Maurice L. Perlzweig

This is an edited version of 15 autobiographical interviews the author gave to the Columbia Oral History Project in 1981-82. Although always a synagogue minister, Perlzweig was by nature a political activist, lobbyist and organiser, with a flair for converting English aristocrats to Judaism. Here he recalls his encounters with leading figures of the inter-war era, including Chaim Weizmann, Albert Einstein, Oswald Mosley, Lewis Namier, T.E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill, R.A. Butler, Viscount Melchett, Eva, Lady Reading, Jan Smuts, Charles de Gaulle, the Roosevelts, Rabbi Stephen Wise and Nahum Goldmann.