AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Fall 2004/Winter 2005

Jewish Giants of Music

Also: George Washington and the Jews Yiddish “Haven to Home” at the Theatre Library of Congress Posters Milken Archive of American Jewish Music th Anniversary of Jewish 350 Settlement in America AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Fall 2004/Winter 2005

~ OFFICERS ~ CONTENTS SIDNEY LAPIDUS President KENNETH J. BIALKIN 3 Message from Sidney Lapidus, 18 Allan Sherman Chairman President AJHS IRA A. LIPMAN LESLIE POLLACK JUSTIN L. WYNER Vice Presidents 8 From the Archives SHELDON S. COHEN Secretary and Counsel LOUISE P. ROSENFELD 12 The History of Assistant Treasurer PROF. DEBORAH DASH MOORE American Jewish Music Chair, Academic Council MARSHA LOTSTEIN Chair, Council of Jewish 19 The First American Historical Organizations Glamour Girl GEORGE BLUMENTHAL LESLIE POLLACK Co-Chairs, Sports Archive DAVID P. SOLOMON, Treasurer and Acting Executive Director BERNARD WAX Director Emeritus MICHAEL FELDBERG, PH.D. Director of Research LYN SLOME Director of Library and Archives CATHY KRUGMAN Director of Development 20 Library of Congress HERBERT KLEIN Director of Marketing

22 Thanksgiving and the Jews ~ BOARD OF TRUSTEES ~ of Pennsylvania, 1868 M. BERNARD AIDINOFF KENNETH J. BIALKIN GEORGE BLUMENTHAL SHELDON S. COHEN RONALD CURHAN ALAN M. EDELSTEIN 23 G eorge Washington RUTH FEIN writes to the Savannah DAVID M. GORDIS DAVID S. GOTTESMAN 15 Leonard Bernstein’s Community – 1789 ROBERT D. GRIES DAVID HERSHBERG Musical Embrace MICHAEL JESSELSON DANIEL KAPLAN HARVEY M. KRUEGER SAMUEL KARETSKY 25 Jews and Baseball SIDNEY LAPIDUS PHILIP LAX in the Limelight IRA A. LIPMAN NORMAN LISS MARSHA LOTSTEIN KENNETH D. MALAMED DEBORAH DASH MOORE EDGAR J. NATHAN, III ARTHUR S. OBERMAYER STEVEN OPPENHEIM JEFFREY S. OPPENHEIM, MD NANCY T. POLEVOY LESLIE M. POLLACK ARNOLD J. RABINOR ROBERT D. ROSEN HAROLD S. ROSENBLUTH LOUISE P. ROSENFELD ZITA ROSENTHAL FAYE G. SCHAYER BRUCE SLOVIN DAVID P. SOLOMON JOSEPH S. STEINBERG 29 The Brownsville MORTON M. STEINBERG LOUISE B. STERN Public School Boycott, RONALD S. TAUBER SAUL VIENER Christmas 1906 SUE R. WARBURG EFREM WEINREB JUSTIN L. WYNER ROBERTA YAGERMAN AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Message from SIDNEY LAPIDUS, President AJHS

On September 9, 2004, at the Center for Jewish History, Governor George Pataki of New York presented Sidney Lapidus, president of the American Jewish Historical Society, with a proclamation honoring the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in New York City and North America. The following are Mr. Lapidus’s remarks on receiving the governor’s proclamation.

t is fitting this evening that the American each arriving immigrant. For example, in the even the Baseball Hall of Fame, to make all Jewish Historical Society, one of the 18th century Jewish leaders contributed Americans aware of two important things: founding partners of the Center for funds for building the steeple of Trinity I • First, the unprecedented opportunity Jewish History, receives a proclamation from Church, at the foot of Wall Street; helped that New York and the United States have George Pataki, the Governor of the State of pioneer the fur trade in the Hudson Valley given its Jewish citizens to participate New York, honoring the 350th anniversary (near Governor Pataki’s family home); helped fully, without legal impediment, in the of permanent Jewish settlement in America. establish the New York Stock Exchange; and greatness of our nation, and in the I am honored to accept it. one of the first Jewish clergyman in America delivered an invocation at George development of American culture and In 1654, after a perilous journey, 23 Jews Washington’s first inauguration. institutions. fleeing from Recife, Brazil, eventually landed • And second, that we Jews have taken at the Battery, only two miles or so from this It is also fitting that Gov. Pataki presents advantage of this opportunity, and spot. The difference between the honor this proclamation to us here in the Center contributed so much to the fabric that makes Governor Pataki pays the Jewish community for Jewish History. The Governor and State up America. tonight and the reception those 23 Jews Legislature provided funds that helped build received from Pieter Stuyvesant, the this great repository of learning that In 1790, President George Washington Governor-General of the then-Dutch Colony documents the history of Jewish life in wrote to the Hebrew Congregation of of New Netherlands, could not be more Europe and America. Newport, Rhode Island informing them that striking. Stuyvesant tried to get the Jews to Since 1892, it has been the primary role the newly formed government of the United leave, believing they would not assimilate, of the AJHS to document and record the States would give, in those memorable words, would not support themselves financially, Jewish experience in America. Thanks to the “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no and would not adequately participate in the facilities provided by the Center for Jewish assistance.” For this guarantee, we remain Dutch colony’s Christian lifestyle. History, we are now better able to perform forever grateful. Thank you, Governor Pataki, for honoring us with your presence Fortunately, The Dutch West India that role than ever before. tonight and for reaffirming the importance Company in Amsterdam disagreed and At the 250th anniversary of Jewish of religious liberty as a keystone of American ordered Stuyvesant to permit the Jews to settlement in 1904 and the 300th anniversary constitutional rights. remain. The rest, as we say in this building, in 1954, the AJHS took a leading role in is history. organizing the national celebration of these In the 350 years since, we Jews, as New milestone anniversaries. Now, at the 350th, Yorkers and as Americans, have benefited we join with a myriad of other Jewish and from and contributed to the atmosphere of non-Jewish institutions, such as our partners vitality, diversity, toleration and opportunity here at the Center, with the Library of that New York and America have offered Congress and the National Archives, and Sidney Lapidus

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 3 It’s your heritage – Join the American Jewish Historical Society

The American Jewish Historical Society is the world’s leading institution for communicating the history of the Jewish people in the United States. This is so important because the Society’s critical mission is not duplicated by any other organization. For more than a century, this institution has served educators, students, rabbis, researchers, genealogists, filmmakers, curators and audiences – Jewish and non-Jewish alike, bringing forth the richness of the remarkable Jewish experience in this great nation. Now more than ever, as we celebrate 350 years of Jewish life in America, support from friends and members like you can make a difference. Without your commitment, the stories we tell and the documents we preserve will be lost to future generations. What does your personal gift make possible? Congregation B’nai Jeshurun New York 1827 identity and pride, while conveying the record of American Jewish accomplishment to people of all backgrounds. • Recent exhibits include our partnership with the Library of Congress on “From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish History in America,” the largest exhibition on this subject ever assembled. • AJHS has created the Archive of American Jews in Sports, the first full-scale archival effort of its type in the United States. AJHS published a wildly popular set of cards of every Jew who played major league baseball from 1872 to the present. • AJHS produces two heavily visited websites enjoyed by teachers, students, rabbis, newspaper editors and the general public: www.ajhs.org and www.jewsinsports.org. Announcement for the 1881 Purim ball, New York • AJHS’s Project ADAJE has begun digitization of all American Research and Scholarship Jewish periodicals from the 1840s to the present, offering free • AJHS makes available millions of unique documents from access to a wealth of historical resources. The AJHS journal, which researchers write the history of the American Jewish American Jewish History, and its predecessor titles from 1893 experience. through 1979 are currently available on-line at www.ajhs.org. • AJHS sponsors the AJHS Academic Council, the only professional organization in the field. Its scholarly conferences are critical to Your support keeps our developing new scholarship and ideas in American Jewish history alive history. Tomorrow’s history • AJHS provides fellowships to young scholars aspiring to lessons will be written and academic careers. understood because, today, • AJHS publishes American Jewish History, the most respected you helped advance the scholarly journal in the field. mission of the American Jewish Historical Society. Public Knowledge and Understanding Current initiatives that • AJHS produces museum exhibitions, lectures, concerts, film are enhanced though your series and popular cultural events that actively reinforce Jewish generosity include: Seixas Family Circumcision Set, 18th Century

4 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

– Join the American Jewish Historical Society

Federations, the National Jewish Welfare Board, and hundreds of organizations, synagogues, movements and initiatives that have shaped American Jewish life. Your support directly enables us to continue our important work. Whether in business and finance, politics, education, science, the arts, human rights, sports, entertainment to the everyday activities of family life –AJHS has ensured that the record from 1654 to the present is kept, that the stories are told, and our shared history is not forgotten. Please join us now or give the gift of membership with a tax-deductible donation and receive the benefits of membership. Call 1-866-740-8013, visit our website www.ajhs.org or use the enclosed membership form to make sure you continue to be a part of the legacy. To explore other instruments of giving including naming AJHS as a beneficiary in your will and joining our Horizon Society please call, in confidence, Cathy Krugman in our Development Department at (212) 294-6164.

Uriah P. Levy Commodore US Navy 1792-1862 • Collecting the personal papers of leading figures in the Jewish counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which contributed so much to renewing American Judaism. • Acquiring and preserving the records of the American Soviet Jewry movement, including the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry. • Saving the records of the Ethiopian Jewry movement and those ooff thethe AmericanAmerican JewishJewish Congress,Congress, thethe CouncilCouncil ofof JewishJewish

Joseph Simon’s Ark Lintel Mid 18th Century, Lancaster PA Bilhah Abigail Franks 1696 -1756

We are proud to be your link to the past, for the sake of the future. We simply can’t do it without you.

AJHS is a 501(c)3 organization - all gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law Seixas Family Circumcision Set, 18th Century

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 5 EMMA LAZARUS SONNET, “THE NEW COLOSSUS” The stirring words of “The New Colossus” are almost as familiar to most Americans as the national anthem. These words were penned in November 1883 by American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus, in her ode to the Statue of Liberty. Today her sonnet is considered one of the classic documents of American history. In 1976, the original handwritten version of the sonnet traveled across the nation as part of our Bicentennial celebration. Now, you can own your own copy of Lazarus’s stirring poem in her own hand. After Emma Lazarus died, her family bequeathed to the Society the personal notebook in which Lazarus hand wrote a copy of her favorite work. The American Jewish Historical Society has produced a limited edition of framed facsimiles of Lazarus’s masterpiece. You can purchase one from the Society for your home or office or for a school or library in your community. 16" x 20" framed and matted Emma Lazarus Sonnet • $125. Delivery $5. To order call 1-866-740-8013 or go to our online bookstore @ www.ajhs.org

