (Textbook of Physiology for Medical Students) or Laboratorní technika biochemie (Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry).

With the coming years, it was apparent that the communications between CA and the Czech Republic practically broke off because I did not receive any further assignments for some time. Because of that, the CA Editors began to send me occasional articles from almost any periodical, including Nature, Experientia, Journal of Neuropsychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, Acta Anesthesiol. Scandinavica, Canadian Psychiatry, and even some Japanese journals. Furthermore, I would also occasionally be sent Proceedings or symposia from scientific congresses and other meetings.

Some of the material that I was asked to abstract and translate was clearly out of my field so that I eventually lost interest in continuing in abstracting altogether.

Ever since childhood I loved books and read profusely. From here it was only a small step to my interest in bibliography.

It all started with my early attempts to compile lists of new books and other publications, written by Czech and Slovak authors abroad for the Czech exile magazine Tribuna. I made use of the American abstracting and book review journals, available in the Cornell University Library which I frequently visited, and, in the process, I learned how to use library resources.

In connection with my editing the proceedings of the First Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences of America, I thought that the volume would benefit by the inclusion of the list of selected publications in English relating to Czechoslovak culture. With the encouragement of Dr. Jaroslav Němec and Prof. René Wellek I went ahead with this task. Since no comparable bibliography existed, I had to essentially start from scratch.

After going through the holdings in several libraries in the Washington Metropolitan area, including NIH, and several university libraries, I began systematically searching through the printed catalogues of the Library of Congress and the British Museum, as well as periodicals, book indexes, publishers’ indexes and book reviews. In addition, I also examined all the available bibliographical sources pertaining to the Slavic and Eastern Europe. Frankly, after a while, I knew as much about the bibliography sources as any reference librarian.

After several months of painstaking effort, I had my first draft ready. I arranged the material into specific categories, such as history, geography, literature, sciences, etc., twelve distinct areas in all. To assure completeness and representative selections of my bibliography, I sent individual sections for review to various experts in the field. The comments that came back were positive, if not complimentary, some including suggestions for additional publications which I did not have.

After its publication, I received quite a bit of praise from a number of people specializing in different disciplines. Several librarians told me that my bibliography was of such caliber that I could have used it as a M.S. thesis, had I chosen the library science field.

The referenced bibliography clearly increased my reputation among the East European scholars and made me almost an authority on the subject. Dr. Paul L. Horecký, the head of the Slavic Division and later Chief of the European Division of the Library of Congress, with whom I became good friends, called on me regularly for advice. Later, when he was putting together his classical bibliographical reference book on East Central Europe, he turned to me for suggestions for possible authors, most of whom he used. I also contributed a chapter to the book.

From this point on I caught the bibliography bug. Since then, I have published a whole series of bibliographies, including a comprehensive bibliography of bibliographies relating to Czechoslovakia, overview of bibliographical works on Czechoslovak America, a comprehensive listing of bibliographies on American Czechs, Slovaks and Ruthenians, the bibliographies on Czech and Slovak Americans, bibliography of publications on Czechoslovak history of science and technology, English publications relating to the Czechlands, etc.

I also ventured into other fields and published authoritative bibliographies on nutrition and health, the world food problem, agriculture, food science, internal medicine, etc.

My latest bibliographical publications include the listing of SVU publications and, above all, a comprehensive Czech American Bibliography, encompassing publications relating to Czechs in America, and Czech It Out. Czech American Biography Sourcebook.

Besides my bibliographical publications, I had also written two comprehensive biobibliographies, one concerning the American Jews with Czechoslovak Roots and the other on Notable Americans with Slovak Roots.

My interest in historiography of science was closely linked with my interests in history of science and technology, particularly with reference to Czechoslovakia. For years, I have collected articles dealing with the subject, hoping that, one day, I would write a book on the subject.

Early on, I became a regular reviewer and translator for the prestigious periodical Isis for their “Critical Bibliography,” published on annual basis. They periodically sent me articles from other publications, much of which was in Czech or Slovak and which required translation.

I had written several independent studies on the subject of Czechoslovak historiography, surveying literature in English and other languages.

As for the history of science, I contributed descriptive surveys about American scientists with Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak roots that have been published in the periodical Kosmas and elsewhere. In addition, I prepared the whole gamut of biographical sketches of noted Czech and Slovak scientists in America, which periodically appeared in Czech American newspapers, such as Československý Týdeník and Americké Listy. My Czech monograph Postavy naší Ameriky (2000) is comprised entirely of biographies of American personalities of world repute with Czech roots, covering the period from the 16th century to date.

Together with Jiří Nehněvajsa, I also prepared a sociological study of the characteristics of Czechoslovak scientists in America, based on our survey and analysis of the biographical entries in several editions of American Men and Women of Science and the Directory of American Scholars.

As mentioned elsewhere, I also compiled a comprehensive listing of scientists and other educators, associated with the US and Canadian universities. And finally, together with my wife Eva, we compiled, in eight successive editions, comprehensive Biographical Directory of SVU Members, a large proportion of who are scientists.

I also compiled a list of scientists with Czech roots who have received the Nobel Prize and a list of members of the prestigious National Academy of Scientists of Czech or Slovak ancestry. My monograph Czechs and Slovaks in America, in addition to other chapters on history of Czech and Slovak science, also includes my study on the history of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). A comparable study, including extensive documentation, exists also in German. Most recently, I authored a comprehensive monograph On Behalf of their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU.

Most recently, I had written two comprehensive historiographies, one in Czech and the other in English, relating to Czechs and Slovaks, with emphasis on America.

My first major effort in this area was a joint monograph, with Zdeněk Hruban, Microbodies and Related Particles. Morphology, Biochemistry and Physiology, which offered a comprehensive review of the present knowledge of the structure and biochemistry of microbodies, and of physiological and pathological alterations of their enzymes. The monograph was quite popular and in a relatively short time it was translated into Russian, of course, without our knowledge, not to speak about our approval.

My second state-of-the-art publication was a treatise on Enzyme Synthesis and Degradation in Mammalian System, offering a comprehensive review of the present knowledge of the various factors that control enzyme activity, as well the regulatory mechanisms involved in enzyme synthesis and degradation, with special emphasis on mammalian systems.

Then followed my multidisciplinary treatise, Food, Nutrition and Health, addressed to the major nutrition problems from a worldwide perspective. The book was inspired, in part, by the deliberations of the White House Conference on the same subject, which dealt principally, however, with the problems in the US.

The scope of my publication was much broader, the objective being to look at the world, as a whole, with an attempt to define basic problems and underlying issues, seeking fundamental principles and common ground that would be applicable, generally, irrespective of national boundaries.

Prof. Jean Mayer a world-renown nutritionist and close advisor of several Presidents, and later president of Tufts University, was kind enough to write an eight page preface which gave the book a special boost. Since the book was sold out fast, the publisher asked me to prepare a revised updated version, which was published as a paperback under the title Nutrition and the World Food Problem.

After I joined AID, I shifted my focus more toward nutrition and food policy, in which area I published several monographs. The first one was a treatise, entitled Man, Food and Nutrition, which offered a comprehensive integrated critical review of the nature and the scope of the world food problem, and presented strategies and discussed various technological approaches to overcoming world hunger and malnutrition.

Following the World Food Conference, which was held under the UN auspices in Rome in November 1974, there was little doubt that the world food problem ranked high among the major problems that confronted mankind. This led me to put together an authoritative and comprehensive up-to-date bibliography on all important facets of the world food problem, encompassing such questions as the availability of natural resources, the present and future sources of energy, environmental quality, population growth, world malnutrition, the state of food production, food consumption patterns, future food needs, toxicological aspect of food, agricultural and industrial aspects of food production, and family planning. This was the first compilation of its kind. It was published under the title: World Food Problem: A Selective Bibliography of Reviews.

In 1975, I came up with the idea of publishing a multi-volume series on Comparative Animal Nutrition, which would offer a comprehensive and authoritative review of the present knowledge of nutrition, encompassing the whole animal kingdom from a comparative point of view. This was a pioneering effort in an area that was relatively new, and which could, through systematic effort, open new vistas in our understanding of biology, in general, and nutrition, in particular. My aim was not so much to strive for completeness but rather for integration and synthesis. As a comprehensive treatise, it was my aim that it would not merely serve as a compendium of existing data, but whenever appropriate, it would also identify the gaps in our knowledge, in hope that it would stimulate further research which would ultimately eliminate them. Altogether, I published four volumes in the series, i.e., Carbohydrates, Lipids and Accessory Growth Factors, Nutrient Elements and Toxicants, Nitrogen, Electrolytes, Water and Energy Metabolism, and Physiology of Growth and Nutrition.

The two monographs, which I published earlier with CRC Press, sold extremely well which led the publisher to approach me with the proposition that I put together for them a comprehensive Handbook of Nutrition, something comparable to the famous Handbook of Chemistry of Physics, known to every student of chemistry. Publishing handbooks in different scientific areas was the real business of CRC Press. It did not take me much time to decide. I accepted readily and began immediately working on it. I started first by compiling the data myself, but I soon realized that this would take a very long time because I would have to really start from scratch. I decided instead, with the publisher’s approval, that I would get each section written by an appropriate specialist in the field. Having published a number of nutrition-related monographs before, including compiling a comprehensive bibliography of reviews, I had a pretty good idea where to turn. In any case, it was a good start. Although, initially, we were thinking of putting together just one volume, when I began preparing the outline, I soon realized that I could not possibly fit all the material into one book. In fact, the more time I spent on it, it was apparent to me that the best thing would be to publish a Handbook series. The publisher liked the idea and we agreed to proceed with it and call it the CRC Handbook Series in Nutrition and Food. With such an enormous undertaking, the publisher felt it would be advantageous to establish an appropriate advisory board, comprised of highly reputable people in the field, to whom I could turn for advice, as needed, and also, the board would give the series more prestige and visibility. Having this in mind, I assembled very impressive people. I had the first volume ready in October 1976 and the CRC Press published it in the following year. The first volume dealt with Nutritional Requirements, containing information relating to the qualitative requirements and utilization of nutrients in major classes of organisms, covering both plant and animal kingdoms and including microorganisms. Pertinent material was also presented on the nutritional requirements of cells and tissues. The next four volumes, which were devoted to Diets, Culture Media, Food Supplements, soon followed. The first two, one dealing with Diets for Mammals and another with Food Habits of and Diets for Invertebrates and Vertebrates - Zoo Diets were published in 1977. The third volume, entitled Culture Media for Microorganisms and Plants and the fourth volume Culture Media for Cells, Organs and Embryos, were published in 1978.

The subsequent three volumes dealt with the Nutritional Disorders, namely the Effect of Nutrient Excesses and Toxicities in Animals and Man, Effect of Nutrient Deficiencies in Animals and Effect of Nutrient Deficiencies in Man. Then there was a break for a few years during which the publisher indicated to me that he was getting into some financial difficulties. I went to see him in his new place in Boca Raton in Florida, where we discussed the future of the Series. The outcome of the meeting was the decision to henceforth publish future volume separately, rather than as a part of the Series, which the Publisher thought would be easier to sell, after all, the money question was the bottom line. So, under the new arrangement, in 1982, I published a two-volume set of the CRC Handbook of Nutritional Requirements in a Functional Context, the first one dealing with Development, and Conditions of Physiologic Stress and the second one with the Hematopoiesis and Resistance to Physical Stress. Then came a two-volume set of CRC Handbook of Nutritive Value of Processed Food, one devoted to Food for Human Use and the other to Animal Feedstuffs. In the same year they also published my CRC Handbook of Agricultural Productivity, also in a two-volume set, the first volume on Plant Productivity and the second on Animal Productivity.

In 1983, I had my CRC Handbook of Nutritional Supplements published, again in two volumes, one dealing with the Human Use and the second with the Agricultural Use. In the same year, I had two more Handbooks published, namely CRC Handbook of Naturally Occurring Food Toxicants and CRC Handbook of Foodborne Diseases of Biological Origin.

And that was it. By mutual consent of the publisher, we ended it at that point. Frankly, I was also beginning to run out of steam and did not find it as challenging as before. It was becoming too much of a routine.

I became interested in this subject, in earnest, when I was given the responsibility for organizing the program of the First Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in 1962. With the central theme “The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture” we wanted to inform the world about the contributions of the Czechoslovak people in various areas of culture, including philosophy, theology, literature and literary criticism, linguistics and statistics, fine arts, history, political science, sociology, law and economics, natural sciences, medicine and technology. To do this, I had to get acquainted with the Czechoslovak cultural history in a comprehensive way. I found the best resource in Mathesius’ volume, Co daly naše země Evropě and lidstvu which became my model. Another useful source of information was Československá vlastivěda, especially its volume Osvěta and, beyond that, of great help was also Ottův slovník naučný and its supplements Ottův slovník naučný nové doby. This outstanding encyclopedia became such an indispensable resource for me so that I decided to buy the entire set of some 40 volumes from the used book dealer in Chicago. When I later edited the SVU Congress Proceedings I had to become very familiar with every detail of the individual manuscripts, including names, places and dates, so that I could prepare a comprehensive index. To assure accuracy I had each chapter peer reviewed by the relevant experts. During the organization of the Second SVU Congress, which also fell on my shoulders, my horizons had to be considerably widened as the Congress theme “Czechoslovakia Past and Present,” covered not only the cultural history but the whole gamut of other facets bearing on Czechoslovakia and its affairs. Without extensive reading and research, I would not have been able to pull it off. Apart from assuring that every important aspect is covered, I had to also find the right speakers, with the needed expertise to cover the plethora of the respective topics, which further expanded my knowledge of the Czechoslovakia area studies, as a whole. To this end, I had to, practically, go through every Slavic and East European periodical and every monograph relating to Czechoslovakia. To find suitable speakers, the bibliography “Czechoslovakia and its Arts and Sciences,” which I had prepared earlier, was of great help to me. The direct product of my labors was a big monograph, The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (1964) and a huge 2-volume set Czechoslovakia Past and Present (1968), published under my editorship by Mouton and Co. in the Netherlands. Both publications were extremely well received, as evident from the book reviews, and they remain to date as an indispensable resource of information for scholars and students interested in Czechoslovakia and its history.

Ever since I became interested in history and life of Moravian Brethren in America, I was always impressed by their historic sense. They meticulously kept vital records of their family members, wrote detailed diaries of important events and they preserved all the relevant documents pertaining to their history. When I became actively engaged in the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), I had the importance of record keeping constantly in mind, so that the work and the accomplishments of SVU would be preserved for future historians. Based on the information I obtained from Jaroš Němec, I had written up the early history of the Society and included it in SVU Directory, which Eva and I put together. I then kept updating it in subsequent editions. The Directory also contains biographical entries on every member, including the name, occupational title with institutional affiliation, institutional address with phone and FAX numbers, home address with telephone number, e-mail address, place and date of birth, academic degrees with the specialty, awarding institution and year, major field of competence or interest, major publications, significant awards. I don’t know of other Czech/Slovak institutions which would publish such information about their members. When I became President of the Society in 1974, I appointed an archivist to systematically collect newspaper clippings that dealt with SVU and its activities. We also began the practice of regularly publishing reports from the Executive Board meetings in the SVU newsletter, Zprávy SVU and this practice has been more or less kept up to date. This way, the historians will have a ready-made reference that will be accessible in major libraries, without the necessity of searching for documents, scattered in different places, and which are not always easy to find. It was my historical sense which made me also print all my important speeches in the SVU newsletter, as well as publishing detailed programs of our conferences and congresses. Since the mid-nineties, our newsletter regularly carried a section “From SVU New Rolls” which brought information on new SVU members. Another section featured “SVU Calendar” which documented various events conducted by individual SVU Local Chapters worldwide. Our Zprávy SVU has thus become an official depository of everything SVU has been doing. To make the information available to the general public we also began posting an electronic version on the INTERNET. Bearing in mind the importance of keeping the public informed, we created our new SVU Website which, through hard effort, became truly comprehensive, not only with reference to SVU, but in terms of other information pertaining to Czechs and Slovak matters. I worked on the website jointly with Jiří Eichler from Prague, who handled the technical aspects, while I did most of the writing. Ever since the first two SVU Congresses, which I organized in Washington, DC., and New York City, in 1962 and 1964, respectively, I started the practice of publishing detailed programs and Abstracts of presented papers which constitute an important source of information for anyone interested in Czech or Slovak history and culture. I also had the pleasure of assembling and editing papers from several SVU Congresses which are available in major libraries throughout the world. It was also through my initiative and influence that the Society put emphasis on English language and as a consequence of which the major documents relating to SVU and its work are accessible to a large readership throughout the world which would not have been the case had we remained publishing only in Czech or Slovak languages, as was initially done. Beginning in the mid-nineties we also switched from Czech to English in our newsletter Zprávy SVU. As for the history of SVU, apart from the information included in the SVU Directories, I wrote a couple of short brochures on the subject, including one of the first ten years of the Society and another on the thirty years. A brief comprehensive overview of the Society was published as a chapter in my book Czech and Slovak America. There is also a German version, containing extensive documentation, which was published as a part of the Proceedings of the Czech Academy’s Conference on Science in Exile. Most importantly, in 2005, I published a comprehensive monograph On Behalf of their Homeland: Fifty Years of SVU, which also appeared in Czech. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of SVU, in 2008, SVU published, as Occasional Paper No. 6, my monograph, Deceased Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) (1957-2008). There are of course numerous articles that have appeared under my name in the Czech press, here as well as in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

The idea of working on an inventory of Czechs and Slovaks abroad originated from my early days in SVU, especially when I began organizing the First SVU Congress in 1961. To make an impact, I wanted to invite the most prominent Czechs and Slovaks living abroad. I thought that the most objective way of doing it was to base the selection of the speakers on authoritative biographical compendia. The second motivating force was my desire to enrich the SVU membership rolls with individuals of note who either had Czechoslovak roots or who were interested professionally in the Czech or Slovak matters. Initially, I focused on two authoritative compendia, Directory of American Scholars and the American Men and Women of Science and the Directory of American Scholars which listed the established educators in the field of humanities the social and natural sciences in the US and Canada. In addition, I began also searching through various university catalogues in America, as well as in Western Europe.

Later on, I extended my search through other biographical compendia, such as directories of lawyers, physicians, writers, artists, musicians, and others, as well as standard American, Canadian and European Who’s Whos. At first, I was only interested in individuals’ names, addresses and their particular expertise. As I got more deeply involved, I realized the potential value of what I was doing and began to record all basic data on each individual on 3 by 5 cards which with time grew into a large assembly of file boxes. To be sure, this was a laborious and tedious process, but it soon began bearing fruit. After I personally contacted them, many an individual accepted my invitation to present a paper at our Congress and later he or she might even become our member. With the growth of my archival material, I could not help but to also become more and more knowledgeable about the subject. This could not be kept under the hat too long and I soon became recognized as an invaluable resource of information, if not an expert. To be sure, I did not collect the biographical data for the sake of collecting. I aimed at eventually publishing them in some sort of index or directory. My first attempt in this direction was a publication entitled Educators with Czechoslovak Roots: A US and Canadian Roster, a slim publication of 122 pages, listing educators by universities and departments. It was the first compilation of its kind which brought me praise across the country. My next attempt was a publication entitled US Legislators with Czechoslovak Roots from Colonial Times to Present. With Genealogical Lineages. It comprised of biographies of US Legislators born on the territory of Czechoslovakia, as well as those, whose ancestors emigrated from Czechoslovakia, and settled in the US. Among them were also descendants of Augustine Herman and Frederick Philipse who settled in America in the midst of the 17th century. In case of individuals who were born in the US, the biographies were accompanied with genealogical lineages, showing their relations to their Czech ancestors. Later, this led me to a much more extensive project, which I, tentatively, called, “Czech American Biography. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Notable Americans with Czech Roots, from the Early Colonial Times to Present.” This enormous undertaking was not to be viewed as a traditional Who’s Who, consisting of a chance listing of individuals, based on their current popularity or whether they have financially contributed towards its publication. Instead, it has been planned as an objective, systematic and comprehensive effort to include all important persons in specific fields of human endeavor. Apart from the deserving individuals who were born on the territory of the historic Czech Lands, my plan was to include distinguished American personages of Czech ancestry, irrespective of when or where they were born. This eventually led to its publication in 2016, under the title Encyclopedia of Bohemian and Czech-American Biography, published by AuthorHouse, in 3 volumes. As the Czech Ambassador to the US, H.E. Petr Gandalovič noted in his foreword to the book, “Mila Rechcigl has written a monumental work representing a culmination of his life achievement as a historian of Czech America.”

My interest in ethnic history got its start in 1950, soon after my immigration to New York City. I regularly paid a visit to the Czech Library located in the “Česká čtvrť,” on the East side of Manhattan. Mrs. Machálek, who headed the library, showed me with pride the library holdings relating to Czechoslovakia and Czechoslovak America. Among other, she gave me to read Josef Koudelka’s book on Augustine Herman. I read the book with great interest, “in one breath,” as the Czechs say, and became so fascinated by the life and the exploits of this Czech immigrant, that it almost became an obsession. Since Koudelka’s book, as well as other publications, as I soon found out, were not always reliable, I made a concerted effort to separate myth that surrounded Herman’s life from the facts. In due course, I gathered an enormous amount of historical and genealogical data about him, which I subsequently published. Another immigrant on whom I spent a lot of time was Frederick Philipse, Augustine Herman’s contemporary, known as “Bohemian Prince,” who was considered the wealthiest inhabitant in New Amsterdam (present New York City).

