W. Michael Blumenthal to Speak at UNCA April 6; Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to Discuss "The Invisible Wall: Germans and Jews"

W. Michael Blumenthal, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the Carter Administration, will speak on "The Invisible Wall, Germans and Jews: A Personal Exploration" at 7:30 p.m. April 6 at UNC Asheville.  His talk, the annual Phyllis Freed Sollod Memorial Lecture presented by UNCA's Center for Jewish Studies, is based on his recently published book of the same title. The event is free and open to the public, and will be held in UNCA's Owen Conference Center.

"The Invisible Wall" is Blumenthal's quest to understand the failure of the German-Jewish relationship and to explain the character and attitudes of Germany's assimilated Jews over a 300-year period. Juxtaposing the broad picture of an evolving Germany against the rich stories of six of his own ancestors, Blumenthal seeks to show how "the unrequited love affair of Germany's Jews with their native country" led to the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust.

Born in Germany in 1926, Blumenthal escaped the Nazis as a teenager with his family in 1939 and grew up with other Jewish refugees in a Shanghai ghetto. When he arrived in the United States in 1947, he was 21 years old and had only $65 in his pocket. For these modest beginnings, he went on to a remarkable professional life in business, government service and education. He was chairman and CEO of Bendix Corp. and Burroughs Corp. (later Unisys). An ambassador and deputy special representative for trade negotiation under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, he served as Secretary of the Treasury in the Carter Administration. In 1997, Blumenthal accepted an invitation from the city of Berlin to become president and chief executive of the Berlin Jewish Museum.

The Phyllis Freed Sollod Annual Memorial Lecture is made possible through an endowment established by Norman Sollod in memory of his wife, who was an active leader in the Asheville Jewish community.

For more information about Blumenthal's talk, call UNCA's Center for Jewish Studies at 828/251-6576 or visit the website www.ctl.unca.edu/cjs.

Media Contacts:

• Dr. Rick Chess, UNCA Center for Jewish Studies director, 828/251-6576
• Merianne Epstein, UNCA Public Information director, 828/251-6676