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

6 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Gray, huddled masses suggested that most immigrants were slum dwellers of great European “ Huddled Masses,” cities, but such people were not “what America has received from Europe, nor, above all, what she invites.” Gray cited America’s Irish, Scandinavian Lost and Found and German immigrants as examples of immigrants who came from predominantly rural backgrounds. Jews were the exception, in Gray’s he stirring words of Emma on which the Statue of Liberty now stands. While mind, since they were “town livers” and could Lazarus’s “The New Colossus,” the statue itself was a gift from the people of thus be called huddled masses, but he saw the Jews Tnow displayed on the pedestal of France to the people of the United States, who emigrated not as wretched refuse but the the Statue of Liberty, have defined Lady individual Americans had to voluntarily fund “strong and able.” To correct Lazarus’ “error,” Liberty’s meaning. Originally meant to construction of the pedestal. New York City and Gray offered substitute lines: “Your stirring memorialize the influence that the State, New Jersey and the Federal government all myriad, that yearn to breathe free / But find no American Revolution and American declined to pay the costs, so private donors had place upon your teeming shore.” notions of liberty had on the French to provide funding. American Jewish newspaper There is no written record of Gilder’s Republic, Lazarus’s poem transformed publisher Joseph Pulitzer led the effort. response to Gray, but he obviously held firm Lady Liberty into a beacon of hope for Constance Harrison organized an event to against any changes. In 1903, Lazarus’ words were immigrants to America. According to help raise money for the pedestal fund, a charity cast in their original form and the plaque installed Lazarus, the Statue of Liberty speaks for art exhibition. In addition to paintings and on a second-story landing inside the pedestal the United States, announcing to the drawings, she gathered a portfolio of original building. The poem remained there, once again world: literary works by leading American authors to auction with the artworks. Harrison asked Give me your tired, your poor, Lazarus, already a poet of growing reputation, to write a sonnet for the occasion. Lazarus replied Your huddled masses yearning that she could not “write to order.” Harrison knew that Lazarus, who lived among the social to breathe free, elite of New York, had been volunteering with Jewish immigrants at a Lower East Side settlement The wretched refuse of house, so she asked the poet to think of the immigrants for inspiration. Several days later, your teaming shore. Lazarus sent Harrison “The New Colossus.” Lazarus’ poem was the only offering read Send these, the homeless, aloud at the opening night gala. The entire literary portfolio, including “The New Colossus,” brought tempest-tost to me. a disappointing $1,500 in the auction, and the I lift my lamp beside the golden door. present whereabouts of the portfolio are unknown. Lazarus died in 1887 at the age of 38, after which her sonnet—and her poetry in general—fell into While the poem is well known, its history is obscurity. In 1901, Lazarus’ friend, Georgina relatively unnoticed, until a Yugoslavian- not. American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus penned Schuyler, decided personally to install a plaque American journalist, Louis Adamic, incorporated the sonnet in November 1883. Today, it is inscribed with “The New Colossus” at the statue. verses from “The New Colossus” into virtually considered among the most important expressions She needed the cooperation of government everything he wrote in the 1930s and 1940s on the of American values ever written. In 1976, the only agencies and popular support to memorialize plight of Eastern European Jewry. Adamic’s surviving version of the sonnet written in Lazarus. writings elevated the poem back into national Lazarus’s own hand, which is preserved in the Richard Watson Gilder, a friend of Lazarus consciousness and, in 1945, the tablet was moved archives of the American Jewish Historical and editor of the respected Century Magazine, to the main entrance of the Statue of Liberty, Society, traveled across the nation with originals helped Schuyler cut through bureaucratic red tape where visitors see it today. of the Declaration of Independence and the and the sensitivities of the Lazarus family so that Despite its almost being lost, then changed Constitution, as part of the nation’s bicentennial the project received approval from the federal and then forgotten, today we can hardly imagine celebration. government. Just before the plaque was cast, the statue without the sonnet, or the sonnet However cherished today, the poem became however, a suggestion by Samuel Ward Gray, head without the statue. Aside from the national flag, an American icon only by happenstance. Lazarus of the American branch of Baring Brothers Bank, Lady Liberty has become the most recognizable wrote the sonnet at the request of a friend, almost changed the course of literary history. In symbol of America. And Emma Lazarus, Jewish Constance Cary Harrison, who chaired an art a letter to Gilder, Gray objected to the terms author, has truly become the poet laureate of exhibition to raise funds to construct the pedestal “huddled masses” and “wretched refuse.” To America’s immigrants.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 7 s Chaplain Herbert S. Eskin (Orthodox, b. Russia, 1920?) Report date: 10 May 1945

Since the break-through of the Siegfried Line and the crossing of the Rhine, we traveled through Germany at an accelerated rate of speed, and met little opposition until we reached Bad Wimpfen, Germany, where the battle for the crossing of the Neckar and the capture of the city of Heilbron began. It was there where we fought for every inch of ground, resulting in many casualties, and bringing back memories of the battle for France. Due to the many casualties, I visited the field hospitals daily, and it was in one of those hospitals where a Protestant lad from Iowa, by the name of Carl C. Denhartog, was confined with a very serious chest wound. He was breathing heavily with the aid of an oxygen mask and, as I approached him, he recognized me and smiled. I took hold of his hand and I said, “Carl, my boy, your outfit crossed the bridge and beat the hell out of the Jerries!” He smiled again and said, “I’m sure glad they’re doing all right; it’s too bad I’m not there to help them” Carl kept on holding my hand, and although his fore-head was Chaplain Herbert S. Eskin from the AJHS Archives. wet with perspiration, he asked me to cover him up and say a prayer with him. n 2004, the staff of the American I knelt down on my knee and whispered in his ear the 23rd Psalm. He repeated Jewish Historical Society completed it after me word for word, and I concluded the Psalm with, “Through Jesus the initial processing of the archives of Christ, our Lord, Amen.” I the National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB), Carl could not recover from his injuries, they were too severe. He fought for an organization today known as the Jewish his life to the very end. He died, still holding on to my hand. I was greatly Community Centers Association. For the touched by this incident. Here was a devout Christian who knew me as the first time, these records are now open to Jewish chaplain in the division and asked me to say his last prayer with him, researchers and contain a trove of invaluable original materials. and by the same token I, a Jewish Rabbi, said the last rites with a Christian, in accordance with his faith. At that moment neither of us felt of having After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in differences nor barriers. In action and in spirit, I sensed our comradeship and 1941 the JWB, in cooperation with the three demonstrated it in my capacity of an Army Chaplain. major Jewish rabbinical organizations, recruited three hundred and eleven rabbi chaplains who It was brought to my attention that at Fenetrage, France, the local Nazis used served in the US armed forces between 1941 and Jewish tombstones for a sidewalk in front of the Catholic Church, and to date 1948. The JWB created a semi-autonomous the archive they had not been removed to the Jewish cemetery. I drove all the way from organization, the Committee on Army and Navy Heilbron, Germany to Fenetrage, France, and to my amazement, I found the Religious Affairs (CANRA), to plan the effort to statements made to me to be correct. When I asked the priest why he permitted recruit, train, equip and support the chaplains. such an atrocity to exist in front of his church eight months after the town was Once in the field, the chaplains were required to liberated, he could not give me a reasonable answer. I took him to the mayor file monthly reports with CANRA. One of those and ordered both of them to have the tombstones removed to the Jewish reports, submitted by Rabbi Herbert S. Eskin, is cemetery within 24 hours. Unless my orders were carried out within the given excerpted here. time, I would come with a truckload of soldiers and we would blast the town In addition to serving the needs of Jewish with hand grenades. The tombstones, including the fragments, were placed GI’s and Jewish Holocaust survivors, Jewish on the Jewish cemetery by the specified time. chaplains at times also had to meet the spiritual I am beginning to come across Jewish deportees and am doing everything needs of Christian soldiers. Little in pre-war within my power to assist them religiously and otherwise. Due to the prohibition American Judaism or interfaith relations prepared of fraternization [editor’s note: At that time, Army policy forbade soldiers these rabbis, especially the Orthodox ones, for rom from assisting “enemy nationals,” including Jewish survivors], that is all this level of Jewish-Christian intimacy. Contacts I can say at this time as to the kind of assistance I render to them. between the chaplains and non-Jews helped make

f the rabbis more cosmopolitan, much as fighting alongside Christian compatriots made American For a more complete account of how the JWB and the rabbinical organizations cooperated, see Jewish soldiers more fully American to their non- Philip S. Bernstein, Rabbis at War: The CANRA Story (Waltham, MA: American Jewish Historical Society, 1971). Other works on the history of Jewish chaplains in World War II include Alex Jewish comrades. Both phenomena helped pave Grobman, Rekindling the Flame: American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry, the way to the increased social integration of 1944-48 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993) and Louis Barish, Rabbis in Uniform (New York: American Jewry in the post-war period. Jonathan David, 1962). 8 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY 350TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE POSTER

With unique images drawn from the extensive archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, this beautiful timeline poster (with text by Professor Pamela Nadell) will entertain and educate. From the first settlement in 1654 to the nomination of Joe Lieberman for Vice President of the United States, you will find fascinating incidents and developments that made the American Jewish experience. A must for every home, school and library. 24" x 36".

Available as a museum quality poster, rolled and shipped in a tube at $20 + $5 shipping. Also available for classrooms folded and shipped flat at $14 + $5 shipping.

If you join AJHS as a Friend, you can choose a museum quality poster as a gift.

To order or join please call 1-866-740-8013, visit our web site www.ajhs.org, or use the enclosed envelope.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 9 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Collector’s Gold and Silver Numbered Edition Card Sets.

COLLECTOR’ S GOLD EDITION BASEBALL CARD SETS. The rarest of the rare. Only 500 gold, laminated, numbered boxed sets were ever made. Most are now in collector’s cabinets. We saved a handful for gift giving this holiday at $500 per box. Early ordering is advised owing to extremely low stock. Subject to prior sale.

COLLECTOR’S SILVER EDITION BASEBALL CARD SETS. Identical to the Gold Illustrated Above, but printed in and embossed in silver. We have 97 available from the original numbered edition of 1,500 at the time of printing for $200 the box.

Become a Patron of AJHS ($1,000 Level) and receive the Gold Cards as a gift. Become a Sponsor of AJHS ($500 Level) and receive two boxes of the Silver Embossed Cards as a gift. To order or to become a member call 1-866-740-8013 or visit our website www.ajhs.org. You can also use the enclosed envelope.

10 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Limited Edition Press Proofs of Collector’s Edition Baseball Cards

Most collectors never have a chance to acquire the original uncut sheets from which packs and sets of baseball cards are made. The cards come off the press in these poster-sized sheets and are precisely cut and sorted into packs, sets or series; only a few are saved for display by the manufacturer or sold to privileged collectors. The Society has decided to make its remaining uncut sheets available to its members and supporters.

We have framed fewer than fifty original uncut set sheets with press proof color markings in the border. The cards are identical to the boxed sets, including all statistics on the reverse side. The thin black custom frames have thick acrylic protectors front and back so that both sides can be viewed. We have been told that the collector value of these rarities will be very high. The historic and Jewish pride and beauty speak There are 98 cards in one 29" x 38" The set of two sheets is available, while for themselves. frame and 49 cards in the second they last, at $600 for a framed set and 29" x 20" frame. $300 for an unframed set. Shipping is $5 per set.

To order please call 1-866-740-8013 or visit our website at www.ajhs.org or join as a Patron Member and get a framed set as our gift for joining. You can also use the enclosed envelope.

