Herb Brin

	"How a journalist, how an editor could also be a brilliant poet is a source of astonishment - and of gratitude." -- Elie Wiesel
ABOVE: Click to read Herb Brin's obituary. Interment took place Monday February 10, 2003, in Jerusalem, overlooking the Temple Mount." ABOVE: The masthead for the Heritage Press, which Herb Brin published in four Southern California counties. ABOVE: Heritage Press became a thriving center of journalism about Jewish issues. Herb is seen here during the 1980s with colleague Tom Tugend, as well as sons David and Daniel. ABOVE: Moving to Southern California after World War II, Herb Brin became a top reporter for the Los Angeles Times. He represented the Times at the European trials of war criminals like Eichmann and Klaus Barbie, covered McCarthy-era excesses and was the first journalist to break the emerging story about the oppression of Soviet Jewry. ABOVE: As a journalist in Southern California, Herb moved freely, seeking out the newsworthy, from murderers and hatemongers to Hollywood celebrities. Here he is seen in the 1960s introducing his three sons, (l. to r.) David, Daniel and Stan, to singer/actor Pat Boone (far right). NEED: City News Bureau logo and/or some picture from the 1930s ABOVE: As a hard-bitten reporter, Herb covered the streets of Chicago for the City News Bureau, investigating gangland slayings on the police beat.	For warmth in winter, outside the Crane plumbing supplies company on Kedzie Avenue in Chicago, my father and I would start two huge fires in 55-gallon steel drums. We'd feed the fires with yesterday's news - than which, it was said, there is nothing deader. Only world events would soon put to shame that old newspaper cliché. The Hitler years were beginning to unfold in Europe. A world would soon be propelled into the most enormous, the most shattering events in human history …. o begins the autobiography of one of the most colorful figures to practice the modern art of journalism, in both Chicago and Southern California. When the first issue of Heritage rolled off the press, Herb Brin inscribed above the masthead of his fledgling newspaper the words, "Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue…." The prophet's noble admonition was a hot, living reality to Brin, translated into action every week on the editorial pages of his four California newspapers. The pursuit of justice would take him from the slums of Chicago to the glitterati of Hollywood, from civil rights marches to the crematoriums of Auschwitz, from international summit conferences to the Eichmann trial, from the silent Jews of Moscow to the 1967 battlefields of Israel. And along the way, he would put his pen to some of the most vivid, passionate poetry and prose of our time. Brin was born in the vibrant immigrant enclave of Chicago's Northwest Side and after high school staked out the beginning of his lifetime career in the brawling journalism of the Thirties in his native city, covering gangland killings, corrupt politics and the aching heart of poverty. After soldiering in World War II, he took the advice of another great journalist, went West and back into the fourth estate. He was earning a reputation as one of the liveliest feature writers on the Los Angeles Times when he suddenly turned his back on the safe, monthly paycheck and dove bravely into the swirling waters of Jewish journalism. It was then that he established Heritage, which, despite glum predictions, survived, matured and thrived, and expanded into a chain of four lusty weeklies in Los Angeles, San Diego, the California Central Valley, and Orange County. Herb went on to become one of the most honored Jewish newspapermen of our day, publisher-editor of newspapers in Los Angeles, San Diego, the California Central Valley and Orange County. As a reporter-essayist, Herb Brin covered some of the crucial stories of our day, from the Eichmann trial to the 1960 Summit Conference in Paris. He ran exposes that helped track down and try Klaus Barbie and was the first journalist to break the emerging story about the oppression of Soviet Jewry. His investigative reporting on hate groups in American was always at the forefront and many mainstream journalists turned to his expertise when covering groups such as the Aryan Nations. He collected a fistful of writing and civic Awards, fought the good fight for civil rights before it was quite fashionable, and graced innumerable lecture platforms. These loves Herb Brin fused in his poetry, earning him a modest but significant international reputation. His verses are the cry, the laughter, the little sorrows and the eternal triumphs of a man - and of a people whose poets have celebrated her history and faith for 4000 years. In six slim poetry volumes and two books that explore the Holocaust (see below), he added to the vast contribution made by half a century of journalistic service to his people, to his country and to the communities of Southern California. To send any sort of message to or about Herb Brin, please write to djbrin@pop.earthlink.net. * * *
