b’nai zion

Saturday Oct 25

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Partook in initiation
ceremony at the Pride
of Israel Camp.
Brownsville

I certainly knew my part
well.

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The “Pride of Israel” camp most likely refers to a chapter of B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the fraternal order and mutual support society to which Papa belonged. (Along with its Zionist activities, B’nai Zion provided its members such essentials as affordable life insurance, burial services, and a credit union, all of which would have been hard to come by for immigrants of Papa’s means.)

As we discussed yesterday, Papa’s own camp had only been around since January and went by the nickname “The Maccabean.” The Pride of Israel camp must have been relatively new as well, or at least less than four years old since it doesn’t appear in the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal Register. (I can’t find the 1924-1925 volume of this book anywhere, so please drop me a note if you’ve seen one in the wild). Perhaps Pride of Israel was so new, and had so few members, that they needed Papa, who oversaw initiations as the Maccabean’s Master of Ceremonies, to round out their ceremonial quorum.

Saturday Nov 1

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Visited Bar Kochba Camp
in Bronx. Enjoyed
Judget Stahls adress on
his impressions in Palestine
and later went home
together with him.

I have hired a religious man
this eve. to say Kadish for the
soul of my beloved father for
the remaining 5 months as
it will be impossible for me to
do so in the winter however
at every opportunity I will
go to the Synagogue to say it
myself also.

I paid the man $5.00 deposit
and $5.00 more to be paid.

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Matt’s Notes

There’s lots to cover here but not a lot of time, so let’s hit the facts:

1 – The “Bar Kochba” Camp in the Bronx is a chapter of B’nai Zion, a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion, the fraternal order to which Papa belonged. The nickname refers to the fierce warrior, Simon Bar Cochba, who led a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 A.D. and briefly reclaimed much of Palestine before his forces were defeated in 135 A.D. (The revolt had been brewing for some time but apparently started in earnest when the Emperor Hadrian attempted to build a temple to Jupiter where the Jewish people expected to build their Third Temple). I’m sure Papa approved of the “Bar Cochba” camp’s nickname because it conveyed an image of strength and competence; he had insisted on nicknaming his own B’nai Zion camp “The Maccabean” after the Jewish warriors of old.

2 – Papa left the Bar Cochba camp (located at 953 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx) with Jacob Strahl, a liberal Judge and former B’nai Zion Nasi (or head) who left for Palestine back in July in order to establish the Judea Insurance Company on behalf of B’nai Zion. Papa attended a farewell dinner on the eve of Strahl’s departure and found it inspiring, so he must have been thrilled to travel back to Manhattan with him.

3 – As my mother pointed out a while back, observant Jews say Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, morning and night for the first year after the death of a loved one. I think Papa had been pretty diligent about it and I’m not sure why he felt he’d be unable to continue this practice into the winter (perhaps he expected to work more hours or an earlier shift at the factory) but it’s not unusual to hire someone to say these prayers if the need arises. (When Papa died, his sister Clara gave money to a group called the Old Sages of Israel to say Kaddish for him.)

4 – The bottom of this diary page has a printed message that reads:

A REMINDER — Have you ordered your diary for next year?
For duplicate of this book order by number in front.

I don’t know if Papa ever ordered another diary, because this is the only one I have. Can it really be so close to the end?

title

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References for this post:

Saturday Nov 15

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

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“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.

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References for this post:

Friday Nov 21

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visited Arin Schneiderman
taking her afterward to the
camp ex. meeting at Jacks
house.

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Matt’s Notes

Most of this entry will make sense to those of us following Papa’s diary: “the camp” refers to “The Maccabean” chapter of B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the fraternal order to which Papa belonged; “ex. meeting” must be a meeting of the The Maccabean’s executive committee, which Papa was part of in his capacity as Master of Ceremonies; “Jack” is none other than the storied personage Jack Zichlinsky, who lived on Hart Street in Brooklyn (and, as I scarcely need to add, would later move to Sheepshead Bay).

Ms. Scheiderman, the woman Papa brought to the meeting, is a bit more mysterious, not only because we haven’t met her before but because I can’t read her first name. Papa’s handwriting is normally exceptional, but it looks like he wrote this entry quickly and I don’t think the pencil he’d been using lately was at its sharpest. (I like to think that his meeting went late but, intrigued by his encounter with Ms. Schneiderman, he felt like he had to jot something down before turning in, dull pencil be damned.)

