Jack Zichlinsky

Sunday June 15

by

Spent all afternoon with
the boys at Jack Zichlinskys
house, the occasion was the
brief visit of Friend Wiener

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As I’ve mentioned before, the words “Jack Zichlinsky’s house” are comedy gold in my family, since we used to laugh about my grandmother’s tendency to blurt out “Jack Zichlinsky lived there” whenever we drove with her past his building in Sheepshead Bay.

Papa and Jack were both fraternal brothers in the Order Sons of Zion (B’nai Zion) as were many of “the boys” they hung out with. I’m not sure why Papa capitalized “Friend Wiener”; is it just a mistake or was Weiner part of some affiliate organization and therefore deserving of the title “Friend”?

Tuesday July 15

by


Went with Jack Z. to arrange
with a lawyer about the
camp credit union.

I am alarmed not having
received any call yet
about my naturalization.

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Matt’s Notes

“Jack Z.” is, as we’ve noted before, the august Jack Zichlinsky, one of Papa’s best friends and a brother in the Zionist fraternal organization Order Sons of Zion (B’nai Zion). Immigrants like Papa were used to getting a number of financial, medical and legal services through private, dues-supported organizations like B’nai Zion, which was already a burial society and a reseller of life insurance for its members. As an officer of his local chapter Papa was obviously responsible for organizing its credit union as well.

Though he’s discussed B’nai Zion many times before, this entry has the first mention of Papa’s naturalization status. According to The National Archives and Ancestry.com Web sites, naturalization would have been a two-step process for Papa: after living in the U.S. for at least two years, he would have filed a Declaration of Intention to naturalize (a.k.a. “First Papers”) and after a waiting period of another three to five years he would have filed a Petition for Naturalization.

Ancestry.com’s New York County Supreme Court Naturalization Petition Index shows that Papa probably filed his petition in June of 1920. He’d been waiting a while for his naturalization, but I wonder why he picked July 15th, 1924 to feel especially worried about it. Maybe Jack Z.’s own naturalization has just come through and he’d discussed it with Papa while they were out and about, or maybe naturalization chatter had increased in the local community, in the newspapers, or on the radio for some reason. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, a bill that imposed heavy immigration restrictions on Eastern Europeans (among other groups) had also become law couple of months earlier — maybe Papa had just gotten around to worrying about it now since it happened around the time of his father’s death. In any event, I have to look into this more.

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Additional References

Thursday Sept 11

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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.

Friday Sept 19

by


A pleasant evening
at Jack Z’s house

—————

“Jack Z.” is, as my legions of readers know, none other than Jack Zichlinsky, Papa’s lifelong friend whose name was legendary in my family. I’m not sure where Papa visited him on this day; the 1924 and 1925 New York City Directories list a Jacob Zichlinsky at 24 Hart Street in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, but I don’t think that’s our man. (Jacob was a leather worker and likely owned his home, as indicated by the lower-case “h” in front of his address in the Directory. Papa’s address, 94 Attorney Street, in the same book is preceded by a lower case “r” to signify that he merely resided there. Anyway, I’ll add Jacob’s address to our map of Where Papa’s Been just in case.)

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Update

Since writing this post I’ve deduced that Jacob Zichlisky was, in fact, Jack Zichliskly. The October 10th post has the thrilling blow-by-blow account of my investigation.

Friday Oct 10

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Spend the evening with friends
at Nathan Zichlinsky’s house
until after 2 a.m.

————–

Papa’s diary features supporting appearances from three men named Zichlinsky: Jack, one of Papa’s closest, lifelong friends; Julius, whose full name appears only once but may be the same Julius with whom Papa enjoyed many an outing but only referred to by first name; and Nathan, whose home on Brooklyn’s Willoughby Avenue was previously host to a meeting of B’nai Zion, Papa’s fraternal order.

Your Papa’s Diary Project scorecard is surely too covered in scribbles and arrows by now to be of much use, but yes, I’ll confirm that you did, in fact, make a little notation about yet another Zichlinsky, this one named Jacob, and you made it in reference to my September 19th post in which I questioned whether Jacob, who is listed in the 1925 New York City directory as a leatherworker residing at 24 Hart Street in Brooklyn, was actually Papa’s friend Jack. At the time I assumed he wasn’t.

Ah, but how different I am from the headstrong, impetuous incarnation of myself who occupied this chair three weeks ago! Younger, yes, unbowed by experience, to be sure, but so presumptuous, so careless! Since then, I’ve done a bit of research on ancestry.com and learned that: three men named Nathan, Julius and Jacob Zichlinsky all hailed from the same town in Russia; they were all around Papa’s age; they all lived together for a time on Broome Street; Julius and Jacob worked in the same leather goods store together when they were younger; and, finally, Jacob eventually resided in the very Sheepshead Bay neighborhood where my grandmother could be relied upon to shout “Jack Zichlinsky lived there” when passing through. The evidence isn’t bullet-proof, but it certainly implies that these Zichlinskys were the brothers Papa palled around with and that Jacob of Hart Street was Papa’s friend and went by the nickname “Jack.”

Long live the Internets.

Friday Oct 24

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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.

Friday Nov 21

by


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: