One very fond memory I will always have of Washington D.C. will be the lunches with three very accomplished friends: Allan Ryskind, my longtime boss and editor at Human Events; Dan Cohen, president and co-founder of Adhere+ a telehealth company and former U.S. House staffer lobbyist; and Marshall J. Breger, former official at the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush White Houses and scholar, lawyer, author, and genuine raconteur.
As the lone luncheon participant who was not Jewish, I was "charged" by the others with organizing our group, which they dubbed the "Only Jews But You Lunch."
When I learned that Breger died on August 3, I was — to say the least — stunned. Then a professor at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, Marshall Jordan Breger seemed to be larger than life — weighing over 300 pounds, he was a big man with big ideas. Whether he was teaching a class, speaking on legal issues, or writing for the Middle East Quarterly or any one of a half-dozen law reviews, Breger always seemed to be in perpetual motion.
"I talked to Netanyahu last night," he once said at lunch in a voice that could be heard throughout the dining room. And this was not idle name-dropping. He had a warm relationship with the Israeli prime minister since he was his country's spokesman at the United Nations and they did talk frequently. He also knew Netanyahu's arch-rival, the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, and once vividly recalled how he glimpsed his private library.
"When [wife] Jennifer and I were at a cocktail party at Peres' home, he took us into his private library to show us his collection of books," Breger once told me. "Now you know how a lot of people put their libraries out in the living room to show off what they read to guests? Not Peres. He kept it all separate and all those classical works were his to read and show to a few."
"Are you with me?" Breger would inevitably ask, interrupting a long discourse on just about anything to make sure his listener was indeed listening.
In 2002, his intellectual curiosity and pursuit of new solutions to old problems led Breger to fly to Iran and deliver a lecture on freedom of speech at the University of Tehran. This led to his bringing Iranian Ayatollah Ahmed Iravani to the U.S.
Together, they began a regular convocation of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish practitioners to Catholic Law and thus making his school a center for faith-based dialogue. Out of these discussions became the framework for the Fundamental Agreement between Israel and the Holy See.
In his twilight days, Breger was formulating an idea of Pope Leo XIV providing the food for Gaza and thereby removing the concerns that world leaders were having dealing with Hamas or that Israel was denying what was needed to starving Palestinians.
A native of New York City, Breger earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and was also editor of its law review. He also had a degree in philosophy from Oriel College at Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
Under Reagan and then Bush, Breger worked in the White House as the liaison for both administrations to the Jewish Community. Bush later named him to be Solicitor of the U.S. Labor Department, in which he oversaw more than 800 lawyers (the largest legal staff outside the Department of Justice).
"I first met Marshall during his time with the Reagan White House, when he was clearly the leading intellect behind the pro-Israel faction against the 'traditionalist' position on Middle East policy of [White House Chief of Staff] James Baker and the State Department," recalled Cohen. "He had an ability to promote public policy that had legal ethics as a grounding point.
"He was always available, with a quick smile and never too busy for a relatively young, outside public policy voice that called upon his time and talent to improve and enhance the pro-Israel agenda."
In later years, Breger was a popular fixture among the faculty at Columbus School of Law. As Dean Stephen Payne put it, "he brought the world into our classrooms and challenged his students to think deeply and broadly."
One of those students, Michael Cozzi, told us how "Professor Breger was undoubtedly the most impactful professor whom a student could know. He never suffered fools lightly, reserving his magnanimity and wisdom for those for whose metal survived the fires of his probing debates. He would do anything for a friend, and I am privileged to have known him as both teacher and friend."
To that, I add, "I'm with you."