The third personality who attracted my attention was Joachim Gans from Prague who came to America already in 1585 with the first British expedition of colonists, temporarily settling on Roanoke Island in North Carolina. By then, I was hooked. All this work inevitably led me to start extensive research on Czech and Slovak immigrants in America, with the focus on early immigrants. About the same time, I became interested in the Moravian Brethren who immigrated to America from their temporary exile in Lusatia, after escaping from their native Moravia, Bohemia or Silesia. I was able to put together a fairly complete list of Moravian Brethren with Czech roots and followed their descendants through genealogical research. This also led me to the discovery that First Lady Barbara Bush was a descendant of the Moravian Brethren family Demuth who were among the founders of the town Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. This led me to also research other religious groups, specifically early Bohemian Jesuits, who came to Latin America in the second part of the 17th and first part of the 18th centuries, and early Bohemian Jews who started immigrating to America in the 18th century.

In the meantime, my interests broadened, and I got involved in such topics, as “Contributions to American Scientific and Technological Thought,” Czech Americans in sports, Cultural contributions of Slovaks, etc. In 2005, on the occasion of my 75th birthday, The Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences decided to publish a selection of my English articles in a monograph, entitled Czechs and Slovaks in America. Five years previously, I had already published another monograph, this one in Czech, comprising vignettes about notable American personalities of Czech extraction. At the same time, I continued writing and publishing essays and articles on a variety of topics, i.e., Moravian Contributions to America, The Lone Star of ‘Moravci’ in its Formative Years, Czech and Slovak Nobel Prize Laureates, Czechs in Early Maryland and Old Baltimore, Czech (Bohemian) Women in US History, Search for Accomplished Young American Professionals of Czech Extraction, Notable Czech-American Women in Arts and Letters, Czech-American Women in Higher Professions, Czech Refugees from Nazism, Czechs in US Military etc.

A culmination of my historical studies was my comprehensive book, Beyond the Sea of Beer. History of Immigration of Bohemians and Czechs to the New World and their Contributions. It covers the arrival and the settlement of the immigrants in various states and regions of America, their harsh beginnings, the establishment of their communities, and their organization. A separate section is devoted to the contributions of notable individuals in different areas of human endeavor, including Bohemians, Moravians, Bohemian Jews, and the Slovaks. Nothing like this has ever been published since the time Thomas Čapek wrote his classical monograph, The Čechs (Bohemians) in America, some one hundred years ago. A Czech version of the book has also been published. In addition to historical articles, I also wrote two historiographical studies relating to Czech America, one in Czech and the other in English.

My interest in genealogy stems back from my desire to learn more about Augustine Heřman and his family. I soon learned about the existence of the Family History Room at the Library of Congress in Washington and later about the Maryland Historical Society in Baltimore which maintains extensive holdings relating to family histories and genealogies.

It must have been in the late seventies and early eighties when I regularly began visiting these places to gather information on Heřman’s descendants. Initially, I focused on secondary sources, of which there are plenty, gathering existing family trees and other information about the descendants.

I soon found out that not all the information is reliable which led me to the pursuit of primary sources, including passenger lists, birth and death records, marriage records, land records, military records, preserved early minutes of the legislative bodies in Maryland and Delaware, cemetery records, county histories, biographical and autobiographical accounts, census records, etc. In time, I became quite knowledgeable and proficient in locating and understanding a variety of genealogical tools, including genealogical magazines, organizations and their holdings. With reference to Augustine Heřman, I soon uncovered a number of existing inconsistencies and contradictions in data which I tried to resolve. In time, I was successful in resolving some of them. In many ways, this has been very fascinating work, giving one a feeling of a researcher who is attempting to prove or disprove specific hypothesis or a detective in the pursuit of clues to solve a crime or an intellectual trying to solve a very complicated crossword puzzle.

In addition to analyzing the primary data, I also began corresponding with some of the descendants of Augustine Herman in Maryland, DE and VA, as well as other parts of the country. Apart from ascertaining the reliability of pertinent data, this way I frequently learned of additional leads and contacts which I then vigorously pursued. In most such contacts I was met with receptivity and interest because I had always some new data which they lacked and which they welcome. One Southern lady was so delighted with the data I sent her that she sent me a fruit cake for Christmas. In some cases, they sent me their family histories and genealogies on which they worked for years. In a few instances I was even invited to their homes to see their memorabilia and other treasures. I soon became known in genealogical circles and began receiving inquiries from various individuals who thought that they may be related to Augustine Herman. Although in majority of cases such inferences could not be substantiated, nevertheless, in several instances they proved to be true, and this helped me to expand my information base.

The best contact I ever had was with a Maryland attorney McAdoo Brice, a descendant of the Maryland landed gentry, who lived on a beautiful estate in Maryland. Genealogy was his hobby. He had an extensive private library, containing every possible publication relating to history and genealogy of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania. As a result of his research, he amassed a fantastic amount of information on his ancestors, many of whom were directly related to Augustine Herman, just as he was. He had the data organized in a series of ring binders in typed form. During one of my visits, he let me copy almost any information I wanted which enhanced my records considerably. Some of the data that I gathered on the Herman family was the basis of my article in MD Genealogical Bulletin in which I focused on the first three generations of Augustine Herman’s descendants. Although several Herman family trees were published before, they were usually limited to one particular vertical line. My approach was much more comprehensive, as it also covered all known siblings, i.e., all known descendants of Herman’s children for several generations. This work is, by far, not complete and my research is continuing. With the advent of technology, I have been able to enter the data on the computer which makes it easier to access and keep track of it.

Since then, I have expanded my genealogy research to other areas, including the descendants of Moravian Brethren, the Bohemian ancestry of Count Zinzendorf’s wife Erdmuthe, who descended from King of Bohemia George of Poděbrady and early settlers in America from the territory of Czechoslovakia. I also became interested in the genealogy of US Presidents, a number of whom, I found, had roots in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Last but not least, I began searching for my own ancestors. I have amassed a large amount of genealogical data, some of which have been published. A number of genealogies, based on my research, have also been posted on Internet.

Even though my principal writings were of scientific character, it may be of interest that my earliest attempt to write appeared in a newspaper. Admittedly, it was only a letter to the editor, written in the form of an article, published in Ithaca Journal in February 1953, on the occasion of the infamous anniversary of the Communist coup d’état in Czechoslovakia in February 1948. It was a pretty good article for a novice like me and considering that my English was not the best. I must have gotten the point across as several of my classmates subsequently came to me to discuss the situation in communist Czechoslovakia. I had not written in the newspapers since then, for almost forty years, until after I retired from US Government. This was quite natural since my mind was fully occupied with scientific research and had no time for anything else. Furthermore, I had been taught by my teachers that my first responsibility as a scientist is to publish my findings in scientific journals and stay away from newspapers. Scientists who would publicize their scientific work through media were frowned upon and under no circumstances was it considered “kosher” to talk to reporters before one’s research results were published in a reputable and peer–reviewed journal. This was a part of the unwritten code of ethics of American scientists.

When I changed my career and became a science administrator, the situation was not much different. In some way, it got stricter. We were cautioned to stay away from the media, partly because some of the work we were involved was “classified,” not because of particular government secrets, but because the government did not want to disclose budgetary information in public before it was approved by the Congress. Science administrators don’t normally discuss the nature of their work in public anyhow, unless they are called upon by the legislators to give testimony in public Congressional hearings. When we were approached by reporters it was our responsibility to immediately inform our superiors and the public relations office who instructed us what to do and what to say. Similarly, we could not talk to anyone in the Legislative Branch of the government. All legislative inquiries were handled by our legislative section. If we were asked to contribute an article for publication, we had to first get approval from our superiors. A science administrator is not really his/her own person. Whatever one does is done anonymously, in the name of the Office or the Bureau. Reports you write don’t usually carry your name and they frequently come out under the signature of your superiors. Any legislative inquiries that come to you directly are channeled through a special legislative section. The response you had been asked to draft was officially sent out under the name of the head of the legislative section. In this type of atmosphere one develops a sort of immunity against media because the appearance of your name in press cannot mean anything else but trouble.

After my retirement, as elaborated elsewhere, my personality would not let me remain idle and I had a constant urge to get back into writing. Having been away from the laboratory bench a while, I had obviously lost touch with science per se and consequently had to use other forms for my expression. Journalism seemed a natural place to start. With my interests in scientific historiography and bibliography and ethnic history I began writing short articles for Czech newspapers abroad. Mind you, I had not written anything in Czech before, except when corresponding with my friends. So I had two strikes against me, to begin with. On one hand, I had to overcome the scientific rigidity in writing, common to most scientists, and adopt a journalistic mode, i.e., to write in a readable and interesting style. Secondly, I also had to get used to writing in Czech, which meant expanding my vocabulary and catching up with the latest rules of Czech grammar. I spent more than two days in writing my first article. The second article went easier and from then on it went smoothly. My articles then began appearing quite regularly, mostly in Československý týdeník, later renamed to Americké Listy, whose publisher Petr Bísek became a good friend of mine. Most of them dealt with American personalities of note who had Czech or Slovak ancestry which was generally unknown. All my portraits have been based on my original research and archival material I developed in previous years. My articles must have been read, as I frequently received letters from readers and, during my personal encounters, people told me that they read my stories regularly and how much they enjoyed them and how much they learned from them. Some of the articles were reprinted in other periodicals, both here and in the Czech Republic. After my book, Postavy naší Ameriky came out, Petr Bísek decided to publish individual chapters in his Americké Listy regularly in every issue. Apart from these historical articles, I occasionally published informative articles relating to various SVU events, including conference and congresses. Otherwise, I have not ventured into politics or any polemics.

After a year of writing articles on selected Czech and Slovak personalities in Czech ethnic press, some of my friends were telling me that I should consider publishing a book on the subject. I first thought the idea as absurd but later began toying with it. Although I have not heard any criticism of my Czech writing, nevertheless, I did have some qualms whether my Czech was good enough for a more sophisticated audience in the Czech Republic. It was my intention from the very beginning to publish the book in Czech, partly for symbolic reasons but also to inform my countrymen about the famous Czechs “who made it” abroad.

As is my custom, I first prepared an overall outline of the book, listing the most important personalities I wanted to include, and classifying them into specific categories. Some of the portraits I had already written about, but many others had still to be written. Thus, I began systematically filling in gaps on a daily basis until I had some 150 biographical sketches written.

The next step was to find a publisher in the Czech Republic. I first tried it through my friends, including the cultural counselor in the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, Jan Zelenka, who had some contacts with the publishers of Lidové noviny in Prague. I provided them with a Table of contents and several of my chapters. After a few months, I was informed that the manuscript was not publishable in its current form, but without providing specifics.

Based on the popularity of my articles in the US, I knew that they were wrong and refused to give up so easily. Subsequently, I tried my luck on my own. I first approached the Encyclopedic Institute with which I had some dealings previously. I sent them my manuscript and also met with their representatives in Prague. They appeared quite interested in publishing it with the condition that I give them a subsidy which was apparently the standard practice in Czech Republic, as I later learned. Specifically, they asked for Kč. 100,000. Frankly, this request took me by surprise because never before did any publisher in the US make such demands of me. For the sake of principle, I was unwilling to pay even a penny of my own money to get my book published.

Having heard that the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs sometimes provides support for worthy projects, I approached them with the request that they subsidize my book, pointing out its unique features and its importance for the Czech nation. I then met with the head of the cultural section of the Ministry who told me that they would like to see my book published and that they would provide the necessary finances. Rather than providing the subsidy as such, they offered to purchase multiple copies of the book in the amount of the needed funds. To be able to do this they requested that my publisher send them a suitable grant proposal. Unfortunately, the publisher did not follow through on this, possibly because of their inexperience in writing grant proposals.

This avenue ending in standstill I decided on another approach. I approached my acquaintance Jaromír Šlápota at the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute in Prague who, in turn, put me in touch with Senator Milan Špaček, Chairman of the Senate Permanent Committee for Relations with Czechs Abroad. It did not take long, and I was informed that the Czech Senate would sponsor my book. As a first step, they hired a professional editor who was given the task of editing my manuscript for style and idiom.

Jews have lived on the territory of the historic Czech Lands for some 1,000 years. They have played an important role in the social, economic and cultural development of the country since the times of the Duchy and the subsequent Kingdom of Bohemia, through the establishment of independent Czechoslovakia, and the Successor State, the Czech Republic.[2]

The Bohemian or Czech Jews who immigrated to America represent a terra incognita. Relatively little is known and relatively little has been written, with the exception of Guido Kisch’s now classical monograph, In Search of Freedom,[3] written in 1949, which dealt primarily with the emigrants from the Czech Lands around the year 1848; and my own study, which focused on the earliest arriving Bohemian Jewish pioneers in America. [4]

The purpose of this study is to take a comprehensive look at the immigration and settlement of the Bohemian and the Czech Jews in America at the onset of the 19th century and beyond and to evaluate their contributions. The first part deals with the arrival and the settlement of the immigrants in different States of the Union. The second part deals with the contributions of the selected Bohemian and the Czech Jews in different areas of endeavor, including American Judaism, public service, military service, business, culture, biological and medical sciences, physical sciences and engineering, and humanities and social sciences.[5]

One of the difficulties has been to identify who is Jewish, since most of them came to America when the Czech Lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. German being the official language of the land, it is altogether not surprising, that being enterprising, they easily mixed with the German element, and as such, were a priori considered Germans or Austrians, or even Hungarians. This was true even though they had a separate identity and established their own culture. They were not Germans, they were Bohemian Jews. After the Czechoslovak Republic was established, many of these Jews identified themselves as Czechs Jews, having learned the Czech language and becoming a part of the Czech cultural milieu.

Despite the initial difficulties of identifying them as a group, after some experience, the present author soon developed the skill of ‘guessing’ whether a given surname might be of Bohemian Jewish origin. Here are some examples of the typical Bohemian Jewish names: Abeles, Adler, Altschul, Arnstein, Bleier, Bloch, Block, Bondi, Bondy, Busch, Eckstein, Eidlitz, Eisler, Eisner, Eitner, Epstein, Ernst, Fantl, Feigl, Fischel, Fischer, Fleischer, Fleischner, Frankel, Freud, Freund, Fried, Fuchs, Furst, Fürth, Glaser, Grünberger, Grund, Grünfeld, Grünhut, Günzburg, Haas, Hahn, Hammerschlag, Heller, Hirsch, Hofmann, Jeiteles, Kahler, Karpeles, Katz, Kauders, Kisch, Klauber, Klein, Kohn, Korbel, Kraus, Krauskopf, Kuh, Langer, Lederer, Löbl, Loewy, Löw-Beer, Lustig, Mahler, Mandl, Meisl, Meissner, Munk, Neumann, Pam, Pascheles, Petscheck, Pick, Popper, Porges, Reich, Rosenwasser, Rosewater, Schlesinger, Schmelkes, Schulhoff, Spira, Stein, Steindler, Steiner, Stern, Strauss, Tauber, Teweles, Vogel, Wehle, Weidenthal, Weiner, Weil, Weinberger, Weinmann, Weiss, Weisskopf, Weltsch, Winternitz, Wolf, Zeisel, Zucker, Zweig.

The identification was, of course, easier, when their names were based on German translations of the Czech towns, such as Austerlitz (Slavkov), Brandeis (Brandýs nad Labem), Brod, Bunzlau (Boleslav), Haurowitz (Hořovice), Janowitz (Janovice), Jenikau (Jeníkov), Nachod (Náchod), Neustadtl (Nové Město), Nicolsburg (Mikulov), Politzer (Politz – Police), Postelberg (Postoloprty), Prag (Praha), Pribram (Příbram), Raudnitz ( Roudnice), Strakonitz (Strakonice), Taussig (Tauss – Domažlice), Teplitz (Teplice), Turnau (Turnov).

Some of these Jews had typical Czech names, such as: Dubský, Forman, Holý, Hošek, Hubatý, Jahoda, Jellinek, Kafka, Kulka, Kussy, Mánes, Morawetz, Placzek, Písecký, Pokorný, Poláček, Pollak, Roubíček, Růžička, Slezák, Sobotka, Stránský, Tuschka, Vodička, Voskovec, Zelenka.[6]

This section ignores the Bohemian Jewish pioneers in America from the 16th to 18th centuries, which were the subject of my earlier study. The emphasis here is the immigrants who came to America in the first half of the 19th century and their descendants.

Around the turn of the 19th century several members of the Block (originally Bloch) Jewish family from Švihov, a village in Bohemia, settled in Virginia. [7] Among them were Jacob Block (ca 1765-1835) and his son Abraham Block (1780-1857). Jacob lived originally in Baltimore, MD but later moved to Williamsburg and soon after to Richmond in Virginia. Abraham arrived in America in 1791 at the age of 12 years and grew up in Virginia. He established himself as a merchant and in 1811 was married to Frances Isaacs with whom he had seven children. The following year he served as captain during the War of 1812. After the war he returned to his business. In 1823 he decided to move to Arkansas where he thought he would find better conditions for business.

Other members of the large Block family lived in Richmond at that time. The patriarch of the family, Simon Block (bef. 1742-1823), the father of Jacob and grandfather of Abraham, resided in Richmond in 1804. Some six years later he moved to Williamsburg and finally he ended up in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Abraham’s brother Simon Block, Jr. (bef. 1790-1826) lived in Richmond since 1794 or earlier, and later moved to Missouri. Abraham’s second brother Eleazer Block (1797-1886), a native of Švihov, was one of the lucky Americans who had the privilege of acquiring university education at that time. He attended the College of William and Mary and around 1826 settled by the Mississippi River and opened a law practice. Abraham’s sister Louise, who was born in Virginia, married Abraham Jonas, a close friend of President Lincoln. Their son Benjamin Franklin Jonas (1834-1911) became Senator for the State of Louisiana. [8]

The next State to register the entry of a Bohemian Jew at the beginning of the 19th century was probably Maryland. His name was Levi Collmus (1782-1856) who settled in Baltimore.[9] Although some sources state that he arrived in 1798, as a lad of 15, or in 1800, a declaration of naturalization he made in 1822 states that he arrived at the port of Baltimore in September 1806. He gave Prague as his birthplace and his age as 40 years. He was a dry goods dealer.

Levi Collmus participated in the War of 1812. According to his application to the U.S House of Representatives for a pension, he "was engaged in the battle near Baltimore which took place on the 12th day of September, 1814.” Although he married a Christian, Collmus was one of the electors of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in 1831. He became treasurer of the United Hebrew Benevolent Society when it was formed in 1834. Though buried in a Christian cemetery (Greenmount Cemetery), he was given a burial according to the full Orthodox Jewish ritual.[10]

In the 1840s, several Bohemian Jewish families settled in Baltimore. Among them was Charles Winternitz (1815-1891), a native of Deštná, Bohemia, who came with his wife and five children, in 1845. After six months in Baltimore, he began an iron business. Within two years he owned two stores in the city, and was very successful. His firm, Charles Winternitz & Sons, did the heaviest iron business in the city of Baltimore. He had eight children, of which three--David, Lewis and Hiram--were associated with him in business. Two of them, Samuel G. and William, carried on individually their own iron businesses. [11]

In 1845, Adolf Guinzburg (ca1820-1908) settled in Annapolis, the capital of Maryland.[12] He was a merchant. He lived there until 1873 when he removed to Clearfield, PA, where he opened a men’s clothing shop. His brother, Rabbi Dr. A. Guinzburg (1812-1873) immigrated with his family to Baltimore in 1849. Apart from his theological responsibilities he also taught at Newton University. He later moved to Rochester, NY. [13]

In 1849, Leopold Franz Morawetz (1818-1892) immigrated to Baltimore from Roudnice, Bohemia. [14] He was a physician specializing in surgery and obstetrics, having received his medical training at Prague and Vienna Universities. He opened a practice in Baltimore and was among Baltimore’s first physicians. One of his sons, Victor Morawetz,[15] became a prominent lawyer; the other son, Albert became a diplomat.

At the turn of the 18th and 19th century, Isaac Phillips (1794-1851) came to Pennsylvania from England, where his ancestor Phineas Phillips originally emigrated from Bohemia. He was a member of the foreign commission and exchange firm of R. I. Phillips, who became a prominent figure in the Philadelphia business world. His firm was the first American representative of the House of Rothschild. Isaac’s son Barnet Phillips (1826-1885), a founder of the American Jewish Historical Society, achieved distinction as a scholar, soldier and journalist. In 1872 he joined the staff of the New York Times; at the time of his death he was in charge of book reviews.[16]

David Winternitz (*1818) immigrated to America from Bohemia and settled in New Castle, PA in 1825. His son Isaac Adler Winternitz became a physician as did his grandson David Henry Winternitz (*1891). The latter was born Hoxie, KA, where his father moved. [17]

Francis J. Grund (1798-1863), a native of Liberec, Bohemia, was long a resident of Philadelphia, and a frequent contributor ”to the public prints.” He made his first impression as a Washington correspondent of the Public Ledger. Grund played an active role in the city’s politics. He edited a Whig newspaper, the Daily Standard, during the campaign of 1840; and he afterwards became a staunch supporter of the Tyler administration. On October 26, 1842, The Spirit of the Times reported that Grund had been appointed “weigh master” in the Philadelphia Custom House. Lambert A. Wilmer [18] recalled that Grund, while holding “a fat office in the Custom-House,” controlled the “political department” of the Evening Mercury, the organ of the Tyler administration in Philadelphia. He established a Philadelphia journal The Age, which he edited from 1843-63, and was the author of The Americans in their Moral, Social, and Political Relations (1837), Aristocracy in America (1839), Algebraic Problems, Elements of Chemistry and of Natural Philosophy and Plane and Solid Geometry.

His insightfulness is evident from the discussion in his book, Aristocracy in America, of Philadelphia’s culture: “The society of Philadelphia is, on the whole, better than that of Boston or New York. There is less vulgar aristocracy than in other Northern cities. Not that I mean to say that there are not people to be found in Boston and New York that could rival the Philadelphians in point of 'gentility but in the good 'city of brotherly love' there is, probably owing to a seasonable admixture of a large number of European, and especially French families, a higher tone, greater elegance, and, in every respect, more agrémens. The New-Englanders are an arguing people, and annoy you, even in society, with mathematical and political demonstrations. The Philadelphians have more taste, and have the best cooks in the United States.”[19]

S. E. Rosenbaum (*1822), a Czech Jew from Golčův Jeníkov, Bohemia, settled in Allentown, PA at age 25 in 1847. According to Guido Kisch, he had talents for art and journalism. He kept a careful diary, a veritable ‘human document’ of man’s enterprise, striving, and endurance. His American career as a peddler and window-shade painter was beneath his talents and education. In his later years, his frequent spells of disappointment and despondency find tragic expression in the final pages of his diary – which he added some fifty years afterwards, at the age of seventy-five.[20]

Adolph Brandeis (1822-1906) from Prague briefly visited Pennsylvania in 1848 after he emigrated from Bohemia to New York. He was the father of the famed Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis.

