Today we mourn the loss of Bess Myerson zl, the first Jewish Miss America and a prolific politician, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90. The New York Times writes, Her coronation, on Sept. 8, 1945, just days after Japan’s surrender had ended World War II, came at a time when a beauty queen could still capture the nation’s attention and even emerge a heroine — in Ms. Myerson’s case as the first (and, so far, only) Jewish Miss America. To many Jews, often blamed for the war by anti-Semites, newly traumatized by images of the liberated Nazi death camps and often confronted by that anti-Semitism in their everyday lives, the title seemed an affirmation of some sort of acceptance in America. “In the Jewish community, she was the most famous pretty girl since Queen Esther, Susan Dworkin wrote in Miss America, 1945: Bess Myerson’s Own Story, published in 1987. Read more about her incredible life: nyti.ms/1tGwY4Y
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 19:54:11 +0000