These limited edition card proofs are framed so you can see both the front and back.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 11 BEYOND KLEZMER: The History of American Jewish Music

Whether we sing the Sh’ma at Friday LEONARD BERNSTEIN night services or chant Kol Nidre on erev Yom Kippur, or find ourselves humming DARIUS MILHAUD phrases from Oklahoma or White Christmas (yes, White Christmas) in the shower, music AARON JAY KERNIS by and for American Jews is integral to our lives. We can hear Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish symphony in the concert hall or KURT WEILL sweat and sway through a rock concert by the Ramones or Ya Lo Tengo. Whatever the ARNOLD SCHOENBERG venue and whoever the audience, music resounds through American Jewish daily life. In fact, Jewish contributions reside at the ERNEST BLOCH core of American music. American Synagogue Music JEROME KERN For the past 350 years, American Jews have blended traditional sacred music with OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN nnewlyewly createdcreated melodiesmelodies andand newlynewly adaptedadapted fformsorms ttoo ccreatereate aann ooriginalriginal GEORGE GERSHWIN AmericanAmerican JewishJewish music.music. TheThe firstfirst JewishJewish melodiesmelodies wwereere thethe HHebrewebrew prayersprayers sungsung RICHARD ROGERS accordingaccording toto SephardicSephardic customcustom atat CongregationCongregation ShearithShearith IsraelIsrael inin NewNew STEPHEN SONDHEIM Cantor Benzion Miller © 2004 Milken Family Foundation YorkYork andand thethe otherother Sephardi synagogues in Philadelphia, Newport, Charleston and Savannah. TheThe SephardicSephardic liturgyliturgy andand musicmusic waswas littlelittle changedchanged fromfrom itsits mmedievaledieval roots.roots. HHowever,owever, music was at the heart of American religious innovation. In the 1830s and 1840s, the first efforts at Reform focused on the controversial introduction of organ music and mixed male and female choirs into services, changes that opponents considered Protestant practices. In Charleston, Congregation K. K. Beth Elohim, considered America’s first Reform congregation, introduced not only an organ and mixed choir, but English language hymns written by congregant Penina Moise, who thus became the first American Jewish woman to have her music integrated into congregational practice. Jewish music in the second half of the

CBS broadcast of Leonard Bernstein conducting his setting of Hashkiveinu, commissioned by Cantor David L. Putterman of the Park Avenue Synagogue in 1945. Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Special Collections 12 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY The History of American Jewish Music

Renewal to traditional such as Berlin, Jerome Kern, Oscar Orthodoxy. Of course, klezmer Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Richard music has made a significant Rogers or Stephen Sondheim contain comeback and may even be more little explicitly Jewish content. Yet, one widely known today than in its can argue that their musical creations are “heyday” in the first half of the driven by the composers’ preoccupation with twentieth century. Surprisingly their own identities as Jews and Americans. to most, the fastest growing area Berlin’s patriotism led him to write what in the field of original recorded many consider the popular national American Jewish music is anthem of the United States, God Bless Chassidic and ultra-Orthodox America, the song into which members of popular songs, many of which Congress spontaneously broke on September are based on contemporary rock, 12, 2001, when wanting to express their folk and other forms of hit music. emotions about the World Trade Center Musical innovation, including attack. George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and the post-1967 introduction of Bess and Jerome Kerns’s Show Boat express Israeli melodies for singing the liberal Jewish preoccupation with ethnic traditional songs, is now a and racial identity and social justice, a theme hallmark of American Judaism. continued in Tony Kushner’s recent operetta, The Jewish Flavor of Popular Caroline, or Change. Mitch Leigh’s Man Music of La Mancha celebrates idealism and the honor. Rogers and Hammerstein’s It is easy to identify a work Oklahoma celebrates traditional American such as L’Cha Dodi or Fiddler on values such as frontier individualism, the Roof as Jewish. But what free enterprise and agrarian virtue. The makes popular songs such as Up composers and lyricists, living simultaneously on the Roof or Puff the Magic as Jewish outsiders and American celebrities, Dragon Jewish? Once we stray used music to explore the multilayered beyond the synagogue or concert meaning of American identity. hall to other corners of the musical universe like Tin Pan

Kurt Weill, Salzburg 1934, Photo courtesy Kurt Weill Fooundation. Alley, Broadway, Hollywood Courtesy of the Kurt Weill Foundation movies, rock’n roll or folk music, we enter definitional problem twentieth century was marked particularly areas. We can recognize that some popular by the rise of symphonic and other forms of songs such as Harold Arlen’s Paper Moon, concert music by classically trained American the Andrews Sisters’ Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn Jewish composers. Leonard Bernstein, and Alan Sherman’s Harvey and Sheila Darius Milhaud, Aaron Jay Kernis, Kurt draw melodically from traditional cantorial, Weill and others composed for music for Yiddish and Israeli melodies, respectively. symphony orchestras, string quartets, operas But how should we think about Russian- and choirs on such themes as the Holocaust, Jewish immigrant Irving Berlin’s White ritual prayers, Masada and the birth of Christmas and Easter Parade? Novelist Philip modern Israel. Roth has written that Berlin took “the two Today, the music of contemporary holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ, Jewish liturgical composers such as and what does Irving Berlin do? Easter he Shlomo Carlebach and Debbie Friedman has turns into a fashion show and Christmas into become a staple of services across the entire a holiday about snow.” spectrum of American Judaism from Jewish Jazz legend Dave Brubeck The songs of Jewish composers © 2004 Milken Family Foundation

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 13 Paul Simon to Barry Manilow record music that has arguably Jewish influences IT’S NOT JUST BENNY GOODMAN in lyrics, melody or sensibility. Important In 1933, American Jews were 4% of the Jewish composers such as Bruce Adolphe American population and 36% of the musicians in popular orchestras. and Samuel Adler and non-Jews such as Dave Brubeck and Thomas Beveridge continue to compose serious works for IS CHRISTMAS A JEWISH HOLIDAY? The following Christmas standards were chamber ensembles, orchestras and composed by Jews: electronic instruments inspired by Jewish “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin Cantor Alberto Mizrahi texts or themes. “ Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” © 2004 Milken Family Foundation Seeking to capture the most significant by Johnny Marks Jewish Concert Music denotatively Jewish works of music “Let it Snow” by Sammy Kahn and Julie Styne “Silver Bells” by Livingston and Evans Since the 1930s, when a number of performed or created in America since 1654, the Milken Family Foundation has “ Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” outstanding European Jewish musicians by Mel Torme emigrated to the United States to escape the committed more than $17 million and Nazi killing machine, an increasing number thirteen years of work to create the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. This THE AMERICAN SONGBOOK, 1823-1967: of American Jewish composers have created (Compiled by Joshua Jacobson) serious concert music. Bernstein’s first effort, modestly planned at first, has evolved symphony, subtitled Jeremiah, draws under the leadership of Lowell Milken into American Jews wrote the following standards: directly from the Bible and his third the most ambitious undertaking in the history of Jewish musical recording. 1823 “Home Sweet Home” by John Payne symphony, Kaddish, is based on the liturgical 1892 “After the Ball is Over” by Charles K. Harris Gathering together masterpieces of cantorial prayer for the dead. Even his Mass, written 1908 “ Take Me Out to the Ballgame” in 1971 to mark the opening of the Kennedy art, Yiddish theater songs, sacred, concert by Harry von Tilzer Center in Washington, DC, includes a section and Jewishly-themed classical compositions, 1908 “ Shine On Harvest Moon” by Nora Bayes for a boys choir sung in Hebrew, and his the Milken Archive has revived and made and Jack Norworth Chichester Psalms employ both Latin and new, definitive recordings of more than 600 1909 “ By the Light of the Silvery Moon” Hebrew sacred texts in their score. Bernstein’s individual works by 200 composers, by Gus Edwards ballet suite for The Dybbuk, composed for performed by leading artists and ensembles. 1911 “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin 1919 “Swanee” by George Gershwin American Jewish choreographer Jerome The vast repertoire has been selected under the direction of Professor Neil Levin of the 1922 “Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby” by Gus Kahn Robbins, is based on Anski’s play, which 1924 “The Man I Love” by George Gershwin Jewish Theological Seminary of America. brings to the stage a traditional eastern 1927 “Strike Up the Band” by George Gershwin European Jewish folktale. When the first phase of the project is 1927 “Old Man River” by Jerome Kern Written in 1937 to mobilize American completed next year, the Milken Archive will 1935 “Summertime” by George Gershwin public opinion to rescue Europe’s endangered have issued, in cooperation with Naxos 1938 “ Over the Rainbow” Jews, Kurt Weill’s The Eternal Road, an epic American Classics, a series of 50 CD’s by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg portrayal of the Jewish people from biblical containing American Jewish musical works 1938 “ Easter Parade” and “God Bless America” by Irving Berlin times to Eastern Europe in the 1930s, was from the 17th century to the present. As the Milken Archive notes: 1942 “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin recently revived at the Brooklyn Academy of 1942 “ Oh What a Beautiful Morning” The years 2004 and 2005 mark the Music, in Tel Aviv and in Detmold, Germany by Rogers and Hammerstein to rave reviews. Darius Milhaud, Lucas Foss, 350th anniversary of the arrival of the 1950 “Luck be a Lady” by Frank Loesser David Diamond, Lazar Weiner and Alan Jay first Jews in America. The Milken 1951 “ Getting to Know You” by Rogers and Kernis, who won the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Archive series celebrates on disc these Hammerstein have each enriched the Jewish concert three-and-a-half centuries of 1953 “ Hound Dog” by Jerry Lieber music repertoire. uninterrupted Jewish life in what is now and Mike Stoller the United States. American Jews have 1954 “ Three Coins in the Fountain” Recording a Culture been free to exercise fully their creative by Sammy Kahn Capturing the full spectrum of Jewish- spirit and to contribute to the fabric of 1956 “ I Could Have Danced All Night” by Frederick Loewa themed religious and secular music is national society, absorbing and a virtually impossible task. Literally 1959 “ Teenager in Love” by Doc Pomus and enriching American culture and, at the Mort Shuman hundreds of pop songs on Israeli and same time, renewing their ancient 1959 “ The Sound of Music” by Rogers messianic themes emerge each year from the heritage. It is in this fertile environment and Hammerstein recording studios of Crown Heights and that the music of the American Jewish 1960 “ Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” Borough Park in Brooklyn. The revival of experience has flourished, forming a by Carole King klezmer music and popularity of groups such significant chapter in the development 1961 “Spanish Harlem” by Lieber and Stoller as the Klezmatics, Klezmer Conservatory of American music as a whole. 1962 “Stand By Me” by Lieber and Stoller Band and Klezmer Madness have led to 1963 “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Peter Yarrow Readers of Heritage have a unique 1963 “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan dozens of new recordings. The Voice of the opportunity to obtain either the first Turtle and the Zamir Chorale have helped 1965 “ Sounds of Silence” by Simon and 25 CDs or the complete 50 CD set of the Garfunkel revive Jewish choral music. Mandy Patinkin Milken Archive through the American 1967 “ You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” is conducting a one-man revival of Yiddish Jewish Historical Society. Please see pages by Carole King ssongs,ongs, aandnd mmegastarsegastars ffromrom BBobob DDylanylan ttoo 16-17 for additional details. 14 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