During 1853-1854, Rabbi Bernard Illowy (1814-1871), of Kolín, Bohemia, served as rabbi in Philadelphia. He then moved to St. Louis.

The earliest known Bohemian Jew to settle in Louisiana was Samuel Kohn (1783-1853), who was born in a tiny Bohemian village of Hořany. It is surmised that he arrived around 1806 or earlier. Through wit, grit and acuity, he rose from a penniless immigrant to become one of the wealthiest financiers in New Orleans. In due course, Kohn became a banker, moneylender, investor, and a real estate promoter. He also built dwellings and commercial buildings throughout the city and was one of the major promoters of suburban construction. [21]

Samuel Kohn had several brothers, including Simon and Joachim. In 1819 or 1820, when Joachim [22] was 19 or 20 years old, Samuel brought him to New Orleans and set him up in the commission brokerage line. He and his with several partners owned ships and handled cargoes on the Mississippi River, in the Caribbean, on the Atlantic seaboard and in Europe. After Samuel Kohn moved to Paris in 1832, Joachim acted as his agent in America. Joachim was successful in his own right. He was a member of more corporate boards than any other Jew in his time.

A third member of the Kohn family, Samuel's nephew Carl Kohn,[23] was brought to New Orleans by Samuel in 1830 or 1831. He achieved a level of success and prominence equal to that of his uncles. Like them he became engaged in merchant banking, commission brokerage and various other business enterprises, culminating in his election to the presidency of the Union National Bank.

Apart from Kohns, several members of the Block family lived in New Orleans, including Abraham Block (1780-1857), Jacob Block (1808-1888) and Louisa Block (*1800), the mother of the future senator Benjamin F. Jonas (1834-1911).

Some Bohemian Jews resided here only temporarily, such as Dr. Simon Pollak (1814-1903) from Domažlice or Philip Wohl (1823-1895) from Karlovy Vary, both of whom later moved to St. Louis. MO.

Missouri was the next state in which Bohemian Jews appeared in the early part of the 19th century. According to Isidor Bush, it was Wolf Block (ca 1765-bf 1840) from Švihov, who previously lived in Baltimore, MD and Richmond, who moved to St. Louis in 1816. Other family relatives followed suit so that the Blocks were the most numerous Jewish family in the city. Wolf Block’s cousin, Eleazer Block (1797-1886),[24] was apparently the second Block who came to St. Louis, after completing his studies at the College of William and Mary. He became the first “Hebrew lawyer" in that city.

A couple of decades later, the St. Louis’ Blocks were joined by Abraham Weigl (1802-1888) and Nathan Abeles (1814-1885) from Bohemia, who married into the Block family.

Around 1840, Charles A Taussig (*1822), son of Seligman Taussig from Prague, came to St. Louis, followed, a year later, by his brother John Seligman Taussig (1832-1911)[25] with their cousin William (1826-1916). Charles Taussig, jointly with Adolph Abeles, brother of Nathan Abeles, opened a very popular general store at Park and Carondelet Streets, which became widely known as far as Jefferson Co. [26]

In 1840, Adolph Klauber (1816-) arrived from Bohemia and established an iron and metal business in St. Louis. He became one of the founders of congregation B’nai El. His son David, born in 1858, joined him in business and both became important members of the Jewish community. [27]

In 1845, a young physician Simon Pollak (1814-1903), of Domažlice, joined the growing St. Louis Bohemian Jewish community. He obtained his doctorate in 1835 and immigrated to America in 1838. After a short stay in New York, he went to New Orleans and then to Tennessee, before permanently settling in St. Louis. He established a highly successful ophthalmology and ear clinic and an institution for blind. During the Civil War he served as a general inspector of hospitals. [28]

Isidor Bush (1822-1898) came to St. Louis in 1849, after a short stay in New York, where he first immigrated after the unsuccessful revolution in 1848 and when he had to flee from Austria. He was married to Theresa Taussig, sister of Charles A Taussig. He opened a general store in Carondelet with his brother-in-law Charles A. Taussig, who was already in business with Adolph Abeles. By 1853, Bush and Taussig bought out Abeles and continued profitably in the south St. Louis location. In 1851, Bush purchased one hundred acres of land in Jefferson Co., south of St. Louis, at a place called Bushberg, where he successfully grew grapes. Before long he gained a reputation as a leading authority in viniculture. [29]

The earlier mentioned Capt. Abraham Block (1780-1857), from Virginia, resided in the state of Arkansas by 1823. His family soon followed. They were considered to have been one of the original pioneer settlers and the first Jews to settle in Arkansas.[30] Abraham had established a store in the village of Washington, AK that had prospered and had drawn trade from a wide area in Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, so that he soon became one of the wealthiest men in the county. In 1830s and 1840s, the Block firm began to open branches in other towns in the southwest Arkansas. According to his obituary, he was esteemed by all who knew him, and the businessmen of New Orleans and the planters of Red River and southern Arkansas all knew him.[31]

The year of 1827 marks the arrival in Boston of Francis Joseph Grund (1805-1863) from Prague. In contrast to the humble background of most of the early immigrants from Bohemia, Francis J. Grund was already educated when he came to America, with a degree from the Vienna Polytechnic. He was a mathematician of note who wrote textbooks on arithmetic, algebra and geometry, in addition to texts on chemistry, astronomy and natural philosophy. In 1827, after a year of teaching mathematics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he settled in the United States. He continued teaching mathematics in Boston until 1833, subsequently engaging in journalistic work. In 1837 he settled in Philadelphia, where he served as an editor of the Whig newspaper Standard and Grund's Pennsylvanischer Deutscher. Some credit him with inventing journalistic sensationalism , full of hints of best sources and information from behind the scenes. [32]

The first Bohemian Jew in Kentucky was probably Louisa Block (*ca1800), who was married there in 1829 to Abraham Jonas. Her father Jacob was native of Švihov, Bohemia, who immigrated to the US at the end of the 18th century.[33] Louisa and her husband lived first in Williamstown in Grant Co., KY. Four of their sons were born in Kentucky, all of whom served in the Confederate Army. One of the sons, Benjamin Franklin Jonas (1834-1911) was a lawyer who became senator for Louisiana. [34] In 1836 the family removed to Quincy, IL where they became close friends of President Lincoln. [35]

In 1853, Lewis Naphtali Dembitz (1833–1907), whose mother came from Prague, opened a law practice in Louisville. He soon entered politics and held important offices in the Republican Party. He was a member of the National Republican Convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for President. [36]

Around 1853, another Bohemian Jew, Edward Klauber (1835-1918),[37] settled in Louisville, where he opened a popular photographic studio. One of his sons, Adolf Klauber (1879-1933) was a drama critic for New York Times and later became a theatre producer. [38]

The most interesting Bohemian Jewish family in Kentucky was that of Moritz Flexner (1820-1882) from Všeruby, who settled in Louisville in 1854.[39] Although he was just a peddler and later a shopkeeper, he managed to provide all his children university education. Without exception, they became prominent in their professions.

A large number of Bohemian Jews came to New York in the early part of the 19th century. However, most of them stayed for only a short period and then moved on to other states, particularly to the south. This is why New York City may be called “Gateway to America.” [40] This group included Dr. Simon Pollak, who came here in 1838, Leopold Weisskopf in 1839, Louis Fleischner in 1839, Solomon Adler in 1843, Charles S. Kuh in 1844, Rabbi Issac M. Wise in 1846 and Samuel Klauber in 1847.

Among the early arrivals, only a few people made New York City or New York State their permanent home. Among them are Leopold Eidlitz, who came here in 1843, Marc Eidlitz and David Abeles (1822-1897) in 1847, Max Maretzek, Lewis Hahn (1828-), Philip Brockman, Julius Bunzl and Henry Dormitzer in 1848. Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1908) was one of the most prominent architects in the US, while his brother Marc (1826-1892) became one of the most famous building contractors and entrepreneurs in New York City.

Max Maretzek (1821-1897) managed several opera companies at the Academy of Music, NY and was one of the pioneers in popularizing grand opera in the US.

It is noteworthy that already in 1848 the New York Czech Jews had their own congregation "Ahabath Hesed." Their synagogue stood on 133 Ridge Street and their burial ground in Cypress Hill Cemetery. Their first rabbi was Falkman Teberich, while Ignatz Stein served as president of the congregation. The parent organization, recorded as early as 1846, was not a synagogue but a mutual aid society, called ‘Bohemian Brothers.” This society is mentioned in the minutes of Emanu-El Congregation in New York of May 30, 1847, under the name of ‘Bőhmischer Verein.’ Simon Klauber was president, Charles S. Kuh vice-president, Dr. Brockman as treasurer and M. Opper was secretary. [41]

Henry Horner (1817-78) was the first Bohemian Jew, and one of the first four Jews to settle in Chicago. He came to America in 1840, and, was hired in Chicago as a clerk for a clothing house, where he remained until he opened his own wholesale and retail house, Henry Horner and Co. His company started at Randolph and Canal Streets. In 1859 Horner built a large store at Nos. 78, 80 and 82 West Randolph Street, and in 1864 he moved his business to South Water Street. His grandson, bearing identical name, became governor of Illinois.[42]

In 1852, Joseph Benedict Greenhut (1843-1918) from Horšovský Týn, Bohemia immigrated with his parents and settled in Chicago. He was a volunteer in the Union Army during Civil War and took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He was made adjutant general and chief of staff of 3rd Brigade, 3rd Div. of the 11th Army Corps and took part in the campaign and battles of his brigade in Tennessee. After 1869 he conducted a distilling business with unprecedented success. He erected largest distillery in the world at Peoria, IL. In 1887 he organized the Distillery and Cattle Feeding Co., with a capital of $35 million, comprising practically all large distilleries in the country. When Pres. McKinley and his entire cabinet visited Peoria in 1899 they were guests of the Greenhuts. [43]

Solomon Weil (1821-1891) was the first Bohemian Jew to come to Michigan. He was a native of Bohumileč near Čkyně, Bohemia, from which he emigrated in 1843, settling in Ann Arbor. He was the first Jew in that city. He was soon joined by his future wife Dora and his brothers: Leopold, Moses, Marcus and Jacob, and his father Joseph. They all first conducted individual businesses but later decided to pool their resources and establish a family-run tannery J. Weil & Bros. Jacob Weil (1827-1912), who was highly educated, having initially studied in Prague to be a rabbi and later graduated from the University in Budapest, was chosen to be the firm’s president. Just three years after they bought the tannery, the R.G. Dun & Company reported the brothers’ worth as $50,000, and their business as “one of the most successful firms in the West.” By 1861, the tannery employed from 40 to 50 men. Five years later their real estate was worth about $100,000. [44]

In 1847, three Lederer brothers, Charles, Henry and Emanuel, also from Čkyně, Bohemia, settled in Ann Arbor. Subsequently they moved to Lansing, Michigan, where they established a tannery, soap manufacturing and general store.

In the same year another Bohemian Jew arrived, named Abraham Weidenthal (1818-1848), who after two years moved to Cleveland, OH, where he became a prominent journalist.

Among the earliest Jewish immigrants to settle in Milwaukee in 1844 was Isaac Neustadtl (d. l877) from Bohemia. [45] He started out as a retail grocer on Third Street but soon involved himself in the insurance business. Apart from his successful business, he was very active in the political and civic affairs of the city. In 1852/53 he was elected city alderman in the Second Ward, which contained the largest segment of Milwaukee's Jewish population. Neustadtl sympathized with the European revolutionary movement of 1848 and headed an association in Milwaukee for aiding political refugees from Europe. On Yom Kippur in 1847, 12 Jewish pioneers held their first services at the home of Isaac Neustadtl at Chestnut and Fourth Streets, leading to the establishment of Emanu-El, the first Jewish congregation in Milwaukee.

The second Bohemian Jew to come to Milwaukee was Josef B. Schram (1817-1900) in 1846, after spending some time in Boston. He opened a grocery store which he conducted for twenty-six years. His son Louis B. Schram (*1856) studied at Yale and received a law degree from Columbia in 1879. Since then he successfully practiced law in Milwaukee.

The third Bohemian Jew to come to Milwaukee was Solomon Adler (1816-1890), who originally immigrated to New York in 1843. He established a men’s store in Milwaukee, jointly with Jacob Steinhardt which existed till 1852. He then formed another firm with his brother David under the name A & D Adler Co. When Solomon Adler retired from the firm and left for New York, the company was reorganized as the David Adler and Sons Clothing Co., which grew to be one of the largest wholesale clothing houses in the United States. While still in Milwaukee, Solomon was very active in Jewish affairs and held the office of secretary of the first Jewish cemetery organization in Milwaukee, as well as secretary of the first Jewish congregation in Milwaukee and the first president of the newly consolidated congregation Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun.

In 1847 and the following years a number of other Bohemian Jews settled in Milwaukee, including Adolph Weil (1847), Henry Katz (1847), Bernard Heller (1848), Jacob Morawetz (1849), Jonas Schoenmann (1850), Isaac Stránský (1850).

As mentioned earlier, Simon Block (1742-1832) moved to Cincinnati sometimes after 1810; he was the first Bohemian Jew in Ohio. When Simon Block died in 1832 Cincinnati's Jewish congregation mourned "the loss of Simon Block, Esq., formerly of Richmond, Va. This venerable gentleman had filled the office of Parnass. . . . Being the oldest amongst us, we considered him as the father of this congregation." [46]

In 1848, Adolph Brandeis (1820-) from Prague, Bohemia came to Cincinnati scouting for a new home for his extended family, after immigrating first to New York that year. In January 1849 he worked for a Cincinnati grocery store, which gave him the necessary experience for his future business. Later that year, twenty-six members of Gottlieb Wehle’s family from Prague arrived in New York to join him. Adolph Brandeis who soon after married Gottlieb Wehle’s daughter then accompanied them to Cincinnati. They stayed for about a month and then all members minus two moved to Madison, IN. The two who remained were Dr. Sigmund Dembitz and his son Lewis N. Dembitz (1833-1907). Here then Lewis’ father practiced medicine while young Lewis studied law. He did it in the fashion of the day by obtaining an employment and reading law in the office of a rising lawyer John Bernhard Stallo.

In 1849, another Bohemian Jew, Abraham Weidenthal (1818-1848), a native of Hostice, moved to Cleveland, OH, after first immigrating to Michigan in 1847. He brought with him his new wife, Rebecca Neuman (1823-1890), also a native from Bohemia, whom he married at Ann Arbor, MI in 1847. Other members of the Weidenthal family, including Gottlieb’s mother Rebecca, his bothers Bernard and Leopold and sisters Fanny and Charlotte joined them the same year. The youngest Gottlieb’s brother Emanuel (1827-1897) arrived in Cleveland with his wife Julia and their six children around 1865. A least three of these children, Maurice, Henry and Leo became prominent journalists in Cleveland.

In 1849, Joseph Lőwy (1797-1870), another Bohemian Jew, arrived from Nové Hostice, together with his sons Leopold, Ignatz and Albert and daughter Dorothea. Two years later Dorothea Lőwy married Bernard Weidenthal.

Most Bohemian Jewish immigrants established themselves quite quickly in their new homeland and many of them achieved remarkable success, in just about every area of human endeavor. Although most major areas are covered here, because of the lack of space, only a few most representative individuals in specific areas are included.

Several prominent American rabbis can claim Czech ancestry. Among them, by far, the leading place is held by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, originally spelled Weiss (1819-1900), who was born in Lomnička, Bohemia. In July 1846, he immigrated to NY and in September 1846 was elected rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Albany, NY where he remained until 1854 when he was elected rabbi of the Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun Congregation of Cincinnati, where he officiated until end of his life. In Cincinnati he began publishing a weekly newspaper The Israelite (later The American Israelite). He was a pioneer, founder and organizer of Reform Judaism in US and most influential Jewish personality in US at his time. He was instrumental in organizing the Union of American Hebrew Congregation (1873) and in founding Hebrew Union College (1875), which he served as president until his death. In 1889 he also founded the Central Conference of American Rabbis and served as its president until the end of his life. [47]

Bernard Illowy (l8l2 1871) from Kolín, Bohemia was probably the second most influential rabbi in America of Czech ancestry. He was an orthodox rabbi and scholar educated at the rabbinical school in Padua and the University of Budapest. At time of his immigration to US in 1848 he was the only Orthodox rabbi to hold a doctorate degree in the US. He served as rabbi in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Syracuse, Baltimore, New Orleans and Cincinnati. He stressed Orthodox observance in his sermons and was a powerful speaker, accomplished lyricist, and great Talmudist.[48]

The third rabbi of significance was Maximilian Heller (1860-1929), a native of Prague, who was educated in Prague and Cincinnati. He became rabbi in Chicago (1884-86), Houston (1886-87) and of the Temple Sinai in New Orleans (s. 1887), where he served for more than 40 years. He was active in communal affairs and in1912 was appointed professor of Hebrew and Hebrew literature at Tulane University, where he served until retirement in 1928. He was a Charter member of Central Conference of American Rabbis, serving as their president from 1911-29.[49]

Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949) was a descendant of a long line of rabbis in Moravia in the 17th and 18th centuries. After immigration to New York as a child and after his ordination as a Reform rabbi, he led a congregation in Portland, Oregon, where his liberal political convictions inspired him to fight for child labor laws and for the demands of striking workers. A charismatic orator, he became a champion for social justice and civil rights and was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He later became a strong advocate and vocal supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ‘New Deal.’

Other rabbis of note include Emanuel Schreiber (1852-1932), Moses J. Gries (1868-1918), Eugene Kohn (1887-1977, James G. Heller (1892-1971), and Leo Jung (1892-1977).

Executive Branch - In the Executive branch of the Federal Government, Madeleine Albright (1937-) achieved the highest rank, having been named the Secretary of State by President Clinton. She was born in Prague to Czech diplomat Josef Korbel and his wife. Although she received her doctorate relatively late in life (1976), her career then skyrocketed. She became a legislative assistant to Senator Edmund Muskie, followed by similar appointment with the National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. Later she was given a chair at George Washington University. She became an advisor to Presidential candidate Walter Mondale and to Michael Dukakis. When Bill Clinton became President, she was named US Ambassador to the UN and his next term, he appointed her Secretary of State.[50]

The second highest position held by a Bohemian Jew was Caspar Weinberger (1917-2006), whose paternal grandfather was a native of Bohemia. He served in the administrations of three U.S. presidents, as director of the Office of Management and Budget, as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, and as Secretary of Defense. He was noted for his budget-cutting ability until, as Secretary of defense, he pressed for huge annual increases in military spending.[51]

A third very influential person was Charles William Taussig (1896-1948), whose paternal grandfather was a native of Prague. Charles W. Taussig was President of the American Molasses Company in 1933, when he became one of the original members of the "brain trust" of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. From 1935 to 1936, he served as Chairman of the National Advisory Committee of the National Youth Administration. Taussig co-chaired the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission in 1942, and was chairman of the American delegation from 1946 until his death in 1948. He also served as a member of the President's Council for the Virgin Islands, chairman of the U.S. Commission to Study Social and Economic Conditions in the British East Indies, and on the United Nations Conference on International Organization. [52]

Legislative Branch - Two senators of Bohemian Jewish ancestry are Benjamin F. Jonas of Louisiana and John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

Benjamin Franklin Jonas (1834-1911) was a grandson of Jewish immigrant from Švihov, Bohemia. He enlisted in the army during the early days of the Civil War and was later promoted to the rank of major. He was a member of the Louisiana state house of representatives in 1865. Following the war, he served as a US Senator during Reconstruction as a Democrat from 1879 to 1885. He was the second Jewish US Senator from Louisiana.[53]

John Forbes Kerry (1943-) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, and, until recently, was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As the Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, he was defeated by 34 electoral votes in the 2004 presidential election by President George W. Bush. Senator Kerry is a Vietnam veteran, and was a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans against the War when he returned home from service. Before entering the Senate, he served as an Assistant District Attorney and Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. In 2003 it was discovered that Kerry's paternal grandparents came from Horní Benešov, Moravia. They were Jewish but prior to immigration to US they changed their names and switched to Roman Catholicism. His grandfather changed his name from Fritz Kohn to Frederick Kerry. Until this discovery, Senator Kerry thought that his ancestors were Irish Catholics.[54]

Among Congressmen, Adolph Joachim Sabath (1866-1952), a native of Záboří, Bohemia, gets the highest honors. He served as a member of the US House of Representatives from Chicago, Illinois, from 1907 until his death. He served for 23 terms, representing Chicago's Southwest Side, and was chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee. He was known for his advocacy of immigration and social welfare reform.[55]

Judicial Branch – Several Jewish judges with roots in the Czech Lands were appointed to American courts. Two of them held the prestigious posts as Associate Judges of the Supreme Court. The first was Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), a native of Louisville, KY, whose father Adolf emigrated from Prague to America in 1848. As a very successful attorney in Boston (1877–1916), he was known as "the people's attorney" for his defense of the constitutionality of several state hours-and-wages laws, his devising of a savings-bank life-insurance plan for working people, and his efforts to strengthen the government's antitrust power. His work influenced passage in 1914 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act. Appointed by President Wilson to the Supreme Court of the United States (1916), he was noted for his devotion to freedom of speech. Many of his minority opinions, in which he was often aligned with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., later were accepted by the court in the New Deal era.[56]

The second notable jurist of Czech extraction was Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965), a native of Vienna, Austria, whose mother was born in Uherský Ostroh, Moravia. In 1900 the family emigrated to the United States. After graduating from City College of New York in 1902, Frankfurter entered Harvard Law School. In 1906 Henry Stimson, a New York attorney, recruited Frankfurter as his assistant. When President William Howard Taft appointed Stimson as his secretary of war in 1911, he took Frankfurter along as law officer of the Bureau of Insular Affairs. In 1914, Frankfurter returned to the Harvard Law School as professor of administrative law. Over the next few years he acquired a reputation for holding progressive political views. A founder member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) he criticized the Tennessee Anti-Evolution Law and joined the campaign to overturn the death sentence.

