Brief Notices - American Jewish Archives

Volume XLIII FallNSlinter, 1991 Number 2 

American Jewish 

Archives 

A Journal Devoted to the Preservation and Study 

of the American Jewish Experience 

Jacob Rader Marcus, Ph.D., Editor 

Abraham J. Peck, Ph.M., Managing Editor 

Ruth L. Kreimer, Editorial Associate 

Tammy Topper, Editorial Assistant 

Published by The American Jewish Archives 

on the Cincinnati Campus of the 

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion 

Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, President

American Jewish Archives is indexed in The 

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of American History 

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O I ~ by ~ the I American Jewish Archives

Covttevtts 

115 

"Give Me My Childhood Again": The Grand Street Boys' 

Association 191 5-1945 

Jeffrey A. Marx 

Like life in the East European shtetl, the Lower East Side of New 

York has passed into the mythologies of Jewish history. The story goes 

something like: life was wonderful, beautiful on the Lower East Side 

and we really knew what Yiddishkeit was all about. Perhaps. But like 

the mud-filled streets of the shtetl, life on the Lower East Side was also 

very hard, surrounded by disease, crime and poverty. 

Yet for the members of the Grand Street Boys' Association, the Low- 

er East Side experience was the best. In 19 I 5 they organized the Asso- 

ciation as a way of paying homage to their roots. They also met over 

the next three decades and the essence of what they said and did at 

those meetings symbolized the passage of the Grand Street Boys' Asso- 

ciation and its members into the second generation of East European 

Jews, who "combined traditional, communal institutions with Ameri- 

can organizations to arrive at their own, unique form of community." 

I3 5 

"Let Them Drink and Forget Our Poverty": Orthodox Rabbis 

React to Prohibition 

Hannah Sprecher 

The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 

which went into effect on January 16,1920, forbade the manufacture, 

sale or transportation of intoxicating liquor. The National Prohibition 

Act, or the Volsted Act as it was commonly known, regulated, among 

other areas, the use of alcohol in industry, medicine and the sacra- 

ment. 

For American Jews, who used alcohol (specifically wine) in their 

rituals, Prohibition was problematic in a number of areas. Many Jews 

saw in the Prohibition Act a backlash by the forces of Anglo-Saxon 

Protestantism against the changing nature of America and its ethnic 

composition. Allied with immigration restriction and a heightened

emphasis on racial thinking, Prohibition was threat to Jewish life in 

America. 

And yet, the use of wine for "sacramental purposes" was not altered 

by the Volstead Act. That was true as long as its use was regulated by 

the proper rabbinical authorities within the major branches of Ameri- 

can Judaism. Obviously, this is where the difficulties really began, not 

only among the Reform, Conservative and (the many parts of the) 

Orthodox movements but within American Orthodoxy and its repre- 

sentative rabbinic associations as well. 

181 

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience 

A Memoir of Nazi Austria and the Jewish Refugee Experience in 

America 

Stella K. Hershan 

207 

American Jewish Personalities 

Kaufmann Kohler and His Attitude Towards Zionism: A 

Reexamination 

Yaakov Ariel 

225 

Review Essay 

Portrait of an Unsung Genius 

Edgar E. Siskin 

Darnell, Regna. Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist 

23 5 

Review Essay 

The Last Great Rabbi? 

Evyatar Friesel 

Raphael, Marc Lee. Abba Hillel Silver: A Profile in American Judaism 

24 5 

Book Reviews 

Heinze, Andrew R. Adapting to Abundance: Jewish' 

Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and the Search for 

American Identity 

Reviewed by Stephen J. Whitfield

250 

Jaffe, Dan, Round For One Voice 

Juergensen, Hans, Testimony: Selected Poems, 1954-1986 

Reviewed by Gary Pacernick 

25 5 

Levendel, Lewis A Century of the Canadian 

Jewish Press: I 880s-1980s 

Reviewed by Ira Robinson 

258 

Burt, Robert A. Two Jewish Justices: Outcasts 

in the Promised Land 

Reviewed by Allon Gal 

262 

Judaica Latino ~mericana: Estudios Historico-Sociales 

Reviewed by Judith Laikin Elkin 

266 

Gurock, Jeffery S,, Edited by RAMAZ: School, Community, Scholarship and 

Orthodoxy 

Reviewed by Ophra and David Weisberg 

270 

Carlin, Nina Beth and Silverman, David Wolf, 

Edited by The Seminary at IOO 

Reviewed by Mark E. Washofsky 

273 

Letters to the Editor 

283 

Brief Notices 

287 

Index to Volume XLIII

The Plaque of the Grand Street Boys' Association 

ICourrory of rhr Arn~rlcan Jcuirh Hmrrormcal Socicryi

"Give Me My Childhood Again": The 

Grand Street Boys' Association 

1915-194s 

Jeffrey A. Marx 

Backward, flow backward 0 tide of the years! I am so weary of toil and of 

tears-Toil without recompense, tears all in vain! Take them, and give me my 

childhood again! 

-Elizabeth Akers Allen, 

Rock Me to Sleep 

In the 192os, second-generation East European Jews emerged into the 

social, political, economic, and religious spheres of American life. In- 

fluenced by the experience of their immigrant parents on the one hand 

and by their own Americanization on the other, this generation of Jews 

created new communal structures and patterns of identification with- 

in the American Jewish community. No organization more clearly 

reflects the demographic, political, economic, and religious changes 

that occurred in the lives of New York (and American) Jewry between 

the 1920s and 1940s than the Grand Street Boys' Association. 

Formation 

The beginning of the Grand Street Boys' Association (GSBA) occurred 

in 191 5, when a businessman, Morris S. Marks, set about organizing a 

dinner-reunion for men who had grown up on the Lower East Side. 

The reunion took place at Terrace Garden on January I 8,19 I 6. There 

are no records of the dinner, but in all probability, the attendance was 

under IOO and consisted primarily of Jewish judges, lawyers, and busi- 

nessmen. 

In 1919, Marks arranged for a second dinner-reunion, which was 

held in the Hotel Astor on February I, 1920. Among those attending 

were Judge Max Levine, Judge Otto Rosalsky, and Jimmy Walker, 

later to be mayor of New York. At this second dinner, it was decided to

The Grand Street Boys' Association Clubhouse at I 06-1 08 

West 55th Street (Courccry of the Arncrtcan jrw>rh Hlrror>cal Soom1

The Grand Street Boys' Association 117 

form a permanent organization of former Lower East Side residents, 

and, accordingly, a nominating committee was set up.' 

The first meeting of the organization was held two months later, in 

late March, at the Hotel Pennsylvania. Approximately IOO men at- 

tended, and Max S. Levine, judge of the New York Court of General 

Sessions, was elected president. On April 9, 1920, the GSBA was in- 

corporated as an organization. Shortly thereafter, an office was 

opened at 1482 Broadway. 

The purpose of the GSBA was, as stated in its original charter, "to 

reunite youthful friends and renew the early friendships of our Grand 

St. days; to promote our mutual welfare; to relieve distress; to main- 

tain a clubhouse and to encourage the education and moral advance- 

ment of our members and the youth of our Grand St. neighborho~d."~ 

Reflecting their Lower East Side childhood, the group adopted as its 

emblem a picture of three barefoot boys holding a small cake. Sur- 

rounding the boys were the words "Good Fellowship, Benevolence, 

Charity." Under the boys was a four-line poem, which concluded: 

"Give me my childhood again!"3 

One year later, the GSBA numbered almost 1,000 members, a figure 

which more than doubled by early 1922. Due to its growing member- 

ship, the association moved its bimonthly meetings from a small room 

at the Hotel Pennsylvania to the Grand Ball Room. It was clear that 

the GSBA needed a place of its own. Talk of a clubhouse began in 

1921, and in the early months of 1923, the officers put forth a plan for 

the acquisition of a permanent clubhouse. The members decided to 

buy and remodel the old MacDougal Club, located in midtown Man- 

hattan, for an approximate cost of $I 50,ooo. Since the dues were only 

$10 a year, the association raised the money by selling the members 

certificates of indebtedness, ranging from $25 to $250. The money 

was raised in one year's time, testifying to the general prosperity of the 

membership. 

In 1924, the clubhouse at 106-108 West 5 5th Street was opened 

and dedicated. Its several stories contained a barbershop, a gym with 

steambox and two masseurs, a library, a social room with cards, 

checkers, and chess, an auditorium, a grill, an office for the president, 

and a boardroom. By the year's end, no doubt helped by having a 

permanent facility, the GSBA had nearly 5,000 member^.^

118 American Jewish Archives 

The Members 

From its inception, the GSBA had a primarily Jewish membership. The 

membership list for 1921 contains nearly all Jewish names. Of the 

officers and board of directors in 1922, only two were non-Jews: 

Judge Joseph Mulqueen and Congressman Christopher D. Sullivan. 

Though officially nonsectarian, the GSBA was, in actuality, a largely 

Jewish group.' 

At the annual dinner-dance in January 1922, the members were 

identified as immigrants or children of immigrants. Their lowly ori- 

gins were also noted: "It seems but a short while ago that they had 

been struggling together in poverty and squalor; living in dingy tene- 

ments . . . and on a hot summer's night sought relief on the tenement 

roof." What was striking about the members, however, was how far 

they had come: ". . . the boys who sold newspapers and peddled 

matches became prominent lawyers and jurists. . . . Each one, whatev- 

er his calling may be, is a successful self-made man." The members 

were cited for their philanthropic activities in helping to build Beth 

Israel Hospital, supporting HIAS, the Free Loan Association, and reli- 

gious school^.^ While many still had their businesses on the Lower 

East Side, others were now located in Flatbush, along the Grand Con- 

course, on the West so's, and in Harlem.' 

The speeches and articles in the GSBA's 1922 yearbook reflect the 

facility with English attained by many of its members. Their words 

were often lofty, poetic, and certainly indistinguishable from a those 

of a "Yankee." Not only their vocabulary but the content of their 

speeches made it clear how far they had come from their immigrant 

origins on the Lower East Side. It was as though, in 1922, the Lower 

East Side was already a part of the distant past. The neighborhood is 

referred to as a "bygone homeland." "The olden days, the good old- 

fashioned ways have long ago passed," stated the yearbook. The din- 

ner-dance's greeting proclaimed: "The sole purpose of our association 

is to preserve the ideals of a past in whose memories we delight to 

revel, living them over again in the vale of maturer year^."^ 

The membership of the GSBA also expressed a grand nostalgia for 

the Lower East Side. Its "smiles, tears and sympathetic heart" are 

referred to in the yearbook, as are the neighborhood's "humble and 

blessed homes, so warm in our affection^."^ The speakers at the din-


ner, moreover, repeatedly connected material well-being and Ameri- 

canism in their remarks. The members, one said, were "exemplifying 

American opportunity. . . . All are imbued with the true spirit of Amer- 

icanism, unexcelled in their patriotism and devotion to their adopted 

country. "lo 

Nostalgia for the Old Neighborhood 

At its 1922 dinner-dance, the GSBA displayed several key characteris- 

tics of East European Jewry in America in the opening decades of the 

twentieth century. First was the fact that a second generation had now 

arisen, the offspring of parents who arrived in America between I 880 

and 1900. The European immigrants who came to America in the 

19 20s were now encountering a fully grown, second-generation popu- 

lation. 

Second, by 1920, many Jews had already left the Lower East Side. 

As mentioned above, they settled in Upper Manhattan and in the sur- 

rounding boroughs. That is why the clubhouse was not built on the 

Lower East Side but in mid-Manhattan, which would be a central 

location for its members. It was this second generation that would 

provide the basis for the drama of Jewish mobility, for the rags-to- 

riches stories of the East European immigrants. In truth, many were 

quite successful as merchants, and having "made it," they quite natu- 

rally sought to distance themselves from their old roots, if only in a 

figurative sense, seeing the Lower East Side as a neighborhood from 

the ancient past. Yet, the Lower East Side remained a highly visible 

immigrant community during the 1920s and 1930s, boasting a Jewish 

population of ~oo,ooo. Of the area's 12,000 shops, 75 percent were 

still Jewish-owned." 

Though these successful Jews wished to distance themselves from 

their lowly beginnings, they did not want to forget them entirely. For 

second-generation Jews, the Lower East Side provided an emotional 

point of reference. Their parents could look back to the Old Country, 

but for them the culture of Eastern Europe was, at best, an abstract 

ideal. Their point of reference was the "old neighborhood," which 

summoned up memories of childhood, and soon entered into myth as 

the organic community, a place of warm, rich culture. Deborah Dash 

Moore, in her work on second-generation New York Jews, stated that


for many of them the neighborhood meant "friendships, spatial pat- 

terns, and vaguely articulated communal value^."'^ It was for this rea- 

son that the members of the GSBA waxed nostalgic for "the good old 

days." 

Ethnicity 

The preceding discussion shows that the GSBA, in 1922, spotlighted 

the beginning of the second generation's transition into an American 

ethnic group. While the German immigrant experience helped shape 

the voluntary aspects of the American Jewish community, it was this 

second generation of East European Jews that further defined the 

community as public in nature. They developed the notion that secular 

structures, such as civic or social clubs, could be used as a means of 

identification. These second-generation East European Jews were able 

to synthesize their immigrant parents' communal structures with ex- 

isting American institutions, to create a new form of Jewish communi- 

ty- For the European immigrants, the chevra and landsmanshaft ful- 

filled some of their religious and social needs. These organizations 

were based on kinship and shtetl of origin, and functioned "to unify all 

members to live in a spirit of brotherhood, to support a member fallen 

on bad days, and to bury members according to Jewish law."13 

Though the GSBA's members had no common shtetl, they did have an 

old neighborhood in common. Though they could not pray at the 

GSBA, it would be there, as its charter stated, to relieve their distress 

and serve as a mutual welfare organization. Thus, in the GSBA we see 

how the religious and communal societies of the first generation were 

transformed into the social clubs of the second, clubs which did not 

need to be restricted entirely to Jews. 

Social and Political Factors 

The fifth anniversary yearbook of the GSBA (1925), while highlight- 

ing several new activities of the association, also reflects the social and 

political conditions of the mid-1920s. It contains articles by a Jew, an 

Irishman, and an Italian in defense of the idealism and patriotism of 

the Lower East Side community, and it reports that in 1924 a relief


fund was established to fund Catholic, protestan( and Jewish institu- 

tions, as well as a ladies' auxiliary engaged in charitable activities. The 

yearbook proclaims: "Our main objective is to relieve humanity in 

distress and not question the belief of the beneficiary, taking it for 

granted that we are all God's children.'' The association here dis- 

played the characteristics which it would bear for the next half-centu- 

ry: assertions of the worthiness of the immigrants, proclamations of 

loyalty to America, and the desire for a society that would not discrim- 

inate or show favoritism toward religion or race.14 

There are several reasons why the GSBA may have chosen to articu- 

late these particular values. In the early 1920s, America witnessed an 

anti-immigration backlash, which culminated in the Immigration Act 

of 1924. Throughout the decade, the radicalism of Lower East Side 

Jews was cited by opponents of immigration as evidence that Jews 

were inherently un-American and would never become good citi- 

zens.ls The twenties also saw the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, as well 

as Henry Ford's publication of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In 

addition, 1919 was the beginning of the Red Scare in America. "Patri- 

otic associations drew up lists of citizens suspected of disloyalty. . . . 

Aliens suspected of disloyalty were rounded up and deported."16 It is 

against this background that the desire of the GSBA's members to 

defend their immigrant heritage and assert their strong patriotic be- 

liefs can be understood. 

Though these second-generation Jews sought to protect themselves 

against any form of social discrimination, the GSBA's support for so- 

cial equality must be seen against the larger issue of Jewish involvement 

with liberalism and social reform in the 1920s, I ~ ~ O S and , 

1940s. In part because they had been exposed to traditional Jewish 

values concerning social justice and to the millenarian dreams of the 

Jewish socialist movement on the Lower East Side, its members were 

attached to the idea of social reform. Moreover, coming from urban 

neighborhoods, they appreciated the benefits wrought by early social 

reformers, such as street and sewer upgrading, ventilated apartments, 

and city parks. 

In the 1920s reformers and social workers began to shift their operating 

philosophy; instead of seeking to ameliorate the ills which society 

produced, they now sought to prevent them. They sought to create 

a fundamentally just society, involving a freer, fuller, and more secure


life for all. The new goal of social work was "releasing the best ener- 

gies of individuals, by giving them an assurance of security and oppor- 

tunity."17 The role of the community, according to this model, was to 

open up new avenues of opportunity for every individual. The GSBA 

wholeheartedly embraced this new community role, especially since 

the goals of social reform seemed to mark the very essence of America. 

It should be noted, however, that the second-generation Jews were 

liberal but not radical. Their relatively rapid economic and social rise 

caused them to link their group efforts with America's urban middle 

class. Their moral values were middle-class moral values.18 Fulfill- 

ment, as defined by the GSBA and other second-generation Jews, be- 

came the American success story. Social justice would be achieved not 

when the workers had a larger say in management, but when there was 

no racial or religious discrimination in their hiring. 

By 1928, just before the Depression, the GSBA numbered more than 

6,500 members. It still maintained its fraternalistic goals. Though it 

was officially nonsectarian and boasted some Irish and Italian names 

on its membership list and officers' roll, the association still was over- 

whelmingly Jewish. Nonetheless, it made ever effort to be fair to all 

religious and ethnic groups.19 

Auxiliaries 

In the late 1920s and early 193os, several GSBA auxiliaries were 

formed, some of which were to remain for over half a century. The 

first of these came about when some members of the GSBA who had 

served in the armed forces in World War I decided to give a once-a- 

year dinner for wounded veterans still in government hospitals. This 

apparently brought to light a common link between some of the mem- 

bers, and the idea of starting an American Legion chapter was born. 

Post 102 was organized sometime between 1928 and 1930; it started 

with approximately 65 members. Aside from participating in national 

Legion functions, the chapter supported and trained a youth drum- 

and-bugle corps and sponsored essay contests on the subject of liber- 

ty.20 

In 1933-34, the Yeomen came into existence. This group consisted 

of GSBA members between the ages of twenty and thirty-five who met 

several times a year for day outings and evening activities. From the


beginning, however, membership was a problem for the Yeomen. In 

1937, for example, they numbered 150 out of the total GSBA mem- 

bership of 4,000. This was because as the years went on, fewer and 

fewer young men could be found who had grown up on the Lower 

East Side or who had the nostalgic view toward the neighborhood held 

by many older members. The onset of World War I1 put a halt to the 

Yeomen's activities since the majority of them were drafted. The group 

was reconstituted after the war, though its membership continued to 

decrea~e.~' 

Another auxiliary was the Amen Boys, which began around 1934. 

Although the Amen Boys had fewer activities than the Yeomen, they 

never had any membership difficulties. In part, this was because this 

auxiliary was for GSBA members over the age of fifty. Many of the 

Amen Boys were true "Grand Streeters," having actually grown up on 

the Lower East Side, and thus felt more of an affinity with the associa- 

tion's premises.22 

Jonah Goldstein 

In 1935, Judge Jonah Goldstein became the third president of the 

GSBA.23 He held this office for the next three decades, until his death 

in 1967, and more than any other member came to personify the or- 

ganization. As one old-timer put it: "It was not Goldstein who reflect- 

ed the members' views, but rather, the membership who reflected 

Goldstein's views."24 

Born in Ontario in 1886, Goldstein moved to the Lower East Side 

with his parents and seven siblings in 1892. After graduating from 

New York University's law school, he served as secretary to A1 Smith, 

then majority leader of the State Assembly. Later he opened his own 

law practice and became a resident worker at the University Settle- 

ment. In 1936 he became judge of General Sessions in New York, and 

in 1945 he ran unsuccessfully for mayor on the Fusion ticket. After 

retiring from the bench in 1956, he spent the next decade serving 

actively as president of the GSBA.25 

Goldstein was not only a Lower East Side boy who made good, but 

one who was involved in Lower East Side Jewish communal politics 

from an early age. In 191 2, Goldstein had volunteered to head a dis- 

trict office for the New York Kehillah, to help gather information


about crime on the Lower East Side. Conflicts soon developed, how- 

ever, between him and Judah Magnes, who headed the Kehillah. Sev- 

eral months later, Goldstein resigned and helped form the East Side 

Neighborhood Association. This group sponsored weekly discussions 

of civic problems in its attempt to help fight crime. In his letter of 

resignation, Goldstein wrote that the early participation of East Siders 

in the Kehillah's crime-fighting activities now had ended in "suspicion 

of everyone and everything that smacked of the Lower East Side."16 In 

19 I 3, based on information supplied to him by the chief investigator 

of the Kehillah's Bureau of Social Morals, Magnes commented that 

Goldstein was not trustworthy. Goldstein promptly instituted a libel 

suit, which was settled in 1916 when Magnes apologi~ed.~' 

Clearly Goldstein, in those years, resented the snobbishness of up- 

town Jews like Magnes and was intent on proving that East Siders 

could manage their own affairs. These early events may help explain 

the tremendous energy he poured into the GSBA over several decades, 

making its name and his renowned and respected in New Y ~rk.~~ 

Civic Activities 

Under Goldstein's leadership, the activities of the GSBA began to 

grow and the association reached out to embrace all of New York City. 

A monthly bulletin, Wuxtra (named from the cry of the paper boys), 

was started in I 93 6. That same year, the association began the custom 

of holding an annual party for couples who had been married for at 

least fifty years but had not had a golden wedding celebration. Over 

the years, Protestants, Jews, Catholics, Chinese, and Blacks were fe- 

ted.19 

In 1936, the GSBA began its involvement with sports activities by 

sponsoring a track team. The team was started because other athletic 

clubs in New York were discriminating against athletes based on their 

color or religion. In 1938 an ice skating team and a handball team 

were begun. A cross-country team was introduced in 1941, and in 

1947, a basketball team. True to form, all the teams were made up of 

players of different religions and races. Over the years, the teams 

amassed an impressive record of wins.30 

Under Goldstein's leadership,, the GSBA loudly touted itself as an 

embodiment of American idealism and civic pride. In 193 7, it adopted 

a slogan coined by Jimmy Walker, "Headquarters of those who really


love New York." No longer was growing up on the Lower East Side a 

prerequisite for membership. Now, a willingness to accept the associa- 

tion's aims was deemed qualification enough.31 

As a result of this new civic emphasis, the focus of the GSBA shifted 

away from "the good old days on the Lower East Side." Instead, the 

Lower East Side now came to stand for the entire immigrant experi- 

ence. By the early forties, the association was making an annual pil- 

grimage to Columbus's statue on October 12 to lay a wreath.32 

During these years, the GSBA touted itself as an organization for all. 

The clubhouse was opened up for use by civic groups of many types, 

among them a religiously and racially mixed Boy Scout troop spon- 

sored by the association, Big Brothers, the Negro Actors' Guild, and 

the Merry-Go-Rounders, a group of deaf dancers who danced in per- 

fect rhythm, using the vibrations of the floor as a guide. In addition, 

the GSBA sponsored high school essay contests on such themes as 

"Why I Love New Y~rk."~~ 

Welfare Activities 

Though the GSBA had been involved in welfare activities since its 

inception, the 1940s saw the beginning of large-scale projects. During 

World War 11, $5,000 was raised and sent to Sir Louis Sterling, a 

former Lower East Side resident, who had emigrated to England and 

made his fortune selling phonographs and records. The money was 

used to help build Grand Street House, a shelter in Surrey, to care for 

the homeless of London's East End.34 

Following the war, the GSBA began giving maintenance scholar- 

ships to New York City students from welfare families who were at- 

tending municipal and private colleges or studying nursing. The bene- 

ficiaries were not only given money but were befriended by members 

of the association, who invited them home for dinner and served as 

their advisors. In addition, the association gave maintenance scholar- 

ships to needy students in New York medical schools and postgradu- 

ate nursing programs. This practice continued until appropriate legis- 

lation in the 1950s created college and nursing scholarship^.^^ 

In 1945, to help in its distribution of funds, the GSBA established 

the Grand Street Boys' Foundation. Served by a board of thirty-five 

trustees, all of whom were GSBA members, the foundation was set up 

with a portfolio that included the clubhouse, as well as more than $I

I 26 American Jewish Archives 

million in cash and gilt-edged securities. This sizable sum would allow 

the GSBA to assist many individuals, colleges, and organizations in 

the years ahead.36 

Religious and Cultural Activities 

In 1945, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the GSBA, Goldstein 

stated: "The GSBA advocates substituting the symphony orchestra in 

place of the melting pot, as a symbol of America. . . . in the symphony 

of peoples in America, there is room for the social expression of all 

people^."^' 

The GSBA made an extraordinary effort not to identify itself solely 

as a Jewish organization though its membership and prime financial 

supporters were overwhelmingly Jewish. In addition to its annual 

Chanukah party, the association, in March, held a St. Patrick's Day 

party with corned beef and beer. In October was the Columbus Day 

party with Italian food. Rather than have a priest or minister deliver 

the invocation at these special events, the association invited three Boy , 

Scouts, one from each major faith, to say grace.38 

What Goldstein did not say about the symphony of America was 

that all peoples could play in it, but no specific people could toot their 

horn louder than the rest. Thus, the association had an understanding 

that there would be no table exclusively for Jews at the annual Chanu- 

kah party. At least four of the ten at each table were expected to be 

Gentiles. Similarly, throughout its history, the GSBA took care to en- 

sure that its heavily Jewish composition did not dominate its activi- 

Politician Members 

An examination of the membership rolls of the GSBA in the 1920s~ 

1930s~ and 1940s reveals that a large number of its members held 

political office. Its early officers and board of directors included many 

judges and at least one congressman. The membership roll for 1922 

included a half-dozen judges, three state assemblymen, two state sena- 

tors, and a borough president.40 In 1945, its members included Sena- 

tors Robert Wagner and James Mead, former Governor Herbert 

Lehman, Mayor La Guardia, six congressmen, five state senators, sev- 

en assemblymen, and twenty State Supreme Court justice^.^'.

The Grand Street Boys' Association I 27 

Though not all the members of the GSBA held political office, a 

great many of them were actively involved in partisan politics. One 

political historian, writing in 193 5, stated that the membership "looks 

for all the world like a census of the leading spirits of Tammany 

Hall.''42 Goldstein had served as A1 Smith's assistant, and thus had 

been involved with Tammany Hall politics. A1 Smith was feted several 

times by the association. Jimmy Walker, another Tammany product, 

was associated with the group from the beginning. Ferdinand Pecora, 

who annually installed Goldstein in office for over twenty-five years, 

was called "one of the ablest Italian democrat^."^^ A close look at the 

party affiliations of GSBA members would show that the majority of 

them were active Democrats. 

The heavily Democratic makeup of the GSBA reflects the general 

political trend of New York Jews in the twenties, thirties, and forties. 

At the turn of the century, the East European Jews followed the uptown 

Jews' lead and voted Republican, but by the early 1920s they 

were beginning to favor the Democratic Party. This can be explained 

by the decline of the Socialist Party following World War I, and the 

appeal of A1 Smith, who championed urban social reforms which appealed 

to Jewish voters. By the I ~~OS, many Jews saw their liberalism 

reflected in the policies of the Democrats. Given the GSBA's liberal 

goals, it was quite natural for its membership to be largely Democrati 

~ . ~ ~ 

The GSBA as a Political Club 

Though the GSBA's charter made no mention of political activities, 

nonetheless, it had a distinctly political flavor. This can be best ex- 

plained if we see the association as a quasi-political club; though it did 

no fundraising for political parties and did not formally endorse can- 

didates, it did bring political leaders and laymen in close contact with 

one another. 

New York, in 1932, had more than 3,100 quasi-political 

Like the GSBA, many of them existed to preserve "the intimacies of 

adult males who had 'grown up together' in certain sections [of the 

city]."46 They often took the form of boys' clubs, of which the GSBA is 

a prime example. Manhattan, in 1932, boasted twenty-eight other 

boys' associations besides the GSBA.47


Through the social contacts and friendships established in the qua- 

si-political clubs, the aspiring politician continued to build his politi- 

cal base. The GSBA certainly functioned in this way. One member 

stated: ". . . for the few dollars a year dues, you were a fool if you were 

a politician and didn't join the GSBA.''4s 

Not only was the association an important meeting ground for poli- 

ticians and their prospective supporters, but for lawyers as well. It 

gave lawyers the opportunity to mix socially with judges before whom 

they would later appear in court. The GSBA, however; was careful to 

avoid any charges of impropriety. Goldstein, in his address to new 

members, warned them that if they were joining the association solely 

to curry favor with certain other members, they would be sorely disap- 

pointed. One member recalled that at gala events, when photogra- 

phers were present, judges were very careful to screen who sat with 

them at their tables.49 

While the GSBA's membership reflected the composition of other 

quasi-political associations, its social, civic, and welfare events paral- 

leled the activities of New York's political clubs. These clubs engaged 

not only in formal political campaigns, but in various community project~.~~ 

Political clubs held annual or semiannual balls, dinners of all 

kinds, and outings to parks and entertainment centers." They maintained 

athletic teams and supported neighborhood athletic clubs. The 

political clubs were also involved with welfare activities: dispensing 

holiday baskets to the poor and clothes to the needy, giving gifts to 

orphans and assistance to veterans. The political clubs also sponsored 

activities for children, such as Children's Day, when poor children in 

the political district were treated to free food, games, and gifts.s2 

Through these activities, the political clubs were able to build up 

neighborhood goodwill toward their party or toward their political 

candidate. 

One of the more striking parallels between the activities of the GS- 

BA and the political clubs of New York can be seen in their celebration 

of national holidays. In the political club, celebrations of national 

holidays were "usually social affairs, with elements of politics, civic 

education and welfare inextricably interw~ven."~~ On Columbus Day, 

the GSBA followed suit: a wreath was laid on Columbus's statue, 

speeches were given on the immigrant and democracy in America, and 

a social dinner was held at the clubhouse.


This is not to suggest that the members of the GSBA pursued their 

charitable and social activities for political ends, but rather, that their 

model of what a social, civic association should engage in was taken 

from the political clubs of the time.s4 The fraternal nature of the associ- 

ation found its roots in the chevra and landsmanschaft, its specific 

membership reflected the American quasi-political club, and its civic, 

welfare, and social activities were modeled after those of the political 

club. Traditional communal institutions and American organizations 

thus met one another in the GSBA. 

Conclusions 

The GSBA demonstrates that by the 1920s the children of the first 

wave of immigrants had not only "come of age," but in many cases 

had achieved political power and/or financial success. Though many 

of them had physically left the Lower East Side by the 1920s to settle in 

the surrounding boroughs, they still utilized the old neighborhood as a 

social reference point. It was this generation that first created the myth 

of the "good old days" on the Lower East Side. 

The GSBA also reflects the beginning of Jewish ethnicity in Ameri- 

ca. It demonstrates that for many second-generation Jews, propin- 

quity alone served as the basis for Jewish identity. Having a common 

neighborhood, subscribing to the same liberal social goals, and so- 

cializing together became ways to identify oneself as a Jew. Being Jew- 

ish, for the second generation, could be achieved by simply being with 

Jews. The GSBA further highlights the inner insecurity for some sec- 

ond-generation Jews. They did not call attention to their Jewishness. 

Jewish activities were permitted, but only providing that other reli- 

gious and cultural groups were given equal time. 

The GSBA also demonstrates that second-generation Jews were, in 

increasing numbers, becoming Democratic, and embodies the begin- 

ning of the process which equated Jewishness with liberalism. Finally, 

the GSBA provides a prime example of how second-generation Jews 

combined traditional communal institutions with American organiza- 

tions to arrive at their own unique form of community. 

Jeffrey A. Marx is the rabbi of Sha'arei Am: The Santa Monica Syna- 

gogue, Santa Monica, California.


Notes 

This paper is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather, Dr. Israel 

Augenblick, z"1, a former Grand Street boy and member of the GSBA. 

I. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, pp. 38-39; ibid, 1925, p. "0"; Wuxtra, Special, January 1936. Otto 

Rosalsky was fictionalized in Samuel Omie's Haunch, Paunch and Jowl. 

2. Jonah Goldstein, "It Can Be Done; or, The Grand Street Story" (unpublished MS, ca. 1959), 

p. 57; GSBA Yearbook, 1925, p. O. Though the 1937 yearbook states that the group first met in 

Odd Fellows Hall on Forsyth Street and then met in the Hotel Pennsylvania (later to be the 

Statler), 1 cannot find any mention of this in the early documents. It may be that informal 

meetings were held in Odd Fellows Hall between February I, 1920 and the end of March, but 

again this is not certain. The original charter currently hangs in the GSBA clubhouse in New 

York. See also GSBA Yearbook, 1937, p. 3, and 1941, p. 17. Though 1920 witnessed an explosion 

of private clubs and organizations due to Prohibition, liquor was apparently not served by 

the organization during this time. Even in later years, its members were apparently not a drinking 

crowd. 

3. The idea for the plaque came from A. Alex Edelman, one of the founders of the GSBA. He 

explained that his inspiration came from the old Market Street booths. "In those days the 'barefoot 

boys' would stand outside the booths planning the spending of the day's earnings for sweets. 

. . . By pooling the day's earnings, the three could have one-half of a sandwich each." Wuxtra, 

March 1939, p. 2. Jonah Goldstein explained that the boys are holding a bolivar (a collapsed 

ginger or molasses cake). "It Can Be Done," p. 8; Wuxtra, March 1939, p. 2. The earliest 

appearance of the emblem I can find is in January of 1922. A plaque bearing the emblem can be 

found in the Grand Street file at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). 

4. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, pp. 38-39; ibid., 1925, pp. K, L, 0 and P; 1941, p. 17; Goldstein, 

"It Can Be Done," pp. 6-7; Membership folder, GSBA file, Box I, AJHS. 

5. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, pp 38-39. See also the membership list, pp. 305-321. 

6. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, pp. 305-321 and p. 4. See also Correspondence: Membership 

folder in Grand Street file, Box 2, AJHS, for partial list of 1920 and 1921 members. 

7. GSBA Yearbook, 1925, advertisements. Jonah Goldstein defined a Grand Street Boy as one 

who "once lived on East Broadway . . . learned the facts of life on Allen Street. . . was in business 

on 7th Avenue-and lived on Central Park West." Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America 

(New York: Columbia University Press, New York, 1981), p. 67. The business locations and 

neighborhoods of the GSBA members were even further spread out than Goldstein's words 

suggest. 

8. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, pp. I, 34. The distancing is even more pronounced in the 19.38 

yearbook: "Once upon a time there lived on the East Side . . ." (p. 3). 

9. GSBA Yearbook, 1922, p. 34. 

10. Ibid., p. 38. 

11. Moore, At Home in America, pp. 19, 67, 68. 

12. Ibid., pp. 12, 66, 67. 

13. Ibid., p. 126. In 1917 there were at least 1,000 landsmanshaftn in New York with which 

many of the early GSBA members would have had direct or indirect contact. See Arthur A. 

Goren, New York Jews and the Quest for Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 

1970)~ p. 20, and Michael R. Weisser, A Brotherhood of Memory (New York: Basic Books, 

1985)9 P. 5. 

14. GSBA Yearbook, 1925, pp. K, L, 430; ibid., 1928, pp. 3, I I. The ladies' auxiliary disap-


peared within a few years. The multireligious and multinational composition of the Lower East 

Side may have affected, to some degree, the initial decision to officially open the association to all 

former East Siders, and not just to Jews. 

15. Henry L. Feingold, Zion in America (New York: Hippocrene Books, 1974)~ p. 265. 

16. Clarke A. Chambers, Seedtime of Reform (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 

19631, P. 24. 

17. Ibid., p. 102. For a further account of this shift in social work during the twenties, see ibid., 

pp. 99-106. 

18. Moore, At Home in America, pp. 4, 13, IS, 201, 228, try. 


20. The exact date of the post's formation is uncertain. The 193 I yearbook suggests sometime 

after February 1930 (p. 4); the 1942 yearbook states July 1930 (p. 19); the 1945 yearbook gives 

the charter date as March I, 1929 (p. zz); while the 1968 Wuxtra states that it was March 19 28 

(P. 2). 

21. GSBA Yearbook, 1y38,pp. 13-14; ibid., 1945, pp. LO--21; Goldstein, "It CanBe Done," 

p. 7; interviews with GSBA members, Spring 1982 (the members interviewed, some of whom 

were still active members of the bar, did not wish their names used, and I have respected their 

wishes). 

22. Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," p. 7. 

23. "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein" (Oral History Research Office, Columbia 

University, 1967), pp. 120-122. Max Levine died in 1933, and was succeeded in office for two 

years by Henry Sobel. 

24. Interview, Spring 1982. 

25. Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," p. I; "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein," pp. 1-2, 

7-8; New York Times, July 23,1967, p. 60; interviews with GSBA members, Spring 1982. As has 

already been noted, the social reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 

devoted themselves to such issues as the deprivation of civil liberties, the denial of first-class 

citizenship to blacks, and the dependency of old age. Having worked in the settlement move- 

ment, Goldstein may have been influenced by these issues. Certainly, the last two were not raised 

by the GSBA until his presidency. See Chambers, Seedtime of Reform, p. xi. 

26. See Goren, New York Jews and the Quest for Community, pp. 166-169, nn. 21-20, pp. 

292-293; and "Hon. Jonah J. Goldstein Oral History Memoir" (William E. Wiener Oral Histo- 

ry Library of the American Jewish Committee, 1964, 1965), pp. 2-3 

27. Abe Shoenfeld, the bureau's chief investigator, reported that gang associates of Dopey 

Benny familiarly called Goldstein "Joney." "They Uonah and his brother Dave] lived off these 

people [the gangsters] . . . they worked on these people, he was their boy, Jonah." "Abe Shoenfeld 

Oral Memoir" (William E. Wiener Oral History Library of the American Jewish Committee, 

1965), pp. 76,79; "Hon. Jonah J. Goldstein Oral History Memoir," p. 113; Goren, New York 

Jews and the Quest for Community, p. 293, n. 25. Goldstein certainly never denied knowing 

many of the Jewish underworld characters, having grown up with them as a boy on the Lower 

East Side. See Wuxtra, Special, January 1936, p. 3. 

28. In 1920, when Goldstein married Harriet Loewenstein, who had worked for many years as 

Felix Warburg's secretary, he asked her to return a cottage she had been given which was located 

on Warburg's estate. Goldstein felt that former East Siders would not be able to visit him there 

and that he himself would never feel at home in it. "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein," p. 