dividing peoples. Bernstein distressed in 1958, Bernstein led the Philharmonic for mentors such as Serge Koussevitsky and eleven years and made more than 200 Aaron Copland by composing for Broadway, recordings with the orchestra, more than any but he gave the world the incomparable West other conductor/performer has done with Side Story by ignoring their criticisms. He any orchestra. In all, he left behind more composed works as far ranging as the ballets than 500 recorded performances. Fancy Free and Dybbuk, adapted jazz such as After Bernstein attained worldwide Prelude, Fugue and Riffs, wrote choral works celebrity, a reporter asked his father why in such as Chicester Psalms, the operas Trouble his childhood he had opposed his son’s career in Tahiti and A Quiet Place, Broadway’s On choice. Sam Bernstein replied simply, the Town, and the score for the film On the “I didn’t know he would grow up to be Waterfront. Leonard Bernstein.” And, he was a world-class pianist. When While not an observant Jew, Bernstein he played, he transmitted his personal energy was fiercely proud of his Judaism. Despite LEONARD BERNSTEIN’S Musical Embrace eonard Bernstein was classical music’s most Life without music is unthinkable, music without Lrecognizable twentieth life is academic. That is why my contact with century figure, America’s musical ambassador to the world. Millions music is a total embrace. Leonard Bernstein, 1967 felt as if they knew him personally; he was simply “Lenny.” He was present on television, the radio, the so openly that he raised the playing level of Koussevitsky’s urging, he never changed his phonograph and the concert hall, not simply his orchestra and shared his enthusiasm and name or converted to Christianity, as his performing music but living it. He taught love for the music with his audience. On mentor had done. His first trip to Israel was untrained listeners, even children, to enjoy occasion, he even sat in at jazz nightclubs. in 1947, and for the remainder of his life he operas, symphonies, piano concertos. He Born Louis Bernstein in Lawrence, MA visited Israel to make music and help build inspired orchestras to master difficult Mahler in 1918, the youngster began playing piano the stature of the Israel Philharmonic. His symphonies and enliven staid Beethoven at age nine, despite his father Sam’s wish that trip right after the Six Day War reflected his sonatas. His face adorned hundreds of he learn more practical pursuits. The self- deep solidarity with the Jewish state. magazine covers and record albums. He named Leonard Bernstein graduated from In his later years, Bernstein attracted became an American household name. Harvard University in 1939 and attended notoriety for his flamboyant lifestyle and Although we hardly remember today, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. support of the Black Panther and other Bernstein was the first native-born American In 1940, he joined the first class taught by radical movements. It was in reference to to conduct a major symphony orchestra in Serge Koussevitsky at his summer music Bernstein that author Tom Wolfe coined the the United States, the first to hold the post of institute at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA and term “radical chic.” Shrugging off the attacks permanent conductor with a major American so impressed the maestro that Koussevitsky on his political views, Bernstein continued orchestra, the first to conduct the London helped Bernstein become assistant conductor to write, conduct and play music despite and Berlin Symphonies and the first to of the New York Philharmonic. He got a being gravely ill with emphysema. In 1989, conduct at La Scala, in 1953, when Maria wonderful opportunity in November 1943 when the Berlin Wall fell, Bernstein – long Callas sang Medea. He brought classical when guest conductor Bruno Walter fell ill an advocate for world peace – gathered a music to television through Omnibus and and was unable to conduct the Philharmonic group of West and East German, Russian his Young People’s Concerts, which were in a national radio broadcast. On literally and American musicians and performed a frequently watched by adults. He conducted three hours’ notice, with no rehearsal, Beethoven concert in the newly united city. the Israel Philharmonic during the Jewish Bernstein –who had been out partying all Classical music historian Peter Guttman state’s War of Independence in 1948 and night – filled in brilliantly. He so elevated the has called October 14, 1990 “the day the called it one of the most important orchestra’s performance that virtually all in music died.” While conducting the New York experiences of his life. attendance, including the musicians, stood Philharmonic, Bernstein collapsed in a fit of and gave him rounds of thunderous applause. Bernstein not only conducted, he coughing and was carried from the podium. Millions heard the debut on the radio. composed – Jewish works such as the Kaddish He passed away three days later. Violinist Bernstein’s tour de force made front-page Symphony and a putatively Catholic work, Midori called Bernstein’s legacy the many news at the New York Times. A star was born. Mass, commissioned for the opening of the “seeds” planted for future generations of Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. This Based on that night replacing Walter, musicians, composers and conductors. latter work scandalized some traditional Bernstein was offered his own orchestra, the For almost seven decades, millions of Catholics but reflected Bernstein’s musical New York Symphony, which later merged individuals worldwide have harvested attempt to bridge the religious chasms with the New York Philharmonic. Starting the fruits of his creativity.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 15 L et your life resound with music of the American Jewish experience. Th rill to world-premiere recordings of great Jewish works by Leonard Bernstein (“the most illuminating Bernstein recording in years”—Newark Star Ledger) and Kurt Weill’s stupendous Jewish epic Th e Eternal Road (“the performance is fervent and touching”—New York Times). Relive the excitement of the American Yiddish musical theater with all-new recordings of immortal Second Avenue songs by Rumshinsky and Olshanetsky (“utterly delightful”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; “every track is delicious”—The Jewish News Weekly). Experience the spiritual transport of timeless cantorial and choral music for prayer and meditation. Celebrate the Jewish festivals with music for Hanukka, Passover and the High Holy Days. Let your heart dance to klezmer concertos (“Jewish elements emerge proudly”—proudly”—The New Yorker)).. EExplorexplore ssymphoniesymphonies aandnd cchamberhamber mmusic,usic, ooperasperas aandnd Yiddish artart songs. DDiscoveriscover tthehe vivibrantbrant aandnd engaengagingging mmusicusic ooff ttoday’soday’s lealeadingding JJewishewish ccomposers.omposers.

Gerard Schwarz

“Performances are top-notch” – Fanfare

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The complete Naxos American Classics catalog available at www.naxos.com

“It illuminates the “An affordable Jewish experience” treasure trove” Sir Neville Marriner – The Forward – Hadassah All recordings are new, and superbly recorded CDs on the world- ����������������� performed by internationally famous renowned Naxos American Classics artists including Cantors Alberto Mizrahi label—of the rich body of music created ��������� and Benzion Miller; conductors Gerard in America over the past 350 years. Th is ����������� Schwarz, Yoel Levi and Sir Neville abundant repertoire, in its remarkable ����������������� Marriner; the Academy of St. Martin breadth and diversity, not only refl ects ������������������������ in the Fields, the Royal Liverpool the history, evolution, and variety of the ������������� ���������������� Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic Jewish experience in America, but, by ������� and the Seattle Symphony orchestras; extension, attests to Jewish continuity ��������������������� �������������� Yiddish star Bruce Adler, clarinetist and renewal through more than fi ve ���������� David Krakauer, the London Chorus, millennia—revealing universal qualities the Vienna Choir Boys, the Juilliard that can speak to people of all faiths Quartet, Dave Brubeck and many others. and cultures. Comprehensive liner notes More than 250 artists and ensembles are and essays by artistic director Dr. Neil featured in over 500 new recordings of W. Levin reveal the greatness and American Jewish music, including signifi cance of Jewish music in America “One of the greatest hundreds of world premieres. (“Th e liner notes alone—which serve as a miniature history of American Jewish treasures” Every Jewish home can be enriched Jewry—are worth the purchase price” by the Milken Archive of American Jewish – Jewish Herald-Voice —Austin American Statesman). Music, an unparalleled collection—in 50 To receive these sought-after CDs, become an American Jewish Historical Society Member. There are three membership options: Cantor Alberto Mizrahi 1) Sustaining Member. For a $100 contribution you can get one sampler CD with selections from the Milken Archive of American Jewish Music; 2) 350th Anniversary Member. For a $350 contribution, you can select to receive the fi rst 25 Milken Archive of American Jewish Music CDs; 3) Sponsor Member. For a $500 contribution, you can select to receive the complete set of 50 Milken Archive of American Jewish Music CDs including the 25 new releases coming in 2005. Both 350th Anniversary Members and Sponsors will promptly receive the fi rst 25 highly acclaimed Milken Archive of American Jewish Music CDs thus far released. “Sponsors” will in addition receive the next 25 CDs—to be issued in 2005—at regular intervals, to complete their collection. Th e Milken Archive of American Jewish Music recordings will always be delivered free to your home. Members joining at the $350 and $500 levels will also receive public acknowledgment of your generosity in our publications, in addition to VIP invitations to special events and a free subscription to Heritage magazine. Th is special off er is made proudly and exclusively by the American Jewish Historical Society, in honor of 350 years of Jewish musical life in America. To receive the fi rst 25 Milken Archive of American Jewish Music CDs for this year, or to proudly own the complete collection of all 50 CDs for 2004 and 2005—and contribute to the preservation and celebration of Jewish culture in America—join at the Sponsor or 350th Anniversary Member level for yourself, or give it as an unusual and useful gift: an American Jewish Historical Society Membership and hours of delightful listening and learning about our heritage. To become a member of AJHS and get your Milken Archive of American Jewish Music recordings, you have three easy choices: • Fill out and mail the membership form in this issue of Heritage, enclosing a check ������������������������������������������� AMERICAN CLASSICS or supplying your credit-card information. DAVE BRUBECK • Call, toll-free, 1-866-740-8013, Monday through Friday from 8:30a.m.–5:00p.m.

The Gates of Justice • Visit our Web site at www.ajhs.org

Dave Brubeck Trio Kevin Deas Cantor Alberto Mizrahi Baltimore Choral Arts Society Russell Gloyd

����������������������������������������������������������������������� ALLAN SHERMAN: A Different American Jewish Music Contributed by Mark Cohn

hen Allan Sherman recorded his sites that chart his career and this year With Sir Greenbaum’s Madrigal, first album of folk parodies in Warner Brothers’ Rhino Records division Sherman dished out the same treatment to W1962, he could only dream that will introduce a four-CD set of his work, the plaintive Greensleeves, which features it would hit the top of the charts, including never released parodies of tunes a lovesick knight serenading a maiden. win a gold record, land him concerts at from My Fair Lady. Greenbaum’s heart is also breaking, but not Carnegie Hall and make him a national Why does Sherman’s memory endure? for love. His lousy job is killing him. “All day celebrity. Sherman was an overweight, failed In the early 1960s, the transition of the Jews with the mighty sword/And the mighty television producer collecting unemployment from immigrant group to a new type of steed/And the mighty lance./All day with and misfortune. He had been fired from the American was just beginning to attract that heavy shield/And a pair of aluminum Steve Allen show, his friends stopped calling attention. In 1963, Nathan Glazer and Patrick pants.” Not exactly the kind of talk heard at and his Hollywood home was surrounded by Moynihan’s Beyond the Melting Pot noted the the Round Table. Did King Arthur kvetch? the ruins of a wildfire. Sherman had an vibrancy of post-immigrant Jewish ethnicity, However, Sherman’s comedy was as double- unmelodic voice and his parodies – Jewish and in 1964 Saul Bellow’s Herzog portrayed sided as Greenbaum’s sword. While poking send-ups of folk songs – seemed to have little a befuddled intellectual who discovers that fun at Jewish crankiness, fastidiousness, and chance of attracting a broad American despite his sophisticated university training aversion to combat, Sherman also hacked audience. As one of his song’s narrators his outlook remained Jewish. America’s Jews away at accomplishments that were might have asked, “From this you can make were suddenly interesting to others, and nonsensical in Jewish eyes. Greenbaum’s a living?” Sherman was one of the first entertainers to attitude toward fighting in aluminum pants Between Sarah Jackman, a take-off seize this historical moment. His parodies matched what Philip Roth later had his on Frere Jacques in October 1962, and his pried open classical folksongs and gave Jews character Alexander Portnoy say of baton Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh mega-hit of the delicious treat of seeing themselves twirling: “This was precisely the kind of August 1963, Sherman released three comedy inserted in the starring roles. talent that only a goy albums that sold millions and made him a Sarah Jackman signa led would think to develop national sensation. My Son, The Folk Singer Sherman’s style, which both in the first place.” and My Son, The Celebrity both went gold, parodied and revitalized quaint folk Billboard magazine, and My Son, The Nut won Sherman a ditties by transforming them back which predicted that Grammy. In a style of Jewish comedy one into songs about real folks, Jewish Sherman’s Folk Singer critic labeled “ghetto cosmopolitanism,” folks. would succeed only Sherman hijacked somber folk odes and among big-city Jews, had brought them to Brooklyn and Miami Beach. Sarah Jackman, Sarah Jackman to eat its words. Folks in He packed the concerns of everyday life into the Bible Belt also seemed tunes that had become sacred, stale and How’s by you, how’s by you? to prefer the Streets of pretentious. He exposed earnestness to Miami to the Streets of ridicule, cut icons down to size and made a How’s your brother Bernie? Laredo and the Ballad of fortune. For a brief time in 1962 and 1963, Harry Lewis to the Battle he was a superstar. He’s a big attorney. Hymn of the Republic. Sherman died in 1973, but in recent Apparently, non-Jews years Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, a musical How’s your brother Seymour? were also eager to feel fresh air whistle revue of his songs, has attracted crowds Seymour joined the Peace Corps. across the country. Dedicated fans tend web (continued on page 30)

