Friday Sept 12

by


Went to Miss S.S. a
fine type of a girl, I wish
I had some affection for
her, went with her to the
park (Prospect), and another
picture of flaming youth,
by just getting friendly
with her.

The Enchanting atmosphere
in the stillness of the night
tempted me to take her in
my arms and kissed her.

Flaming youth

Nettie made an appointment
for me without my knowledge, but
I could not keep it as I had the above, the
girl came, according to
Nettie, she is a very pretty girl,
she will come again.

————-

Matt’s Notes

The expression “flaming youth” sounds like one of Papa’s own romantic turns of phrase, but it’s actually a reference to the title of a racy novel and its 1923 film adaptation. The story deals with the romantic trials of Pat Fentriss who, among other things, gets involved with her deceased mother’s ex-lover. The movie “endeavors to establish that young men and maidens wild are going up in the smoke of their own cigarettes,” said Time Magazine‘s film reviewer, who nevertheless found it “rather ingenious.”

Flaming Youth became a sensation partly because its relatively unknown young lead, the proto-flapper Colleen Moore, launched an era-defining trend by appearing on screen with bobbed hair. Moore became an immediate superstar and went on to appear in dozens of films, remaining “at the vanguard of fashion’s first revolution of the 20th century as skirts rose above the knee, bosoms vanished and waistlines slid down to the hips,” according to her New York Times obituary. While her name isn’t as recognizable as those of other silent greats, it’s easy to see from the clip below why she was so appealing:

Anyway, Papa’s feelings about such modern women were subject to change. To call a woman “naive” was one of his higher compliments (though he could also use it disapprovingly) and he hated a party earlier in the year because it was full of “wild women” and “Jazz babies…none of that good type which appeals to me and [is]so rare among women.” Later on, though, he became infatuated with a woman he nicknamed “The 20th Century Girl” because he admired, among other things, her “passion for cigarette smoking,” and still later he battled turbulent, mixed feelings for his distant cousin Clara and her outspoken, seductive ways.

It would be easy to say his standards were inconsistent because, like most mortal men, he had no standards that a pretty face couldn’t derail, but he really might not have known where he stood regarding the emerging flapper phenomenon. He was certainly possessed of an old-world, formal approach to courtship, and he disliked men who took advantage of women and “did not act gentlemanlike.” Also, at age twenty-nine in an era when twenty-nine was not so young, Papa may have had trouble embracing emerging dating habits and meeting the expectations of younger women who wanted to act like Colleen Moore.

Papa mixes tenses in this paragraph so I can’t tell whether he actually kissed “Miss S.S.” in Prospect Park or if he was just tempted to, but to even think about kissing a woman he didn’t feel strongly about clearly threw him for a loop and sent him searching the popular vernacular for the right words to describe it. The expression “flaming youth” was obviously in circulation by the time Papa wrote this entry1, and the way he repeats it makes me think he was either taking it for a test run (as he did with the phrase “date her up” a few days earlier) or was genuinely amazed by the bold, permissive world in which he now found himself.

—————

Additional references for this post:

  • 1 – “Flaming Youth” would also become the title of a Duke Ellington song, a Kiss song, and the name of Phil Collins’ first band.
  • Colleenmoore.org – As you would imagine, this site has everything you want to know about Colleen Moore
  • Flaming Youth’s synopsis at allmovie.org. Alas, it looks like only a short piece of the film survives.

Saturday Sept 13

by


Another meeting at 2nd
dist.

Sent home to mother $20
for which took $5 each from
Nettie and Clara.

—

Yes Nettie and Clara want to
see me married, and they are
using every effort to find a pretty
wife, just as if I’d be lacking
girls.

——————

Matt’s Notes

Papa’s diary entries often raise questions about which we can only speculate, but this one answers a few I’ve been wondering about for a while:

1 – Was the first district of the Zionist Organization of America still in trouble?

Looks like it was. Earlier in the year, Papa had put a lot of work into recruiting new members for the first district, or chapter, of the Z.O.A., but the results weren’t so good. While he implied the first district’s continued existence when he described a meeting of the “three downtown districts” a few weeks ago, he hasn’t mentioned the first district by name in a while. Most of his recent Z.O.A. activities have revolved around the third district and, in this entry, the second, so I get the feeling the Z.O.A. had either shut down the first district or had decided to let it die on the vine.

2 – Was Papa solely responsible for sending money back to the old country?

Papa supported his sister Clara when she first came to America several years earlier, and more recently helped Nettie, his other sister in New York, with at least one financial problem. (He paid for her husband’s English lessons at “The Success School” and wound up eating the tuition when the schoolmaster turned out to be a scumbag.) I’ve often wondered, in light of these histories, whether Clara and Nettie ever kicked in when Papa sent money back to Sniatyn.

Today’s entry shows they did, though it may have been a rare occurrence since $20 was an unusually large amount for Papa to wire overseas — he may have been reacting to some kind of desperate message, emergency or angry demand (his European relatives often complained about what he sent back home) and, since he had already gone into debt to pay for his father’s funeral expenses back in May, had no choice but to swallow his pride and ask Nettie and Clara for help. I imagine he didn’t feel too happy about it.

3 – Did Papa realize how much women liked him?

Papa’s diary is full of longing, loneliness and accounts of his inability to connect with women, but it also depicts an unending flow of dates, romantic encounters and infatuations, many of which he doesn’t even bother to discuss at length. There’s no reason to think all this activity would make him feel any less alone, especially since we know his failure to find love was rooted deep, personal and complex burdens that he was only now starting to shake.

Still, I have wondered if he even realized how many women he had in his life or if he considered himself an eligible bachelor. This passage provides an answer, and in it Papa even seems a bit cocky in the way he gently pokes fun at his sisters’ efforts to find him a date “as if [he’d] be lacking girls.” He knew he was responsible for his own loneliness, then, and he knew he was responsible for fixing it, as well.

Sunday Sept 14

by


Baseball game
and evening with friends

—————–

Matt’s Notes

With the Yankees out of town on this day, Papa could have seen the Brooklyn Robins (a.k.a. Dodgers) play the Reds at Ebbets field or the New York Giants play the Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Both teams were battling it out in an enthralling pennant race, so it’s hard to imagine which game Papa would have chosen. Let’s try to figure it out:

Papa’s attendance statistics and habits in 1924 would indicate he was fan of the world champion Yankees; he went to the Stadium seven times, including two exhibition games against the Dodgers, and took at least one date there. The numbers reveal less about his National League leanings, though. By my reckoning he went to Ebbets Field three times and the Polo Ground four, but both teams were in town on three of those days and we can’t really be sure who he saw (one of those tossup days also included a visit to relatives in the Bronx, so geographical convenience favored the Giants since the Polo Grounds were on the way). All in all, there’s really no way to tell who Papa preferred that year. Advantage: None.

The Giants were out front all season but had quieted down in the stretch, and at 86-55 they were only one-and-a-half games up on the 85-57 Dodgers. The Dodgers had been in fourth place and seven-and-a-half games back on August 18, but since then they’d gone on a 25-6 run that began with a sweep of the Pirates (who were no slouches and had enjoyed their own late surge). “It is now reasonably certain that one of these local teams will represent the National League in the world’s series,” noted the New York Times, “The Giants, with a shifted lineup and a tottering pitching staff, have been fighting hard to keep ahead of the fast-moving Robins.” With the season clearly on the way to a photo finish, I’d say Papa, as a baseball fan, would have been more intrigued by the surging team. Advantage: Dodgers.

Both the Dodgers’ and the Giants’ opponents were out of the race (though the Reds were not mathematically eliminated as the Cardinals were) so the competition wouldn’t have factored into Papa’s choice. Still, the Dodgers had the National League’s best pitcher and future hall-of-famer, Dazzy Vance, on the mound against the Reds. Vance was on his way to a 28-6 record and a 2.16 ERA, and he was no doubt a big draw; in fact, the Dodgers had 27,000 fans in the stands that day versus the Giants’ 25,000. Advantage: Dodgers

The ride to Ebbets Field was probably shorter than the ride to the Polo Grounds from Papa’s Lower East Side home, but Papa’s willingness to go for long jaunts on the subway without complaint makes convenience a negligible consideration. Still, Papa had a bunch of friends in Brooklyn — perhaps those were the friends he spent the evening with — so we’ll give a slight geographical edge to the Dodgers.

And there we have it. If we take everything into account, it looks like Papa probably saw the Dodgers and Dazzy Vance shut out the Reds on September 14th. The final score was 3-0.

