Isaac Levendel presents personal, historical program, part of Cedar Rapids area appearances
Isaac Levendel could easily have died during World War II, a statistic among the millions of European Jews killed by the Nazis. Thanks to the kindness of rural French farmers, he survived. Now he travels the country, educating people about the horrific realities of the Holocaust.
Isaac Levendel will speak at Kirkwood Community College as part of its annual Holocaust educational forums. Levendel will speak at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 13 in 234 Cedar Hall on the Kirkwood Cedar Rapids campus. The program will also be shared to Kirkwood county centers via the college telecommunications system. Levendel’s presentation is one of several planned in Linn County, April 11-13. All programs are free and open to the public.
Isaac Levendel was born in 1936, the son of devout Jewish shopkeepers from Poland who had emigrated to France. During the Nazi occupation of France and the Vichy government, French farmers hid young Isaac and raised him as one of their own. His mother died in the Auschwitz concentration camp, while his father served in the French army then was held in a Swiss POW camp until the war ended.
After World War II Isaac Levendel moved to Israel, studied engineering, taught school and lived on a kibbutz. He later married, raised three children and moved to the United States in the 1970s. Levendel eventually earned doctoral degrees in computer science and literature, earning a reputation as a leader in information technologies and telecommunications. Today Isaac Levendel is retired from his technical career and travels extensively, speaking, writing and discussing the Holocaust with audiences around the nation. He is the author of the award-winning book Not the Germans Alone: A Son’s Search for the Truth about Vichy.
Levendel’s eastern Iowa speaking schedule includes:
• Sunday, April 11: Yom Hashoah service, Temple Judah, 7 p.m.
• Monday, April 12: Cornell College, King Chapel, 11:10 a.m.; Coe College, Hickok Hall, 3:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 13: Kirkwood Community College, 234 Cedar Hall, 11 a.m.; Mt. Mercy College Chapel, 7 p.m.
Mr. Levendel’s appearances in the area are made possible with support from the Kirkwood Foundation, the Thaler Holocaust Committee, Cedar Rapids Interfaith Council, Kirkwood Student Life, and the Kirkwood Department of Social Sciences and Career Option Programs.