Zionist Organization of America

Tuesday Nov 18

by


Interesting meeting of
Ball Comittee at Down
Town Zionist Dist.

————–

Matt’s Notes

Papa went to numerous Zionist balls and banquets throughout the year, so it makes sense for him to have been involved in a planning committee or two, as well. The meeting mentioned in this entry most likely took place at the Downtown Zionist Centre at 52 St. Marks Place, and probably had something to do with the Zionist Organization of America’s lower Manhattan districts. (As we recently discussed, Papa’s Z.O.A. district meetings probably took place at the Downtown Zionist Centre so frequently that he came to refer to Centre as the “District.”) If we look at the sort of work he’s previously done for the Z.O.A., I’d say he joined the ball committee to help with its publicity efforts or secure a prominent guest speaker.

June 25, 1927

by

——–


June 25, 1927

My dear Jeanie:

Well I’m here at my old pastime
ready to begin my labors of the great Zionist
convention for the restoration of the Land of Israel
to the people of Israel.1

Great problems are confronting us
which we will have to cope with.2

It is still Shabos the day of rest
for our people, so the actual business will
commence with the shades of the night, which
are now rapidly approaching.

The trip here was very enjoyable
due to the company I had on the train,
the intimate chats with them helped a lot
to chase away the blues that have accumu-
lated last night and this morning, and
although I am stopping at the Ritz I don’t feel
ritzy yet.3

You know dear this place would be
heaven for me if you had been here with me
at this beautiful sea shore.

But what’s the use. I know that
this would not change your attitude, which
I failed [to do] personally in two and one half
years.4

./.

There is no use repeating what I have
said personally, but there is one consolation
and that is that I have won your friendship
whether you show it or not and this friendship
is going to be everlasting.5

And now dear how was your trip
and how are you enjoying the country.

You know [how] anxious I am to hear from you
if you should need something I’ll be
back Wednesday and take care of
whatever you desire immediately.

I will write more tomorrow and
also Monday and Tuesday from here.

It is pretty dark now and I’ll have to
stop soon.

I see about me many familiar faces
of delegates whom I have met before
at previous such gatherings, and things
are getting quiet interesting.

Well dear here I must close
this letter now as Mr. Surdut is calling6
me. So don’t forget Bright Eyes
when I get home I expect to find your
precious letter.

Your loving friend

Harry Scheuermann

This was a rather hasty letter
so forgive my errors

—–

1 – Papa was in Atlantic City for the thirtieth annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America. I assume he attended this one, as he had the previous year’s Z.O.A. convention in Buffalo, as a delegate from Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B’nai Zion), the Z.O.A-affiliated Zionist fraternal order to which he belonged.

2 – It’s hard to say what “great problems” were on Papa’s mind when he wrote this letter, because the Zionist cause certainly had its share. One of Zionism’s big questions of the day was how to handle Britain’s waning interest in the administration of Palestine, but I’d bet the hallway gossip at the Z.O.A. convention probably focused on the reelection prospects of the longtime Z.O.A. chairman, Louis Lipsky, who had been criticized in recent months for mismanaging the organization’s funds.

3 – Like the Statler Hotel in Buffalo, where Papa stayed at the previous year’s Z.O.A. convention, the Ritz-Carlton was relatively new, though it was certainly swankier and, located as it was right on the boardwalk, must have teemed with summer vacationers enjoying Atlantic City’s heyday. The building, designed by Whitney Warren (of the famed architecture firm Warren and Wetmore, designers of Grand Central Terminal) still stands, but it has long since been converted to condos.

Luckily, Papa wrote this letter on Ritz-Carlton stationery, so I can finally satisfy all those Papa’s Diary Project readers who have been clamoring for an artifact of the telegraph age. Check out the contact information on the letterhead:

It looks like, as late as 1927, the Ritz preferred to advertise the telegraphic address “rizcarlton” instead of a telephone number. (Since this is my first brush with a telegraphic address, you’ll forgive me for pointing out its obvious similarities to modern e-mail or instant messenger addresses.) Commercial telephone technology was fairly well established by then (the dress shop Papa worked for listed two phone numbers on its letterhead) but perhaps long-distance calling was not yet widespread or reliable enough for the travel industry to count on.

