Gene Lichtenstein, The Journal\u2019s first editor who had hired Lev for his writing style and skill, noted, \u201cwhat Yehuda had not told me\u00a0 (during their initial interview) was quite how generous and important a mentor to young journalists he would turn out to be. Or how gracious and witty and loyal a friend the newspaper and I had acquired.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lev was born in New York City and raised in Forest Hills as John Lewis Low, the son of a successful businessman, and whose mother was one of the first American women labor lawyers.<\/p>\n
He dropped out of Cornell University to enlist in the U.S. Army during the latter part of World War II and was discharged in Germany when the war ended. Moved by the plight of Holocaust survivors languishing in Displaced Persons camps, he established a route, mostly by foot, to bring the DPs to Mediterranean ports, where they embarked on \u201cillegal\u201d ships, past the British naval blockade, into Palestine.<\/p>\n
At the same time, he looked after the physical needs of the survivors. At one point, he wrote his mother in Forest Hills, asking whether she could collect some wearable clothes for the refugees.<\/p>\n
Three months later, Lev wrote afterwards, \u201cI received word from a querulous American transportation officer in Bremerhaven that a shipment of ten tons of clothing had arrived in a military transport and that I was listed on the manifest as its recipient. A few months later, a second shipment of 12 tons of clothing arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n
Returning to the United States, Lev earned master\u2019s degrees from the University of Chicago (political science\/Arabic studies) and Stanford (communication arts).
\nThen, in 1947, he set off to Palestine to help the Jews in their struggle to establish an independent state. Changing his name to Yehuda Lev, he joined the Israeli army when war broke out in May 1948.<\/p>\n
While on patrol in the Negev, his jeep was blown up by a landmine, which killed everyone else and shattered his feet. He remained in Israel at the end of the war and established himself as a highly popular radio host of \u201cJerusalem\u00a0 Calling,\u201d a daily one-hour variety and discussion show in English on Kol Ysrael, the country\u2019s national network.<\/p>\n
Later, as the only native English speaker at Kol Ysrael, Lev became the network\u2019s voice in reporting the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to the outside world. Before returning to America in 1965 with his wife Idell Low, he produced a record, \u201cSix Millions Accuse,\u201d which was nominated for a Grammy.<\/p>\n
In Los Angeles, Lev resumed his writing career on Jewish newspapers and a self-published broadsheet (also titled \u201cA Majority of One\u201d). After a divorce, he married Rosa Maria (Shoshana) Pegueros, and when she was offered a professorship in history and women\u2019s studies at the University of Rhode Island in 1993, the couple moved to Providence.<\/p>\n
Lev became active in the local Jewish community and federation, particularly in advising and writing for the local Jewish Voice & Herald, while also contributing to the daily Providence Journal.<\/p>\n
In 2008, he suffered complications from a series of ailments and spent much of the following five years in care homes and hospitals. The same year, he wrote his own obituary, funny and completely honest, in which he chose as his tombstone inscription\u00a0 \u201cHe was there, when needed\u2026Mostly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lev is survived by his first and second wives and four adult children, Dr. Daniel Low (Jennifer), Dafna Low Smith (Scott) and David Low, all of Los Angeles, and Ariela Lev Gragg (Clayton) of Providence, as well as five grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Interment is scheduled for Aug. 9 at the Veterans Cemetery in Providence. A later memorial service is planned for Los Angeles. Donations in his memory may be sent to the Jewish Voice & Herald, 401 Elmgrove Ave., Providence, RI 02906.<\/p>\n
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