29. GSBA Yearbook, 1939, p. 9; New York Herald Tribune, June 4, 1945 and June 6, 1949. 

30. GSBA Yearbook, 1938, pp. 16-18; ibid., 1941, pp. 29-33; Wuxtra, May 1948, p. 3;


Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," pp. 43-45,47. Goldstein related that Danny Taylor, a championship 

track man, had been invited to become a member of the New York Athletic Club. When it 

became known that his original name was Schneider, he was dropped from consideration. This 

episode, according to Goldstein, prompted him to urge the GSBA to sponsor a mixed religious 

and racial team. See "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein," pp. 122-123. 

3 1. GSBA Yearbook, 193 8, p. 3. One reason for the change was the association's recognition 

that the pool of former Lower East Side residents was becoming smaller. See Goldstein, "It Can 

Be Done," p. 4; "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein," p. 122. There apparently was also a 

middle step in the association's history of membership requirements: being the son of someone 

who grew up on the Lower East Side. 

32. GSBA Yearbook, 1938, p. 11; ibid., 1942, p. 2. 

33. GSBA Yearbook, 1938, p. 11; ibid., 1939, p. 2; ibid., 1942, p. 15; Goldstein, "It Can Be 

Done," p. 6; "Reminiscences of Judge Jonah Goldstein," pp. 95-96. Other essay titles included 

"Democracy-What Are We Defending" and "Why I Bless America." 

34. GSBA Yearbook, 1942,~. 15; New York Jewish Review, February I, 1945; Goldstein, "It 

Can Be Done," pp. 83-84. 

35. Goldstein, "It CanBe Done," pp. ~ o-~z,~~,~~,Ioo,Io~--Io~; 

"Reminiscences of Judge 

Jonah Goldstein," p. 58. The shortage of nurses during World War I1 may be one reason the 

association became involved in this area of scholarships (see the ads for nurses in the 1945 

yearbook). 

36. GSBA Yearbook, 1946, unnumbered page headed "Grand St. Boys' Foundation"; New 

York Herald Tribune, November 9, 1950. Lester Martin, president of the Consolidated Textile 

Company, was the primary benefactor of the foundation, establishing one of its funds with initial 

gifts of $zoo,ooo. See Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," pp. 57, 166-168; "Reminiscences of Judge 

Jonah Goldstein," pp. 56-57. 

37. New York Jewish Review, February I, 1945. Goldstein had actually expressed this idea six 

years earlier in the February 1939 issue of Wuxtra. Ironically, the image had already been used by 

Judah Magnes, who in 1909 said: "The symphony of America must be written by the various 

nationalities which keep their individualistic and characteristic note." See Goren, New York Jews 

and the Quest for Community, p. 4. See also the works of Horace Kallen. 

38. Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," p. 48. 

39. Ibid., p. 49. Only rarely in the history of the association does its Jewish composition 

inadvertently slip out. In the 18th Anniversary Yearbook (1938, p. 8), Goldstein remarked that 

he had learned from his teacher that the word for 18 in Hebrew means "life." In his unpublished 

history of the association, Goldstein stated that he would not publish the names of scholarship 

recipients "because we are firm believers in the Talmudc inhibition to spotlight the recipient of 

philanthropy" (p. 103). In the sixty-one years of official publications, newspaper clippings, 

correspondence, speeches, and memos, 1 only came across two printed uses of Yiddish, one in the 

first issue of Wuxtra (January 1939, p. 3) and the other in an introductory speech made at one of 

Goldstein's annual presidential reinductions. Yiddish was spoken in the clubhouse, but only in 

small, private conversations. None of the association's members were to be made to feel left out 

or uncomfortable. One member recalled that it was a "no-no" to tell religious or ethnic jokes 

inside the clubhouse. Interview, Spring 1982. 


41. Ibid., 1945, pp. 32-33; New York Times, February 21, 1945. 

42. Roy V. Peel, The Political Clubs of New York City (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 193 5), 

PP. 307-308. 

43. Ibid., p. 254; Goren, New York Jews and the Quest for Community, pp. 161, 166, 167.

The Grand Street Boys' Association I33 

Pecora also ran for New York mayor in 1950. New York Herald Tribune, November 11,1950. 

44. Moore, At Home in America, chap. 8, "The Rise of the Jewish Democrat." 

45. Peel, Political Clubs of New York, p. 310; see also pp. 83, 84, 120, 124-130. 

46. Ibid., p. 126. 

47. Peel, Political Clubs of New York, p. 3 I 5. Such boys' clubs included the Gramercy, Henry 

Street, and First Avenue Boys. 

48. Interview, Spring 1982. 

49. Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," pp. 2-3; Interview, Spring 1982. Goldstein, in Wuxtra, 

February 1938, p. 2, proudly quoted from a guidebook to New York which stated that the GSBA 

was "a social, benevolent, athletic, non-political organization." While being a member of the 

GSBA did not automatically guarantee favors, friends and political contacts made through the 

association could often be of help. In 1941, for example, Goldstein was able to get a dispensation 

from the archbishop so that meat could be served at a Friday birthday party involving Catholic 

members! Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," pp. 2-3, 49, 50. 

50. Peel, Political Clubs of New York, pp. 129, 130, 133, 184, 321. 

51. Ibid., pp. 175-177, 165-166, 181-182. 

52. Ibid., pp. 168-171, 209-210, 213. The GSBA held an annual "Back to Grand Street" 

event, where free entertainment for the children and adults of the area was provided. 

53. Ibid., p. 186. 

54. The GSBA was somewhat selective in its modeling process, for some political clubs en- 

gaged in antisocial activities, such as gambling and racketeering, which the GSBA most certainly 

avoided. Despite its male emphasis, the family seemed to be important to the GSBA, for, unlike 

other clubs, it closed well before midnight. For the GSBA observance of Columbus Day, see 

Goldstein, "It Can Be Done," pp. 48, 63.

lzzy Einstein examining his latest find ICourlrrr ol Hannah Sprcrhrrl

"Let Them Drink and Forget Our 

Poverty" : Orthodox Rabbis React to 

Prohibition 

Hannah Sprecher 

The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, 

which forbade "the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicat- 

ing liquors," went into effect on January 16, 1920. Its enforcement 

was provided by the National Prohibition Act, popularly known as 

the Volstead Act, whose thirty-nine sections created the mechanisms 

for translating the amendment into functioning law. Among other 

things, it set up an enforcement unit, subsidiary to the Bureau of Inter- 

nal Revenue, for the purpose of apprehending the law's transgressors 

as well as regulating the allowed use of alcohol in industry, medicine, 

and the sacrament. 

The allowances for the sacramental use of alcohol were the result of 

a compromise the prohibitionists were compelled to make to ensure 

passage of the Volstead Act. Since both Christians and Jews required 

the use of alcoholic beverages (specifically wine) in their age-old ritu- 

als and customs, the drafters of the act had been forced to recognize 

that the First Amendment right of freedom of religion was in some 

measure in conflict with Prohibition. In order to prevent opposition 

from religionists, the drafters of the Volstead Act permitted the use of 

wine for "sacramental purposes," specifying in Section 6 that: 

Nothing in this title shall be held to apply to the manufacture, sale, transporta- 

tion, importation, possession, or distribution of wine for sacramental purposes, 

or like religious rites, except Section 6 (save as the same requires a permit to 

purchase) and Section 10 hereof, and the provisions of this act prescribing 

penalties for the violation of said sections. No person to whom a permit may be 

issued to manufacture, transport, import, or sell wines for sacramental pur- 

poses or like religious rites shall sell, barter, exchange, or furnish any such to 

any person not a rabbi, minister of the gospel, priest, or an officer duly author- 

ized for the purpose by any church or congregation, nor to any such except 

upon an application duly subscribed by him, which application, authenticated 

as regulations may prescribe, shall be filed and pre-served by the seller. The 

head of any conference or diocese or other ecclesiastical jurisdiction may desig- 

nate any rabbi, minister, or priest to supervise the manufacture of wine to be


used for the purposes and rites in this section mentioned, and the person so 

designated may, in the discretion of the Commissioner, be granted a permit to 

supervise such manufacture. 

Prohibition and the Jews 

Despite the allowances made for their religious needs, Jewish leaders 

were unnerved by the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. They 

were well aware of its emotional and ideological background, the soil 

from which it grew. According to the historian John Higham, Prohibi- 

tion was only one manifestation of a legal and ideological struggle 

mounted by America's white Protestants to restore the nation's reli- 

gious heritage and racial purity. 

A people whose roots were in the towns and farms of the early republic saw 

great cities coming more and more under the control of strangers whose speech 

and values were not their own. A people who unconsciously identified Protes- 

tantism with Americanism saw Catholic voters and urban bosses gaining con- 

trol of the industrialized states. A people whose religion was already badly 

damaged by modern ideas saw the compensating rigors of their life-style 

flouted in the saloons and cabarets of a more expressive, hedonistic society. In 

reaction, the older America mounted a cultural counteroffensive through the 

prohibition movement, immigration restriction, and a sharpened racism.' 

Jews became a special target of these reactionary forces. They were 

seen as "part-banker controlling the world economy, part-Bolshevist 

subverting the nation, and a racial pariah destroying Anglo-Saxon 

Ameri~a."~ Ideas of this kind gained widespread acceptance through 

the dissemination of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry 

Ford's anti-Semitic propaganda in his newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. 

It was in this climate of uncertainty and fear for Jews that 

America entered the Prohibition era. 

Of course, once Prohibition became law it was the obligation of all 

Jews to comply, first because of their obligation as citizens of the United 

States to obey its laws, and second, under the religious obligation of 

dina demalkhuta dina, "the law of the land is the law." This is a thirdcentury 

talmudic ruling which mandated that Jewish communities in 

exile accommodate to the legal systems of their host states whenever 

compliance does not involve violating Jewish religious principle^.^ 

At the same time, the very idea of entirely prohibiting alcoholic 

beverages in order to guarantee temperance struck Jewish leaders as

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition 137 

unnecessary. After all, Jews had a two-thousand-year documented 

history of widespread use of alcoholic beverages, yet alcoholism was 

virtually unheard of in the Jewish comm~nity.~ Judaism frowned upon 

the notion of total self-denial: God's gifts to man were meant to be 

enjoyed-in moderation-and among those gifts was wine. Religious 

teaching discouraged asceticism as unnatural, as a deliberate refusal 

to accept God's bountiful goodne~s.~ 

More important in Jewish life was the need for wine in the performance 

of religious ritual. The onset and end of Sabbaths and holy days 

were marked by a blessing recited over a cup of wine. Jewish rites of 

passage, such as circumcisions, marriages, and in the talmudic period, 

mourning rites, were sanctified with special benedictions pronounced 

over wine.6 

Thus Jewish leaders faced a serious dilemma. On the one hand, the 

supply of wine for religious purposes had to be maintained. On the 

other, they had to ensure that neither they nor their community were 

seen to be undermining the Volstead Act, for widespread evasion of 

the law would only confirm the nativist perception of the Jew as an 

indigestibly foreign element in American life. The degree to which 

Orthodox religious leaders were successful in meeting these challenges 

has never been adequately examined.' The behavior of America's 

Orthodox rabbis during Prohibition and their response to Section 

6 of the Volstead Act will be the major objective of this study. 

Conflicts over the Sacramental Wine Privilege 

To provide the wine necessary for religious rituals, rabbis had to oper- 

ate in accordance with the rules set up by Section 6. The first require- 

ment, then, was to determine who would be considered a rabbi in the 

view of the Prohibition authorities. Thus it became necessary for rab- 

bis in the three denominations of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, 

and Reform) to obtain recognition by the Prohibition enforcement 

agency as legitimate rabbis for the purposes of distributing sacramen- 

tal wine. 

In February 1920, Rabbi Max Drob, chairman of the Committee on 

Religious Observance of Conservative Judaism's United Synagogue, 

described his committee's three-month effort to ensure that the rights 

of rabbis belonging to the Conservative movement would be pre-

Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies 

ICourrery of Hannah Sprrcher) 

Rabbi S.A. ]offee 

(Courtcry ol Hannah Sprcchrr)


served under the Volstead Act. "We are pleased to report," he announced, 

"that thanks to the good efforts of Louis Marshall [president 

of the American Jewish Committee] our demands have been 

placed before the authorities in Washington and assurances have been 

made that our colleagues in the Conservative Jewish Rabbinate will be 

able to obtain wine for sacramental p~rposes."~ Similarly, Rabbi Leo 

Franklin reported to the 1920 gathering of Reform rabbis, "Under a 

ruling of the Bureau of Internal Revenue the President of the Central 

Conference of American Rabbis was authorized to attest the rights of 

rabbis to sign applications for wines for sacramental p~rposes."~ 

What had prompted these statements? A letter written by Louis 

Marshall in 1923 explains the need for these exertions on the part of 

Conservative and Reform leaders.1° Marshall related that in early 

1920, Rabbi Sholom Joffee and Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies (commonly 

referred to by the acronym RaMaZ) had gone to Washington to 

arrange that only rabbis belonging to the Union of Orthodox Rabbis 

(the organization they headed) would be empowered to dispense sacramental 

wine permits. 

This was an obvious attempt by a group of Orthodox rabbis to 

exclude their Conservative and Reform counterparts from the category 

of religious leaders covered by Section 6, and thereby bring about 

an Orthodox monopoly on the sacramental wine privilege. Louis 

Marshall used his government contacts to thwart this move and obtain 

for Conservative and Reform rabbis the same privileges that the 

Orthodox had won for themselves. Despite Marshall's success, the 

president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, New York City (Rabbi 

Moses Z. Margolies), was still ranked first in Section 52 (b), Regulation 

60 of the Treasury Department's Bureau of Internal Revenue ordinances, 

which listed the rabbinical leaders whose endorsement was 

necessary to enable a candidate to receive sacramental wine." 

Potential for Abuse 

Although the Prohibition authorities had granted Conservative and 

Reform rabbis the right to dispense sacramental wine, the leaders of 

the two movements presciently recognized that Section 6 of the Vol- 

stead Act had potential for significant abuse in its application to Jew- 

ish practice. This arose from a major difference between the Jewish


and Christian uses of sacramental wine. It was relatively easy for Prot- 

estant and Catholic congregations to remain within the confines of 

Section 6, because the ritual requiring the use of wine (the celebration 

of the Mass) was performed publicly in the church. Moreover; priests 

and ministers always belonged to structured and recognized orders, 

and their activities were carefully supervised and monitored by their 

superiors. 

The Jewish ceremonial use of wine, on the other hand, was primari- 

ly centered on home use,12 with no clergyman present to ascertain that 

wine designated for sacramental purposes was actually being used for 

that end, or even that it was used by the persons it was intended for. 

Furthermore, the Jewish clergy was far from well-organized or super- 

vised. Although the three Jewish denominations had established rab- 

binical seminaries in America, these institutions were relatively new.13 

The great majority of Orthodox rabbis had been ordained by master- 

ing the Codes of Jewish Law through self-study or under the guidance 

of a teacher; and then submitting to an examination by an established 

rabbi. Thus, the credentials of many rabbis were difficult to authenti- 

cate, consisting of a brief statement from a rabbi (himself possibly 

unrecognized) that the bearer of the letter had passed an examination. 

Compounding the problem was the fact that most Orthodox rabbis 

were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe, making it nearly impos- 

sible to check the authenticity of their rabbinic credentials. 

To complicate matters further, the original Treasury Department 

regulations prevented direct sales by either the rabbi or the wine dealer 

to the consumer; and required instead that the rabbi act as intermedi- 

ary. Rabbis in possession of a Treasury Department sacramental wine 

permit were allowed to purchase wine from the few remaining wine 

dealers authorized for this purpose but were not permitted to sell the 

wine to their congregants. Instead, they would distribute it to them 

without receiving any direct compensation, and the congregants were 

to make a contribution to the synagogue or to the rabbi for the general 

purposes of the congregation and not as payment for the wine sale.14 

These regulations were designed to eliminate profiteering from the 

sacramental wine trade, but they put rabbis in an awkward and diffi- 

cult position. Rabbis authorized to distribute wine not only had to 

make sure that their congregants used the wine for its legal purpose, a


task that fell within their ministerial duties, but were directly involved 

in handling a product that had just been banned from manufacture, 

sale, and use throughout the country. Moreover, the entire manner of 

handling money was "degrading and undignified. "I5 

Proposals for Joint Action 

Sensitive to the dangers facing their members, the Reform rabbinate, 

during the first few months after Prohibition went into effect, official- 

ly recommended that, whenever possible, unfermented wine be substi- 

tuted for fermented wine. To counter the difficulties in verifying rab- 

binic credentials, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) 

proposed the establishment of a "joint committee of the Central Con- 

ference of American Rabbis and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis [that 

would] submit to the Government the names of responsible persons in 

each locality to certify proper persons to be authorized to sign applica- 

tions for wine under the law." It also proposed that "a registration 

record be maintained of those who are authorized to validate applica- 

tions for sacramental wine, and that applications shall have the signa- 

ture of a local rabbi and congregational president and secretary desig- 

nated by the General Committee of the Central Conference of Ameri- 

can Rabbis and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis."16 

The Union of Orthodox Rabbis did not respond to this overture 

from the Reform rabbinate. Nor did its president, Rabbi Moses Z. 

Margolies, respond to an appeal from Louis Marshall of the American 

Jewish Committee. In this letter, dated March zo, 1920, Marshall 

outlined the problems he foresaw in the Jewish use of the sacramental 

wine privilege, stemming mainly from the language of the Volstead 

Act, which he claimed reflected the draftersy lack of "full understand- 

ing" of its implications for Jews. He wrote of his fear that the exemp- 

tion "would result in serious criticisms of the rabbinate by the public 

generally and by the Prohibition Party in particular." He predicted 

"unpleasant insinuations against the Jews by the newspapers" and the 

placement of rabbis (and by extension all Jews) in a "false light." 

Marshall concluded that until legislation amended the Volstead Act, 

the only recourse left open to Jews was to refuse "exceptional treat- 

ment" and use only unfermented wine for ritual purposes."

Rabbi A.A. Yudelovich 

ICourmm. of Hannah Spmrhcri 

Rabbi G.W. Margolis 

(Covrrrr! ol Hannah Spr


The Menorah Wine Scandal 

A little over a year after Marshall's anxious and prophetic letter, sto- 

ries began appearing in major newspapers detailing arrests and confis- 

cations related to sacramental wine abuses. A notorious example was 

the front-page story that appeared in the March 30, 1921 edition of 

the New York Times, highlighting the seizure of $250,000 worth of 

wine at the Menorah Wine Company on Manhattan's Lower East 

Side. 

The prominence of this story may have reflected the good copy 

provided by the flamboyant exploits of Izzy Einstein, the Prohibition 

agent responsible for the raid. Still, the article had a drawing power all 

its own: The wine had been confiscated because Menorah's branch 

stores were found to be selling wine to all customers who entered, 

whether or not they presented a signed permit from an authorized 

rabbi. In addition, Federal Prohibition Supervisor Ernest S. Langley 

was quoted as stating that Menorah had further violated the law by 

extensively honoring "fake" rabbinical wine permits signed by eight- 

een- and twenty-year-old boys. 

The allegations recounted by the Times were serious ones. Yet, the 

same article reported the puzzling news that the chief Prohibition en- 

forcement official, Commissioner John E Kramer, had intervened on 

Menorah Wine's behalf, issuing long-distance telephone orders to his 

subordinates in New York to halt the seizure. Moreover, Kramer him- 

self was coming from Washington to "inquire into the circumstances 

of the seizure." 

Eight months later, on December 23, 1921, Menorah Wine Com- 

pany again appeared on page I of the New York Times. The focus of 

this article was the efforts of Louis Marshall and the American Jewish 

Committee to halt the continuing abuses in sacramental wine distribu- 

tion. The Times printed an excerpt of Marshall's letter to D. H. Blair, 

commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, in which he outlined 

proposals for stricter regulation of sacramental wine. To underscore 

the necessity of the proposed new rules, the Times reporter cited sever- 

al examples of abuse, among them the recent seizure of two truckloads 

of Menorah's wine. The article also mentioned that in the earlier con- 

fiscation of $250,000 worth of Menorah product (March 1921), 

"through influence brought to bear in Washington, the wine was re- 

turned to the owners. "

I44 American Jewish Archives 

In the month of January 1922, the New York Times devoted two 

news stories to the Menorah Wine Company. The second (dated Janu- 

ary 22) was of less importance than the first. It described another 

imaginative feat of the by now familiar Izzy Einstein. This time he had 

effected the seizure of two truckloads of Menorah's product by riding 

alongside the deliveryman on his run and discovering that the first 

consignee on the list of recipients of Jewish sacramental wine was 

actually a Scotch Presbyterian. 

Enter "G. Wolf Margolis" 

The Times story of January 4,1922, had more lasting significance, for 

it contained a full expose of the Menorah Wine Company. The story 

had actually been uncovered by a reporter from the Providence ]our- 

nal, where it was featured on page I the same day. 

According to theJourna1 article, Menorah had been founded by a 

Jewish olive oil merchant, Nathan Musher, owner of the Continental 

Distributing Company. In the fall of 1920, Musher apparently "sens- 

ed a rare business opportunity" and arranged to purchase and import 

from Spain 750,000 gallons of Malaga wine. What was special about 

this wine was its high alcohol content-about 24 percent, or double 

that of ordinary wine, making it much more potent than ordinary 

sacramental wine. 

Musher arranged for Aaron Silverstone, a young man of about 

twenty and the son of the foremost Orthodox rabbi in Washington, 

D.C., to travel to Malaga and retroactively certify the wine as a kosher 

product suitable for use as sacramental wine.'* Then he approached 

Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, the president of the Union of Orthodox 

Rabbis, and asked him to issue the necessary sacramental wine permit. 

When Rabbi Margolies balked, Musher obtained the aid of "one G. 

Wolf Margolis," who was, according to the article, "a Hebrew teach- 

er, lately come to New York from Boston, who claims to be a rabbi, 

and the head of the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of Ameri- 

ca." The reporter from the Providence Journal found the address of 

the Assembly listed on its letterhead as 203 East Broadway, New York, 

and went to visit these "headquarters." There he in fact found G. Wolf 

Margolis in his organization's office: the rear room of a tenement 

house. The reporter obtained from him an acknowledgment that he


knew of the Menorah Wine Company, the Continental Distributing 

Company, and Nathan Musher's connection to them. But he would 

admit to nothing further. 

The article repeated the accounts reported in March and December 

1921: that Prohibition agents Izzy Einstein and Moe W. Smith (Ein- 

stein's partner; who had been omitted in the earlier stories) had ob- 

tained warrants to search Menorah's warehouse and branch stores. 

Discovering evidence of fraudulent permits, they had the wine seized 

and removed to government storage. But a direct order from Federal 

Prohibition Commissioner John E Kramer had halted the seizure. The 

following day, after an investigation by Attorney General Daugherty, 

the wine was returned. Soon after these events, concluded the New 

York Times account, Musher's company was granted a special permit 

to sell sacramental wine, "as the Passover holidays were at hand."I9 

Rabbinic Rivalries 

One important added detail in the story of January 4, confirmed ten 

years later in Izzy Einstein's memoirs? was the role played by Rabbi 

Moses Z. Margolies in the investigation of Menorah. According to 

these accounts, it was he who alerted both the Providence Journal 

reporter and Izzy Einstein to the company's criminal activities.=l Rabbi 

Margolies charged that the wine involved was actually not kosher, and 

furthermore that even if it were, Menorah was not authorized by any 

legitimate rabbi to distribute wine for sacramental purposes. Accord- 

ing to Izzy Einstein, Margolies added that Menorah Wine's primary 

purpose in selecting G. Wolf Margolis to fraudulently authorize its 

sacramental wine was the similarity in their names. This was meant to 

mislead both consumers and the Prohibition authorities into believing 

that the famous Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies was endorsing and 

authorizing Menorah Wine. The like-sounding names of "Union of 

Orthodox Rabbis" and "Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis," he said, had 

the same motive.22 

Both Einstein and the Providence Journal (quoted in the New York 

Times) described G. Wolf Margolis as "a Hebrew teacher," a disparag- 

ing term, since teaching Hebrew school was an occupation usually 

reserved for sorry ne'er-do-wells who had failed at every other 

The Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis was dismissed as a nonexistent

Rabbi Aaron Silverstone 

[Courtcry oi Hannah Sprcchcri 

Rabbi Gedaliah Silverstone 

[Courtesy oi Hannah Sprcuhvri


organization, an assertion proved by its address: the "headquarters" 

of an organization claiming to represent a large group of respected 

scholars would not be found in a rear room of a Lower East Side 

tenement slum.24 

It is ironic that in allowing this description of G. Wolf Margolis and 

his organization in the January 4 article, the editors of the New York 

Times failed to consult their own newspaper of a fortnight earlier. On 

December 25, 1921, the third consecutive day of coverage given to 

Louis Marshall's letter to IRS Commissioner Blair, the Times recorded 

a statement from New York State Prohibition Director Ralph A. Day, 

offering his own solution to the sacramental wine problem. Day had 

recommended to Washington "the appointment of a board of four 

Jewish chief rabbis to assist him in approving withdrawal permits for 

sacramental wines, especially those presented by rabbis of congrega- 

tions not belonging to any recognized order of the Orthodox Church 

[sic]." If Washington approved his recommendation, this board 

would be composed of "Rabbis S. A. Joffee, G. W. Margolis, A. A. 

Yudelovich, and B. L. Le~enthal."~~ 

The Four "Chief Rabbis" 

It was apparent, at least to Director Day, that G. W. Margolis was 

hardly a "Hebrew teacher." He was a man of standing, one of four 

"Jewish chief rabbis." His status could not have taken so dramatic a 

plunge in only two weeks. There is one further and deeper irony: 

Three of the four "chief rabbis" of Director Day's plan were involved 

in the Menorah Wine scandal. While their names do not appear in the 

New York Times, a survey of the contemporary Yiddish press provides 

interesting insight into the scandal and its principal players. 

On February 27, 1921 (a month before Izzy Einstein's first Menorah 

raid and thirteen months before the New York Times and Providence 

Journal broke the story), Der Tog, a New York City Yiddish 

daily, printed an announcement by Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies in 

which he declared that he did not endorse the kosher status of the 

Menorah Wine C~mpany.'~ Implicit in this announcement, of course, 

was the intimation that the wine's kosher status was suspect. 

The following day and again on March I, 2, and 3, Der Tog and two 

other Yiddish newspapers, the Togeblatt and the Morgen Journal,


gave extensive space to rebuttals of Rabbi Margolies's declaration. 

The rebuttals appeared in the form of interviews by "P. Sofer" with 

three of the "greatest rabbis of New York," none other than Rabbis S. 

A. Joffee, A. A. Yudelovich, and G. W. Margolis, accompanied by penand-ink 

portraits of the illustrious faces of Rabbi Yudelovich and Rabbi 

Margolis. 

Although appearing in the form of news articles, these interviews 

were more likely advertisements or company press releases, since they 

were reproduced identically in three separate Yiddish dailies. In any 

event, these columns gave the rabbis a forum to defend their association 

with Menorah Wine. At the conclusion of each interview, the 

reporter (P. Sofer) made his own editorial comments, lavishly praising 

the rabbis and offering his own endorsement of Menorah Wine.27 

The connection between G. W. Margolis and the Menorah Wine 

Company has already been established. The other two rabbis, it turned 

out, were also not disinterested parties. They had been engaged to 

certify Menorah's wines as being "the most kosher wine available 

anywhere." Yes, they admitted, they were aware that the supervisor in 

Spain was the very young Aaron Silverstone, but he was "one of the 

most pious young men in the entire country." Young Silverstone's father 

had personally guaranteed his son's piety and devotion to ritual 

observance. They also claimed that the winery in Malaga was owned 

and operated by Orthodox Jews, a dubious claim, since there were 

only three Jewish communities in Spain at that time, in Madrid, Barcelona, 

and Se~ille,~~ and the closest to Malaga, Seville, was over IOO 

miles away. According to Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, there were only 

two Jews in Malaga, both of them bankers, and neither of them Jewishly 

affiliated. 

Rabbi Joffee charged in his interview that Rabbi Margolies had 

been pressured into issuing his declaration by kosher wine dealers who 

feared competition, ~articularly from a company offering a superior 

product. He also contended that Rabbi Margolies's declaration had a 

hidden agenda: his organization, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, 

wanted to monopolize both the supervision of kosher wine and the 

issuance of sacramental wine permits. Apparently not desiring to engage 

in self-promotion, Rabbi Joffee left it for the reporter conducting 

the interview to stress that all three rabbis associated with Menorah 

Wine had been fully authorized to issue sacramental wine permits by


the Prohibition regulators. 

In his interview, Rabbi G. W. Margolis added that he had no doubts 

about the kashruth of Menorah's wine since he knew Nathan Musher 

personally and "we can rely on him." Rabbi Margolis explained that 

the key to establishing a product as kosher was determining who the 

proprietor was. As long as he was Orthodox, the product was certain- 

ly kosher, and the services of a mashgiach (rabbinic supervisor) were 

not needed. In fact, hiring a mashgiach was almost tantamount to 

admitting a problem about the product. Furthermore, said Rabbi 

Margolis, Musher was a well-known and outstanding philanthropist. 

"A Tempest in a Wineglass" 

Another column, entitled "A Tempest in a Wineglass," appeared in 

the same issue of the Morgen Journal. It too was dedicated to furthering 

the cause of Menorah Wine and the rabbis connected with it. The 

writer began his paean by claiming that he himself was a very pious 

Jew, a strict Sabbath observer, who had succeeded, despite residing in 

America for twenty-five years, in raising his children as strictly Orthodox, 

God-fearing Jews. 

Having established his credentials, the writer testified that on the 

certification of the three esteemed rabbis, Joffee, Yudelovich, and 

Margolis, he had purchased some of Menorah's wine and found it to 

be the most exquisite wine he had ever had the good fortune to taste. 

As for Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies's statement, he knew its hidden 

motivations were business and Prohibition related. 

The writer, however, was unconcerned with possible violations of 

the Prohibition law. Why should Washington matter more than Sinai? 

After all, the Torah antedated ~rohibitign by many thousands of years 

and therefore had primacy. Furthermore, the Prohibition authorities 

had granted Reform rabbis the right to issue sacramental wine permits, 

and they were not even authentic rabbis, because they did not 

observe the laws of the Torah. In sharp contrast stood the three great 

Torah scholars who had certified the wines sold by Menorah; their 

religious credentials were above reproach. Thus it was quite irrelevant 

whether or not these learned men were formally sanctioned by the 

Prohibition authorities. (For more fastidious individuals, however, the 

reporter conducting the interview with Rabbi Joffee had pointed out

I SO American Jewish Archives 

that the three rabbis had indeed received that sanction.) The United 

States government might have granted Reform rabbis the authority to 

issue sacramental wine permits, but the writer; as an Orthodox Jew, 

answered to a higher power and knew which set of rabbis was 

worthier of the privilege. 

Who Was Rabbi Gabriel Wolf Margolis? 

Whatever the facts of the Menorah Wine case, there is no doubt that 

the testimonials in favor of the three rabbis were essentially correct. 

They were acknowledged and respected scholars, and were known to 

Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies as such. Rabbi Joffee, in fact, had served as 

both acting and honorary president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis 

and had been one of its founders in 1902. Moreover, as recently as 

1920 Rabbi Margolies and Rabbi Joffee had gone to Washington to- 

gether to attempt to obtain an Orthodox monopoly on the sacramen- 

tal wine privilege.19 Rabbi Yudelovich also headed an organization of 

"preaching rabbis." Both Rabbi Joffee and Rabbi Yudelovich had au- 

thored important rabbinic works.30 

The fame of Gabriel Wolf (Ze'ev) Margolis in particular was wide- 

spread. Known affectionately in New York's Orthodox neighbor- 

hoods as "Reb Velvele" (his Yiddish middle name), he had been the 

spiritual leader of one of the city's major communal and charitable 

organizations for ten years and before this had been a prominent rabbi 

in Boston for four years (1907-1911). As the author of many well- 

received rabbinic books and an acknowledged colleague of the great 

European rabbis of the era, he was considered the "senior scholar" of 

Orthodox Judaism in America, and rabbis throughout the country 

sought his guidance on questions of religious law. His New York 

Times obituary on September 9, 1935 recorded that Rabbi G. W. 

Margolis was eulogized as "the greatest rabbinical scholar, bar none, 

ever to have settled in Ameri~a."~' 

Yet Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies had led both Izzy Einstein and the 

ProvidenceJournal reporter to believe that G. W. Margolis was a "He- 

brew teacher lately arrived from Boston," and that his organization 

was a "fake," set up with the sole purpose of advancing the criminal 

activities of the Menorah Wine Company. What could have been his 

motive, and what was the true relationship between the two men?

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition 15 1 

The Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis 

Rabbi Margolies's reaction to Rabbi Margolis reflected more than 

personal animosity. Rabbi Margolies was the president of the Union 

of Orthodox Rabbis, which had come into being in 1902 and was 

America's first organized Orthodox rabbinic body. Rabbi G. Wolf 

Margolis arrived in the United States in 1907, at the age of sixty, after 

having been the chief rabbi of several important Russian Jewish com- 

munities. He had been forced to leave because of threats against his life 

by Jewish Bolsheviks whose revolutionary activities he had fiercely 

condemned. Fully expecting to be accorded in America the status and 

respect he had earned in Europe, he refused to join the Union of Or- 

thodox Rabbis, seeing its members as below his high standards, and 

for the next thirteen years he waged a lonely war against that organi- 

ati ion.^^ 

In January 1920 Gabriel Wolf Margolis finally received the recogni- 

tion that had eluded him when, together with 135 other he 

formed the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America. The 

correspondence between the date of its establishment and the onset of 

Prohibition was no coincidence, however. For thirteen years, Rabbi 

Margolis had been unable to found an organization of his own, but 

Prohibition provided his group with a raison d'etre.34 

Under Section 6 of the Volstead Act, the Bureau of Internal Revenue 

initially authorized only three Jewish organizations (one for each of 

the three denominations) to dispense sacramental wine permits, the 

CCAR, the Rabbinical Assembly, and the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. 

In consequence, the only Orthodox rabbis to be issued permits were 

members of the latter group, and legitimate Orthodox rabbis who 

were not affiliated with it were excluded. Rabbi G. W. Margolis re- 

ceived letters from some of them complaining about the Union's "re- 

fusal to share the privilege." They accused its members of "dealing in 

kosher wine [as a means with which] they support their impure activi- 

ties" and using the permits as "weapons in their hands to attack the 

rabbis not within their Union."3s 

The unaffiliated rabbis had a legitimate grievance. They and their 

congregations were excluded from receiving what was legally theirs- 

the means of obtaining wine for ritual use. In this climate of dissatis- 

faction, Rabbi Margolis formed his organization. On November 8,


1920 the Office of the Federal Prohibition Commissioner amended 

Section 52 (b) of Regulations 60 to authorize a fourth organization, 

the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of America, to issue per- 

mits for the distribution of sacramental wine.36 

In addition to his involvement in the Menorah Wine scandal, there 

is ample evidence that both Rabbi Margolis and his Assembly of He- 

brew Orthodox Rabbis of America were otherwise occupied with the 

business of wine distribution. Shortly after the Assembly received ap- 

proval from the Treasury Department, notices were posted on the 

Lower East Side of Manhattan announcing to "all rabbis and wine 

dealers who make wine for religious purposes that Washington has 

recognized the Assembly on the same basis as the other three rabbinic 

organizations." The Assembly invited anyone who wanted a permit to 

"apply in person to our president, Rabbi G. W. Margolis at 203 East 

Broadway from the hours of 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily."" 

The Assembly's involvement in the wine trade extended beyond the 

issuance of sacramental wine permits. This is well illustrated by Rabbi 

Margolis's private correspondence. 

In a letter dated December 1920, Rabbi Simon Glazer of Kansas 

City, an influential member of the Assembly, wrote to him offering to 

do anything he could do "regarding wine matters with the authori- 

ties." He further inquired, "How will the wine business do this year? 

There is still time for me, and I am ready to go even today to San 

Francisco to supervise the wine. There are many wine dealers who are 

requesting kosher supervi~ion."~~ 

On August 8,1921, Rabbi Margolis wrote to Rabbi Joseph Levin of 

Cincinnati, another important member of the Assembly, informing 

him that, "I have available an excellent wine from the Holy Land, 

many gallons of which have already been sold at $8 a gallon. However, 

some of it has sold at $7 a gallon, and yesterday I heard from my son 

that he sold some for $6 a gallon."39 

Still, there were a few dissenting voices among the Assembly's mem- 

bers. One noted rabbinic scholar, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Grodzinski, chief 

rabbi of Omaha, expressed his concern as early as December 1920, 

barely a month after the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis was author- 

ized to dispense sacramental wine permits. In a letter to Rabbi Margo- 

lis, Rabbi Grodzinski urged him to halt the issuance of permits to 

anyone in Omaha. "Local wine dealers," he wrote, "[were] conduct-

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition 15 3 

ing a free-for-all and selling their sacramental wine to Jews and Gen- 

tiles alike." Several Jews had been arrested for these abuses, and the 

local press was having a "field day claiming that the Jewish require- 

ment for sacramental wine was only a ruse to engage in an illegal wine 

trade." Grodzinski said that "for these reasons [he] had personally 

desisted from issuing any permits" and begged Margolis not to honor 

any permit requests coming from Omaha.40 

Rabbinic Violations of the Volstead Act 

It is evident that the Assembly's activities in the distribution of sacramental 

wine did not always follow the strict letter of the law. Yet it was 

not unique in that respect. Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, who had attacked 

the Assembly, both within and outside the community, for various 

abuses of the sacramental wine privilege, was himself involved in 

the "business" of wine distribution. 