————-

My mother adds:

Interesting. In all the years I knew Papa, he never took me to a Yankee game, while he took me to dozens of Dodger games from the time I was about five years old onward. It was at wonderful Ebbets Field where he taught me to keep score and then brag to the people around us —“Look how this little girl can keep score”. When the Dodgers and Giants left us for California, he never became a Yankees fan, but instead we rooted for the hapless Mets. He lived long enough to see the miracle of 1969.

We loved talking baseball and politics together.

Monday Sept 15

by


Found both Nettie’s
children ill, and coughing
badly.

I pray constantly for them
Oh Allmightly, heal them
and restore them to perfect
health, and may they be
a blessing and a source
of happiness to their tried
parents. Amen.

—————-

Matt’s Notes

Though Papa has struggled with his fair share of personal, emotional and financial difficulties this year, his sister Nettie’s life has, at least from what we’ve seen, described a bleaker version of tenement life, an immigrant experience dogged by disease and unemployment and casual cruelties. Her daughter, Ruchaly, has been ill all year; her husband, Phil, has been in an out of work and kicked around by the unscrupulous headmaster of an English-language school; and, in one of the strangest episodes of the year, she gave birth to a new son just as Papa received word from overseas of their father’s death, though no one told her for ten days while she convalesced.

Papa’s prayer for the health of Nettie’s children is typically heartfelt and touching, but there’s nothing melodramatic about it. New York’s infant mortality rate had been on the decline for years, but it was still, at sixty-six deaths per thousand, ten times higher than it is today. With tubercular neighbors wandering about and fresh air at a premium, the sound of a child’s cough was terrible to hear. Unfortunately, the shadow of future unhappiness hangs over this entry, for we know Papa’s plea to the Allmighty went unanswered in the end; Ruchaly was destined to die of meningitis, and Nettie, years later, gave in to a long emotional deterioration and took her own life.

Still, I suppose Papa’s capacity for prayer and hope is partly responsible for the resilience and resourcefulness with which he faced his own trials. Among other things, the difficulties of immigrant life, the death of his sister and the devastation of his family during the Holocaust all gave him ample reason to grow bitter as he aged, but he chose not to. He defined his life by what he had, not by what he’d lost, tallied up his gains, and not his deprivations. It sounds simple, but: How?

—————-

Papa wrote his prayer in English but also concluded this entry with a Hebrew phrase. Alas, I can’t make it out and neither can Stephanie, who is both my wife and my go-to for Hebrew translation. If you can make out what this says, please drop a note or comment:

———

Update 9/17/07

As we subsequently learned, the Hebrew at the bottom of this entry reads “Avraham Zvi, son of Joseph, the Cohen.” It seems to be a kind signature through which Papa conveys to the Allmighty his name, his father’s name, and the fact that he’s a Cohen, or member of Judaism’s high priest caste.

Tuesday Sept 16

by

the children Yosef and Rahel
are still ill

Oh, Creator of worlds, bring
them back to health

Avraham Zvi bar-Yosef, the Cohen

——————-

Matt’s Notes

Another day, another prayer for the health of Papa’s terribly ill niece and nephew. He’s written both of their names in Hebrew, and concluded this passage with the same Hebrew phrase he used yesterday. Thanks to our friend Inbar, we now know it’s a formal signature of sorts that reads “Avraham Zvi bar-Yosef, the Cohen,” or Abraham Zvi, son of Joseph, the Cohen. (Papa was a Cohen, or member of Judaism’s high priest caste, so perhaps he used this signature as a matter of course.)

Wednesday Sept 17

by


Ruchale is feeling
a little better, but
Josale is still coughing
much.

May the Allmighty speed
p boths recovery

———

Matt’s Notes

This is the third day Papa has discussed the illnesses of his sister Nettie’s children, Ruchale and Josale, and prayed for their recovery. He doesn’t mention what they had, but a 1924 New York Times article on childhood mortality rates cites measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough and diptheria among the most fearsome (it also credits “Schick testing and the injections of toxin-antitoxin to approximately 500,000 children” with a sharp drop-off in diptheria-related deaths).

I expect Papa was most worried about whooping cough or tuberculosis, but if you know more about this subject please drop a comment.

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.

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