A product, as it were, of Betar United States, and one interested in history, the name Benzion Netanyahu was familiar to me. He had edited the shortlived but intellectually deep political-cultural periodical Betar in the early 1930s, had worked closely with Ze''ev Jabotinsky, been a leader of the Revisionist Movement in the States and was a recognized, if establishment-shunned, as a major scholar of Iberian Jewry. I even had the privilege, if otherwise daunting experience, of working with him in 1981 on a translation project of a letter by some half-dozen professors in response to the exclusion of right-wing nationaliost Zionist history from the series "Pillar of Fire". His meticulousness and devotion to detail was impressive to me, sitting in his study and going over my almost adequate English, preparing the letter for publication.
In the NYTimes'' web site obituary of Benzion Netanyahu, you can read this about Ze''ev Jabotinsky now:In 1940, Mr. Netanyahu went to the United States to be secretary to Mr. Jabotinsky, who was building American support for his militant brand of Zionism. Mr. Jabotinsky died that same year
In an earlier on-line web version, I had seen it so:In 1940, Mr. Netanyahu went to the United States to be secretary to Mr. Jabotinsky, who was building American support for his militant brand of Zionism. Mr. Jabotinsky died in a car accident that same year,
Jabotinsky died of a heart attack. He died on August 4, 1940 and in a New York Times'' article on Aug. 7, we read:
Mr. Jabotinsky, who died of a heart attack Saturday night at Camp Betar, Zionist Youth Camp at Hunter, N.Y...At the official Jabotinsky Institute site we read:
On August 4, 1940, while visiting the Betar camp in New York, Ze''ev Jabotinsky suffered a massive, fatal heart attack.I tried to correct it and wrote to the paper and its employees and referred them to two biographies, that of Shmuel Katz, Lone Wolf, as well as that of Joseph Schechtman.
From within the NYTimes, I received two reactions:thanks. we are fixing and thanks. we are fixing it.
I checked again just before uploading this and it remains that Jabotinsky simply dies, a causeless death.
What can we conclude from this state-of-affairs and attitude to dealing with a mistake of fact that can be easily researched?
One or more of the following, I presume:(a) the NYTimes does not trust me.(b) the NYTimes does not trust its own archives.(c) the NYTimes does not know how to find material in it own archives.(d) the NYTimes does not know how to search for material either onlione or in the two main biographies of Jabotinsky.(e) the NYTimes never really will admit an error in connection with the Jewish right-wing.
In all other instances, the web story will carry a line to the effect that "this story now reflects the following correction". It has happened before.
Do you have any other suppositions why the NYTimes is acting as it is?
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