{"id":92499,"date":"2026-05-08T15:19:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T20:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=92499"},"modified":"2026-05-08T17:37:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T22:37:32","slug":"v-e-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/v-e-day\/","title":{"rendered":"V-E Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RABBI JOSEPH PROUSER<\/p>\n

President Harry Truman said: \u201cThere is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.\u201d Fittingly, Truman\u2019s observation was itself less than original. He was paraphrasing Kohelet (\u201cThere is nothing new under the sun…\u201d \u2013 Ecclesiastes 1:9). Truman was an avid student of history, turning to its record for moral clarity and ethical decision making.<\/p>\n

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On V-E Day, Truman was a new Commander-in-Chief, having succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt less than a month earlier. Born May 8, 1884, Truman was celebrating his own 61st<\/sup> birthday as news of Germany\u2019s unconditional surrender came.<\/p>\n

With victory in Europe, Truman turned his attention to bringing the war with Japan to a decisive conclusion. He forced Japan\u2019s surrender by ordering the bombing of two Japanese cities \u2013 Hiroshima and Nagasaki \u2013 with nuclear weapons: an historic first, arguably constituting a notable exception to Kohelet\u2019s famous assertion.<\/p>\n

Whether or not there is truly \u201cnothing new under the sun,\u201d Truman was right: our \u201cdebt to history is one which cannot be calculated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the editor of \u201cMasorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.\u201d The latest edition of Masorti was published online for the winter of 2025-26. A subscription is $18 per annum.<\/em><\/p>\n

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