18 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THE FIRST

oday, actors, athletes, musical senses that the childless Menken suffered performers and even politicians are deeply from these losses. T“celebrities,” not just public figures. Adah Menken’s true religious origins Madonna, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton are controversial. Born in Louisiana in 1835 are as well known for the notoriety of their to Auguste and Marie Theodore, some personal lives as for their professional historians believe that she was raised a accomplishments. Adah Isaacs Menken, the Catholic, an assertion that Menken herself first American Jewish “superstar,” pioneered denied. In response to a journalist who called the art of cultivating an outsized—even her a convert, Menken replied, “I was born outrageous—personality as a path to fame in [Judaism], and have adhered to it through and fortune. Even success, however, could all my erratic career. Through that pure and not guarantee her happiness. simple religion I have found greatest comfort In the 1860’s, Menken became world and blessing.” famous for her lead role in an equestrian Before they divorced, Adah and melodrama, Mazeppa, in which she daringly Alexander Menken moved from New Orleans appeared on stage playing the role of a man, to Cincinnati, then the center of Reform strapped to the back of a horse, wearing Judaism in America. There, Adah learned to nothing but a flesh-colored body stocking, read Hebrew fluently and studied classical riding the horse at a gallop on a ramp that Jewish texts. It was at this time that Adah’s extended across the stage and into the other, more serious talents emerged. An audience. Today, a woman at an exercise gym aspiring writer, she contributed poems and in a flesh tone body stocking would hardly essays on Judaism to Isaac Mayer Wise’s attract attention; in Menken’s time, the weekly newspaper, The Israelite. Her writings costume scandalized “respectable” critics— urged the Jews of Turkey to rebel against Americaneven as it attracted huge and enthusiastic Glamouroppression and placeGirl their faith in the audiences, including Walt Whitman and the coming of a messiah who would lead them (she may have been the first important great Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth. to restore Jerusalem. She publicly protested American woman to do so) and smoked Menken mastered the art of self- the Mortara Affair, the kidnapping by Italian cigarettes in public. promotion. According to historian Alan Catholic officials of a six year old Jewish boy Even more unladylike, Menken openly Ackerman, when performing in a city whom the officials claimed had been stolen defied conventional married life. Not that Menken was one of the first celebrities to by the Jewish community. She also spoke out she refused to marry; in fact, she married make certain that a photograph of her forcefully when Lionel Nathan was denied four times in seven years. She married a Jew striking face appeared in every shop window. his seat in the English Parliament. And long named Alexander Isaacs Menken in 1856. Even in the context of the 1860’s, when most before Hank Greenberg or Sandy Koufax, Her second marriage, in 1859 to world Americans looked upon actors as “loose” Menken refused to appear on stage during heavyweight boxing champion John C. and disreputable, Menken was particularly the High Holy Days even at the very height Heenan, led to the birth of a son, who died notorious for violating respectable norms. of her public success. in infancy. Eight years later, a son by her She cropped her dark hair close to her head fourth husband suffered the same fate. One (continued on page 30)

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 19 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, MARCUS CENTER JOIN AJHS IN 350TH ANNIVERSARY AJHS

or the first time culture such as Irving SCHOLARS i n A m e r i c a n Berlin’s handwritten Fhistory, an array lyrics for “God Bless EXPLORE FIFTY YEARS of national institutions America” and the has joined with the famous advertisement A m e r i c a n Je w i s h of an American Indian OF PROGRESS IN THE FIELD community to mark enjoying a slice of Levy’s the anniversary of Jewish rye bread. Jewish settlement in D r . M i c h a e l uring the American Jewish the United States. Grunberger, Head of the Tercentenary in 1954, historian On September 7, 2004, Hebraic Section of the DSalo W. Baron observed, “The the Library of Congress Library of Congress and history of the Jews of the United States is o p e n e d a m a j o r Commission member, part of the history of the United States as exhibition, “From curated “From Haven to well as part of the history of the Jews… The Haven to Home: 350 Home” and edited its experience of life in the United States… Years of Jewish History beautiful catalog. Dr. affected the traditional patterns of Jewish in America.” In doing Gary P. Zola, chair of living…[and], in every respect, the Jews of so, the Library kicked the commission to the United States have been a part of the o f f t h e n a t i o n a l Commemorate 350 making of that history.” In June of 2004, to celebration of the 1654 Haym Salomon’s Marriage Contract (Ketubah) July 6, 1777 Years of American mark the 350th anniversary of American landing of the first permanent Jewish Jewish History, noted, “This historic Jewry, scholars attending the American settlement in New Amsterdam being partnership marks the first time in the Jewish Historical Society’s Fifth Biennial organized by the Congressionally-established nation’s history that a collaboration of this Scholars Conference confirmed the many Commission to Commemorate 350 Years kind has taken place in a common and complex levels of truth underlying of American Jewish History. effort to advance our understanding of Baron’s observations. th The exhibition draws from the vast American Jewish history, and … serves as a To mark the opening of the 350 collections of the Library of Congress, powerful demonstration of how American anniversary celebration, the Academic supplemented by compelling items from the culture has dramatically affected the character Council of the American Jewish Historical collections of the Library’s three partners on of Jewish life on these shores.” Society invited the Society’s partners on the the Commission– the American Jewish Some of the Library of Congress’s Commission to Commemorate 350 Years of Historical Society, the National Archives and treasures included in “From Haven to American Jewish History – the Library of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the Home” will provide the “core” of a Congress, the National Archives and Records American Jewish Archives. Some of the most Commission-endorsed 350th Anniversary Administration and the Jacob Rader Marcus significant include George Washington’s letter exhibition that will adorn the Center Center of the American Jewish Archives – to to the Jewish congregation of Newport, for Jewish History in New York under the cosponsor the conference. The Library of Rhode Island, pledging the nation to religious auspices of the AJHS from May 15 to Congress and American University liberty; Emma Lazarus’s sonnet, “The New September 15, 2005. In February of 2005, it generously hosted the three days of meetings Colossus,” written in her own hand; General will be on display at the Museum Center in and lectures in Washington, DC. Professor Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous Civil War-era Cincinnati under the auspices of the Marcus Pamela Nadell, immediate past chair of the General Order #11, expelling Jews from Center. In Fall 2005, it will open at the Skirball AJHS Academic Council and chair of the Tennessee and Kentucky; and Harry Truman’s Museum in Los Angeles. Additional venues Jewish Studies Program at American telegram recognizing the founding of the are currently under consideration. At each University, chaired the conference. More State of Israel. On the lighter side, the site, the receiving institution will add its than 100 scholars attended, signaling the exhibition also includes icons of popular own and borrowed holdings to the exhibit. widening range of scholarly research and the proliferation of courses in the field. 20 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY AJHS MAKING JEWISH PERIODICALS AVAILABLE ON-LINE AJHS

SCHOLARS The uniting of original historical sources with 21st century technology will unleash EXPLORE FIFTY YEARS the full potential of American Jewish history. Through the access that ADAJE will allow to the record of each OF PROGRESS IN THE FIELD community’s own documents, the project will raise contemporary American Jews’ consciousness of the richness and Appropriately, funding for the conference odern technology has transformed relevance of their personal past. ADAJE came from the Salo W. and Jeannette will also educate Jewish and non-Jewish M. Baron Foundation, as well as from the the study of our past. Today, users alike about the dynamic interaction B. and R. Knapp Fund, George Blumenthal, Manyone with a computer and a between America and its Jewish citizens the Office of the Provost and Jewish Studies high-speed Internet connection can visit Program of American University, from the museum exhibitions, view photographs and in their local settings. Once ADAJE’s AJHS and the Library of Congress. watch old movies, hear old radio programs resources are fully on-line, historians and even read historic documents without In 1954, to mark the 300th anniversary, will have to consult these easily accessed leaving home. Major public institutions such the AJHS organized one of the first-ever Jewish sources to fill out the picture of as the Library of Congress and the New York conferences for professional scholars in the the American past. Public Library provide access to portions of field of American Jewish history, chaired by their vast store of holdings and back issues AJHS has begun ADAJE by placing a Professor Baron. According to professor of the New York Times and the Brooklyn Eagle fully searchable digital run of its own journal, Nadell, just before the conference can be read on-line. Now, the American American Jewish History from 1893 to 1992 Baron commented that he had seen “few new Jewish Historical Society has begun a long- on the ADAJE section of the Society’s website, insights into the processes of American term project to make complete runs of as www.ajhs.org. The American Jewish Jewish historical evolution,” although he was many as 1,000 American Jewish periodicals Committee has granted AJHS permission to hopeful that the tercentenary celebration available in fully searchable digital form mount a complete run of its American Jewish would stimulate new interpretations and through the power of the Internet. Yearbook, and by the end of 2004 that evaluations of Jewish history in the United resource should be available on the site as States. Both the Peekskill gathering and The project is called ADAJE, an acronym well. We urge you to set your browser to this year’s conference justified Baron’s faith. for “American Digital Archive of Jewish www.ajhs.org and open the ADAJE feature Presenters in Washington addressed such Experience.” The goal of ADAJE is to make to experience the power of this technological topics as “Patriotism and Parochialism in available a record of daily life of the nation’s access to the past. the Teaching of American Jewish History,” many Jewish communities in the nineteenth “Preserving the Record of American Jewish and twentieth century. Whether the While a generous member of the AJHS History,” “The Sociological Love Affair publication is an early one such as Isaac board of trustees underwrote the initial phases with Intermarriage, 1920-1960,” “War and Leeser’s monthly Occident, published from of ADAJE, the Society now seeks additional Identity: Jewish GI’s Under Fire,” and 1843 to 1850, a weekly Jewish community funding to expand the project. If you would “Consuming Is Believing: Jewish Women newspaper from newer Jewish communities like to see back copies of your community’s Making Community in Suburbia: in Dallas or San Diego, trade magazines such Jewish newspaper or your synagogue’s 1940-1960.” Many of these papers will be as The Kosher Butcher’s Journal or a newsletter newsletter available on ADAJE and are willing published in future issues of the Society’s from the New York Synagogue Council, to contribute toward the cost of completing scholarly journal, American Jewish History, ADAJE will provide digital access to each this work, please contact Cathy Krugman, which is available as a benefit of membership local Jewish community’s unique history. AJHS director of development, at 212-294-6163 in AJHS. David Solomon, acting executive director of or e-mail her at [email protected]. We AJHS and creator of ADAJE, has observed: are grateful for your support.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 21 AND THE JEWS OF Thanksgiving PENNSYLVANIA, 1868

