Professor David S. Wyman was a local guy, born in Weymouth and raised in Newton.  He was educated around here, also, at BU and Harvard.  He worked around here, at UMass.

Dr. Wyman is remembered today not only through the memories of family and friends, but also through his work.  His research and writings did not belong to Massachusetts, however; his efforts resonated in Washington DC and indeed around the world.  Among his books: The Abandonment of the Jews, a work tracing the epic failure of the United States to focus efforts on saving the Jews of Europe during the Second World War.  He carried on the fight later in life, and his sending his book to Vice President George H.W. Bush in 1985 directly led to the US air rescue of abandoned Jewish refugees in Ethiopia.

Grandson of Protestant ministers, Wyman spoke of the tears he shed in his research; in his own words, he “had been brought up with the belief that at the heart of Christianity is the precept that, when people need help, you should provide it.”

His work exploring the political and cultural dynamics of the American failure to come to the aid of the Jews, and its implications for our national and personal reactions to current injustice and prejudice, are presented to us today through the Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington.  My lawfirm is pro bono counsel to the Institute.  If you have an interest in its work, feel free to contact me for more information.

Wyman died around here, also.  Professor David S. Wyman passed away yesterday at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts.  “May his memory be for a blessing.”