Monday Oct 20

Simchas Torah

Took half day off for “Yizkor”
for my beloved father (olam haba)

Evening at Country mens
synagogue at Henington Hall
for the “Hakufos”

Enjoyed in the midst of
old country men and
school friends.

——————

Matt’s Notes

Non-observant Jews like me think of Yizkor, or the memorial prayer service, as a once-a-year occurrence associated with Yom Kippur. As I’ve recently learned, though, there are in fact four Yizkor services on the Hebrew calendar, and the one Papa mentions in this entry always takes place thirteen days after Yom Kippur as part of the agricultural festival Succot.

Holidays and milestones have given Papa trouble all year because they force him to take stock of his life and invariably lead to feelings of great loss and longing — not just for his father, who died back in May, but for everything he left behind in the old country. I would therefore expect him to write something mournful, or perhaps lapse into a contemplative silence, on this day of Yizkor. But, it also happened to be Simchas Torah, a joyful holiday in which observant Jews literally dance in the streets to celebrate the completion and re-opening of the annual cycle of Torah readings. While I have never participated in such a celebration myself, it cheers me to think of Papa crowding onto Second Street1 with his “old country men and school friends,” smiling and singing the songs of his youth and feeling, for at least a few hours, like New York was really his home.

—————

1 – Hennington Hall, located at 214 Second Street near Avenue B, was a meeting space often used for political gatherings and speeches. I think the “Country men’s synagogue” Papa refers to in this entry means Congregation Sniatyner Agudath Achim, which was made up of landsmen (the Yiddish term for people from the same place that literally translates as “country men”) from Papa’s home town of Sniatyn. I think this congregation normally met at a multi-use facility called Broadway Manor at 209 East Broadway, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they moved around a bit. In any event, Papa has never bothered to specify the congregation’s location before, so I assume he deliberately mentions Hennington Hall because it wasn’t their usual spot.

—————-

[Note: Papa accidentally wrote his October 20th entry on the October 13th page of his diary. I’ve included thumbnails of both pages at right.]

—————-

Update:

Here’s what Henington Hall looks like today (as discussed in a separate post).

——

——

——

——

Tuesday Oct 21

Took Miss Phila, out
and it certainly was the
most boresome evening in
a long while

Jean certainly misjudges me,

————

Matt’s Notes

Though four days have elapsed since Papa first agreed to go out with “Miss Phila.”, his disinterest in her remains as strong as his annoyance with his cousin Jean for introducing him to her in the first place. I’d still like to know whether her last name is really “Phila” or if “Miss Phila.” is some kind of abbreviation, though I can’t imagine what for. She almost certainly isn’t Miss Philadelphia, 1924 (the lovely Ruth Malcomson, who went on to become Miss America) though maybe she’s the winner of some other contest geared more toward Papa’s community (“Miss Philacteries, 1924,” for example). Maybe she actually was from Philadelphia and Papa nicknamed her “Miss Phila.” just to objectify her, though even at his most impatient he wasn’t that mean-spirited.

Still, his dismissive tone leads me to wonder if poor Miss Phila. isn’t just an unfortunate, collateral casualty of Papa’s long-simmering dissatisfaction with Jean’s matchmaking skills, a dissatisfaction that may, in fact, deflect harder thoughts about his own chronic romantic frustration, itself a symptom of whatever keeps him searching for a perfect woman who doesn’t exist, keeps him from accepting anything less than an ideal mate, keeps him, in truth, from exiting the limbo he’s lived in since leaving the old country, dispensing with his dreamy attachment to the lost world of his youth, and, at last, seeing New York as the place to find his his wife, build his home, make a family of his own.

Jean misjudges Papa, indeed. He struggles, each day, with the question of why he prevents himself from having what he can instead of living for what he can’t. How could she know such a thing about him? And how could Papa know he would one day have his answer, unless I could somehow tell him:

Papa, this is you:

Wednesday Oct 22


By mistake I wrote
for several days, at one
time on the wrong pages

I neglected my diary

Just the fact that Mrs.
Surdut introduced me
to a girl with $10.000, and
her family, must be entered.
But the girl does not appeal
to me.

The day I’d promise to marry
her, I’d be on easy street
because of her wealth,
but my heart says no

—————–

Matt’s Notes

I tend to discuss Papa’s chronic bachelorhood as just another symptom of his self-imposed limbo, a sign of his powerful emotional attachment to the old country, an illustration of his inability to see America as the place to marry and make a home. I’m fascinated with this angle because I know he would one day become an exemplary, self-sacrificing family man who was delighted with his life and exuded a sense of contentment.

Still, while I think it’s interesting to examine Papa’s diary in this way, I don’t want to generalize every moment he reports as if there aren’t other, less hidden forces at work. For example, we know Papa was an incurable romantic, a poetic soul who longed, no doubt, for an overwhelming, all-revealing love. This desire to wait for his heart, rather than his community or someone like Mrs. Surdut to choose his mate was not just sentimental, though; it was a distinctly American and modern innovation embraced, more boldly each year, by Papa’s contemporaries. (As we’ve discussed before, this was especially troubling to the old-style Jewish matchmakers who found it increasingly difficult to make a living on this side of the Atlantic.)

It’s hard to tell whether the wealthy woman mentioned above approved of Papa and would have consented to marry him, but the tone of this entry suggests she was Papa’s for the asking. I expect he chatted with her for a few hours, had cake and coffee with her parents in their well-appointed living room, and then went about his business while they decided if he was worthy of their $10,000. A few days later, there it was: a one-way ticket to easy street (I love this entry because Papa uses the expression “easy street” as if it were part of the popular vernacular, which of course it was) delivered to his door by a flushed, breathless, soon-to-be-disappointed Mrs. Surdut.

Papa may have been at odds with his place in the world and may have struggled with difficult internal battles, but he also just wanted to know what it was like to fall in love. I think I’ll just believe him when he writes “my heart says no,” let him gently break the news to Mrs. Surdut, and leave him to wonder, on his own, when the answer might be different.

Thursday Oct 23


Attended a beautiful
reception meeting for
David Yellin from Palestine
at the Astor, where I met
countless friends.

—————

Matt’s Notes

The parade of Zionist all-stars at the Hotel Astor continues. Papa was there when the influential Rabbi Joseph Silverman announced his long-withheld support of the Zionist cause, and he also was on hand when Chaim Weizmann was the honoree at a Keren Hayesod banquet. David Yellin was a leader of a different sort, a Jerusalem-born educator who was instrumental in the modern revival of Hebrew. According to the Jewish Agency for Israel Web site, “his legacy includes a number of textbooks on Hebrew grammar and language, as well as translations from Arabic and from European languages, including translating Dickens into Hebrew.”

Lots of native Hebrew speakers who visit this site say Papa’s Hebrew and English penmanship are equally impressive, and while I know Papa would have learned to write Hebrew as part of his traditional religious education (and in his childhood home life, too, since his father was a Talmud Torah teacher) I wonder if he owned or admired any of Yellin’s books. Perhaps Papa felt about Yellin like my wife, herself an educator, feels about someone like Jaime Escalante. Then again, Papa’s need to say that Yellin was “from Palestine” might mean he wasn’t such a well-known figure in the U.S., even if he was, in 1924, a visiting faculty member at the Jewish Institute of Religion on Sixty-eighth Street and Central Park West.

Papa doesn’t say whether the reception meeting he went to was associated with B’nai Zion, the fraternal order to which he belonged, but the modern incarnation of B’nai Zion has a strong relationship with the David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem. This may just be incidental, of course, though Stephen Wise, then the acting president of the Jewish Institute of Religion, was also involved in B’nai Zion’s parent organization, The Zionist Organization of America. Papa was active in both B’nai Zion and the Z.O.A., so maybe that’s why he saw “countless friends” and, judging by the tone of this entry, enjoyed himself so much at the Astor that night.

hotel astor

————-

References for this post:

  • David Yellin biography at the Jewish Agency for Israel Web site
  • LEGISLATORS ENTER ON THEIR LAST LAP; Assembly Rules Committee Takes Charge of Pending Measures Tonight. (The New York Times, March 31 1924; this archived record also contains a small piece on David Yellin and the Jewish Institute of Religion)

————

Image sources:

Friday Oct 24


A camp Ex. meeting at
Jack Z’s house

——————

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.

Saturday Oct 25


Partook in initiation
ceremony at the Pride
of Israel Camp.
Brownsville

I certainly knew my part
well.

——————

The “Pride of Israel” camp most likely refers to a chapter of B’nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion) the fraternal order and mutual support society to which Papa belonged. (Along with its Zionist activities, B’nai Zion provided its members such essentials as affordable life insurance, burial services, and a credit union, all of which would have been hard to come by for immigrants of Papa’s means.)

As we discussed yesterday, Papa’s own camp had only been around since January and went by the nickname “The Maccabean.” The Pride of Israel camp must have been relatively new as well, or at least less than four years old since it doesn’t appear in the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal Register. (I can’t find the 1924-1925 volume of this book anywhere, so please drop me a note if you’ve seen one in the wild). Perhaps Pride of Israel was so new, and had so few members, that they needed Papa, who oversaw initiations as the Maccabean’s Master of Ceremonies, to round out their ceremonial quorum.

Sunday Oct 26


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).