b’nai zion

Wednesday Aug 6

by

Home (above date)

Thursday
Maccabean Meeting at
Pennsylvania Hotel, I delighted
in meeting Nat Eisenberg, a
friend.

A few talks I’ve heard
informed me.

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Looks like Papa originally left this page blank on Wednesday the 5th and accidentally wrote Thursday’s entry on it. Once he realized his mistake, he squeezed in the word “Thursday” over the entry and wrote a quick word at the top of the page to show how he spent Wednesday: “Home.”

I’m posting from Mexico with a slow connection, so I’ll just quickly note that “The Maccabean” refers to Papa’s chapter of the Zionist fraternal order, B’nai Zion (check out previous entries about B’nai Zion here.) The Pennsylvania Hotel has also shown up in Papa’s diary a few times because it seems to have been a location of choice for Zionist events (here’s a bit more on the Pennsylvania Hotel.)

Monday Aug 25

by


Attend an Executive m.
of the camp, at Nathan
Zichlinsky’s house in
Willoughby Ave. Bklyn. I
initiated and swore in
Treskinoff a new member.

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Matt’s Notes

I love this entry. While we know what Papa’s talking about here — his chapter of the Zionist fraternal order B’nai Zion met in Brooklyn and Papa, as Master of Ceremonies, swore in a new member — the furtive quality of his sentences, the use of abbreviations, and the presence of a character named “Treskinoff” makes it seem like a passage from a spy novel, or maybe Doestoevsky.

Then again, the ritual Papa conducted would have involved some kind of secret combination of oaths, prayers, and the use of physical props, perhaps even in a candle-lit or blacked-out room. Maybe this put him into a clandestine, adventurous mood and accounts for the whiff of espionage on this page.

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Additional Note

Fraternal and mutual support organizations (a.k.a. landsmanshaftn) provided the only real sense of community for early Jewish immigrants, especially those who arrived befor the 20th Century. Their initiation rituals were accordingly elaborate, the better to establish a sense of exclusivity, belonging, and safety in a world where they were otherwise strangers. By the 1920’s, as the greater Jewish community grew more established and the process of assimilation less onerous, fraternal organizations played a less central role in the lives of people like Papa and their ceremonies, predictably, became a little more low-key. I’m sure the rite Papa administered to Treskinoff was far less involved than what their predecessors went through.

Thursday Aug 28

by


Had another little meeting
at the order S.O.Z. offices
rehearsing the rituals

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“Order S.O.Z.” stands for “Order Sons of Zion,” a.k.a. B’nai Zion, the Zionist fraternal organization Papa belonged to.

It’s slightly unusual for him to refer to the parent organization or mention a visit to its 23rd street offices; most of his B’nai Zion activities revolved around “The Maccabean,” as his Lower East Side chapter, or “camp,” was nicknamed. He was his camp’s Master of Ceremonies, though, so it looks like he had to attend occasional refresher courses in fraternal ritual (like the initiation rite he conducted a few days ago to swear in a new member with the fantastic name of “Treskinoff.”)

Papa’s Diary Map

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Note: I’m having some trouble finding out exactly what kind of rituals B’nai Zion might have conducted in the 20’s, so if you, dear reader, know anything more about this kind of thing, please send a note or drop a comment.

Thursday Sept 11

by


Visited Julius Zichlinsky

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Julius Zichlinsky was the brother of Brooklyn’s own Jack Zichlinsky, and both were, I am told, members of Papa’s Zionist fraternal organization, Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion).

As we’ve discussed before, such groups provided essential services to immigrants like Papa; B’nai Zion sold affordable life insurance, guaranteed its members a proper Jewish burial, and ran a credit union that Papa and Jack helped organize. I’m not sure if fraternal orders guaranteed friendship among its members as well, but Julius and Jack were two of Papa’s closest companions in 1924 and, in fact, remained so for the rest of their lives.

Sunday Oct 19

by

The day with friends
at Rothblums.