pursuits, and assemble at their chosen place of touching religious dogmas, and that by asking worship, to ‘praise the name of God and all to pray that ‘their paths through life may be magnify Him with thanksgiving. directed by the example and instruction of the While such sentiments were not Redeemer’…he casts reflections upon offensive, Geary then added, “Let us thank thousands, who hold a different creed from he first American Thanksgiving Him with Christian humility for health and that which he avows. was held in Plymouth, Massachusetts prosperity” and pray that “our paths through The rabbis speculated that, in his private in 1621, attended by 90 Native life may be directed by the example and T capacity, Governor Geary would resent Americans and 50 English Pilgrim settlers. instructions of the Redeemer, who died that being told by a Catholic priest that, on a That first dinner mirrored ancient harvest we might enjoy the blessings which national holiday, he should make feasts such as Succoth, the ancient Greek temporarily flow therefrom, and eternal life confession or that any other public officer Thesmophorian celebration and the ancient in the world to come.” might try to tell him what religious Roman Cerealian rites. Today, Thanksgiving observance he must perform. The rabbis has evolved into a national holiday, the observed, “The freedom-loving authors of busiest travel day of the year and a near- the American Constitution opened universally observed family rite of overeating. indiscriminately to all the avenues of In 1868, however, Thanksgiving became greatness, so that the position now filled by contested territory for Pennsylvania’s Jews. a follower of…[Protestant theologians] The anniversary of the Pilgrim and Calvin or Wesley may tomorrow be Indian feast day did not become an official occupied by the descendant of Abraham, national holiday for more than 200 years. To or, perchance, by a free-thinker.” mark the adoption of the new Constitution and establishment of a new government of The rabbis concluded by condemning which he was the head, president George Geary’s proclamation as “an encroachment Washington declared November 26, 1789 a upon the immunities we are entitled to share day of thanksgiving and prayer. However, with all the inhabitants thereof; and we Washington did not renew his declaration. appeal to the sense of justice which animates It was not until 1863, in the midst of a terrible our fellow-citizens, that a conduct so Civil War, that President Abraham Lincoln unwarrantable may receive the rebuke it fixed the last Thursday of each November as deserves, being universally stigmatized as an a “day of thanksgiving and praise to our offence against liberty of conscience, beneficent Father.” When the Union was Sabato Morais unbecoming a public functionary, and triumphant in the war, Thanksgiving Day derogatory to the honor of the noble state he became an even more significant observance By 1868, Philadelphia Jewish population represents.” in the northern states. was one of the nation’s largest, numbering as Despite this outspoken rabbinical It was in this context in 1868 that many as 4,000 souls. According to The indictment, Geary stood by his proclamation Governor John W. Geary of Pennsylvania issued Occident, a week after Geary’s proclamation and Pennsylvania officially celebrated a a proclamation to the citizens of his state the “Hebrew Ministers” of Philadelphia Christianized Thanksgiving that year. As calling on them to celebrate Thanksgiving. “deemed it their duty” to draft a powerful decades have passed, however, Thanksgiving The terms which Geary employed roused a petition against Geary’s proclamation. Their has lost most of its original Pilgrim origins unified protest from Philadelphia’s rabbis “solemn protest” was signed by all seven of – other than the traditional turkey and because, in the words of America’s first the city’s rabbis, including Sabato Morais, cranberry dressing. Today, signs in the English-language Jewish newspaper, The who later played a central role in establishing windows of food markets advertise kosher Occident, Geary “apparently intended to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America turkeys for Thanksgiving. Most of American exclude Israelites” from the celebration. Geary’s in New York, and Morris Jastrow, the leader Jewry has absorbed the holiday, shorn of its proclamation began: of a Philadelphia Reform congregation. The Christian trappings, and made it a long seven rabbis affirmed that: Unto God our Creator we are indebted for life weekend focused on family togetherness. Philadelphia’s rabbis expressed what would and all its blessings. It therefore becomes us at An [elected] official, chosen by a large constituency, as the guardian of inalienable become the majority American view that all times to render unto Him the homage of government-declared holidays should be grateful hearts…and I recommend that the rights, ought not to have evinced a spirit of devoid of specific religious content, and that people of this Commonwealth on [November exclusiveness. He should have remembered each individual may bring to it whatever 226th]6th] rrefrainefrain ffromrom ttheirheir uusualsual aavocationsvocations aandnd that the people he governs are not of one mind spirituality, if any, he or she desires. 22 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

GEORGE WASHINGTON WRITES TO THE SAVANNAH JEWISH CONGREGATION

hile President George Washington’s exchange of W letters with the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island is among the best-known correspondence in American Jewish history, the first Jewish community to address the newly elected head of state was the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia. On May 6, 1789, congregational leader Gentlemen: Levi Sheftall wrote to Washington that its members were grateful for his I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on “unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy [which] have expelled that my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the cloud of bigotry and superstition which unanimous choice of my fellow citizens, and especially the expressions has long, as a veil, shaded religion.” Under Washington’s leadership, Sheftall wrote, you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me the nation’s new constitution “enfranchised by your congregation… [American Jewry] with all the privileges and immunities of free citizens, and initiated us into the grand mass of I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more legislative mechanism.” prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, Washington replied with generosity and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall (see letter beside). become still more extensive; happily the people of the United States have The original letter from the Savannah Congregation and the president’s response in many instances exhibited examples worthy of imitation, the salutary reside in the George Washington Papers influence of which will doubtless extend much farther if gratefully at the Library of Congress. However, just before press time, Sidney Lapidus of enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) Harrison, NY, president of the American have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves Jewish Historical Society, acquired a copy of the Gazette of the United States, a New with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow creatures. York City newspaper published on June 19, 1790, which contains a rare account of the May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered exchange between Savannah Jewry and George Washington. As part of the Society’s the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a 350th anniversary celebration, plans are promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous now underway to display the newspaper at the Society’s headquarters at the Center for in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still Jewish History in New York. continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the

inhabitants of every denomination participate in the Fall temporal 2004/Winter and 2005 • 23 spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah. Calendar of Exhibitions and Public Programs American Jewish Historical Society and its Partners at the Center for Jewish History

ALL EVENTS ARE HELD AT THE Intriguing Women Annual special Chanukah concert & storytelling CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY Current through November 14, 2004 Sunday, December 12, 2004 3PM 15 WEST 16TH STREET 212-294-6160 The pioneering achievements of Jewish women in modern JEWISH HUMOR FROM OY TO VEY ; MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAY times, ranging from social welfare to the arts, medicine and A CHANUKAH CONCERT physics. Letters, books, memoirs and other written materials Comic opera by American composer Seymour Barab, with 9 AM TO 5 PM in the archives of the Leo Baeck Institute document their a Chanukah story reading by Isaiah Sheffer. A delightful SUNDAY 11 AM TO 5 PM experiences. The exhibit salutes the ingenuity, creativity and pastiche of heartwarming vignettes depicting humor in GENERAL INFORMATION: 212-294-8301 perseverance of Jewish women shaping their own destinies. Jewish life. Singers Robert Abelson, Dan Rous, Martha Sponsor: Leo Baeck Institute Novick, and Adrienne Cooper join music director Barry BOX OFFICE: 917-606-8200 Levitt. Program will conclude with candle lighting and Chanukah songs. Becoming an American Writer: Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society in The Life of Isaac Bashevis Singer collaboration with The American Society for Jewish Music. Pioneers, Superstars and Journeymen: Jewish November 16, 2004 through January 16, 2005 Major League Baseball Players, 1871-2004 Sunday, December 26, 2004 3PM CALENDAR OF EXHIBITIONS CHANUKAH GELT Current through December 30, 2004 & PUBLIC PROGRAMS. The well loved story by Sholom Aleichem, gives children (and Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) is the most famous Yiddish This unique and timely exhibition celebrates Jewish Players adults) an exceptional glimpse of the culture that helped writer of the twentieth century. As he vividly conjured the form today’s Jewish world. The story will be read in English, in “America’s Game.” Since 1871, one-hundred and forty- annihilated Jewish world of Eastern Europe, he spoke to the two Jews played major league baseball. The influence of with Yiddish excerpts to bring the warmth of the original. fears, longings and ambivalence of America’s Jewish Presented by storytelling duo Aliza Shevrin and Suzanne legends such as Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax as well immigrants. Singer drew from folk memories and mystical as pioneers of the baseballs earliest days such as Lipman Pike Toren, accompanied by Harold Seletsky on the clarinet. traditions to create works that moved between the realistic YUM -in collaboration with Sholom Aleichem Memorial will be explored. Baseball has been a symbol of American and the fantastic in ways that startled readers and inspired life, and of for many immigrant and ethnic groups the game other artists. Singer characters dramatized the conflicts of Foundation was a gateway to truly “becoming American.” Prejudice, post-war American Jews and a broader society committed intolerance, determination and performance are woven into to cultural pluralism and to assimilation. The exhibition this fascinating look at our national past-time. utilizes a collection of rare photos, manuscripts, The Book of Customs This exhibit will travel to the Slifka Center at Yale University correspondence and books. and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. The exhibition is organized by the Harry Ransom Sunday, November 7, 2004 6PM Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at PRESENTATION AND BOOK SIGNING Also open to the public Fridays, 9am to 3pm Austin. BY SCOTT KOSOFSKY. Free Admission Sponsor: Yeshiva University Museum Based on a 1645 Yiddish edition of the Minhogimbukh, or “customs book,” this beautifully designed and illustrated guide to the Jewish year revives a tradition of Jewish almanacs popular in Europe between 1590 and 1890. Pernambuco, Brazil: Gateway Lectures & Seminars To New York At Yum Galleries Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society Thursday, November 18, 2004 6PM Current through December 31, 2004 If I am Only for Myself… Caring Beyond Borders The exhibition depicts the historical and cultural life of Speakers: Leonard Fein, Ruth Messinger, Dara Silverman, Journey through the Minefields; from Vietnam Portuguese Jews from their first settlement in the early and Alan B. Slifka discuss philanthropic caused the Jewish to Washington, an Orthodox Surgeon’s Odyssey 1500’s in Recife, Brazil until the exodus in 1654 of twenty- response in global conflicts. three community members who landed at New Amsterdam, Tuesday, November 30, 2004 6PM now known as New York. Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society & American Organized by Dr. Tania Kaufman, Director of the Arquivo Jewish World Service PRESENTATION AND BOOK SIGNING Historico Judaico de Pernambuco in Recife, the exhibition BY DR. MENDY GANCHROW consists of models, photographs, paintings and videos that Personal reflections by former chairman of the Orthodox illustrate the daily lives of Jewish settlers in Recife who later Jews & Justice series Union and leading advocate for Israel. formed the first North American Jewish community. Thursday, December 9, 2004 7PM Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society. Co-sponsor: YUM Sponsor: Yeshiva University Museum. THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE AND Co-sponsor: American Sephardi Federation ISRAEL’S FENCE: JUST POLITICS OR JUSTICE? Moderated by leading international law expert Ruti Teitel. Ernst C. Stiefel, Professor of Comparative Law at New York Displaced Persons Camps: Rebuilding Culture Law School, will focus on the International Court of Justice’s and Community recent decision finding Israel’s anti-terror fence in violation of international law. Is this decision, as some claim, an Please call Current through November 12, 2004 unprincipled result of anti-Israel sentiment, or does it represent a reasonable application of international law? for general information: Tells the story of rebuilding communal and individual life Panelists: Richard J. Goldstone, Retired Justice of the after World War II through first-hand interpretation of Constitutional Court of South Africa and former Chief 212-294-8301 personal records of survivors. The exhibit does not dwell on Prosecutor of the UN War Crimes Tribunals for the former the hardships of camp life clearly visible in the photographs Yugoslavia and Rwanda; Dinah PoKempner, General nor does it highlight the valor and dedication of outstanding Counsel, Human Rights Watch; Roy Schondorf, Senior Legal Please call the box office leaders. Rather, it stresses the effort and tenacity of the Adviser, Israeli Defense Force; and Jonathan Tepperman, multitude of individuals, the “tiles” in the mosaic of the Senior Editor, Foreign Affairs Magazine. Made possible for reservations: Jewish people. Lillian Gewirtzman, curator through the generous support of The David Berg Foundation. Sponsor: YIVO Prof. Russell G. Pearce, curator. 917-606-8200 Sponsor: American Jewish Historical Society 24 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Calendar of Exhibitions and Public Programs American Jewish Historical Society and its Partners at the Center for Jewish History JEWS AND BASEBALL LiImelN THEight

