That's quite a connection. Then again, the ultimate result of that effort was that the Jewish diaspora (as a whole), a fair chunk of it anyway, ended up securing places to settle in North America, infinitely safer than Europe would prove to be centuries hence. So there's that.
BTW I finally followed up in regard to that guy with the beard, if it's still of interest:
A couple of years ago I made a bot to notify me about HN comment replies, but it's kind of abandoned now. I probably should get it up and running again, checking this manually is such a hassle
BTW I finally followed up in regard to that guy with the beard, if it's still of interest:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41794563