When Roosevelt became president he often consulted Frankfurter about the legal implication of his New Deal legislation. In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Frankfurter as a Supreme Court justice. Frankfurter took a strong stand on individual civil rights and this led to him being condemned by some as an "extreme liberal.”[57]

State and Municipal Government - At the State level, Henry Horner (1878-1940), whose maternal grandfather immigrated to Chicago, grew to prominence as a lawyer and politician. His political career began in 1914 when he was elected probate judge of Cook County, a post to which he was reelected four times. The younger Horner's ability and impeccable reputation led the Democratic organization to nominate him for governor of Illinois in 1932. Defeating the Republican nominee by a vote of 1,930,330 to 1,364,043, he became the first Democratic chief executive of the state in 17 years. During his tenure as governor (1933-40) he made many notable contributions to the welfare Illinois. His interest in Lincoln resulted in the gathering of one of the finest collections of ‘Lincolniana’ in the U.S., which he donated to the Illinois State Historical Library.[58]

At a municipal level, Julius Fleischmann (1871-1925), a son of a Moravian Jew, became mayor of Cincinnati (1900 – 1905). He was the son of Charles Louis Fleischmann, the founder of the Fleischmann Yeast Co. He left college to become the company's General Manager in 1894 when he was twenty-two years old. The wealthiest and also the youngest man to serve as the city's mayor, he was remembered for vastly improving Cincinnati's park system and railways.[59]

Other mayors of Bohemian Jewish ancestry include Isaac W. Taussig (1850-1884), mayor of Jersey City, NJ; William Taussig (1826-1913), mayor of Carondelet, MO; and Walter M. Taussig (1862-1923), mayor of Yonkers, NY,

Bohemian Jewish immigrants participated in just about every war in which the US was involved. First was Solomon Bush (1753-1795), whose father immigrated to Philadelphia and who was an officer in the Pennsylvania militia (1777-87). In July 1777, he was appointed deputy adjutant-general of the state militia by the supreme council of Pennsylvania. In September 1777, he was dangerously wounded in the thigh during a skirmish, and had to be taken to Philadelphia. When the British captured the City in December 1777, he was taken prisoner, but released on parole. His brother, Jonas Bush, was also on the roll of Revolutionary soldiers.[60]

During the Civil War, Color Sergeant Leopold Karpeles (1838-1909) , a native of Prague, was instrumental in turning the tide of the May 1864 Wilderness Campaign, which saw his 57th Massachusetts Regiment suffer the highest casualties. Karpeles was badly wounded but he refused to relinquish the flag and be evacuated until he fainted from loss of blood. Karpeles spent most of the next year in military hospitals, and was discharged in May of 1865. He received Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery. He settled in Washington after the war and was rewarded for his military service with a job in the post office, which he held until his death.[61]

Robert Eugene Steiner (1862-1955), a son of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant, served as captain in the Greenville Guards and major in the 2nd Regiment of Alabama National Guard. He raised a cavalry regiment (1916) and, appointed colonel, served with it on the Mexican border. He was promoted to brigadier general of the National Guards (1917), brigadier general of US Army (1917), and Commander of the 62nd Infantry Brigade. During the world War I he returned in command of the 31st division and later was appointed brigadier general (1919).[62]

Several high-ranking officers were in the US Navy. Edward David Taussig (1847‑1921), son of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant, became a Rear Admiral. He served in the European and Pacific Stations and in the Coast Survey. He commanded the Bennington (1898‑99), took possession of Wake Island for the US, and took charge of Guam in 1899. He also served in the Philippines and in North China.[63]

His son Joseph Koefler Taussig (1877‑1947) was promoted through ranks to Rear Admiral in the US Navy. He participated in Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection, Boxer Campaign, Cuban Pacification, World War I, and the Nicaraguan Campaign of 1927. He retired as Vice Admiral.[64]

Claude Charles Bloch (1878-1967), a son of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant was also a Navy officer of note. He advanced to Rear Admiral (1923) and then to Admiral (1942). He served on the SS Iowa in Spanish-American War and was named the Commander-in-chief of the US Fleet (1938- 40). He was made the Commandant of the Navy Yard Pearl Harbor and held the post during the Japanese attack in December 1941.[65]

As one would expect, many Bohemian Jewish immigrants and their descendants became businessmen in America.

Among merchants, Abraham Block (1780-1857) of Švihov, Bohemia, arrived in Washington, AK in 1823 and soon established the mercantile business that was to become one of the most prosperous in the state.

David Adler (1821-1905) organized his David Adler and Sons Clothing Co. in Milwaukee. This grew to be one of the largest wholesale clothing houses in the United States.

Louis Fleischner (1827-1896) founded a major and highly acclaimed wholesale dry foods business in Portland which ranked among the first in Oregon.

Louis Taussig (1837-1890) founded The Taussig Co. in San Francisco, which became one of the largest wholesale liquor establishments in the west, eventually expanding into Cincinnati, New York City and Kentucky.

Jonas L. Brandeis (1836-1903), of Prague, was the founder of the J. L. Brandeis Stores in Omaha, Nebraska. At the top of its game, Brandeis had around fifteen department stores in its chain. The flagship store downtown became one of Omaha's most prized symbols of modern culture. Brandeis was Nebraska's department store. At its peak in the early 1970s, the chain had 3,000 employees and $100 million dollars in sales. The Crossroads Mall store opened in 1960 with mixed results but soon took off and proved to be one of the best stores in the chain, earning an average of $38 million. Crossroads proved to be extremely successful for Brandeis, despite the risk of opening the first new Brandeis in 50 years. Locations opened across the entire state, downtown (Columbus and Hastings) and in the malls (Conestoga in Grand Island, Southroads & Westroads in Omaha, and Gateway in Lincoln). Soon locations were developed into Iowa.

Albert Pick (1869-1955), a native of Chicago, was a son of Czech immigrant who settled in Chicago. Beginning as a merchant (1893), he ended up as an owner of a large hotel chain. He was president of Pick Hotels Corp. to 1930 and then chairman of the board. In addition he was President and director of Fort Hayes Hotel Co., Anderson-Madison Realty Co., Continental Press Inc. and High St. Hotel Co.; vice president and director of Hotel Antlers Co., Belden Hotel Corp. of Youngstown; and vice president and director of North Shore Bank, Miami Beach, FL, etc. [66]

Frederick Brown (1870-1960), born in Plzeň, Bohemia, came to the US in 1888 and settled in NYC. After 1898 he became one of the largest real estate operators in the country. Among the many properties he owned or handled in transactions that were worth more than $2 billion were the hotels Savoy, Sherry-Netherlone, Majestic, New Yorker, Vanderbilt residence, the Park Row, Ruppert buildings and hundreds of others. He also owned the Hamilton Fish and Stillman residences, the Hippodrome and a large portion of R. H. Macy property. He was responsible for many developments in Central Park West, Park Ave., Fifth Ave., 57th St., and many other major and well-known streets in NYC. [67]

Louis R. Lurie (1888-1972) was a Chicago native whose father was Bohemian. He was the president of The Lurie Company in San Francisco and was among those citizens to whom San Francisco’s unprecedented growth was attributed. He financed, built and sold number over two hundred enterprises, most of them leading office and commercial buildings.[68]

Bruce A. Gimbel (1913-1980), whose maternal great grandfather emigrated to US from Bohemia, headed for 22 years the Gimbels department-store chain, an iconic American store. [69]

Coleman E. Adler, 2nd (ca 1946- ), a Los Angeles native of Czech ancestry, is president of the Adler's, five stores in New Orleans, LA. Adler's has become one of the largest retailers in the city, with 5,000 square feet of fine jewelry and 20,000 square feet of upscale gifts and accessories, including jewelry, bridal accessories, antiques, furniture, porcelain dolls, china, and more. When he was ten years old, Coleman Adler travelled with his father to major markets of the world to learn as his father picked and graded stones for their store.

Tobias Kohn (1817-1898) from Prague wove the first piece of silk goods produced by a loom in the US and is known as the founder of the silk industry in this country. [70]

Charles Louis Fleischmann (1835-1897) from Krnov, Moravia was an innovative manufacturer of yeast who in the late 1860s created America’s first commercially produced yeast. This revolutionized baking, enabling today’s mass production and consumption of bread.[71]

Joseph Benedict Greenhut (1843-1918) ,from Horšovský Týn, founded the Great Western Distillery in Peoria, IL, the then largest distillery in the world. [72]

Joseph Bulova (1851-1935) from Louny, Bohemia, established in 1875 in New York a jewelry and watch manufacturing concern, later known under the name Bulova Watch Co. [73]

Sigmund Eisner (1859-1925) from Horažďovice, Bohemia, was a large clothing manufacturer. His Red Bank, New Jersey Company, the Sigmund Eisner Co., was a chief supplier of uniforms for the American Army and the exclusive manufacturer of uniforms for the Boy Scouts of America. [74]

Henry Waldes (1876-194l), a native of Prague, was an industrialist, known worldwide by the snap fasteners manufactured in his factories in Prague, Dresden, Long Island and Switzerland. Waldes employed thousands of workers; his factory in Long Island alone had more than fifteen hundred. The New York Company, which first opened its sales office in New York in 1911, was incorporated in New York in 1925 under the name Waldes Kohinoor. The Long Island company was started in 1919 under the name Waldes & Co. Henry Waldes was senior partner in the New York company and practically commuted between Prague and New York City during the 1920s. He lived through the Nazi invasion of Prague but eventually succeeded in 194l to come to US.

David Philip Wohl (1886-1960), son of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant, became a giant in the shoe industry, as well as one of the honored and esteemed philanthropists in St. Louis. [75]

Ralph Kleinert Guinzburg (1891-1957), New York City native, was of Bohemian ancestry. He was president and director of the I. B. Kleinert Rubber Co., manufacturers of rubber ware. Under his leadership the firm expanded from seasonal manufacture of ear muffs to dress shield manufacturer. Other lines of apparel were gradually introduced and in addition the company produced many new articles in which rubber was combined with fabrics. He was an advocate of putting notion departments in department stores and of extensive advertising and merchandising methods. He was also a director of the Federal Employment Service. [76]

Charles William Taussig (1896-1948), a native of New York, was of Bohemian ancestry. He was president of the American Molasses, the firm founded by his grandfather William Taussig and is still owned almost entirely by Taussigs. It has plants in New Orleans, Montreal, Boston, Wilmington, N. C., and a brand-new sugar refinery in Brooklyn. Its subsidiary Sucrest Corp. refines and sells sugar. Its subsidiary Nulomoline Co. sells cane syrup preparations to bakers. Its most famous product is "Grandma's Old Fashioned Molasses," which in winter is sledded in huge casks into Maine's lumber camps. So financially conservative is the firm that it has almost no debts and its net worth is estimated well over $2,000,000.[77]

Esther Lauder (nee Mentzer) (1906-2004), a daughter of a Bohemian Jewish father, established in New York her world famous Este Lauder cosmetics firm. [78]

Among other corporate executives of note, Michael D. Eisner (1942-), whose grandfather Sigmund immigrated to the US from Horažďovice, would probably be in the lead. Michael Eisner was the longtime chief executive and chairman of the board of the Walt Disney Company and the man generally considered responsible for Disney's monumental success in the 1990s. During the 1970s and early '80s Eisner earned his reputation as a keen businessman, first as a programming director for ABC television and then as president of Paramount movie studios. He took charge of Disney in 1984 and turned it into a media giant whose interests included movies, sports franchises, theme parks and television networks.[79]

Another entrepreneur was Henry W. Bloch (1922-), whose grandfather was an immigrant from Janovice, Bohemia. Bloch is the co-founder and honorary chairman of the board of H&R Block, which he and his brother, Richard, founded in Kansas City, MO in 1955. As the world's largest tax services company, H&R Block in 2007 served more than 20 million clients at more than 12,500 U.S. retail offices and through its digital tax solutions. [80]

One of the first bankers among the American Bohemian Jews was Moritz O. Kopperl (1826-1883). He immigrated to Mississippi from Moravia and in 1857 set out for Texas. In 1868 Kopperl became president of Texas National Bank, which was verging on failure, and brought it back to sound financial condition. He took over the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1877 and served as its president from 1877 to 1879. He also brought the railroad, which became a part of the Santa Fe System, back to financial stability.[81]

Another successful financier was Jacob Furth (1840-1914) from Švihov, Bohemia, who played a pivotal role in the development of Seattle's public transportation and electric power infrastructure, and he was the founder of Seattle National Bank. After the great fire, Furth pledged his support as president of Seattle National Bank. He promised that the bank would make no effort to profit from the fire. Subsequently, he backed this pledge with $150 million in bank loans. In the financial panic of 1893, Furth saved Seattle from financial disaster by forestalling his own board of directors from calling in all the loans.[82]

Michel Nathaniel Robert de Rothschild (1946-), born in Paris of Bohemian ancestry. He is an American banker and member of the prominent Rothschild banking family of France. Known as Nathaniel, he is the first child and only son of Elie Robert de Rothschild. He will inherit from his father one-sixth of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vineyard and one-quarter of Rothschild & Cie Banque. Following the 1981 nationalization of banks by the government of Francois Mitterrand, Nathaniel de Rothschild left France and established a financial services business in Manhattan, where he now makes his home on Fifth Avenue.

Franz Werfel (1890-1945), a native of Prague, was a prominent novelist, playwright, and poet. An identified Jew, Werfel narrowly escaped the Nazi regime and immigrated to the US. Here he wrote in 1941 his famous The Song of Bernadette. [83]

Joseph Wechsberg (1907-1983), a native of Moravská Ostrava, Moravia, was a free-lance writer in the US s. 1938. He was a writer for New Yorker magazine s. 1943 and member of its staff since 1948. He authored numerous novels, including Looking for a Blue-bird (1945), Homecoming (1946), My Vienna (1968), Prague, the Mystic City (1971), The Waltz Emperors (1973), The Lost World of the Great Spas (1979), etc.

Egon Hostovský (1908-1973) of Hronov, Bohemia was a popular Czech novelist who first came to the US in 1940, and permanently settled here in 1948. His works have been translated into English and other languages. [84]

Arnošt Lustig (1926-2011), was born in Prague and in 1970 moved to the US. He was a popular author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.[85]

Francis J. Grund (1798-1863), an immigrant from Liberec, Bohemia, was admired as a journalist. A New York Times editorial said upon his death: “He was a man of very great ability, and for many years exerted through the newspaper Press a very marked influence on the course of current events. He was a man of learning - not only speaking several languages with facility, but familiar with their literature and master of their philosophy.” [86] He established a journal The Age, which he edited in Philadelphia from 1843-63.

Edward Bloch (1816-1881), from Bohemia, established in 1854 in Cincinnati Bloch & Co., the first Jewish publishing house in US. [87]

Rosa Sonneschein (1847-1932), a native of Prostějov, Moravia, was the founder, editor and publisher of the American Jewess, the first English-language periodical targeted to American Jewish women. [88]

Isidore Singer (1859-1930), a native of Hranice, Moravia, was an editor of the twelve-volume authoritative Jewish Encyclopedia and founder of the American League for the Rights of Man. [89]

Leo Weidenthal (1878-1967) was a son of immigrant from Hostice, Bohemia. He was editor of the Jewish Independent and founder of Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation. In 1917 he became editor of the Jewish Independent, a weekly founded in 1906 by his brother Maurice, a former Plain Dealer and Press reporter. Leo's brother Henry was also a journalist, once managing editor of the Press and News.

Harold Kleinert Guinzburg (1899-1961), a grandson of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant from Prague, became a publisher who cofounded Viking Press in 1925 and headed it until his death, acquiring the works of such authors as James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, and August Strindberg. In 1926 he founded the Literary Guild Book Club.

Edward Rosewater (1841-1906), from Bukovany, Bohemia, was the founder of the daily newspaper The Omaha Daily Bee which developed into the largest and most influential newspaper in the mid-west. [90]

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (1926-), a great grandson of Rabbi Isaac Wise, became publisher of The Times in 1963. He built a large news-gathering staff at The Times, and was publisher when the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for publishing The Pentagon Papers.

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911), a newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World, a native of Makó, Hungary, was of Moravian extraction. The family name comes from a town Politz (Police), where Pulitzer’s ancestors had lived generations earlier. Pulitzer introduced techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s and became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party, crusading against big business and corruption. He left the US two important legacies. In 1892, Pulitzer offered Columbia University's president, money to set up the world's first school of journalism, although it would not be until after Pulitzer's death that this dream would be fulfilled. He further established the noted Pulitzer Prize awards, which by now have been expanded to reward achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. Prizes are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories. In twenty of these, each winner receives a certificate and a US$10,000 cash award.[91]

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) a native of Kaliště in Bohemia, was eminent composer and conductor, noted for his 10 symphonies and various songs with orchestra, which drew together many different strands of Romanticism. Although his music was largely ignored for 50 years after his death, Mahler was later regarded as an important forerunner of 20th century techniques of composition and an acknowledged influence on such composers as Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitry Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten. He came to US in1908, where he became a conductor at Metropolitan Opera and later at New York Symphony Orchestra and in the New York Philharmonic. [92]

Rudolf Friml (1879-1972) from Prague, Bohemia is best known as the composer of romantic 1920s operettas. Beginning in 1912 he wrote music in different styles for Broadway. Skilled at evoking far-away times and places through music, Friml also composed music for films, often based on his popular musicals such as “Rose Marie” and “The Vagabond” King. [93]

Eric W. Korngold (1897-1957), a native of Brno, Moravia, was a child prodigy who was brought to Hollywood in 1934 by Reinhardt. He composed operas, symphony works, chamber music and songs. Under contract with Warner Bros. he composed music for many films. He won two Academy Oscars for musical scores. [94]

Jerome David Kern (1885-1945), whose maternal grandparents came from Bohemia, is often called the father of American musical theater. Kern is remembered for more than a thousand songs for more than a hundred stage productions and movies, including such American standards as ‘A Fine Romance,’ ‘Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man,’ ‘The Last Time I Saw Paris,’ ‘Long Ago and Far Away,’ ‘Lovely to Look At,’ ‘Ol' Man River,’ ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’and ‘They Didn't Believe Me,’ etc. [95]

Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), whose mother Pauline Náchod was born in Moravia, was a prominent classical composer and conductor. During the rise of the Nazi party in Austria, his music was labeled, alongside swing and jazz, as “degenerate art.” After the rise of Hitler to power in 1933 he immigrated to America. [96]

Hugo David Weisgall (1912-1997) from Ivančice, Moravia, was an American composer and conductor who taught at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Juilliard, and at Queens College. He is considered one of the most important U.S. opera composers for the literary quality of his chosen texts and the individuality and effectiveness of his music. His works include the operas The Tenor (1950), The Stronger (1952), and Six Characters in Search of an Author (1956); his last completed opera, Esther (1993), won wide acclaim. [97]

Arthur Schnabel (1882 1951), from Lipník, Moravia, was a pianist of note. After coming to US in 1933, he was accepted as one of the greatest interpreters of Beethoven, as well as of Mozart and Schubert. [98]

Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991), from Cheb, Bohemia, was an eminent pianist, known for his interpretations of the Viennese classics. He helped to establish the Marlboro Music festival, in Vermont, and served as its artistic director. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963. [99]

Rudolf Firkušný (1912-1994), of Napajedla, Moravia, was a renowned Czech pianist who immigrated to US in 1940 and devoted considerable part of his career to the promotion of Czech music abroad, including the works of B. Smetana, L. Janáček and B. Martinů. [100]

Rudolf Kolisch (1896-1978), of Moravian ancestry, was a violinist and leader of string quartets. He played a right-handed violin left-handed - an extremely rare occurrence in classical music settings.[101]

Franz Allers (1905-1995), from Karlovy Vary, Bohemia, was a prominent conductor who lived in US since 1945. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in NY in 1963. He was recipient of Antoinette Perry Awards for "My Fair Lady" (1957) and for "Camelot" (1961). [102]

Another conductor of note, Jan Walter Susskind (1913-1980) from Prague, became music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, then of the Aspen Music Festival, CO and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. [103]

George Szell (1897-1970) was an internationally renowned conductor of Czechoslovak ancestry. Prior to assuming his post of music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, he was music director of the German Opera and Philharmonic of Prague and director of the Scottish National Orchestra. At the time of his death, the Cleveland Orchestra was known as one of the finest in the world. [104]

Among opera singers, Ernestine Schumann Heink (1861-1936), from Lipov near Prague, was a famous contralto and mezzo soprano. She made her U.S. debut as Ortrudth in Metropolitan Opera in 1899. Her repertoire included about 150 parts and her voice was particularly suited for the Wagnerian roles.

