Monday Nov 10

by


3 P.M.

Slow and no work today
and tomorrow, Received
picture of mother and Fule.

Sending home $5.00, I only
enter moneys sent home whenever
I remember about it.

—————–

Matt’s Notes

I’m not sure why work slowed down for Papa around this time, but maybe his factory had met its annual or holiday production quotas. It wasn’t unusual for him to have a few days or even weeks off during slack periods, but he never enjoyed these times, not only because he didn’t get paid but because idleness left him contemplative and blue. Perhaps he wrote “3 PM” at the top of this entry because he was he was so conscious of the day’s slow passage, or maybe he just noted the time because he normally didn’t pick up his diary until the end of the day.

I suppose, on such a day, a trip to the post office to wire money home seemed worth recording, though Papa wants to make it clear that, just because he noted it today for lack of other news doesn’t mean he didn’t frequently send money home without recording it. I wonder, in turn, if he also received photos from the old country fairly often but only bothered to write it down when nothing else was going on.

We don’t have the photo of his mother and youngest sister, Fule, mentioned in this entry, though we do have pictures of them both from other times. The photo of his mother, below left, is probably from the early 1910’s (it’s taken from a portrait of her with Papa’s father who, as we know, died in 1924) and the photo of Fule is from a group portrait of Papa’s relatives in the old country taken before Fule left for Palestine in the 1930’s. As we’ve discussed before, Fule was the, third, and final, of Papa’s siblings to get out of Snyatin before the Nazi occupation; his sisters Gitel, Ettel and brother Isaac were not so fortunate.

Tuesday Nov 11

by


Rabbi Cook Farewell
reception at Pennsylvania

—————-

Papa’s handwriting has been spidery and blotchy for a while, but, exasperated at last by his deteriorating fountain pen, he has cast it off and switched to pencil. This is an important but lower-profile departure than the impending one Papa discusses in today’s entry: That of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (not “Cook,” as Papa spells it) the first Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine who was wrapping up a 7-month visit to the United States.

Papa had seen plenty of influential Zionists speak at various functions and events throughout the year, but Kook was in the top tier. A legendary Torah scholar even before he went to Palestine, he was known for his unusual inclusiveness and openness, his belief in the importance of Zionism to Judaism (this “religious Zionism” or “religious nationalism” put him at odds with the Orthodox Rabbinical establishment of his day), and his support for the combination of secular and religious education.

Kook’s March arrival in America had been important enough to warrant an announcement in Time Magazine, and his name appeared in the papers throughout his stay, especially in the last few days. In fact, the farewell reception Papa attended at the Hotel Pennsylvania was a lower-profile follow-up to the previous day’s farewell reception at the Hotel Astor1, in which Kook and several other Rabbis announced that they had raised $320,000 for Yeshivas in Palestine and Eastern Europe. The Pennsylvania event was a true send-off, though. Kook sailed on the Mauretania the next day.

(Thanks to our loyal reader and friend Aviva, who first pointed out what Papa meant by “Rabbi Cook” on our Cry for Help page.)
—————-

References for this post:

  • 1 – Papa went to Zionist meetings at both the Hotels Pennsylvania and Astor, but the Astor seemed to be the venue of choice for the big-time shindigs. Among those Papa attended were: a banquet for Chaim Weizmann; a pivotal speech in which Rabbi Joseph Silverman, an influential leader of Reform Judaism, finally endorsed Zionism after years of ambivalence; and an appearance by David Yellin, one of the thinkers responsible for the creation of modern Hebrew.
  • “Somehow Colonel.” Time Magazine, March 31st, 1924. (The article’s headline refers to Rabbi Kook’s honorary title of “Colonel.” The anonymous author seemed quite amused by the “funny-looking little man with a beard” from Palestine. Subsequent reporting in Time focused on Kook’s role in what were neither the first nor the last Jewish-Muslim clashes over the use of Jerusalem’s holy sites. )
  • JEWS OPEN DRIVE TO HELP ORT FUND; Nathan Straus Gives $20,000 Toward New York’s Quota in Campaign for $1,000,000. The New York Times, November 10, 1924. (This archived record contains several articles, including an account of Kook’s farewell reception at the Hotel Astor.)
  • TOURISTS SAILING FOR EUROPE TODAY; Three Liners Will Depart With Good Lists for This Season of the Year. The New York Times, November 12, 1924.
  • DISTINGUISHED RABBIS GREETED AT CITY HALL; Dr. A.I. Kook of Palestine and Dr. A.D. Shapiro of Lithuania Come to Zionist Conference. The New York Times, March 20, 1924.
  • Rabbi Kook’s biography at Wikipedia
  • Religious Zionism at Wikipedia

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Image Sources:

  • “S.S. Mauretania.” Library of Congress # LC-D4-22638
  • “Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook.” From Wikipedia.

Wednesday Nov 12

by


District

————-

Matt’s Notes

It’s taken a while, but I think I’ve finally figured out what Papa means by “District.”

Earlier on in Papa’s diary, “District” appeared as the official term for a neighborhood chapter of the Zionist Organization of America. Papa wrote accounts of his recruiting efforts for the flagging “First District” of the Z.O.A., he wrote separately about the Second and Third Districts, and in one case reported on a “rather stormy” meeting of the “3 down town districts at St. Marks Pl.”

As we’ve recently learned, the “St. Marks Pl.” meeting most likely took place at the Downtown Zionist Centre at 52 St. Marks Place, which Papa mentioned by name in his November 2nd entry. Now I’m starting to think that all of Papa’s “District” meetings took place there. In fact, I’d wager he identified the Centre so closely with District meetings that he just started to call it “the District” for short. So, at this point in the diary, I think any mention of “The District” or “District” refers to the offices, meeting hall, or whatever kind of space was there at 52 St. Marks.