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Matt’s Notes

A Rothblum appearance in Papa’s diary usually means Papa’s having a good time, whether he’s motoring around Coney Island with his pals in “Rothblum’s auto,” taking a shvitz on Second Avenue, or socializing, as he did this evening, at Rothblum’s house in East New York. True, the most disappointing romantic saga of Papa’s year started when he met “The 20th Century Girl” at Rothblum’s last party, but presumably he’s forgiven both Rothblum and Rothblum’s wife for making that ill-fated match.

Rothblum was a brother in B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the fraternal order to which Papa belonged, so I’ll bet the crowd at his Sunday soirée included usual mugs from B’nai Zion like Blaustein, Breitbart, Bluestone, Shapiro, and good old Jack Zichlinsky. I doubt there were too many fraternal hijinks to be had, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Rothblum broke out the bootleg slivovitz for a toast or two.

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[Note: Papa accidentally wrote his October 19th entry on the October 12th page of his diary. I’ve included thumbnails of both pages at right.]

Thursday Oct 23

by


Attended a beautiful
reception meeting for
David Yellin from Palestine
at the Astor, where I met
countless friends.

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Matt’s Notes

The parade of Zionist all-stars at the Hotel Astor continues. Papa was there when the influential Rabbi Joseph Silverman announced his long-withheld support of the Zionist cause, and he also was on hand when Chaim Weizmann was the honoree at a Keren Hayesod banquet. David Yellin was a leader of a different sort, a Jerusalem-born educator who was instrumental in the modern revival of Hebrew. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel Web site, “his legacy includes a number of textbooks on Hebrew grammar and language, as well as translations from Arabic and from European languages, including translating Dickens into Hebrew.”

Lots of native Hebrew speakers who visit this site say Papa’s Hebrew and English penmanship are equally impressive, and while I know Papa would have learned to write Hebrew as part of his traditional religious education (and in his childhood home life, too, since his father was a Talmud Torah teacher) I wonder if he owned or admired any of Yellin’s books. Perhaps Papa felt about Yellin like my wife, herself an educator, feels about someone like Jaime Escalante. Then again, Papa’s need to say that Yellin was “from Palestine” might mean he wasn’t such a well-known figure in the U.S., even if he was, in 1924, a visiting faculty member at the Jewish Institute of Religion on Sixty-eighth Street and Central Park West.

Papa doesn’t say whether the reception meeting he went to was associated with B’nai Zion, the fraternal order to which he belonged, but the modern incarnation of B’nai Zion has a strong relationship with the David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem. This may just be incidental, of course, though Stephen Wise, then the acting president of the Jewish Institute of Religion, was also involved in B’nai Zion’s parent organization, The Zionist Organization of America. Papa was active in both B’nai Zion and the Z.O.A., so maybe that’s why he saw “countless friends” and, judging by the tone of this entry, enjoyed himself so much at the Astor that night.

hotel astor

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References for this post:

  • David Yellin biography at the Jewish Agency for Israel Web site
  • LEGISLATORS ENTER ON THEIR LAST LAP; Assembly Rules Committee Takes Charge of Pending Measures Tonight. (The New York Times, March 31 1924; this archived record also contains a small piece on David Yellin and the Jewish Institute of Religion)

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Image sources:

Friday Oct 24

by


A camp Ex. meeting at
Jack Z’s house

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A “camp Ex. meeting” likely means an executive meeting of Papa’s chapter, or camp, of B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the Zionist fraternal order to which he belonged. His camp had formed just nine months earlier and went by the nickname “The Maccabean,” a reference to the Jewish warrior heroes of the Hanukkah story. Papa had fought for the nickname, believing it conveyed an image of strength and competence, in the same eventful meeting in which he was elected Master of Ceremonies.

Papa’s B’nai Zion brothers were also some of his best friends; “Jack Z.” is, as our regular readers know, none other than the legendary Jack Zichlinsky, whose home on Brooklyn’s Hart Street saw many a visit from Papa. I expect Papa had just hung out with a lot of his camp brothers on the previous day, too, when he attended a reception for the Zionist leader David Yellis at the Hotel Astor.