Leo Slezák (1873-1946), of Šumperk, Moravia, was a famous tenor who appeared in America for the first time as Otello with the Metropolitan Opera in 1909. He sang 72 performances, of 10 roles, most often as Otello, Tannhauser and Manrico. [105]

Max Reinhardt (orig. Maximilian Goldmann (1873-1843), of Moravian ancestry on his mother's side, was an influential director and actor who is credited with establishing the Salzburg Festival. After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-governed Germany in 1938, he immigrated to the United States, where he had already successfully directed a popular stage version of Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream.”[106]

Fred Astaire (orig. Austerlitz) (1899-1987), whose ancestors were Prague Jews, was rated as the greatest dancer of the twentieth century, and the most influential dancer in the history of filmed and televised musicals.[107]

Walter Slezák (1907-1983) was a character actor of Czech ancestry whose range stretched from the villainous Nazi in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" to signing in the Metropolitan Opera's "Gypsy Baron." [108]

Ernst Deutsch (1890-1969) was a worldly acclaimed ‘expressionist style’ actor. In 1938 he immigrated from Prague to the US where he gave theater performances and recitals in New York and also film work in Hollywood, primarily in anti Nazi movies. [109]

Hugo Hass (1901-1968) of Brno, Moravia, who began his film career in Czechoslovakian comedies, had to flee the country when Hitler's armies marched in. Haas resumed his acting career in Hollywood, specializing in oily European villains. Once he'd saved up enough capital from his acting jobs, Haas set up shop as an independent producer and director, turning out a dozen low-budget melodramas between 1951 and 1959. [110]

Harry Horner (1910-1994), from Holice, Bohemia, began his career working with Max Reinhardt in Vienna. When Reinhardt moved to the United States in the early 1930s, Horner went along with him. During World War II, he served as production designer and set designer for the U.S. Army Air Forces show Winged Victory. As an art director, Horner won two Oscars, one in 1949 for his work on William Wyler's ‘The Heiress’ and another in 1961 for Robert Rossen's drama ‘The Hustler.’ His son James Horner (1953-) also won two Academy Awards for his score and song compositions for the film ‘Titanic’ in 1997 Oscar-winning compositions. [111]

Miloš Forman (1932-) from Čáslav, Czechoslovakia, is an actor, screenwriter, professor and two-time Academy Award-winning film director. In the US he achieved success with the film “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” which won five Academy Awards including one for direction and “Amadeus,” which won eight Academy Awards. [112]

Adrian Brody (1973-) is of Czech ancestry on his mother’s side; his mother is Sylvia Plachý, a photojournalist. He received widespread recognition and subsequent acclaim after starring in Roman Polanski's ‘The Pianist’ (2002). He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, at 29 years old.

Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1908) from Prague, an architect of note, was exponent of the ‘Gothic revival’ in architecture and built some of the most beautiful buildings in New York.

Richard Joseph Neutra (1892-1970) of Bohemian ancestry, who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright, is known for introducing the International style into American architecture. [113]

Victor Gruen (1903-1980) of Moravian ancestry was a famed architect and city planner who pioneered the regional shopping centers and revitalization of city core areas.[114]

Paul Strand (1890-1976), whose parents were Bohemian Jews, was one of the most important figures in American twentieth-century photography.

Oscar Berger (1901-1997) of Moravian ancestry on his mother’s side, was a famous caricaturist and cartoonist. Berger attended many sessions at the United Nations and illustrated virtually every important world leader to be seen there. [115]

Will Eisner (1917-2005), whose mother was Czech, was an innovative and influential illustrator and writer, often referred to as the "grandfather" of the graphic novel. Eisner's greatest success was ‘The Spirit ‘(1940-52), a newspaper comic strip about a wisecracking, masked detective.[116]

Herbert Feigl (1902-1988) from Liberec, Bohemia was a philosopher specializing in logic and methodology of physics, and moral philosophy.

Heinrich Gomperz (1873-1942) was the son of the famed philosopher Theodor Gomperz from Brno, Moravia. He served on faculty of University of Vienna since 1904 and as a professor since 1924. In 1934 he was forced to retire and in 1935 he emigrated to US, at the invitation of the University of Southern California. He was noted for the development of pathempiricism, based on R. Avenarius’ epistemology. He later developed theory for understanding purposeful and meaningful processes.[117]

Stephen Körner (1913- 2000), from Moravská Ostrava, was a philosopher trained at Charles University and Cambridge. He was a leading scholar in the theory of knowledge and the philosophies of science and mathematics and an authority on Kant. After a distinguished career in England, as a professor of philosophy and dean at Bristol University, he spent the remainder of his career as a professor at Yale University at New Haven.[118]

Gotthard Deutsch (1859-1921), a native of Dolni Kounice, Bohemia, was a scholar of Jewish history. In 1891, at the invitation of Isaac Mayer Wise, Deutsch moved to the United States to accept the chair of Jewish history and philosophy at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. After eleven years of teaching there, he was appointed dean. He was a member of the editorial board of the Jewish Encyclopedia and the author of Theory of Oral Tradition (1895), Philosophy of Jewish History (1897), Memorable Dates of Jewish History (1904), History of the Jews (1910); and also of several novels and two volumes of essays.[119]

Hans Kohn (1891-1971) was a noted historian, specializing in history of ideas and history of nationalism. He immigrated to the US in 1934 from Prague and taught modern history at Smith College in Northampton, MA. From 1949 until 1961, he taught at City College of New York. Kohn also taught at the New School for Social Research. He wrote numerous books and publications, primarily on the topics of nationalism, Pan-Slavism, German thought, and Judaism, and was an early contributor to the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he died.[120]

Eleanor Flexner (1908-1995), author and historian, was the daughter of the noted education reformer Abraham Flexner. After graduating from Swarthmore College with high honors in English and history in 1930, she attended Somerville College at Oxford University for one year. Back in the United States, she held a series of promotional and editorial positions in the theater and with the Institute of Propaganda Analysis, the Foreign Policy Association, and Hadassah. In 1938 she published a book of dramatic criticism entitled American Playwrights, 1918-1938, and in 1957 moved from New York to Northampton, Mass. Her classic account of the "first wave" of American feminism, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, was published in 1959; it was based on a pamphlet she had published in 1954. "The story," she said in her original preface, "deserves telling"; CS was notable in demonstrating that the topic was worthy of serious scholarly and analytical study. Flexner was particularly prescient in her use of race, gender, and class in interpreting the struggle for women's equality. Her analysis was a source of inspiration for "second wave" feminists and laid the groundwork for subsequent generations of women's history scholars.[121]

Saul Friedländer (1932-) is a Holocaust historian from Prague who won a Pulitzer Prize. He was awarded the prestigious prize in the non-fiction category for his book The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. Having survived the Holocaust, he moved to Israel, eventually winning the nation’s top civilian honor, the Israel Prize, for his scholarship. He currently serves as a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. [122]

Theodore K. Rabb (orig. Rabinowicz) (1937-), from Teplice, Bohemia, is a historian of the early modern period and is Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University. He authored numerous books and is also co-founder and editor of the Journal of Interdisciplinary History. [123]

Paul Frankl (1878-1962), a native from Prague, Bohemia, was a member of faculty of the Univ. of Munich, and in 1921-34 he held the position of professor of art history at the University of Halle. In 1934 he was dismissed and in 1938 emigrated to US. In 1940 he joined the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ. He made important contributions to history of architecture through studies on the Romanesque and Gothic periods and initiated research in area of German glass-painting.[124]

Lorenz C. Eitner (1919-2009) from Brno, Czechoslovakia, emigrated to US in 1935. After war service, in 1948 he earned an M.F.A. degree from Princeton University and in 1952 Ph.D. Since 1963 he held the position of professor and chairman of the arts department at Stanford Univ., in addition to being director of its museum. He specialized in 19th century French and German art design, and art of the early medieval period. [125]

Paul Nettl (1889-1972) was Vrchlabí, Bohemia. He privately studied violin and music theory, while attending University of Vienna, where he obtained Dr. juris degree and Dr. phil. Degree. Since 1933 he was Docent at German University of Prague and in 1933-39 he served as director of German Broadcasts on Czech Radio. In 1939 he emigrated to US by way of Netherlands. Since 1946 to 1964 he was associated with Indiana University, Bloomington as professor. He wrote numerous books, including the Story of Dance Music (1947), The Book of Musical Documents (1948), Forgotten Musicians (1951) and Beethoven Encyclopedia (1956). [126]

Frederick Dorian (1912-1991) was born in Vienna; his father came from Roudnice, Bohemia. In 1934 he emigrated to France and in 1936 to US. In 1936 he joined the faculty of Carnegie-Mellon University, becoming a full professor in 1947. In 1973-77 he was a member of faculty of Marlboro, VT Music Festival and professor of music at Curtis Institute, Philadelphia. He is the author of The History of Music in Performance: The Art of Musical Interpretation from the Renaissance to Our Day (1942), The Musical Workshop (1942), Commitment to Culture, Art Patronage in Europe, Its Significance for America (1964).[127]

Erich von Kahler (1885-1970) from Prague was a renowned literary scholar and essayist. He was a prolific writer, and the themes of his writings and lectures often reflected his political involvement, although he was a widely respected literary critic, especially of Thomas Mann. He explored the study of history, the new roles of science and technology, and the changing relationship of man to his changing world. [128]

Erich Heller (1911-1990), from Chomutov, Bohemia, although trained as a lawyer, devoted his entire career to literary scholarship. He was an authority on modern German and European literature on which subject he had written a large number of books. [129]

Peter Demetz (1922-) from Prague, whose mother was Jewish, holds the chair of German and comparative literature at Yale, and is an authority on sociology of literature, literary theory, and German 18th century thought and literature. [130]

Isaac Bacon (1914-2007) from Svinov, Moravia, was a linguist who thirteen days after Adolph Hitler entered Prague earned his Ph.D. at Masaryk University in Brno. His specialty was High German and early new High German linguistics.[131] He was the fourth Dean at Yeshiva College, in New York (1959-1977) and later taught at Penn and Columbia. He was at Yale as a Ford Foundation Fellow and was visiting professor at Johns Hopkins.

Alfred Schütz (1899-1959), whose mother was from Bohemia, was a noted philosopher and sociologist. He worked on phenomenology, social science methodology and the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and others. Schütz is probably unique as a scholar of the social sciences in that he pursued a career as a banker for almost his entire life, teaching part-time at the New School for Social Research in New York and producing key papers in phenomenological sociology that fill three volumes. [132]

Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (1901-1976) of Moravian ancestry, was a pioneering sociologist, specializing in analyzing the impact of all mass media on society. The founder of a major center at Columbia University, he promoted the growth of social research centers to expand empirical sociological studies and his studies served as the foundation of voter forecasting used today.[133]

At least three outstanding American economists had Czech roots.

Frank William Taussig (1859-1940), whose father was a Bohemian Jewish immigrant in St. Louis, taught economics at Harvard from 1882 to 1935. He was an authority on international commerce, especially U.S. tariff and developer of import-export theory and wage-fund theory. [134]

Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950) of Třešť, Moravia, who was Taussig’s successor at Harvard from 1932-50, was a pioneer in the field of econometrics and specialist in the history of economic theory and economic development, including studies of business cycles, capitalism, and socialism in economic and sociological perspective. [135]

Karl Pribram (1877-1973) was a Prague-born and educated economist who held important positions before and during World War I in the Austrian government, with the International Labor Office in Geneva in the 1920s, and after emigrating to the United States in 1934, with the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Social Security Board and the U.S. Tariff Commission. His research dealt primarily with economic theory and political economy, his writings covering topics in labor economics, industrial organization and in the history of economic thought. Pribram was also prominent as social philosopher and sociologist. Pribram was described by Nobel Laureate Friedrich A. Hayek as “without exception the most learned man in the field.” [136]

Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001), of Czech ancestry, was a professor of computer science and psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University from 1949 until his death. He was a pioneer of the development of computer artificial intelligence. His highly original work on decision-making, in which he argued that business executives often fail to maximize profits because they make decisions without assessing all information and long-term effects, earned him the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978. [137]

Josef Korbel (1909-1977), a native of Kyšperk in Bohemia, was a Czechoslovak diplomat and a noted educator, who is now best known for being father of Madeleine Albright, who became the first woman Secretary of State. After 1945 he served as Czechoslovak Ambassador to Yugoslavia and following the Communist takeover, he was forced to immigrate to the US. He became professor of political sciences at the University of Denver, where he was founding Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, which now bears his name. [138]

Karl Wolfgang Deutsch (1912-1992) from Prague, Bohemia received Dr. juris degree from Charles University and M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard. In 1942-58 he was a member of faculty of M.I.T., since 1952 as a full professor of history and political science. From 1958-67 he was Professor of government at Yale University and since 1967 Professor of government at Harvard, in 1971 being named Stanfield Professor of International Peace. Deutsch’s greatness as a social scientist was due to his erudition and his ability to develop new concepts that led to insights on fundamental issues, such as nationalism and political integration or disintegration within and among states. Professor Deutsch was an innovator in applying quantitative methods to social-science research and in assembling data on population movements, languages and international trade. [139]

Richard Elliot Neustadt (1919-2003), a native of Philadelphia, was a great-grandson of a liberal Czech journalist who fled Bohemia in 1848. He was the Special Assistant of the White House Office from 1950-53 under President Harry S. Truman and during the following year, he was a professor of public administration at Cornell, then from 1954-64, taught government at Columbia University, where he wrote Presidential Power (1960),in which he examined the decision-making process at the highest levels of government. During the 1960s Neustadt continued to advise Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson. With his book appearing as it did just before the election of John F. Kennedy, Neustadt soon found himself in demand by the President-elect. . During the 1960s Neustadt continued to advise Kennedy and later Lyndon B. Johnson. Neustadt later founded the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he taught as a popular professor for more than two decades. Neustadt also served as the first director of the Harvard Institute of Politics (IOP), which was founded as "a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy that engages young people in politics and public service."[140]

John H. Kautsky (1922-) is a grandson of the noted politician and philosopher Karl Kautský of Prague. After completion of his education at Harvard, from 1955 he was a member of faculty of dept. of political sciences at Washington University at St. Louis, since 1963 as a full professor. He has done research on modern ideologies, political development, comparative politics, politics of modernization and of traditional empires and authored important publications, such as Communism and the Politics of Development: Persistent Myths and Changing Behavior (1968), The Political Consequences of Modernization (1972), Karl Kautsky: Marxism, Revolution, and Democracy and Marxism and Leninism: An Essay in the Sociology of Knowledge. [141]

Julia Richman (1855-1912), a native of New York City, was the first woman district superintendent of schools in the City of New York. Her innovations, leadership and curriculum brought an entire new dimension to public school education at the beginning of the twentieth century. She had come from a long line of rabbis in Prague, Czechoslovakia, that dated back to the fifteenth century. [142]

Abraham Flexner (1866-1959), a son of a Bohemian Jewish peddler from Všeruby in Bohemia, is credited with major reform of medical education in the US which put the American medicine on the top. He was also instrumental in founding the prestigious Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, NJ, of which he became the first director. [143]

Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) from Prague was an authority on theory of law and international laws. He was considered one of the most important legal philosophers of modern time.

Paul Abraham Freund (1908-1992), whose grandfather immigrated to St. Louis from Bohemia, taught law at Harvard University from 1946-70. He was an authority on public and constitutional law and editor-in-chief of a definitive, multi-volume history of the Supreme Court.[144]

Fred Herzog (1907-2008), a native of Prague, served as an attorney and judge in Vienna. After the ‘Anschluss’ he escaped to the US, where he a law degree from {University of?] Iowa. He became associated with the Chicago-Kent School of Law and in 1970 became its dean. In 1973 he accepted the post of the assistant prosecutor of the State of Illinois. In 1976 he was named the Dean of the known John Marshall Law School. He died on March 21, 2008, at age 100. [145]

Eric Stein (1913-), a native of Holice, Bohemia, is Charles University and University of Michigan educated lawyer. Widely regarded as an eminent scholar in international and comparative law, Eric Stein is Hessel E. Yntema Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Michigan Law School. In 2001 he was recipient of a Medal of Merit First Degree from Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel for "outstanding scientific achievement." He has been made an honorary citizen of the Czech town of his birth.[146]

Charles Fried (1935-), a native of Prague, is a prominent American jurist and lawyer. He served as United States Solicitor General from 1985 to 1989. He is currently a professor at Harvard Law School. From September 1995 until June 1999, Fried served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. [147]

Nina S. Appel, (1936-), a native of Prague, escaped from Nazism with her parents as a small child. She was educated as lawyer and since 1973 she has been associated with Loyola University School of Law as a professor, in 1983 becoming the longest serving dean in history of the School.[148]

Alfred Adler (1870-1937), of Bohemian ancestry, was the founder of the school of individual psychology. Although one of Sigmund Freud's earlier associates, he rejected the Freudian emphasis upon sex as the root of neurosis. Adler's theory focused on social forces, and his therapy, while still concerned with the analysis of early childhood, was also interested in overcoming the inferiority complex through positive social interaction.[149]

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) from Prague is considered the founder of ‘Gestalt School for Psychology’ and promoter of application of Gestalt methodology to other social sciences. He stressed importance of wholes in learning and problem solving and discovered phi phenomenon concerning illusion of motion in perception.[150]

Edward Louis Bernays (November 22, 1891 - March 9, 1995), was a pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda (along with Ivy Lee), referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Dr. Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion by appealing to, and attempting to influence, the unconscious. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.

Marie Jahoda (1907-2001), a native of Vienna of Bohemian Jewish ancestry, was an extraordinary social psychologist. She contributed significantly to the analysis of the authoritarian personality and developed the theory of ‘Ideal Mental Health.’ She argued that theories should be considered as an essential tool for acquiring substantive knowledge about people and the social world, not as the ultimate goal of social psychology.[151]

Carl Koller (1857-1944) from Sušice, Bohemia introduced cocaine as a local antiseptic in eye operations (1884) and thus initiating era of local anesthesia in medicine and surgery. [152]

Simon Flexner (1867-1946), a son of a Jewish peddler from Všeruby, developed Flexner serum for cerebrospinal meningitis (1907) and directed poliomyelitis research which led to identification of virus causing the disease and discovered dysentery bacillus. He was appointed the first director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, after first serving as professor at Johns Hopkins.[153]

Milton C. Winternitz (1885-1959), a son of a Bohemian Jewish immigrant, was a pathologist of note, under whose leadership as dean from 1921 to 1931 have been called the boom years of Yale Medical School, the decade in which the school emerged as one of the top medical schools in the country. [154]

Hans Popper (1903-1988), a son of Bohemian Jew from Kralovice, was an authority on liver diseases and a principal figure in the founding of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York.[155]

Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943) was a native of Vienna, whose mother Franziska, nee Hessová, was from Prostějov, Moravia. In 1922 he came to the United States to join the staff of the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller Univ.). For his discovery of human blood groups he won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. As a result of his research in immunology and the chemistry of antigens and serological reactions, he made valuable contributions in hemolysis and in methods of studying poliomyelitis. In 1940 he identified, in collaboration with A. S. Wiener, the Rh factor.[156]

Among the most prominent women medical authorities of Bohemian Jewish descent was Helen Brooke Taussig (1898-1986), who is credited with founding pediatric cardiology. Taussig also devised a surgical treatment for infants born with "blue baby syndrome" and her new operation subsequently saved literally thousands of "blue babies" from dying. She played a key role in alerting American physicians to the dangers of thalidomide, a drug whose use had produced large numbers of deformed newborns in Europe.[157]

Karl H. Pribram (*1919), a son of a Prague-born noted physician Ernst August Pribram, is a professor at Georgetown University , and an emeritus professor of psychology and psychiatry at Stanford University and Radford University. Board-certified as a neurosurgeon, Pribram did pioneering work on the definition of the limbic system, the relationship of the frontal cortex to the limbic system, the sensory-specific "association" cortex of the parietal and temporal lobes, and the classical motor cortex of the human brain. To the general public, Pribram is best known for his development of the holonomic brain model of cognitive function and his contribution to ongoing neurological research into memory, emotion, motivation and consciousness. He is married to the bestselling author Katherine Neville.

Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1896-1957), from Prague, shared with her husband Carl Cori, also from Prague, a Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine. Their work was described as one of the most brilliant achievements in modern biochemistry, and responsible for a new conception of how hormones and enzymes cooperate.[158]

Heinrich Benedict Waelsch (1904-1986) from Brno, Moravia was a member of faculty of School of Medicine at the University of Prague. In 1938 he emigrated to US. In 1939 he became a member of the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, rising to full professorship in 1954. His specialty was intermediary metabolism, esp. of the central nervous system. His hypothesis of compartments of metabolism influenced the study of brain biochemistry. He was the author of Ultrastructure and Cellular Chemistry of Neural Tissues (1957). [159]

Kurt Gödel (1900-1978), a native of Brno, Moravia, received Dr. phil. in mathematics from Univ. of Vienna in 1930. In 1930-39 he was associated with Univ. Vienna as privatdozent. He then immigrated to US and became member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (1938-76), since 1953 as full professor of mathematics. He formulated “Gödel Theorem.” This states that in any rigidly logical mathematical system there are proportions or questions that cannot be proven or disproved on the basis of the axioms within that system. Hence basic axioms of mathematics may give rise to contradictions. He was considered the greatest logician since Aristotle. [160]

Olga Taussky-Todd (1906-1995), from Olomouc, Moravia, in 1947, served as a mathematics consultant to National Bureau of Standards, in Washington, DC, while being concurrently a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. From 1957 she was a member of the department of mathematics at California Institute of Technology, since 1971 as full professor. She was recognized by her peers as one of the foremost mathematicians of her generation. Her research in algebra, number theory, and matrix theory has influenced scholars throughout her long and distinguished career. For more than 30 years, she had been the moving force in the development of matrix theory, and her influence on both pure and applied mathematics has been profound.[161]

Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), a son of a Prague Jewish physician, whose name was originally Pascheles, was a theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. He discovered that atom's electrons each have their own unique quantum state. Now known as the ‘Pauli exclusion principle,’ this discovery earned him the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physics. [162]

Felix Bloch (1905-1983), a son of Jewish parents from Bohemia, received Nobel Prize for developing the nuclear magnetic resonance method of measuring the magnetic field of atomic nuclei.[163]

George Placzek (1905-1955) from Brno was also an outstanding physicist who made substantial contributions to the fields of molecular physics, scattering of light from liquids and gases, the theory of the atomic nucleus and the interaction of neutrons with condensed matter. [164]

Victor F. Weisskopf (1908-2002), whose father was born in Sušice, Bohemia, was a theoretical physicist of note. During World War II he worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, and later campaigned against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. He made major contributions to the development of quantum theory, especially in the area of quantum electrodynamics. One of his few regrets was that his insecurity about his mathematical abilities may have cost him a Nobel Prize when he did not publish results (which turned out to be correct) about what is now known as the Lamb shift.[165]

Felix Haurowitz (1896-1987) was born in Prague, Bohemia. In 1922-38 he was a member of faculty of dept. of physiology and medical chemistry at the Prague University. After his dismissal by Nazis, he was invited to chair the dept. at University of Istanbul. In 1947 he emigrated to US soon joined thye faculty in the department of chemistry at Indiana University at Bloomington, since 1958 as distinguished professor. He was a pioneer in isolation of fetal hemoglobin, allosteric changes on hemoglobin on oxygenation, introduction of chemical aspects into immunology and into the problem of antibody biosynthesis. [166]

Walter Kohn (1923-), whose father was a native of Hodonín, Moravia, was a Holocaust survivor. He won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. His condensed matter theory made seminal contributions to the understanding of the electronic structure of materials. He played the leading role in the development of the density functional theory, which has revolutionized scientists' approach to the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solid materials in physics, chemistry and materials science. [167]

Gustav Lindenthal (1850-1935), a graduate of the Brno Polytechnic, established the reputation as one of the great bridge engineers of America. He is best known for the construction of the Queensboro Bridge, connecting Long Island and New York City, and the Hell Gate Bridge, which connects the railroads of the Bronx with Long Island. In contrast to his American contemporaries, his bridges were characterized by originality and boldness.[168]

Another engineer, Karl Arnstein (1887-1974), originally from Prague, specialized in the design and construction of airships. He drew plans and supervised the construction of some 70 Zeppelin airships and stratosphere balloons, among them the famous airship ‘Los Angeles,’ the first to cross the Atlantic. [169]

Arthur Aron Hamerschlag (1872-1927), a native of New York, NY, whose both parents were born in Bohemia, was an American electrical and mechanical engineer who served as the first President of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. [170]

One of the greatest minds among engineers was Theodore V. Karman (1881-1963), whose mother was Helen Kohn, a descendant of Rabbi Judah Loew, the 16th century Prague mystic who is said to have created the Golem. Karman was also a physicist, primarily active in aeronautics and astronautics. He is responsible for many key advances in aerodynamics, notably his work on supersonic and hypersonic airflow characterization. If there were a Nobel Prize for engineering, he would have earned it.[171]

There is no doubt that future research may uncover additional names of notable Jewish Americans with Bohemian or Czech roots.

In viewing the mosaic of individual portraits presented here, one is struck by certain characteristics shared by most of the Jewish immigrants from the territory of the Czech Historic Lands. They were all hard working, energetic, enterprising, resourceful, self-made people, with a sense of purpose and accomplishment, highly patriotic towards their newly adopted country, yet mindful of their roots and their cultural and religious upbringing. It is therefore fitting that we conclude this survey with a quotation from Thomas Čapek,[172] the historian of Czechs in America:

“Anybody browsing through Who's Who in American Jewry or The Jewish Encyclopedia must be surprised by the number of the famed names - physicians, jurists, industrialists, financiers and wholesalers who have originated on the territory of today's Czechoslovakia. They have attained both high economic and social status. You don't find them in the ghettos among the immigrants from Russia, Poland or Rumania. In learned professions they have overtaken us by far. Their pioneering spirit is well known.”

If you’re one of the millions of people who’ve caught the genealogy bug and are itching to learn more about your family’s ancestry, you’ll want some resources to help you out in your genealogy research. After all, the ancestry journey to "find my ancestors" requires navigating the multigenerational web of births, marriages, migrations, and milestones that have made you uniquely you.

There are numerous genealogy software programs one could use to keep track of information collected during research and create reports, charts and books containing that information. For years I had been using the Family Tree Maker which I found highly satisfying until I discovered GENI.

Geni is a popular collaborative American commercial genealogy and social networking website, founded in 2006.

At the website users enter names and e-mail addresses of their parents, siblings, d other relatives, as well as profiles with various fields of biographical information about themselves and their relatives. From there users may graphically manipulate sections of their connections network to create a complete personal family tree.

The service uses the contact information to invite additional members to join, and builds a social network from the information collectively entered by members.

In February 2019 a new GEDCOM file import feature became available that allows the import of profiles which didn’t exist before on Geni.

Data from public records and family trees can also be imported from 13 supported web sites using an independently developed semi-automatic tool called SmartCopy, which is based on web scraping. Families are imported one at a time; the user can manually edit or verify the information before importing, and also choose between adding the information to existing profiles or creating new profiles. SmartCopy includes a consistency check feature that warns when data may be unreasonable. The user must ask for full access to the tool. SmartCopy is a third-party open source web browser extension that has been available since 2015.

A serious problem with online family trees is the inappropriate propagation of information from one ancestor or family line to another. This can happen if users make incorrect identifications between ancestors and others in the tree already. This can lead to strange results such as people born after their mothers have died or when their supposed parents were still small children. In 2019 Geni introduced automated consistency checking which alerts users to 28 types of such problems.

Relationship paths is a feature available for free to all Geni users. Relationship Paths show how any two people are most closely related on the World Family Tree.

GENI’s World Family Tree is a single, shared family tree that connects people from all walks of life, across countries, which as of 2025, has included ver 200 million profiles.

The tool offers both blood relationships and in-law relationships results. The outcome may be as simple as “10th cousin once removed” or as complex as “second cousin 8 times removed husband’s fifth great nephew!”’

Unique to other genealogy websites, Geni supports Y-DNA and mt-DNA data uploads directly from Family Tree DNA- results can be transferred easily and securely. Geni also contains Y-DNA and mt-DNA data from Ysearch.org and mitosearch.org, which adds over 200,000 more DNA profiles to their database.

The most exciting thing to any family and friends is hearing about the famous and historical people they were connected to. Geni has a great feature that attempts to find "How are you related?" to such people and the Top 100 is always an interesting place to start, but this needs to be taken a step further.

Being of Czech descent, I began my search focusing on the famous Czechs, who according to the Czech Universities website include the Holy Roman Emperor and Bohemian King Charles IV, Father of genetics Gregor Johannn Mendel, nationalistic composer Bedrich Smetana, world-renown composer Antonin Dvorak, philosopher and the first president of Czechoslovakia Thomas G. Masaryk, father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, Art Nouveau painter and decorative artist Alphonse Mucha, major fiction writer Franz Kafka, writer and playwright Karel Capek, poet and laureate of the Nobel Prize Jaroslav Seifert, writer of international fame Milan Kundera, film maker, screenwriter and actor Milos Forman, dramatist, dissident and the first president of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel, and world tennis champion Martina Navratilová. To which could be added the biochemists and Nobel Prize laureates Carl Ferdinand Cori and his wife Gerty Threse Cori, the Byzantine and Slavic historian Francis Dvornik, award winning historian Saul Friedlander, founder of American physical anthropology Ales Hrdlicka, opera Soprano singer Maria Jeritza, legal philosopher Hans Kelsen, discoverer of cocaine as a local anesthetic Carl Koller, theologian, philosopher and father of modern education Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), the Holocaust novelist Arnost Lustig, composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, Bohemian King, George of Podebrady, Bohemian King Vladislav II, the anatomist and physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyne, economist Jan Svejnar, actor Jiri Voskovec, actor, singer and playwright Jan Werich, General and Hussite leader Jan Zizka z Trocnova, and Talmudic scholar and creator of mystic Golem, Rabbi Judah Loew ben Betzalel, MaHaRaL of Prague. They are all listed in in GENI’s World Tree. While checking them individually for possible connection to us, lo and behold, I found them all related.

Among the Czech Americans there are also many individuals who attained prominence in various fields of human endeavor and are listed on the GINI’s World Tree. I decided to ascertain whether we are related to them. I found a bundle of connections.

Madeleine Albright - US Ambassador to the UN and US Secretary of State, Richard Bassett – Senator, Signer of the US Constitution, James Asheton Bayard, Jr. – US Senator from Delaware, Richard Henry Bayard -Mayor of Wilmington, DE, Chief Justice of DE Supreme Court, US Senator from DE; Thomas Francis Bayard Sr. - US Senator from DE and US Secretary of State, Thomas F. Bayard Jr. – US Senator from DE, George H. Bender - US Senator from OH, Francis Biddle - US Attorney General, Louis D. Brandeis - Associate Justice of US Supreme Court, Mika Brzezinski – TV host on Morning Joe, MSNBC, Anton Cermak – Mayor of Chicago, Eugene Cernan –astronaut, Michael Dammann Eisner – CEO of the Walt Disney Co., James Thomas Flexner – man of letters, biographer, Fred Figner – entrepreneur mostly in SA, Augustine Herman – 1st documented immigrant in the New World from the Kingdom of Bohemia, Otto Kerner – Governor of Illinois, John F. Kerry – US Secretary of State, Roy Kroc –founder of McDonald Empire, Lucius Q. C. Lama - US Senator, US Secretary the Interior, Justice of the US Supreme Court, Paul Felix Lazarsfeld – founder of modern empirical sociology, Jim Lovell –astronaut, Joe Manchin – US Senator from WV, Governor of WV, Sigmund Mandl - founder of Husky Wrench Co in WI, Richard Neustadt - political scientist, director of Kennedy J. F. Kennedy Inst. of Politics, Jarmila Novotna - lyric Soprano and actress, Frederick Philipse of Philipsburg – the wealthiest man in New Amsterdam, Thomas Pritzker - chairman of Hyatt, Frederic Prokosch – novelist, poet, Beardsley Ruml – economist and developer of the plan to collect taxes, Joseph Schumpeter, economist at Harvard Univ., body builder, actor, businessman and Governor of California Arnold Scharzeneger, Nicholas Sparks - novelist and screenwriter, Millard Tydings - US Senator from MD, Scott Kevin Walker – Governor of Wisconsin, Joseph Wechsberg - free-lance writer, with the New Yorker magazine, Caspar Weinberger - US Secretary of Defense and Health, Education, and Welfare, Rene Welek -founder of literary criticism and comparative literature, , novelist and playwright Franz Victor Werfel, founder of Gestalt psychology Max Wertheeimer, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise - founder of reformed Judaism in the US and Jeff Zeleny -Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, with CNN.

With the successful outcome of my search for finding notable historical personalities we have been connected to among the famous Czechs, I then focused on the possible connections with other nationalities. As it turned out, I have found a plethora of them. Some are listed below:

Among the US Presidents: President Joe Biden, President Barack H. Obama, President George Walker Bush, President William J. “Bill” Clinton, President Ronald Reagan, President Jimy Carter, President Gerald Ford, President Richard Nixon, President John F. Kennedy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Warren G. Harding, President Woodrow Wilson, President Theodore Roosevelt, President Grover Cleveland, President Benjamin Harrison. President James A. Garfield, President Rutherford B. Hays, President Andrew Johnson, President Abraham Lincoln, President James Buchanan, President Franklin Pierce, President Millard Filmore, President Zachary Taylor, President William Henry Harrison, President Andrew Jackson, President James Monroe, and President Thomas Jefferson.

Among other American relations we found, among others: Woody Allen – screenwriter, film director, actor, playwright, Neil Armstrong – astronaut, John Astor – business magnate, the first US billionaire, Leonard Bernstein – conductor and composer, Henry Bogart – actor, Col. Daniel Boone – legendary frontiersman, John Beale Bordley – Maryland planter and judge, developer of crop rotation system, William Bradford 3rd – Mayflower pioneer and Governor of Plymouth, William Cullen Bryant – romantic poet, journalist, editor of the New York Post, John Dewey - philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer, Thomas E. Dewey – Governor of New York, Clinton ‘Clint’ Eastwood, Jr. – film actor, director, producer and composer, Sally Field - actress and director, Henry Ford - industrialist, founder of the Ford Motor Co. Benjamin Franklin – signer of the Declaration of Independence, one of foremost Founding Fathers, Hugh Hefner – men’s lifestyle magazine publisher, founder and editor of Playboy, Katharine Hepburn – actress, Henry Kissinger – US Secretary of State, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - poet, Maj. Gen. George D. McClellen, Jr. -soldier, civil engineer and railroad executive, Marilyn Monroe – actress, model and singer, Nancy Pelosi – Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Elvis Presley – singer, actor, “King of Rock and Roll,” Edmund Jennings Randolph – Governor of Virginia, US Secretary of State and US Attorney General, Harold Edward Stassen- Governor of Minnesota, Noah Webster – lexicographer, textbook pioneer reformer and editor, George Olson Wells - actor, director and producer.

Among our relations with British personalities I found: Julia Andrews – actress, singer, author, Isambard Kingdom Brunel - mechanical and civil engineer, Winston Churchill – Prime Minister of the UK, Charlie Chaplin – comic actor, filmmaker, Charles Darwin - naturalist, geologist, biologist, “Father of Evolution,” Diana - Princess of Wales, Edward V – King of the UK, Edward VII – King of the UK, Edward VIII – King of the UK, Elizabeth II – Queen of the UK, George V – King of the UK, George VI – King of the UK, John Lennon – musician, activist and co-founder of the Beetles, Horatio Nelson – Admiral of the British Royal Navy, Sir Isaac Newton – mathematician, astronomer, physicist, theologian, Florence Nightingale - social reformer, founder of modern nursing, Margaret Thatcher – Prime Minister of the UK, Alan M. Turing – mathematician computer pioneer, Victoria – Queen of the UK and Emperess of India.

French Connections: Marie Antoinette – Queen consort of France, Nicolas Leonard Sadi Carnot - military engineer and physicist and “Father of thermodynamics,” Coco Chanel – fashion designer, founder of the Chanel brand, Marie Curie – physicist and chemist, first women to win a Nobel Prize, Claude Debussy – composer, leader of impressionist movement, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles de Gaule - general, statesman, Alfred Dreyfuss - Army officer wrongly accused of spying, Gustave Eiffel - structural engineer, designer of the Eiffel Tower, Victor Hugo – poet, playwright, novelist, Claude Monet – painter, founder of impressionism, Napoleon Bonaparte – military general and Emperor of France, Louis Pasteur – chemist and microbiologist, Jean-Paul Sartre – philosopher, novelist, playwright, biographer, literary critic, political activist, Simone Veil – politician, magistrate and President of European Parliament, Holocaust survivor.

German connections: Ludwig v. Beethoven - composer, pianist, Wernher von Braun – aerospace engineer, rocket pioneer, Marlene Dietrich – actress and singer, Albert Einstein - theoretical physicist, developer of the theory of relativity, Emil Fischer – chemist, Nobel Prize laureate, Johann Wolfgang Goethe – writer, poet, statesman, Steffi Graf – tennis champion, Wilhelm Grimm and brother Jacob Grimm – joint authors of the famous Fairy Tales, Heinrich Heine – poet, Immanuel Kant - philosopher, Martin Luther – theologian, pastor, church reformer, Karl Marx – philosopher, economist, revolutionary sociologist, Friedrich Nietzsche - philologist, philosopher, Henri Nestle – confectioner, founder of Nestle Co., Max Planck – physicist, founder of the quantum theory, Richard Georg Strauss – composer, Richard Wagner - composer and conductor.

As it turned out, our family relations have been primarily through my late wife Eva Edwards (Eisnerova) ancestors which is not surprising, they having lived in Prague, the capital city of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Being members of the upper class, they intermingled with distinguished members and celebrities of the society. My ancestors, in contrast, although prominent and well-to-do in their own right, having been primarily millers, which was the most respected lucrative profession in the rural area, did not have opportunity to associate with personalities of the upper class of the society.

By now, most assuredly you got hooked. By joining you will find not only useful genealogy information from all over the world but you will find enjoyment and have fun by searching whether and how you are related to royalty and other distinguished personalities and celebrities.

Ever since its inception, the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Science in America, as it was initially called, considered publishing an important part of its program. Some considered it its “Imperative.” Inasmuch as I had something to do with organizing the SVU publication program in the early years, and being probably the last person who knows anything about that period, I have thought it timely and appropriate to put down some of my recollections of those formative years before our institutional memory completely fades away. The present survey covers the period from the time the Society was founded until about 1968. The bibliography which follows is a comprehensive listing of all SVU titles until to date (2006).

The first order of business of the newly formed Society in 1958 was to establish a newsletter in order that the leadership could communicate with its members. This led to Zprávy SVU (News of SVU) which commenced publishing in September 1959. Ivan Herben, who was elected the Society’s Press Secretary became its first editor. He was no novice by any means, having come from a prominent journalist family, and who himself previously served as editor of Svobodné slovo in Czechoslovakia after the World War II. From the very beginning, he made it clear that this would be just a newsletter rather than a magazine. In the first issue he announced that he assumed the difficult task of keeping track of the “creative work of exile” by keeping the SVU members informed of what has been written and what is in progress and made an appeal to the membership to regularly keep sending him news items of their publication activities, as well as lectures, artistic work, etc. He customarily sent out postcards to individual members to remind them of this. He remained in that function until June 1963, when he was reassigned to Europe by Radio Free Europe, where he was employed. Under his stewardship the Zprávy SVU was truly a professional periodical.

The first independent publication projects which SVU undertook unfortunately have not been realized. As we read in status report of the Society after the first year of existence, the Washington SVU Chapter came with the idea of gathering documents on Czechoslovak history covering period from 1914-1948, as well as documents relating to history of Czechoslovak immigrants in the US, with emphasis to their cultural and economic contributions. The Chicago Chapter, in turn, planned a publication about the Czechoslovak science and arts. The early program also included the idea of preparing a representative Who’s Who in Czechoslovak Science and Arts in the Free World. There were also plans a foot to establish “Arts and Sciences Publishing Corporation,” patterned after the popular “Družstevní Práce” in Czechoslovakia, which would enable SVU members to publish their works in Czech, Slovak or world languages. In this regard an appeal was also sent to all members to buy shares in the company at the rate of $25 per share. Because of some unforeseen legal difficulties, the idea was soon scratched and the money was returned to members who already bought such shares. Another idea which floated around was to sponsor a literary competition, which also did not materialize.

Except for a few small brochures and pamphlets, such as Karel B. Jirák’s Antonín Dvořák, 1841-1961 Alice G. Masaryková’s Hudba ve Spillville and Jaroslav Šejnoha’s Svědectví a skazky z umění výtvarného, the first SVU monographic publications were issued in a mimeographic form, because the Society did not have resources to publish printed books. This included Arnošt Heidrich’s International Political Causes of the Czechoslovak Tragedies of 1938 and 1948. Part I , F.C. Štěrba’s Češi a Slováci v Latinské Americe and V. N. Duben’s Czech and Slovak Periodicals outside Czechoslovakia as of September 1964.

A distinct turn in the SVU publication program was the SVU General Assembly’s decision to create a new post of Chairman of Publication Committee to which I had the pleasure of being elected. Even before the election, I took on the responsibility for editing and publishing the Abstracts of papers presented at the first SVU Congress held in Washington in April 1962.

As the first step I established a Publication Committee, composed of Prof. Peter Demetz, Dr. Jaroslav Němec and myself, who served as the Committee’s Chairman. It did not take long before we had a concrete publication program plan ready and it was favorably received. Our plan was later expanded and presented in my comprehensive Report, presented to the General Assembly on the Second SVU Congress in 1964.

Our plan started with the Proceedings of the first SVU Congress. I took this responsibility upon myself which was quite logical since I also organized the entire Congress program. From the very first day I began organizing the Congress program I was determined to have at last the selected papers published in a book form. I realized, of course, that the Society could not afford to publish it on its own because it lacked the necessary finances. I began corresponding with various US and European publishers to see whether I could get them interested in the project. I was convinced that a combination of interesting topics, high quality of papers and outstanding authors would sell our “product” without difficulty. My hunch was right and in a relatively short time I negotiated an agreement with Mouton and Co. in The Hague, Netherlands, the leading European publishing house of Slavic books, with the understanding that they would publish the book entirely at the publisher’s expense. I also took on the responsibility for getting the papers ready for publication and for editing. With my scientific background I introduced the practice idea of peer reviewing every paper under consideration, using at least two different reviewers for a given paper, which assured that our publication would be of high quality. Although it took an enormous effort, the book was published in 1964, as planned, under the title The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture. The book was a great success from the start, as was reflected in a number of favorable book reviews that appeared in various academic journals. Without doubt, this publication put SVU on the world map.

The second publication on our list was a collection of Prof. René Wellek’s Essays on Czech Literature, on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. I again succeeded in negotiating a similar agreement with the same publisher. The book was published, again without any cost to SVU, in 1963, under the Prof. Demetz’ editorship and with his introduction.

The third monograph on our agenda was Václav Hlavatý’s Festschrift to be published on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. I again took it upon myself to find an outside publisher. After some correspondence back and forth with several publishing houses, we were able to get an agreement from the Indiana University Press to have them publish it at their expense. The Festschrift was published in 1966 under the title Perspectives in Geometry and Relativity.

Moreover, we were contemplating issuing another Festschrift on the occasion of the seventy fifth birthday of Prof. Francis Dvorník, in the form of an international collection of papers in Byzantine and Slavic studies. We already had an editorial board, composed of Prof. Otakar Odložilík, Prof. Roman Jakobson, Prof. Dmitrij Obolensky and Prof. George Soulis ready in place and the Dutch publisher Mouton and Co. agreed to publish it. Unfortunately, we depended too much on Prof. Odložilík’s initiative who could not get the project off the ground.

Another major project which was carried out while I was the Chairman of the Publications Committee were the Proceedings of our 2nd SVU Congress. This was an enormous undertaking resulting in a two-volume set of almost 2000 pages, published under the title Czechoslovakia Past and Present, under my editorship. The volumes were again well received as depicted in favorable reviews.

