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Just strolling about
visiting the Zionist
district and several
Zionist Clubs.

Just paid back the last
payment of the $100 that
I borrowed from the Heb.
Free Loan Soc.

It is a wonderful institution
and I shall not forget their
favor in my time of need.

—————

Matt’s Notes

The New York Hebrew Free loan society was founded in 1892 and, like many similar institutions that grew throughout the U.S. during the late nineteenth century’s wave of Eastern European Jewish immigration, saw interest-free lending as “an act of kindness considered superior to giving alms because a loan fosters self-sufficiency while preserving dignity.”¹ This lending philosophy had biblical and spiritual roots (the Old Testament and the Talmud recommend it) and practical purposes (it was a sensible way to distribute small sums to large numbers of people who needed to get on their feet, negotiate crises, and start businesses). The borrower needed several endorsers to guarantee the loan, but the system worked so well that Hebrew free loan societies typically experienced a default rate of less than 1 percent.²

The reasons immigrants sought loans from the Hebrew Free Loan Society were as numerous and varied as the immigrants themselves (especially since the New York HFLS loaned money to all immigrant groups, not just Jews). In Papa’s case, the $100 loan he secured back in May went to help his family in the old country with funeral and living expenses in the wake of his father’s death. This was an unusually large sum for a non-business loan and obviously wasn’t easy for him to pay off, but I think the gratitude he expresses toward the Free Loan Society in today’s entry — in contrast to his straight-up relief he expressed when he paid recently back the $25 he borrowed from his cousin, Herman Breindel — is a testament to the institution’s efforts to preserve borrowers’ pride.

That’s not to say Herman wasn’t happy to lend Papa money, of course. Remember that, when Papa first came to America, Herman met him at Ellis Island, put him up, and helped him get on his feet. I wouldn’t be surprised if Herman sponsored Papa’s loan at the HFLS, either. But I think there might be something more in this entry than just Papa’s financial status. His mention of the support he received, coupled with his description his casual visits to all the Zionist clubs he associated with, reads like the account of a man who feels safe and at ease. Papa, who often felt so displaced, isolated and homesick, who has remained dreamily attached to his past at the expense of his present, seems at this moment to feel at ease among his adopted country, his neighbors, the extended family he’s created through his political activities and social life. He seems, in short, at home, at least for the day.

————-

References for this post:

1 – From the Hebrew Free Loan Society Web site

2 – “Culture and Context: The Emergence of Hebrew Free Loan Societies in the United
States” by Shelly Tenenbaum. From Social Science History, Vol. 13, No. 3. (Autumn, 1989).

Visited Down Town dist
paid my dues for 1925.
Still noisy with the pre-
election speeches.

On way home I saw
Teddy Roosevelt, rep. nominee
for Governor of n.y. marching
down Houston St., does not
impress me at all.

———————–

Matt’s Notes

The Teddy Roosevelt mentioned in this entry is Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the eldest son of former President Teddy Roosevelt and, as Papa notes, the challenger to incumbent Democratic Al Smith in the 1924 New York gubernatorial race. Papa must have spotted him just before or after Teddy (as he liked to be called) wrapped up a long day of campaigning with a dinner at the Little Hungary Restaurant at 257 East Houston Street. The Little Hungary was, according to the New York Times, “a place always associated with his father,” but his visit to the Lower East Side was more than just a sentimental gesture; it was a high-profile foray into the most solid Smith territory imaginable, for Smith had grown up on the Lower East Side and drew much of his popular appeal from his humble neighborhood roots.

Papa’s lack of enthusiasm for Roosevelt isn’t surprising. Papa was a Democrat through and through and had rooted for Smith during Smith’s unsuccessful run for the Democratic Presidential nomination earlier in the year (“He is a good boy, I hope he will be nominated,” wrote Papa at the time.) Teddy was also under harsh assault at the time by the Democratic establishment and in particular his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Smith supporter. Teddy was, until recently, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (a position Franklin had previous occupied) and Franklin did his best to link him to the brewing Teapot Dome scandal, an easy task since the scandal centered on illicit land purchases facilitated by Secretary of the Navy Edwin C. Denby. (Denby had resigned earlier in the year.)

Smith would go on to win the election and Teddy Roosevelt, Jr. would later become famous for his World War II exploits. When Teddy died in 1944, would Papa read about it and remember the moment he saw him “marching down Houston St.”?

—————

References for this post:

• SMITH AND ROOSEVELT DEFINE THE ISSUES; Governor Replies to Attack on His Administration by His Opponent — Two Pointed Interviews
• ROOSEVELT REPLIES TO SMITH AND HYLAN; Rebukes Adversaries, Who “See They Are Licked and Descend to Personalities. (The New York Times, October 31, 1924)
• F.D. ROOSEVELT HITS THEODORE’S RECORD; Says His Relative Was a Good Soldier, but a “Wretched” Public Official. (The New York Times, October 30, 1924)
• Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. biography at Wikipedia

—————

Image Source:

“Now step right to the front” by Clifford Kennedy Berryman. Library of Congress # LC-USZ62-10783. This cartoon relates to Smith’s run for the Democratic Presidential nomination, not his re-election campaign for Governor of New York, but it does demonstrate how important the Teapot Dome scandal was in 1924.

Home

———

Papa has been writing more words more regularly in his diary over the last few days than he has in months, and even though he didn’t say much in today’s entry, it’s the first time in a while he’s written “Home” to describe an uneventful day as opposed to something more pointed and downcast like “Dull” or “Empty.”

This more communicative mood started a few days after the Jewish High Holy days, a spiritually demanding period that includes Yom Kippur (a day of formal mourning, fasting and repentance) as well as Simchas Torah (a celebration of renewal and faith that found Papa dancing in the streets with his friends from the old country). These were the first High Holy Days Papa had been through since his father’s death, and he had, in fact, written only spottily in the days immediately before and after.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think the High Holy Days were a profoundly introspective time for Papa during which he simply could not bring himself to write. Perhaps his recent change in tone and willingness to report on his activities shows he’s starting to sort through his tangle of inexpressible feelings and emerge from his period of deep contemplation. Maybe the active Fall social and political season has lifted his spirits simply by keeping him busier and giving him more to thing about, too. (Remember that the streets were jumping with Presidential, gubernatorial, and local political campaigning; the atmosphere in New York was alive and frenzied.) We’ll have to watch and see what develops.

Morning rather dull.
Called up a few friends.

Evening.

Balfour Declaration Day
(7th) celebration at Down
Town Zionist district.

—————

Matt’s Notes

The Balfour Declaration was, as even those with a passing interest in the modern Middle East know, a statement offered by the British government on November 2, 1917 stating that “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people…” I can only imagine how Papa, who had left his own country due to anti-Semitism and whose attachment to the Zionist cause was both spiritual and visceral — he saw it, I think, as an almost literal matter of survival — reacted to this development when it happened. I’m sure his elation and surprise and astonishment remained fresh even after seven years, though I expect the “celebration” he describes above was more solemn than raucous.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to think I might have the wrong idea about what Papa calls the “Down Town Zionist district.” I’ve assumed for a while this means a chapter of the Zionist Organization of America; he has frequently referred to Z.O.A. chapters as “districts,” especially when discussing his efforts to attract more members to the troubled First District. Still, a big event like a Balfour Declaration celebration couldn’t have happened “at” a chapter of an organization, especially a troubled one that probably didn’t have central offices or headquarters.

I’m going to have to look into this a little more. The Internets have thus far given me only a tiny New York Times mention of a “Downtown Zionist Centre” on St. Marks Place and a reference to a 1927 “Ticket to Grand Ball of the Downtown Zionist District, New York” on the U.C. Santa Cruz library Web site, while my usual go-to research libraries don’t seem to have anything. These things take time to unfold, though. As always, please e-mail or drop a comment if you know where to find out more.

Election Day

The usual election noise
around my neighborhood more
than in any other part of the city
Stopped half day a union holiday.

Visited Rifke in E.N.Y. with
Clara & Sadie present. I went
there in quest of customers
of Claras friends.

9 P.M. Home & radio
listening to radio returns.

———–

Matt’s Notes

Papa mentioned yesterday his intention to supplement his income by selling womens’ gowns on the side (he worked in a garment factory during the day) and today we see his first attempt: A trip to Brooklyn with his cousin Sadie and one of the many women in his life named “Clara.” (Papa’s sister was named Clara, but so was his cousin Sadie’s sister. Papa knew cousins Sadie, Clara their other sister Eva rather intimately, since he stayed in their home and shared a bed with them when he first came to America in 1913.) Papa has stopped by Rifke’s house in East New York a couple of times on his way to events sponsored by the Kessler Zion Club, but I don’t know if she was a cousin as well or just a close friend.

It seems like Rifke’s house became the scene of a little direct sales party, with Papa showing catalogues and fabric swatches or, perhaps, pulling entire gowns out of a sample case and passing them around the room. I’ll try to learn more about what someone like him really would have carried on a sales call, but meanwhile it’s worth noting that he was able to take his Brooklyn trip because he had half the day off for Election Day, an admirable show of cultural enlightenment we might not expect from a country that had, in the words of President Coolidge’s election eve get-out-the-vote speech, only “lately…added to our voting population the womanhood of the nation.” (Unfortunately, we don’t expect it from 21st century America, either.)

Perhaps a more historically interesting detail from this entry is Papa’s account of how he “listened to radio returns in the evening.” This seems like an offhand statement, but with the exception of a few early radio enthusiasts who had picked up some experimental coverage of the 1920 Harding-Cox returns from Pittsburgh’s pioneering station KDKA, no American could have written such a thing about a national election before 1924. A New York Times article from November 2, 1924 called the 1920 KDKA broadcast as the birth date of modern broadcasting went on to discuss the explosive growth of the industry:

Into these four years has been crowded the most extraordinary progress which has ever followed any of the great scientific discoveries. After the invention of the steam engine, steam-boat, telephone and airplane a generation or more has been required to bring about a similar development.

Today, when radio broadcasting is so much a part of our national life, the crude methods of four years ago and its limited application seem to belong to another century. The pioneers in broadcasting faced a small audience. It was only possible for a few hundred to listen in, and these were grouped for the most part within a narrow radius. Today 530 broadcasting stations are scattered across the United States, and daily teach and entertain an audience estimated at upward of 10,000,000 people.

As sophisticated as modern radio might have seemed to the Times, it still devoted thousands of awestruck words throughout the year, and especially in the days leading up to the elections, to the logistics of nationally broadcast campaign speeches and Election Day coverage. AT&T, by then an innovative and important player in the radio business, led the way by linking its stations and facilitating simultaneous broadcasts via phone lines, an arrangement the Times referred to, in quotes to denote the freshness of the term, as a “hook-up.”

I mention all this not to laugh at the quaint technology of the early 20th century, but to better understand the world Papa lived in, and to examine another facet of his personal evolution, in this case the process through which radio makes its way into his life: he is quietly delighted when he hears an early Presidential speech; cheers the broadcasts of his favorite musicians; suffers through the dramatic, epic implosion of the Democratic party at its National Convention; feels lonely when he listens too long by himself.

The 1924 Election Day broadcast lasted until 1:00 AM on New York’s WEAF, and I’m sure he listened to every minute, found it a remarkable addition to the traditional, street-level campaign clamor he’d become accustomed to (or at least become accustomed to hating) in recent weeks. Still, I wonder how much longer such broadcasts would strike him as remarkable, how long it would be until, one day without even realizing it, he turned off the radio because he just didn’t feel like hearing the President’s voice.

———

New York Times references for this post:

• RADIO BROADCASTING STARTED AT KDKA FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY; First Program Featured Harding-Cox Election Returns — Pittsburgh’s First Call Was 8ZZ — Phonograph Records Furnished Music
• Davis and Coolidge on Radio In Same Hook-Up Monday
• TO RADIO ELECTION RETURNS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY; Election Bulletins to Be Featured Tuesday Night — WGBS, WWJ and WCAP Assigned Special Wave Lengths for Election Night
• President Urges All to Vote as Only Means of Making Public Opinion Effective.; TEXT OF COOLIDGE TALK BY RADIO

Visited Bruckeners on
business

—————-

Papa had recently started selling womens’ gowns on the side to earn a little extra cash, so I assume his “business” visit to Badiner had something to do with that. Perhaps he made a sales pitch to several women of Badiner’s acquaintance, as he did the other day when he gathered his cousin Clara’s friends in Brooklyn, or maybe he just wanted some guidance.

Badiner was, I think, some kind of adviser or mentor to Papa; we first met him back in May when he helped Papa get up from shiva in order to attend his nephew’s bris. (For those of you just joining us, I should explain that Papa learned of his father’s death just as his sister, Nettie, gave birth to a son. In one of the stranger episodes of the year, Papa and his other sister, Clara, kept the news of their father’s death from Nettie so as not to disturb her convalescence.)

Unfortunately, this entry is hard to read (many of Papa’s entries have been spidery and blotchy lately, as if Papa has written them in a hurry or switched to a defective pen) so the Badiner who appeared in May might not even be the same person Papa mentions above. Here’s how the name looked back then, when Papa was writing in a stronger hand:

And here’s how it looks today, with a possessive “s” at the end:

I’m pretty sure it’s the same name, even if it doesn’t necessarily say “Badiner,” but perhaps I’m wrong. If you read it any differently, please drop a comment or send a note.

At Tikwath Yehuda club

—————-

Matt’s Notes

A lot of the Zionist clubs Papa has hung around at had names designed to evoke Jewish heroes and had agendas designed to challenge the popular image of Jews as weak and bookish: His chapter of the fraternal organization, B’nai Zion, was nicknamed “The Maccabean” after the Jewish warriors of old; the Bar Cochba Club took its name from an ancient rebel leader who orchestrated a revolt against the Romans; the Blue-White club was an athletic organization geared toward conditioning young Jews for the rigors of living in Palestine; and today he visits the “Tikwath Yehuda Club,” the name of which roughly translates as “the hope of Judah.” According to my wife, Stephanie, the Tribe of Judah was the strongest tribe of Israel, was a source of kings and prophets, and was accordingly symbolized by a lion.

The Tribe of Judah is also, apparently, the tribe from which most modern Jews are descended, so the name of the Tikwath Jehuda Zion Club (as it’s written in the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal Register of New York City) also refers more generally to the hopes Papa’s contemporaries had for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. It looks like it was a chapter of the Zionist Organization of America, the group for whom Papa did most of his Zionist work, and met at 134 Rivington Street. Papa must have known this club well since he lived at 136 Rivington Street when he was in his early 20’s (I wonder if he first got involved with the Z.O.A. through Tikwath Jehuda) though now he just lived around the corner at 94 Attorney Street. I’ll add this spot to the map of Where Papa’s Been.

———–

References for this post:

Here’s a Google Books snip from the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal Register of New York City: