In Memoriam: Kenneth Lewis Kronberg

[A7-16-2/BFG001]:BFG:L: 32 Pages
TO:ALL POINTS BY: JEFFREY STEINBERG/KRN
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| MORNING BRIEFING |
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| Tuesday, April 17, 2007 |
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            - In Memoriam: Kenneth Lewis Kronberg -

	The death of Ken Kronberg on April 11, 2007 represents an
irreplaceable loss of a leader of the National Caucus of Labor
Committee, who contributed immeasurably to the intellectual depth
and life of the LaRouche organization. While most will associate
him primarily with his role in the physical production of the
LaRouche organization's literature--at which he was a genius--his
passion and lasting legacy lay in his contributions to creating a
new Renaissance.

	Ken made this contribution largely through his activity as
the managing editor (i.e., the one who did the lion's share of
the work) on the NCLC's political-cultural journal, {The
Campaigner}, and the editor of the Schiller Institute's {Fidelio}
magazine. Many are familiar with the way he patiently, but
intensely, worked with dozens of authors to edit and illustrate
their work, in order to make a beautiful presentation in a
thorough-composed journal.

	As for his own intellectual and cultural work, it was
multifaceted. He had a lifelong commitment, in line with his own
family background, to keeping alive the Yiddish Renaissance
tradition, and was a leading participant in the NCLC's
celebrations of Heinrich Heine in the early 1980s, along with the
late Mark Burdman. Ken continued his work on the Yiddish
Renaissance tradition into the recent period, encouraging,
consulting with, enriching, and editing the work of Steve Meyer,
Paul Kreingold, Michele Steinberg, and others on Moses
Mendelssohn, the humanist Jewish tradition, and the Yiddish
Renaissance.

	As befitted his scientific education, Ken had also delved
deeply into the work of English scientist William Gilbert
(1544-1603) and his seminal work {De Magnete}, and he taught
classes on this.

	Ken's major groundbreaking work grew out of a presentation
at an NCLC national conference, and was later published in {New
Solidarity} newspaper, the 1992 {EIR} special report ``The
Genocidal Roots of Bush's New World Order'' and finally in {New
Federalist} newspaper as a devastating weapon in the battle
against the genocide lobby, and the cultural depravity that goes
with it. This was ``How the Romans nearly destroyed
civilization,'' an extensive study of the devastation wrought by
the Roman Empire over centuries and continents, scientifically
connecting the process of the depopulation of the Mediterranean
with the dominance at Rome of the anti-human cults and mystery
religions, the blood orgies of the gladiatorial games, and the
economy of ``bread and circuses'' which characterized Rome.

	Perhaps dearest to Ken's heart was the study of Classical
poetry and drama, with a particular emphasis on William
Shakespeare. Ken directed the 1982 Labor Committee production of
{Macbeth}, which toured various East Coast venues. In later years
he directed performances of various Cervantes interludes,
selections from Shakespeare plays (some with adults, some with
children), a full-length production of Friedrich Schiller's ``The
Parasite, and children's productions of ``The Odyssey and
``The Magic Flute.'' He also taught extensively on poetry.

	His work was expressed in the symposium he organized for the
Winter 1995 {Fidelio} feature on Metaphor and Poetry, which was
introduced by his own article, ``Some Simple Examples of Poetic
Metaphor.'' He wrote short poems for his friends, and longer
poems that he never circulated, as well as the poem ``In
Memoriam: Indira Gandhi,'' which was written in 1986, and
delivered to Mrs. Gandhi's son Rajiv Gandhi (who himself became
Prime Minister of India) by Lyndon LaRouche's {EIR}
representative in India, Ramtanu Maitra. Rajiv Gandhi had Ken's
poem published in the Congress Party magazine, and the poem can
also be found in the Fall 2004 edition of {Fidelio}.

	The bare facts of Ken's life should also be noted. He was
born in New York City 58 years ago to Martin and Shirley
Kronberg. He went to Bronx High School of Science, and graduated
in 1968 at the age of 20 from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New
Mexico. He spent a year in Santa Barbara, California, as a junior
fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
Thereafter, he returned to New York City, where he did graduate
work at the New School for Social Research Graduate Faculty, and
worked as an editor for the American Institute of Physics, and
for John Wiley & Sons. In 1971, he joined the Labor Committees;
soon thereafter he married Molly Hammett. Their marriage
continued until his death, and produced a son, Max Kronberg, now
22 years old.

	Ken was elected a member of the National Committee of the
NCLC in 1974, was a steering committee member in the New York
Region of the Labor Committees, and a National Committee member
in the Midwest--in the Detroit Region--from 1975 to 1977. He
returned to New York and took charge of the production of all
literature for the political movement. He founded WorldComp in
1978 and became president of PMR in 1979. He devoted himself to
maintaining quality literature production, through thick and
thin, up to the day of his death.

	For those of us who worked closely with him, and relied on
him, and for whom now the sorrow seems almost too much to bear,
Ken's force of intellect and kindness to those around him provide
a legacy complementary to his intellectual contributions. We
extend our heartfelt condolences to his family.

                               Nancy Spannaus
                               April 16, 2007