4 – I’m always trying to piece together answers about Papa’s life, so I’m glad this passage confirms a previously unsupported assumption that he met my grandmother back in early 1925. (That’s how the math works out if he’d known her for “two and one half years” in mid 1927.) As someone who so admired and loved him, though, and hoped the lovelorn, mournful version of himself we met in his 1924 diary might know a little less sadness a little sooner, this letter isn’t much comfort.

5 – Papa’s previous batch of letters to my grandmother, written in the the summer of 1926, showed how frustrated he had become with her romantic indifference to him, but it looks like this frustration had turned to resignation by June of 1927. I suppose he wouldn’t have written her so extensively without some hope of resuscitating whatever affection she once showed for him (he did, after all, wind up marrying her) but he certainly had to work hard at hoping if, as this letter indicates, she didn’t even show much enthusiasm for his platonic friendship.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think Papa’s compulsion to commit himself to my grandmother so completely, even in the face of her her lukewarm response, sprang from a strong combination of emotional needs and external circumstances. Still, understanding why someone does something seemingly irrational doesn’t always make it easy to watch, and even though I might know the answer I still find myself asking how, really, could he have clung to her for so long?

6 – “Mr. Surdut” is a character we’ve known for a while because he owned the dress shop and factory where Papa worked, though he and Papa had more than a casual employer-employee relationship. I sometimes think Papa, who had spent Jewish holidays at the Surduts’ house and had been set up on dates by Mrs. Surdut, was even Mr. Surdut’s protege or heir apparent. I may never be able to confirm that, but it is interesting to see that Papa and Surdut were part of the same posse at the Z.O.A. convention.

Still, when Papa writes “here I must close this letter now as Mr. Surdut is calling me,” does it imply that Surdut retained some measure of authority over Papa outside of work, even if it was that of a surrogate father over a surrogate son? Or did Papa, who had been known to keep his friends waiting while writing to my grandmother, just happen to get interrupted by Surdut in this instance?

——-

References:

June 26, 1927 – Atlantic City

by

——–


June 26, 1927

2 A.M.

This is the 2nd message, Early this
evening I wrote you a letter.1

You will be receiving letters from other boy
friends, and what worries me is that
mine should not be overlooked.2

Well its great to be here, at the present
moment I am at a reception & dance given
by the local comittee for the benefit of the
Young delegates, and the delegates of the
Intercollegiate Zionists, and the Junior Hadassah
which are having their annual conventions
simultaneously with that of the Zionist org-3

Well au revoir until
tomorrow when you will hear from me
again

Your Harry Scheuermann

——————-

1 – Indeed, this is the second piece of correspondence Papa sent to my grandmother from the 1927 Zionist Organization of America conference in Atlantic City. He wrote the first on stationery from the Ritz-Carlton hotel, where he was staying (or “stopping,” as he put it, which I think means the same thing) and dashed this one off on a postcard featuring a photo of the Traymore Hotel.

The Traymore was famous enough to be an Atlantic City emblem (and for footage of its 1972 implosion to find emblematic and symbolic immortality in Louis Malle’s film Atlantic City) so Papa could have found this postcard at any souvenir stand. Still, I assume he was actually at the Traymore for the party described above; he probably grabbed this card from the reception desk or some conveniently-placed stack when he felt the urge to write.

2 – In the letter he wrote earlier in the evening, Papa sadly admitted defeat in his pursuit of my grandmother’s hand; her mere friendship, he said, would have to suffice. Obviously he had second thoughts about this concession while at the Traymore party, and sent this card to keep himself in the race with her “other boyfriends” (who, apparently, kept her inundated with more letters than Santa Claus in December). Papa was all the more anxious, I’m sure, because she was on vacation at a “borscht belt” resort teeming with eligible young men. (This year she was at the Roseland Hotel in Fallsburg, NY, near the town of Monticello. She had spent her previous summer fending off marriage proposals at the Lakeside Inn in Ferndale, NY.)

