hotel astor

Wednesday Mar 12

by


Attended massmeeting
at the Hotel Astor marking
the opening of the 1924
$1,500,000 Keren Haysod
drive in NYC

Gladly I listened to the
speeches of the baalei teshuva
Dr. Silverman (Rabbi) and
Mr. David A. Brown.

All the enstranged Jews
are bound to come back
sooner or later.

Light must triumph over darkness.

————–

Matt’s Notes

This entry contains the Hebrew phrase baalei teshuva (the plural form of baal teshuva) which refers to Jews who have strayed from Judaism and returned to the fold.

In this case, Papa adapted the phrase to describe Jews who rejected Zionism and later came to accept it, specifically Rabbi Silverman and David Brown. Silverman was the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El, an influential Reform (or progressive) synagogue in New York, and for many years he had spoken out against Zionism. As reported in the Times, he returned from a trip to Palestine with a different point of view, and his speech at the Astor marked his commitment to “devote the remainder of his life to the cause of Palestine.”

As Papa crowded in with the other 1,000 attendees at the ball, he would have smiled to hear Silverman say:

Any Jew who willfully hinders the movement to rebuild the Jewish homeland is injuring his people and his faith. Any Jew who remains aloof from the movement at this critical period in our history lays himself open to the charge of indifference to the fate of a large part of Israel.

Papa has indicated his disapproval of non-Zionist Jews before (I’d almost say he held them in contempt, but I’m not sure he was capable of such feelings) but he has also indicated his willingness to rejoice in their “repentance.” My mother says he “never held a grudge in his life,” and after reading this entry I wonder if his capacity to forgive, to expect, in fact, people to turn themselves around, had spiritual roots in the concept of baal teshuva.

(Thanks to my wife, Stephanie, for the Hebrew lesson.)

———————-

My father, Sy Unger, died eleven years ago today. Here he is, around 1960, seated between Papa and my mother. How would Papa have told me to remember him?

Thursday May 1

by


This is workers day, so
I am off resting.

In afternoon attended
game in Yankee Stadium
in Evening Zionist meeting
at Hotel Astor.

Sent home $5.00

Received letter from home
father still ill, but I am
at least relieved by getting
some news from home.

——————

Matt’s Notes

“Workers Day” refers to International Workers day or Labor Day, a holiday recognized around the world on May 1 and generally associated with the Haymarket Riot of 1886 and its tragic aftermath. (As you remember from your history lessons, the riot took place after Chicago union workers called a general strike in support of an eight-hour workday on May 1, 1886. Four days of mayhem followed. Several protesters died at the hands of the police, though events reached a tragic climax when a bomb exploded in Haymarket Square and killed at least seven police officers and four civilians. Several anarchists were falsely arrested, tried and executed for the bombing, sparking international outrage). Though the riot happened in Chicago, the United States never officially recognized May Day as a holiday, allegedly because its commemoration had quickly become associated with Socialist causes. Meanwhile, more conservative labor organizations had already prompted several states to declare the first Monday in September as Labor Day, and in 1887 Grover Cleveland decided to make it a national holiday.

Papa’s union and employer obviously still recognized May Day as a workers’ holiday in 1924; the New York Yankees, on the other hand, could only wish they had the day off, as they saw their long winning streak come to an end at the hands of the Washington Senators. Papa saw them strand runners on base all day in the course of the 3-2 loss at the Stadium, or, as the New York Times put it, “When a single or a fly meant a run or more, the Yankee hitsmiths struck out or popped out or rolled out in a manner agonizing.”

It looks like the U.S. Postal Service was open that day as well, since, my sources tell me, post offices often served as banks through which immigrants would send money overseas (I can’t be totally sure that Papa sent his $5.00 home through the post office since he had other options as well, but it’s a safe bet). Having received an update from the old country and sent some money to his family, I expect Papa was able to concentrate on his Zionist meeting at the Astor with something like a clear head.

hotel astor

—————

References:

————–

Image sources:

  • Yankee Stadium, 4/3/23. Library of Congress # LC-B2- 5958-11. No known restrictions on publication.
  • Hotel Astor. Library of Congress call number HABS NY,31-NEYO,72-.

Thursday Oct 23

by


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

—————

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

————-

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)

————

Image sources: