Saturday Apr 19

by

2nd night with Sister Clara

Saw a ball game today
Giants defeated Braves

Received a letter from
Henriette informing me
that she accepts my invitation
for next Sunday. I’m glad

————-

The “second night” Papa refers to is a Passover Seder, the first of which he attended at his sister Nettie’s house the night before. Passover traditionally involves two Seders, and in some families it also involves political squabbles over who goes to whose house on which night. Nettie and Clara supposedly didn’t get along, so I expect some such scandal arose; they may not have seen each other at all for the holiday even though they lived in the same neighborhood.

I’m sure Papa wasn’t bothered by any familial tension — or much of anything — since Henriette, the storied “20th Century Girl” who had put his heart through a ringer a few weeks earlier, finally agreed to see him again. (He had written her a declaration of affection on March 30th after they’d gone to the opera together. Could this be the first time he’d heard from her since then?)

Papa further enjoyed himself at the Polo Grounds that day, which answers my question about whether Jewish law permits baseball game attendance during Passover. And much as Moses smote Pharaoh’s army, the Giants defeated the Boston Braves on a game-winning Henry Groh double in the bottom of the ninth. (The New York Times account is a great specimen of the humorous, ironic baseball writing they practiced in that era.)

On the field for the Giants was Irish Meusel (pictured below with his brother, Yankee slugger Bob Meusel, who Papa had seen in an exhibition game a few days earlier) while the Boston Braves fielded the legendary Casey Stengal and a four-time MVP with the fantastic name of Stuffy McInnis.

Here are the full lineups:

New York

Billy Southworth, cf
Heinie Groh, 3b
Frankie Frisch, 2b
Irish Meusel, lf
George Kelly, 1b
Travis Jackson, ss
Hank Gowdy, c
Bill Terry
Virgil Barnes, p
Jimmy O’Connell
Rosy Ryan, p

Boston

Dave Bancroft, ss
Johnny Cooney, rf
Bill Cunningham, lf
Cotton Tierny, 2b
Stuffy McInnis, 1b
Casey Stengel, cf
Ernie Padgett, 3b
Mickey O’Neil, c
Joe Genewich, p

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Additional References:

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Image sources:

  • Meusel, Emil F. “Irish” (Giants) & Bob Meusel (Yankees), 10/10/1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 6077-13
  • Polo Grounds, 1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 5982-2

Sunday Apr 20

by


Both days of Pesach
with my sisters. —

Met little Sadie at Sister
Claras house and took her
home to Evas, where I sat
a little while.

—————

Matt’s Notes

Papa had spent the previous two evening at his sisters’ Pesach (Passover) seders, but I’m not sure why he starts this passage off by pointing it out again. Was this a happy recap? Was he flushed with affection because he felt fortunate to have his sisters close by? Or did he just not realize he’d written about Pesach over the last couple of days? A holiday like this with its family-oriented, sit-down dinners must have made Papa especially anxious about his ailing father back in the old country, so maybe this entry’s little Passover wrap-up is an unconscious sigh of relief.

I do wonder if his family in Sniatyn ever got the 20-pound shipment of matzoh Papa sent them back on March 5th. I’m still not sure how he would have sent the matzoh (those who have memorized this site will recall my speculation about the logistics of international matzoh transport in my comments about that entry) but a friend of this site named Ari, an academic who knows about such things, told me recently that the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee had an infrastructure in place to get food over to Eastern Europe back in the 20’s. Perhaps Papa read their ads in the Yiddish papers and trusted them with his precious cargo.

Alas, no one can tell me who “little Sadie” was, why Papa brought her from his sister Clara’s place to Eva’s, or even what it means when he says he “met” her. Did Clara and Eva collude to set Papa up with Sadie and drum up some reason for him to walk her from one place to the other? Was she a young cousin who he just hadn’t seen in a while? Perhaps it was typical for Lower East Siders like Papa to mill around the neighborhood on a Sunday night, dropping in on friends and family, picking up conversations on the street, and sitting “a little while” with someone here and there. It sounds kind of relaxing.

Monday Apr 21

by

Attended Benefit performance
of the Chalutzial. —

Jack Zichlinsky that all
boys of the camp are either
keeping company or getting
engaged,

Am I to be left behind,
I met Miss Schneiderman
and look her home, Why does
she think of me so much.