Herb Brin's Poetry	Herb Brin, World Recognized Poet n addition to volume after volume of content for the Heritage newspapers, from community details to hard-hitting exposes, Herb Brin built a world-wide following for his brash, passionate style of poetry, expressed in six slim volumes. "Your Rubio poems reverberate in the soul. How a journalist, how an editor could also be a brilliant poet is a source of astonishment - and of gratitude." -- Elie Wiesel "Herb, your poetry soars and touches one's soul. It is a joy to have your wonderful books grace my personal library…" -- Rabbi Alexander Schindler "I am especially struck - among the many fine Herb Brin poems - by "In Lamentation," especially its powerful last quatrain with its alembic of time and eternity and I feel deeply honored that you send these poems, inscribed to me." -- Kevin Starr, California State Librarian "Poems from the Rubio is an exquisite masterpiece. Rubio is vivid and powerful. It has a beauty of spirit that is deeply moving.." -- Steven B. Sample, President, Univ. of Southern California "Wild Flowers, Justice, Justice and Conflicts infused the anemic state of modern American poetry with a new and passionate voice that celebrated the tragedies and triumphs of its people with burning indignation and ecstatic joy." -- Tom Tugend Copies of these books are currently available in limited supply. To enquire about ordering copies, please write to djbrin@pop.earthlink.net. To sample poems by Herb Brin, including the famous "Song for Odette" and "Unter den Linden," click here. * * *
Herb Brin's Travelogues	Books of Journey, Challenge and Discovery wo more books took the form of travelogues, exploring the inner depths of history's worst crime. In Ich Bin Ein Jude, Herb Brin followed the dolorous railroad tracks that led Six Million Jews to the gas chambers and crematoria of Poland and Germany. That book - short but powerful - fueled an international discussion and resulted in a long-standing invitation by the West German government for Herb to come and ask questions. "Any questions" that he wanted. Though suspicious at first, Herb finally accepted, curious to see if the German officials really would "open all doors" to him. In Where are the Children? the poet, journalist and essayist reports on this enquiry, his intense, unrelenting search to find an answer to the 50-year old quandary. How could Germans, a people self-described as "the nation of poets and thinkers," euphorically follow an Adolf Hitler to commit the greatest mass murder of all time? And what of their collaborators? The passive complicity of the rest of the world? Even the Vatican? Were even the leaders of America free of fault? Such questions made up the spectre that haunted Brin all his adult life. Copies of these books are currently available in limited supply. To enquire about ordering copies, please write to djbrin@pop.earthlink.net. To read more about Herb Brin's travelogues, click here. * * *
Herb Brin's Autobiography ABOVE: Herb Brin served in the infantry during Word War II. He then worked for YANK MAGAZINE, the Army journal written by and for enlisted men (BELOW). His stories included some of the first press releases about the atomic bomb. ABOVE: Married to school teacher and violinist Selma Stone. (Later divorced.) Father of three sons and grandfather of six.	SHOUTING FOR JUSTICE The Autobiography of Herb Brin erb's final task, in almost ninety years dedicated to the craft of words, was to set down his life story. It is a stirring tale of hardship, passion and triumph, set against a backdrop of Chicago gangland, the Great Depression, World War Two, McCarthy-Era Los Angeles, and much more. Preface: In Commentary . . . As a near century of life begins to close for me, it's inevitable that I'd be asked to write what I can in memory of the events through which I lived. Nothing special, perhaps -- for I am but one among billions who emerged with memories of the fearful Twentieth Century, amazed that we survived. Ah, but that "we" leaves out so many. And so many things are still unsaid, so many stories untold. Here you'll find some that were winessed by a roving reporter, hard-eyed and penetrating, and others noticed by a poet. In totality, my experiences emerge against a background of unspeakable inhumanities, indignities, Zyklon B and the Hitlerian mania that is still so staggering. Mine was indeed a depraved century. It might have been the most beautiful. The arts, the sciences, the probings of space, walking on the moon - automobiles, jets, computers and networks of silicon intelligence never contemplated in previous centuries. The rising up of the oppressed. These were mine and thine. Nevertheless... Have you counted the children, the children, the children who died with satanic gas in their lungs and with eyes incapable of tears? Count the good people who should be with us, right now. Can good outweigh evil? It can! I must believe it. If we learn from the past. Only if we learn. The first chapter of Shouting for Justice is available for visitors to read here. We haven't yet circulated a draft to publishers. Advice and suggestions are welcome. Please send queries to djbrin@pop.earthlink.net. * * *
Return to the Top of the Page Return to David Brin's Site Herb Brin's Obituary Herb Brin's Autobiography Herb Brin's Poetry Herb Brin's Travelogues Copyright © 2003 by David Brin. All Rights Reserved. Questions or comments on the web design? Email the web designer or visit The Runaway Serf. * * *