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REPORT OF THE FORTY-FOURTH YEAR OF THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1931-1932 THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA OFFICERS PRESIDENT SIMON MILLER, Philadelphia FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT ADOLPH S. OCHS, New York SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT HORACE STERN, Philadelphia TREASURER HOWARD A. WOLF, Philadelphia SECRETARY JULIUS GRODINSKY, Philadelphia EDITOR ISAAC HUSIK, Philadelphia TRUSTEES MARCUS AARON1 Pittsburgh DR. CYRUS ADLER3 Philadelphia PHILIP AMRAM3 Philadelphia EDWARD BAKER1 Cleveland HART BLUMENTHAL2 Philadelphia BERNARD L. FRANKEL2 Philadelphia LIONEL FRIEDMANNJ Philadelphia JOSEPH HAGEDORN1 Philadelphia REV. DR. NATHAN KRASS1 New York City S. CHAS. LAMPORT1 New York City Louis E. LEVINTHALS Philadelphia FELIX H. LEVY2 New York City HOWARD S. LEVY' Philadelphia HON. WM. M. LEWIS3 Philadelphia REV. DR. LOUIS L. MANN1 Chicago SIMON MILLER2 Philadelphia 1. Terms expire in 1933. 2. Terms expire in 193-1. 3. Terms expire in 1935. 347 348 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK ADOLPH S. OCHS2 New York City PHILIP B. PERLMAN2 Baltimore CARL H. PFORZHEIMER1 New York City DR. A. S. W. ROSENBACH2 New York City DR. FRANK I. SCHECHTER1 New York City RABBI ABBA HILLEL SILVER2 Cleveland JACOB SOLIS-COHEN, JR.3 Elkins Park MEIER STEINBRINK1 Brooklyn HON. HORACE STERN2 Philadelphia LUDWIG VOGELSTEIN1 New York City A. LEO WEIL3 Pittsburgh EDWIN WOLF3 Philadelphia HOWARD A. WOLF1 Philadelphia MORRIS WOLF3 Philadelphia RALPH WOLF2 New York City HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENTS ISAAC W. BERNHEIM3 Denver REV. DR. HENRY COHEN1 Galveston HON. ABRAM. I. ELKUS3 New York City S. W. JACOBS1 Montreal Louis E. KIRSTEIN1 Boston HON. JULIAN W. MACK1 New York City HON. SIMON W. ROSENDALE2 Albany MURRAY SEASONGOOD3 Cincinnati HON. M. C. SLOSS3 San Francisco REV. DR. JOSEPH STOLZ3 Chicago PUBLICATION COMMITTEE DR. CYRUS ADLER, Chairman Philadelphia DR. DAVID S. BLONDHEIM Baltimore DR. SOLOMON SOLIS-COHEN Philadelphia REV. DR. H. G. ENELOW New York City REV. DR. HARRY W. ETTELSON Memphis FELIX N. GERSON Philadelphia DR. SOLOMON GRAYZEL Philadelphia DR. ISAAC HUSIK Philadelphia RABBI MAX D. KLEIN Philadelphia DR. JACOB KOHN Los Angeles DR. ALEXANDER MARX New York City SIMON MILLER Philadelphia LEON S. MOISSEIFF New York City DR. JULIAN MORGENSTERN Cincinnati REV. DR. DAVID PHILIPSON Cincinnati DR. JOSEPH REIDER Philadelphia DR. A. S. W. ROSENBACH New York City DR. FRANK I. SCHECHTER New York City 1. Terms expire in 1933. 2. Terms expire in 1934. 3. Terms expire in 1935. JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY 349 REV. DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN New York City SAMUEL STRAUSS New York City Miss HENRIETTA SZOLD Jerusalem REV. DR. SIDNEY S. TEDESCHE Brooklyn JEWISH CLASSICS COMMITTEE DR. CYRUS ADLER, Chairman Philadelphia DR. SOLOMON SOLIS-COHEN Philadelphia DR. ISRAEL DAVIDSON New York City REV. DR. H. G. ENELOW. .,.,,; New York City DR. LOUIS GINZBERG New York City DR. JACOB Z. LAUTERBACH Cincinnati DR. ALEXANDER MARX New York City REV. DR. DAVID PHILIPSON Cincinnati REV. DR. SAMUEL SCHULMAN New York City 350 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK BALANCE SHEET DECEMBER 31, 1931 Assets Current Assets: Cash $ 1,485.16 Notes Receivable 232.07 Accounts Receivable 21,903.08 Pledges Receivable 200.00 Inventories .* 15,725.89 Total Current Assets $39,546.20 Investments 34,917.51 Plant, Equipment, Dies, Plates and Furniture... 2.00 Prepaid Insurance 34.86 $74,500.57 Liabilities Accounts Payable '. $ 4,504.46 Fund Accounts 56,314.39 Surplus 13,681.72 74,500.57 INCOME STATEMENT 1931 Revenues: Dues $29,659.96 Sales—Hebrew Press 23,158.32 Sales—Jewish Publication Society 23,749.38 Donations ; 1,219.72 Interest 393.05 $78,180.43 Expenses: Administrative Expenses $15,525.95 Cost of Publications—Jewish Publication Society 29,402.31 Manufacturing Expenses—Hebrew Press 30,848.10 Net Income 2,404.07 $78,180.43 THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY OF AMERICA The Forty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Jewish Publica- tion Society was held at Dropsie College, Broad and York Streets, Philadelphia, on Tuesday, March 29, 1932, at 8.30 p. M. The addresses were delivered by Mr. Marvin Lowenthal and Mr. Bernard L. Frankel. The address of Mr. Marvin Lowenthal follows herewith: It is a bold man who will come to Philadelphia, with its wealth of Jewish history and associations, and its rich legacy of antiquities—its ivy-clad Mikveh Israel and Rodeph Shalom, and its moss-bound, I mean laurel-crowned, Jewish Publication Society—and dare to speak on the few and fragmentary Jewish landmarks of a heathen city such as Paris. Where is a Rabbi Yehiel in the ranks of Jewish learn- ing, by the side of your own Rabbi Isaac Leeser? For the dozens of good folk who have never heard of Yehiel, there are, I