Earlier in the evening I
met Miss Schein a new
aquaintance she is a fine type

——–

Matt’s Notes

I’ve got limited time to post today, but hopefully I can revisit this entry later. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

— The “Chalutzial” benefit Papa attended was, as one would expect, a Zionist fundraiser. Chalutzim (or halutzim) translates as “pioneers” in Hebrew and referred, in Papa’s day, to early Jewish settlers of Palestine. I think the word implies a certain virility and preparedness, too — it’s meant to evoke images of young, rugged people swinging pickaxes and building roads in the unforgiving desert sun. Such images would have appealed to Papa, who has demonstrated on several occasions his desire to challenge the popular perception of Jews as lacking in physical strength and competence.

— It’s terribly sad to see him worry over how his other friends are “keeping company or getting engaged” while he remains intensely lonely, but interesting in its way. Even as he utters the thought, he’s fresh from an encounter with Miss Schneiderman, who desires in vain keep company with him, and Miss Schein, “a fine type” who sounds like a genuine prospect.

I think we see in this entry both the up and down sides of Papa’s idealistic nature. On the one hand, it allows him to support and have faith in the prospects of his brethren to make a new life in a far-off, hazardous place; on the other, it drives him to unfavorably compare his relationships with the flesh-and-blood women around him to his unattainable standards for perfect romance. He knows this about himself, as we’ve seen, but it doesn’t make him feel any less lonely or hopeless.

Luckily, Papa, this is you:

Tuesday Apr 22

by

The Linzers introduced me
to a girl for matrimonial
purposes. She seems to be a
nice girl but does not yet
attract me.

Out of courtesy I arranged
a date with her to see a ball
game next Saturday.

—————-

Matt’s Notes

It seems like Passover week involved a little more house-hopping than we’re used to seeing from Papa. My wife Stephanie tells me this makes sense since ghetto Jews were known for opening their doors and moving freely between each others’ homes during holidays. (As always, if you’d like to confirm, correct, or add to any such theories, please drop a comment or write to the address below.)

I’m sure Papa’s friends and neighbors thought, as he did, that it was cause for alarm for him to be single at the advanced age of 29, but this is his first account of third-party matchmakers overtly introducing him to a woman for “matrimonial purposes.” I imagine the Linzers invited Papa to their home, trotted out the young prospect, and left the two of them alone to chat over coffee and Pesadich sweets. (For some reason, I picture them picking at slices of marbled bundt cake as opposed to, say, a plate of macaroons as they tried to figure out whether they’d like to have dessert together every night for the rest of their lives.)

I don’t think Papa, with his gracious and steady demeanor, would have inadvertently betrayed his lack of attraction to the Linzers’ friend, nor do I think he would have let her know he invited her to a ball game out of mere courtesy. Then again, maybe he was giving her a chance. I know he took my grandmother to see the Yankees when they were first dating, so perhaps he saw a woman’s response to baseball as some kind of litmus test. (Such test are common, of course. I subjected Stephanie to the movie Commando during one of our early video-watching dates. Turned out she knew it well enough to quote the dialogue. Is there a more powerful aphrodisiac than hearing a woman say “let off some steam, Bennet” in a Schwarzenegger voice?)

Wednesday Apr 23

by


Visited Kinereth Camp
in Borough Park with
Jack, Julius and Shapiro
there were representatives
of other Camps, The occasion
was a Passover festival

———–

Matt’s Notes

Papa, Jack, Julius and Shapiro were all members of B’nai Zion, a fraternal order that, like many such organizations, provided support services to its members (like life insurance and burial services) but also had a strong Zionist agenda. Papa was Master of Ceremonies of his chapter, or camp, which had formed only a few months earlier. At the time, he argued to nickname his camp “The Maccabeans” after the Jewish warriors of old. This resulted in what he called a “big battle” — perhaps his fellow members objected to the political or social implications of such an aggressive nickname — but, driven by his desire to challenge the popular image of Jews as weak and vulnerable, Papa eventually prevailed.

Though a chapter’s nickname was worth battling over, I hadn’t thought much about what other B’nai Zion chapters might have called themselves until I read about the “Kinereth” camp in today’s entry. Kinneret is the Hebrew word for the Sea of Galilee and, more significantly, the name of an early kibbutz, or collective farm, built on its banks. Maybe the Borough Park members chose this nickname because they felt like pioneers out in distant Brooklyn (so far from B’nai Zion’s head office on 23rd Street in Manhattan). The name’s socialist-agrarian flavor is certainly on the mellower side, though the settlers who started Kvutsak Kinneret in the early 1900’s must have been mighty rugged, tenacious people.

I wonder how much a chapter’s nickname really reflected its personality. Papa and his Maccabean pals certainly weren’t prancing around the B’nai Zion Passover party like young Turks, turning over tables and snatching matzoh out of the hands of less assertively-nicknamed chapter members. Still, I would wager his camp’s nickname continued to trigger debates at larger gatherings. How would such arguments have sounded, at a time when Zionist organizations felt that the future could turn on every gesture?

————

Additional References

Thursday Apr 24

by


Enjoyed movie
The Song of Love, at Clinton

I am alarmed I have
not heard from parents
for a long time. —

——————-

Matt’s Notes

As Papa mentioned in an earlier entry, he loved to escape from his daily worries to the “land of enchantment” he found at the movies, an easy enough vice to indulge since both the Clinton Theatre and the Loewe’s Delancey were around the corner from his apartment.


The Song of Love would have met Papa’s need for escapism; it was a big-budget Arabian extravaganza starring Norma Talmadge (“the highest-salaried screen actress,” according to the New York Times review) playing a French spy masquerading as an Algerian belly dancer. Time Magazine described this as Talmadge’s “first semi-vamp role,” certainly a big deal at the time, though I imagine it was equally unusual for films to have a female co-director as this one did in the person of Frances Marion.

I haven’t seen The Song of Love and it doesn’t appear to be available on video (has anyone out there seen it?) but I did find this picture of Normal Talmadge at the Library of Congress Web site:

Norma Talmadge

Papa had little relief from his anxiety over his ailing father in the old country — his “alarmed” words at the end of this entry even look anxious on the page — so I hope the lovely Ms. Talmadge’s excursion into cinematic sensuality was enough to distract him, for at least a little while, from his worries.

————

Additional References

—————-

Image source:

Norma Talmadge. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 5472-10

Friday Apr 25

by

Had dinner this eve at
Claras house, Nettie and Philip and
little Rosie, Max and Dora Breindel
were there too,

Later came Eva, Sadie
and others

A nice little home affair

—————

Matt’s Notes

A few days ago I mistakenly speculated that “little Sadie” was a woman Papa got set up with, but as it turns out Sadie, Eva and Clara were the daughters of Max and Dora Breindel, the cousins who gave Papa and his sister Nettie a place to stay when they first came to New York.1 Papa and Nettie had actually shared a bed with the three Breindel sisters for a long while (in later years my grandmother would jokingly shout “you slept with my husband!” when she ran into Sadie) and apparently everyone enjoyed themselves immensely during that time. (I wonder if, having gotten to know each other under such close and adventurous circumstances, they all regressed and behaved like kids when they got together in later years. What games had they played? What secret language had they developed?)

I think a “nice little home affair” (probably Passover-related, since it happened at the tail end of Passover week, when traditional Jews get together) was just what Papa needed. The holiday had intensified his longing to be with his father, who was struggling with a protracted illness in the old country. He’d written, just the day before, about how “alarmed” he was over the lack of contact from his parents, though I think this was just one intense manifestation of the powerful, pervasive homesickness behind Papa’s chronic loneliness. Perhaps Max and Dora, who had welcomed Papa when he arrived at Ellis Island in 1913, reminded him of a time when his memories of home were still fresh, and the voices of his friends and family still rang in his ears.

—————-

Additional Notes

1 – How could I have erred so profoundly about Sadie’s identity, you ask? I made the mistake of neglecting to run her name past my mother before writing my initial post about her, and I took a gamble and assumed she would remain as mysterious as many of the other people Papa mentions in his diary. In fact, my mother says “they were all lovely people, with whom our family was most friendly in later life.” Lesson learned.

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