Dr. Goldmeier teaches at Touro College Jerusalem. He is an award-winning entrepreneur receiving the Governor's Award for family investment programs in the workplace from the Commission on the Status of Women. He was a Research and Teaching Fellow at Harvard. Harold is a Managing Partner of an investment firm, a business management consultant, a free public speaker on business, social, and public policy issues, and taught international university students in Tel Aviv.

 

Another Holocaust survivor has passed away; this 96-year-old was a Jewish war hero. Melvin (Meinhold) Mathias was 7 years old when his family fled Germany and made their way to America before the US State Department locked the entry gates from 1930 to 1939. The current political kerfuffle is not the first over immigration. Neither was Mel the only immigrant/refugee to contribute more than his fair share to the American people. Mel was a family man, Israel advocate, affable friend, businessman, and a distinguished service medal-winning US Army veteran.

Mel’s family were German Jews for two centuries or more during which Germany and civilized society became synonymous until the rise of fascism. Mel was not a displaced person like my wife who was born in a DP camp. He knew his place in life was to be the best American Jew possible, proud of both his heritage and the country that took in his family. He read American and Israeli news every morning and evening.

Growing up, Mel lived in a family-owned, two-flat apartment building. In a unique twist, the family consisted of two brothers who had married two sisters. Each couple had one child. They all lived in one three-bedroom apartment. Mel and his parents (Erich and Kathinka) lived with his uncle, aunt, and cousin (Ernest, Lena, and Sidney). Mel and Sid forged an unusually strong bond akin to brothers rather than cousins. Mel was sworn into United States citizenship on July 7, 1943, and about seven years later was sworn into the US Army. In the 79 years we knew one another, he never spoke about his honorable and award-winning military service to the country he loved so deeply.

Mathias served in the Korean War until 1953. There were not many Jews so Mel stood out. He earned but never bragged about his

• Korean Service medal,
• National Defense Service medal,
• United Nations Korean Service medal,
• Republic of Korea War Service medal,
• The Korean Presidential Unit Citation medal,
• “Ambassador of Peace” medal from the South Korean government, and
• In recognition of his service, the Chicago Honor Flight in 2016 to honor the veterans at the Korean War Memorial.

Later in life, Mel agreed to be a test subject for the first use of titanium in knee replacements at the University of Chicago Hospitals.

 

Mel spent more than two decades supporting veterans as commander, quartermaster, and communications chairman of the Jewish War Veterans Pvt. Sam Neivelt Post 407. He also served as corresponding secretary for the Wally Burns Post 8077 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

After I moved to Israel, we spoke on the phone a few times a year. Mel was up on the news from Israel, and it disturbed him deeply. He and other German Jews were shaken but not shaped by the twist of the world’s most civilized society into one of barbarians. He never understood the Korean Civil War in which he fought. It left one half the same people to flourish, share their culture with the world, and become a global leader in information and telecommunication technologies. The North rapidly turned inwards, choosing a path of isolation, consumed and spreading fear and loathing. He and I would share our disappointments with Israel’s Arab neighbors and Palestinians. They once blessed the world with knowledge and a cultured life during the Islamic Golden Age. Now, their notable claim is to be the world’s worst terrorists, jihadists, and destroyers of modern civilization.

Mel spoke with a happy note in his voice about any subject. Once, he ruminated that all three civilizations crashed in his lifetime. He and I were scared for America, where hate and antisemitism are on open display. He always closed our conversations with queries about my grandchildren in the IDF and wondered what might have been had there been a Jewish army in his childhood.

Survivors include his daughter, Linda Mathias Kaskel (Bruce Kaskel), and his son, Larry Mathias (Sue Haas Mathias); grandchildren Beth Kaskel (Michael O’Neill) and Julie Mathias (Nick Meyer); great-grandchildren Mason and Florence O’Neill; cousin Sidney (Rita) Mathias; and sister-in-law Ruth Berman (late Barry Berman).

 

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