JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

was chairman of the society until 1929, and the more activist
line was carried out by his successor, Joseph Lurie. Rabbi Binyamin,
the first editor of Berit Shalom’s monthly, She’ifoteinu
(“Our Aspirations”), who demanded an agreement with the
Arabs on the basis of unlimited Jewish immigration, was replaced
when a majority of the members declared themselves
ready to accept a temporary limitation of immigration to facilitate
an agreement with the Arabs. In 1930 senior members
of Berit Shalom published a series of memoranda, the
first of which – Memorandum by the Brit Shalom Society on
an Arab Policy for the Jewish Agency – was submitted to the
Zionist Executive in London in February. The second memorandum,
entitled Practical Proposals for Cooperation Between
Jews and Arabs in Palestine, was prepared as a response to a
suggestion by one of the members of the 1929 Shaw Commission.
The third memorandum was a personal endeavor
by Ernst Simon, and was distributed to the members of the
Conference of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish
Agency in London. The fourth and last one was a “Judeao-
Arab Covenant” prepared by Kalvaryski in August (apparently
unknown to his colleagues at the time), and submitted
by him to a member of the Arab Executive. Berit Shalom was
attacked by most of the Zionist parties, who viewed its members
as defeatists at best and traitors and worst. By 1933 it had
virtually ceased to exist, after many of its members deserted
it, and it ran out of funds.
Bibliography: She’ifotenu (1930–33); S. Hattis, The Bi-National
Idea in Palestine in Mandatory Times (1970).
[Susan Hattis Rolef (2nd ed.)]
BERK, FRED (1911–1980), dancer and exponent of Jewish
and ethnic dance in the U.S. Born in Vienna into an Orthodox
Jewish family, he studied dance there at the studio of Gertrud
*Kraus and performed in her modern dance troupe. The Nazi
annexation of Austria forced him to flee in 1939. He arrived in
the U.S. in 1941. In 1950 Berk founded the Jewish Dance Division
at the 92nd Street YMHA-YWHA, New York. Cofounder
of the Merry-Go-Rounders, a children’s dance group, he did
the choreography for their Holiday in Israel and Wedding in
Austria. He formed Hebraica Dancers in 1958. He wrote The
Jewish Dance (1959).
BERKLEY, ROCHELLE (1951– ), U.S. congresswoman.
Rochelle (Shelley) Berkley, the elder of William and Estella
(Colonomos) Levine’s two daughters, was born in New York
City. She was raised in the Catskill community of South Fallsburg,
where her father worked at the famed Concord Hotel.
In the early 1960s the family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada,
where William found employment with the Sands Hotel; he
would remain at the Sands for 36 years, the last ten as the hotel’s
maître d’.
During Berkley’s formative years in Las Vegas, the city
had a Jewish population of no more than 2,500. Berkley’s
mother served as president of the local Hadassah, while Shelly
was elected president of the Las Vegas chapter of B’nai B’rith
berkley, william r.
Girls. Berkley attended the University of Nevada at Las Vegas,
where she was elected student body president, and graduated
from the law school of the University of California at San Diego.
Returning to Las Vegas, she worked as deputy director of
the Nevada State Commerce Department and as counsel for
the Southwest Gas Corporation. Following a two-year stint
(1982–84) in the Nevada State Legislature, Berkley became vice
president for government and legal affairs for the Sands Hotel.
In this position, she served as in-house counsel for Sands’
chairman Sheldon Adelson, the man who virtually invented
the computer trade show.
In 1998 Berkley ran as a Democrat for one of Nevada’s
two seats in the United States House of Representatives.
Elected by a small margin, Berkley continued to be reelected
by the people of Las Vegas. Her campaign brought her to the
attention of national Democratic party leaders. Once elected,
she was given a seat on the prestigious House International
Relations Committee. As a member of the subcommittee on
the Middle East, Berkley was an ardent supporter of Israel.
Berkley also served on the Congressional Task Force on Antisemitism.
During her first campaign for Congress Berkley
was diagnosed with osteoporosis. Shocked to discover that
her medical insurance did not cover the costs of a bone scan,
she became an ardent supporter of the “Patients’ Bill of Rights.”
This measure, which eventually fell short of passage, would
have guaranteed that medical decisions be made by doctors
and patients rather than by medical insurance carriers.
Bibliography: K.F. Stone, The Congressional Minyan: The
Jews of Capitol Hill (2000), 26–29.
[Kurt Stone (2nd ed.)]
BERKLEY, WILLIAM R. (1945– ), U.S. insurance holding
company executive. Berkley received a B.S. from New York
University (NYU) (1966) and an M.B.A. from Harvard (1968).
During his business career, he founded a number of public and
private companies which he continues to control or of which
he serves as chairman or director. He also chairs or serves on
the board of several banks and other financial institutions.
The W.R. Berkley Corp. was founded in 1967 and is headquartered
in Greenwich, Connecticut. In 2005 it had 32 subsidiaries
operating in the U.S. and globally and was ranked
431 by Fortune 500. Berkley serves as chair of the Board of
Overseers of the NYU Stern School of Business; as vice chairman
of the Board of Trustees of NYU, where he serves on the
Executive and Finance Committees; on the Board of Directors
of Georgetown University; as vice chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the University of Connecticut; and as co-chairman
of the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute, Inc.
Berkley has received many awards for his business, civic,
and philanthropic activities, including, most recently, an honorary
doctor of law degree from Mercy College. In 1999, he
was awarded the Medallion for Entrepreneurship by Beta
Gamma Sigma, which honors outstanding individuals who
combine innovative business achievements with service to
humanity.
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