When I saw the futility in trying to prepare the planned “Who’s Who Czechs and Slovaks Abroad,” I came up with the idea of publishing a Directory of SVU Members instead which seemed to me a more feasible undertaking. The idea was accepted without opposition, particularly when I volunteered my wife Eva and myself to undertake the job. On the basis of the questionnaire which we sent to SVU members, we prepared the individual entries. The entries included the member’s name, position, affiliation and place of employment, business phone, private address with telephone, place and date of birth, academic degrees with the name of institution and year when they were awarded, areas of specialization and interest, and major publications or art work. We also appended a geographical and subject index. The Directory was completed and published in time for the Third SVU Congress in 1966. It soon became the SVU bestseller, as did the other seven editions that followed, the 8th edition having been published in 2003. The 9th revised edition has been published electronically on CD.

To our regret, Jaroslav G. Polach, who was given the responsibility for preparing for publication the series of lectures, presented on the program of the Washington DC Chapter, concerning “The Idea of Developing the Czechoslovak State 1938-1948," failed in meeting his obligation. This was most unfortunate since this was probably the oldest publication project SVU undertook and was on its program agenda from the very beginning. In retrospect, I am glad that we at least succeeded in having Dr. Polach deposit the referenced lectures in SVU archives.

While I was in charge of SVU publication program, we also published several books of fiction, including Egon Hostovský’s new novel Tři noci, Vladimír Vaněk’s collection of stories, Kniha povídek and Otakar Machotka’s stories Povídky exulantovy and sponsored poetry collections of Pavel Javor, Miloslav Zlámal,and that of Josef Martínek. In addition, we also sponsored Antonín Kratochvíl’s study Die kommunistische Hochschulpolitik in der Tschechoslowakei and a memorial volume of reminiscences of Masaryk Republic, edited by Ivan Herben and František Třesňák. In connection with the latter, it should be noted that SVU also planned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic by publishing a scholarly volume “Czechoslovakia 1918-1968." Mouton & Co. was ready to publish it at no cost to the Society but the appointed editor Prof. Henry Kučera was unable to carry out the task.

Our Committee had even more ambitious plans, such as publishing an authoritative historical treatise on Czechoslovakia, for which purpose we advocated the establishment of a special Commission, composed of historians of note. Other recommendations included the preparation of an inventory of doctoral dissertations relating to Czechoslovakia, periodic publishing of a bibliography of writings of Czech scholars and scientists, as well as a bibliography on Czechoslovakia, inventory of existing unpublished manuscripts which could be the basis for possible publishing by SVU. The Executive Board sent out an appeal to members to volunteer on the proposed projects.

In January 1964, SVU launched a new quarterly periodical with the aim of “preserving and fostering free Czechoslovak culture,” under the editorship of Ladislav Radimský, known under his pen name Petr Den. With the characteristic title Proměny - Premeny (Metamorphoses), “the periodical was “to attempt spiritualize a man in his surrounding and ever-changing world, in the context of the everlasting values of our national tradition.” It planned to publish examples of original and translated poetry, short stories, essays, studies and articles. It was an outstanding journal which attracted new aspiring authors from all over the world and also frequently brought in forbidden Samozdat publications from the Communist Czechoslovakia. It ceased publication after the Velvet Revolution in 1994 because the SVU leadership felt that it was not needed anymore.

With reference to English periodical, as I stated in our 1962 Publication Committee’s Report, “we were contemplating the issuance of a scholarly journal in English language,” pointing out that the Czechs and Slovaks abroad were the only ethnic group lacking such a periodical. With its focus on Czechoslovak topics we felt it would enhance the image of Czechoslovakia which had been greatly tarnished by the Communist regime. The periodical would also have an added benefit by fostering greater interest in the Czechoslovak area studies and thus enhancing scholarship relating to the country’s history, literature, the arts, economics, etc. Our recommendation unfortunately fell on deaf ears because the then SVU Executive Board was reluctant to take on such a venture. It should also be noted that in those early days there was a group of well-meaning members, who thought of themselves as “patriots,” who considered publishing in other languages, other than Czech or Slovak, a “national betrayal.” They generally disliked our emphasis on English titles, in which effort I received a full support from people like René Wellek, Jan Mládek and Jaroslav Němec.

The idea was tabled for a number of years, until the time of my Presidency in 1974-78. After soliciting opinion from the leading Czechoslovak scholars around the world, including such personalities as Prof. René Wellek, Prof. Roman Jakobson, Prof. G. H. N. Seton-Watson, Prof. William E. Harkins, Prof. H. Gordon Skilling, Prof. George Gibian, Prof. Heinrich Kunstmann and others, I persuaded our Executive Board on the need to publish an English periodical devoted to Czechoslovakia and its culture and appointed a committee to work out the details. As my term as SVU President was nearing to an end, there was not enough time to get the periodical off the ground. With the ensuing Presidency of Jan F. Tříska, the newly elected Executive Board favored the idea of publishing the English periodical in principle but failed to find sufficient external financial resources for the new effort. It was not until Leopold Pospíšil’s Presidency (1980-82) that the idea materialized. In the fall of 1981 the SVU Council voted the necessary funds and in 1982 the first issue came out. The new periodical bore the name Kosmas, with the subtitle The Journal of Czechoslovak and Central European Studies. As for the title, as was explained in preface, “although the periodical’s broad coverage might warrant calling it “Cosmos,” the title of Kosmas was chosen to honor the scholar and monk of that name who practiced many arts and sciences and wrote the memorable Chronica Bohemorum which has survived nearly one millennium as an eloquent treatise on early medieval Bohemia. No lesser authority than František Palacký, the ‘Father of the Nation’ and eminent leader of the Czech national revival, bestowed on Kosmas the epithet” ‘The Virtual Herodotus of this Country.’” . Prof. John F. N. Bradley of the University of Manchester, who was, at my recommendation, appointed the first editor, deserves large credit for getting the journal off the ground.

As I come to the conclusion, I would be remiss if I would not mention the SVU Bulletin, which I also instigated, and which SVU started publishing in 1980, under Zdenka Fischmann’s editorship, during Jan F. Tříska’s Presidency. Since his Executive Board could not realize publishing an English journal, I persuaded them to at least go ahead with an English-language newsletter, arguing that the Society had an increased number of members who did not know the Czech or Slovak languages and for whom the Czech or Slovak-language Zprávy SVU was irrelevant. This newsletter was published separately for some fifteen years. In 1995, for financial reasons, it was combined with the Zprávy SVU, part of which was then written in Czech or Slovak, and part was written in English. With the September issue in the year 2000, Zprávy SVU began publishing in the English language only since by then a majority of the membership was versed in that language.

By now SVU has reached almost fifty years of its existence during which time the Society has matured and reached to higher horizons and dimensions of excellence that even its founders did not anticipate. This is also reflected in its present highly versatile publication program, as shown in the Bibliography below.

Zprávy SVU, Vol. 1-48 and ff., 1959-2006 and ff. Bimonthly (free to members).

SVU Bulletin ( Los Angeles Chapter), Vol. 1 -23, 1969- 1991. Quarterly.

SVU Bulletin, Vol. 1-15, 1980-1994. Quarterly.

Proměny-Premeny (Metamorphoses). Vol. 1-29, 1964-1992. Quarterly.

Kosmas - Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. Vol. 1-19 and ff., 1982-2006-and ff. Semiannually.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., Directory. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl (New York, 1966), 80 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., Directory. 2nd ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl (New York, 1968), 100 pp.)

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc. Biographical Directory of the Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc. 3rd ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (New York, 1972), 134 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Biographical Directory of the Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. 4th ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Washington, DC, 1978), 137 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Biographical Directory of the Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. 5th ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Washington, DC, 1983), 193 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Biographical Directory of the Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Inc. 6th ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Washington, DC, 1988), 285 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Biographical Directory of Members of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Inc. 7th ed. Compiled and edited by Eva Rechcigl and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Washington, DC, 1992), 390 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Inc. 8th ed. Compiled and edited by Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., Eva Rechcigl and Jiří Eichler (Washington, DC, 2003), 368 pp.

Abstracts of The First Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America Inc., Washington, D.C., April 20-22, 1962 (Washington-New York, 1962), 40 pp.

Catalogue of Books of the CSASA Exhibition. The First Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Inc., April 20-22, 1962, Washington, DC (Washington, DC. 1962), 12 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program [of the} Second Congress Columbia University, September 11-13, 1964 (New York, 1964), 28 pp.

Abstracts of Papers of the Second Congress of Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., Columbia University, New York, September 11-13, 1964 (Washington, DC, 1964), 66 pp.

Catalogue of Books on Display. Exhibit of Books and Periodicals. The Second Congress, September 11-13, 1964, Columbia University, New York City (New York, 1964), 29 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program [of] The Third Congress, Columbia University, September 2-4, 1966 (New York, 1966), 32 pp.

Abstracts of Papers [of the] Third Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., Columbia University, New York, September 2-4, 1966 (New York, 1966), 72 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program of The Fourth Congress, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, August 30-September 1, 1968 (New York, 1968), 30 pp.

Abstracts of Papers of The Fourth Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., Georgetown University, Washington, DC, August 30-September 1, 1968 (New York, 1968), 69 pp.

Art Exhibition: Koloman Sokol - Oskar Kokoschka. Smithsonian Institution, Arts and Industrial Bldg., Washington, DC, Aug. 26-Sept. 16, 1968, 12 pp.

Abstracts of Papers of The Fifth Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., New York University, New York, N. Y., November 10-12, 1970 (New York 1970), 98 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Transkript I. Evropské konference, Horgenu. Transcribed by Libuše Králová. (New York, 1971), 185 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program of. the Sixth Congress, George Washington University, Washington, DC. November 10-12, 1972 (Washington, DC, 1972), 38 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program of the Seventh Congress, New York University, New York, NY, November 15-17, 1974 (New York, 1974), 15 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. Program of the Eighth Congress, George Washington University, Washington, DC, August 12- 15, 1976 (Washington, DC, 1976), 26 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America. "Contributions of Czechs and Slovaks in North America," The Central Theme of the Eighth Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America: Abstracts of Papers (Washington, DC, 1976), 70 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Abstracts of Papers [of] The Ninth World Congress Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, October 26-29, 1978 (Cleveland, Cleveland State University Press, 1978), 80 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Abstracts of Papers [of] The Tenth World Congress Georgetown University, Washington, DC, October 17-19, 1980 (Washington, DC, 1980), 71 pp.

Arts and Crafts of Czechoslovakian Artists Abroad. Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Craft: by Czech and Slovak Artists Abroad Organized by Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Science: in America on the Occasion of its 10th Congress, Washington, DC, October 16-20, 1980. 13 leaves.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program [of] The Eleventh World Art Congress, University of Pittsburgh, PA, October 28-31, 1982 (Pittsburgh, PA, 1982), 26 pp.

Art SVU. Czechoslovakian Artists Working Abroad. An exhibition of Fine Arts by Czechs and Slovaks Living Outside Czechoslovakia, organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences on the occasion of its 11th Congress at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA, October 1982. 6 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program of the Twelfth World Congress, The Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ont., Oct. 25-28, 1984. 38 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Abstracts of the 12th World Congress, The Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ont., Oct. 25-28, 1984. 90 pp.

Thirteenth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Art Exhibition, September 18-21, 1986, Art Gallery, Dodge Library, Northeastern University, Boston, MA. 6 leaves.

Thirteenth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program of the Thirteenth World Congress, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, Sept. 18-21, 1986. 32 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Abstracts of the Papers Presented at the Thirteenth World Congress, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, Sept. 18-21, 1986. 111 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program of the Fourteenth World Congress, National4-H Center, Chevy Chase, MD, Sept. 15-18, 1988. 26 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program and Abstracts of Papers of the 14th World Congress. National 4-H Center, Chevy Chase, MD, Sept. 15-18, 1988. 101 pp.

The Fourteenth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Art Exhibition. September 15-18,1988, National 4-H Center, Chevy Chase, MD. 4 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Program of the Fifteenth World Congress, Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ont., Canada, Oct. 11-14, 1990. 30 p.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Abstracts of Papers [of the] 15th World Congress, Toronto, Ont., Canada, October 11-13, 1990. 76 p.

The Fifteenth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Art Exhibition: Canadian Artists of Czech and Slovak Origin. Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Ont., Canada. Opening Oct. 12th and 13th, 1990. 20 pp.

Program. SVU World Congress, Prague - Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, June 26-July 2, 1992. 20 pp.

Czechoslovakia, Europe and the World: Arts and Sciences in the International Context - Československo, Evropa a svět: Věda a umění v mezinárodních souvislostech. Program of the 16th SVU World Congress, Prague - Bratislava, June 26 - July 2, 1992. Organized in cooperation with the Council of Learned Societies of CSFR (Prague, 1992), 110, 22 pp.

Czech and Slovak Contribution to the World Culture. Abstracts of Papers Presented at the 17th SVU World Congress, Prague, Czech Republic, June 26-29, 1994. Organized in cooperation with the Council of Learned Societies of CR (Prague, 1994), 137, 64 pp.

Abstracts of Papers Presented at the 18th SVU World Congress, Brno, Czech Republic, August 26-29, 1996 (Brno, 1996), 181 pp.

[Program and Conference Participants]. Czech-Americans in Transition: Challenges and Opportunities for the Future. Annual Meeting and Conference of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). The Bell Co. Exposition Center, Belton, TX, July 12-13, 1997. 12 p.

Problems of Sciences and Arts on the Eve of the 21st Century. Abstracts of Papers Presented at 19th SVU World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Bratislava, July 5-10, 1998 (Bratislava, 1998), 94 pp.

[Program and Speakers]. Special SVU Conference:, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN, April 24-26, 1999. Central Theme: “Czech and Slovak America: Quo Vadis?” 20 pp.

Program of the 20th Anniversary SVU World Congress. Central Theme: “Civil Society and Democracy into the New Millennium”. American University, Washington, DC, August 9-13, 2000.Special offprint of Zprávy SVU. 40 pp.

Abstracts of the 20th World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU). Central Theme: Civil Society and Democracy into the New Millennium. August 8-13, 2000, American University, Washington, D.C. 232 pp.

Program, Abstracts, Biographies of Speakers]. SVU 2002 North American Conference, Lincoln, Nebraska, August 1-3, 2001. “The Czech and Slovak Legacy in the Americas: Preservation of Heritage with the Accent on Youth.” Lincoln, NE, SVU, 2001.

Program kongresu SVU 24.-28 června 2002 v Plzni. 10 pp.

[Program, Abstracts, List of Participants and Lecturers] Československá společnost pro vědy a umění, 21. Výroční světový kongres pod záštitou prezidenta České republiky Václava Havla na téma Transformace české a slovenské společnosti na prahu nového milenia a její úloha v součcasném globálním světě. 24.-30. 6. 2002, Plzeň. 160 pp.

[Program, Abstracts and Biographies of Speakers]. 2003 SVU North American Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 26-28, June 2003. Central Theme: “The Czech and Slovak Presence in North America: A Retrospective Look and Future Perspectives.” 76 pp.

[Program and Abstracts of the] 22nd World Congress of Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Palacky University, Olomouc, June 26- July 4, 2004. Central Theme: Moravia from World Perspective (Olomouc, Centrum pro československá studia při Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého, 2004), 166 pp.

[Program and Abstracts]. Special Conference and Festival, North Miami, Florida, 17-20 March 2005. Central Theme: “Czech and Slovak Cultural Heritage on Both Sides of the Atlantic” (North Miami, FL, SVU, 2005), 50 pp.

Czech and Slovak Culture and Science in International Context. (Academic Sessions and Abstracts of) 23rd World Congress of Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, June 25- July 2, 2006 (České Budějovice, Tiskárna Johanus 2006), 151 pp.

Schedule of the 23rd World Congress of Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, June 25- July 2, 2006 (České Budějovice, Tiskárna Johanus, 2006), 8 p.

Jirák, Karel B. Antonín Dvořák, 1841-1961 (New York, NY, 1961), 31 pp.

Duben, V.N. Czech and Slovak Periodical Press Outside Czechoslovakia: Its History and Status as of January 1962 (Washington, DC, 1962), 99 pp. Heidrich, A. International Political Causes of the Czechoslovak Tragedies of 1938 and 1948. Part I (Washington, DC, 1962), 27 pp.

Štěrba, F.C. Česi a Slováci v Latinské Americe (Washington, DC, 1962), 61 pp.

Masaryková, Alice G. Hudba v Spillville (New York, 1963), 19 pp.

Šejnoha, Jaroslav. Svědectví a skazky z umění výtvarného (Toronto, Ont., 1963), 13 pp.

Wellek, René. Czech Literature at the Crossroads of Europe (Toronto, Ont., 1963), 15 pp.

Wellek, René. Essays on Czech Literature (The Hague, Mouton & Co., 1963), 214 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. The Czechoslovak Contribution to World Culture (The Hague-Paris-London, Mouton & Co., 1964), 862 pp.

Duben, V.N. Czech and Slovak Periodicals Outside Czechoslovakia as of September 1964 (New York, NY, 1964), 208 pp.

Zlámal, Miloslav. Zpěvy z modrých hor (Toronto, Ont., 1964), 66 pp.

Vaněk, Vladimír. Kniha povídek (New York, NY, 1965), 118 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. Ten Years of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in America, Inc., 1956-1966 (Toronto, Ont., "Nase Hlasy," 1966), 20 pp.

Se souhlasem milionů: Kardinal Josef Beran čestným členem SVU. Trans. A. Rozehnal and V.E.Andic (New York, NY, 1966), 16 pp.

Duben, V.N. Czech and Slovak Periodicals Outside Czechoslovakia, as of Sept. 1968 (New York, NY, 1968), 28 pp.

Rejtsřík Zpráv SVU 1959-1966: A Comprehensive Index to the First 8 Volumes of the Society’s Newsletter. Compiled by Josef Žanda (Washington, DC, 1968), 45 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. Czechoslovakia: Past and Present. Vol. I: Political, International, Social, and Economic Aspects (Hague-Paris, Mouton, 1968), 880 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. Czechoslovakia: Past and Present. Vol. II: Essays on the Arts and Sciences (Hague-Paris, Mouton, 1968), pp. 882-1889.

Machotka, Otakar. Povídky exulantovy (Toronto, Ont., "Naše Hlasy"), 81 pp.

Comenius, J.A. Diogenes the Cynic. Trans. M.C. Mittelstadt (New York, NY, 1970), 73 pp.

Duben, V.N. České a slovenské noviny a časopisy (New York, NY, 1970), 28 pp.

Jelínek, Ivan. Sochy (New York, NY, 1970), 114 pp.

Lokay, Miroslav. Československé legie v Itálii (New York, NY, 1970), 31 pp.

Jakobson, Roman. Studies in Verbal Art: Texts in Czech and Slovak (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1971), 412 pp.

Bušek, Vratislav, ed. Comenius: A Symposium Commemorating the 300th Anniversary of the Death of Jan Amos Comenius (Komenský) (New York, NY, 1972), 184 pp.

Comenius, J.A. The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart: With a Facsimile of the 1663 Czech Original. Trans. Matthew Spinka (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1972), 203 pp.

French, Albert, comp. Anthology of Czech Poetry. Intr. by René Wellek (New York, NY, SVU and Ann Arbor, MI, Dept. of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, 1973), 372 pp.

Fisher, John H., et al. Czechoslovak Military Justice Abroad during the Second World War (New York, NY, 1975), 47 pp.

Jerabek, Esther. Czechs and Slovaks in America: A Bibliography (New York, SVU and Chicago, IL, CNCA, 1976), 448 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. Studies in Czechoslovak Culture and Society (Meerut-2, India, Sadhna Prakashan, 1976), 460 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr., ed. Studies in Czechoslovak History (Meerut-2, India, Sadhna Prakashan, 1976), 458 pp.

O Janáčkovi. R. Firkušný – R. Kubelík – F. Smetana – K. B. Jirák. Vydala místní skupina SVU v Chicagu. Chicago, IL, Velehrad, 1978. 24 pp.

Orten, Jiří. Elegie - Elegies. Trans. Lyn Coffin (New York, NY, 1980), 111 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. Educators with Czechoslovak Roots: A U.S. and Canadian Faculty Roster (Washington, DC, 1980), 122 pp.

Seifert, Jaroslav. Morový sloup - The Plague Monument. Trans. Lyn Coffin (New York, NY, 1980), 57 pp.

Čapek, Milič and Karel Hrubý, eds. T. G. Masaryk: Perspective: Comments and Criticism (New York, NY, 1981), 282 pp.

Chada, Joseph. The Czechs in the United States (New York, NY, 1981), 292 pp.

Harkins, William, ed. Czech Prose: An Anthology (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1983), 321 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Index k Zprávám SVU: Ročníky I-X (1959-1968). Compiled by Josef Žanda (Washington, DC, 1985), 68 pp. Engliš, Karel. An Essay on Economic Systems: A Teleological Approach. Trans. Ivo Moravčík (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 1986), 159 pp.

Novák, Arne. Czech Literature. Rev. ed. Edited with Supplement by William E. Harkins (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, 1986), 382 p.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. U.S. Legislators with Czechoslovak Roots from Colonial Times to Present: With Genealogical Lineages (Washington, DC, 1987),65 p.

Kultur und Gewalt: Erfahrungen einer Region (Kendat, Cambria, 1988), 72 pp.

Společnost a kultura (Lancaster, Lancaster U. Press, 1990), 198 pp.

Hrubý, Petr. Daydreams and Nightmares: Czech Communist and Ex-Communist Literature, 1917-1987 (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 1990), 362 pp.

On All Fronts: Czechs and Slovaks in World War II. Edited by Lewis M. White (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 1991), 296 pp.

SVU Sydney 1972-1992. Záznamy z dvacetileté činnosti Místní skupiny Společnosti pro vědy a umění v Sydney. Sestavili Oliver Fiala a Jan Jirásek za ediční spolupráce členů výboru SVU, Sydney 1990-1992 (Sydney, 1992), 142 pp.

Na všech frontách. Upravili V. N. Duben a Lewis M. White. Pod záštitou SVU. S finanční podporou washingtonské skupiny SVU (Praha, Melantrich, 1992), 331 pp.

Sommer, Karel. UNRRA a Československo. S finanční podporou Washingtonské skupiny SVU (Opava, Slezský ústav AV ČR, 1993), 112 pp.

Sborník Československé společnosti pro vědy zemědelské, lesnické, veterinární a potravinářské Sborník příspevků ze 17. světového kongresu SVU, konaného v Praze 26.6 až 29.6. 1994. Uspořádal Rudolf Jánal. (Praha, 1994), 238 pp.

Czech and Slovak Contributions to Perinatal Medicine. Summary of Reports Presented at a Symposium During the 17th Congress of Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, May 26-29, 1994, Prague. Czech Republic. In: Physiological Research, vol. 44, Issue 6, 1995, pp. 339-360. On all Fronts. Czechoslovaks in World War II. Part 2 . Edited by Lewis M. White With the financial support of the SVU Washington, DC Chapter (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 1995), 303 pp.

The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice. Vol. 1. Papers from the XVIIth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Prague 1994. Edited by David R. Holeton ( Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1996), 95 pp.

Trvalé udržitelné lesnictví v Česke republice, na Slovensku a ve svetě -Sustainable Forestry in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the World. Sborník referátu z konference lesnické sekce konané v Praze dne 26. června 1994 v rámci 17. Světového kongresu Společnosti pro vědy a umění - Proceedings of the Conference of the Forestry Section, held in Prague, June 26, 1994 in association with the 17th World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Redigovali Miroslav M. Grandtner a Bohuslav Vinš. (Praha - Zbraslav: Národní lesnický komitet, 1996), 78 pp.

Technologia - Humanita - Umenie - Tolerancia. Konferencia SVU Košice -Vysoké Tatry, August 1996. Redigovali Klára Tkáčová a Karol Marton (Košice, Miestna skupina SVU Košice, 1996), 83 pp.

Setkání a Hovory. Almanach Společnosti pro vědy a umění v Mnichove. Z příspevků členů a přátel SVU sestavil Štěpán F. Kadlec (Praha: Tiskárna České akademie věd v Praze, 1997), 267 pp.

Symbioza v poznání pro trvalé udržitelné lesnictví. Sborník referátů z 2. konference lesnické sekce konané v Brně dne 27. srpna 1996 v rámci 18. Světového kongresu Společnosti pro vědy a umění. Redigovali Bohuslav Vinš a Miroslav M. Grandtner (Praha - Zbraslav: Národní lesnický komitét, 1998), 44 pp.

The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice. Vol. 2. Papers from the XVIIIth World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Brno 1998. Edited by Zdenek V. David and David R. Holeton (Prague: Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 1998), 165 pp.

On all Fronts. Czechoslovaks in World War II. Part 3. With the financial support of the SVU Washington, DC Chapter. Edited by Lewis M. White (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 2000), 333 pp.

Fischmann, Zdenka E. Essays on Czech Music. Edited by Dagmar White and Anne Palmer (Boulder, CO, East European Monographs, 2002), 187 pp.

Chut’ ztraceného domova - The Taste of a Lost Homeland. A Bilingual Anthology of Czech and Slovak Exile Poetry Written in America. Compiled and edited by Vera Bořkovec. Dedicated to the Memory of Frank Marlow. (Plzen, TYPOS, 2002), 171 pp.

Evoluce člověka a antropologie recentních populací. Sborník panelu 21. Světového kongresu Československé společnosti pro vědy a umění. Plzeň, 24.-30. cervna, 2002. Editoři: Vladimír Sládek, Patrik Galeta a Vladimír Blažek. In: Biologická antropologie, Sborník 1 (Plzeň, Aleš Čeněk, 2003), 117 pp.

The Transformation of Czech and Slovak Societies on the Threshold of the New Millennium and the Role in the Global World. Selected Papers from the 21st World Congress, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic, June 23-30, 2002. Edited by Jan P. Skalný and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Plzeň, Aleš Čeněk, 2004), 640 pp.

Transformace české a slovenské společnosti na prahu nového milenia a její úloha v současném globálním světě. Sborník vybraných příspěvků 21. Světového kongresu Společnosti pro vědy a uměení v Plzni 24.-30. června, 2002. Edited by Ivo Budil, Ivona Škanderová and Jana Jantschová (Plzeň, Aleš Čeněk, 2004), 400 pp.

Czech and Slovak American Archival Materials and their Preservation. Proceedings of the Working Conference held at the Czech and Slovak Embassies in Washington, DC on November 22-23, 2003. Edited by Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., President, SVU. (Prague, Prague Editions, 2004), 168 pp.

Setkání a hovory 1997-2004. Z příspěvků členů a přátel SVU z let 1997-2004. K 20ti letému výročí založení. Sestavili Ivan Cikl a Ladislav Pavlík (Mnichov, SVU Německo, 2004). 326 pp.

Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Palacky University, June 26 to July 4, 2004. Vol. 1. Opening, English Panels Culture and Education, The Arts, The Humanities). Edited by Tomáš Motlíček and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Ostrava, Repronis, 2006). 434 pp.

Moravia from World Perspective. Selected Papers from the 22nd World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences. Palacky University, June 26 to July 4, 2004. Vol. 2. English Panels. Czech Panels (Social Sciences, Science, Medicine and Technology, Czechs and Slovaks Abroad. Edited by Tomáš Motlíček and Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr. (Ostrava, Repronis, 2006), 432 pp.

Kocourek, Milan and Zuzana Slobodová. Česko-slovenská Britanie. Pro SVU Londyn vydalo nakladatelství Carpio v Třěeboni r. 2006. 356 pp.

1. Mamatey, Victor S. Building Czechoslovakia in America: 1914-1918 (Washington, DC, 1976), 17 pp.

2. Polach, Eva B. The SVU List of Lectures, Studies and Other Materials (Washington, DC, 1976), 34 pp.

3. Lewis, Brackett. Eyewitness Story of the Occupation of Samara, Russia, by the Czechoslovak Legion in June 1918 (Washington, DC, 1977), 20 pp.

4. Duben, Vojtěch N. Czech and Slovak Press: Its Status in 1978 (Washington, DC, 1978), 62 pp.

5. Schwarzenberg, František. František Palacký (Washington, DC, 1978), 26 pp.

Javor, Pavel. Nedosněno, nedomilováno (New York, NY, Universum Press Co., 1965), 104 pp.

Hoffmann, Banesh, ed. Perspectives in Geometry and Relativity: Essays in Honor of Václav Hlavatý (Bloomington-London, Indiana University Press, 1966), 491 pp.

Herben, Ivan and František Třešňák, eds. Padesát let: Soubor vzpomínek a úvah na Masarykovu republiku (Toronto, Ont., "Naše Hlasy," 1968), 206 pp.

Kratochvíl, Antonín. Die kommunistische Hochschulpolitik in der Tschechoslowakei (München, Fides-Verlagsgesellschaft München, 1968), 271 pp.

Martínek, Josef. Verše ze zásuvky a verše zapomenuté (New Jersey, Universum Press Co., 1968), 80 pp.

Brabec, Jiří ed. Slovník českých spisovatelů (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1982), 537 pp.

Drtina, Prokop. Československo můj osud (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1982), 2 vols.

Absolon, Karel B. (After Karla Bufková-Wankelová), Series 1. Moravian Tales, Legends, Myths: The Tale of the Bad Macocha and The Fable of the Underground Punkva River (Rockville, MD, KABEL Publishers, 1984), 60 pp.

Absolon, Karel B. Developmental Technology of Gastric Surgery 1521 to Present. Rockville, MD, KABEL Publishers, 1985), 170 pp.

Kovtun, Jiří. Slovo má poslanec Masaryk (München, Edice Arkyr), 211 pp.

Kosková, Helena. Hledání ztracené generace (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1986), 368 pp.

Prečan, Vilém, ed. T.G. Masaryk and Our Times (Hannover, CSDS, 1986), 112 pp.

Prečan, Vilém, ed. Ten Years of Charter 77 (Hannover, CSDS, 1986), 111 pp.

Richterová, Sylvie. Slovo a ticho (München, Edice Arkýř, 1986), 155 pp.

Kovtun, Jiří. Masarykův triumf: Příběh konce velké války (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1987), 714 pp.

Mešťan, Antonín. Česká literatura, 1785- 1985 (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1987), 456 pp.

Rotrekl, Zdeněk. Skrytá tvář české literatury (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1987), 250 pp.

Křesadlo, Jan. Fuga Trium (Toronto, Ont., 68 Publishers, 1987), 371 pp.

ACTA. Čtvrtletník Čs. dokumentačního střediska nezávislé literatury. Vol. 1 (1987), Nos. 1-4; Vol. 2 (1988), Nos. 5-8; Vol. 3 (1989), Nos. 9-12.

Demokracie pro všechny: Dokumenty Hnutí za občanskou svobodu (Scheinfeld, CSDS), 19 pp.

Democracy for All: Documents of the Movement for Civil Liberties (Scheinfeld, CSDS), 20 pp.

Fuchs, Jinna. Jiří Karger: A Retrospective (Los Angeles, CA, Framar Publishers, 1988), 104 pp.

Prečan, Vilém, ed. Acta creationis: Unabhängige Geschichtsschreibung in der Tschechoslowakei 1969-1980 (Scheinfeld, CSDS, 1988), 252 pp.

Provazníková, Marie. To byl Sokol. Za redakční spolupráce Otilie Kabešové (München, České slovo, 1988), 252 pp.

Synek, Miroslav. Naděje a zklamání: Pražské jaro 1968 (Scheinfeld, CSDS, 1988), 157 pp. About Theatre (Stockholm, CSDS & Charter 77 Foundation, 1989) 96 pp. (Voices from Czechoslovakia, 3-4) Havel, Vaclav. Do různých stran: Eseje a články z let 1983- 1989. Ed. by Vilém Prečan (Scheinfeld, CSDS & Charter 77 Foundation, 1989), 526 pp.

Charta 77, 1977 - 1989: Od morální k demokratické revoluci: Dokumentace. Ed. by Vilém Prečan (Bratislava, CSDS & Archa Publishers, 1990), 525 pp.

Demokratická revoluce: Stav a výhledy světa - jaro 1989 (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & Scheinfeld, CSDS, 1990), 123 pp.

Čulík, Jan. Seznam publikací vydaných v hlavních exilových nakladatelstvích 1971- 1990 (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & CSDS, 1992), 53 pp.

Gruša, Jiří. Cenzura a literární život mimo masmedia (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & CSDS, 1992), 26 pp.

Milan Šimečka - Bibliografie díla za léta 1975-1990. Compiled by Milan Drápala (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & CSDS, 1992), 48 pp.

Prečan, Vilém. Independent Literature and Samizdat in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and the 1980s (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & CSDS, 1992), 20 pp.

Vladislav, Jan. O edici Kvart po letech (Prague, Institute for Contemporary History & CSDS, 1992), 12 pp.

A series of brochures published to mark the opening of an exhibition of independent literature published in samizdat and in exile, 1948-1989 (Prague, Památník národního písemnictví, January-June 1992).

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. Postavy naší Ameriky. Z iniciativy senátní Stálé komise pro krajany žijící v zahraničí a za finanční podpory Senátu Parlamentu České republiky (Praha, Pražská edice, 2000), 356 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. Czech-American Historic Sites, Monuments, and Memorabilia (Olomouc-Ostrava: Centrum pro československá studia při Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, 2004), 142 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. Czechoslovak American Archivalia. Vol. 1. Government Repositories, University-based Collections, Collections Maintained by Public Museums and Libraries, Collections of Ethnic and Other Related Organizations (Olomouc-Ostrava: Centrum pro československá studia při Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, 2004), 206 pp.

Rechcigl, Miloslav, Jr. Czechoslovak American Archivalia. Vol. 2. Personal Papers and Collections, Repositories Abroad Bearing on the Subject, Virtual Archives on the Internet. Appendixes (Olomouc-Ostrava: Centrum pro československá studia při Katedře historie Filozofické fakulty Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, 2004), 368 pp.

Vičar, Jan. Imprints: Essays on Czech Music and Aesthetics. (Prague: Togga and Olomouc: Palacky University, 2005), 270 pp.

Veit, Vladimir. Ve lví stopě. Recorded in Vienna, Austria, April 1985.

SVU a čs. výtvarníci v exilu. Prepared by Jindřich Bernard, Emil Purgina and Vladimír Škutina; videotaped at the SVU World Congress’ Art Exhibit, Boston, MA, Sept. 18-21, 1986. (Provides material about selected painters and a few sculptors of Czechoslovak descent living in the West.)

Jihoafrické rozhovory. Vladimír Škutina (Commentary), Jindřich Bernard (Camera).

Rudolf Firkušný. Interviewed by Vladimír Škutina; videotaped by Jindřich Bernard.

Jaroslav Seifert na Západě. Videotaped by Jindřich Bernard (1987). (Includes excellent readings of some of Seifert’s poems; scenes from the Nobel Prize Award presentation in Stockholm, 1984; Seifert himself, sharing his thoughts about art and life).

Rozhovor s Janem Papánkem. Interviewed by Pavel Pecháček; videotaped by Michael Baumbruck. (Recollections about his life and Czechoslovakia).

Rozhovor s Karlem Steinbachem. Interviewed by Pavel Pecháček; videotaped by Michael Baumbruck. (Reflections about cultural and political life in post World War I Czechoslovakia).

Koncert Karla Kryla. Produced by Milan Leimberger (Los Angeles); videotaped in Chicago, 1988, during his tour in the U.S.

Selected Papers from the 2003 SVU North American Conference, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 26-28 June 2003. Prepared by Charles Townsend, Kacenka Oslzly, Mila Rechcigl and Jiří Eichler (Washington, DC, SVU Press, 2006).

SVU Directory. Compiled by Miloslav Rechcigl, Jr., Eva Rechcigl and Jiří Eichler. Revised 8th ed. (Washington, DC, SVU Press, 2006).

SVU Website: Czechs and Slovaks Worldwide and their Culture. Text: Mila Rechcigl; Webmaster: Jiri Eichler. URL: http://www.svu2000.org/

Brno Local Chapter. URL: http://www.svu.vutbr.cz/

České Budějovice. URL: http://www.svu.vutbr.cz/

Cleveland Local Chapter. URL: http://www.geocities.com/clevelandsvu2004/

Lincoln, NE Local Chapter. URL: http://www.unl.edu/SVUNebraska/

Olomouc Local Chapter. URL: http://www.svukongres2004.upol.cz/

Plzen Local Chapter. URL: http://www.svu.zcu.cz/

Prague Local Chapter. URL: http://www.kav.cas.cz/SVU/

Spillvile Local Chapter. URL: http://www.czechoslovaksmidwest.org/

It must have been in the second year of Schwarzenberg’s SVU[1] Presidency[2], when I was first approached by Jaroš Nĕmec[3] and Jan Mládek[4] whether I would be interested in being nominated for the next SVU President. The suggestion did not really take me by surprise because, by then, I was immersed in SVU activities so earnestly and extensively that I felt in my bones that I could do a good job. It was no secret that Jaroš was grooming me for the high SVU office which I knew would sooner or later be offered to me. Ivan Herben,[5] one of my early mentors, long predicted that one day I would “take over the reigns of SVU.”

The situation in SVU, at the time, was not really the best; it was actually precarious. In terms of activities, nothing exciting was happening and in terms of finances the Society was in a bind. Most of the savings had been used up for the maintenance of the SVU office in New York and for the salaries of two secretaries. The SVU membership dwindled and the dues were hardly enough for paying the postage and other basic expenses. František Schwarzenberg, who was otherwise a very decent person,[6] did not take any steps to circumvent the status quo, partly because he probably was not even aware of what was happening. The Society was then largely in the hands of Executive-Secretary Hanuš Lexa,[7] while the SVU President was largely a figurehead.

Neither Mládek nor Nĕmec tried to hide the seriousness of the situation the Society was facing. They told me point blank that Schwarzenberg had to be replaced by a younger and more agile person who would bring the Society back on the right track. They thought that I was the man. After discussing the matter with Eva, who thought that I would do a credible job and promised her support, I told Jaroš and Jan that I was ready and willing.

The SVU Nominations Committee, consisting of three past SVU Presidents, namely Jan Mládek, chairman and Jaroš Nĕmec and René Wellek,[8] did indeed nominate me for the next SVU President. In their statement,[9] they stated the following:

“Some societies and institutions adhere to the principle of changing the entire leadership at the start of a new term. Other associations make a selection bearing in mind effective continuity and effective exchange or rotation. The Nomination Committee is convinced, in part, because of age of the Society (16 years), and, in part, because the growing membership from the ranks of the 68th emigration requires that more emphasis than in the previous years be put on the change and filling the position with new people. This attitude is not a critique of the present leadership but rather an expression of our conviction that it is only right to give a chance to new people and enable the transition between generations. If the General Assembly will accept the proposal of the Nominations Committee, it would result in the departure from the Executive Board and the Council of several individuals who unquestionably played a role in the formative years of SVU. This should not be interpreted as a sign of ingratitude but the application of the principle that office functions are temporary and that every member is entitled to be considered for a temporary role in the working circle of SVU Executive Board, SVU Council, committees, etc. In recommending a number of changes, the Committee is fully aware that experience and a creditable record of the candidates cannot be overlooked and its conception of the principle of rotation is fully justifiable in the future administrative periods and the return to SVU offices of people who are dedicated, experienced and capable.”[10]

As the news became known, some rumbling began to be heard from certain corners. It was partly my age which had them worried. After all, in my early forties I was still considered a greenhorn by SVU standards, the majority of the membership being at least 20 years my senior. Stories began to be circulated, particularly among the extreme “right-wingers” that I would take radical steps and bring SVU astray. An opportunity that added ammunition to their case lent itself as a result of a private party given by Dr. Karel Absolon[11] in his house. Among his guests was the newly then named Czechoslovak Ambassador to the US Dušan Spáčil.[12] None of the guests, including myself, had been informed of this beforehand. This was obviously embarrassing to most of us but, frankly, the whole thing was of no consequence because hardly any of us actually talked to him. Absolon, of course, thought nothing of it and considered Spáčil’s invitation, who was his classmate from Brno, a personal matter.

The news of this got around fast and my opponents had an additional argument against me. They began to spread rumors that, if I were to become SVU President, I would establish relations with the communist Czechoslovakia and, above all, that I couldn’t be trusted.

In this climate, my opponents began putting pressure on Schwarzenberg to enter the race as my opponent, telling him that it is a matter of utmost urgency, a matter of honor and patriotism, etc. Under such pressure, Schwarzenberg finally agreed to run against me “to save the Society from possible disaster.” At this point, some members thought that it would be in the interest of the Society if I would simply withdraw my candidacy. To my amazement, even Dr. Karel Steinbach[13] came to me with such a proposition. I must say, it was primarily Jan Mládek who stuck with me all the way and who gave me his unequivocal support from the beginning to the end.

In those days, elections always took place at the General Assembly meetings which were frequently the witness of immense politicking, outrageous speeches, excitement, confrontations and the final tense and thrilling voting. It was truly “the most exciting show in town” to which many a member was looking forward the entire year. Those members who could not participate could give their proxies to other members. There was no limit to the number of proxies a member could have. This gave opportunity to both sides to get ready for the battle.

The stage was set. On November 14, 1974, SVU General Assembly meeting was convened in one of the halls of New York University School of Law, Washington Square South, New York City, the place of the Seventh SVU Congress. The hall was filled to capacity by SVU members. Everybody was in anticipation of an exciting battle that had no precedence in the entire history of SVU. In the cases of past SVU Presidents, there was always an agreement on the candidate and consequently there was no controversy. All the battles in the past related to other offices. To add to the drama was the realization that František Schwarzenberg, with his aristocratic background and princely title, provided mystique to the whole proceedings and there seemed to prevail a general opinion that a man of such qualities and distinction cannot be beaten by any challenger, particularly by such a “young Turk” like myself.

The actual voting was preceded by speeches by opposing sides, including those of the nominees. Karel Absolon and Míša Šumichrast[14] came specially to New York to voice their opinion and give me support. To give the proceedings some order and impartiality, the Assembly voted to have it presided by Jan Stránský,[15] an able attorney, who was in the employ of Radio Free Europe in New York. I do not recall all details and who spoke for or against. One incident stuck to my mind, however. Just before the voting was to begin, a group of Slovaks, associated with the “Stálá slovenská konferencia,”[16] came to me to tell me that they all decided to oppose Schwarzenberg and vote for me.

When all the speeches were exhausted, the Presiding Officer called for a vote. Instead of quieting down, “all hell seemed to break loose.” All of a sudden, member after member hurried forward toward the presiding officer’s desk bringing his proxies. There was a lot of confusion, like a circus. After the chairman restored order, the tellers were called in to start counting the votes. It must have taken at least half an hour for things to get sorted out, since some of the proxies were contested, before the results were finally announced. In spite of general expectations, I was declared the winner, beating my opponent by a landslide, i.e., 2:1 margin[17] or in terms of actual numbers, I received 162 votes against Schwarzenberg’s 82. The outcome was so embarrassing that the actual numbers were never reported in Zprávy SVU, and, in fact, no mention was even made in the SVU newsletter that Schwarzenberg ran against me.[18]

As reported in the November 1974 issue of Zprávy SVU,[19] the newly elected SVU Executive Board comprised the following members: Miloslav Rechcígl, Jr.,[20] President; Dr. Alexej Bořkovec,[21] Ing. Ján Gavora,[22] Prof. Josef Škvorecký,[23] Dr. Ernest Šturc[24] and Prof. Zdenĕk Suda,[25] Vice Presidents; Dr. John G. Lexa,[26] Secretary-General, Dr. Frank Meissner,[27] Treasurer and Dr. Jiří Škvor,[28] Editor of Promĕny[29] In retrospect, this was truly an outstanding team..[30]