A copy of a contract drawn up between Rabbi Margolies and a 

wine-manufacturing concern is still extant. Its provisions stipulate 

that Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies would supervise the kosher processing 

of the firm's wine and would be paid a fee equal to 25 percent of the 

price per gallon for every gallon he ~ertified.~~ Obviously, greater sales 

would directly benefit him financially, not a situation envisioned by 

the drafters of Section 6 of the Volstead Act. Also damning is his refusal 

to issue permits to legitimate rabbis whose credentials and veracity 

were known to him but who were not members of the Union of Orthodox 

Rabbis. Here again it seems that Rabbi Margolies was more concerned 

about his own financial interests, and those of his members, 

than with facilitating the attainment of sacramental wine by the Orthodox 

community at large. Moreover, as recounted above, Rabbi 

Margolies ignored the proposals of Louis Marshall and the Reform 

rabbinate to renounce or, at the very least, modify the role of rabbis in 

sacramental wine distribution. 

From the start, the guidelines and regulations of Section 6 were 

easily bypassed. For legitimate rabbis, the temptation to profit from 

wine transactions was great. Rabbis or their authorized representatives 

could easily inflate the number of their congregants. Fictitious 

congregations, whose names were culled from such disparate sources 

as telephone books, Indian Reservation records, and even headstones,


abounded. Rabbis would share lists of congregants, and members of 

congregations would sell their memberships, often to non-Jews. A 

good example of this practice was recorded by Jacob Sonderling, a 

German liberal rabbi who had emigrated to America in 1923 and was 

hired by an Orthodox congregation in Chicag~:~~ 

A member of my congregation's board brought me the newest list of our mem- 

bership and asked me to sign it. 

"What do you need my signature for?" 

In all innocence he explained: "Every synagogue member, according to 

American law, is entitled to five gallons of sacramental wine. The congregation 

is buying that wine from the Government at a cheap price, selling it afterwards 

at a very high price to all the people, and doing great business." 

Of course I refused to do that, and my congregation was upset, believing that 

its rabbi was queer. My friend [the Zionist leader Shmaryahu] Levin . . . said 

once that Orthodox rabbis, doing big business in those days in sacramental 

wine, had changed the Tilim (Psalms); Psalm 121 says, "From whence (me- 

ayin) does my help come?" Levin suggested: "Instead of me-ayin (from 

whence'), read miyayin ('from wine')!"43 

The wine traded through these illegal transactions found its way to 

bootleggers who marketed kosher wine nationwide. These abuses 

grew into a "near national scandal."44 The growing perception of the 

Prohibition-era rabbi was eloquently drawn by James E. Jones, the 

assistant Prohibition commissioner, who said: 

The Rabbi who abuses the privilege which permits him to distribute sacramen- 

tal wines to his congregation is worse than the ordinary bootlegger. . . . Such a 

man is violating the law in the name of religion and he is abusing an honorable 

trust. The bootlegger admits he is a crook and makes no bones about it. He is 

not cloaking himself with a mantle of authority intended by the law for devout 

members of a religious faith, and when we prosecute him we don't run up 

against protests that we are persecuting an honorable old Rabbi who is doing 

only what the law authorizes and what his religious beliefs demand. 

I have no quarrel with the Rabbis who conscientiously believe that sacramen- 

tal wines are necessary in Jewish homes and who do not violate the trust con- 

ferred upon them; but my quarrel is with the men who withdraw wine in the 

name of the Jewish faith and then proceed to sell it to Gentiles, negroes or 

anybody else who pays the price, including Jews who drink it wholly for bever- 

age p~rposes.~' 

The Grape Juice Controversy 

The leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements were dismay- 

ed by the growing scandal. The privilege they had fought so hard for

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition IS S 

had now become a source of shame and outrage. Both movements felt 

that the mounting problem could only be solved by voluntarily surren- 

dering the sacramental wine privilege and using unfermented wine, or 

grape juice, in ritual observance, assuming that justification for this 

could be found in Jewish law. 

In late 1920, the Central Conference of American Rabbis submitted 

the question to its Committee on Responsa. The committee's reply 

stated that according to its analysis of Jewish legal sources, grape juice 

was an entirely acceptable alternative to wine for all religious needs.46 

However, because of Reform's weak commitment to classical Jewish 

law and its abrogation or modification of many other Jewish prac- 

tices, the impact of this ruling on the non-Reform Jewish community 

was negligible. 

The Conservative movement, known for its relative adherence to 

traditional Jewish law and for the high quality of its legal scholars, 

also submitted this question to its authorities. The ruling was first 

brought to public attention on January 24,1922 at a press conference 

called to announce the publication of a 71-page Hebrew responsum 

on the issue, authored by the great talmudic scholar Rabbi Louis Ginz- 

berg4' In an exhaustive study that ranged over the entire body of 

Jewish legal science, Rabbi Ginzberg concluded that for ritual pur- 

poses grape juice was entirely equivalent to the use of wine.48 

The Ginzberg Responsum 

Rabbi Ginzberg took on a twofold task in preparing his responsum. 

First, he had to determine whether grape juice was acceptable for ritu- 

al purposes; and second, even if grape juice was found acceptable, he 

had to determine whether fermented wine was nevertheless preferable 

for ritual purposes. 

Jewish legal sources from the Talmud on are essentially in agree- 

ment that grape juice (or to be precise, "new wine," as it is denoted in 

the premodern legal texts) is acceptable for ritual purposes. Proving 

the first point, then, required only the marshaling of the numerous 

sources confirming this opinion. 

The second point, however, was a greater challenge, since one 

prominent authority, Rabbi Abraham Gombiner, a seventeenth-centu- 

ry legal expert known as the Magen Avraham from the name of his


most important halakhic work, had explicitly ruled that fermented 

wine was preferable to "new wine" for ritual use. Ginzberg proceeded 

to nullify the Magen Avraham's statement by demonstrating that it 

was based on a misinterpretation of earlier authorities. Because rul- 

ings in Jewish law tend to be hierarchical-generally the earlier the 

source the more authoritative it is-this part of Ginsberg's responsum 

was somewhat daring. We will return to this when the Orthodox cri- 

tique of his decision is discussed further on. 

Once Ginzberg had disposed of the issue from the standpoint of 

Jewish law, he silenced potential critics who might argue for the use of 

wine because of long-established custom: 

There can be no doubt that in the past most of the wine used for religious 

purposes was fermented, since the process of preventing the fermentation was 

unknown. But to base on such a fact the prohibition of the use of unfermented 

wine would be as unreasonable as to suppose that because only wax and tallow 

candles were used for lighting synagogues, the use of gas and electricity for that 

purpose is forbidden. 

In his conclusion, Ginzberg addressed the controversy that had pro- 

mpted his intervention: 

I am certain that all Torah scholars will agree with my findings and warn the 

nation not to follow those who are "muddled by wine and dazed by liquor." In 

this manner they will bring praise on the God of Israel and the name of Israel 

will be sanctified by removing the ugly stain from our midst. "For you are a 

holy people unto your God."49 

Orthodox Reactions 

These stirring words elicited no initial reaction from Ginzberg's Or- 

thodox rabbinic colleagues. This was very unusual. Conservative dis- 

sent from Orthodox practice invariably unleashed a torrent of Ortho- 

dox response^.^^ Yet for the first five years after its appearance, Ginz- 

berg's ruling was not contested by any Orthodox rabbi. A search of 

the contemporary Orthodox rabbinic journals as well as the responsa 

published by American Orthodox rabbis active during this period (up 

to 1926) failed to uncover even a single reference to Ginzberg's re- 

sponsum or any attempt to consider the issue at all.51 

Eighteen months after the publication of Ginzberg's responsum, 

Louis Marshall expressed his own puzzlement over this silence:

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition IS7 

"There are, of course, those of the ultra-Orthodox wing who may not 

accept Prof. Ginzberg's judgment. I have challenged them over and 

over again to produce a responsum which would indicate that their 

avowed belief that fermented wine is necessary is correct, but thus far 

they have failed to do so."S2 

Although traditional rabbinic responses to Ginzberg's decision 

were lacking, some nontraditional reactions did appear. Eli Ginzberg, 

in his personal memoir of his father, wrote, "My father received 

threatening letters warning him to mind his own business. During 

these months, my mother did not want him to go out al~ne."~" 

Another unusual reaction was lay intervention in what was essentially 

a matter of Jewish law that needed rabbinic elucidation. This 

appeared in the guise of a sixteen-page pamphlet written by Emanuel 

Hertz to refute Gin2be1-g.~~ Whatever Hertz's other qualification^,^^ 

"he had no competence whatsoever in matters of Jewish law."j6 The 

accuracy of this harsh judgment is readily apparent from an examination 

of Hertz's work. No attempt at any analysis of the halakhic sources 

is evident. In fact, Hertz was quite open about his lack of rabbinic 

credentials, stating at the outset: "It may seem extraordinary for a 

layman to make an effort to summarize the laws. . . but the straddling 

and inconclusive arguments of a number of rabbis . . . and the latest 

pronouncement by Professor Ginzberg, make it imperative for someone 

who has the good of the Jewish community at heart."s7 

Even more significant than Hertz's meager halakhic expertise is the 

alarmist rhetoric he adopted. 

If wine can in this manner be eliminated.. . why cannot the learned professor be 

prevailed upon . . . to take the top-heavy structure of the Sabbath and the 

holidays and the fast days, with alI their ramifications, and "read" them out of 

the codes. . . . Why not give the coup de grace to the Sinai idea, so old and 

antiquated, and triumphantly return the Mosaic law to the Mount, where it 

was given to our ancient ancestor^?^^ 

In addition to accusing Ginzberg of undermining the entire struc- 

ture of Jewish law, Hertz depicted him as a coward: "We never ran 

away from the stake, from the rack, or from the sword-and now it is 

proposed to run away from the b~otlegger!'"~ 

Hertz also made much of the fact that Ginzberg had not consulted 

any Orthodox rabbis.60 But what prevented them from composing a 

responsum to counter Ginzberg? In fact, Hertz was unable to name a


single Orthodox rabbi who supported his contention that ritual wine 

must be fermented, although he cited a long list of experts-mainly 

European Christian biblical scholars-to prove his point.61 

Rabbi Hurewitz Enters the Fray 

About five years after Louis Ginzberg published his responsum, an 

Orthodox authority finally challenged it. Yet Rabbi Isaac Simha 

Hurewitz of Hartford, Connecticut, did not choose as his forum any 

of the rabbinic journals devoted to problems in Jewish law or even the 

popular press. Instead, his response appeared in the relative obscurity 

of a commentary he had written on a twelfth-century rabbinic text, 

Maimonides' Sefer HaMitzvot, published in Jerusalem in 1926. 

In a section devoted to the sanctification of the Sabbath, Hurewitz 

responded to Ginzberg with almost as much invective as scholarship. 

Ginzberg's name is never mentioned; he is referred to instead by a 

variety of epithets: "leader of the heretics," "possessing an infant's 

mind," and other terms of abuse. So far as Hurewitz was concerned, 

the unacceptability of grape juice was obvious, and he held that it was 

no better for ritual purposes than lemonade or orange juice. The rea- 

sons for his decision were, however, subtle. 

It was certainly no surprise that Rabbi Hurewitz would condemn 

Rabbi Ginzberg for rejecting the Magen Avraham. But Hurewitz went 

much further, arguing that new wine, which was explicitly permitted 

by the earlier authorities, was not the same thing as grape juice. He 

based this statement on the argument that new wine begins to ferment 

immediately upon pressing, whereas grape juice does not have the 

capacity to ferment, a position that may be novel but is also incorrect, 

since adding yeast cultures to grape juice will cause it to ferment.P2 

Hurewitz's polemic had several other interesting aspects. He denied 

that there was any sacramental wine problem at all and claimed that 

the problem had been caused by "heretics" who were attempting to 

besmirch the Orthodox in the eyes of the righteous Gentile authori- 

ties; authorities who understood and tolerated freedom of 

Furthermore, he said, no one seriously committed to Jewish law 

would have even considered asking for Ginzberg's opinion, since New 

York was graced with so many outstanding scholars who had already 

made their views known by using wine them~elves.~~

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition IS9 

CCAR Overtures to the Orthodox 

Despite the complete absence of any formal Orthodox response to the 

initiatives of Louis Marshall and Louis Ginzberg, the Reform rabbi- 

nate was still not persuaded that the cause was lost. In an effort to 

enlist Orthodox support and cooperation, the CCAR issued the fol- 

lowing statement: 

The Conference finds . . . violations of the prohibition law under the guise of 

religious needs is [sic] a reflection on the good name of the Jew, a veritable 

desecration of God's name. We are confident that other national rabbinical 

organizations, such as the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America, are in hearty 

sympathy with us in this matter. We therefore recommend . . . taking steps 

toward the correction of this abuse.65 

This expression of confidence in the Union, however, was mis- 

placed. Orthodox rabbis had no desire to change the existing prac- 

tices, which placed them (or at least their permits) in high demand. 

Still, the CCAR was nothing if not tenacious, particularly when the 

good name of Jews was at stake, and the following year it tried a 

different tack. If the Orthodox would not cooperate voluntarily, per- 

haps they could be forced. The CCAR would lobby Washington to 

repeal Section 6 and therefore eliminate all abuses. 

After some deliberation, however, it became evident that this step 

would antagonize Christians whose denominations still required wine 

(rather than grape juice) for Mass. Christian hostility to this proposal 

had already surfaced in 1921 when Louis Marshall had tentatively 

proposed a similar solution.66 The CCAR then voted to petition the 

Prohibition authorities to modify Section 6 so that it would apply only 

to Christians, since there were no rituals in Judaism that really re- 

quired wine. Their aim was to have the exemption clause apply only to 

Christian clergy, excluding Jewish participation entirely. 

Through these extreme measures, the Reform leadership hoped to 

put an end to the scandal that was plaguing the entire American Jewish 

populace. However, the Prohibition commissioner, Roy Haynes, re- 

sponded tepidly to their suggestion, promising only to give it "due 

consideration," no doubt because he feared being enmeshed in the 

issue of curtailing religious expre~sion.~'


Rabbi Hyamson's Contribution 

If the Reform movement's lobbying efforts had proved successful, 

there would have been absolutely no wine available to any Jew for 

ritual use. Yet even at this critical stage no Orthodox rabbinic authori- 

ty made a public statement to counter this threat to a "vital" part of 

Jewish religious observance. There was, though, a journalistic re- 

sponse-an unsigned editorial in an Orthodox lay periodical, the Jew- 

ish Forum. The editorial's position was based on the positions of Ema- 

nuel Hertz, whose contribution to the debate we have already dis- 

cussed, and Dr. Moses Hyamson. 

Dr. Hyamson was a pulpit rabbi and a member of the faculty of the 

Jewish Theological Seminary. On February 19,1920, he had lectured 

to the New York Board of Jewish Ministers on "The Jewish Concept 

of Wine and Its Use." The lecture (which was subsequently printed as 

a pamphlet)68 merely quoted, in a most rudimentary manner, the rele- 

vant biblical, talmudic, and post-talmudic rabbinic texts dealing with 

the ritual use of wine, and made no attempt to analyze any of them. 

Only one sentence was given to the question of grape juice: "But it [the 

wine used for the performance of the rituals covered in the lecture] 

need not be intoxicating." 

From this lone statement it would appear that Rabbi Hyamson 

sanctioned the use of grape juice. In fact, this is precisely how Louis 

Marshall understood him, and one month after the lecture he wrote: 

''I believe that, if it is true, as claimed by various rabbis, among others, 

Dr. Hyamson, that unfermented wine may be used for ritual purposes, 

the Jews should act on such a ruling and abstain from placing them- 

selves in the position of asking for exceptional treatment in respect to 

the use of wine."69 

Hyamson's view was, however, somewhat ambiguous, since the 

main focus of his lecture was on the classic texts that refer to "wine," 

and aside from the one sentence he seemed to be endorsing the need for 

wine. Thus the Jewish Forum contravened his decision by selective 

misreading. 

The Authorities Take Action 

The years 1921-1925 saw a significant rise in the amount of sacra- 

mental wine delivered. The 1924 figures amounted to almost g million

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition I 61 

gallons nationwide, or approximately one gallon for each Jewish man, 

woman, and child in the United State.70 In New York alone, the 

amount of wine distributed for sacramental purposes reached 1.8 million 

gallons in 1925, a threefold increase since 1922.~' 

Thanks to an internal Jewish census completed in 1918, precise 

figures were available for the number of Jews who were synagogue 

members and thus more likely to be ritually observant. For all of New 

York City, membership in Orthodox synagogues totaled only about 

74,000.~~ At the legal yearly limit of ten gallons of wine per family, it is 

evident that ritual observance (at least of one commandment) had 

tripled in the intervening years. As Izzy Einstein put it in his memoirs: 

Prohibition created "a remarkable increase in the thirst for religion."73 

Obviously, this was a situation the Prohibition authorities could not 

tolerate. After several stop-gap measures in 1925 failed to make an 

appreciable dent in the rate of sacramental wine withdrawals, General 

Lincoln C. Andrews, the new Prohibition czar; whose position had 

been upgraded to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, declared war on 

sacramental wine abuse. In August 1926 he closed all wine stores 

(legally recognized adjuncts that had served as wine depots where 

synagogue members could obtain their bottles of wine without disturbing 

the sanctity of the synagogue) and voided all existing rabbinical 

wine permits. All rabbis applying for permits now had to appear in 

person before the local Prohibition administrator to outline the needs 

of their congregants. The Prohibition authorities would then arrange 

the delivery.74 

Faced with sudden financial catastrophe, the Orthodox rabbis of 

New York hired a lawyer. This attorney, whose name was Samuel 

Joseph, immediately called a press conference. In his statement, reported 

by the New York Times of August 29, 1926 (as well as by the 

local Yiddish dailies),7s Joseph told the assembled reporters that General 

Andrews was making impossible demands and asserted that the 

new plan was "impracticable." Furthermore, the timing of the new 

regulations created great hardships, because they went into effect during 

the period immediately preceding the High Holy Days. "At this 

time of year;" Joseph stated, "the rabbis cannot leave their synagogues 

and worshippers. They are engaged in praying, visits to the cemeteries 

[where they pray for ancestral intervention on their congregants' behalf], 

and attending to other religious duties," and thus could not


spare the time to go down to the Prohibition offices for "a possible 

third degree interview." 

Joseph pointed to other difficulties Orthodox rabbis would face: 

"A very large percent of them cannot speak enough English to find 

their way to the prohibition offices." The language barrier would, in 

addition, make it difficult for them to establish their credibility with 

the authorities. If such impediments kept the rabbis from obtaining 

their requisite wine allotments, they would be "compelled to have 

their worshipers obtain bootleg wine." 

Next Joseph turned his attention to the charge made by the Prohibi- 

tion authorities that the systematic withdrawals of allotments of sac- 

ramental wine during the summer months was positive proof of privi- 

lege abuse, since there were no Jewish holidays in the summer and 

therefore no justification for the withdrawals. The attorney's response 

resorted to a blatant falsehood: "Under the Jewish laws, wines are 

used every day [emphasis added] for prayer services," and therefore 

the withdrawals were entirely justifiable. 

Despite Joseph's efforts, the new regulations remained in effect, and 

sacramental wine distributions dropped to under 400,000 gallons 

within several years.76 

The Situation Since Repeal 

With the repeal of Prohibition, the issue of using unfermented wine for 

sacramental purposes became a strictly internal Jewish affair.77 Ironically, 

in current Orthodox practice, with wine freely and abundantly 

available, the ritual use of grape juice is commonplace even in the most 

stringently Orthodox homes. Many brands of grape juice, expressly 

intended to be used for ritual purposes, are marketed to the Orthodox 

community in America and abroad. Leading rabbinic authorities of 

the past thirty years have issued responsa permitting the substitution 

of grape juice for wine in all ceremonie~.~~ 

While neither Rabbi Louis J. Ginzberg nor Rabbi Isaac Simha Hurewitz 

is cited by these later authorities (in Hurewitz's case, most likely 

because of the great obscurity of his book; in Ginzberg's, because of 

his Conservative affiliation), it is precisely Ginzberg's ideas that appear 

in the discussions of this issue by Orthodox rabbis. Even his 

"radical" rejection of the Magen Avraham, which so vexed Hurewitz, 

is blithely echoed by a leading Hasidic authority.79


Has Jewish legal science undertaken a quantum leap in one genera- 

tion? Why is grape juice acceptable now, when a half-century ago only 

"heretics" sanctioned it? The answer must lie in the economic, rather 

than legal, sphere. Section 6 of the Volstead Act, and the means by 

which it was to be implemented, offered Orthodox rabbis an opportu- 

nity to benefit financially, and they took it. 

Rabbinic Violations and Anti-Semitism 

It is difficult to justify any circumvention of the law, especially when 

committed by the spiritual leaders of a community. Still harder to 

understand and justify is the total lack of any sense of responsibility 

for the damage done to the collective reputation of the American Jew- 

ish community and its leaders. Given the climate of the times and the 

underlying attitudes of the dry forces toward Jews, the deliberate eva- 

sion of the intent of Prohibition undermined the entire community. 

Since Prohibition was America's great obsession during the twen- 

ties,s0 Jewish violations were virtually guaranteed to receive signifi- 

cant press coverage, and, in fact, they did. The coverage in the New 

York Times and the Providence Journal coverage has already been 

described. Rabbi Grodzinski's letter, cited above, told of the bad press 

given Jews by the midwestern papers. The president of the CCAR 

recorded the following: "Glaring headlines appeared in public news- 

papers saying that 'Jewish Rabbis Reap Fabulous Sums by Flouting 

Dry Law,' that 'Big Illicit Pools Selling Sacramental Wine,' and others 

of similar ~haracter."~' 

With all this attention from the mainstream press, one could hardly 

expect Henry Ford's openly anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent to 

refrain from publishing revelations about rabbis engaged in subvert- 

ing Prohibition. For example: 

Bootlegging is a 95 per cent controlled Jewish industry in which a certain class 

of rabbis have been active. . . . the bulk of liquor permits-a guess of 95 per cent 

would not be too high-are in the hands of Jews. . . . Newspaper offices have 

been kept "wet" in some cases by "rabbinical wine," which accounts for the 

dribble of "wet" propaganda in the so-called humorous and other columns of 

the evening journals. . . . It happens that "rabbinical wine" is a euphemism for 

whiskey, gin, Scotch, champagne, vermouth, absinthe, or any other kind of 

hard liquor.. . . the illicit liquor business.. .has always been Jewish.. . . And it is 

not a cause for shame among the majority of the Jews, sad to say; it is rather a


cause for boast. The Yiddish newspapers are fruitful of jocular references to the 

fact, and they even carry large wine company advertisements week after week.82 

A decade after repeal, the dry forces still harbored a special grudge 

against Jews. Ernest Gordon, writing in 1943, claimed that 50 percent 

of the liquor trade was in Jewish hands, with most of the larger dealers 

having graduated from bootlegging. 

There are, too, those who sell alcoholized sweets to children. . . . one would not 

dwell on these things if there were men and women in American Jewry reacting 

against them. It is said that the Rothschild fortune originated from financial 

operations connected with the shipment of Hessian troops to fight the Ameri- 

can Colonists in the War of Independence. It would be unfair for men of our 

time to emphasize that fact. But it is not unfair to point out that the American 

people are engaged in another and equally great war of independence and our 

American Jews are not helping us as they should. . . . When Rabbi [Stephen S.] 

Wise tells us that the only hope in the world is that Israel and Christendom 

stand togethel; we ask, "Why then did you not stand with us?" Why did you not 

rise up and rebuke those who were destroying the 18th Amendment,-the Cel- 

lers, the Sabaths, the Siroviches, and Dicksteins; the Ochses and Lippmanns 

and Swopes? The big-wigs of Schenley's and National Distillers are but sellers 

of potato schnaps in the villages of Eastern Europe, immigrated to America and 

here established. . . . Our Jewish leaders should disassociate themselves and 

their community from them, for they are still Eastern European, with little 

understanding for American ideals of law and decency and freed~m.~' 

While Jewish involvement with sacramental wine abuses and other 

illegal activities connected with Prohibition was being scrutinized and 

condemned in the press, the Jewish community was being threatened 

by other manifestations of the "cultural counter-offensive" described 

by Higham.84 

In early 1921 Congress passed a restrictive immigration law in re- 

cord time, and by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the House, 

that was designed "to keep out the Jews."85 Appended to the endorse- 

ment of the bill by the House Committee on Immigration was a State 

Department report that America faced an inundation of "abnormally 

twisted" and "unassimilable" Jews-"filthy, unAmerican, and often 

dangerous in their habits."s6 The immigration bill's progress through 

Congress and the question of whether President Wilson would ulti- 

mately sign it into law were topics that received maximum coverage in 

the Jewish press. This issue dominated the front pages of the New 

York City Yiddish papers while the merits of the Menorah Wine Com-

Orthodox Rabbis React to Prohibition 

pany were being debated on its inner columns. Jewish leaders did what 

they could to block passage of the law. Even the Assembly of Orthodox 

Rabbis entered the fray, sending telegrams to Wilson, Presidentelect 

Harding, and various congressmen. As reprinted in the organization's 

Sefer Knesset haRabbar~im,~' they contained the following message: 

Ministering as we do largely among erstwhile strangers in our land, we can 

testify that they are ready to embrace American ideals at the first opportunity. 

To create legislation which would leave undying pain in hearts of all American 

immigrants would certainly leave a poor background for us to do Americaniza- 

tion work. 

Eight months later, after the appearance of the article about Meno- 

rah Wine in the New York Times and the Providence Journal, this 

rhetoric sounded a bit hollow. The following year, Louis Marshall's 

testimony before the House Immigration Committee on the impor- 

tance of Jews to America was marred by contentions from committee 

members that Jews were among the foremost violators of the Volstead 

As for the heightened racism of the period, it too was intensified by 

the Jewish involvement in bootlegging. Suppression of foreigner-con- 

trolled lawlessness was one of the chief goals of the recently resurrect- 

ed Ku Klux Klan. "In the Midwest the Klan delivered more real as- 

saults on the bootleggers than on any other target."s9 "To the Klan the 

Jew stood for an international plot to control America and also for the 

whole spectrum of urban sin-for pollution of the Sabbath, bootleg- 

ging, gambling, and carnal indulgence. 

Why Some Rabbis Violated the Law 

Neither fear of Klan retribution nor congressional scrutiny of immi- 

grant behavioral deficiencies was sufficient to deter sacramental wine 

abuses. Even after their activities had been brought to the attention of 

committees of both the House of Representatives and the Senate,91 

Orthodox rabbis refused to voluntarily relinquish the sacramental 

wine privilege. Only the strict crackdown by General Andrews and the 

investigation of six hundred New York rabbis by the U.S. attorney for 

the Southern District succeeded in halting the widespread abuses.92


Yet these men must be seen in the context of their time. The typical 

Orthodox rabbi of the twenties was foreign-born.93 He had received 

his education and rabbinical training among the great scholars of 

Eastern Europe, and had been raised in a tradition where rabbis regu- 

lated not only the cultural and religious life of their communities but 

also the civil and commercial life. In much of Eastern Europe, Jewish 

religious courts, presided over by rabbis, had the power to adjudicate 

both religious and civil matters, and rabbis were supported in a re- 

spectable manner by communal arrangements. 

In America conditions were vastly different. The immigrant rabbi 

was forced, by economic necessity, to become "a private entrepreneur 

of religious skills subject to the laws of the marketplace." While rabbis 

in Europe had essentially ruled over their communities, in America a 

rabbi "at best found employment with a congregation which gave him 

little security and meager wages." He had little authority, influence, or 

independence. He was often subjected to petty indignities "at the 

hands of the affluent, ignorant, and often impious pillars of the syna- 

gogue.' "94 

In 1913, Dr. Solomon Schechter, the head of the Conservative move- 

ment's Jewish Theological Seminary, lamented the prevailing condi- 

tions: 

. . . the conditions of most of our strictly Orthodox synagogues, the poverty 

prevailing there, the starvation wages which they grant to their Rabbis, the 

constant strife within the congregation itself, the first victim of which is the 

Rabbi, the ungenerous treatment of the young men on the part of those who 

consider themselves the pillars of the congregati~n.~~ 

In sharp contrast to the Orthodox community, the Reform move- 

ment treated its rabbis with respect. Its congregations were wealthy 

enough to provide their religious leaders with decent and secure in- 

comes. These rabbis, unfettered by poverty, could view the sacramen- 

tal wine exemption more ~bjectively.~~ 

It is ironic that both Izzy Einstein and the reporter from the Provi- 

dence Journal saw the poverty of the "headquarters" of the Assembly 

of Orthodox Rabbis as conclusive evidence that both Rabbi G. W. 

Margolis and his organization were frauds.97 Yet for authentic Ortho- 

dox rabbis such conditions were the norm. 

This conclusion is not ours alone. The link between the poverty


experienced by Orthodox rabbis and the abuses of the sacramental 

wine privilege is plaintively evoked in "When Wine Enters, Secrets Are 

Revealed." This short essay, written by Rabbi Samuel Horowitz of the 

Bronx, appeared in 1926 in a rabbinic journal published in Budapest. 

In it, the author explained the "secret" of the title: A question had 

been puzzling the Jewish People. Why were American rabbis accorded 

no respect, unlike their colleagues in Europe? What was it about them 

that had demeaned them in the eyes of their fellow rabbis outside the 

United States. The secret is revealed in Horowitz's answer. American 

rabbis are held in low esteem because they had abased themselves in 

the sacramental wine trade. Yet, Horowitz offers one justification for 

their activities-Orthodox rabbis in America were suffering under 

crushing poverty, and the wine trade was vital to their survival. 

A similar sentiment was expressed privately by Rabbi Samuel Ger- 

stenfeld in a letter to Elias Cohen, the head of the New York Kehillah. 

Heartily endorsing the Kehillah's proposal to create a unified rabbinic 

board to control kashrut supervision in New York City, Gerstenfeld 

said he favored the plan because it would open opportunities for gain- 

ful employment for the city's many destitute Orthodox rabbis and 

would break the monopoly on kashrut supervision held by New 

York's two leading Orthodox rabbis, Moses Z. Margolies and Philip 

Hillel Klein. 

One of the good consequences would be after your scheme reaches maturity 

and success (not to mention Kashrus) the Rabbis who generally live in dire 

poverty and some of them are tempted to do a little bootlegging which may 

cause someday the biggest scandal and hilu1 HaShem [desecration of God's 

name], your giving them employment and remuneration would brace them not 

to stumble. For their heart and mind is sound and aching.Io0 

Immigrant rabbis were also apparently not troubled by fears of 

generating anti-Semitism. Their experiences and indeed the history of 

the Jews in Europe had taught them to see hatred and bigotry as facts 

of life. To them, their neighbors' animosity was inherent in their being 

Christians and was in no way dependent on anything contemporary 

Jews did. What Jews had allegedly done two thousand years earlier 

determined the nature of the relationship. This paradigm was carried 

with them from Europe, where it may well have been an accurate 

model for understanding Gentile attitudes.lo1 The immigrant rabbis


also tended to adopt a certain "flexibility" toward government regu- 

lations, an attitude necessary for survival in countries where laws were 

often specifically designed to suppress Jewish economic advancement. 

This posture was in sharp contrast to that of America's Conserva- 

tive and Reform rabbis, who had for the most part been raised in this 

country and considered themselves thoroughly American. They re- 

garded circumventing the law as intolerable and also had the most to 

lose if perceived as obstructing Prohibition. This attitude explains 

such facts as Rabbi Stephen Wise's membership on the board of the 

Alcohol Information Committee, a prominent dry organization, and 

Brandeis's pro-Prohibition decisions, which led his biographer, A. T. 

Mason, to label his chapter on this phase of the jurist's career "The 

Prophet Stumbles."102 

These justifications aside, the facts appear inescapable. Prohibition 

certainly was not the finest hour for America's Orthodox rabbis. 

Their failure, however, could have been predicted. The framers of Sec- 

tion 6 of the Volstead Act had placed them in that most unfortunate of 

positions for jurists to labor under. When objective legal analysis be- 

comes impossible because self-interest and self-enrichment block the 

application of dispassionate reasoning, the result is imprudence, or as 

the Bible puts it, "a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the 

words of the righteous."lo3 

Hannah Sprecher is a student at Brooklyn Law School. She has 

translated several classic Hebrew works into English and is the mother 

of four young children. 

Notes 

1 gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support given by Professor Jeffrey B. Morris. 

My husband, Dr. Stanley Sprecher, provided invaluable assistance and unselfishly shared his 

expertise in Judaica with me. The quotation in the title of this article is adapted from Proverbs 

31:7. 

I. John Higham, Send These to Me: Immigrants in Urban America, rev. ed. (Baltimore, 1984), 

P. 48. 

2. Ronald H. Bayor, "American Anti-Semitism." American Jewish History 75 (December 

1986): 182. 

3. This rule is mentioned four times in the Babylonian Talmud: Nedarim 28a, Gitttn rob, Bava 

Kamma 113a-b, Baua Batra 54b-55a.


4. E.g., see Charles R. Snyder, Alcohol and the Jews: A Cultural Study of Drinking and Sobri- 

ety (Glencoe, 1958), especially chap. I. The claim that moderation was the norm in the Jewish 

community received support from a most unlikely source. In a 1927 letter apologizing for having 

turned the Dearborn Independent into a forum for virulent anti-Semitic rhetoric, Henry Ford 

wrote to Louis Marshall that he was "fully aware of the virtues of the Jewish people as a whole 

. . . their sobriety and diligence." For Ford, sobriety was indeed a key virtue. He was an avowed 

dry, and remained a staunch supporter of the Volstead Act until repeal. This letter appears in 

American Jewish Yearbook, 1927-1928, pp. 384 ff. 

5. E.g., Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kamma 9 I b, where Rabbi Eleazar Hakkapar explains why 

a nazir (one who takes a vow of abstinence) must bring a sacrifice as a sin-offering at the 

conclusion of his vow-"because he unnecessarily deprived himself of wine." This attitude rep- 

resents the mainstream, classical Jewish position, but there were occasional divergent views, such 

as the Essenes in the Second Temple period, and Abraham Maimonides and Abraham bar Hiyya 

in the medieval period. See Encyclopaedia Judaica (1972), S.V. "Asceticism," which despite such 

exceptions states that "asceticism never occupied an important place in the Jewish religion" (vol. 

2, col. 677). 

6. The Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 8b) mandates that the deceased's family be consoled with 

ten cups of wine during the first meal after the funeral. This practice ceased during the geonic 

# 

period (see the Me'iri to Mo'ed Katan qb). 

7. Of the general histories of Prohibition that I have consulted, only Herbert Asbury's The 

Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition (New York, 1968), pp. 239-240, mentions 

that there was abuse of the sacramental wine privilege. He concludes that the problems were 

caused by bogus rabbis who duped innocent, unsuspecting legitimate rabbis into certifying them 

or allowing the use of their own permits. The situation was far more complex, however, as will be 

shown in this article. 

An account of the activities of American rabbis during Prohibition can be found in Jenna 

Weissman Joselit's Our Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish Community, 1900-1940 

(Bloomington, 1983), pp. 85-105. Particularly good is her uncovering of contemporary news 

sources, but her study lacks material originating from within the Orthodox Jewish community. 

In addition, as will be addressed further on, there are several errors in her understanding of the 

sources. 

There is also an important Hebrew article by Shlomith Yahalom, "Jewish Existence in the 

Shadow of American Legislation: A Study of Prohibition," Tarbiz 53 (October-December 

1983): 117-137. Her sympathies lie with the Orthodox rabbis for vigorously asserting their 

First Amendment rights by refusing to join their Conservative and Reform colleagues in renouncing 

use of the sacramental wine privilege. The historical reality was far more complex and 

problematic, as will be shown in this study. 

I would also like to acknowledge an intriguing comment in n. 129 of Dr. Jeffrey S. Gurock's 

"Resisters and Accommodators: Varieties of Orthodox Rabbis in America, I 8 86-198 3," American 

Jewish Archives 35 (November 1983), that helped to provide the stimulus for this study: 

Finally, membership in the Knesseth ha-Rabbanim may be related, interestingly enough, 

to the rise of Prohibition legislation in the United States. Under Internal Revenue Com- 

missionregulations, to be allowed to utilize wine for sacramental purposes, a rabbi had to 

show that he was a member of a recognized rabbinical body. Illegal kosher wine "ped- 

dling," of course, often became an abuse of this system. In any event, the Knesseth gave 

rabbis a home base for legal or possibly illegal wine handling. See Sefer Knesseth, pp. 

74-76. Clearly Rabbi Gabriel Wolf Margolis in his multifarious activities is worthy of 

much more intensive study beyond the present effort.


8. The United Synagogue of America, Eighth Annual Convention, February 1920, cited by 

Yahalom, "Jewish Existence in the Shadow of American Legislation," p. 125 

9. CCAR Yearbook 30 (1920): 18. 

10. Louis Marshall to Elias A. Cohen, January 25,1923 (Magnes Archives, P3 1541, located 

at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem), cited by Yahalom, p. 

125. 

11. Reproduced in Sefer Knesset haRabbanim I (1922): 75. 

12. In fact, government officials were initially uncertain whether Section 6 applied to home 

use. In July 1919, the Union of American Hebrew Congregation's Annual Reports (vol. 45, p. 

8426-27) recorded the government's reply to an inquiry by one of its members regarding the 

home use of wine for the Passover Seder: 

The Department of Justice feels, and properly so, that it cannot place itself on record with 

reference to the use of wine for religious purposes, except to say that the law as it now 

stands contemplates the use of wine in the Synagog, and the privilege is extended for such 

use in exactly the same manner as the law is waived for the communion service of the 

Roman Catholic and Protestant Church. The matter of the use of wine for the Passover in 

the household is a matter which the government's attorneys cannot pass upon, as that is 

something which would have to be construed by the courts in each state, and they can 

only suggest that individuals making use of wine for such purposes could do so only after 

consulting their own counsel. 

13. Hebrew Union College (the Reform institution) was founded in 1875, the Jewish Theological 

Seminary (which evolved into the Conservative rabbinical seminary) was established in I 886, 

and Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Orthodox) was founded in 1897. 

14. Louis Marshall to Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, March 20, 1920 in Charles Reznikoff, ed., 

Champion of Liberty (Philadelphia, 1957)~ vol. 2, p. 933. 

15. Louis Marshall, as quoted in the New York Times, December 25, 1921. 

16. CCAR Yearbook 30 (1920): 22 

17. Louis Marshall to Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies, March 20, 1920, in Reznikoff, Champion of 

Liberty, p. 933. 