suppose, thousands who have never heard of Leeser. Although Jews have lived in Paris after their fashion, that is, off and on, following the winds of tolerance, since Roman times, the city has never become famous in Jewish chronicle or legend. No light of glory has descended upon it as upon Cordova or Toledo, and no halo of martyrdom as upon Worms or Troyes. Great men in Israel were not born there, great books were seldom written there, and spirited deeds usually managed to happen elsewhere. Yet the unsuspecting visitor will be happily mistaken if he imagines that having heard little of Paris in Jewish history, he will find little there to recall its long adventurous course. Probably no city is richer in Jewish relics, except for architectural monuments, and certainly no city possesses relics evoking a longer span of our singular history. Benja- min of Tudela, who had traveled far and seen much, was right in calling Paris, as that older traveler Jonah once called Nineveh, "ha-ir hagdola"—Paris that great city! 351 352 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK I shall say little this evening of its museum collections; the Babylonian, Assyrian and Jewish rooms of the Louvre retelling in stone the ancient saga of our people, or the Cluny collection which has caught in silver, silk and gold the symbols and ritual of our faith, or the Bibliotheque Nationale which guards carefully from view—it takes a letter from the American ambassador, two photographs, and the learning of a Schechter to see its treasures—a hoard of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts and literary booty. Instead, let us saunter through the streets, as only a Parisian flaneur can, and seek to elicit memories of our people in the squares and gardens, the courtyards, churches and cemeteries of the city. The emblem of Paris is, as you know, a ship—a ship that has set its prow down the Seine these two thousand years; ransacking its hold we may be sure to stumble upon Jewish treasure-trove. We may begin our casual search in that favorite tourist haunt, the Church of St. Julien le Pauvre, twice starred in Baedeker for being the oldest surviving church in Paris. It lies almost directly across the river from Notre Dame, and its pretty square has recently been fitted up with benches for the comfort of mursemaids and impecunious lovers. Although Baedeker says nothing about it, the church and its square should recall to us the name of Priscus, the first Parisian Jew known to history. Jews were in Gaul during Roman days, and they likely found their way to Paris long before the Franks. But we do not hear of them until the barbarian invaders, with their fresh Christian zeal, bring them to our attention. Priscus was a commission agent who purchased articles de luxe—perhaps the latest model of bullock-carts—for king Chilperic in the balmy days of the sixth century; a fitting occupation for our first Jew in a locality that is still known as "the city of ten per cent." Gregory of Tours tells us how the king zealously converted a number of his court Jews, holding some of them over the font with his own hands, but somehow failed to convince Priscus. Then, on a Sabbath, one of the newly converted Jews, Phatir by name, waylaid Priscus up an alley, and as a last argument slew him on the spot. Phatir fled for refuge in our Church JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY 353 of St. Julien le Pauvre, and eventually made good his escape, while his retainer was slain by an angry mob in the little garden that still smiles beneath the old belfry. The ex-Jew Phatir was, I might add, killed in the end by relatives of the Jew Priscus. Little is heard of the Parisian Jews for the next five hundred years. Israel, we know, found favor in the sight of Charlemagne and his sons. The great Charles despatched his Jewish physician, Isaac of Narbonne, to the court of Harun al-Rashid, who, by way of appreciation, is said to have returned Isaac together with a unicorn's horn. Charle- magne, Harun and Isaac have become legends, while the horn of the unicorn, which never existed, is still to be seen in Cluny museum. Through the Middle Ages the Jews lived in varied and changing quarters on both the Right and Left Banks, as well as on the island between. Save for crabbed markings in mouldy real estate deeds and tax lists, all traces of their living on the Left Bank or in the He de la Cite have vanished. But, if living, our medieval Jews moved without a vestige through the centuries, once dead they at least left tomb- stones behind them. Fastened to the walls of the Thermes adjoining Cluny museum are a dozen of these thirteenth century slabs. They cling to the bricking of the old Roman baths like strange lichens, one dead world rooted to another. The cemetery, whence they and fifty like them came, is appropriately enough for the people of the book, buried today beneath the foundations of the great publishing house, Hachette.

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