3 – I wonder if Papa mentioned his immediate proximity to Junior Hadassah members, who of course were young women, to make my grandmother a little jealous. I’m not sure if he did it intentionally, but it certainly would have gotten her attention if she felt at all possessive of him despite her professed indifference.

June 28, 1927 – Atlantic City

by

——–


Dear Jeanie:

Very little time to write
here,1 this is just a
reminder of my regard
for you2

Harry

——————-

1 – For those of you just joining us, Papa mailed this card from the 1927 Zionist Organization of America convention in Atlantic City. It’s postmarked 1:00 PM, so he must have dashed it off between morning meetings or while daydreaming during a long speech. I think he had “very little time to write” because there was intrigue afoot — a movement had taken shape to unseat the longtime leadership of the Z.O.A. and Papa was, as we shall soon see, an active part of it.

2 – This is hardly the sentiment of a man who had given up on winning my grandmother’s affection, as Papa said he had in the letter he wrote two days earlier. (“What’s the use,” he wrote about his chances with her, conceding that “there is one consolation and that is that I have won your friendship…and this friendship is going to be everlasting”.) He must have regretted sending that letter the moment it disappeared into the mail slot, because the above is the second follow-up postcard he wrote (here’s the first) in which he restated his interest in my grandmother. Perhaps, throughout the convention, he’d occasionally stop in the the midst of his duties, shut his eyes tight and think “I shouldn’t have written that stupid thing about everlasting friendship” though it would appear to those around him that he’d been overwhelmed by passion for Zionist debate.

June 29, 1927 – New York City

by

——–


New York June 29, 1927

My dear Jean:

Your card in the mail
box was was the first to greet me at
my homecoming, it was like a tonic
after a strenuous trip home from the resort.1

The first thing I thought of was
to find out how your folks were that
I may write you about them, so I called up
Mother, the situation at home
is this:

Everybody is well and happy,
Rob is leaving tonight for the country,
Mother may not be able to answer your
card or letter today owing to the fact
that Sally is very busy at Rosie’s helping
her pack things. Rosie will leave next
week instead of this, and pop may
remain at his old place of business.

As you see dear, I am trying to
inform you of everything that may be of
interest to you.

./.

2

I was glad indeed to hear that
you like the place, you will undoubtedly
enjoy it.

Judging from the view on the
card the place looks to be a very nice one.

From your request for stamps I can
draw the conclusions that you consider
me (if not the most beloved) the most
trustworthy friend, and if you do you
certainly made no mistake because for
I do not conceive any greater friendship
than mine for you, which is enhanced with
a spirit of love and self-sacrifice.2

I am enclosing here one stamp
booklet, should you need more just write.

My experience in Atlantic City will
be long remembered not only by me bu
by all those who witnessed and
participated in that historical gathering
of the Zionist Convention.

After I mailed you the last letter

./.

from A.C. my group won many
more points. I took the floor and
spoke for 15 minutes, and that was
the only time I spoke. I may have
made any number of slips in the course
of my talk, but I succeeded in creating
the impression I intended to.3

And now my dear I am determined
to do all I can to help the Zionist
Org. during the year, I did very little
for them in the last few years, I was
rather apathetically inclined but it is going
to be different now.4

I am resting today, and the last
two days of the week I will work.

I may have written my dear
things in which you are little interested, but
you know that Zionism is a problem
in which I am gravely interested, I even
had hoped, and still am hoping that
some day you may become a leader

./.

in the most venerable organization
of women, the organization working
for an ideal which is the most romantic
of the ages, the org. which upholds the
honor and dignity of our eternal people
I mean as you will readily guess the
Hadassah.

And now dear forget the other younger
handsomer boys for awhile and write
a nice big letter to your Soul Friend (as I named
you the day I met you)5, and I on my part
will write you of all the doings at home.

And in closing a little blessing:
My your short vacation be a most enjoy-
able one, May the Almighty watch over you
and keep you from harm.

My He open your eyes and make you
see the truth (in regard to your choice of an
eternal friend).

So here I am closing again with
the usual regards and kisses

Your lonely

Harry.

—————

Matt’s Notes

One quick note for the antique stationery lovers out there: Papa wrote this letter on two wide sheets of paper, folded tabloid-style, that have rough-cut, silvery edges. Here’s a closer look:

And here’s an even closer look at the edging:

I suppose I find this interesting because there has to be some story behind his switch to this paper. Was it left over from the Z.O.A. convention? Did he borrow it from a neighbor? Was it expensive, and if so did he reserve it for letters to my grandmother? What would the answer reveal?

1 – Papa had just stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Atlantic City while attending the 1927 Zionist Organization of America conference. The return train ride from Atlantic City to New York City took about three hours via the Pennsylvania Railroad with stops in Hammanton, Burlington and Trenton (according to Fred, the Managing Director of Transportation Research for Papa’s Diary Project) and was perhaps “strenuous” due to summer crowds and the hectic procedures associated with the Z.O.A. convention’s conclusion.

Then again, Papa may have exaggerated his trip’s strenuousness a bit in order to emphasize the “tonic” effect of my grandmother’s card; he was always trying to find ways to get her to write him more, as he does in this very letter.

<!– –>

2 – Though it’s a bit sad to see Papa grasping at straws for signs of my grandmother’s affection, his interpretation of her request for stamps is not all spin. As we’ve discussed before, one of his most memorable qualities was his capacity to see the good in the world and find delight in the actions, no matter how mundane, of those he loved. Thus, when my grandmother asked for a book of stamps it became an endorsement of his trustworthiness as opposed to an indication of her willingness to exploit his attentiveness.

Also in evidence is Papa’s fundamental unselfishness when he says “I do not conceive any greater friendship than mine for you, which is enhanced with a spirit of love and self-sacrifice.” Papa was one of those rare people who took true satisfaction in selflessness, who would not be happy unless he was working toward the happiness of others. The loneliness he wrote of in his 1924 diary was rooted in his inability to adequately express this instinct, the frustration of an artist denied his canvass. In early 1925, he thought he found his canvass in my grandmother, but after two-and-a-half years of her indifference, he feared he was mistaken. If it seems a bit overwrought for him to answer her request for stamps by describing his spirit of love and self-sacrifice, it’s in keeping with the direction of his 1927 letters, many of which show how desperate he’d become to express his generosity through her.

3 – Papa had been part of an opposition group at the Z.O.A. convention that tried to oust from office Lewis Lipsky, the organization’s longtime president. Though the opposition failed and Lipsky was reelected, the convention delegates, according to the New York Times, “ran head-on into a hurricane” on the last day of the convention “over the selection of an administrative committee…for the coming year.” Most of the controversy focused on the whether or not Z.O.A. fixture Abraham Goldberg should have lost his seat on the committee to Anna Moskowitz Kross, a Hadassah leader. The Times went on to describe the scene:

To the Goldberg supporters Mrs. Kross was a comparative newcomer whose reputation had been made outside the Zionist movement. Those opposing Mr. Goldberg considered him a symbol of the past….

The storm broke on the floor of the convention this afternoon, with shouting, interruptions and objections such as even this convention had not yet produced. Time and again the voices of speakers were drowned out by shouts of excited delegates…

Papa’s own 15-minute speech must have been part of the drama described above, and as a member of the anti-Lipsky group he would have spoken out against Goldberg who, according to the Times, “had often criticized Hadassah and the power it wielded in the Zionist Organization.” As my legions of readers will certainly remember, Papa wrote in his 1924 diary of his admiration for Goldberg (he booked Goldberg to speak at an event and hung out with him afterward) and showed a certain distaste for Hadassah, so his attitudes about both had clearly changed by 1927.

In the end, Lipsky backed Kross “for the sake of harmony” and Goldberg lost his seat.

4 – Papa’s 1924 diary and letters from subsequent years are full of references to the Zionist meetings he arranged, events he attended, and donations he made, so it’s curious to see him characterize himself as “apathetically inclined”. Perhaps, because his need to help others was insatiable and his Zionist work was a manifestation of that need, he was simply incapable of feeling like he was ever doing all he could.

5 – Indeed, Papa uses the expression “Soul Friend” in the first of his letters to my grandmother.

—–

References:

August 6, 1928 – New York City

by

——–


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

————–

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.

—————

References: