Zionism

Thursday Feb 14

by

Attended [at Cooper Union] massmeeting of the
United Hebrew Trades, launching the
campaign for $150,000 for the Jewish
workers in Palestine. —

For the first time in its history
Jewish organized Labor in the U.S.
is taking an active part in the
Jewish Homeland, This certainly
was an epoch making affair
former Anti Zionists delivering
Palestine loving speeches.

I was happy to hand in the
check for $125.00 that was
collected today in my place of
employment.

This was a fine beginning
May their efforts be crowned
with success.
————-
The collection at the place [shop]
gave me joy

—————

Matt’s notes

Perhaps guided by my own shitty February mood, I’ve been paying close attention this month to signs of loss and sadness in Papa’s diary, whether overtly stated or between the lines. I think a slight correction is in order, though, since I may have lost sight a bit of Papa’s innate hopefulness and sense of duty. The diary is a private place where he feels free to acknowledge his doubts, but I don’t think he let other people perceive him as doubtful, and I don’t even think he saw himself that way. It surprises him to feel lonely, and it disappoints him when others act badly, but I don’t think he ever resigned himself to loneliness or disappointment no matter how burdened he felt.

As my wife (Stephanie) pointed out, for Papa to collect $125 from his shop was no small feat. It was a big deal when he got a $5 raise a few weeks ago, so we can be sure he didn’t collect the money in $5 or $10 increments from a few dozen people; he must have approached and gotten donations of a dollar or less from scores of people, all of whom respected him, found him trustworthy, allowed him to persuade them. That’s not how people react to someone who appears downtrodden or out of sorts. His joy over the donations he collected was sincere, as was the pleasure he took in giving his sister a housewarming gift the day before.

I need to keep this in mind as I think about how Papa’s generosity and soothing ways survived so many trials. His difficulties and depressions were symptoms of his personal circumstances, but he didn’t feel they were his lot. He may have been Romantically inclined to describe his disappointments in dramatic tones, but he was not romantically attached to them, and in fact eventually outran them.

———-

Additional Notes

I haven’t learned much specifically about United Hebrew Trades and their relationship to Zionism, but Jewish labor organizations with strong socialist ties (the UHT was founded by Morris Hillquit, a Russian Jew who also helped found the Socialist Labor Party) did tend to spurn any causes without immediate relevance to their domestic members. In fact, Jewish labor didn’t get entirely behind Zionism until the 1930’s (at least according to the 1950 Jewish American Yearbook) so the meeting described above really was an “epoch making affair.”

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?

Monday May 5

by


Stopped from work at
Zionist Hdqtrs. to attend
to some publicity for the camp
in the Zionist publications.

Attended in evening,
East Side K.H. meeting,
which awakened my interest
to be more active in the cause
that is so dear to me.

I visted friend W. at store
All my credit to him for his
success in business, which is
such a thriving one due to
his ability. If I had
enough money now I’d accomplish
something I sincerely believe.

——————–

Matt’s Notes

Like so many New Yorkers before and after him, Papa worked a day job, attended to his more heartfelt pursuits in the evening, and counted a good night’s sleep among his lower priorities. Since this is so typical, and also because Papa rarely mentions work in his diary, it hasn’t yet occurred to me to ask what his working hours were actually were.

I think the eight-hour work day was established for garment factory workers by 1924, so Papa may well have knocked off at four or five o’clock. (I’ll have to look into this more, but even if the eight-hour day wasn’t official, I’m sure Papa’s factory, which still recognized May Day as a worker’s holiday, hewed to progressive union rules.) This would have given him a decent amount of time to attend to his evening responsibilities, though it still would have been a bit of a scramble.

The “headquarters” he visited were likely the Zionist Organization of America offices at 114 Fifth Avenue (at 16th Street) and the “publicity” he attended to was probably some kind of writeup about his chapter of the Zionist fraternal organization B’nai Zion (an announcement about the initiation ceremony he presided over the day before?) for Dos Yiddishe Folk, the Z.O.A.’s weekly publication. It’s possible that “headquarters” also meant B’nai Zion’s main office at 44 East 23rd Street, but in any event they likely ran all their publicity through the Z.O.A. since they were originally a Z.O.A. spinoff.

So, you might ask, in light of all his running around and hard work, how could he attend a meeting of Keren Hayesod (a Zionist fundraising group) and come away thinking he wasn’t doing enough for his cause? It’s hard for me to answer objectively since I never think I do enough of whatever I do and pretty much motivate myself entirely be being dissatisfied with what I have; I can only assume Papa had the same feelings as a young man and, perhaps, passed the trait down to me. In fact, I need to wrap up this post right now because I have to be somewhere, and I’m entirely sure this post is abysmally incomplete. (Watch for me, stomping down the street in a shitty mood, in about five minutes).

Here are the questions I still wish I’d written about:

  • Why did Papa refer to his friend “W.” only by his first initial? Did he not want to bring the evil eye on his successful business?
  • What does Papa think he’d accomplish with more money? Help the Zionist cause? Run for office? Give more to charity?
  • When did Papa learn to judge his life on what he had rather than on some abstract sense that he was supposed to be doing something else, something more, something different? And when will I, for God’s sake?

Thursday Sept 18

by


A reception to Leibel
Tcubes a legendarie
figure of the old country

———

Matt’s Notes

Papa’s schedule of banquets and Zionist meetings slowed down over the summer, but it looks like a new social season is starting to kick in. While the previous Spring did not, as he wished, “renew hopes” for better days — in fact, it ushered in one of the most difficult periods of his life thus far — perhaps a busy, purposeful Fall will help him to be happier.

————

Meanwhile, this entry contains the name of the honoree at the reception Papa attended, but I absolutely can’t read it. His first name is clearly Leibel, but what’s his last? It’s obviously Eastern European and I assume Papa has either spelled it correctly or transcribed it phonetically. It looks like “Tceiebes” or “Keubes,” but I really can’t tell. Any ideas?

————

Update 10/18/07

Looks like Shiri at the Museum of Jewish Heritage has nailed it:

..here is my best guess for the “legendary figure”…Could the last name be Taubisz, possibly spelled without the z? I found a listing for a Leibel Taubisz who ran a newspaper that, among other things, printed the first songs of Nachum Sternheim, who later became pretty famous…

The name of the paper was the “Wachenblatt”. More research is pending, but I think we have our man.

Thursday Oct 16

by


Attended membership
meeting of the downtown Z.
district. It certainly did
not turn out, the way I wanted
it to.

I feel a little apathetic
toward the membership work

My pep in this direction of
former years is gone.

————–

The “downtown Z. district” likely refers to “the First District,” or Lower East Side chapter, of the Zionist Organization of America.1 We learned back in January of the First District’s attendance woes when Papa, under the supervision of a mysterious figure named “Blitz,” spent several weeks organizing a membership meeting and pitching the Z.O.A. to various other groups and clubs around town. The results were disappointing, and we’ve heard so little about the First since then that I figured it had given up the ghost. Looks like it’s still limping along, though, and Papa is still involved with its care and feeding.

Despite the First’s discouraging difficulties, I find Papa’s harsh assessment of his own dedication to Zionism to be rather incongruous. He has spent countless hours attending lectures, receptions, talks and dances and running fundraising drives and meetings, and he would in fact remain an enthusiastic activist for the rest of his life. How could he say his enthusiasm of former years “is gone” when only nine months he could be found on the street giving out membership flyers when the weather was too brutal for even his closest associates?

I think, perhaps, the overall sense of loss Papa has struggled with in the wake of his father’s death — attenuated, at this time of year, by the intense mourning associated with the Jewish holidays — colors just about everything else in his life. It must be especially difficult when he deals with “dying” things like the Z.O.A.’s first district; why else would he speak with such exaggerated finality when, as we know, he was by nature such an optimistic dreamer?

———

1 – The Z.O.A., formerly known as the Federation of American Zionist, had about 40,000 members at the time and counted among its affiliates Haddasah, the Jewish women’s organization, Keren Hayesod, the Zionist fundraising group, and B’nai Zion, the fraternal order and mutual support society to which Papa belonged.

Saturday Dec 27

by


Attended the 10th Anniversary
Party of the former David
Wolfsohn Club.

Recalled former days by
meeting old timers from the
club. Men and women.

—————

Matt’s Notes

It looks like the “10th Anniversary Party of the former David Wolfsohn Club” commemorated the 1914 death of David Wolfsohn, a major early Zionist leader who helped found the Jewish Colonial Trust and later succeeded his close companion Theodor Herzl as president of the World Zionist Organization.

Papa had been in America for just a year in 1914, so the “old timers” he hung out with on this night knew him when he was young, just learning English, and sharing a bed with four other people in his cousin’s living room. The David Wolfsohn Club may even have been the first Zionist organization Papa joined in New York. Still, he doesn’t wax sentimental about this party in the same way he did when he attended the Sniatyner ball (an annual reunion of people from his town in the old country) back in February. Perhaps, with the new year and its inevitable complement of extra self-assessment at hand, a reminder of his younger days made him reflect more than usual on his dissatisfaction with his life’s progress. (Then again, maybe he had a great time and was too just too tired to describe the party in more detail.)

I’m also curious as to why the phrase “Men and women” appears, almost as an afterthought, at the end of this entry. It’s not Papa’s style to write this way. I get the feeling he added it not to point out that men were in attendance, but to remind himself of the women he encountered, perhaps an old girlfriend or two who had roles in the intense, heady drama of his early days in this country.