Parting Words: 9 Lessons for a Remarkable Life by Benjamin Ferencz (Little, Brown Book Group, 2020)
Reviewed by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein
If you’ve never heard of Ben
Ferencz and his amazing life story before, then you’re in for a special treat. While
Ben might come across as an ordinary centenarian living in the retirement
community of Delray Beach, Florida, his story is nothing short of the
extraordinary. In this book, we meet Ben as he transitions from criminal to
lawyer, from husband to father, and from immigrant to influencer.
Ben was born over a century ago
in Transylvania under Romanian rule. His impoverished family immigrated to
America when he was just an infant, and he grew up in the crime-stricken
neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen in New York City. Despite his Eastern European
origins, Ben always identified himself as an American—a Jewish American. Like
other boys of his age, he turned to a life of crime, but eventually found
himself on the right side of the law. From then on, he committed to crime
prevention and protecting the less fortunate.
After a late start to formal
schooling, Ben was eventually recognized as a gifted child and admitted to
Townsend Harris High School, which all but assured his future entry to college.
In his immigrant social circles, he hadn’t even known anyone who went to
college, as finishing high school alone was considered the highest possible
achievement. Though his high school diploma was unfairly held back from him for
eighty years, Ben managed to gain acceptance to City College, where he studied sociology
and social sciences. After graduating, Ben was miraculously accepted into
Harvard Law School, and not long after he finished his degree in law, he was
drafted into the US Army—in the middle of War World II.
After some tough times in the
beginning of his army career, Ben was eventually recognized for his superlative
skills in law and was put in charge of gathering evidence of the Nazi
atrocities committed during the war. Soon after, he became one of the main
prosecutors in the famous Nuremberg Trials. After the war, he opened a private
law practice, but continued to study and write on issues of International Law,
eventually playing an important role in the creation of the ICC.
Besides the biographical sketch
of Ben Ferencz’s life and the humorous anecdotes he presents (which always have
a moral lesson), this book is peppered with motivational quotables (usually in
boldface) like: “Whatever situation you come from, believe that you can do
something different if you want,” “Patience is a virtue, good things come to
those who wait, and, despite the frustrations and resentments, you must take
the laughs where you can,” “Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it
won’t happen. Don’t expect perfection,” “You will likely always have
adversaries, and you won’t always get your just reward,” “Adolescence is a time
of temporary insanity,” and “Never let anyone say they want to die for their
country. That’s stupid. You should want to live for your country.”
This book also includes various
inspirational one-liners like: “It’s important to work out what’s worth
fighting and what isn’t,” “Friends are important but it’s good to make peace
with your own company,” “Don’t let anyone bully you twice,” “Everything
is impossible until it’s done.”
This book’s major weakness is
that it doesn’t really explore Ben’s Jewish identity and how he related himself
to the Jewish People as a whole. This lacuna in Ben’s life story is quite
conspicuous for a clearly American Jew who lived through the time of the
Holocaust and even served as one of the great advocates of justice in the
post-WWII era. Most tellingly, Ben never speaks about God, the Torah, or
religion. In one particularly disturbing passage, Ben writes: “I survived the
war by damn good luck”—a borderline blasphemous statement that downplays the
miraculous Divine intervention that took place on European shores.
Furthermore, despite Ben’s
professed allegiance to “the law,” this book does not explore what makes the
law so central and binding. It’s almost as Ben places the man-made “law” — as
it is on the books —on the highest pedestal and everything else falls to the
wayside.
Ironically, Ben criticizes people
for taking advantage of the law or bending its rules, but he himself had no
qualms about illegally issuing a warrant for his wife’s arrest so that he can
meet up with her when her boat finally arrived in Germany, or demanding that
the Russian Government return his parachute which landed in Russian-held
territory on the basis of it being US Government property, but then taking that
parachute home as a souvenir for his home garden.
Despite these slight
shortcomings, Ben Ferencz’s book is a delightful story that offers all sorts of
musings on life, marriage, parenting, and beer. In his alluring and oftentimes
funny way, Ben offers us all sorts of lessons and insights into life. His informal
easy-to-read writing style and refreshing candor add to the book’s charm, truly
leaving this book as a worthwhile legacy of Parting Words from our
centenarian in Florida.
