An Optimist in Charlottesville

Henry Abraham’s mother was an optimist. But she wasn’t naive.

Henry Abraham spent his Jewish boyhood in Nazi Germany. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, Henry’s mother began preparing to get her son out of Germany. His father objected. The family’s German roots went back centuries. He believed the Nazi cloud would pass. Henry’s mother prevailed. In 1937, at the age of 15, Henry Abraham was put on a ship for America.

Abraham would return to Germany in 1945 as a member of the U.S. Army. Armed with his mother’s optimism and his love of learning, he became a scholar of the U.S. Constitution, an author, and an esteemed professor at the University of Virginia — in Charlottesville.

I was introduced to Professor Abraham by the historian Barbara Perry, of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for Presidential Studies. She was a student of his — one of many he has taught and mentored who call themselves The Tribe of Abraham.

Henry Abraham is now 97. He has painful memories — distant and recent. But his mother was an optimist. He is too. It’s part of his constitution.

Related posts:

Perusahaan yang bergerak dibidang Pertanian Hidroponik yang berdiri pada tahun 2017 di kota Malang. Kami bergerak sebagai Pabrik/ Produsen/ Distributor/ Agen/ Toko/ Penjual/ Pusat Grosir/ Supplayer…

Asian greens are derivatives of the mustard plant. Americans are becoming more and more familiar because farmers like them. Compared to our traditional tender greens, like lettuce and spinach, these…

Including fragrances of “dirt” “thunderstorm” and “concrete road” Demeter’s Fragrance Library definitely delivers beyond what we imagine to be possible to be captured in a bottle and considered as…