Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell died on October 18th at the age of 84 due to COVID-19. Colin Powell will be remembered in history as the first black US National Security Advisor, the first black Military Chief of Staff, and the first black Secretary of State. He is responsible for brokering the roadmap to Middle East peace, which still guides much of US policy in the region today.
Did you also know that Colin Powell knew how to speak Yiddish? For many years, he worked for the Sixers, a Jewish owned shop in the Bronx. Many of his colleagues were Jewish people who spoke Yiddish as a first language. Powell was also a “Shabbos goy,” which means as a gentile, he turned on the electricity for Orthodox Jewish families on Shabbat. That’s where he picked up the language and a love for Israel and the Jewish people. Thank you, Secretary Powell.
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