In any event, here’s a closer look at how he wrote Ms. Scheiderman’s name. It looks a little like “Arin,” but while that seems like the first name of a modern person with hippie parents, it doesn’t seem like an old-fashioned first name. It also looks a little like “Unis,” which could be a misspelling of “Eunice,” though that’s a stretch. Take a look at see what you think:

Friday Dec 19

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Ex. meeting at Stern’s
Rodney St. home

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Matt’s Notes

As we now know quite well, Papa was a member of B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) a Zionist fraternal organization and mutual support society closely affiliated with the Zionist Organization of America. Papa’s chapter formed earlier in the year and Papa (who like many Zionists of his day believed that Jews should trade their downtrodden image for the image of strong, competent “muscle Jews“) successfully lobbied to nickname it “The Maccabean” after the Jewish warrior heroes of old.

The “Ex. meeting” mentioned in this entry is most likely an executive meeting of The Maccabean, which Papa would have attended in his capacity as Master of Ceremonies. It looks like the meeting took place at “Stern’s Rodney St. home” in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, though I’m not quite sure if I’m reading the name “Stern” correctly. Let’s take a closer look:

When you’re done looking at the name, check out Rodney Street on the map of “Where Papa’s Been.”

June 26, 1926 (A.M.) – Buffalo

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[Note: This postcard is the first note Papa wrote to my grandmother while he was at a Zionist Organization of America conference in 1926. To see large-sized images of the card, click the thumbnail images on the right of this page.]

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Sat. Morning

My dear Jeanie:

Well I am here, I retired
in my sleeper in N.Y. and awoke
this morning in Bufalo. It is
a fine town. I am now preparing
my ammunition to shoot pictures
at Niagara Falls. It feels great
to be here among so many
co-idealists,1 There is no sea as
in Long Branch2 but I’ll have
enough of the falls. My friends
are rushing me and the bus is
waiting to take me to the falls.
I therefore write only a card3

Harry

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Matt’s Notes

1 – Papa was in Buffalo “among so many co-idealists” at the 29th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America.

2 – Five days earlier, Papa had gone to Long Branch, New Jersey to attend the convention of Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion) the Zionist fraternal order and mutual support society to which he belonged. The New York Times briefly described this gathering:

Sons of Zion in Convention

Long Branch, N.J. June 20 –

Two hundred delegates and as many
more visitors attended the opening of
the seventeenth annual convention of
the order Sons of Zion at the Scarboro
Hotel today. Commissioner W. Stan-
ley Bouse welcomed the delegates.
Louis Lipsky, Chairman of the Zionist
Committee, spoke. The convention
closes tomorrow, when new officers
will be installed.

And, the next day:

Sons of Zion Elect Officers

Long Branch, N.J. June 21.–

The Sons of Zion, meeting in the Scar-
boro Hotel here today, elected Sol
Friedman of New York, President;
Judge Jacob S. Strahl, New York, Vice
President; Jacob I Kiskor, Brooklyn,
Secretary, and Max Fenwick, New York,
Treasurer.

Long Branch was a well-established beach resort community at the time, less than 20 miles as the crow flies from Papa’s usual seaside haunts at Coney Island:

Papa probably attended the Sons of Zion conference with the same fraternal brothers, like Blaustein, Bluestone, and Zichlinsky, that he used visit Coney with in 1924. The conference may have been all business, but I’m sure Papa’s ocean-loving crew found a moment to join the frolicsome crowds on the beach, like those pictured in this 1923 photo of Long Branch:

Here’s a shot of Long Branch’s Broadway as it may have looked to Papa during the busy summer season:

And here’s the Scarboro hotel, where the B’nai Zion conference took place and where Papa most likely stayed. According to Eddie at historiclongbranch.org (the source of all these Long Branch images) the corner of Bath and Ocean Avenues saw two incarnations of the Scarboro hotel over the years, but by the time Papa got there the newer, modern version was in place:

We should also note that Judge Jacob Strahl, the newly elected President of B’nai Zion mentioned in the Times article above, made a couple of personal appearances in Papa’s 1924 diary: one in which Papa accompanied him home from the Bronx after a lecture, and one in which Papa attended a dinner in his honor.