ews may not have played a highly visible August 29, the attendees shared the first-ever role in the history of baseball, but they kosher dinner served at the Hall of Fame. Jare certainly getting their moment in the Speakers at the conference included sun. The publication of the American Jewish Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey, Copies are available only at www.ajhs.org Historical Society’s set of cards of 142 Jews sportscaster Jeremy Schaap; filmmaker who played major league baseball between Aviva Kempner (“The Life and Times 1871 and 2003 has focused attention to the of Hank Greenberg”); and Martin Jews in Baseball Exhibition role Jews have played on and off the field. Abramowitz, president of Jewish Major Until December 18, the American Dozens of stories about the card set and Leaguers, Inc. whose organization planned Jewish Historical Society is activities related to the set appeared in the and convened the conference with Hall of featuring an exhibition, “Pioneers, national press. Mainstream papers like the Fame and AJHS support. Additional New York Times, USA Today and the Baltimore Superstars and Journeymen: presenters included historians Roger Abrams, American Jews in Baseball, 1871- Sun gave it prominence. Recently, two other Meir Ribalow (curator of the AJHS website 2004” at the Center for Jewish events propelled the history of Jews in www.jewsinsports.org) Nicholas Dawidoff, baseball into major venues. The National biographer of the enigmatic Jewish ballplayer History in New York City. Based Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY and spy Moe Berg; AJHS director of research on the Society’s set of cards of held a two-day conference on Jews in Michael Feldberg; and a panel of retired every Jewish major league player Baseball, and Shea Stadium, home of the players. George Blumenthal, AJHS trustee from 1871 through 2003, the New York Mets, was the site of “Jewish and co-chair of its Sports Archive Committee exhibit includes numerous Heritage Day” featuring sales of the Society's and Bernard Wax, director emeritus of AJHS, artifacts owned by or loaned to the card set. were also in attendance. Society, such as game-worn jerseys Hall of Fame hosts kosher dinner As Dale Petroskey noted in his remarks, belonging to Sandy Koufax and On a sunny and warm final Sunday and “The Hall of Fame is honored to host this Hank Greenberg, Moe Berg’s Monday in August, the Baseball Hall of Fame tribute to the Jewish players who have risen commission into the Office of hosted its first-ever program devoted to to great individual heights while contributing Special Services and a telegram documenting Jewish contributions to to their teams and their communities.” from Ted Williams to Hank professional baseball. Eight former major Mets and Jewish Pride Greenberg in which Williams asks leaguers, including standouts such as Ken to borrow Greenberg’s bat to use Holtzman, Richie Scheinblum and Mike On August 29, 2004, as the Hall of Fame in the 1947 World Series. The “Super Jew” Epstein attended along with an conference began, the New York Mets held enthusiastic audience of more than 300 men, their annual “Jewish Heritage Day” when exhibition was made possible by a women and children. On Sunday evening, the Mets played the Los Angeles Dodgers, generous grant from Jewish Major whose roster includes current Jewish star Leaguers, Inc. with support from Shawn Green. One of the featured events of George Blumenthal and Leslie the day was the promotion and sale of the Pollack, co-chairs of the AJHS Society’s baseball card sets and uncut sheets Archive of American Jewish in of the complete card sets. A limited number Sports. AJHS trustee Skip Karetsky of sets and uncut sheets remain for sale has made it possible for the through the Society. Please see the order exhibition to travel to the Slifka form on the return envelope or visit our Center at Yale University (contact website www.ajhs.org or call 1-866-740-8013 to obtain your set while they last. Yale University Hillel for details).

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 25 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Poster Reproductions from our Bookstore

Beautiful, historic and charming Yiddish Theater Posters reproduced from the originals in our archives. None of these posters are known to be commercially available. Museum quality printing on acid-free paper using ultraviolet resistant inks. Posters are available in 16" x 20" or 24" x 36" sizes.

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2

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1 MOLLY PICON – AYE QUE MUCHACHA, 1932, Author: Harry Kalmanowich, Music: Joseph Rumshinsky, Place: Teatro Excelsior, Buenos Aires, Argentina Cast: Jacob Kalich, Molly Picon, Printed by: Sisto y Lemme, Buenos Aires; stone lithography in blue, red, yellow, and black. 2 EAST SIDE SADIE Circa 1929. “A $100,000 production. Thrilling from beginning to end. The greatest and most interesting that you have ever seen. It took a year to produce. You will weep and laugh until you cry when you see ‘East Side Sadie.’” Producer: Worldart Film Company. Director: Sidney Goldin. Printed by Universal Theatrical Corporation, New York, N.Y.; silkscreen in orange, aqua, black and pink. 3 THE REVEREND’S LADY (The Cantor’s Wife) Author: Boris Thomashefsky. Music: Joseph Rumshinsky. Place: Lawrence Opera House, Lawrence, Massachusetts. Date: April 18th, 1918. Cast: “A Typical Thomashefsky Cast.” Producer: Edwin A. Relkin. Printed by Metro Litho. Co. New York, N.Y.; stone lithography in yellow, blue, black, red. 4 THE LUNATIC January 18th, 1922. Author: Harry Kalmanowitch. Place: People’s Theatre, 26 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

patriotic posters from our Bookstore

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7 8

These historic patriotic posters have been faithfully reproduced from the originals in our archives. None of these posters are known to be commercially available. Museum quality printing on acid-free paper using ultraviolet resistant inks. Posters are available in 16" x 20" or 24" x 36" sizes. They are rolled and sent in heavy cardboard tubes.

To order please call 1-866-740-8013 or visit SIZE PRICES our website at www.ajhs.org or join as a 16" x 20" $20 24" x 36" $30 “Friend” and get a 16" x 20" poster as our Shipping $5 gift for joining. You can also use the 6 enclosed envelope.

Bowery and Spring Street, New York City, N.Y. Cast: Bertha Gersten, Sidney Hart, Ludwig Satz, Jacob Wexler. Producer: Max Rosenthal. Printed by Berkshire Poster Co., New York, N.Y.; stone lithography in green, red, blue, yellow and black. 5 WHERE IS MY CHILD? Circa 1937. Producer: Menorah Productions, Inc. Directors: Abraham Leã and Henry Lynn. Cast: Celia Adler, Anna Lillian, Morris Silberkasten, Morris Strassberg, Ruben Wendorf. Printing: offset lithography in blue, orange, yellow and black. 6 THE RABBI’S FAMILY, September 15, 1921. Author: Joseph Lateiner. Music: Joseph Brody. Place: The People’s Theatre, Bowery and Spring Street, New York City, N.Y. Cast: Bertha Gersten, Samuel Goldenberg, Ludwig Satz, Nettie Tobias and an “all star cast.” Director: Max Rosenthal. Printed by Berkshire Poster Co., New York, N.Y.; stone lithography in yellow, red, blue, green and black. 7 U.S. WAR BONDS POSTER, AJHS Collection, donated by Sid Lapidus. 8 BRITISH RECRUITMENT POSTER, YIVO Collection.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 27 BLESSINGS OF FREEDOM Blessings of Freedom is a Original titles collection of vignettes and episodes that, taken together, outline the from our Bookstore overriding directions and tendencies of the much larger tapestry that comprises the American THE JEWISH JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME HOOPSKIRTS Jewish experience. Starting COURT REVISITED: BRANDEIS TO FORTAS AND HUPPAHS in 1997, the American Jewish Historical Society published a weekly feature Of the thirty-nine Justices A Chronicle of the Early Years entitled “Chapters in American Jewish History” in who sat on the United States of the Garfunkel-Trager the English-language Forward and other newspapers. Supreme Court between Family in America, 1856- This volume comprises 120 of the best columns, 1916 and 1969, five were 1920. Written by Milton M. organized according to subject and period. Each Jewish: Louis D. Brandeis, Gottesman. Published by chapter is a window through which the reader gets an Benjamin N. Cardozo, Felix American Jewish Historical interesting and illuminating glimpse at an important Frankfurter, Arthur J. Society, New York. 96 pages, and often colorful aspect of the American Jewish Goldberg, and Abe Fortas. 6" x 9", cloth bound, with 37 story. Bibliographical information is given for those With a Preface by Justice pperioderiod pphotographs,hotographs, 9191 endnotes,endnotes, aappendix,ppendix, gglossarylossary interested in learning more about the field. Stephen G. Breyer and and an introduction by Professor Jeffrey S. Gurock. Introduction by Justice Ruth Subjects include: Paperback • $35 Bader Ginsburg, The Jewish - Two mid-19th century rabbis who make their livings Justices of the Supreme Court as hoopskirt manufacturers and minister to their devotes a chapter to each of congregations in South Carolina and New York on a these Jewish Justices. Jennifer M. Lowe, ed. Published pro bono basis. by the Supreme Court Historical Society and the THE LEVY FAMILY American Jewish Historical Society, 1994. - A hoopskirt salesman who briefs Union Army officers AND MONTICELLO on Confederate military preparations and becomes Paperback • $20 a freelance intelligence operative with a personal Each year more than a introduction from General Grant to the commanding half-million people from general of the Union Army in Washington. around the world visit Monticello, but few people - A home in Columbia, South Carolina, that is specially realize that Jefferson’s protected by Union army officers from the house was also home to the conflagration that consumes the rest of the city during family of Uriah P. Levy Sherman’s March to the Sea. and his nephew Jefferson - Vignettes of the 19th century Jewish communities Monroe Levy. Even fewer THE LEHMANS in Charleston, Columbia, Savannah, Cincinnati, and realize that without the Levy family’s stewardship, there New York City. might not be a Monticello to visit. In a story filled with The Lehmans are one of drama, irony, political wrangling and legal battles, Hardcover • $20 America’s most prominent Professor Melvin I. Urofsky corrects the misconception German-Jewish dynasties. Their that a “century of ruin and neglect” marked Monticello ancestor, Abraham Lehmann between Jefferson’s death and the creation of the (1785-1865), lived in the Bavarian village of Rimpar. GREAT BAT MITZVAH AND GRADUATION GIFT Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the private, nonprofit After their emigration to Montgomery, Alabama, in the organization that today owns and operates Monticello. middle of the nineteenth century, his sons founded the The story of the Levys and Monticello is a story of the banking firm of Lehman Brothers, today one of the blending of cultures and personalities, of Yankees and most prestigious on Wall Street. Virginians, of Jews and Christians, of city folk and rural Abraham Lehmann’s descendants including Herbert H. people. It is the story of the power of a symbol, and how Lehman, governor and senator form New York, Irving in America such symbols cut across lines of religion and Lehman, chief justice of the New York State Court of class and ethnicity. And behind all of this is the presence Appeals, Robert Lehman, who gave his world-renowned of Thomas Jefferson. art collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Edgar Hardcover • $20 M. Bronfman, Jr., CEO of Seagrams Corporation, Robert M. Morgenthau, New York County district attorney, John L. Loeb, Jr., former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Sir Philip Goodhart, former Conservative member of the British Parliament, Lord William Goodhart, co-founder of the To order please call Liberal Democratic Party of Great Britain, and Eva 1-866-740-8013 or visit our Lehmann Thalheimer, a first cousin of Governor Lehman. Eva Thalheimer was killed in Treblinka. website at www.ajhs.org In June 1996, members of the Lehman family from the JEWISH WOMEN IN AMERICA: United States and England congregated in Rimpar to pay An Historical Encyclopedia 2 volumes. Edited by or get Jewish Women in tribute to their forebears and the village’s Holocaust Paula E. Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore. Sponsored victims. In a personal message, President Bill Clinton by the American Jewish Historical Society. Winner of America as our gift for wrote: “Germans and Americans alike are proud to claim the American Library Association’s prestigious joining as a “Preservation” this family as their own, and their ongoing success is a Dartmouth Medal Award “for the creation of reference testament to the spirit and values of both our nations.” works of outstanding quality and significance.” Winner member at $200. You can also This second edition of The Lehmans includes an of the Jewish Book Council’s National Jewish Book additional chapter that tells the story behind the highly Award for Women’s Studies and the Barbara Dobkin use the enclosed envelope. emotional gathering in Rimpar. Honorary Award. Hardcover • $20 Hardcover • $200 Book Shipping $5 per order

28 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THE BROWNSVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOYCOTT:

ust before the 1905 Christmas recess at complaint against Harding, the case was still Public School 144 in Brownsville, CHRISTMAS, not over.” In the fall of 1906, the Union of JBrooklyn, principal Fred. F. Harding Orthodox Hebrew Congregations called told an assembly of children in words very upon the Board of Education to ban all much like the following: “Now, boys and 1906 future Christmas observance of any kind in girls, at this time of the year especially, the New York public schools. Once again, improvement.” Brownsville’s Jewish parents I want you all to have the feeling of they referred this request to the Committee entrusted the public schools to make their Christ in you. Have more pleasure in giving on Elementary Education. Its chair, Mr. A. children bicultural Americans – Jewish than in taking; be like Christ.” Augusta Stern, wrote in response that modified Americans – not American Christians. Herman, a 13-year-old student otherwise Christmas observances would be allowed – A broad based alliance of Jewish activists lost to history, boldly requested permission Santa Clauses and Christmas trees would insisted that Brownsville’s – and New York’s to speak. She asked Harding whether he “did still be permitted – so long as “sectarian – Jewish public school children not be not think such teaching more appropriate in views” were not introduced. Mr. Stern proselytized during any season. Although a Sunday school or a church?” Harding expressed the opinion that “the more not all spoke or read English, the Jewish replied, “Christ loves all but the hypocrites intelligent Jews of this city” shared his parents of P.S. 144 took the lead. More than and the hypocrites are those who do not position. 100 of them petitioned the local board of believe in him.” There is no record of the Displeased by Stern’s response, on the education to protest Harding’s lecture. To young Ms. Herman’s response, but there is weekend of December 22-23, 1906 the their disappointment, the local board upheld one of the Jewish community protests that Yiddishes Tageblatt newspaper called for a Harding. The American Hebrew, a voice for Harding’s remarks precipitated. Jewish student boycott of Brownsville’s Reform Judaism, called the local board’s Historian Leonard Bloom notes that, public schools on Monday, December 24th, action at the least “a technical violation of “by the turn of the twentieth century, the a day devoted strictly to closing exercises the school law” and a far more serious offense separation of church and state in the [public] before the Christmas vacation. The Tageblatt than the original one committed by school setting was well established in law.” called the proposed boycott a “battle for civil Harding. This did not stop Harding and other rights.” The New York Times reported that The Union of Orthodox Hebrew evangelical Christians from testing the limits between 20,000 and 25,000 children, one Congregations appealed the local ruling to that the doctrine imposes. By 1905, third of the school population of Brownsville, the New York City Board of Education. The Brownsville was a densely populated missed school that Monday. The Tageblatt’s Board referred the petition to its Committee neighborhood of small shops and factories headline triumphantly proclaimed, “Empty on Elementary Education, which took almost whose population was at least 80% Jewish. Schools: Tens of Thousands of Jewish 6 months to complete its review. Principal Its mix of impoverished Orthodox and Children Shun the Christmas Tree.” The Harding decline to appear personally, militantly socialist Jews made it in many boycott succeeded. sending the committee his home telephone ways indistinguishable from its more fabled Two weeks later, the citywide Elementary number should they wish to reach him. To neighbor, Manhattan’s Lower East Side. School Committee issued a report what must have been Harding’s surprise, the When news of principal Harding’s recommending that the schools ban the Committee overturned the local board’s exhortation and Augusta Herman’s firm singing of hymns and the assignment of decision and described Harding’s behavior response reached the Brownsville’s Jewish essays on sectarian themes during Christmas. as, “to say the least, indiscrete.” The leadership, it touched a sensitive nerve. They did not, however, exclude Christmas Committee noted, “We cannot impress too Almost 95% of the Jewish children of trees or Santa images from the schools. strongly upon principals and teachers the Brownsville attended public school. Today, many schools balance the Santa fact that unusual care and discretion be used While the community supported a images with menorahs and Kwanza festivals. on all occasions in their school work handful of cheders, the overwhelming In some communities, the debate over not to do aught that may be liable to the majority of Jewish parents wanted their whether to permit crèches and Chanukah construction of teaching sectarian doctrines.” children to be Americanized through the lights on the village green continues to vex Put simply, the Committee told the principals public schools. Historian Arthur Goren local officials. In 1906, the Jewish children to make sure that they were not teaching argues that, for Jewish immigrants of of Brownsville were able to establish that, their students Christianity. this era, the public schools were “the great whatever symbols are permitted, no As Leonard Bloom notes, “Though the democratic institution, the bridge to proselytizing would be allowed in the New highest school authorities sustained the the new society and the key to self- York public schools.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 29 Continued articles...

have nothing on the glamorous, scandalous, Harvey and Sheila, tragic and paradoxical Adah Isaacs Adah Menken (from page 19) Menken. Moved to West L.A. Although she became world-renowned by playing Mazeppa throughout America They bought a house one day and Europe, Menken’s deepest desire was to Alan Sherman (from page 18) Financed by FHA be known as a serious poet. She built friendships among an international literary through these musty classics. For over a It had a swimming pool elite that included Charles Dickens, Dante century the Battle Hymn had thundered, Full of H2O Gabriel Rossetti, Alexandre Dumas the “Mine eyes hath seen the glory/Of the Younger, Algernon Swinburne and George coming of the Lord. /He is trampling out the Sand, who served as godmother to Menken’s vintage/Where the grapes of wrath are Traded their used MG second child while it lived. Menken was stored.” Sherman kept the melodramatic For a new XKE suspected of having affairs with Dumas melody, but in place of the Lord he sang of Switched to the GOP and Swinburne, neither of which can the pointlessly heroic Harry Lewis, who died be confirmed, but the constant hint of in a fire while working for garment That’s the way things go. scandal wherever she performed did little manufacturer Irving Roth. Harry “stood by to discourage her box office appeal. his machine.” His reward was that Sherman’s parodies were the tip of a Adah Isaacs Menken’s life, like her “He had the finest funeral/The union could Jewish-American comedy iceberg that would celebrity, was like a comet. She died in Paris afford.” But Sherman wrote him a heck of an soon sink a number of cultural icons. Films in 1868 at the age of 33, apparently from a epitaph. “Oh, Harry Lewis perished/In the by Woody Allen and Mel Brooks such as Take combination of peritonitis and tuberculosis. service of his lord. /He was trampling the Money and Run, Sleeper, Play it Again When treatment by the personal doctor of through the warehouse/Where the drapes of Sam, Young Frankenstein, and High Anxiety Napoleon III of France provided no relief, a Roth are stored.” The pun, usually a déclassé were all Shermanesque send-ups that brought rabbi kept vigil at her bedside until her form of humor, found a home in Sherman’s established genres down a peg. In Blazing passing. She was buried in the Jewish section send-ups of cultural standards. Saddles, Brooks made a Yiddish immigrant of Montparnasse Cemetery. A collection of In early 1963, Sherman released his an Indian chief. The children of immigrant her poems, Infelicia, appeared a week after album My Son, The Celebrity, which rose Jews had arrived, and comic honesty trumped her death. Charles Dickens quipped about quickly to number one on the strength of dignity in their take on history. It would take her, “She is a sensitive poet who, Harvey and Sheila, a send-up in which the grandchildren of immigrants such as unfortunately, cannot write.” Sherman Americanized Hava Negila. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David to reflect this Despite cultivating her “bad girl” fact that Jewish comedy had so pervaded American culture that it had become persona so assiduously, Menken retained a Harvey and Sheila, sincere devotion to her fellow Jews around mainstream American comedy. the world. Today’s Hollywood celebrities Harvey and Sheila, Hub fans bid Bernie adieu

When he became director of the Rex Sox won the World Series. Fortunately, of Boston-area archival holdings from American Jewish Historical Society in 1965, the Sox waited 40 years to do so. Waltham to our new facility at Hebrew little did Bernard Wax know that, almost forty While waiting, Bernie oversaw the College in Newton, MA. Over the years, years later he would be coming up for a final construction of the Society’s first home in Bernie has made countless fans in the Boston at bat as a member of the Society team. A Waltham, MA. He built its holdings from a and national Jewish community. On native of Philadelphia who was working at the small collection of early American documents December 31, 2004, he becomes a free agent. Illinois Historical Society before accepting the to the largest collection of twentieth-century Congratulations on a Hall of Fame career, directorship of AJHS, Bernie promised his Jewish communal records in the nation. Bernie. wife Dolly that he would retire as soon as the Recently, he supervised the Society’s relocation

30 AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN AMERICA Feingold, Henry, ed. The Jewish People in America. 5 volumes. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, for the American Jewish Historical Society, 1992. $20 each Volume I – A Time for Planting In the Autumn of 1654, twenty-three Jews aboard the bark Sainte Catherine landed at the town of New Amsterdam to establish the first permanent Jewish settlement in North America. In A Time for Planting, Eli Faber recounts these earliest days of Jewish life in America, as Jews from Lisbon to Amsterdam to London extended the wanderings of their centuries-old diaspora. Volume II – A Time for Gathering Between 1820 and 1880, European Jews arrived in the United States in ever greater numbers. While later Jewish immigrants would criticize their “rush” to assimilation, the Jews of this period created the institutions that continue to shape Jewish life in America. In A Time for Gathering, Hasia Diner describes this “second wave” of Jewish migration. Volume III – A Time for Building The years between 1880 and 1920 marked the third great migration of Jews to the U.S. – including more than two million from the Russian empire, Austria-Hungary, and Romania. In A Time for Building, Gerald Sorin describes the experiences of Jews who stayed in the large cities of the Northeast and Midwest as well as those who moved to smaller towns in the deep South and the West. YIDDISHYIDDISH NNOTEOTE CCARDSARDS Volume IV – A Time for Searching InIn thethe earlyearly partpart ofof thethe 20th20th century,century, AmericanAmerican JewishJewish immigrantsimmigrants fromfrom Yiddish-speakingYiddish-speaking Henry Feingold chronicles the turbulent period lands in Eastern and Central Europe sent Rosh Hashanah and other holiday greetings via between 1920 and 1945 – when Jews were poised to enter the mainstream of America’s life- and Yiddish postcards. Quite possibly, your own grandparents or parents received an original explores the issues that would preoccupy America’s of one of the cards shown here. The American Jewish Historical Society has assiduously Jewish community for the rest of the century. collected and preserved hundreds of these cards in its archives as a way to mark the Despite the specter of anti-semitism, signs of success and acceptance were everywhere. Sold immigrant experience in America. The Society has now selected twenty-seven of these Out. cards and made them available as note cards to its members and supporters. Each box Volume V – A Time for Healing contains 18 note cards reproduced from New Year postcards converted into folded notes A Time for Healing chronicles a time of rapid usable for any occasion but most suitable for New Year’s cards. Envelopes are included. economic and social progress. Yet this phenomenal These are very high quality and charming reproductions not available in stores. success, explains Edward S. Shapiro, came at a cost. Shapiro takes seriously the potential threat Holiday Sale Price on a set of box II and III with a total of 36 Cards to Jewish culture posed by assimilation and intermarriage- asking if the Jewish people, having box #I is unavailable already endured so much, will survive America’s $20 for the two boxes + $5 shipping. freedom and affluence as well.

Fall 2004/Winter 2005 • 31 New York,New 10011 NY 15 West 16 Street Society Historical Jewish American Introducing the First Complete Set of Cards for Jewish Major League Baseball Players

he first set of cards for EVERY Jewish Major League Baseball player, from Lipman Pike (1884) to Matt Ford! TIn conjunction with Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc., the American Jewish Historical Society has created this limited edition Historic card set for all 142 players. For more than forty of these men, this will be their first and only card. Complete with photos and statistics, including Hall of Fame players Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, future Hall of Famer Shawn Green, All-Stars Al Rosen and Ken Holtzman and old-timers like Andy Cohen, Moe Berg and Harry “The Horse” Danning, this set is truly one of a kind. Jewish Major Leaguers is a limited edition, boxed set. Developed with the encouragement and cooperation of Major League Baseball, the Players Association, Fleer and the Alumni Players Association, the Society has produced only a small, one-time printing. None will be sold commercially. We printed the cards as a one-time event last year and are almost out of stock on some items. Please try to order as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. All orders are subject to stock on hand. The sheets and the Gold Cards are illustrated inside Heritage. U.S. POSTAGE PAID NONPROFIT ORG. NONPROFIT PERMIT NO. 95 PERMIT BUFFALO, NY 1 Box of collectible cards ...... $100 1 Box of Silver Embossed cards from edition of 1,500...... $200 2 Boxes of Silver Embossed cards from numbered edition of 1,500 ...... $300 1 Box of Gold Embossed cards from numbered edition of 500...... $500 1 Set of two proof quality Uncut Sheets printed on both sides ...... $300 1 Double Sided Custom Framed set of two uncut proof quality sheets...... $600 Delivery on any item is $5. Some items are available as membership gifts. To order please call 1-866-740-8013 or go to our web site at www.ajhs.org