Since Papa doesn’t describe a meeting or event in today’s entry, he probably just dropped by “the District” after work to say hello, plan his recruiting efforts, or see if anyone needed help with anything. What did it look like inside? Was it filled with boxes of files and membership lists? Did volunteers cluster in a corner around a mimeograph machine, cranking out fliers, stuffing envelopes, and sharing cigarettes? Did they all wear coats because they kept the heat turned down to save money? Did Papa linger there because it felt like home?

Thursday Nov 13

by


Maccabean Meeting

————-

Matt’s Notes

As my legions of readers already know, Papa belonged to a Zionist fraternal society called Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion) that, like many immigrant-oriented fraternal and mutual support organizations of the day, provided its members with essentials like life insurance, a credit union, and burial services. When his chapter formed back in January, Papa lobbied to nickname it “The Maccabean” after the Jewish warrior heroes of old. His fellow members initially objected, probably because such a nickname seemed too warlike, but Papa, who detested the popular image of Jews as weak and bookish and sought to counter it wherever he could, eventually prevailed.

Papa’s desire to promote the image of the “muscle Jew” was, of course, not his alone; an entire subset of the Zionist movement geared itself to the same purpose, and, not surprisingly, the Maccabees found their way into the nicknames of more than a few clubs and organizations. Here’s a 1925 image of an Eastern European Jewish soccer club called “The Maccabees,” courtesy of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research:

And, just for laughs, here’s a 1918 photo (from the same source) of a scene from an Eastern European Yiddish production of the Longfellow play “Judah Maccabee”:

Friday Nov 14

by


Home & Movies

———-

Matt’s Notes

Papa doesn’t say what movies he saw on this night, but some choices included:

  • The Fast Worker, a light comedy starring Reginald Denny
  • East of Broadway, the story of a young man who fails his entrance exam for the New York City police force because he thinks the Tropic of Capricorn is in the Bronx
  • The Lover of Camille, and adaptation of the play “Deburau” deemed by the New York Times to be a mere shadow of its stage production
  • The Greatest Love of All, an interesting-sounding experiment in which, it seems, the film stops in the middle and its actors appear live on stage to finish out the story. The Times liked the conceit but not the story: “This novelty is worth seeing because of the combination of actors in shadow form and in the flsh, but cuts should be made in both chapters.”
  • The Garden of Weeds, a disappointing effort, according to the Times, from James Cruz, director of the huge hit The Covered Wagon. (The Covered Wagon played for over a year in New York and was Photoplay Magazine‘s choice for best picture of 1923. I’ve never seen it, but the VHS version will soon be on its way.)
  • The Battling Orioles, a slapstick comedy written and directed by Hal Roach.
  • He Who Gets Slapped, a serious drama starring Lon Chaney and called “faultless” by the Times.
  • The Beloved Brute, a Western starring the ex-boxer Victor McLagien, who would go on to receive a best actor Academy Award for his role in 1935’s The Informer and a nomination for his supporting role in 1952’s The Quiet Man.

Other films in town included Hot Water with Harold Lloyd, Dante’s Inferno, The Ten Commandments and The Iron Horse.

Saturday Nov 15

by


Initiation of O.S.Z. members
at “Yavne” Camp
Bensonhurst

——–

“O.S.Z.” stands for Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion) the oft-mentioned Zionist fraternal order to which Papa belonged, and the “‘Yavne’ Camp Bensonhurst” is one of its Brooklyn chapters.

As we’ve seen, B’nai Zion chapters often nicknamed themselves after legendary Jewish heroes and ancient landmarks in Palestine (like the Bar Cochba Camp and Kinereth Camp previously mentioned in Papa’s diary). The city of “Yavne” appears in the Bible and, it seems, also became a seat of rabbinical scholarship and a holy place after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D. (Nowadays its a modern city in Israel.)

Papa was Master of Ceremonies of his own Judaically-nicknamed camp, “The Maccabean,” and in that capacity often participated in initiation ceremonies for other camps. I’m not yet sure where “Yavne” met, but I’ll add the Bensonhurst neighborhood to the map of Where Papa’s Been.

————-

References for this post:

Sunday Nov 16

by


at Rifke’s in E.N.Y.
at Pennsylvania Ave. Synagogue
& Kessler Club

————

Matt’s Notes

Papa’s trips to East New York always included stops at the Kessler Zion Club and his friend Rifke’s (when last seen at her place, he was pitching a group of women on the gowns he’d just started selling on the side), though this is the first time he’s mentioned the Pennsylvania Avenue Synagogue.

My uncanny powers of deductive reasoning tell me this synagogue was located on Pennsylvania Avenue, a north-south artery on the western side of East New York, not far from the “new law” tenements that had cropped up in the neighborhood since the passing of the Tenement House Act of 1901. These tenements boasted at least one bathroom for every two families and relatively plentiful windows, so Jewish immigrants, drawn by these amenities and encouraged by new subway construction, had been flocking to the area from Manhattan’s Lower East Side for most of the early 1900’s.

Like his bretheren, Papa must have seen East New York as a sort of promised land. Perhaps, whenever he emerged from the Pennsylvania Avenue BMT stop and beheld the surrounding wide streets and airy skies, he grew starry-eyed and dreamy and thought to himself: One day, I too will live in Brooklyn.

——————

References for this post:

——————-

Image sources:

BMT subway map sample from nycsubway.org.

Pennsylvania Ave. looking south, 1923. Courtesy of Brooklynpix.com. Just for laughs, here’s another shot of Pennsylvania Ave. from the same source:

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