3 – The front of this particular card reads:

67:–Statler Hotel and McKinley Monument, Buffalo, N.Y.

Buffalo was the site of hotel pioneer E.M. Statler’s first permanent hotel. Built in 1907, it featured amenities for which his hotel chain would later become famous: cheerful service, affordable rates, and luxuries, like bathrooms in every room, normally unavailable to proletarian travelers. (As my legions of readers who get together each weekend to quiz each other on Papa’s Diary trivia no doubt are aware, my comments on Papa’s January 30th, 1924 diary entry quotes a brochure about Statler’s Hotel Pennsylvania in New York that advertises these very sorts of advantages.)

Like the Hotel Scarboro in Long Branch, the above-pictured version of the Statler Hotel that Papa stayed in was not the original, but a second incarnation. Statler built it in 1923 (and renamed the first Statler the Hotel Buffalo) so when Papa stayed there in 1926 it must have still felt fresh, novel and impressive. It may well have been the most comfortable place that Papa ever stayed, since until then he had known only Jewish ghetto life in Eastern Europe and tenement life on the Lower East Side of New York. Developers converted the building to office space in 1984 and renamed it Statler Towers, but as of this writing it’s under new ownership and on its way to becoming a mixture of condominium, hotel and commercial space.

Interestingly, Papa addressed this card not to my grandmother’s home on Hart Street in Brooklyn, but to an address just around the corner at 185 Pulaski Street. No one in my family is entirely sure what was at this address, but we think it was a factory owned by my great-grandfather and that my grandmother worked there. This is probably right. Mail was delivered twice a day in those days, so Papa would have addressed letters to her daytime address to make sure she got them as soon as possible. Perhaps he thought this would give him an advantage over other suitors who, he was convinced, were competing with him for her affections.

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References:

August 6, 1928 – New York City

by

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N.Y. Aug 6. 1928. 12 P.M.

Mon cherie amie Jeanie:1

I worked very late today and then had
to go to a meeting,2 and now is my only chance
to write you a few lines, I expected to find a letter
from you today, but evidently the mail carrier must
have saved it to deliver it to me in person tomorrow
morning3. Everybody [at] home is O.K. the card is the
only means of writing to you as I have no stamps in
the house. Tomorrow I will write a letter.

Regards to the Wise girls and good night Dear.

P.S. It’s nice and cool here now.4

Your

Harry

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1 – Papa’s given this card a French accent, addressing it to “Mmle. Jean de Pollack” and adding the salutation “Mon cherie amie Jeanie”. If such levity seems out of place on this site, it’s because Papa’s diary and letters focus so much on his melancholy, his most difficult personal changes, and the narrative of his romantic frustration. Every so often, though, it’s good to be reminded that he was not some kind of brooding wretch, but was actually quite energetic, optimistic and even capable of a little schtick.

2 – Papa was a labor activist, a dedicated member of the Zionist Organization of America (he had been a delegate to its conventions in 1926 and 1927) and a co-founder of “The Maccabean” chapter of Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion) a Zionist fraternal order and mutual support society, so he frequently found himself at organizational meetings and other sorts of events after work. He found these activities to be deeply fulfilling and stimulating; perhaps the satisfying work he did earlier in the day accounts for the relaxed and cheerful tone of this card.

3 – Papa punctuates almost every piece of correspondence to my grandmother with some plea for her to write more often. I suppose this little joke about the mail carrier holding her letters is another sign of his chipper mood, but he truly felt disturbed by her indifference toward communicating with him.

This joke tells us a little bit about life in 1920’s New York, too, by reminding us that mail came twice a day back then and that there would have been some kind of inherent familiarity between people like Papa and their mail carriers. By contrast, I rarely find myself hoping for any mail delivery except, say, the next installment of “The Wire” from Netflix, and I almost never see my mail carrier.

4 – In his last letter, Papa described a “strange spectacle at midnight” on the beach at Coney Island, with “thousands bathing in the tall waves of the ocean while tens of thousands were sleeping on the sands” during a dangerous heat wave. Temperatures finally broke on August 6th, as Papa notes above, and dropped from the 90’s to the 70’s.

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References: