Premium Episode 102: the World of Mitch WerBell III pt 2 - Setting the Stage with WerBell Family History

note from the archivist:

Jimmy did not write episode notes for the remaining episodes. However, an explanation is required. umgelenkt. Jimmy wrote these episodes, recorded them, and then began writing a book on WerBell. He wrote expanded the podcast manuscript into a book (and fixed some errors) but was required to stop writing for personal reasons. Jimmy did not stop due to what he found.

incredibly hard artwork by Robert Voyvodic (@rvoy__)

Additional note: Jimmy was able to confirm that Mitchell Livingstone WerBell III was not Russian or Scottish but in fact Jewish on both paternal and maternal sides. This was confirmed in the 1920 census which listed their mother tongue as Hebrew and his parents coming from Poland/Romania/Russia. The 1930 census listed his parents' origins as Odessa, Russia. Further, WerBell's grandparents were listed as speaking "Russian Yiddish" in the 1910 census, and were buried in Har Nebo Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. There is no doubt that Mitch WerBell III was Jewish.

The implications are truly staggering. WerBell portrayed himself as Russian and Scottish, never Jewish, and in fact his family pretended to be Russian nobility. The whole white Russian thing. Kevin Coogan's books on Goleniewski, Yockey, and National Bolshevism are the keys to understanding this bizarre milieu of crypto-Jewish fascists. It also borders into the exact same territory as the fictional chivalric orders of the SoSJ and SoM that Coogan and Steven Snider have been studying.

There was never any clear indication whether WerBell (or his sons) even knew he was Jewish, although it is unlikely that he was completely ignorant given his connections to Rich's Department store, advertising, his time in China, and the Israelis generally.

Jimmy never found any indication that WerBell was antisemitic although he was constantly interacting with extreme far-right actors who were. It raises new questions about some of his interactions with Israeli military officials (episode 11), as well as the nature of his interactions with these extreme far-right groups.

The fact that WerBell was Jewish raises many more questions than answers, and the question was never fully resolved before Jimmy discontinued his project. This was only one of several bizarre revelations between Jimmy writing the podcast and writing the book.

Songs: Little Lord Fauntleroy by Upper Crust