18. Izzy Einstein provides us with more colorful detail. According to him, "they [Menorah 

Wine] got hold of a son of a rabbi in Washington-a young fellow not twenty years of age- and 

sent him over on the strength of the family name. Posing as Rabbi So-and-so of Washington, this 

lad 'passed upon' wine in Malaga and gave it his 'rabbinical O.K.' before it was shipped over here 

to find its way through bootlegging channels into select speakeasies and less select saloons." Izzy 

Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I (New York, 1932), pp. 145-146. 

19. The commissioner's interference in this case is intriguing. Someone connected to Menorah 

Wine must have had influence in Washington. lzzy Einstein recounts being threatened by Nathan 

Musher, who phoned him from Washington warning that he'd "better be careful" or Musher 

"may see President Harding in the morning." Einstein recalled newspapers mentioning the ru- 

mor that Secretary of the Treasury Andrew William Mellon had been contacted regarding this 

matter (see Prohibition Agent No. I, pp. 150-151). Musher's threats did not result in any 

hardship for Einstein personally, and there is no evidence linking him with Einstein's dismissal in 

1925. Still, it cannot be denied that Musher, or someone connected with him, had enough influ- 

ence to get the shipment released and also to obtain the special permit. 

Nathan Musher's access to the halls of power was perhaps not so remarkable an achievement 

as might seem on first analysis. These were, after all, the Harding years. President Warren G. 

Harding's administration was riddled with corruption. His cronies used their government offices


for a variety of illegal purposes and actively flouted the Prohibition laws. Operating out of a 

"Little Green House on K Street," members of Harding's "Ohio Gang" would have their own 

supply of liquor delivered in Wells Fargo Express wagons by armed Internal Revenue agents. In 

addition, their influence proved invaluable to numerous individuals and groups in need of per- 

mits to sell and distribute liquor, ostensibly for legal purposes. Furnishing these permits was a 

very profitable sideline for theissuers, and most of the liquor obtained in this way ended up in the 

hands of bootleggers. Both Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty and Prohibition Commission- 

er Roy Haynes were implicated in transactions of this kind. See E. P. Trani and D. L. Wilson, eds., 

The Presidency of Warren G. Harding (Lawrence, Kansas, 1977), pp. 179-1 80; Francis Russell, 

The Shadow of Blooming Grove (New York, 1968), pp. 520-523. 

zo. Einstein's account, which closely parallels the newspaper reports of January 4, 1922, 

appears in Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I, pp. 143-149. 

21. The Providence Journal's headline included the following: "Legitimate Rabbis, Refusing 

to Countenance Project, Expose Details of Plan to the Authorities." 

22. Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I, p. 146. These assertions were uncritically accepted by 

Joselit, Our Gang, p. 97: 

In one famous episode, a clergyman named S. [sic] Margolies traded on the similarity 

between his own name and that of the leading Orthodox rabbi, Moses Z. Margolies, by 

fabricating a religious organization which he named the Association [sic] of Hebrew 

Orthodox Rabbis of America, a title easily confused with the Union of Orthodox Rabbis 

(Agudath haRabbanim). Margolies' organization received wine for some seventy congre- 

gations simply on the strength of its letterhead until Einstein unmasked it as a fraud. 

Einstein's version of this incident accurately names Gabriel Wolf Margolis (he calls him "G. 

Wolf" not "S.," but misspells his last name as "Margolies" instead of the correct "Margolis") 

and correctly calls the organization the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis (unlike Joselit's "Associa- 

tion"). See Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I, pp. 145-147. Joselit accepts at face value Ein- 

stein's conclusions (which he had based on information supplied by Rabbi Margolies) that G. W. 

Margolis was a fraud, "a teacher of some sort," and that his organization was fraudulent as well. 

These assertions were simply untrue. Rabbi G. W. Margolis, as this study will show, was a rabbi 

of stature, renowned for his scholarship both in Europe and the Orthodox communities of the 

United States. Moreover, his organization was legitimate, authorized on November 8, 1920 by 

the Office of the Federal Prohibition Commissioner to issue permits for the distribution of 

sacramental wine. Einstein undoubtedly believed he was uncovering a fraud. His source was 

unimpeachable. But Rabbi Margolies certainly knew that both G. W. Margolis and his Assembly 

were genuine. His motives for discrediting the organization and its leader will be discussed 

below. 

23. The odium of "Hebrew teacher" is confirmed by G. W. Margolis's letter of rebuttal to the 

Providence Journal (printed as a news story in the New York Times on January 15, 1922) in 

which he declared "that he was never, and is not now, a Hebrew teacher." He further stated that 

he was never associated in any way with the Menorah Wine Company. 

24. New York Times, January 4, 1922; Einstein's account dismisses G. Wolf Margolis as a 

"teacher of some sort," dressed in the garb of religious authority (Prohibition Agent No. I, p. 

145). 

25. New York Times, December 25, 1921. 

26. The announcement contained a facsimile of Margolies's handwritten note, which was in 

Hebrew, as well as a Yiddish translation, and was introduced by the following preface: "Since 

RaMaZ has had many inquiries regarding Menorah Wine and finds it difficult to answer each


one individually, he reproduces the following letter." Margolies said in it that he had met the 

Menorah Wine shipment at the dock when it first arrived in America. When he asked who had 

supervised its production, he was told that two English rabbis had been the mashgichim (rabbinic 

supervisors). When he requested proof of this, he was told that the proper documents would 

arrive later. However, since the documents had never arrived, he had been unable to sanction the 

wine. Interestingly, Aaron Silverstone is not mentioned in this account. Perhaps Musher intro- 

duced him into the episode only after no trace of the two "English rabbis" could be produced. 

27. Rabbi Margolies responded to these interviews by repeating his declaration in the March 6 

issue of Der Tog, this time using larger type and a larger portion of the page. Menorah countered 

with a half-page ad in the March 29 issue, which also included a facsimile of Rabbi Yudelovich's 

letter of approval. In it Yudelovich claimed that Aaron Silverstone's personal stamp appeared on 

each barrel and that he had supervised the wine from the time the grapes were pressed. The ad 

drew on the symbol of the menorah, claiming that "just as a menorah is holy, pure, and illuminat- 

ing, so too, Menorah Wine is holy and pure; no better or more kosher wine exists." 

28. See Haim Avni, Spain, the Jews, and Franco (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 

1982), P. 43. 

29. See Louis Marshall to Elias A. Cohen, January 25,1923 (Magnes Archives, P3 I 541), cited 

by Yahalom, p. 125. 

30. See the entry on Rabbi Joffee on p. 303 of Ohalei Shem (Pinsk, I~IZ), a directory of 

contemporary rabbis compiled by S. N. Gottleib. He is described as "the founder of the Union of 

Orthodox Rabbis of America," and is listed as the author of five works of rabbinic scholarship. 

Rabbi Yudelovich's entry is on p. 296 (where his name is transliterated Iudelewitz), and he is 

listed as the author of eleven rabbinical works. Each of these entries is longer than the one given 

to Rabbi Margolies (on pp. 304-305), and he is not listed as the author of any rabbinical work. 

31. See Gurock, "Resisters and Accommodators," pp. 147-149, and Joshua Hoffman, "Rabbi 

Gavriel Zev Margolis," an unpublished biography of Margolis. Rabbi Hoffman is a graduate 

student in American Jewish history at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies, 

Yeshiva University. I gratefully acknowledge his assistance. He allowed me to read his unpublished 

biography of Rabbi G. W. Margolis, ~ointed out valuable references in Sefer Knesset haRabbanim, 

and shared archival material that he had received from the American Jewish Archives as 

well as additional sources helpful to this study. 

32. Gurock, "Resisters and Accommodators," pp. 147-148, describes this ongoing conflict as 

follows: 

This senior scholar, the reputed [sic] author of several European-published rabbinic 

tracts, quickly elected chief rabbi of several New England area congregations, saw little 

personal value in affiliating with the relatively new rabbinic organization. If anything, he 

recognized the Agudat ha-Rabbanim as an organizational establishment which stood in 

the way of his economic and rabbinic-political advancement through the kashruth indus- 

try. . . . he undertook a decade-long campaign to undermine the reliability of Agudat ha- 

Rabbanim within New York Orthodox circles. 

This harsh assessment of Rabbi Margolis's motives differs from the position taken by another 

respected historian. Arthur A. Goren, "Institutions Transplanted," in The Jews of North Ameri- 

ca, ed. Moses Rischin (Detroit, 1987), p. 73, describes the conflict as follows: 

In 1911 Adath Israel appointed the eminent rabbi, scholar and preacher, Gabriel Ze'ev 

Margolis, as its spiritual leader. The Adath Israel leadership, with Margolis at its head and


with the support of the Morgen Zhurnal, the Orthodox Yiddish daily, entered the thicket 

of communal politics. For the next decade it attempted to federate all Orthodox institu- 

tions with the goal of communalizing the supervision of kosher meat and religious educa- 

tion. Although the effort proved abortive, it illustrates the communal thrust latent in the 

traditional hevra kadisha society. 

33. This is the number given on p. 21 of vol. I of Sefer Knesset haRabbanim. However, in the 

book itself only forty-three names of members appear. Izzy Einstein quotes Rabbi G. W. Margolis 

as telling him that his organization "had about seventy members, located in various cities" 

(Prohibition Agent No. I, p. 147). 

34. This point was first raised by Gurock, "Resisters and Accommodators," p. 183. It is 

intriguing that Rabbi Margolies made exactly the same accusation sixty years ago! 

35. Reprinted in Sefer Knesset haRabbanim, p. 11. 

36. The amendment and the official correspondence that preceded it are reprinted in the 

journal of the Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis, Sefer Knesset haRabbanim, pp. 73-78. 

37. Ibid., pp. 3-4. 

38. Ibid., p. I 3. Glazer was not making an empty boast, since he had met with many midwest- 

ern governors and congressmen, and ultimately with President Harding himself, in his quest to 

get government approval for a Jewish national home in Palestine. His efforts finally succeeded in 

September 1922 when Harding approved a joint congressional resolution passed earlier that 

spring. Glazer subsequently wrote a book entitled The Palestine Resolution which described 

these events (published by the Kansas City Jewish Federation, 1922). 

39. This letter is extant in the collected papers of Rabbi Levin, housed at the American Jewish 

Archives, Cincinnati. It was shown to me by Rabbi Hoffman, for which I am most grateful. 

40. Rabbi Grodzinski's letter was reprinted inSefer Knesset haRabbanim, p. 14. In the interest 

of fairness to the other Orthodox rabbis of his time, it should be noted that Rabbi Grodzinski 

was, by comparison, financially secure. He had settled in Omaha to be close to the stockyards, 

slaughterhouses, and meat-packing plants of the Midwest to benefit from the need for supervi- 

sors at companies that distributed kosher meat nationwide. Had his economic situation been 

difficult, his attitude toward sacramental wine permits might have been more self- rather than 

community-centered. See Gurock, "Resisters and Accommodators," p. 127. 

41. The copy of the contract was found among Rabbi Levin's papers and was provided sup- 

plied to me through the courtesy of Joshua Hoffman. He theorizes that Levin obtained a copy of 

the contract to serve as a model for his own business relationship with wine manufacturers. 

42. Jonathan D. Sarna has pointed out the irony of an Orthodox congregation employing a 

Reform rabbi. Apparently, the congregation's desire to engage in the wine trade (which depended 

on having a rabbi to receive permits) overrode any reservations regarding doctrinal differences. 

43. Jacob Sonderling, "Five Gates: Casual Notes for an Autobiography," American lewish 

Archives 16 (April 1964): I 12-1 I 3. 

44. American Hebrew, March 20, 1925, p. 571. 

45. Ibid. 

46. CCAR Yearbook, 1920, pp. 108-1 14. 

47. New York Times, January 24, 1922. This was surely the first time that a rabbinic respon- 

sum elicited enough interest in the secular world to merit a press conference and coverage in a 

major newspaper. 

Before Rabbi Ginzberg's decision became known, leaders of the Conservative movement were 

understandably apprehensive about his conclusions. Cyrus Adler, the president of the Jewish 

Theological Seminary, expressed this clearly in a letter dated December 28, 1921, to Louis 

Finkelstein, one of the senior scholars of the institution:


I do not know what Professor [Louis] Ginzberg's opinion is but in any event I do not like 

the way in which the title of his paper is phrased. You have it "The Need of Fermented 

Wines in Jewish Religious Ceremonies." Does not this title prejudge the case? Should it 

not be "The Question of Fermented Wines in Jewish Religious Ceremonies"? I want to 

suggest that the wine question be discussed in executive session and not to be open to 

representatives of the press or to the public. My reason for this suggestion is that this is 

now a subject for active newspaper discussion and it might very well be that sensational 

reports would appear in the newspapers. 

Ira Robinson, ed., Cyrus Adler, Selected Letters, vol. z (Philadelphia and New York, 1985), p. 

4 5 

Once Adler knew that Ginzberg's ruling would advocate the use of unfermented wine, he was 

greatly relieved and approved its maximum public exposure by arranging a press conference. 

48. The controversy surrounding grape juice, religious ritual, and temperance did not origi- 

nate in 1922. The man who first made grape juice, Dr. Thomas B. Welch, was an ardentprohibi- 

tionist seeking a nonalcoholic beverage to replace the wine used in Communion. In 1869, using 

the new technique of Pasteurization, he succeeded in preparing nonalcoholic wine, but his fellow 

Methodists resisted so strongly that by 1873 he abandoned the idea. His son, Charles E. Welch, 

revived the process several years later and ultimately built Welch's Grape Juice into a formidable 

corporation. See William Chazanof, Welch's Grape Juice: From Corporation to Co-operative 

(Syracuse, N.Y., 1979), PP. 7-9, 31. 

After the Volstead Act was passed, most Protestant denominations switched to grape juice for 

Communion. The Catholic Church, however; steadfastly refused to abandon fermented wine. 

Even prior to Dr. Welch's experiments with grape juice, Christian temperance leaders in the 

nineteenth century had promoted the use of a different nonfermented substance to replace wine 

at the Communion tableraisin wine. Professor Jonathan Sarna has explained how they extend- 

ed the (unwittingly erroneous) information provided them by Mordecai M. Noah that Jews were 

to drink only unfermented raisin wine at the Passover Seder. Since the Communion ceremony 

was a reenactment of the Last Supper (which was a Seder), it was only proper that the beverage 

reflect what Jesus himself had used. This line of reasoning effectively countered any possible 

arguments from biblical practice against total abstinence from alcohol. See Jonathan D. Sarna, 

"Passover Raisin Wine, The American Temperance Movement, and Mordecai Noah," Hebrew 

Union College Annual 59 (1988): 269-288, for a brilliant elucidation of nineteenth-century 

Jewish and Christian interaction on the temperance issue. 

Although Noah was mistaken about raisin wine, both Rabbi Ginzberg and Rabbi Mendlowitz 

(see below, n. 63) cited the sacramental use of raisin wine by Byelorussian Jewry as validating the 

permissibility of grape juice. 

49. Louis Ginzberg, Tshuva Bedvar Yeinot Haksherim Vehapsulim Lemitzvah (New York, 

1922), P. 77. 

Because of its importance, this responsum was translated from the Hebrew into English and 

printed in the American Jewish Year Book, vol. 25 (1923-24), pp. 400-425. Although the title 

states that the responsum was "translated from the Hebrew original," in fact it is more an 

abridgement than a translation. This would be quite understandable if it were simply a matter of 

reducing and simplifying the intricate analysis of talmudic and post-talmudic halakhic sources, 

but the editors of the American Jewish Year Book apparently felt that Ginzberg's concluding 

sentences were too harsh and embarrassing to be translated into a language that Gentiles could 

understand. Therefore they were omitted altogether. 

50. E.g., compare the reaction of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis to the Rabbinical Assembly's 

proposed modification of the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) so that an agunah (a married


woman whose husband had disappeared or abandoned her) would be given the right to effect a 

Jewish divorce. This proposal was first raised by Rabbi Louis M. Epstein in a 1930 treatise, and 

was adopted by the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly in May 193 5. The Orthodox 

response was described in a statement by the Rabbinical Assembly as follows: "The storm of 

protest which broke in May, and which has raged since then, contributed nothing to the elucida- 

tion of the problem. The Jewish reading public was merely treated to a demonstration of vitu- 

peration, calumny, and shameless, hysterical invective." The controversy generated two full- 

length books by Orthodox rabbis (LeDor Acharon and Hapargod, both published in New York 

in 1937). 

51. Two treatments of Ginzberg's responsum appeared in 1926; they will both be discussed 

further on in our study. 

52. Reznikoff, Champion of Liberty, p. 935. 

53. Eli Ginzberg, Keeper of the Law (New York, 1966), p. 221. 

54. Emanuel Hertz, The Use of Wine by Jews for Religious Purposes (New Yorkl:?], 1922), 

available at the American Jewish Historical Society under call number BM 71o.H3. This refer- 

ence was uncovered by Yahalom ("Jewish Existence in the Shadow of American Legislation," p. 

13 s), but she calls Herb a Conservative rabbi when, in fact, he was neither a rabbi nor Conserva- 

tive. Although he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary for three years, he was never 

ordained, and he became a attorney instead. (Studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary dur- 

ing its formative years was not indicative of a Conservative orientation. Emanuel Hertz's young- 

er brother, Joseph H. Hertz, for instance, was ordained at JTS but nevertheless became a promi- 

nent Orthodox rabbi, serving as chief rabbi of England from 1913 until his death in 1946.) 

Emanuel Hertz was also active in local Republican politics and ran for Congress in 1926. He is 

best remembered for his books on Abraham Lincoln and for amassing a huge private collection 

of Lincolniana. See the entries on Hertz in the Encyclopaedia Judaica (1972) and Who's Who in 

American Jewry, 1928. 

5 5. See the preceding note. 

56. Ginzberg, Keeper of the Law, p. 221. 

57. Hertz, Use of Wine by Jews for Religious Purposes, p. I. 

58. Ibid., p. 8. 

59. Ibid., p. 6. 

60. Ibid., p. 4. 

61. Ibid., pp. 12-14. 

62. In fact, since the late nineteenth century, most wines have been initially handled exactly the 

same way as grape juice; the freshly pressed wines are heated to kill the naturally growing yeast 

and then select yeast cultures are added to produce fermentation. 

63. In denying that any problem existed, Hurewitz overlooked or chose to ignore what a young 

Orthodox scholar and educator had conceded. In "Das Neutige Operaziya" [The Necessary 

Operation], published in Dos Yiddishe Licht I (1923): 3-4, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, 

the principal of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath, launched a bitter critique of Orthodox life in America by 

criticizing rabbinic involvement in the wine trade. 

One need only consider the wine business which many rabbis are heavily engaged in. How 

much shame, how much degradation, how much desecration of the honor of the Torah 

lies therein! Rabbis who ought to be the ones to ensure that the laws of the land are upheld 

are instead the direct or indirect cause of their violation. . . . If truth be told, even if wine 

for ritual purpose were a biblical commandment, the current desecration of God's name 

would still not be justified, how much more so that it is only a rabbinic commandment, 

and it can be fulfilled by using raisin wine! . . . Therefore, I beseech you, my brethren, no


matter how great a Torah scholar a rabbi is, if he is a cause for the desecration of Heaven, 

he must be removed from the community. 

Unfortunately, Rabbi Mendlowitz was unable to follow his own exhortation. In the next issue 

of Dos Yiddishe Licht he submitted "An Open Letter to the Readers" explaining that he had 

never intended to impugn the honor of Orthodox rabbis and had really meant to condemn the 

actions of "reverends" who gave their permits to irresponsible parties, resulting in sacramental 

wine being sold to non-Jews. Dos Yiddishe Licht I, no. 7 (1923): 13. 

It is evident that Rabbi Mendlowitz's true feelings were expressed in his first piece. No doubt 

he was subjected to enormous pressure which led to his retraction. 

This source was uncovered by Professor Sid Z. Leiman, and I express my sincere gratitude for 

his sharing it with me. 

64. Isaac Simha Hurewitz, Sefer HaMitzvot im Sefer Yad Halevi (Jerusalem, 1926), pp. 

136-137. 

65. CCAR Yearbook 31 (1921): 91. 

66. CCAR Yearbook 32 (1922): 107-108. 

67. Ibid., pp. 108-109. Haynes is also quoted as stating: "When you get to interfering with the 

religious rights of a religious congregation, you are getting on delicate ground." Joselit, Our 

Gang, P. 99. 

68. Rabbi Moses Hyamson, The Jewish Concept of Wine and Its Use (New York, 1920). 

69. Reznikoff, Champion of Liberty, p. 934. 

70. American Hebrew, March to, 1925, p. 571. 

71. Joselit, Our Gang, p. 99. 

72.lewish Communal Register of New York City, 1917-1918 (New York: Kehillah of New 

York, 1918), "Table Showing the Distribution of Synagogues in the Various Kehillah Districts & 

the Salient Features of These Synagogues," pp. 123 ff. The published figures indicate that total 

synagogue membership amounted to 79,480 and that 93 percent of New York's synagogues were 

Orthodox. 

73. Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I, p. I 2. Einstein himself used wine for ritualpurposes. He 

was not an Orthodox Jew, but, according to his son Albie, the family "had yine for the high 

holidays." John Knoble~ Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (New York, 1973)~ p. 

299. 

74. Herbert Asbury, The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition (New York, 

1968), p. 240; Irving Fishe~ Prohibition at Its Worst (New York, 1927), p. 93; idem, The Noble 

Experiment (New York, 1930), pp. 178-179. 

75. In addition to the New York Times, the Samuel Joseph press conference was covered by the 

Jewish Daily Forward, the Tog, and the Morgen Journal of August 29, 1926. 

76. Joselit, Our Gang, pp. 103-105, covers the last years of the sacramental wine issue in 

depth. The role of Congressman Fiorello La Guardia as a defender of the Jewish community is 

especially fascinating. 

Between the end of 1927, when the new regulations eliminated most possibilities of abuse, and 

repeal in 1933, four additional references appeared in Orthodox publications. 

The first was a responsum in the November 1929 issue of the American rabbinic monthly 

HaPardes (vol. 3, pp. 19-21), authored by a New York gastroenterologist, Dr. Henry Illoway, 

the son of a famous nineteenth-century American rabbi, Bernard Illowy. Dr. Illoway was asked 

the following by a fellow physician: "In these days in which it is so difficult to obtain wine, is it 

permissible to make Kiddush over grape juice, which is available in any store without threat of 

punishment or any significant expenditure?"Without mentioning Ginzberg's responsum at all,


Dr. Illoway replied that grape juice was not a halakhically satisfactory alternative to wine. He 

suggested either the use of raisin wine or applying to one's local rabbi to obtain wine from 

Palestine that had only recently been reallowed into the United States. 

The second source, authored by Gershon Kiss, took the form of a parody on a talmudic 

tractate and was entitled Massekhet Prohibition (New York, 1929). A full page of this work (p. 

17) was devoted to lampooning the sacramental wine scandal. Included is the claim that despite 

their hatred of Jews, Ku Klux Klan members happily avail themselves of kosher sacramental 

wine. 

The third source appears in Otzar Zichronotai (New York, 1929), the memoirs of a prolific 

Orthodox writer named Judah David Eisenstein (New York, 1929). In his discussion of the 

Volstead Act and the sacramental wine exemption available to Jews, Eisenstein wrote: "Ginz- 

berg forgot that grape juice was only permissible when there was no alternative. Since the govern- 

ment authorities specifically permitted wine for religious purposes, there is a legal alternative to 

grape juice. Therefore, it is not permitted to substitute grape juice for wine in performing any 

religious ritual. Furthermore, one need not be more stringent than the government itself, for why 

should we be more Catholic than the pope?" (p. 142). The tone and dismissive nature of these 

remarks speak for themselves. 

The final source appeared in Ohel Moshe (Jerusalem, 1933), a collection of responsa by Rabbi 

Moshe Shohet, who had been the rabbi of Bangor and Portland, Maine, and of Quincy, Massa- 

chusetts. On pp. 74-78 he discussed the problem of whether a Jewish sheriff who had led 

Prohibition agents to a cache of wine and liquor hidden by another Jew was required, under the 

principles of the Jewish law of damages, to make restitution for the loss he had caused his fellow 

Jew. Rabbi Shohet's father, Rabbi H. N. Sochat, was a prominent member of the Knesset haRab- 

banim, serving on its Committee of Overseers and as a signatory of its telegrams to government 

officials. Rabbi Moshe Shohet himself was represented in vol. I, p. 74, of the Sefer Knesset 

haRabbanim with a telegram expressing regret that he could not attend the convention. I hope to 

analyze his responsum in depth in a future article. 

77. One possible vestige of Section 6 of the Volstead Act is the New York State regulation 

allowing religious functionaries in synagogues and churches to dispense wine to their congre- 

gants without having to register or remit the annual fee (of approximately $600) to the State 

Liquor Authority. The sales tax need not be collected in these transfers. Kosher wine dealers are 

naturally perturbed by this unfair competition and periodically pressure legislators and kosher 

wine manufacturers to curtail or eliminate this loophole. 

78. In fact, even many Hasidic authorities, who normally resist any innovation in religious 

practice, have sanctioned grape juice, conferring on it the same status as wine. For a recent 

comprehensive review of this issue, see Rabbi David Brand's "Kuntres Hamra Hatida," which 

appears in a collection of halakhic novellae entitled Zikhron Mikhael (Zichron Yaakov, 1989), 

pp. 275-293. As expected, Ginzberg's contribution to the topic is not acknowledged, much less 

discussed. Rabbi Brand's conclusion, however, is in agreement with Ginzberg's decision. Includ- 

ed in the article is testimony that a world-renowned halakhist, Rabbi Y. Karelitz (usually referred 

to as the Hazon Ish from the title of his most important work), who was a leading rabbi in Israel 

(then Palestine) from the 1930s to his death in the 195os, personally used grape juice for all ritual 

purposes. 

79. Rabbi Menashe Klein, Mishne Halakhot, vol. 10 (New York, 1984), p. 33. 

80. "Prohibition enforcement remains the chief and in fact the only real political issue of the 

whole nation." Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Inside of Prohibition (Indianapolis, 1929), p. 15. 

This view was affirmed by the respected historian Scan Dennis Cashman in his Prohibition: The 

Lieof the Land (New York, 1981): "Prohibition was the most avidly discussed issue in American 

society during the twenties" (p. 251).


81. CCAR Yearbook 32 (1922): 107. 

82. Dearborn Independent, December 31, 1921 (later reprinted in The International Jew, 4 

vols. [Dearborn, 1g22],4:31-40). Responsible Jews reacted to these accusations with "a consid- 

erable amount of soul-searching," and Louis Marshall is said to have "admitted privately that 

the percentage of Jews engaged in illegitimate bootlegging, including quite a number of rabbis, 

was shamefully large, and reflected discredit on the Jews." See Morton Rosenstock, Louis 

Marshall: Defender ofJewish Rights (Detroit, 1965), p. 172. 

83. Ernest Gordon, The Wrecking of the Eighteenth Amendment (Francestown, N.H., 1943), 

PP. 157-158. 

84. Higham, Send These To Me, p. 48. 

85. Ibid., p. 310. 

86. Ibid., p. 309. 

87. Pp. 77-80 

88. Baltimore Jewish Times, February 10, 1922, p. 10. 

89. Higham, Send These to Me, p. 208. 

90. Ibid., p. 286. 

91. U.S. Congress, Select Committee on the Investigation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, 

Hearings, 68th Cong., 1st sess. (1925). In December 1926, the House Appropriations Commit- 

tee heard testimony from Prohibition Commissioner Lincoln Andrews, who had requested addi- 

tional funding for his enforcement needs (69th Cong, 1st sess.). 

92. Joselit, Our Gang, p. 103. 

93. See Gurock, "Resisters and Accommodators," passim. 

94. Arthur A. Goren, New York Jews and the Quest for Community (New York, 1970)~ p.77. 

95. Report of the United Synagogue, 1913, pp. 20-21, cited by Herbert Parzen, Architects of 

Conservative Judaism (New York, 1964), p. 67. 

96. Professor Sid Z. Leiman pointed out (in comments made after reading a draft of this papeq 

for which 1 am most grateful) that this picture of a Volstead-abiding Reform community may 

have to be modified in light of the following testimony by Izzy Einstein: "Have you noticed that 

among Jewish people the members of Reformed congregations which dropped the use of wine 

from their ritual some time ago, are to-day mostly drawing their allotment, the same as the 

Orthodox?" (Prohibition Agent No. I, p. I 3 7). Howeveq Einstein wrote these words with repeal 

imminent, for Congress passed the Twenty-first Amendment scarcely three months after Izzy 

Einstein's book appeared. By then Prohibition was a dead issue for all except the hardcore drys. 

97. New York Times, January 4, 1922; Einstein, Prohibition Agent No. I, p. 147. 

98. This phrase is a well-known Jewish aphorism that first appears in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 

38a). The meaning is, of course, that an excess of wine loosens the tongue. The Talmud finds 

support for this universal observation (cf. the Latin in vino veritas) in the fact that the numerolo- 

gical equivalents of the Hebrew words for "wine" and "secret" are the same. Until modern times, 

Hebrew letters were used to represent numbers, so that the coincidence of the equivalences 

appeared startling. 

99. Apiryon 4 (1926): 206-209. 

100. Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem, file P3A895. For this 

confirmation of my thesis, 1 once again acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Rabbi Joshua 

Hoffman, who discovered this letter in the Archives. I would also like to thank Hadassah As- 

souline, archivist at the Central Archives, for granting me permission to make use of it. 

101. Evidence of this attitude can be adduced from the following statement by Jeffrey S. 

Gurock, "Members of organizations like the Agudat Ha-Rabbanim . . . certainly had no respect 

for the concept of non-sectarianism in Jewish life. Nor did they care how their views were


received in the gentile world." See his "Jewish Communal Divisiveness in Response to Christian 

Influences on the Lower East Side, 1900-1910," in ~ewish Apostasy in the Modern World, ed. 

Todd M. Endelman (New York and London 1987), p. 265. 

102. A. T. Mason, Brandeis: A Free Man's Life (New York, 1946), pp. 566-567. 

103. Deuteronomy 16:19.

Austrian Nazis bar Jewish students from the 

University of Vienna (I 93 8)

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience 

A Memoir of Nazi Austria and the 

Jewish Refugee Experience in America 

Stella K. Hershan 

I was born during the First World War in Vienna, Austria. My father 

was born in St. Poltens, a small town not far from the capital. He came 

from a poor family and as a self-made man became a quite well-to-do 

merchant. My mother was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, which at 

that time was part of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. At the schools 

there only Czech was taught, and therefore my mother went to school 

at a German-speaking convent. My mother's mother came from a 

religious family in Nuremberg, Germany. She was married off at a 

very young age to a man from Prague who was an atheist. Perhaps 

because she was a late child-her mother was almost fifty when she 

was born, and she was an embarrassment to the family. Like many 

other German-speaking people in Prague, they later moved to Vienna. 

In my family, though it was not denied that we were Jewish, religion 

was not practiced. To me, Judaism was a religion, and since we were 

not religious it did not seem important to me. Mostly I did not even 

know whether my friends were Jewish or Christian. In my parents' 

house derogatory remarks such as "Goy" (gentile) or "Schickse" (gen- 

tile girl or woman) were never ever used. I personally object to the 

term "assimilated." Assimilated, it says in the dictionary, means: "to 

convert from one thing to another." 

I was born in Austria, I was Austrian, and I loved my country, I 

loved the beautiful city of Vienna, the mountains surrounding it, the 

lovely lakes where we spent vacations in the summers. 

Dimly I recall that my grandmother once took me to a synagogue. It 

was very dark there; the praying men were downstairs, and we, like all 

the other women, had to sit upstairs. I recall some very loud trumpets 

and my grandmother told me it was the shofar. 

The second time I was in a synagogue was at my wedding. It was the 

year 1933 and I was eighteen years old. My husband was the most


handsome man I had ever seen. He was tall and blond and had blue 

eyes. Being nine years older than I, he was the owner of a metal-con- 

struction factory which had been in his family for many years. They 

were Jewish. He knew a little more about Judaism than I did because 

his mother had been religious while his father had not. By the time we 

got married his parents were dead. It was a lovely wedding and we 

went for our honeymoon to Italy. The fact that in neighboring Germa- 

ny, that same yeal; a man named Adolf Hitler became chancellor hard- 

ly made an impact on us. Returning from our honeymoon we moved 

into our custom-furnished gorgeous apartment and I had a maid and a 

cook. They both were much older than I was, and I was terribly intimi- 

dated by them. Politics still was something that was not much thought 

about in my private world. 

Portents of Disaster 

Suddenly, in 1934, a civil war broke out in our city. Austria, which had 

been governed by the Social Democratic Party since the end of World 

War I and the end of the monarchy, got into a terrible conflict with the 

right-wing Christian Socialist Party. Barricades were put up in the city, 

Austrians shot at the houses of Austrians. It lasted a short time. The 

Social Democrats were defeated and the right-wing government of the 

new chancellor, Dollfuss, took over. Politics now became important to 

us. For since my husband's factory had contracts with the Social Dem- 

ocrats, his business now collapsed. The maid and the cook were sent 

packing. It was rather nice to be alone, and I tried out my culinary 

talents which I had acquired at a cooking school while I was engaged. 

Jewish refugees from Germany began to trickle into Austria. They 

warned us to leave while we still could. Leave? Our city? Our home? 

Why should we do that? What was happening in Germany could not 

possibly happen in Austria. Hitler? That clown? Who used to be a 

housepainter in Vienna? A vagrant? How in the world could the Ger- 

mans be afraid of him? Those Germans! They never were liked in 

Austria. With that arrogant clipped way of speaking they had which 

no one could understand. And now they told us we should leave our 

country. Yet they looked pathetic, with their gray faces and shabby 

clothes, and the Viennese Jewish people helped them out with a little 

money and wished them luck on their journey to America or Australia 

or wherever they were to go.

Rethin king the American Jewish Experience I 8 3 

My husband's factory had diverted itself to the construction of 

storefronts and things were a little better. I again had a maid and even 

hired a nurse because I was expecting a baby. My daughter, Lisa, was 

born on July 29, 1937. New Year's Eve 1937138 we took part in an 

elegant party at Vienna's exclusive Imperial Hotel with some of our 

friends. At the stroke of midnight we toasted the coming year with 

champagne. 

It no longer was entirely possible to ignore the political events 

around us. In 1934, the Austrian chancel104 Dollfuss, had been assas- 

sinated by a band of Nazis. Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg had taken his 

place. The assassination had been an attempt by the Nazis to take over 

Austria, but I1 Duce, the Italian dictator Mussolini, had sent his troops 

to the border as a warning to Hitler. The Nazi Party was declared 

illegal in Austria and many were put in jail. Yet the situation was tense 

and troublesome. I personally had never before experienced any anti- 

Semitic incidents, not even in school. To see hateful signs about Jews 

and red swastikas painted all over the city was a jolting shock. 

Schuschnigg went to Berchtesgaden for a "talk" with Hitler in the 

hope of coming to an agreement with the Fuhrer to leave Austria 

alone. After an unfruitful and violent confrontation with Hitler, 

Schuschnigg returned to Vienna and set up an election to take place on 

March I 9th. It was up to the Austrian people to declare whether they 

were for or against an Anschluss to the Greater German Reich. We all 

were absolutely convinced that the election would turn out in favor of 

a free Austria. 

My parents, who went every spring to the French Riviera for a 

holiday, made their preparations to depart. "Now?" their friends 

would ask them. "You are leaving now? Before the election?" My 

father replied that he would await the result of the election outside of 

the country. 

The Anschluss 

On March I I, 193 8, the waltz music on the radio was interrupted. We 

just were eating dinner. 

The voice of our chancellor was calm and sad. 

"German troops are invading our country," he told the Austrian 

people. "The world is not willing to help us to defend ourselves, and 

alone we are not strong enough. We will not fight, not spill the blood


of our German brothers. May God protect Austria-" His voice faded 

away and the Austrian anthem sounded up, mournfully, sorrowfully. 

We put down our forks and knives. 

Suddenly we knew. 

We had to get out. Quickly. 

I don't recall whether we slept that night. My husband went to his 

office the next morning. 

A man with a brown armband with a red swastika was seated there. 

"Who are you?" he shouted. "The owner," my husband replied. "Not 

any more!" the man bellowed, "Your Jewish company is being Chris- 

tianized. Get out at once!" 

He came home. 

We took our car, planning to see what was happening in the villa of 

my absent parents. A maid and a dog were there. 

A band of young fellows with brown armbands and red swastikas 

stopped us. "Is this your car?" "Yes." It was an American car. A red 

Ford. My husband's wedding present from my father. "Are you Jew- 

ish?" they asked. "Yes." "Let's have the keys and get out!" The faces 

were like stone. 

We were Jewish. Suddenly we were Jewish. 

We took the trolley car. 

A crowd of people was on a main business street. 

Nazi soldiers had dragged the Jewish owners out of their stores. On 

the sidewalk, clubs in hand, they forced bearded old men to do calis- 

thenics. They seemed to think it was great fun. 

Life Under the Nazis 

That was the beginning. 

Now we no longer had a business or an income. 

The nurse was ecstatic that Hitler had arrived. 

She left us at once. 

The maid stayed but soon had to leave because Christian maids no 

longer were permitted to work in Jewish households. We moved into 

my parents' house. 

Black cars with red swastika flags stopped before it almost daily. 

Where was my father, the SS officials demanded. They were not impo- 

lite. Their clipped German was alien to me. I was young and naive and

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience I 8 5 

not really frightened. Not as long as my husband was not home. They 

did not like Jews to be tall and blond and blue-eyed. "My father is old 

and sick," I would tell them, "he will come back when he feels better." 

There was a new law against having money in a foreign country. It had 

to be brought back. Perhaps they felt sorry for me. I was so young and 

I had a baby. "If you have any trouble with those Austrians, just call 

me," one of them told me once and gave me his phone number. "Those 

Austrians are like wild animals." 

During those very first days of the Anschluss, while we still were in 

my own apartment, the Nazis pulled Jewish people out of their homes 

and forced them to wash the Austrian campaign slogans off the 

streets. They had the list of Jewish residents from the Jewish Religious 

Community, to which everyone who was born Jewish belonged. (The 

government collected an extra tax which they turned over to it. If you 

did not want to belong to it, you had to declare yourself without 

religion. Austria was a Catholic country and religious education was 

compulsory in the public schools.) 

