Shimon Schwarzschild (19 December 1925 – 10 November 2021) was a German-born American environmental activist. His work contributed to the establishment of a nature preserve in

Assisi Assisi (, also ; ; from ; Central Italian: ''Ascesi'') is a town and comune of Italy in the Province of Perugia in the Umbria region, on the western flank of Monte Subasio. It is generally regarded as the birthplace of the Latin poet Prope ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

.Cynthia Hanson (3 November 1986)
"Bringing the Birds Back to Assisi"
''

Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic format and a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper b ...

'', (accessed 17 December 2011). Schwarzschild founded the Assisi Bird Campaign and helped organize the Assisi Nature Council.Assisi Nature Councile: History
(accessed 26 February 2013) He was also active on many other environmental and neighborhood issues."About Shimon"
(Shimon Schwarzschild Biography) (accessed 17 December 2011) Schwarzschild's activism received news coverage regionally, nationally, and internationally."The Birds of St Francis"
IUCN Bulletin New Series Vol. 14, Nos 10-12, October/December 1983. He was listed in the ''World Who's Who and Does What in Environment & Conservation''.

Publications and works

Schwarzschild's publications include a 1983 article in ''

Audubon Magazine ''Audubon'' is the flagship journal of the National Audubon Society. It is profusely illustrated and focuses on subjects related to nature, with a special emphasis on birds. New issues are published bi-monthly for society members. An active bl ...

'' that first called international attention to the destruction of the birds of Assisi by hunting.Bert Schwarzschild (1983)
"No birds sing on Saint Francis' mountain"
Vol. 85, No. 2., pp. In 2020, Schwarzschild was finishing a film project called "Transcending Terror" about his relationship with the German town in which he grew up, Wertheim. He described the film as a documentary on "Loss, Opportunity and Redemption". The film is being made with the assistance of Schwarzschild's grand-nephew Benjamin Schwarzschild, who stated that the film will include many scenes of Laudenbach, where Shimon's mother was born. As of April 2020, the film was expected to be completed in May 2020, and to premier in the county museum in autumn 2020.

Personal life

Schwarzschild was born on 19 December 1925, in Wertheim, Germany. Schwarzschild's mother, Rosalia Birk, daughter of Moses and Ida Birk, was born in Laudenbach, Germany. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the

New Jersey Institute of Technology New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is a Public university, public research university in Newark, New Jersey, United States, with a graduate-degree-granting satellite campus in Jersey City. Founded in 1881 with the support of local indust ...

(1950). In 2004 in New York City, Schwarzschild married Naomi Schechter. In 2010, and at several other times in later years, Schwarzschild visited his birthplace, Wertheim. In 2019, at the age of 93, Schwarzschild and his wife visited his mother's birthplace Laudenbach, where he was hosted by Anja Baier, the third mayor of Karlstadt, a town that now encompasses Laudenbach, and two members of a synagogue that Schwarzschild attended as a child. He died in New York on 10 November 2021, at the age of 95.

Publications and works

Personal life

References

External links