One morning I had just bathed my baby when the doorbell rang. 

Shrilly. Loudly. Without stopping. I opened the door. A troop of young 

fellows with brown armbands and red swastikas stood there. "What 

do you want?" I asked, holding my baby. They were young, Younger 

even than I. "You have to come with us," they told me and grinned. 

"What for?" I asked. "To wash the streets, of course." They talked in 

heavy Viennese dialect and thought it all very funny. "I have no time," 

I told them. "Don't you see, I have a baby." They were taken aback. 

"She says she has no time.: They turned to the oldest one, who seemed 

to be their leader. "What should we do?" He looked puzzled, then 

shrugged. "If she has no time we can't do anything. Let's go." They 

marched off looking disappointed. 

"They could have killed you!" my husband said when he came 

home and I told him the story. "Yes," I said, "I guess so. But they 

didn't." 

Efforts to Escape 

Long lines began to form before the American consulate. People 

searched the American phone books for possible relatives. We too 

filled out the application forms.


The entire world, it seemed, had closed its doors. France, Italy, Swit- 

zerland. No one wanted the Jews trapped in Germany. Austria too was 

now Germany. England accepted refugees on domestic visas. Doctors 

went as butlers, opera singers as cooks. One country that had no re- 

strictions was Japan. Some Viennese Jews went to Shanghai. 

Latin American countries will let you in, we were told. But you have 

to have papers stating that you are Catholic. Catholic! Well, you could 

buy those papers. (Many things could be bought in Vienna in those 

days. False passports, false identification papers. People could even be 

bought to stand in line for you at the foreign consulates.) But the 

papers stating you were Catholic were a mere formality, of course. It 

did not mean that you really converted. Just a means to get out of the 

country. Be safe. 

One late afternoon my husband and I found ourselves in a dim loft. 

A handful of shabby, dejected people were gathered there. In front was 

a lectern on a podium. A priest appeared. He had a white collar, a 

black robe. His large golden cross sparkled on his chest. His face was 

kind, illuminated with a warm smile. He went to each of the huddled 

figures and talked to them in a low voice. I showed him a picture of my 

little daughter. His smile deepened. "I would love to get this little 

soul." Something within me stiffened. 

He went to the lectern, raised his arms. "Now we shall kneel," he 

said, "and learn how to cross ourselves." 

In the darkness I glanced at my husband. He looked at me. My knees 

had stiffened. They were rigid. We slunk out. 

Friends began to leave. Some without papers. They planned to go 

secretly over the border in the mountains. My husband said he would 

not go to any country where he could not work. We waited for our 

affidavit from America. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had left 

already, and she tried to find someone who would sponsor us. My 

parents never came back. 

My girlfriend's father was the owner of a large chain of shoe stores. 

The night of the Anschluss he tried to leave for Switzerland. At the 

train station he was arrested and later taken to the concentration camp 

at Dachau. Her mother jumped out of a window and was killed in- 

stantly. At the funeral members of the Gestapo were present, intending 

to arrest her brother. The brother, who managed the family stores in 

Hungary, disappointed the Gestapo by not coming back for his moth-

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience I 87 

er's funeral. My girlfriend refused to leave the country without her 

father. Somehow, to this day I do not know how, she managed to get 

him released. Together they came to America. When she was thirty- 

four years old she died of cancer. 

Incidents of Terror 

We lived from day to day and we did not sleep very well. The world at 

large had disappeared. So had Austria. It now was something called 

the Ostmark. The radio had one voice only. That of the Nazis. 

Foreign newspapers no longer were available. We only knew what 

the Nazi papers told us. Young men had stopped looking at pretty 

young women. Everyone's eyes were directed at one thing only: Did 

you or did you not wear a swastika? To avoid the probing glances I 

remained standing on the dim platform of the trolley car one late 

afternoon. Just before, walking to the stop in the Inner City, I had seen 

a truck crowded with men, all wearing coats and hats, standing in the 

swaying vehicle packed like sardines with terrified faces. The truck 

swerved around a corner into the street where I knew the Gestapo 

building was. With the vision of this still on my mind, I noticed a 

young policeman standing near me. He was reading the Stuermer, the 

infamous Nazi tabloid. Fat black letters on the first page spelled out 

that it just had been scientifically proven that the Jews were direct 

descendants of the devil. The policeman looked at me, I looked at him. 

The corners of his mouth twitched. He got off when I got off and, 

without a word exchanged in the dark street, escorted me home. He 

probably was a Sozi (socialist). The Sozis did not love the Nazis. Our 

greengrocer was a Sozi. The day Hitler entered Vienna, an enormous 

mass of people surged to the Inner City to welcome him. Except those 

people who had good reason not to welcome him. We were among 

them, so we stayed home. Our doorbell rang and we jumped. The 

blood froze in our veins. It was only our greengrocer, who wanted to 

know whether we needed anything. 

Our best friends left for England. The husband had been picked up 

in the street and arrested. While he was being held at the police station 

with a number of other " Jewish-looking" men, a jovial Viennese sau- 

sage vendor appeared at the jail. The crowd of arrested people jostled 

each other to buy a sausage. My friend was not hungry. He drifted into


a conversation with a policeman, who told him that he had trouble 

with his wife and did not know how to go about getting a divorce. My 

friend gave him some advice and the policeman arranged for him to be 

dismissed. But he had to sign papers that he would leave the country 

within two days (during the first few months of the occupation things 

like that were still possible). 

Visas and Passports at Last 

Spring 1938 was gorgeous in Vienna. The city parks were overflowing 

with lilac, its scent perfuming the air. Flower beds burst out in reds, 

blues, and yellows, and the chestnut trees put on their pink blossoms. 

The newly painted park benches carried black signs: "Jews not per- 

mitted to sit here." Signs like that sprang up all over the city. On movie 

houses, on restaurants, on stores. 

The shiny black cars with the red swastika flags still came to our 

building. When was my father returning and bringing back all his 

foreign money? demanded the officials in their black uniforms. Our 

passports were confiscated. 

A young attorney sporting a small silver swastika appeared in our 

lives. He told us that he had a drawer filled with buttons. Communist 

buttons, Socialist buttons, Christian National buttons, whatever the 

occasion asked for. They came in handy. He also had connections. He 

could get almost anything. A passport? No problem. A little expensive 

perhaps, but it could be done. Papers stating that you owed no taxes 

whatsoever-something completely unavailable for Jews about to 

leave the country. Of course. For cash only, however. We got a new 

passport. It said that we were citizens of the German Reich. What had 

happened to Austria? 

We hid the passport beneath the rug covering the staircase. 

A new complication arose. The good Swiss people demanded that 

passports issued to Jews be marked with a red J. They wanted to 

assure themselves that they would not be burdened with travelers who 

had any intention of staying permanently in their country with the 

beautiful mountains, chocolate, and watches. 

A red J. Our friend with the small silver swastika appeared again. A 

Jon the passport? Things were more difficult now. A friend of his had 

been arrested. He would see what he could do. But it would be expen-

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience I 89 

sive. He disappeared with our passport into the yellow castle of 

Schoenbrunn, the former residence of the emperor, which now housed 

the government offices of the Ostmark. I waited for him in the park. A 

long time. Had he been arrested? With our passports? Finally he re- 

turned, looking drawn and exhausted. "I am having a terrible time," 

he told me. "Many of the people for whom I get passports no longer 

have any money. So they pay in kind. All night long I do nothing but 

commit Rassenschande (racial treason) and get no sleep. He handed 

me the passport. It now had a big fat red J. I gave him an envelope, he 

vanished into the shadows. 

Kristallnacht 

I don't know how we managed with money. My husband took care of 

that. It did seem we had some. At least to survive for a while. Until our 

affidavit for America arrived. 

The summer passed. We took English lessons, making sharp sss 

sounds out of "the" and trying to force our lips to produce a proper 

English w. My girlfriend and I went to beauty school. In America, we 

thought, we would be able to support ourselves. But we burnt the hair 

of the customers who came for a free hairdo. Suddenly it was fall. 

November I 9 3 8. 

On November 7, a seventeen-year-old German Jewish refugee, 

Herschel Grynszpan, shot and killed a secretary of the German em- 

bassy in Paris. The news was screamed from the radio. "Those filthy 

Jewish swine will pay for this!" 

We sat at home like cattle waiting to be slaughtered. The sounds of 

the first broken glass drifted through the windows. My husband put 

on his oldest clothes. Put a little money in his pocket. This time they 

would take him away for certain. At dusk there was a commotion in 

front of our gate. The doorbell rang as if someone were leaning against 

it. Six, eight, ten young thugs with brown armbands and swastikas 

stormed into our house. They raced through the rooms shouting they 

were searching for hidden weapons. My husband followed them from 

room to room. He looked much like one of them. The baby stood in 

her crib and smiled at them. For a split moment they stopped. Finally 

turned and marched out. They had never even noticed that my hus- 

band did not belong to their troop. He came inside again quietly.


Adieu, Vienna 

Shortly before the year was over our affidavits arrived from Ameri- 

ca. My sister-in-law had succeeded in finding some people to vouch 

for us that we would not become a burden to the United States of 

America. One sponsor was a physician who made the condition that 

he would never have to see us. The other was Tante Bertha, a long-lost 

relative of my brother-in-law. 

Now we could buy the tickets for the S.S. Queen Mary to take us 

across the ocean. With our last money. I visited my grandmother for 

the last time. She was eighty-four years old and lived in a furnished 

room with some relatives. My father had arranged for a pension to be 

paid to her before he left. I did not have the courage to tell her that we 

were about to leave. She walked me and the baby to the trolley stop, 

and I still see her standing there waving to us nearsightedly. 

The American consul who wrote the visa into our passport was 

jovial. "Good luck, folks," he said as he handed it to us. Suddenly the 

doors swung open for us. The French consul saw the American visa, 

the tickets for the boat, and at once gave us permission to travel 

through France. 

The Swiss official carefully examined all the issued visas. 

"You may stay in Switzerland for eight days," he explained as he 

wrote it into the passport. "But it cannot be extended, You under- 

stand?" We understood. 

"When do you want to leave? Tonight?" 

" Tonight?" My husband looked stunned. "No, I don't think-" 

"Why not?" I asked quickly. "What are we waiting for? The Gesta- 

po?" I did not say it but we all knew what I was thinking. 

"All right, then," said the Swiss official as he stamped the passport. 

"Eight days beginning today. Bon voyage." 

We took the trolley car home. It was January and very cold. Snow 

was on the branches of the trees on the Ringstrasse. I looked at the 

white edifices, the Parliament, the State Opera House. Was I never to 

see all this again? Never again? But I barely saw it now. Enormous red 

flags with black swastikas were fluttering everywhere. 

At home we packed a small overnight bag. I dressed my daughter. 

She had a new traveling outfit. A pink quilted coat and pink leggings. 

Tied to her blonde hair was a matching hat that tied beneath her chin.

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience I 9 I 

She gave us a big smile and settled in her daddy's arms. Our train to 

Zurich left late, and it was after midnight when we walked out of my 

parents' house. For a moment I leaned my cheek against its cool wall. 

We locked the gate in front and tossed the keys over it onto the snow 

on the lawn. 

I no longer remember how we got to the Westbahnhof. A taxi? The 

trolley car? I don't know. The main thing was not to draw too much 

attention to ourselves. We did not talk about our fears. People had 

been turned back at the border, we knew. The train station was 

swarming with people. Our tickets were for a sleeping car. Our last 

money. The very last. One could not take any money out of the coun- 

try anyway. I put the baby to sleep. We sat up and waited. In the 

morning we arrived at the border. Nazi officials stepped into the com- 

partment. "Your passport." The voices were as cold as their faces. No 

human emotions showed in them. My husband handed them the pass- 

port. They took it, studied it for a long while. Then they disappeared 

with it. We sat frozen. This surely was the end. We would be taken off 

the train. The official came back. Returned the passport and asked for 

the tax statement. My husband handed it to him. It fluttered in the air. 

He studied it. For a long while. Then he handed it back. Stretched out 

his hand. "Heil Hitler." We saw his broad back as he walked out. 

Outside the window we saw dejected, pathetic figures carrying 

small suitcases like ours being led away. We did not dare to breath. The 

baby woke, cried a little. 

In Switzerland 

Slowly, we did not notice it at first, the train started to move. We stared 

at each other unbelievingly. 

New officials came into our compartment. They spoke in a Swiss 

dialect, smiled at the baby as they inspected our passport. We were in 

Switzerland. 

I think the first thing I did when the train gathered speed was to put 

on some lipstick. In Nazi Vienna one did not dare to draw attention to 

oneself. My gray face looked at me in the mirror. How did I feed the 

baby? Change her? I can't remember. "We are safe!" I said to my 

husband. "We really are safe!" 

He looked at me like a forlorn little boy even though he was nine


years older than I. "But how will we live? We have no money. We are 

going to America. What do I know about America? I don't speak 

English. " 

"I don't know," I said, and a new heaviness started up in me. "I just 

don't know." 

Desks with representatives of Jewish refugee organizations lined the 

train station in Zurich. "You people have any relatives here, any mon- 

ey?" We shook our heads. 

The lady at the desk inspected our passport. "I see you are going on 

to America," she commented. Then she wrote something down on a 

piece of paper. "Here is a pass for a small rooming house," she told us 

as she handed it to us. "You can stay there free of charge for three days. 

You will get your meals there also." 

Charity. We were receiving charity! We were refugees. Homeless. 

Penniless. Foreigners. My husband and I could not look at each other. 

The rooming house was clean and pleasant. We got a room with two 

beds and a crib. Then we phoned my parents in Nice. Collect, I believe. 

My father did not have the fortune in foreign currency which the 

Nazis thought he had. But he did have some money and he wired us a 

little. 

The Swiss burghers walked with firm steps on their solid pave- 

ments. When we tried to tell them about what was happening in Aus- 

tria, they shook their heads incredulously. "How lucky you are that 

nothing happened to you." "Yes," we said, "we are lucky. Very, very 

lucky." 

My husband and I took turns carrying the baby. A store displayed 

baby carriages in its windows. We stepped in. Would it be possible to 

rent a baby carriage for a few days? New was our humble attitude, our 

feeling of shame. No, the man said in his comfortable Swiss German, 

they only sold baby carriages. My little daughter, in her pink hat and 

coat, smiled at him with her sparse teeth. "Wait just a moment," he 

told us and disappeared down a staircase which seemed to lead to the 

cellar. He returned with a stroller. It was old-fashioned but new. 

"Would that do?" he asked. "Yes!" we said. "Oh, yes! But-how 

much will you charge?" He shook his head. "No charge." "We'll bring 

it back in three days," we assured him. "Our address here-" "Never 

mind," he interrupted us. "Just bring it back when you no longer need 

it.''

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience 193 

France 

The Mediterranean was a deep blue. People strolled on the seaside 

promenade, palm trees swayed in the mild breeze. Tourists walked 

into the casino to gamble a little. My parents lived in a small, shabby 

flat, but they liked the climate there. Also, life was cheap in France. 

With the little money they had left they could manage until the Hitler 

craziness had blown over and they could return to their home in Vien- 

na. We said goodby and the train took us to Paris, from where we 

would go to Cherbourg to embark on the Queen Mary. 

Paris. I had never before been in Paris. Never s&n the wide boule- 

vards, the parks, the cafes. The French seemed oblivious of the fact 

that they were living not far from a neighboring country which had 

turned into a real hell. We ourselves could hardly believe it, being here 

in what seemed Paradise to us, and the past eleven months seemed like 

an awful nightmare. Suddenly we felt young again, carefree, almost 

like lovers. On the Champs ElysCe we passed an exquisite little bou- 

tique. A black straw hat trimmed with violets was on display in the 

window. I gazed at it. "Let's buy it," my husband said. We went inside, 

I tried it on and we bought it. 

America at Last 

"Where did you get that hat?" asked an elderly American lady who 

picked us up together with my sister-in-law in the harbor of New York. 

"I bought it in Paris!" I announced proudly. "Well!" the lady said, and 

her voice was not too friendly. "I never owned a hat from Paris." 

That morning, our ship had sailed toward the Statue of Liberty. It 

was February 9, 1939, a cold gray day. But everybody crowded on 

deck to see the lady holding high the Torch of Liberty. 

"Welcome!" said the customs official who inspected our passport 

with our immigration visa. "Glad to have you here, folks." We did not 

understand the words, but the face was good-natured, the voice kind. 

My sister-in-law cried when she embraced us, and the lady who did 

not appear happy about my Parisian hat turned out be one of our 

sponsors, Tante Bertha. 

Our little furnished apartment on upper Broadway was not very 

elegant. There were big waterbugs in the kitchen, and once I saw a rat


scurrying into a hole in the wall. Not so much different from us, I 

thought. But when the doorbell rang it was a neighbor. "My name is 

Gert," she said. "Whatever you need, just call me and I will try to help 

you." She brought a jar of ruby-red jello for "that darling baby." 

Adjusting to a New World My husband got a job working as a me- 

chanic. He earned $I 5 a week. I stayed home with the baby and tried 

to learn English by reading True Confessions magazine and the car- 

toons. The American Jewish people we met did not seem to like us very 

much. Why did we pretend that we did not speak Yiddish, they asked. 

Why were doctors insulted when it was suggested to them that they 

work as butlers? Many of the refugee doctors did wash dishes while 

studying for their American certification. 

Things were different here. Jews were not ashamed of being Jewish, 

as were many in Vienna. Delicatessens had Hebrew letters on their 

windows. The first time I had seen Hebrew letters in Vienna was when 

the Nazis forced them onto Jewish stores. We tried to tell everyone 

about what was happening in Europe. We were convinced that there 

would be a war. They laughed at us. What was happening in Europe 

had nothing to do with America. Except that all those refugees were 

taking jobs away from American people. 

I met an American lady. She was the guest speaker at a gathering of 

German and Austrian refugees arranged by the National Council of 

Jewish Women. She greeted us with a big smile and then said that she 

wanted us to know that our being here in this country was a two-sided 

affair. 

"While it is true that we here in America are giving you a new home 

and a haven, you on your part are bringing us your culture, your 

talents, and your skills. In the tradition of America, which consists of 

immigrants just like you, you are enriching our country and broaden- 

ing our horizons. We are glad that you are here, and we thank you for 

your gifts." 

That woman was the First Lady of the country. The wife of the 

President. Eleanor Roosevelt. 

From then on I read her newspaper column, "My Day," religiously. 

She taught me about democracy and freedom, what it meant and how 

every citizen had to work for it. She made me feel like a respected 

human being again, she gave me the courage to go on. 

People asked me whether I found it hard to "integrate" and whether

Rethinking the American Jewish Experience 19 5 

I felt different from other people. In America I think everyone is differ- 

ent from each other. Why even in an identical family each member is 

different. It would be very dull if we all were the same. From whom 

would we learn? I personally never felt alien in America. In a way I 

liked having two different cultures within me. And as to integration, if 

you are interested in the world around you, in the people and their 

lives, why then you can "integrate" wherever you may find yourself. I 

personally loved being in America. Even with $15 a week. 

Wartime Memories 

December 7,1941. 

Pearl Harbor. I still hear the voice of my president. 

"This day of infamy-" 

War. We had known all along that it was bound to happen. We had 

known it when Chamberlain went to Munich, when Hitler invaded 

Czechoslovakia and then Poland. We knew it when England went to 

war against Germany and some Americans still insisted that it was not 

"our war." Now it was here. 

And now we suddenly were enemy aliens. 

Though immediately after our arrival we had applied for American 

citizenship, our passport still said that we were German nationals. 

German! We, who no longer spoke German at home, we, who were 

trying so hard to become good Americans. My daughter's first words 

were in English. My husband and I had decided that as far as we were 

concerned Austria no longer existed (it didn't, actually). Not the coun- 

try and not the language. We ourselves were not conscious of our 

heavy accents, which gave us away instantly. But now there were new 

restrictions. Enemy aliens had to be registered. Enemy aliens were not 

permitted to own cameras. Enemy aliens could not join the army. My 

husband had talked of trying to find a better job. Now, for security 

reasons, enemy aliens had a hard time getting any sort of job. Living 

on $I 5 a week was not very easy. I shopped for groceries for $I a day. 

One could make a very good goulash out of potatoes and one pair of 

cut-up frankfurters. But my husband's face was grim, and he looked 

more and more unhappy. 

I called one of the Jewish organizations and inquired where jobs 

were available for an excellent mechanic who used to be an engineer. 

They told me that men like that were badly needed at the Brooklyn


Navy Yard, for instance at Bethlehem Steel. 

I left my small daughter with my sister-in-law and told her that I was 

going to try finding a job for my husband. She thought I was insane. 

With my husband's photograph in my purse, I took the subway to 

Brooklyn. A long line of men stood in front of the employment office 

of Bethlehem Steel. I joined them. I was the only female and they 

craned their necks. The man standing behind me told me that not far 

from there was a smaller company, North American Steel, which 

made small essential parts for warships. They didn't pay as well as 

Bethlehem Steel but they needed good workers very badly. The boss 

was Mr. Michaelman. 

I went to North American Steel. 

Mr. Michaelman was sympathetic. He smiled when I showed him 

the picture of my husband and explained that he could not come him- 

self because he could not afford to take the day off. Mr. Michaelman 

said he would see him at his house on Sunday. 

On Monday, my husband started his new job. He worked many, 

many hours of overtime. But now he earned almost $100 a week. 

While the country went to war; I myself went to work. My daughter 

was four years old and she needed other children to play with. The 

Children's Colony was a Montessori school run by an Austrian educa- 

tor for children whose emigre mothers worked. I registered my daugh- 

ter there and found a job selling cosmetics for Elizabeth Arden at a 

store on Thirty-fourth Street called McCrory's. Now I earned $15 a 

week. My own paycheck! I think that never before in my life had I been 

so happy. 

Meanwhile the war raged on. The news in the movies-there was no 

television as yet-showed the Nazi boot marching across Europe. The 

worst was when we saw them goose-step past the Arch of Triumph. 

Paris! Paris gone too! Hitler doing a little dance there! 

A letter from my parents. They had been transported from Nice to a 

detention camp in Gurs in the Pyrenees. My neighbor with the jello 

asked her parents to issue an affidavit for my mother and father. 

Somehow, even though it was wartime, through the help of a Jewish 

organizations we managed to bring them to America. My mother 

went to work sewing in a factory. My father, quite old and ill with a 

heart condition, became a traveling salesman. 

We managed. And we all agreed that Vienna was a place to which 

we would never ever return. Most of our friends were Viennese also.


Not everyone felt as we did. "The French people went back after the 

Revolution," some would argue. "Why shouldn't we?" Besides, ev- 

eryone had left all of their worldly possessions there. Why not try to 

recover something afterward? For a while it seemed that there would 

be no afterward. Hitler's victories were announced day after day. The 

only consolation we had was the voice of our president. FDR's voice 

coming over the radio telling us, his fellow citizens, that the only thing 

to fear was fear itself. 

Peace 

And one day it was over. Really over. Hitler and the entire brown 

horror had been defeated, wiped out. My husband started his own 

ironworks company with his brother. They worked day and night to 

make a go of it. We moved to a nice apartment in Forest Hills. I quit my 

job selling cosmetics and took courses at New York University. My 

childhood dream was to write. Now I tried doing this in my new 

language. Oddly, most of the stories took place in Vienna. I could not 

understand why. But suddenly I was fascinated by Austrian history. 

For the first time I also became conscious of a famous fellow Viennese, 

Sigmund Freud. The professor who taught the course came from Po- 

land. He had survived eleven concentration camps. And now we all 

learned what had happened in Europe while we had tried to build a 

new life in America. We learned about the gas ovens, the millions and 

millions who had been murdered. It was too horrible to believe. Then 

came the pictures. My mother found out through the Red Cross that 

my grandmother had died in Theresienstadt, the concentration camp 

for the old. She had died of "pneumonia." 

We finally became American citizens. No one swore allegiance to 

the United States of America with more fervor and loyalty than the 

European refugees. 

Some of our friends went back to Austria to vacation in the beauti- 

ful mountains and at the lovely lakes. Had they no shame? No charac- 

ter? We, wanting to see our new homeland, went with our daughter on 

a cross-country tour. We saw the high mountains of Colorado, the 

waterfalls which seemed to come straight from the sky in Yellowstone 

Park, San Francisco, Yosemite, Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the 

Grand Canyon. Our country. Our wonderful country! 

President Roosevelt died. I cried just as much as when my parents 

died a few years later. My daughter got married. To a young Jewish

19 8 American Jewish Archives 

American man. His parents had come long before from Russia. Their 

stories were different from ours. Yet we shared a related fate. 

My husband got ill. For several years he suffered from heart failure. 

Suffered a few strokes. At sixty-two he died. Suddenly I was alone. Of 

course I had my daughter, her husband, and her children. But there 

was no one any longer with whom I could speak my native tongue. No 

one who shared my memories. More and more the plots in my writing 

took place in Vienna. And then, through an odd chance of circum- 

stances, my first novel was published in translation in Vienna. I had to 

see it in the stores. I just had to. And so I planned a trip to Vienna. How 

can you do this? I asked myself through sleepless nights. Are you just 

like those others who went back? Have you too no shame? No charac- 

ter? The German translation of my book seemed more mine than my 

English original. I was split in two and I could not get the two parts 

together. 

Return to Vienna 

Ernst Papanek came to my aid. 

Dr. Papanek was Viennese. Very, very Viennese. I had met him while 

I was working on a book about Eleanor Roosevelt. He had been minis- 

ter of education in Vienna under the Social Democrats. At the time of 

the civil war in 1934, he fled to France. During the time of Hitler, a 

French Jewish organization made him the director of housing for sev- 

eral hundred children whose parents were killed in the Holocaust. 

Ernst's only aim in life was to help all the children in the world. He was 

the kindest man I had ever encountered. When he realized my distress 

he came and spent several hours with me. He told me about his youth 

as an Austrian Social Democrat, his loyal friends who had protected 

him when he was in danger, who worked with him in the under- 

ground. "Not all the Austrians are Nazis," he told me over and over. 

"And why do you have to blame yourself for going back? Why, it is the 

most natural and strongest of human emotions to want to see the soil 

on which we were born." 

I left something out, and I think it was deliberate. 

The year before, I had gone to Vienna with my daughter, her chil- 

dren, and her husband. It was not a happy experience for me. Driving 

into the city of Vienna, the past sprang to life. A past which, of course, 

there was no way that my family could share. My daughter was a baby


the night we left. Now she was a grown woman. How could she possi- 

bly have any feeling for the land where she was born? She was Ameri- 

can. So were her husband and the children. I could do nothing but cry, 

and they wanted to eat hamburgers. I fled into St. Stephen's. But the 

wall there against which I leaned was not the wall of my house. A 

waiter with a wooden leg brought me a glass of wine in an empty cafe. 

"Welcome home," he said when he heard me speak, "I have no good 

memories of Hitler either," he added as he touched his wooden leg. We 

took a horse and buggy for a ride through the city. "You are Vien- 

nese," the driver said as he heard me speak. "When did you leave?" 

"1939." My answer was short. "Ah, Hitler," he said and flicked his 

whip. "Now things are completely different," he added as he turned a 

corner. "In what way?" I inquired. "Oh, for instance if I would say 

now that Hitler was quite right in gassing all those Jews-of course, I 

am not saying it, but if I did say it, I would get arrested right away." 

Stop the car, I wanted to say. Stop it at once. 

But the children were enjoying the ride so much. How would they 

understand? How could they understand? We soon left for Paris, and I 

promised myself that I never, never would return. 

Another Return 

I guess one never should say never. The book came out in 1972. It 

looked beautiful. A historical novel with a big part taking place at the 

time of the Congress of Vienna. 

This time I went alone. Many ex-Viennese told me that they felt as if 

they were in a foreign city when they went there. A foreign city? I 

stepped off the train and I became Viennese. I spoke the language with 

the same lilt the people around me sppke with. I could close my eyes 

and find my way. I went to the house. It still was there. A little smaller 

perhaps than how I remembered it, but still the same. Strangers lived 

there now. Since my father had not been in Vienna at the time of Hitler, 

they had not been able to force him to sign it over. So later it was 

legally sold. I got perhaps $3,000 for it. Now it is worth more than 

$3oo,ooo. Vienna still was my city. It hurt to see how beautiful it was. 

The flowers, the palatial white buildings. And the book was a best- 

seller. It was in the windows of all the bookstores. I chatted with a 

young salesman. Unavoidably we talked about the Hitler times. "If


someone told me that my father had murdered hundreds of people, I 

simply wouldn't believe it," he told me. I said nothing. His blue eyes 

were imploring. "Tell me, Gnaedige Frau, just tell me, what else could 

I do?" "I don't know," I said. "I just don't know." 

I left Vienna reluctantly this time, and I was so happy when I got 

back to America. Home. 

Memories of the Holocaust 

Back in New York I soon realized that a book could not support you. 

The manager of the international bookstore on Fifth Avenue, Rizzo- 

li's, asked me whether I would like to work there. He needed someone 

to run his German department, The German department? Me? 

"Well," he said with his Italian accent, "with your background it 

would seem natural, wouldn't it?" 

The books on the shelves suddenly were old friends. Goethe and 

Schiller-some of their long poems I still knew by heart. My uncle had 

once implored me not to discard my native language. "German is not 

the language of the Nazis," he told me over and over. "It is the lan- 

guage of many great men and women." Suddenly I was ravenous for 

German books. I read Thomas Mann and Zuckmayer and, and, and- 

A young woman needing some information drifted into the store 

one day. She was Austrian and told me the name of the little village 

where she was born. My father had been born in the same village. 

There was an instant bond between us. We did speak the same lan- 

guage, and she became one of my best friends. Through her I met many 

other older and younger Austrians. I felt at home with them. There 

was an elderly woman, Grete Bush. In Vienna she had been a musi- 

cian. Now she helped emigrC musicians from all countries to settle in 

America. I visited her at the American Council for EmigrCs in the 

Professions. For ten years I stayed there and wrote a newsletter about 

what was happening there. It was like paying back just a little for the 

help we got when we came to this country. In the bookstore I met 

many young Germans. They too had their stories about carrying the 

legacy of their parents. A young German priest became a customer and 

one day his face was ashen. He just had seen a film about what had 

happened in his country during the Hitler time. "I wish I could tell 

people that I am Norwegian," he said. "But I am German and I have to 

live with it." In his house he started evenings which he called "A


Bridge of Understanding." He invited young Germans who worked in 

this country, Jewish ex-refugees, Jewish university professors, for an 

exchange of experiences and thoughts. Many young Germans told of 

the resentment they experienced here as Germans and how for the first 

time they really understood what had happened. The priest soon was 

recalled to Germany. 

My background began to blend more and more into my present life. 

The heavy stone of hatred which I had carried within me for so long 

became lighter. In spite of the fact that tied into it inexorably was the 

Holocaust. 

Earnest young Austrian and German students drifted into my home 

to interview me about my experiences. "Can I do something for you in 

Vienna?" one of them asked. "I read somewhere that a book has come 

out called The Death Book of Theresienstadt.," I replied. "You see, 

my grandmother died there. I would like to order it but I don't know 

where." 

A large package arrived in the mail. The book was big. Very big and 

really beautiful. A kind of coffee table book with many pictures. A 

long, very long list of names. Under P I found my grandmother. She 

was born on January 28, I 8 5 5, and died in Theresienstadt on October 

24, 1942. Her transport number was 8-977. She had left Vienna on 

August 8,1942 with one thousand other people. She was eighty-seven 

years old. Her name was Elise Pick. 

One day, after I saw an especially horrendous film on television, I 

could not bear it any longer. Mountains of skeletons loaded on trucks. 

But for the grace of God, I thought for a moment. God. Where was His 

grace for them? Perhaps it would have been better to die with them. 

Then one would not have to live with the knowledge of the unspeak- 

able horror. But I did live, and in order to preserve my sanity I would 

no longer watch the films or read the books. 

Simon Weisenthal 

A publisher called. They needed a bilingual writer to help a writer in 

Vienna. Was I interested? "No," I said at once. "I do not do transla- 

tions." But it was a special case I was told, I had been highly recom- 

mended, it was very, very important. I became curious. "Who is the 

writer?" I asked. 

"Simon Wiesenthal."


My heart sank, I felt a chill. 

No, I thought, I can't! 

I had just excused myself from any further exposure to the horrors 

of the Holocaust. And now was I to delve even more deeply into this 

awful, awful happening? Working with the famous Nazi hunter, learn- 

ing still more about the murders, the ghastly camps, the crimes com- 

mitted. I could not do it, I was not strong enough. It would kill me. 

"Tell Mr. Wiesenthal I would be honored if I could be of assistance 

to him in any way," I heard myself saying. 

And so I went to Vienna once more. 

This time I felt certain I would die there. 

Mr. Wiesenthal's house had been bombed just a few months before. 

It was a miracle that he and his wife survived. If I showed myself on the 

streets of Vienna with him I surely would be shot. Well, if that was to 

be my fate, I thought, so be it. Born in Vienna and died in Vienna, it 

would say in the papers. 

Before my departure, at Mr. Wiesenthal's suggestion, I had read 

some of his books. They had been translated into English by Mr. 

Wechsberg, a Viennese writer who once wrote for The New Yorker. 

Now he was old and ill, too old and too ill to work on the new book. 

After I had read Mr. Wiesenthal's "The Murderers Among Us" and 

several other books by him, I thought that I soon would be too old and 

too ill to continue. Reading those books one has to steel oneself to deal 

with bestiality. One reads one paragraph and then has to stop. Now, 

one thinks, now I have read the absolute worst that could have hap- 

pened at that time. You fight down the nausea, you struggle for breath, 

then force yourself to read the next page. What you read before turns 

out to have been mild in comparison. 

Mr. Wiesenthal is a strong man. He picked me up at the airport and 

swiftly lifted my rather heavy suitcase. On the ride to the city he told 

me about his trip to Israel, from which he had just returned. Mr. 

Wiesenthal is a man who, though he is seated there right next to you, is 

not really there. His every thought circles around one issue only: jus- 

tice. Justice and not revenge was the force that drove this man to work 

day and night to bring surviving Nazi criminals before a court of jus- 

tice. For several days I listened to Mr. Wiesenthal, searched through 

the files in his Documentation Center. My fingers picked up a photo- 

graph of a smiling blonde young woman. I was told that she had been a 

concentration camp matron who kicked children to death with her


boots. Mr. Wiesenthal's secretary helped me in my search. She told me 

that her father had been an ardent Nazi and she was grateful that she 

could work like this to atone for what he had done. With all the hor- 

rors in the files I also found stories of young Austrians who volunteer- 

ed to help Mr. Wiesenthal for the same reason. I wrote a sample chap- 

ter about the concentration camp matron whom Mr. Wiesenthal had 

found living the life of an ordinary housewife in Queens, New York. 

But in the end it did not work out. Mr. Wiesenthal wanted the book 

to be written in the first-person. I did not have his voice. 

I was not shot after all and I returned home. 

But the experience taught me that there is no escape from the Holo- 

caust. It is there in the morning when I read the newspaper, it is there in 

the evening when 1 turn on the television, it is there whenever I meet a 

new person and am asked about my accent. 

The New School for Social Research 

Throughout the fifty years of my life in America, my being a refuge has 

been an invaluable experience. Perhaps the most important influence 

on my life was my studies at the New School for Social Research. 

This leading adult education center was founded by Dr. Alvin John- 

son, who, when fascism engulfed Europe, decided to "pick up the 

apples which Hitler shook from the trees." With funding provided by 

the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Johnson brought to his faculty the 

finest minds from European countries. The New School became "The 

University in Exile." Never before and never afterward existed a uni- 

versity where the likes of Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, Albert Ein- 

stein, and Karen Horney were part of the faculty. I, who had been a 

poor student at the Gymnasium in Vienna, found a home where my 

mind was stretched and where I started to think. It was there and also 

at New York University where my childhood wish to write finally took 

on a concrete form. To all those extraordinary professors I owe what I 

am now. 

It was, :[ believe, in 1974, that the West German chancellor, Willy 

Brandt, visited the New School and brought a check for $I million to 

establish the Theodor Heuss chair. He also brought iron medals of 

merit for the professors who, thirty-five years before, had been forced 

to flee their native land. Most of them quite elderly and not well, they 

marched in, in their purple and black caps, and gowns from


Heidelberg, and their hands shook as they received their decorations. 

"This is the New Heidelberg in Greenwich Village," Willy Brandt 

announced. "And these wonderful professors here, while they are the 

gain of America, they also represent the great loss of Germany." And 

then everyone wept. 

What I Have Learned 

To the question "Did there come a time when you felt totally integrat- 

ed and no different, or are there times when you still feel somewhat of 

an outsider, and are there aspects of being a European left?" I can only 

say that yes, of course I still feel European, but I also feel very strongly 

American. And no, I do not feel like an outsider anywhere. I think it is 

the individual who makes himself an outsider. If you like people and 

are interested in what is going on in the world around you, you do not 

have to be an outsider wherever you find yourself. 

Yes, of course I do have a special rapport with some ex-refugees, but 

by no means with all of them. I have a special rapport with people who 

feel much as I do about vital issues, whether they are European, Amer- 

ican, Japanese, or whatever. 

I think the most important thing that has happened to me is that I no 

longer hate. And I no longer blame everyone. For now I realize that in 

all honesty I do not know what I would have done had I been one of 

"them." Would I have had the courage to help during the Hitler time? 

To hide people? To save children or at least try to? Even if it had 

endangered my own family? I wish I would have done that. I doubt, 

though, that I would have had the courage. 

Vienna, It is still a big hurt, and I suppose it will remain one for as 

long as I live. I had not known before how deeply imbedded in my 

heart is this city. Now actually more than before. While I would never 

live there again, I do miss it and think of it always. Much is being said 

about "those Austrians," but I have made some very wonderful Aus- 

trian friends. One of them was the Austrian consul general, Dr. Helga 

Winkler-Campagna. Working in New York for five years she took the 

plight of the Austrians who had to flee their homeland during the 

Hitler time very, very seriously and tried to make friends. In 1986411 

spite of my protests-I was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit of the 

City of Vienna. I laughed and made light of it. But I would be less than 

honest if I were to say that it did not mean anything to me. It was like


an ointment on a wound that won't heal. Another Austrian friend, 

who also works in the Austrian consulate, recently converted to Juda- 

ism. Having been raised as a Catholic, she just could not find any 

peace within herself without doing something actively to say to the 

world how deeply she feels about her country's Nazi past. 

As I mentioned somewhere before, I myself do not believe in organ- 

ized religion. How can I believe in a God who is all-powerful or in the 

saga of a chosen people after Auschwitz? But I deeply respect the belief 

of others, and perhaps I even envy them a little. 

Reconciliation with Vienna 

And then something happened that at long last made it possible for me 

to ga to Vienna again without shame or feelings of guilt about lack of 

character. 

My daughter Lisa now lives in Arizona with her husband Allan and 

her two grown children, Sheryl and Larry. Lisa teaches first grade to 

little Mexican children at a public school and she also is a reality 

therapist. Though she loves to eat Wiener Schnitzel and especially 

apricot dumplings, which she ate for breakfast every day on her last 

visit to New York, she is, as we wanted her to be, totally American. 

In the spring of 1989, the Jewish Welcome Committee in Vienna, in 

conjunction with Austrian Airlines and the mayor of Vienna, extend- 

ed an invitation to IOO grandchildren of former emigrks to "get to 

know the country of their grandparents." Since the grandchildren 

themselves had to write an application explaining who they were and 

why they wanted to participate, 1 sent the papers to my grandson, 

Larry, not really thinking that he would follow up. 

"I have always felt deprived of my Austrian heritage," Larry wrote, 

to my utter amazement. Then he went on to explain why he wanted to 

partake of the journey. 

To the surprise of the Austrian consulate, 250 young people ap- 

plied. Larry's letter was so convincing that he was one of the IOO who 

were accepted. I saw him off at JFK, and it was a strange and quite 

moving experience to see elderly grandparents coming with their 

bright, intelligent grandchildren dressed in jeans. In Vienna, 1,200 

host families had volunteered to take the Americans in. Larry stayed 

with an elderly couple, Herr and Frau Smejkal. They did not speak a 

word of English and they treated him like a son. The stay in Vienna


included visits to the local high schools where discussion groups were 

formed, a visit to Parliament, and a visit to a concentration camp site 

accompanied by the host families. There also was a ball at the ornate 

Viennese City Hall where an Israeli band played the hora, a boat trip 

on the Danube, and an interfaith Seder to which 1,000 people were 

invited. While Larry was there my old anxiousness and mixed feelings 

sprang to life. Perhaps there would be a terrorist attack! I could not 

sleep at night worrying. Vienna. It was always Vienna that set me into 

such a state. But Larry came back well and healthy. Full of Wiener 

Schnitzel. It was fantastic! 

Frau Smejkal and I began to exchange letters. They were Larry's 

host family in Vienna. They were the first Viennese who showed in 

action that they cared. Cared about what had happened. 

Last summer I spent three days in Vienna. I have a new book coming 

out in German, and I had a meeting with the translator. Her name is 

Christa, and she and her husband took an entire day off to show Larry 

the countryside while he was there. The Smejkals seemed excited by 

my visit. They treated me like a lost relative. And for the first time I 

could walk on the streets of Vienna again and smell the flowers. 

What would have happened to me if there had never been a Hitler 

and I had lived out my life in the beautiful city of my birth? 

Well, while I was there last summer I went to one of those wonderful 

Konditoreis, the pastry shops where you sit down at a marble-topped 

table on a chair upholstered in red velvet and gold to eat a Sachertorte. 

I was alone. Seated next to me were two elderly ladies-my age, really, 

I realized with an unbelieving shock. I listened to their conversation. 

"Tonight," said one of them, "I'll make myself a nice veal cutlet. 1'11 

dredge it in flour on both sides and then fry it in butter." "I still have 

some mushroom soup left from yesterday," said the other woman. "I 

think that's what I will eat for supper tonight," They fell silent. 

I waited for the conversation to continue. But there was nothing 

else. Not another word. 

Had I been able to stay in Vienna until I grew old, would I be sitting 

there now just like them? Perhaps-. 

Stella K. Hershan is a writer and teacher. Among her numerous publi- 

cations are A Woman of Quality: Eleanor Roosevelt (1970), The Na- 

ked Angel (1972), and Daughter of Revolution (1991)

American Jewish Personalities 

Kaufn~ann Kohler and His Attitude 

Toward Zionism: A Reexamination 

Yaakov Ariel 

In I 89 I Kaufmann Kohler, one of the outstanding leaders of the Reform 

movement in American Judaism, signed a petition urging the 

United States government to take steps that would lead to the restoration 

of Palestine to the Jews as their "time honored habitation."' The 

fact that Kohler signed this petition, which was initiated by William 

Blackstone, an evangelical American Protestant, may seem, at first 

glance, almost incredible. The Reform movement in America in its 

"classical" period, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 

has usually been presented as embracing an ideology in which the 

Land of Israel did not play a role.' Kohler himself was one of the 

initiators of the Pittsburgh Platform, a declaration of principles that 

was adopted by a meeting of Reform rabbis in I 88 5, and which later 

became the official creed of the Reform m~vement.~ It reflects a spirit 

which seems to be totally alien to the idea of a Jewish national restoration. 

For example, the fifth clause of the declaration reads as follows: 

We recognize in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect the 

approach of the realization of Israel's great Messianic hope for the establish- 

ment of the kingdom of truth, justice and peace among all men. We consider 

ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and therefore expect 

neither a return to Palestine. . . nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning 

the Jewish state.4 

The Pittsburgh Platform contributed to the image of the Reform 

movement in its classical period as being completely opposed to the 

idea of a Jewish restoration to the Land of Israel, to the building of a 

national home there, and to the Zionist movement. This image, which 

does not necessarily correlate with the much more complicated histor- 

ical reality, is reflected in the historiography of American Jewry and 

the Reform movement, as well as in the historiography of early Zion- 

ism.s

Kaufman Kohler 

(1843-1926)

American Jewish Personalities 209 

In recent years there have been a few attempts to present a more 

balanced picture of the Reform movement's attitudes toward Zionism,6 

but the overall stereotypical mythical approach has persisted 

until this day. In a book published in 1981, dealing with the Reform 

attitude toward Zionism, for example, the author declared that the 

negative stand toward Zionism taken by the German Jewish membership 

of the Reform movement (and not social and cultural differences) 

was the cause of the gap between the German Jewish elite and the new 

Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who began arriving in vast 

numbers in the 1880s.' This approach suggests that the restoration of 

Zion was a top priority for the newly arrived immigrants and that they 

were all ardent Zionists. In reality, membership in the various Zionist 

groups in late-nineteenth-century America did not exceed a few dozen, 

and later on a few hundred, among them German Jews, including 

prominent Reform rabbk8 

Kaufmann Kohler himself has been portrayed in American Zionist 

historiography as one of the most ardent anti-Zionists in the Reform 

camp, and as a persecutor of Zionists while he was the president of 

Hebrew Union C~llege.~ A closer examination of Kohler's position on 

the Jewish settlement in Palestine and the building of a Jewish national 

home there reveals a totally different picture, one which can shed new 

light on the Reform movement's attitude toward the rebuilding of 

Eretz Israel and perhaps help to change the current stereotypical view 

of the matter. 

Kaufmann Kohler was born in Fuerth, Bavaria, in I 843 .lo The man 

who eventually became one of the outstanding leaders of the Reform 

movement grew up in an Orthodox home and was a disciple of Samson 

Raphael Hirsch, the spiritual father of the neo-Orthodox movement 

in German Judaism. The change in Kohler's views and religious 

practices took place when he was a student at the University of 

Erlangen, from which he graduated with a doctoral degree in 1867. 

Like others in the Reform movement of his day, Kohler saw no 

future for himself as a rabbi in Germany, and in I 869 he emigrated to 

America. There he became a follower of David Einhorn, a leader of 

Reform's radical wing, married Einhorn's daughter, and in I 879 inherited 

his father's-in-law's position as the rabbi of Temple Beth-El in 

New York. 

Like his father-in-law, Kohler had scholarly inclinations: he engaged 

in research, wrote extensively, and published books and articles


on various issues in the history of Jewish thought. Among other 

things, he did pioneering work on the Jewish origins of Christianity." 

His major work, Jewish Theology, was a systematic and comprehen- 

sive exposition of the Jewish faith.12 This book should be read as 

Kohler's own interpretation of Judaism and his view of the course it 

should take in the current age. Naturally, it serves as an excellent 

source for understanding the place and role of the Land of Israel in 

Kohler's vision of Judaism. 

For Kohler "religion and peoplehood were two indissoluble entities 

of Judaism."13 He saw the Jews as a religious people, a people who had 

been entrusted with a glorious mission in history.14 Together with the 

other architects of Reform theology in its classical period, Kohler con- 

sidered the Jewish people to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, 

the chosen people whom God had destined to spread His word among 

the nations of the earth. 

Placing a strong emphasis on the idea that there was a covenant 

between God and the people of Israel, Kohler viewed Judaism's histor- 

ical course and mission in the world in light of the covenant theology 

which he and other Reform thinkers had constructed. In his opinion, 

not only the spread of monotheism but the achievements of Western 

civilization in general and the humanistic-universal values it embodied 

were the outcome of Israel's successful mission among the nations.ls 

Kohler's covenant theology reflected the high degree of optimism 

and triumphalism that typified European and American thinking in 

the era before World War I. Like the theologians of liberal Protestan- 

tism, he believed that the world was becoming better and better, and 

was improving technologically, economically, politically, educational- 

ly, and morally. He too saw the biblical prophecies about an idealized 

period at the end of time as coming true in his own day, maintaining 

that science and education had helped to build a society and culture 

that were the fulfillment of the biblical-humanistic postulates. 

The idea of progress advanced by Kohler, however, was distinctly 

Jewish in one respect. He regarded progress as synonymous with the 

advancement of the ideals of Judaism and seriously believed, as did 

many of his fellow Reform rabbis, that Judaism would be the universal 

religion of the coming new era. The values and postulates of Judaism 

had brought about the world's progress, and it would be only natural 

for the Jewish religion to triumph in the ideal future society.


In this Jewish ideal of progress which spoke about a cosmopolitan 

culture based on Jewish values, there was, of course, no room for the 

hope of a reestablished Davidic kingdom in Jerusalem. The messianic 

vision of the prophets would be realized instead by means of education, 

science, and technology, as well as through new social and political 

orders. Kohler and other Reform visionaries saw no need to expect 

a miraculous divine intervention in the form of a national Messiah. 

Thus the hope for the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the 

Temple gave way to the new vision of a universal humanistic culture 

that, in the reformers' view, would be a truer realization of the values 

of Judaism. The Jews, according to this scheme, would become the 

priest nation, the brahmins of the new utopian era, and they had to 

fulfill their divine mission wholeheartedly. 

An ardent exponent of the covenant theology, Kohler saw it as the 

basis for Jewish self-definition and self-understanding, as well as for 

the making of all Jewish private and communal choices. He militated 

against mixed marriages, for example, in the belief that they were a 

threat to Jewish survival and, as such, destructive to the ability of the 

Jews to fulfill their role as God's messengers in the world.16 

Kohler did not see the Reform movement's ideology and liturgical 

innovations as a break with Jewish tradition. On the contrary, he 

regarded himself and his friends in the movement as part of a long 

chain of Jewish reformers that included such major figures of the past 

as Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, who, he claimed, had helped to replace 

the Temple with the synagogue. Judaism, Kohler contended, was a 

religious community that developed and matured gradually in accordance 

with changing communal needs and new developments in society, 

culture, and values." 

In Kohler's view, and here too he was in agreement with the theologians 

of liberal Protestantism, religion had to adapt itself to the spirit 

of the age, including scientific theories and achievements in the various 

academic disciplines, if it was to survive as a vital and influential 

force in the life of the pe~ple.'~ Judaism, he insisted, had therefore to 

update itself and get rid of the "oriental" attributes it had acquired 

throughout its long history. One aspect of Judaism that needed to be 

updated was prayer. Meaningless and insincere prayers had to be 

eliminated, he contended. In particular this included prayers that expressed 

the hope of returning to Zion. American Jews might mouth


such words but could not possibly mean them, and hypocritical prayers 

were sacrilegio~s.~~ For Kohler, prayer was a serious business that 

required piety and genuine devotion. Thus when he became president 

of Hebrew Union College in 1903, he insisted that students and teachers 

alike attend chapel services regularly and demonstrate personal 

piety and a keen interest in religion.20 

Kohler vehemently rejected political Zionism of the kind advocated 

by Theodor Herzl and his followers. The Herzlian Zionist program, 

which spoke of the emigration to the Land of Israel of the entire Jewish 

nation, outraged him.21 It contradicted his vision of the role the Jewish 

people were fulfilling in the world. In his view it was necessary that the 

Jews disperse among the nations of the earth and spread God's word: 

Judaism was to become the universal religion and the Jews the 

brahmins of the coming era. Political Zionism, however, turned its 

back on the duty and role the Jewish people had been assigned in 

history. It looked upon the Jews as an ordinary people who had no 

particular role and mission, and ought to pursue their own interest^.^^ 

In contrast to the way classical Reform Judaism has often been 

portrayed in Jewish historiography, Kohler did not deny that the Jews 

were a peoplez3 or that they were in need of international cooperation 

to advance their cause. He himself called for the establishment of a 

world Jewish congress.24 But the raison d'etre for the Jews as a people 

was, in his view, their covenant with God and the religion that had 

evolved from it. Zionism, on the other hand, was a secular movement 

that confronted the problem of Jewish physical existence but disregarded 

the covenant between Israel and God and the religious postulates 

on which Judaism was built. 

Zionism is nothing more or less than land hunger such as all the nations of the 

world manifest today, a desire quite natural and justifiable in the fugitive, 

homeless Jew of Russia and Romania.. . .What benefit is there in the use of the 

term Zionism which shelters all such as are only Jews by name while they 

disclaim having a share in the Synagogial or religious life of the Jew? . . . The 

present day Zionism is nothing less than a surrender of all the centuries of 

Jewish history waited and toiled for-the world conquering idea of One God 

and one humanity.2s 

Did our fathers suffer, bleed and die on the funeral pyre and under the execu- 

tioner's sword, bear the badge of shame and the taunt of nations only in order 

now to have Israel again reckoned among the nations, another Servia or Mace- 

donia? My friends we all wish and hope that Palestine will again flourish and 

greatly prosper amidst Jewish toil and become a land flowing with milk and

American Jewish Personalities 21 3 

honey, offering peace and blessing to thousands and tens of thousands of Jews 

who still suffer from intolerance and race prejudice. . . . It cannot be our home- 

land of the American Jew.26 

The Jewish people would find their real fulfillment, Kohler insisted, 

in the building of the real Zion, a universal culture based on the values 

of Judaism, and not by secluding themselves in Eretz Israel, a territori- 

al Zion that would be no different from the territories occupied by the 

world's other nations. He lashed out at Zionists for misrepresenting 

the meaning of Zion in Jewish tradition. For him, Zion was the king- 

dom of God on earth, which he believed was about to be realized. 

Before the Psalmist's vision, moreovel; Zion as the city of God, looms up as the 

mother city of the nation and the center of cosmopolitan humanity (see Psalm 

LXXXVi and the Septuagint; compare Shemoth Rabba XXiii, ii). Jerusalem's 

resurrection ever betokened the realization of the loftiest Messianic hopes and 

at no time a mere desire of a people for the soil to eat its fruit and enjoy material 

and political prosperity thereon in the Zionistic sense." 

The Reform leader quoted from various rabbinical sources in order 

to strengthen his point that the Jewish people could not survive with- 

out the Torah, by which he meant the religious postulates of Judai~m.~~ 

Ironically, Kohler's criticism of Zionism resembled the attacks on it by 

many Orthodox Jews. 

In 1905 Kohler recommended to the board of governors of Hebrew 

Union College that Caspar Levias, who had been teaching there for 

several years, be dismissed. Kohler has been accused of having had 

Levias fired because of his pro-Zionist sentiment^.^^ But an examina- 

tion of the background to the dismissal reveals a different story. 

Arriving in Cincinnati as the new president of HUC in May 1903, 

Kohler embarked soon afterwards on a campaign to reshape the facul- 

ty. He intended to get rid of everyone whose academic credentials he 

regarded as unsatisfactory and to replace them with new professors 

who would give the college a more solid academic standing30 Targeted 

for dismissal were teachers who did not have doctoral degrees or 

whose doctorates were not from first-rate universities. For Kohler, the 

best degrees were, of course, granted by German universities. 

Levias did not possess a Ph.D. and could not, in Kohler's view, point 

to impressive academic achievements; nor, in the president's opinion, 

was he pious or a competent teacher. By no means an unkind person,


the new president granted Levias a full year's salary to provide him 

and his family with economic means until he found another position.31 

Levias was certainly a declared Zionist, but the Reform movement 

had never treated him as a pariah. In 1899, in fact, the Central Confer- 

ence of American Rabbis had invited him to expound the Zionist 

cause at its convention and had published his lecture in its yearbook.32 

That same year an article of his on the same topic and with the same 

title appeared in HUC's official organ.33 

In 1907, three members of the HUC faculty, Max Schloessinger, 

Max Margolis, and Henry Malter, separately presented their resigna- 

tions to the board of governors. Kohler recommended that the resig- 

nations be accepted, and since then it has often been suggested that the 

three resigned because their Zionist convictions made him hostile to 

them.34 

In this case too a closer look reveals a different, more complicated 

story.35 The ideological differences between Kohler and the three pro- 

fessors might have caused some tension, but that was certainly not the 

only reason the four of them did not get along. The mutual disenchant- 

ment between Kohler and the three involved, among other things, a 

power struggle and unsatisfied salary demands. 

The major figure among the three was Margolis, who had joined the 

faculty in 1905, hired by Kohler as part of his campaign to reshape the 

faculty of the college. Before accepting Kohler's invitation to come to 

Cincinnati, Margolis had taught at the University of California, 

Berkeley. He and Kohler had negotiated at great length over his salary 

and other and they finally agreed on an annual salary of 

$3,600, with increase to $4,000 by July 1908. Although he was al- 

ready being paid more than any other member of the faculty, Margolis 

soon demanded a raise. As Kohler pointed out to the board of gover- 

nors, he had begun to look for another position even before they open- 

ly ~lashed.~' 

Oral tradition has it that control of the college was the real issue 

between Kohler and the three professors. Margolis wanted to be presi- 

dent, and since Kohler was in his sixties, hoped to ease him out and 

take over his job. Kohler complained that Margolis, Malter, and Sch- 

loessinger had stirred up a spirit of "rancor and insubordination" at 

the college, showing "disrespect and disloyalty" to him as president, 

and antagonism toward his views. Margolis, for example, had chal-


lenged the daily chapel services begun by Kohler. 

Since Kohler felt that Margolis and the others were undermining his 

authority, he was more than happy to see their backs.38 Perhaps the 

best proof that animosity toward Zionist teachers was not the real 

issue was the fact that one of the replacement professors hired by 

Kohler was David Neumark, a declared Zionist. Neumark remained 

an active Zionist throughout his career as a teacher at HUC, but this 

never led to any problems in his relationship with K~hler.~~ Moreover, 

Zionist speakers occasionally visited the college during Kohler's tenure. 

In December 1906, for instance, Shmaryahu Levin gave a Zionist 

speech there in Hebrew. 

The three professors, however, claimed that it was not just Zionism 

but conflicts over Lehrfreiheit (academic freedom) that brought about 

their resignations. In response to an article by Judah L. Magnes, 

Kohler declared that teaching in a theological seminary, at least in 

some courses, must comply with the basic theological views that the 

seminary stood for.40 This is just another indication, it would seem, 

that both sides preferred to present their disagreement as evolving 

from matters of principle rather than to expose the real issues of salaries 

and control of the college. 

Contrary to the manner in which some have presented the matter, 

Kohler did not treat Zionists, whether at Hebrew Union College or 

elsewhere, as pariahs. He attacked the movement and described its 

members as "confused" but did not reject them as friends, colleagues, 

students, or visitors. Some of his close associates in the Reform movement, 

such as Bernhard Felsenthal, were Zionists, and for all his severe 

criticism of Zionist ideology, Kohler remained appreciative and 

friendly toward friends who sympathized with the Zionist cause." 

Zionist activists and leaders such as Nathan Strauss, Stephen S. Wise, 

and later on Abba Hillel Silver maintained close contacts with Kohler 

for many years. Indeed, it was none other than Wise, the enfant terrible 

who eventually left the Reform movement on account of, among 

other things, its rejection of Zionism, who in May 1913 organized a 

celebration in New York of Kohler's seventieth birthday.42 

Contrary to the prevailing myth, Zionism was by no means anathema 

to the Reform movement in its classical period. Although many in 

the movement rejected political Zionism, there were leading Reform 

rabbis who actively supported the Zionist cause, among them presi-


dents and vice-presidents of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. 

Such noted figures as Max Heller, Bernhard Felsenthal, and Gustav 

Gottheil openly endorsed Zionism, and their convictions never 

prevented them from obtaining positions of influence and honor within 

the movement. Nor did holding Zionist convictions prevent students 

from being accepted by Hebrew Union College or pursuing their 

studies there.43 

David Eichhorn, who surveyed the attitude toward Zionism among 

the HUC student body during the period under discussion, concluded 

that at the beginning of the century 17 percent of the students supported 

political Zionism, 33 percent were neutral on the issue, and 46 

percent rejected political Zi~nism.~~ The percentage of students who 

supported Zionism increased in the course of Kohler's years at the 

college. 

As these figures show, Kohler's vision of a universal culture wherein 

the values of the Jewish religion would prevail was gradually losing its 

appeal for members of the student body. Although Kohler in no way 

viewed his presidency of HUC as a failure, his ideological and theological 

perception of Judaism steadily lost ground among the younger 

generation at the institution he headed as well as within the Reform 

movement at large. In fact it was rabbis who studied at Hebrew Union 

College in Kohler's time who later brought about the changes in the 

Reform movement's creed stated in the Columbus Platform of 1937. 

World War I and its aftermath dealt a severe blow to the Western 

ideal of progress, but even before the war many students at HUC were 

unwilling to accept the vision of Judaism propounded by Kohler and 

his generation. They chose Zionism as the alternative to the universalistic, 

cosmopolitan vision of their fathers and saw Kohler as the embodiment 

of the German "old guard," espousing a theology and a 

spirit that many in the younger generation could not identify with. 

Although Kohler tolerated teachers and students who were 

Zionists, he tried to prevent them from advocating their ideas in the 

classrooms and the chapel. The issue was brought before the board of 

governors of Hebrew Union College, which decided that a sermon 

could contain a Zionist message as long as it was religious in nature.45 

On one occasion Kohler clashed with a Zionist student, James Heller, 

over a sermon. Heller's father, the prestigious New Orleans rabbi Max 

Heller, who had been a member of the board of governors, interceded


on behalf of his In response Kohler denied young Heller's 

charges of censorship, writing to his father: "It was not a question of 

Zionism, but one of submitting to the rules laid down for the students 

who are to preach the sermon upon a text taken from a weekly portion, 

or of the traditional Haftorah of the same Sabbath."47 

Kohler vehemently opposed political Zionism, labeling it at one 

time as "unJewish, irreligious and ~nAmerican,"~~ but he supported 

the resettlement of Eretz Israel as well as the idea of building a Jewish 

cultural, spiritual, and economic center there.49 His objections to political 

Zionism had much to do with the secular character of the Herzlian 

program and its call for all Jews around the world to emigrate to Eretz 

Israel. But he wholeheartedly supported. Jewish colonization, the revival 

of the land's agriculture, and its economic development. In I 899 

he wrote: 

It is political Zionism that I condemn. Remember that I do not speak. . . of the 

plan of a simple and gradual colonization of Palestine. . . . There is however 

another side of Zionism which we heartily endorse. . . . While the hope of a 

national resurrection worked as incentive and inspiration, the arid soil of Judea 

was made to blossom forth anew with wheat and wine . . . and who whether 

Orthodox or Reform, will find fault with a sentiment so sacred and so stimulat- 

ing as this?S0 

Kohler saw no contradiction between the settling of Eretz Israel and 

the building of a center for the Jewish people there and his understanding 

of the role and mission of the Jewish people as the messengers of 

God's word among the nations. He differentiated between the condition 

of Jews in the West, where they enjoyed civil liberties and prosperity, 

and in oppressive "oriental" countries like Russia and Romania, 

where they suffered harassment and discrimination. Jews in those 

places, he contended, could not afford to be co~mopolitan,~~ but the 

resettlement of Eretz Israel would provide them with a haven and 

make them the instruments of building a center that would serve all of 

world Jewry. 

When Kohler signed Blackstone's petition in 1891, a document that 

called upon the government of the United States to take steps that 

would give the Land of Israel back to the Jews, he did not see it as 

contradicting in any way his vision of the mission of Israel among the 

nations. The petition spoke explicitly about the oppressed Russian 

Jews as the ones who would resettle Palestine.


Twenty-seven years later Kohler reacted enthusiastically to the Brit- 

ish conquest of Palestine and the Balfour Declaration. Assuming that 

the victorious Allies would now permit Jerusalem and Eretz Israel to 

become a spiritual center not only for the world's Jews but for all 

humanity, a prospect in consonance with his vision of the universal 

mission of the Jews, he said in his opening address at the college on 

October 5, 1918: 

Nor should we who oppose political Zionism as contrary to the religious world 

mission of the Jews shut our eyes to the marvelous feats of the British arms in 

Palestine which hold out promise, not of a rebirth of the Jewish state of nation, 

but of the rejuvenation of the desolate land of our fathers to open up new 

opportunities for the tens of thousands of our brethren in search of a life of 

independence and prosperity, new avenues bf commerce and industry for Jew- 

ish enterprise . . . ; the purpose of the Allies to render Palestine not the center 

and homeland of the Jewish people, but, as has been stated, an important inter- 

national and interdenominational center, with Jerusalem as a prominent source 

of intellectual and spiritual life for the Jews, alongside of other creeds, offers a 

bright outlook for world conquering Judaism, with its Messianic hope and its 

universal ideals. 

As in 1891, he took it for granted that it was only the oppressed 

"oriental" Jews who would emigrate to the Land of Israel and be the 

ones to build the cultural, spiritual, and economic center there. 

Let Palestine, our ancient home, under the protection of the great nations, or 

under the specific British suzerainty, again become a center of Jewish culture 

and a safe refuge to the homeless. We shall all welcome it and aid in the promo- 

tion of its work. Let the million or more of Jewish citizens dwelling there amidst 

the large Christian and Mohammedan population attached to their sacred 

spots, be empowered and encouraged to build up a commonwealth broad and 

liberal in spirit to serve as a school for international and interdenominational 

humanity. We shall all hail the undertaking and pray for its pro~perity.~~ 

Kohler was careful to note that the building of the national home in 

Eretz Israel was not intended to take the place of Israel's mission 

among the nations. 

The historic task of the Jew is not to be, and cannot be, accomplished therewith. 

This would never be the solution of the great enigma of Jewish history, nor a 

satisfactory end to the awful tragedy. Call Israel, as did Judah haLevi, the great 

lover of Zion, the heart of mankind whose life sap was to flow through the 

arteries of the nations, or compare it, as was repeatedly done, to the Gulf 

Stream, whose warm currents run through the ocean to calm its wild waves, the


Jew will ever remain an international force influencing the world, as it has been 

influenced by it on its course through the lands and the ages.s3 

Many non-Zionist Reform rabbis were favorably disposed to Jew- 

ish settlement in the Land of Israel and even supported colonization 

efforts.s4 But Kohler's vision of a cultural and economic center for 

world Jewry in Eretz Israel went a step further than the position taken 

by most other Reform rabbis. Even pro-colonization colleagues like 

Isaac M. Wise took exception to his signing of the Blackstone peti- 

tion,ss and in 1919 other rabbis spoke against his views concerning the 

building of a center for the Jewish people in Eretz IsraeLs6 

Aware that what he was advocating and Ahad HaAm's vision of a 

spiritual center in Eretz Israel had some features in common, Kohler 

was careful to point out that he did not endorse Ahad HaAm's pro- 

gram.s7 Since Ahad HaAm's position was not grounded in covenant 

theology and the mission of Israel, he could not accept it. Moreover, he 

did not wish to be associated with Zionism in any form. 

Kohler's attitude toward the revitalization of Hebrew was similar to 

his position on the resettlement of Eretz Israel. The rejuvenated He- 

brew language was a product of the oppressed Jews of Eastern Europe, 

who could not participate in the culture and literature of the countries 

in which they lived.58 But for the enlightened Jews of the West, Hebrew 

was merely the language of their religious sources; they had no reason 

to adopt it as their current cultural language. Not surprisingly, he 

abolished the teaching of modern Hebrew at HUC and advocated the 

study of English literature in~tead.'~ 

With all his warm support for the establishment of a spiritual center 

in Eretz Israel, Kohler remained firmly opposed to the Zionist move- 

ment. In addition to his ideological and theological objections to Zi- 

onism, he was also concerned about the possible consequences for 

world Jewry of the attempt to build an independent political state in 

Eretz Israel. In April 1920, Kohler reacted with alarm to rumors about 

a declaration issued by the supreme council of the Allies at the San 

Remo Conference that referred to the civil rights of Jews in their vari- 

ous countries. 

The principle thereby expressed that differently from all other people, the Jew 

can belong to two nationalities and be at the same time an American and a 

Palestinian citizen, endangers the position and destiny of the Jew in many lands.


. . . it also creates here a hyphenated Jewish citizen, a Jew whose American 

nationality is "protected" by the Powers but who is at the same time different 

from any other American citizen.60 

In the years that followed Kohler's presidency of Hebrew Union 

College, the Reform movement as a whole changed its attitude toward 

Zionism. It abandoned much of its universalistic-cosmopolitan aspi- 

rations in favor of more particularistic Jewish ones. From the begin- 

ning of World War I, Zionism increasingly became an acceptable creed 

in the American Jewish arena. The attitudinal change was so far- 

reaching that many American Jews who did not define themselves as 

Zionists cooperated with Zionists in promoting the cause of the na- 

tional Jewish home in Eretz Israel. 

The revolutionary change in the place of Zionism in American Jew- 

ish life was led by Louis Brandeis, a justice of the Supreme Court and 

perhaps the most respected and honored Jew in the America of his 

time. Whereas Kohler represented a generation of leaders who did not 

consider it appropriate for American Jews to support an independent 

Jewish state in Eretz Israel, Brandeis turned Zionism into a legitimate 

ingredient in the way American Jews viewed themselves as Americans, 

maintaining that the acceptance of Zionism was the fulfillment of 

one's Jewishness and a means of becoming a better Ameri~an.~' 

In essence, the differences between Kohler and the generation that 

followed him with regard to the establishment of a national home in 

Eretz Israel were much smaller than has usually been suggested. The 

version of Zionism promoted by Brandeis, which now prevails in the 

United States, did not advocate emigration from America; indeed, it 

took as axiomatic that America was a home to its Jews and that Amer- 

ican Jews were proud members of the American polity. 

The Zionism that has taken root in America has been, to a large 

extent, a commitment to support the effort to build Eretz Israel. It has 

much to do with the way American Jews view their standing within the 

American polity in relation to Jewish solidarity and Jewish national 

hopes.62 The actual settlement of Eretz Israel was left to those from 

countries where Jews did not enjoy the same civil liberties and oppor- 

tunities that American Jews possessed. 

Ironically, Kohler's "anti-Zionist" position was very much in line 

with the form of Zionism that has taken take root in America in the 

decades since his death. Most American Jews today, like Kohler at the


turn of the century, reject Herzl's views on the place of the Jews among 

the nations but nonetheless endorse and support the idea of a Jewish 

national center in Eretz Israel. Thus Kohler can be seen, in many re- 

spects, as both a forerunner and a pioneer of the particular form of 

Zionism that prevails among American Jewry. 

Yaakov Ariel received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He 

teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the Hebrew Univer- 

sity of Jerusalem and is a research associate at the Institute of Contem- 

porary Jewry. He is the author of On Behalf of Israel: American Fun- 

damentalist Attitudes Toward Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 

1865-1945 (1991). 

Notes 

I. On Blackstone's petition, see Yaakov Ariel, "An American Initiative for a Jewish State: 

William Blackstone and the Petition of 1891," Studies in Zionism 10 (1989): 125-137. 

2. E.g., Nathan Glazer, American Judaism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, r972), pp. 

22-59. 

3. Waiter 1. Jacob, ed., The Changing World of Reform Judaism: The Pittsburgh Platform in 

Retrospect (Pittsburgh: Rodef Shalom Congregation, 1985). 

4. CCAR Yearbook 45 (1935): 199. 

5. E.g., Samuel Halperin, The Political World of American Zionism (Detroit: Wayne State 

University Press, 1961), pp. 71-74; Joseph P. Sternstein, "Reform Judaism and Zionism, I 895-- 

1904,'' Herd Year Book 5 (1963): 11-31. EvenCyrus Arfa, who is trying to lay to restthe myths 

regarding the Reform movement and Zionism in later periods, writes about this issue in a manner 

that falls into the stereotypical-mythical approach. See Cyrus Arfa, "Attitudes of the American 

Reform Rabbinate Toward Zionism, 1885-1948" (Ph.D. diss, New York University, 1978). 

6. Michael A. Meyer, "American Reform Judaism and Zionism: Early Efforts at Ideological 

Reproachment," Studies in Zionism 7 (1983): 49-64. 

7. Howard R. Greenstein, Turning Point: Zionism and ReformJudaism (Chico, Calif.: Schol- 

ars Press, 1981), pp. 1-7. 

8. E.g., see Marnin Feinstein, American Zionism, 1884-1904 (New York: Herzl Press, 1965). 

9. E.g., Norman Bentwich, For Zion's Sake (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1954), 

p. 35; Marvin Urofsky, American Zionism from Herd to the Holocaust (Garden City, N.Y, 

1975), pp. 95-96; Evyatar Frirsel, The Zionist Movement in the United States, 1897-1914 (Tel 

Aviv: Halbutz HaMeuchad, 1970), pp. 5-97 [in Hebrew]. 

ro. On Kohler's life, see MaxKohler, "Biographical Sketch of Dr. K. Kohler," Studies inJewish 

Literature Issued in Honor of Professor Kaufmann Kohler (Berlin: George Reiner, 1913)' pp. 

1-10. See also Kaufmann Kohler, Personal Reminiscences of My Early Life (Cincinnati: A. J. 

Eggers, 1918). 

I I. E.g., Kaufmann Kohler, The Cradle of Christianity (New York: Philip Cowen, 1892); 

idem, The Origins of the Synagogue and the Church (New York: Macmillan, 1929). 

12. Kaufmann Kohler, Jewish Theology (New York: Macmillan, 1918).


13. Kaufmann Kohler, Grundriss Einer Systematischen Theologie des Judentums (Leipzig: 

Buchhandlung Gustav Fock, 1910)~ p. 7. 

14. E.g., Kohler, Jewish Theology, pp. 323-491. 

15. E.g., ibid. Cf. Michael Meyer, Response to Modernity (New York: Oxford University 

Press, 1988), pp. 264-295. 

16. Kohler, Jewish Theology, p. 446. 

17. Kaufmann Kohler, "Backward or Forward," in his Studies, Addresses and Personal Papers 

(New York: Alumni Association of Hebrew Union College, 1931). Cf. Samuel S. Cohen. "Kaufmann 

Kohler the Reformer," in Mordecai M. Kaplan Jubilee Volume (New York: Jewish Theological 

Seminary, 1953)~ pp. 137-155. 

18. Kohler, "Backward or Forward." See also Ellen Messer, "Franz Boas and Kaufmann 

Kohler: Anthropology and Reform Judaism,"Jewish Social Studies 48 (1986): 127-140. 

19. "Prayers for return to Palestine are a blasphemy and a lie upon the life of every American 

Jew." Kohler, "Backward or Forward," p. 232. 

20. E.g., Kohler,Jewish Theology, pp. 271-277 In 1905 members of the faculty complained 

to the board of governors about Kohler's demand that they participate regularly in chapel services. 

See the letter of the committee appointed by the board to investigate the matter, April 25, 

1905 (American Jewish Archives [hereafter AJA], Ms. Coll. #5, B z/z). 

21. E.g., Kohler, Jewish Theology, pp. 390-391, 395-396. 

22. E.g., ibid., pp. 25 3,294; Kohler, "Zionism," in Studies Addresses and Personal Papers, pp. 

453-466. 

23. E.g., Kohler, "Zionism," p. 465. 

24. American Hebrew 77 (1905): 890. 

25. Kaufmann Kohler, "The Dangers, the Fallacies and Falsehoods of Zionism 111," Reform 

Advocate 33 (1907): 350. 

26. Kaufmann Kohler, Palestine and Israel's World Mission (Pittsburgh: Rodef Shalom Congregation, 

1918), p. 4. 

27. Kohler, "The Dangers, the Fallacies and Falsehoods of Zionism 111," p. 349. 

28. Kaufmann Kohler, "The Dangers, the Fallacies, and Falsehoods of Zionism 1," Reform 

Advocate 3 3 (1907): 259. 

29. E.g., Urofsky, American Zionism, pp. 95-96; Greenstein, Turning Point, p. 12. 

30. Michael A. Meyer, "A Centennial History," in Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 

Religion at One Hundred Years (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1976), pp. 61-63. 

31. See Kohler to Max Margolis, April 12 1905 (AJA. Ms. Coll #5). 

32. Caspar Levias, "The Justification of Zionism," CCAR Yearbook 8 (1899): 179-191. 

33. Caspar Levias, "The Justification of Zionism," Hebrew Union CollegeJournal3 (1899): 

165-175. 

34. E.g., Halperin, The Political World of American Zionism, pp. 73-74; Naomi W. Cohen, 

Encounter with Emancipation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1984), pp. 294-295; 

Friesel, Zionist Movement in the United States, p. 97, quotes some other accusers. 

3 5. A detailed examination of the resignation incident is given by Naomi W. Cohen, "The 

Reaction of Reform Judaism in America to Political Zionism, 1897-1922,'' Publications of the 

American Jewish Historical Society 40 (1951): 374-381. 

36. See Margolis to Charles S. Levi, April 8, 1907 (AJA, Ms. Coll #5, D3-4). 

37. See Minutes of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College, April 9,1907 (AJA, Ms. 

Coll #135). Malter said that he was resigning because of dissatisfaction over salary and other 

work benefits. 

38. Jacob R. Marcus in an interview with Yaakov Ariel, November 1989. Cf. Cohen, "Reaction 

of Reform Judaism in America to Political Zionism," p. 379.


39. Note Neumark's appreciative evaluation of Kohler's work. David Neumark, "Dr. Kohler's 

Systematic Theology," in Studies in Jewish Literature Issued in Honor of Professor Kaufmann 

Kohler (Berlin: George Reiner, 1913), pp. 30-38. Neumark was one of the editors of Kohler's 

Festschrift. Kohler, on his part, gave copies of his books to Neumark "with cordial greetings." 

Neumark later donated them to the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. 

40. "Kaufmann Kohler Defines Lehrfreiheit," American Hebrew (1907): 606. 

41. E.g., see the appreciative words on Felsenthal in Kohler's A Living Faith (Cincinnati: 

Hebrew Union College, 1948), pp. 257-259. See also Kaufmann Kohler,,"On the 75th Birthday 

of Nathan Strauss," Jewish Tribune 81, no. 5 (1923): 14. 

42. See Kohler to Wise, September 8, 1913 (AJA, Ms. Coll #5, 49 3/15). 

43. Cf. David Polish, "The Changing and the Constant in the Reform Rabbinate," in The 

American Rabbinate, ed. Jacob R. Marcus and Abraham J. Peck (Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav, 1985)~ 

pp. 182-191. 

44. After a visit to HUC at the beginning of the century, Gustav Gottheil, a Reform rabbi and 

the first chairman of the Zionist Federation of America, estimated that about a dozen of the 

school's forty students had Zionist leanings. Friesel, Zionist Movement in the United States, p. 

96. 

45. Minutes of the Board of Governors, February 15. 1915 (AJA, Ms. Coll. #5, D-8/21). 

46. See Kohler to Max Heller, March 16, 1915 (AJA, Ms. Coll #5, 1/10). 

47. Ibid. 

48. In a speech to the board of governors, April 30, 1907 (AJA, Ms. Coll #135). 

49. Kohler, "The God of History," in A Living Faith, p. 165; idem, "Zionism," in Studies, 

Addresses and Personal Papers, pp. 461, 463. 

50. Kohler, "Zionism," pp. 461-463. 

51. Kohler. "The Priestly Blessing,"in A Living Faith, p. 290; idem, " Zionism," pp. 457-458. 

52. Kaufmann Kohler. "The Mission of Israel and Its Application to Modern lime," CCAR 

Yearbook 29 (1919): 287. 

53. lbid. 

54. Cf. Meyer. "American Reform Judaism and Zionism." 

55. Isaac M. Wise, "Our Fool Friends," American Israelite 37 (April 16. 1891): 4. 

56. CCAR Yearbook 29 (1919): 288-305. 

57. Kaufmann Kohler, "Ahad-Ha-Am-ism and Anachronism," American Hebrew (1904): 

767-768; idem, "The Mission of Israel and Its Application to Modern lime," p. 270. 

58. Meyer, "Centennial History," p. 59. 

59. lbid. 

60. Minutes of the Board of Governors, April 27, 1920 (AJA, Ms. Coll #135). 

61. E.g., Louis D. Brandeis, Zionism and Patriotism (New York: Federation of American 

Zionists, 191 8). 

62. E.g., cf. Marvin Urofsky, "Zionism: An American Experience," American Jewish Historical 

Quarterly 63 (1974): 261-282.

Feiix Warburg {at the left) is shown with Edward Sapir (in the 

center) and Edgar E. Siskin (1938). 

1Courrt7, t'lgar E S,'k!"I

Review Essay 

Portrait of an Unsung Genius 

Edgar E. Siskin 

Darnell, Regna. Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist. 

Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990. 480 pp. 

Edward Sapir is a unique figure among the anthropologists and 

linguists of the twentieth century. He is recognized as a brilliant pioneer 

in linguistic and anthropological theory, acclaimed for his mastery 

of scores of languages, as well as for his imaginative exploration 

of the psychology of culture. Far from the dusty pedant, he also wrote 

an impressive oeuvre of poetry, studied composition with Edward 

MacDowell, and played the piano. The English critic Geoffrey 

Lienhardt described him as "a character of Henry Jamesian sensibility,"' 

and Harry Stack Sullivan, the eminent psychiatrist, called him 

"one of the fine minds of the Western w~rld."~ His teacher, Franz Boas 

of Columbia University, "father" of American anthropology, spoke of 

him as " 'one of the most brilliant scholars' in linguistic anthropolog~."~ 

His colleagues, Kroeber, Lowie, Radin, Spier, Benedict, Mead, all 

students of Boas, who established anthropology as an American university 

discipline, stood in awe of his brilliance in all he undertook. 

These gifts of intellect and spirit, together with remarkable powers of 

articulation, made him an immensely stimulating and inspiring teacher. 

Upon leaving one of Sapir's seminars, Mandelbaum observed, "one 

came forth exhilarated, larger than ~neself."~ 

This first biography of Sapir, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, 

Humanist, is an industrious overview of his life and career. With 

commendable diligence, Regna Darnel1 has surveyed Sapir's writing, 

explored the written sources which might yield relevant information, 

consulted former students, and interviewed his five children. The result 

is a full account of his activities as student, field worker, museum


curator, professor, and participant in the unremitting circuit of conference 

and foundation meetings. His relations with friends and with 

family, as son, husband, father, are also recounted. At the end, the 

reader has been introduced to a mass of information about Sapir and 

the academic world in which he moved. 

Edward Sapir was born in Pomerania (Prussia) in 1884, the son of 

Jacob Sapir, a cantor and minor religious functionary, who, true to the 

tradition of his calling, wandered fitfully from one community to another.' 

When Edward was five, the family came to America, living 

briefly in Richmond, Virginia, then settling in New York. Here he 

spent all of his student years, first as a public school prodigyY6 eventu- 

ally as an undergraduate and graduate student at Columbia. Under the 

guidance of Franz Boas, he became interested in primitive languages, 

and after taking his master's degree, went out to Oregon and Washing- 

ton to work with the Takelma and Wishram Indians, in time writing 

grammars of both languages. 

A year after receiving his doctorate, Sapir was invited to Ottawa to 

become chief of the Division of Anthropology in the Canadian Na- 

tional Museum, a position he held for fifteen years. It was during these 

years that he laid the foundations for the studies in linguistics and 

anthropology for which he later became celebrated, while at the same 

time writing poetry and literary criticism, and composing music. 

In 1925 Sapir went to the University of Chicago, and within two 

years he had become a full professor. Here he flourished as one of the 

luminaries of the university and an ornament of the intellectual com- 

munity. His lectures in and beyond the university drew many listeners. 

A group of outstanding students became his disciples. He had grown 

increasingly interested in the interplay of culture and personality, and 

his papers on the psychology of culture became landmarks in the inter- 

disciplinary terrain of the behavioral sciences. 

The year 1929 saw the publication of Language, the only book 

Sapir wrote, which articulated for the educated layman his theoretical 

formulations in the field of language study. Since its appearance, it has 

been regarded as a classic.' With the publication of Language, Kroeber 

hailed Sapir as "the most brilliant student of primitive language in 

America."* 

Sapir accepted a call from Yale University in 193 I to found a de- 

partment of anthropology and linguistics, and was appointed a Ster-

Review Essay 227 

ling Professor, most prestigious of Yale professorships. But the years 

that followed were a mounting tide of tension and frustration. His 

research objectives were thwarted by hostile colleagues and administrators 

motivated in no small part by the anti-Semitism endemic in the 

Yale e~tablishment.~ The ugly climax of Sapir's tenure at Yale was his 

rejection for membership in the Graduates Club, an eating club into 

which all senior faculty were voted as a matter of course. It was generally 

agreed that Sapir was blackballed because he was a Jew. 

Such experiences, together with the rise of Hitlerism in Europe and 

its ominous stirrings in America, found Sapir strongly asserting his 

Jewish identity. He became active in the programs of several Jewish 

organizations, turned to Semitic studies, and read Talmud. He lived 

out his last years in broken health and died at the age of fifty-five. 

Sapir's contributions to linguistics and anthropology were singular 

in their pioneering insights and seminal in their influence. According 

to Boas, Sapir was largely responsible for the adoption of the phonetic 

method and phonemic principles in the study of language. His reduction 

of Powell's fifty-five American Indian language stocks to six was 

hailed as "almost mystical7' by his contemporaries, and today, seventy 

years later, has still not been substantially revised. His formulation of a 

genetic tie between the languages of native America and those of the 

Asiatic mainland, reached through his knowledge of Na-dCnC and Indo-Chinese, 

remains one of his crowning achievements. The Sapir- 

Whorf hypothesis, which holds that language powerfully influences 

culture, opened vistas to a new understanding of cultural relativity. 

His writings on the interplay of culture and personality, with their 

comprehensive grasp of psychology and psychiatry, led to groundbreaking 

interdisciplinary programs of research. His insistence on the 

primacy of the individual in culture was a bold departure from the 

prevalent conception of culture as "superorganic," and defined his 

perception of "men and women as the ultimate units of value." 

Darnel1 devotes a subchapter toward the end of the book to "Sapir's 

Relation to Judaism." Unfortunately her treatment is flawed by lapses 

in interpretation and accuracy. Since the quest for precise definition in 

Jewish matters is akin to walking through a minefield, only the surefooted 

should attempt it, and we take this into account when the author's 

meaning is not always clear. 

In defining the Jewish component in. Sapir's life, Darnel1 writes:


"Judaism [was] a cultural tradition and a social category applied to 

him by others." Elsewhere she speculates that when he went to Chicago, 

Sapir expected that an "unobtrusive Jewish identity would do him 

no harm." 

It is true that Sapir felt himself a Jew by cultural heritage rather than 

by religious affinity. But that he was a Jew only as an identity "applied 

to him by others" is not true. He always avowed himself a Jew; "My 

father was a precentor in the synagogue," he would tell us in class, 

"precentor" being the Anglican equivalent of "cantor."lo In Chicago 

he would lecture to synagogue audiences on Jewish issues." He publicly 

debated Jewish questions with the rabbi of a large North Side congregation, 

Solomon Goldman, one of the most learned, eloquent, and 

admired Jewish leaders of the day. He reviewed books on Jewish 

themes for the Menorah Journal, the choice intellectual Jewish periodical 

of the time. Jewish identity did not have to be "applied to him by 

others." The notion of being an "unobtrusive" Jew would have been 

dismissed by Sapir as craven. 

Darnel1 refers to my association with Sapir during the last years of 

his life. Regrettably the account is garbled. I did meet with Sapir, usually 

in his office in the Hall of Graduate Studies. There were few individuals 

in the Yale community with whom he might have cared to talk 

about Jewish life or the status of the Jew, but with me, a student in his 

department who was a rabbi, there were no inhibitions. Those were 

the somber days of Hitler's rise to power and of its sinister anti-Semitic 

repercussions in America. Sapir's illuminating intuitions and reflections 

on those portents have never left me. 

I am quoted as saying that Sapir was "not interested in 'organized 

Jewishness' but in the 'perpetually insoluble' culture of his childhood."12 

Since I do not know what either "organized Jewishness" or a 

"perpetually insoluble culture" is, I could not have said it. I had written 

that Sapir felt that the Jew faced "a conflict between cultures 

which was perpetually in~oluble."~~ He called this conflict "a fatal 

conundrum of history," a verbal cameo which encapsulates the poignancy 

of the Jew living in a gentile world. 

Darnell has me, along with Mandelbaum and Newman,l4 reading 

Talmud with Sapir. It would have been an unforgettable experience to 

have done so, but neither Mandelbaum nor I did. I cannot speak for 

Newman, but knowing the range of his Hebrew, I doubt whether he

Review Essay 229 

did. Sapir did read Talmud with Philip Grossman, a non-practicing 

Orthodox rabbi, who had taken a Ph.D. in Semitics at Yale and who 

lived in New Haven. Grossman was perpetually dyspeptic, especially 

about Yale, dismissing all Yale professors but one as charlatans. The 

exception was Sapir.I5 

Sapir knew Hebrew and Yiddish well. Me used to marvel at his 

citations in class from the scores of languages he knew, drawn, it 

seemed, from all known language stocks, including Hebrew and Yidd- 

ish. He would write Hebrew and Yiddish words and phrases on the 

blackboard in phonetic symbols. Darnel1 quotes a letter Sapir wrote to 

Newman, which speaks of his feeling for Hebrew: "Hebrew never 

ceases to fascinate me . . . perhaps because, as a little boy of 7 or 8, I 

used to translate the O.T. with my father. Its grammar is a continual 

delight. . . . It's a language full of queer irregularities (as contrasted 

with Arabic) but not really dif ficult."16 

But it was Yiddish that seems to have evoked Sapir's deepest Jewish 

feelings. It was his mother tongue, the household language of his child- 

hood. One of his early papers was a phonetic study of Kovno Yiddish, 

Kovno (Lithuania) having been his mother's birthplace." As early as 

1930 his interest in Yiddish led him to approach the Rockefeller Foun- 

dation for funds in behalf of the Yiddish Scientific Institute of Vilna 

(YIVO), the world center for Yiddish studies. (An "unobtrusive" Jew 

would scarcely have sought funds from the Rockefeller Foundation 

for the propagation of Yiddish.) He also met with Julius Rosenwald, 

the Chicago philanthropist, on the same mission. When the interna- 

tional board of trustees for YIVO was formed, he became one of its 

honorary chairmen, along with Simon Dubnow, Albert Einstein, and 

Sigmund Freud. 

In 1932 Dr. Max Weinreich, the co-founder of YIVO, came to Yale 

from Vilna as one of the Rockefeller Fellows invited from all parts of 

the world to take Sapir's famous course on the psychological relevance 

of culture for personality. He was a linguist from the Russian Pale 

trained at the University of Marburg. Sharing a good deal in common, 

Weinreich and Sapir became friends.Is 

Sapir enlisted many colleagues in support of YIVO and spoke pub- 

licly in its behalf. His final illness prevented him from speaking at the 

YIVO World Convention in 193 8, but his written message, a lyrical 

apostrophe to Yiddish, was read:


I have to be content with sending. . . my heartfelt greetings and blessings. . . . 

When I was a child, Yiddish was looked upon rather contemptuously as a 

jargon. . . . Nothing. . . can prevent Yiddish from being just as precise [and] 

dignified . . . as Hebrew or Latin, Greek or French, if only those who speak 

Yiddish . . . and love it, wish that it be just so. All honor and admiration for 

those who wish it shall be like this! . . . I cannot imagine a more exalted. . .way 

for bringing the Jewish masses . . . into strong contact with . . . world culture 

than forging a language held in scorn into an instrument of a magnificent, cleal; 

creative expression. "The stone which the builders. . . found contemptible has 

become the cornerstone!" 

This was not the pronouncement of a reluctant Jew. 

In the last years of his life, Sapir became involved in an agenda of 

Jewish activities. He joined Morris Raphael Cohen, the great teacher 

of philosophy at City College, New York,19 and Salo W. Baron, emi- 

nent Jewish historian at Columbia, in founding the Conference on 

Jewish Relations, serving as vice-president, and becoming a member 

of the editorial board of its journal, Jewish Social Studies. Margaret 

Mead reported that Sapir "turned his back [upon former interests] to 

plunge into a passionate study of semi tic^."^^ He received a set of 

Talmud on his birthday from his wife and found in it "a reflection of 

all his interests and life principles." Mandelbaum has portrayed Sapir 

as "[coming] down from the press box where he had sat as an interest- 

ed observer of the Jewish scene, to take his place on the playing field of 

Jewish life."21 

The year before his death, Sapir was elected president of the Ameri- 

can Anthropological Association. At the annual convention held in 

New Haven, he introduced'a resolution against Nazi racism. Only a 

minority supported it, and it failed of passage. A large majority op- 

posed it on the grounds that "Germany was a friendly power." In 1939 

he died. 

With the announcement of his death, tributes came from every 

quarter. The nation's leading anthropologists and linguists, writing 

obituaries in all the journals of their academic disciplines, had fre- 

quent recourse to the term "genius." Franklin Edgerton, the eminent 

Sanskritist, wrote, "He seemed able to meet every one of us on our 

own grounds, to see the minutiae of many provinces as with a magn- 

ifying glass, and at the same time effortlessly to survey the whole 

terrain. . . . Many of us do not think it going too far to call him a 

genius."22 Sullivan spoke of him as "a personality unendingly charm-

Review Essay 23 I 

ing," "an intellect that evoked reverence," "a genius largely wasted on 

a world not yet awake to the value of the very great. n23 Those who had 

been his students felt, as Benjamin Whorf put it, "like disciples whose 

master had left them."24 

In 1984, the centenary of Sapir's birth was observed by the institutions 

and professional associations which had known him. The Canadian 

National Museum held a three-day conference at which his contributions 

were discussed by linguists and anthropologists from all 

parts of North America, and at the annual convention of the American 

Anthropological Association in Denver, two segments of the program 

were devoted to his life and influence, a distinction previously accorded 

only to Franz Boas. One institution which had known him well 

did not mark his centenary. At Yale the occasion passed without notice. 

Darnel1 describes the American anthropological world which was 

the backdrop of Sapir's career, delineating its prejudices, rivalries, and 

intrigues. Sapir once commented, "No politics could equal in viciousness 

and vituperation the politics of academic life."2S A sensitive genius 

was bound to be bruised and mauled when caught in its coils. Its 

convolutions are recounted in grim detail as we are taken on a long 

journey through the back alleys of academic knuckle-dusting. The 

biography represents an industrious mining of sources and assembling 

of facts. 

It is in the depiction of Sapir himself that the book falls short. The 

portrait is never clearly focused. There are contradictory appraisals of 

Sapir's achievements and person. A cloud of witnesses affirm his protean 

brilliance, yet Darnel1 calls him a "dabbler" in Iroquoian languages 

and in poetry.26 In 1912 he was working with eight Iroquoian 

language^,^' and sthe poetry entries in his bibliography, which equal in 

number all other items, are hardly marks of a dabbler. Poetry was the 

central subject of his correspondence with Ruth Benedict over a span 

of fifteen years, and Mead speaks of the "seriousness with which Sapir 

took [poetry]. 

Those who knew Sapir have testified, often in extravagant terms, to 

his decency, generosity, and kindliness as a person. Pike has acknowledged 

that from the day he met Sapir, "he was a role model for me in 

character,"29 and Mandelbaum recalled him as the "most sympathetic 

of mentors, the kindliest of rnen."'O Darnel1 notes the praise of col-


leagues and students, yet at different times calls Sapir "self-right- 

eous," "self-promoting," "smug," and vain.31 A photo taken when he 

was twenty-nine bears the author's legend, "A self-satisfied Sapir in 

the early Ottawa years." 

Darnel1 cites Theodora Kroeber as recording that her husband, A. 

L. Kroeber, held Sapir, who was a close friend, "partly responsible for 

the death of Ishi, the Yahi Indian."32 Ishi had wandered in from the 

wild to find sanctuary in Berkeley, California, where he became 

Kroeber's informant. At Kroeber's urging, Sapir had come out to work 

with Ishi on his language, Yana. Gravely ill with tuberculosis, Ishi 

died. What Mrs. Kroeber actually reports is that T. T. Waterman, a 

Berkeley anthropologist, blamed himself for causing Ishi's death. He 

had written to Kroeber, "I killed him by letting Sapir ride him too 

hard." Mrs. Kroeber goes on to speak of Sapir's relationship with Ishi: 

"It was Sapir who, exhausted, brought a day's work to a close before 

Ishi tired of repeating the beloved words and sounds of Yahi."33 

Darnell's unfortunate imputation in this context cannot fail to raise 

questions about her credibility in others. 

The book would have benefited from a more rigorous editorial 

hand. The writing is less than felicitous, marred by a fondness for 

words like "unsurprisingly," "feedback," "database," and "super- 

stars," the last a cognomen for academic luminaries like Sapir who are 

avidly sought as university ornaments. Lapses in coherence and clarity 

sometimes obscure meaning. More serious are the departures from 

accuracy, such as the assessment of the Jewish dimension in Sapir's life 

and the account of Ishi's death, which greater care might have reme- 

died. But withal, this is a work which will be consulted by those inter- 

ested in the life and times of Edward Sapir. A more discriminating and 

balanced appreciation of the man himself remains to be written. 

Edgar E. Siskin is rabbi emeritus of North Shore Congregation Israel, 

Glencoe, Illinois. Dr. Siskin has taught at Northwestern University 

and at Yale, where he studied with Edward Sapir. He is the founder 

and director of the Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies and 

lives in Jerusalem.

Review Essay 

Notes 

I. Godfrey Lienhardt, "Observers Observed," a review of History ofAnthropology, vol. I, ed. 

George W. Stocking, Times Literary Supplement, June 7, 1985, p. 647. 

2. Harry Stack Sullivan, "Edward Sapir, Ph.D., Sc.D.," Psychiatry 2 (1939): 159. 

3. Regna Darnell, Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, Humanist (Berkeley, ~ggo), p. 

418. 

4. David G. Mandelbaum, "Edward Sapir," Jewish Social Studies 3 (1941): 132. 

5. Jacob Sapir seems to have possessed musical skills. He transcribed a good deal of American 

Indian music from the field notes of his son, Boas, and Speck. He also composed music, which he 

was always urging his son to play. 

6. After winninga citywide competition, he was hailed by a newspaper as "the brightest boy in 

~ e York." w 

7. Conveying the author's indifference to scholarship's customary baggage, Language is de- 

void of scholarly references, diacritical marks, and bibliography, and every page exhibits the 

author's exceptional felicity of style. Sixty years after publication, it still sells 2,000 copies a year. 

8. Darnell, Edward Sapir, pp. 102, 112. 

9. No Jews taught in the undergraduate college, nor had they since Yale's founding in 1702. A 

few taught in the graduate and professional schools. 

10. To dub the lowly cantor "precentor" may have struck him as an amusing irony. 

11. Members of the congregation I served as rabbi on Chicago's North Shore remembered 

Sapir's lectures. He met members of the congregation socially through Elizabeth Herzog, the wife 

of one of his disciples, the ethnomusicologist George Herzog. She was the co-author of the minor 

classic, Life Is with People, and came from a socially prominent family. Darnell's description of 

Sapir as "basking in the company of the powerful" North Shore Jews is fanciful. Anyone who 

knew Sapir would find it difficult to imagine him "basking" in an ambience of wealth or "pow- 

er. " 

12. Darnell, Edward Sapir, p. 403. 

13. Edward Sapir, " Lewisohn's View," Menorah Journal 12 (1926): 214. 

14. David G. Mandelbaum became professor of anthropology at the University of California, 

Berkeley. Stanley Newman became professor of linguistics at the University of New Mexico. 

IS. Grossman's dark moods may have been caused by his failure to secure a university faculty 

appointment. During my years in New Haven, no Yale Ph.D. in Semitics who was a Jew got a 

teaching position in a university. Even with a high recommendation from the head of the depart- 

ment, no Jew was placed. All gentile Ph.D.'s were. At that time Semitics departments in American 

universities were virtually Judenrein. 


17. Edward Sapir, "Notes on Judaeo-GermanPhonology," Jewish Quarterly Review 6 (1915): 

23 1-266. 

18. I came to know Weinreich. He once asked me to accompany him to a poetry reading at 

which he was to read poems in Yiddish. He asked me to be his translator. This was one of a series 

of poetry readings by the foreign Rockefeller Fellows studying with Sapir. They were sponsored 

by an elite university women's group and were held in some of the aristocratic homes in New 

Haven. The Yiddish session took place in the home of Mrs. George Parmelee Day, wife of the 

treasurer of Yale. Weinreich rather relished the notion of a Yiddish poetry afternoon in that 

starched WASP setting. 

19. Cohen is referred to as a4'Yale Jew" (Darnell, p. 405), but his connection with Yale was 

tenuous, limited to teaching three one-semester courses. He was considered for a faculty appoint- 

ment but rejected. As William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps, popular Yale professor, put it in his summa-


ry evaluation, "Jewish and no gentleman. We don't need him." Dan A. Oren, Joining the Club: A 

History ofJews and Yale (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), p. 123. 

20. Margaret Mead, An Anthropologist at Work (Boston, ~g~g), 

p. 96. 

21. Mandelbaum, "Edward Sapir," pp. 134, 139. 

22. Franklin Edgerton, "Edward Sapir," American Philosophical Society Yearbook, 1939 

(Philadelphia, 1940), p. 463. 

23. Sullivan, "Edward Sapir," p. I 59. 

24. Benjamin L. Whorf was an insurance man living in Wallingford, Connecticut, who would 

come down to New Haven to work with Sapir. Together they propounded the Sapir-Whorf 

hypothesis. 


26. Ibid., pp. 76, I 3 2. 

27. Ibid., p. 76. 

28. Mead, Anthropologist at Work. Sapir kept a record of the fate of every poem, whether 

accepted or rejected. 

29. Kenneth Pike, "Reminiscences about Edward Sapir," in New Perspectives in Language, 

Culture and Personality, ed. William Cowan, Michael K. Foster, and Konrad Koerner (Amster- 

dam and Philadelphia, 1986) p. 387. 

30. Mandelbaum, "Edward Sapih" p. 133. 

31. Darnell, Edward Sapir, pp, 46, 419, 75, 49. 

32. Ibid., p. 82. 

33. Theodore Kroeber, Ishi: The Last of the Yahi (Berkeley, 1961), pp. 234-235.

Review Essay 

The Last re at Rabbi? 

Evyatar Friesel 

Raphael, Marc Lee. Abba Hillel Silver: A Profile in American Juda- 

ism. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1989. xxxiii, 282 pp. 

As Professor Raphael points out in the preface of his very interesting 

book, there have been few scholarly studies of twentieth-century 

American rabbis. He might have added that too many of the few have 

been written in too apologetic a mood. All of which did not make his 

task easier, especially since Abba Hillel Silver, in Raphael's words, was 

hardly representative of the American rabbinate: ". . . few pulpit rab- 

bis had, as he did, the manner and bearing of an Old Testament proph- 

et, few have represented world Jewry at the United Nations, headed 

national Jewish organizations, or had both streets and a city in Israel 

named for them. " 

Except for the first chapter, which deals with Silver's younger years, 

the other parts of Raphael's book are divided between the Cleveland 

period and the I ~~OS, when Silver was active on the national Jewish 

and Zionist scene. More space is given to the second, the political 

period. The very thoughtful introduction by Rabbi Alexander 

Schindler, in which he describes the Jewish public atmosphere in the 

1930s and 194os, deserves careful reading. 

Born in Lithuania and raised in New York, Abba Hillel Silver belonged 

to a typically poor Jewish immigrant family of the Lower East 

Side. He grew up knowing Yiddish and Hebrew as well as he came to 

know English. In later years Silver was equally impressive in all three 

languages. His strict traditional religious upbringing left indelible 

marks on his character. Indeed, it must have been quite a surprise for 

his family, which had been producing Orthodox rabbis for generations, 

when he decided, in 191 I, to embark on his rabbinical career at 

Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. To make matters even more 

complicated, Silver had been an active Zionist since childhood and did 

not stop being one after registering at the (then) anti-Zionist HUC.

A bba Hillel Silver 

(1893-1963)

Review Essay 23 7 

Raphael describes the beginnings of Silver's rabbinical career, first 

in Wheeling, West Virginia, and from 1917 at The Temple in Cleve- 

land. At age twenty-four, Silver became the spiritual leader of one of 

the largest and most prestigious Reform congregations in the United 

States. Certainly his skills as speaker and preacher had much to do 

with it. Silver's oratorical ability made him one of the greatest speak- 

ers of his time. The intellectual capacity that went with it and his 

imposing personality soon guaranteed him a strong hold on his con- 

gregation, one that would continue practically unchallenged for the 

next forty years. 

Silver's interests soon reached beyond the affairs of The Temple. He 

began to participate in city- and state-connected issues. He was espe- 

cially interested in questions relating to industrial relations and was 

sensitive to workers' rights. In the 193os, with the Depression setting 

in, he worked hard to persuade the Ohio legislature to enact an unem- 

ployment insurance bill. In the 1920s and 19gos, Silver also gave gen- 

erously of his time for every Zionist initiative and campaign in which 

he was asked to participate. He crisscrossed the state and the country 

on behalf of the Palestine Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod). It did 

not take long for Silver to became a figure to be reckoned with in 

national Zionist affairs. As Raphael points out, before reaching his 

thirtieth birthday Silver was already a well-known public figure. 

Raphael describes how Silver gradually gained national prominence 

as a Zionist. He was shaped essentially through the Zionist campaign 

apparatus. In the late thirties and early forties he was several times 

elected national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal. In 1939 he 

was one of the founders of the United Jewish Appeal. 

At that point, the book turns in a new direction, and one of the 

methodological problems of Raphael's undertaking becomes evident. 

Any biographer of Abba Hillel Silver is faced with a double theme. 

One is the story of Silver the Cleveland rabbi, the religious head of a 

large and interesting Reform congregation. It is a story that spans 

several decades, one that has its own logic and points of reference. It 

deserves to be told in detail, because it is highly interesting per se, and 

can teach much about the Reform movement, the work and life of its 

rabbis, and the social and religious evolution of a middle-sized Jewish 

community in the Midwest. 

The other story is that of Silver the chairman of the American 

Zionist Emergency Council. AZEC existed from 1943 to 1949, and


took a most visible-although controversial-part in the public actions 

of the United States and in the deliberations at the United Nations 

that led to the Palestine partition resolution on November 29, 

1947. This story is a tale short and tempestuous, completely different 

from the first one in tone, content, intensity, and participating personalities. 

By a feat of sheer intellectual prowess, Professor Raphael has managed 

to grasp both themes. Working through an enormous amount of 

utterly different sources, he has familiarized himself with the history 

of Tifereth Israel congregation (The Temple), with Cleveland's Jewish 

community and its diverse organizational bodies, with the history of 

American Zionism in the 1930s and I ~ ~ Owith S , the development of 

AZEC, with the politics and diplomatic maneuvering of the American 

government and the United Nations in the late I ~ ~ Oand S , with Israeli 

politics-and with Silver's role in the middle (or at the head) of all of 

these developments. But by trying to deliver it all in one fairly short 

book, the author has in the end done an injustice to both themes. 

Raphael's style is lucid, his information exact, his approach careful 

and balanced, his knowledge immense, his work professional-all of 

which only proves that whoever tackles this theme again should take 

care not to be caught in the same dilemma. The Silver of Cleveland 

deserves one work; the Silver of the American Zionist Emergency 

Council another. 

Having learned from Raphael's experience, I will briefly comment, 

in the present essay, on some questions related to one of Raphael's 

major themes, Silver's activity as the head of the American Zionist 

Emergency Council. 

In 1939, Silver attended the Twenty-first Zionist Congress, held at 

Geneva. The focus of the Congress was on the approaching war in 

Europe, the situation of European Jewry, and the worsening political 

relationship between the Zionist movement and Great Britain after 

the publication of the White Paper on Palestine in May 1939. Initial 

preparations were made to face the threatening problems ahead. 

Among other resolutions, it was decided to create a Emergency Committee 

for Zionist Affairs in the United States, chaired by Stephen S. 

Wise. Even after the beginning of the war, and the ever-more alarming 

news about the situation of the Jews in Europe, the Emergency Committee 

remained inactive. While in the United States in 1942, Chaim 

Weizmann engineered Silver's participation in the center of Zionist

Review Essay 23 9 

activity. Silver's impressive performance at the Biltmore Conference in 

May 1942 probably convinced Weizmann that Silver would be a bet- 

ter choice for the American Zionist leadership position than the ailing 

Wise. An agreement was signed in August 1943, and Silver was elected 

co-chairman of a newly created body, the American Zionist Emergen- 

cy Council. 

It turned out to be a momentous decision. Imperious, aggressive, 

extreme in his Zionist positions and totally unbending, and well 

served by his great oratorical gifts, Silver soon became the despair of 

his growing number of enemies: he acted exactly as they feared he 

would, only more so. Only weeks after his election, he became in- 

volved in a struggle over the presidency of the Zionist Organization of 

America (which he wanted for himself), over the leadership style of his 

co-chairman, Stephen S. Wise (whom he wanted ousted), and over the 

political position to be adopted at the American Jewish Conference. 

The Conference was a meeting of most major American Jewish or- 

ganizations, including non-Zionist ones such as the American Jewish 

Committee, to decide whether American Jewry should support the 

struggling Jewish community in Palestine. It had been brought togeth- 

er after many negotiations and much effort to reach a fragile common 

denominator that would enable the diverse factions in American Jew- 

ry to act together. 

Fearing Silver's extremist position, the heads of the American 

Zionist establishment managed to block his appearance as speaker for 

the Zionist Organization of America. To no avail. Through clever 

maneuvering, Silver appeared on the podium on the evening of August 

30, under the auspices of another organization. In one of the great 

speeches of his career, he issued a vibrant call for a Jewish state in 

Palestine, a call which changed the whole direction of the delibera- 

tions. In an uproar, the assembled delegates approved his proposals 

almost unanimously. The American Jewish Committee resigned from 

the Conference. Silver had become the leader of a growing American 

Zionist drive for Jewish statehood in Palestine. 

An evaluation of Silver's activities as the head of AZEC is unavoid- 

ably related to two major questions. One asks what the American 

policy regarding Palestine really was in 1947 and 1948; the other, in 

what manner AZEC responded to that policy, and how effective was 

its line of action. 

The copious literature on American policy and Palestine is based on


the assumption that there was such a policy. Indeed there were several 

policies--of the State Department, the White House, Congress-in- 

teracting at best, clashing at worst, pressured by any number of inter- 

est groups, such as the Zionists, American Jewry, the oil companies, 

and so on. 

The prospect that all this together may add up to a non-policy runs 

against the very grain of historical research, which is geared to explain 

things that were, and not things that were not. Historians recoil in- 

stinctively from such a situation: nothing is worse than to research in a 

void. 

It seems that a honorable case can be made for the negative possibil- 

ity. The United States was coming out of period of isolationism. Unlike 

Great Britain and France, it had no political experience or tradition 

regarding the Middle East. In 1947-1948 American foreign policy 

was facing a wide array of international problems, most connected 

with Soviet expansion. Quite contrary to the information and impres- 

sion one gets from the existing literature, Palestine was simply not 

very important to American policy-makers. 

One small but significant example may be instructive. On May 12, 

1948, three days before the proclamation of the State of Israel, a top- 

level consultation on Palestine took place in the White House. The 

participants were President Truman, Secretary of State George 

Marshall, Under-Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett, and several as- 

sistants. When the discussion touched on a message that Marshall had 

reportedly sent Ben-Gurion some days before, Marshall replied that 

he had sent no such message. "In fact," he said, "I did not even know 

that such a person existed."' So much for the American secretary of 

state's level of knowledge about Palestine only a couple of days before 

Israel declared its independence. 

There were, for certain, several policies about Palestine. Whether 

they added up to a policy is an another matter. Eugene V. Rostow 

seems to have summed it up correctly in 1976: "During the Palestine 

crisis and the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948-1949, the United States 

was never able to make up its mind about its national interest in the 

controversy. "2 

That being the situation, much is to be said for the tactics adopted 

by Silver and AZEC. It might have been even better if Silver had access 

to the higher levels of policy-making. He did not. As Raphael aptly

Review Essay 24 I 

describes it, neither the president nor the secretary of state wanted to 

do business with Silver, both considering him a nuisance and a troublemaker. 

Which may also indicate how effective AZEC was, what with 

its mass mobilization of activists, large public meetings, mail campaigns, 

grass-roots and congressional lobbying. 

But was it effective? Again, historians dealing with the theme seem 

biased toward a positive answer. However, Samuel Halperin, in his 

study on this very issue, is more reserved: "To what extent the evolving 

American Zionist power and influence potential chronicled in this 

study contributed to the creation of the State of Israel is not at all 

~ertain."~ It simply seems impossible to evaluate, with any measure of 

accuracy, the influence of the American Zionist Emergency Council 

on the shaping of the events that led to the United Nations partition 

declaration in November 1949. 

What then was Silver's role in these developments? Skillfully, without 

saying it in so many words, Raphael's story leads the reader to a 

growing awareness of the tragic dimension in Silver's finest hour. The 

man was obviously a giant: as orator, as rabbi, as intellectual, as public 

leader. In Cleveland, at The Temple, he had awed the board of trustees 

and intimidated the congregants (almost nobody dared to come for 

pastoral counseling). In Washington and New York, as we go along 

with Raphael's description of struggle after struggle-against the policy-makers 

in the State Department, against his ZOA associates, 

against the tactics of his fellow Jewish Agency members--one very 

upsetting question comes to mind: who was Silver working with? 

What strange gods was he serving? 

Almost everybody who can be named in the Zionist establishment 

was against Silver, or at least was trying (quite unsuccessfully) to contain, 

to control, or sooner or later to topple him: Stephen S. Wise, 

Louis Lipsky, Israel Goldstein, Nahum Goldmann, Chaim Weizmann, 

David Ben-Gurion, Henry Montor, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and many 

others. Silver rose in a tempest on that unforgettable evening of August 

30,1943, at the American Jewish Conference, when he was literally 

catapulted into the leadership of the budding Zionist movement 

for Palestine. Silver was brought down in a tempest when in early 

1949 he was toppled by a strange coalition of American non-Zionists 

and Zionists, backed by the Israelis. His only steadfast supporter in 

the American Zionist leadership was Emanuel Neumann, the enig-


matic Talleyrand of American Zionism, and incidentally, the man who 

had masterminded the almost-coup of August 30, 1943. 

Raphael uses the term "leader" carefully when referring to Silver's 

position in American Zionism. Indeed, Silver "chaired" AZEC and 

"led" the Zionist-Jewish movement in the United States for Jewish 

statehood, but he never managed to dominate the core structure of the 

ZOA. He rode the crest of a tide: the upsurge in American Jewry 

directed to one specific goal. Silver was "chosen" by the forces be- 

neath that upsurge, the undefined masses of American Zionists and 

American Jews, yearning for Jewish statehood in Palestine and rising 

up in the hundreds of thousands in support of this goal, backed by 

large sectors of American public opinion. 

Silver understood and identified with that vision, and served it to 

the utmost of his great abilities. But the astonishing public-action ap- 

paratus he set up and directed in 1946 and 1947 had no permanent 

foundations. Already by 1948 (actually, by the end of 1947!) the ebb 

had set in. Soon the structure collapsed beneath Silver, and his adver- 

saries only formalized what had already occurred. In fact, this was not 

the first time that such a flow-and-ebb pattern had occurred in Ameri- 

can Zionism. A similar pattern had occurred in 19 I 5-1921 during the 

Brandeis years. In fact, it can be argued that in a sense Brandeis was no 

more the leader of American Zionism in the days of World War I than 

Silver was in the few years after World War 11. 

Abba Hillel Silver was but one of the participants in the very com- 

plex political process that led to the creation of Israel in 1948. One of 

the merits of Raphael's book is that he has managed to keep himself 

focused on his man, without deviating to the so many important issues 

along the way. Raphael allows us to look at the developing political 

scene in 1947-1948 through Silver's eyes, but without apologizing. 

The Silver we are offered in this book is one whose great qualities and 

many shortcomings are put straight before us, "warts and all." Profes- 

sor Raphael's biography is a most useful contribution to a field where 

much remains to be done. 

Evyatar Friesel is professor of modern Jewish history at the Hebrew 

University of Jerusalem. He is the author of, among other works, The 

Zionist Movement in the United States, I 897-19 14 (1970), Zionist 

Policy After the Balfour Declaration, 1917-1922 (1977), and Atlas of 

Modern Jewish History (1990).

Review Essay 

Notes 

I. Memorandum of conversation dictated by Marshall in Foreign Relations of the United 

States, 1948, vol. 5, pt. z (Washington, 1976), p p 972-977. 

2. "Israel in the Evolution of American Foreign Policy," in The Palestine Question in American 

History, ed. Clark M. Clifford et al. (New York, 1978), p. 64. 

3. The Political World of American Zionism (Detroit, 1961), p. 295.

Book Reviews 

Heinze, Andrew R. Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, 

Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity. New York: 

Columbia University Press, 1990. 276 pp. 

The good Lord must love social historians, because He made so many 

of them; and their books have continued to annex territory that once 

belonged to other scholars. Though Adapting to Abundance seems at 

first glance to be modestly confined to examining the first generation 

of Eastern European Jews who lived in New York at the turn of the 

century, the range and implications of this monograph are more ambi- 

tious. Along with its triangulation of the traditional subfields of eth- 

nic, immigration, and urban history, Andrew Heinze's study is deeply 

enmeshed in what once would have been economic history, stressing 

how neatly one group of arrivals managed to fit into the marketplace, 

how their skills and inclinations suited a nation that was energetically 

democratizing luxuries and felt no embarrassment at riches. By stress- 

ing the values, the sensibility, and the predispositions of these Jewish 

immigrants as pivotal to their behavior, Professor Heinze also draws 

upon the working insights of intellectual and cultural historians, who 

plunge into the past head-first. Adapting to Abundance is also influ- 

enced by the symbolic interactionist school of social psychologists, 

who consider a cigar to be neither a phallic symbol nor just a cigar, but 

a token of the changing meanings that are inevitably attached to hu- 

man associations. The result is an important book that invites reflec- 

tion upon the national character, a concept that is central to the inter- 

disciplinary field of American Studies as well. 

Although Moses Rischin is thanked and praised in the acknowledg- 

ments and bibliographic essay, and though Heinze's revised Berkeley 

doctoral dissertation portrays the same ethnic group in the same me- 

tropolis during the same period as does The Promised City (1962), the 

different approach that the younger social historian has adopted is 

more striking than the indebtedness. Whereas Rischin depicted the


relationship of toiling masses to the means of production, Heinze has 

highlighted the immigrants' relationship to the culture of consump- 

tion-a term that appears neither in the index to The Promised City 

nor in its extensive discussion of "urban economic frontiers." Instead 

of the rights of labor, Adapting to Abundance discusses the rites of 

leisure, as when a day supposed to be hallowed for rest, study, and 

prayer is transformed from shabbos into shopping. Instead of the 

farbrente- the feisty female organizers of the needle trades, Heinze 

describes the baleboste-homemakers whose consumption prefer- 

ences determined the character of so much of family life in the tene- 

ments. Though the Triangle Fire is unmentioned, fire sales are noted. 

"Der Proletarisher Magid" is absent-but not the sellers of Crisco 

vegetable shortening, which Procter & Gamble specifically targeted at 

Jews conscious of purity and the dietary laws. Morris Hillquit and 

Sidney Hillman do not show up, but five pages are devoted to "Roxy" 

Rothapfel, whose gaudy palaces gave the experience of watching mov- 

ies a touch of "class." The parameters of this kind of Jewish history 

are defined by the pushcart-not the polling booth, and by commerce- 

-not citizenship. 

Earlier students of immigration like Oscar Handlin (to whom Ris- 

chin dedicated The Promised City) stressed the poignancy and diffi- 

culty of adjustment to a New World. With naturalization papers came 

the price tag of estrangement. By contrast Heinze shows how easy it 

was to make the shift from Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft-at least for 

the Eastern European Jews, whose own exemption from nostalgia for 

the Old World made them good consumers (and hence good Ameri- 

cans). Even though they read and cherished the socialist Jewish Daily 

Forward, Heinze portrays typical Forverts subscribers as Horatio Al- 

ger wanna-be's, more influenced by the advertisements than by the 

editorials. The materialism of the Lower East Side was rarely dialecti- 

cal, and its egalitarianism was-Heinze argues-less a reflection of 

political ideology than of participation in the cornucopia of a mass 

market. While acknowledging the squalor and poverty of the immi- 

grant neighborhoods, the author is more impressed with how much 

more comfortably their inhabitants lived than they had in the shtetl, 

and by how quickly they prized the democratization of taste that the 

burgeoning consumer economy promised. 

The author, who teaches at the University of California-Davis, has

Book Reviews 

picked up a cue from Abraham Cahan's David Levinsky, who remarks 

that "the very clothes I wore and the very food I ate had a fatal effect 

on my religious habits." Whereas the sublimity of the Sabbath had 

been intended to be demarcated from the rest of the week, the far 

greater availability of what were considered luxuries in the Pale of 

Settlement collapsed the distinction between the sacred and the ordi- 

nary, between the holy and the profane. In New York the newcomers 

"found themselves in a world where spending rather than saving mon- 

ey was promoted; where the rising standard of living had to be recon- 

ciled with religious customs that had to be fitted to the fact of ongoing 

scarcity; where a new suit of clothes was understood to be an instru- 

ment of cultural transformation; where women, as rulers of domestic 

consumption, assumed a new power over the social adjustment of 

their families; where such symbols of affluence as the vacation, the 

parlor, and the piano were put at the disposal of wage earners; where 

modern corporations, instead of local shopkeepers, solicited business 

through sophisticated advertising, instead of countertop chatter; 

where sellers of consumer goods had a mecca of consumers before 

them and could thus become magnates in the province of mass con- 

sumption" (p. 4). The result, Heinze strongly implies, was a new kind 

of Jew, living in an environment too enticing to be felt as exile. 

In support of this argument, Heinze throws in just about everything 

but the kitchen sink. From the objects of material culture, from the 

detritus of daily life, he summons up and explains the social signifi- 

cance of the gas oven, the pocket watch, the family photograph, the 

fashionable attire, the Catskills resort, the insurance policy, the brand- 

name advertisements, the charitable ball. This book is an historical 

foray into the semeiotics of desire, an anatomy of what Daniel J. Boor- 

stin termed a "consumption community." It is nevertheless sad to re- 

port that Heinze, like almost everyone else, lacks the uncanny skill 

that Boorstin displayed in The Americans for making the once-eccen- 

tric seem central, the once-marginal seem meaningful. Heinze's own 

fixations are unlikely to become fascinating to the reader, who will 

probably find this book a bit colorless. Part of the reason is the strate- 

gy of organizing Adapting to Abundance around themes rather than 

phases, which may have been necessary but which also drains the text 

of the suspense of change and makes the entire argument seem rather 

mechanical and undramatic. All of the evidence that the author draws


upon (mostly from memoirs and contemporary newspaper accounts) 

reinforces his theme of national hospitality and Jewish receptivity. In 

this account of adaptation, nothing gets qualified, altered, or contra- 

dicted by the end; as "greenhorns" smoothly acculturate themselves, 

nothing interesting "happens" in the book. Even the epilogue is most- 

ly a summation that restates for lip-readers the case that Heinze has 

already presented. Adapting to Abundance is a solid and generally 

convincing book, but it is not (despite the potentialities for mordant 

observation inherent in the topic) a clever one. It is indeed so dry that 

the publisher could have marketed this account among the products 

that Heinze himself studies; call this book dry goods. 

Having no eye for friction or paradox, the author has emerged with 

a consensus history in which the communal tensions that other schol- 

ars have documented and emphasized-between Uptown and Down- 

town, between the first generation and their children, between the 

pious and the unobservant, between the bosses and the workers- 

have evaporated in the allrightnik satisfactions of acquisitiveness. 

Comparisons with Jewish immigrants in other countries (England, 

Argentina) and with other immigrants in America (Irish, Italians) are 

aptly if dutifully advanced, but without the detail needed to permit 

analytical consideration of how much weight to give to the cultural 

baggage that the Jews brought with them to America, and how much 

to give to conditions that distinguished the United States from other 

havens for the afflicted Jews of Eastern Europe. 

Adapting to Abundance is nevertheless bound to add to the debate 

in comparative ethnic studies, a field that is booby-trapped with vola- 

tile controversy over economic performance. Despite the initial disabi- 

lities of poverty and prejudice (often quite severe), certain American 

minorities have made it to the fast lane, while other groups have had 

trouble even getting to the on-ramp. How to assign proper importance 

to the effects of discrimination and negative stereotyping, to the per- 

petuation of values that can be dysfunctional, and to the role of public 

policy continues to vex historians and social scientists. Heinze ignores 

(or at least minimizes) the challenging case that sociologist Stephen 

Steinberg madein The Ethnic Myth (1981) that Jews, for example, 

entered an expanding economy with bourgeois skills already honed 

abroad that were suitable to an urban market. Adapting to Abun- 

dance stresses instead the mentality that made Jewish immigrants and

Book Reviews 249 

their children successful, not the structural advantages that white skin 

and entrepreneurial experience provided. Whether these newcomers 

were producers or consumers, they were shrewd enough to see the 

American social contract as a bargain. 

Heinze's book also fits into the growing scholarly interest in con- 

sumption (not only production) and in marketing (not only manufac- 

turing) in the achievement of prosperity. Thanks to specialists like 

Daniel A. Pope, Michael Schudson, and Richard S. Tedlow, twentieth- 

century history can now be told more fully in terms of how the ex- 

traordinary profusion of goods came to be distributed more widely 

than earlier generations could have envisioned, how dreams of acqui- 

sition have been stoked and stroked. Even though claims for the supe- 

riority of the American system in ensuring affluence for a "people of 

plenty" can no longer be sustained, and the resurgence of the western 

and northern European and the Pacific rim economies have buried in a 

potter's field the notion of a unique flair for attaining the good life, the 

promise of the New World did indeed entail escape from the travail 

and toil of more primitive societies, with the rewards for effort and 

enterprise showered less unevenly than a static, hierarchic Europe 

could manage. We now know that "the way to wealthm-the title of 

Benjamin Franklin's blockbuster best-seller-is marked by all sorts of 

national deviations, and that the socialism of the Lower East Side and 

its congressman, Meyer London, would have been a detour (if not a U- 

turn). But how the American economic system got to its present state, 

and how its vindication came to be expressed in terms of individual 

opportunity and freedom of choice, should merit curiosity. In giving 

an ethnic twist to the genesis of affluence, Adapting to Abundance has 

also injected a new appreciation of a group famously considered to be 

like other Americans, only more so. Intellegatur emptor-let the buy- 

er be understood. 

-Stephen J. Whitfield 

Stephen J. Whitfield is the Max Richter Professor of American Civili- 

zation at Brandeis University. His most recent publication is The Cul- 

ture of the Cold War (1990).

Jaffe, Dan. Round for One Voice. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas 

Press, 1988. 

Juergensen, Hans. Testimony: Selected Poems, 1954-1986. Tampa: 

University of South Florida Press, 1988. 

In the American Jewish Archives issue of November 1988, devoted to 

"The German-Jewish Legacy in America, 19 3 8-19 88," Hans 

Juergensen writes, "Being a product of three cultures- German, Jewish, 

and American-I can attest to the lasting influence of German 

thought. Goethe and Kant are as important to me as Maimonides and 

Buber." He was thirteen on January 30, 1933, when Hitler was appointed 

chancellor of the Reich. Juergensen grew up in Germany almost 

unaware of anti-Semitism, but after January 1933 life became 

increasingly intolerable for Jews, and on November 9,1934, as one of 

fourteen boys in the first children's transport to America, he reached 

New York. Some years after fleeing the Nazis, he found himself fighting 

against them as an American soldier. 

Testimony: Selected Poems, 1954-1986 offers a rich sampling of 

Juergensen's verse. While some of his poems reflect his preoccupation 

with biblical prophets and King David and other historical figures, the 

Holocaust dominates the volume, providing its power and passion. 

"Testimony," the first and title poem of the collection, suggests the 

poet's depth of feeling about the Holocaust through images and symbols. 

In addition, the hypnotic chantlike rhythm contributes to the 

poem's force. 

The sun again 

The hawk again 

This time himself 

The hunted 

The days 

Then 

Starting from the sun 

Meeting the east of 

My horizon

Book Reviews 

Sting like pebbles 

Trapped in a shoe 

Never to be cast off 

never to be cast off 

The lowercase n of the second "never" adds to the ongoingness of the 

pain, the sting. The mystery of the poem is crucial to its effectiveness, 

for Juergensen is best when he does not overstate his case. 

Among the moving poems on the major theme is "Holocaust," a 

catalogue in one- and two-word lines, culminating in the final three- 

word line "earth earth earth." Again, the concrete form facilitates the 

power and mystery of the poem. In "The Scar- August, 1934," the 

first-person narrator describes walking through the countryside with 

an older friend when suddenly boots and black tunics appear, and 

then: 

. . . a sharpness of flame 

Spewed toward me. 

One black arm jerked back 

With the report I never heard: 

It was my friend who died. 

The re-creation of the catastrophic event through sensuous details 

captivates the reader, who shares the event and can feel it in his pulse. 

Although Juergensen's Holocaust poems are often compelling, 

when he writes about other subjects, whether biblical prophets, sec- 

tarians, or John the Baptist, where he has no personal experience to 

draw upon, he sometimes has a harder time bringing the subject to life 

and writing convincingly. In these less successful poems, the language 

can be flowery or overstated, as in "Sectarians": 

Dispersing 

at propitious times 

from their 

clandestine caverns 

they made condolence calls 

on the oppressed.


This may, as he discerns in "Preface," have something to do with being 

a "stranger" speaking in a strange tongue. 

With only phrase roots 

the hebrew's 

native tendrils 

in everwhich soil 

german 

by cosmic joke 

so happened . . . 

Consumed by the Holocaust, Juergensen sometimes uses words to 

preach and provoke, and becomes a poet of impassioned statement as 

opposed to a visionary witness, but he has many successes in this 

unusual and appealing retrospective collection, such as "Forty Years 

After Liberation," in which the poet argues with God via the voices of 

survivors; "Anniversary-October; 1965," an eloquent testimonial to 

the will to live and create despite death and destruction; "The Chagall 

Windows," an artful verbal reproduction; and "Chain: 

Now the oak looms 

in its tallith 

of ochre leaves 

against the dun 

of hollow skies. 

Dan Jaffe is an American Jew writing about life in America. One 

does not detect the marginality of the stranger in his work. While 

Round for One Voice seems to have no central theme, he writes skill- 

fully on a variety of subjects, but his technical accomplishments pre- 

dominate. Round for One Voice shows the capabilities and the limita- 

tions of Jaffe's virtuosity as a poet. 

Many of Jaffe's poems have intricate schemes, but the test of a po- 

em's effectiveness is not the rhyme scheme alone but the overall impact 

of its lyric, visual, and dramatic effects. While poems such as "Black 

Woman, Enroute" and "Disillusionment at Dawn" seem constricted 

by their formal symmetry and incomplete in their dramatic realiza- 

tion, "On U.S. I" and "Ninth Street Bar; Seen Through Glass" picture

Book Reviews 25 3 

their subjects memorably as well as maintaining their formal symme- 

try. I particularly admire "On U.S. I " for its dynamic vision of the here 

and now: 

We stop. Cops in slickers wave us by. 

A tractor-trailer steams on the shoulder, wrecked, 

Its windshield wipers moving slowly, slowly, 

Like antennae of a dying insect. 

Here form and content merge in the image of the experience. Here the 

verbal music of assonance and alliteration as well as rhyme and heavi- 

ly stressed rhythms complement the visual acuity of the writing. 

Some of Jaffe's poems are in a deliberately minor key and suffice as 

light verse, such as "The Body of this World": 

Was it sinus that kept Shakespeare up 

Last in the London candlelight, 

Or did Falstaff swearing cup by cup 

And banging on the walls all night? 

Other examples would be "Biography" and "The Soviet Flu." Poems 

such as these show a witty side of the poet's virtuosity, but they do not 

add to the central tenor of the volume. 

It almost goes without saying that Jaffe's volume is part of the for- 

malist revival in recent American poetry, and he exhibits some sub- 

stantial formal achievements here. "Lady in Waiting" describes the 

seduction and humiliation of a callow immigrant in the formal context 

of an intricate rhyme scheme (a b c, c b a, d e f, etc.) along with an 

irregular iambic pentameter meter in a luminous revealing way. 

She slit his pockets, dismembered both his shoes, 

with a grotesque giggle kicked his underwear 

into the shadows underneath the bed. 

In "Tragedy of Shylock," the poet skillfully retells Shylock's story 

from The Merchant of Venice in seven rhymed and metrical sixteen- 

line sections. But even in these two poems of impressive formal 

achievement, the reader is hard-pressed to find powerful and fresh


content. There is no doubt about Jaffe's artistry, but he does not seem 

to be seized by, inspired by his subjects. 

Yet there are excellent poems in Round for One Voice. "Waiting for 

You to Reappear in the House We Never Left" is written in a clear, 

straightforward style and captures the power of memory. 

You live in photographs 

and in my memory give me solace. 

The narrator waits for his loved one to return and tell him where she 

has been. Although the poem is not a technical feat, it renders its 

subject with sufficient detail and subtlety to move the reader. 

One of Jaffe's best poems is his tribute to Whitman, "Whitman on 

the Scaffold." While it may be influenced by Louis Simpson's "Walt 

Whitman at Bear Mountain" and "Pacific Ideas-A Letter to Walt 

Whitman," it can stand on its own as a strong, intricate portrait of the 

great American poet, who "Leans over the world," seeing all and for- 

getting nothing. While he may be gone from his perch, 

one of us will surely notice 

across a porthole of our spaceship 

a miraculous strand of beard. 

Jaffe writes in the tradition of the poet as craftsman, as make^; not as 

bard. What stays in the reader's mind is not so much what his poems 

suggest as the poet's skill in making them. 

-Gary Pacernick 

Gary Pacernick is the author of The Jewish Poems and Memory and 

Fire: Ten American Jewish Poets. He is professor of English at Wright 

State University.

Levendel, Lewis. A Century of the Canadian Jewish Press: 

1880s-1980s Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1990. xxii, 556 pp. 

In studying any North American Jewish community, researchers can- 

not ignore the Jewish press. Since the nineteenth century, North Amer- 

ican Jews have been engaged in the creation of a periodical literature in 

English, Yiddish, and other languages which, taken together, makes 

up an indispensable primary source for the reconstruction of the histo- 

ry of the organized Jewish community. The importance of this litera- 

ture is indicated, among other things, by the care with which the 

American Jewish Archives has set up an American Jewish Periodicals 

Center to preserve this material. 

What is less immediately apparent, but just as indispensable, if the 

study of this material is to be conducted on any sort of sophisticated 

level, is that the press itself must be studied. Historians utilizing news- 

papers for a reconstruction of the past need to understand the publica- 

tions they are reading. What news is covered? What is not covered? 

What are the social and ideological presuppositions of the proprietors, 

editors, and reporters? What influence does the periodical's financial 

structure have on the quality and quantity of news presented to the 

public? In short, the press itself is in great need of investigation before 

we can properly understand its contents. 

Louis Levendel, a former Jewish journalist, has set himself the task 

of writing a history of the Jewish periodical literature of Canada. In so 

doing, he has attempted to present a comprehensive account of all 

periodical publications aimed at Jews and published or edited in Can- 

ada in the last century. This is a daunting task for two reasons. First of 

all, there is no Canadian equivalent to the American Jewish Periodi- 

cals Center, and so Levendel has to seek his material in scattered librar- 

ies, archives, and basements. Second, and perhaps more important, 

the state of Canadian Jewish historiography leaves something to be 

desired. To cite perhaps the most blatant lacuna, Montreal, by all 

accounts the most important Jewish community in Canada for most 

of its existence, has not, to date, received an adequate social and reli- 

gious history of its Jewry.


It is to Levendel's credit that he largely succeeds in overcoming these 

obstacles. He does so by capitalizing on the strengths of his journalis- 

tic training. While he relies on the periodicals themselves and the 

sparse secondary literature on the subject, the real strength of the 

book lies elsewhere. It rests on the extensive interviews he has con- 

ducted, in person and by telephone, with nearly every significant fig- 

ure in the Canadian Jewish press that he was able to locate, as well as 

his own experience as assistant and later associate editor of the Cana- 

dian Jewish News of Toronto and Montreal from 1971 to 1978. 

The author thus presents us with an insider's view of the Canadian 

Jewish press. From this point of view, the real heroes are not necessari- 

ly the writers and reporters, but rather the business people who ensure 

that bills and salaries are paid. Thus for every periodical he surveys, 

Levendel invariably comments on the number of advertisements per 

issue, a constant reminder of the fact that the periodicals were and are 

business propositions first and foremost. 

As with any book which attempts to be comprehensive, this one has 

both strong points and weak ones. The weak link in the book is in the 

author's treatment of the non-English-language periodicals, particu- 

larly those in Yiddish. It is clear that he has no great facility in Yiddish 

and is unable to deal with the Yiddish press directly. He does the best 

he can with the English-language sources available to him as well as 

through his interviews. However; the result is a less than adequate 

treatment of the Yiddish press despite his acknowledgment of its im- 

portance. Through the 193os, after all, the average Canadian Jew was 

more likely to be literate in Yiddish than in English. An adequate 

account of the Canadian Yiddish press remains to be written. As well, 

the author clearly does not deal more than superficially with Jewish 

periodicals in French and in other languages, such as Hebrew and 

Hungarian. 

Levendel does a much better job with the English-language press. 

He is able to deal comfortably with the personalities, politics, and 

problems of the Anglo-Jewish press of Canada. In his evaluation of 

this press, he is far from neutral. His sympathy seems to lie with those 

periodicals which remain independent of communal funding, rightly 

seeing that they retain the ability to criticize the communities they 

have a mandate to cover in a much more trenchant fashion. He recog- 

nizes, however; that the trend in the North American Jewish press is


for more rather than less official communal financing. 

The author is at his very best, near the end of the book, in two "case 

studies" of newspaper coverage of relatively recent major stories: a 

rabbinic conflict at Congregation Beth Tzedec in Toronto, and the 

1982 Israeli campaign in Lebanon, In both cases, Levendel makes 

clear what happened, what was reported, what was not reported, and 

why, The account of how the Canadian Jewish press, and, particularly 

the Canadian Jewish News, covered these stories, and the editorial 

constraints which were at work in the situations, makes for fascinat- 

ing reading. 

All in all, the book is an important contribution to the literature on 

Canadian Jewry as well as to the history of the Anglo-Jewish press in 

North America. Despite its unevenness, and despite the fact that the 

book might have been leaner and would read better with some good 

editing, it fills an important gap in our knowledge and serves as an 

invaluable guide to one of the primary resources of future historians of 

Canadian Jewry. 

-Ira Robinson 

Ira Robinson is associate professor of Judaic Studies in the Depart- 

ment of Religion, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He is the 

editor of Cyrus Adler: Selected Letters (1985) and co-editor of An 

Everyday Miracle: Yiddish Culture in Montreal (1990).

Burt, Robert A. Two Jewish Justices: Outcasts in the Promised Land. 

Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988. 165 pp. 

This interpretive essay, which admires Louis D. Brandeis and despises 

Felix Frankfurter, is loaded with personal opinions, important in- 

sights, and speculations; in the long run, however, it may serve as a 

productive discussion of the theme. 

Burt's thesis is that Jewish"home1essness" was elevated to compas- 

sion by Brandeis and degraded into callosity by Frankfurter. The read- 

er may well benefit from the analyses of the judicial opinions of the 

two. Moreovel; the very search for an interaction between ethnicity 

and the judicial realm seems to me quite promising. But the author is 

too far from sustaining his thesis. 

The organizing principle of the book is Hannah Arendt's European- 

bent concept that minority Jews in majority cultures can only be either 

pariahs or parvenus (pp. 62 and passim). The pariah case, according 

to Burt, is Zionist Brandeis, who proudly made a virtue out of his 

outsideness. Frankfurteq conversely, was a parvenu and arriviste who 

aspired to be assimilated, and overidentified himself with establish- 

ment America. 

It is highly questionable, however, whether the United States-plu- 

ralistic as it is-lends itself to the "eitherlor" of Arendt's concept. 

Though ethnic pluralism emerged relatively late, religious and politi- 

cal pluralism have been deeply rooted and very influential in Ameri- 

can history. Undoubtedly, the United States of Brandeis and Frank- 

furter was pluralistic enough to offer to its minority members much 

more than the pariahlparvenu dichotomy. 

Though partly isolated by social anti-Semitism, Brandeis did have 

many American allies to cooperate with in his social battles. Also, 

personalities of New England's philo-Semitic tradition favorably in- 

terpreted the modern Jewish prophet's campaigns. In the rather con- 

ducive American circumstances, Brandeis was not a pariah, nor did he 

hold just one culture's set of values. 

Typically, under the American set of conditions, Brandeis's way to 

Zionism was not involved with the rejection of one allegiance for an-


other. In contrast to Burt's simplistic, deus ex machina explanation 

(pp. I 17-123)' Brandeis's change was a process along which he came 

to believe that conscious Jews and Zionists were especially tuned to 

ethical values shared by the American and Jewish civilizations. 

Brandeis himself adhered to the philosophy of cultural pluralism 

(evolved roughly during 1905-191 s), which meant that he adopted 

the American ethos and aspired to complement it by refining Ameri- 

can Judaism (and the cultures of other minorities as well). Indeed, 

Zionist Brandeis admired American civilization, and more particular- 

ly cherished, all his life, the old Puritan tradition. 

Frankfurter's course of life, too, was not one-dimensional. Burt 

does not bring evidence to bear that Frankfurter's Americanism came 

in lieu of his Judaism. Actually, the author does not directly discuss 

Frankfurter's experiences as an immigrant or as a resident of ethnic 

New York City's East Side. The relevant question to ask is whether 

these experiences were traumatic enough to cause Frankfurter to be 

ashamed of his Jewishness or to develop a self-hatred complex (phe- 

nomena that were certainly not rare among Central and Western Eu- 

ropean Jews). 

Burt depicts Frankfurter as a thoroughly self-denying Jew. But--in 

addition to the well-known Zionist and Jewish tasks he carried on in 

the late 1910s and the early 1920s-Felix Frankfurter visited Palestine 

several times, and assumed some important Zionist positions in the 

late 1930s. Although not an observing Jew, he retained a familiarity 

with Jewish lore, and toward the end of his life he felt himself drawn 

closer to his heritage. 

According to one of Burt's pariahlparvenu schemata, Brandeis is to 

be related to the prophet type and Frankfurter to be associated with 

the priest pattern. Thus, the great prophet Moses led his people out of 

Egypt and gave it the Ten Commandments. The defaced priest Aaron, 

on the other hand, built for the loose masses the non-Jewish calf of 

gold. In the same vein, claims Burt, the prophet-type Brandeis spoke in 

the name of Jewish ethics while Frankfurter ever aspired to appease 

the callous establishment. The trouble with this dogma, again, is that 

the United States has never been an "Egypt" for its Jews; and an exo- 

dus-physical or spiritual-has never been contemplated by Ameri- 

can Zionists. That is, "prophet Brandeis," when engaged in a political 

fight or on the bench, did not derive inspiration mainly from a Hebrew


revolt; nor did the moderate liberalism and the advocacy of the rule of 

law by "priest Frankfurter" necessarily originate in a slavish ethnic 

disposition. 

Again, this is not to say that the different social and judicial options 

of the two men were not related to their different ethnic backgrounds 

and dispositions. I doubt, however, whether the ArenddBurt formula 

is rich and flexible enough to fruitfully serve the theme. Also, the 

squeezing of the two personality constructs-the idolized Brandeis 

and the detested Frankfurter-into their respective pariahtprophetic 

and parvenutpriest slots is associated with more than a few minor and 

major errors. 

The deficiency of the ArendtBurt dichotomy regarding the Ameri- 

can condition is also evident in the societal fields. In rounding up the 

pariahtparvenu concept, Burt interprets Frankfurter's socializing hab- 

its mainly as a flattery designed to win over WASPish America (pp. 

37-40). By the same concept, Brandeis is described as leading a virtu- 

ally solitary existence (except for his friendship with Frankfurter) and 

proudly carrying the burden of his ethnic homelessness by himself (pp. 

9-18,40, 122-123). This dichotomous sketching minimizes Frank- 

furter's social help to Jews and dilutes his warm, outgoing personality. 

At the same time, depicting Brandeis as an ethnic, solitary figure dog- 

matically prunes away his devoted activity as an extended-family man 

and as a leader of a closely coordinated Zionist group. In variance to 

Burt's formula, Brandeis cultivated very friendly relations with pro- 

gressive Zionist emissaries from Palestine, and eventually two kibbut- 

zim were named after him and his intimate associate in Zionist affairs, 

Julian W. Mack. 

Unfortunately, then, a would-be productive interpretive direction 

has been largely blocked by a rather dogmatic approach. Further- 

more, the author doubly overstretches his adopted thesis when he 

claims that homelessness characterizes American life in general (pp. 

67 and passim). Obviously, this stand might drastically nullify the 

effort to apply Arendt's concept to any specific American ethnic 

group. All these shortcomings notwithstanding, the author's coura- 

geous discussion of the interaction of jurisprudence and ethnic back- 

ground is an intriguing contribution. 

-Allon Gal


Allon Gal is an associate professor in the Ben-Gurion Research Center 

and the Department of History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. 

He is the author of Socialist-Zionism: Theory and Issues in Contem- 

porary Jewish Nationalism (1973,1989), Brandeis of Boston (1980), 

David Ben-Gurion: Preparing for a Jewish State (in Hebrew, 1985), 

and David Ben-Gurion and the American Alignment for a Jewish 

State (forthcoming).

Judaica Latinoamericana: Estudios Historico-Sociales. Jerusalem: 

Editorial Universitaria Magnes, Universidad Hebrea, 19 8 8. 

Just as Latin American history can no longer be conceived without its 

Jewish dimension, so the history of the Jews must include its Latin 

American branch. Fortunately, the past decade has seen a flourishing 

of scholarship in Latin American Jewish studies, and more is being 

published each year. 

Three collections of scholarly essays on Latin American Jewry are 

now in print as the result of international research conferences organized 

by the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA). Resources 

for Latin American Jewish Studies grew out of the first such 

conference, which was held in October 1982 at the American Jewish 

Archives. Assembled for the benefit of newcomers to the field, Resources 

consists of five bibliographic essays that together provide access 

to the most important Latin American and Jewish library and 

archival collections in the United States.' 

The Jewish Presence in Latin America consists of edited proceedings 

of LAJSA's second research conference, held at the University of 

New Mexico in 1982.~ Its seventeen chapters represent the mature 

work of established scholars, many of them coming from Latin American 

studies and having had no previous involvement with Judaica. The 

collection provides a multifaceted view of the subject, ranging from 

immigration studies to analysis of Jewish educational systems, and 

from demographic trends to Merkx's insightful essay "Jewish Studies 

as a Subject of Latin American Studies." The fact that the book found 

a commercial publisher confirms the growing acceptability of Latin 

American Jewish studies, with a readership of its own. 

Now a group of Israeli scholars who work together under the name 

Amilat have brought out a book of essays based on presentations 

made in Jerusalem in 1984 at sessions of the Ninth World Congress of 

Jewish St~dies.~ This book, Judaica Latinoamericana: Estudios Hist6rico-Sociales, 

illustrates the distance Latin American Jewish studies 

has come in so short a period of time, and how far it has yet to go. 

Judaica Latinoamericana is preeminently a Jewish book, presenting


themes whose importance appears far greater from inside the commu- 

nity than from outside it. Most of its chapters concern small but heavi- 

ly researched topics, showing their origins in master's or doctoral 

theses. Not without importance, they are circumscribed in both intent 

and execution. Fourteen are in Spanish, five in English. 

Following a general introduction by Haim Avni, P. A. Alsberg de- 

scribes the Israel state archives as a source for research on Latin Amer- 

ican Jewry. Zvi Loker, a former Israeli consul in the Caribbean, and 

Giinter Bohm, historian of Chile and Peru, contribute essays on these 

areas during the colonial period. Five essays focus on immigration, 

among which two are of exceptional interest: that by Marta Ko- 

walska, who appears to be the first researcher to utilize Polish govern- 

ment and private archives for her study of the immigration of Polish 

Jews to Argentina; and that by David Bankier on the German exile 

community in Mexico during World War IL4 

The section on community organization focuses on "administri- 

via." Silvia Schenkolewski demonstrates scholarly maturity in draw- 

ing important conclusions from her research. In "Cambios en la rela- 

ci6n de la Organizaci6n Sionista Mundial hacia la comunidad judia y 

el movimiento sionista en la Argentina, hasta 1948" (a title that ade- 

quately reflects her prose style), Schenkolewski finds that for forty 

years the relationship of the World Zionist Organization to the Argen- 

tine Jewish community was based solely on the collection of funds for 

the Yishuv; that change occurred only when the disappearance of the 

European communities had left a vacuum; and that WZO finally turn- 

ed its attention to these lesser communities not so much because they 

were valued for themselves, but because it saw that they could be used 

to exert leverage on their governments in favor of Israel. That is stiff 

medicine coming from a scholar who has made her life in Israel. Un- 

fortunately, we look in vain for similar insights to emerge from other 

essays in this group. 

Alicia Backal provides an interesting historical footnote with her 

review of Mexican nationalist movements and their campaign against 

Jews and Chinese. Ignacio Klich contributes one of the most reward- 

ing essays, "A Background to Peron's Discovery of Jewish National 

Aspirations." Klich, a conscientious historian and trenchant observer 

of international politics, provides documentation and analysis that 

seem to require us to revise the traditional views of Peron, his relation-


ship to Jews and to Zionism, and the role of U.S. Ambassador Spruille 

Braden. Unfortunately, the essay is so poorly edited that some of its 

passages are not intelligible. 

In the literary section of the book, the ubiquitous Alberto Ger- 

chunoff makes yet another curtain call, while Nelson Vieira breaks 

new ground with his discussion of the absorption of Jewish symbols 

into modern Brazilian literature. These are followed by two essays on 

Jewish identity among Latin American immigrants to Israel and 

among Jewish medical students in Mexico, both of which are more 

suggestive than definitive. 

Taken as a whole, Judaica Latinoamericana presents some solid 

advances in our exploration of the Jewish archipelago. As with any 

book that grows from conference proceedings, the collection reflects 

an element of chance in the selection of authors who were able to 

attend the Jerusalem conference and who subsequently chose to sub- 

mit their articles for publication in this particular volume. The quality 

of the essays is uneven, but some are outstanding. This is a book every 

Jewish library should own-especially libraries that have Spanish-lan- 

guage readers. 

Judging by the procession of collected works over a period of seven 

years, Latin American Jewish studies is at a crossroad^.^ The days are 

past when easy gains were to be made by putting Jewish history up 

against Latin American history (and Jewish creative writers up against 

Latin American culture) and seeing where they meshed and where they 

clashed. The territory has been staked out, and now the researchers- 

the foot soldiers of history-are slogging over the terrain inch by inch, 

forcing secrets from the unforgiving soil of the past. What questions 

will they ask? What insights will they gain? Is it worth studying yet one 

more burial society, one more agricultural colony, one more parochial 

school? Or will new researchers have the vision to ask larger ques- 

tions, those that will elicit important responses from the past? 

-Judith Laikin Elkin 

Judith Laikin Elkin is a research scientist with the Frankel Center for 

Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan and founding president of 

the Latin American Jewish Studies Association. Her most recent book 

is Latin American Jewry: An Annotated Guide to the Literature 

(1990).

Book Reviews 

Notes 

I. Available from LAJSA, 2104 Georgetown Blvd., Ann Arbor MI 48105. 

2. Edited by Judith Laikin Elkin and Gilbert W. Merkx (Winchester, Mass.: Allen & Unwin 

[now Harper Collins], 1987). 

3. Most of the essays were published previously, in short form, as part of the Proceedings of the 

Ninth World Congress, Division B, vol. 3, The History of the Jewish People: Modern Times 

(Jerusalem, 1986). 

4. German exile studies (including its Jewish component) is just now coming into its own. See 

the recent Europaische Juden in Lateinamerika, ed. Achim Schrader and Karl Heinrich Rengstorf, 

published by the Westfalische Wilhelmsuniversitat Miinster and containing twenty-five 

essays on this subject. 

5. Proceedings of LAJSA's fourth research conference, held at the University of Florida in 

1985, were not published in a separate volume. Proceedings of the fifth, held in Buenos Aires in 

198~ under the auspices of AMIA-Comunidad Jud!a de Buenos Aires and the University of 

Buenos Aires, were published by Editorial Mila, Buenos Aires, 1989.

Gurock. Jeffrey S., Editor. Ramaz: School, Community, Scholarship 

and Orthodoxy. Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav, 1989. xiv, 203 pp. 

This book is first and foremost about a New York City day school, but 

it is also about an era in American Jewish life, 1937-1987. During 

these years the Jewish community in the United States established a 

modern educational system that would ensure its survival in unprece- 

dented conditions of freedom and opportunity. 

The name "Rarnaz" is taken from the first letters of the title and 

personal names of Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies (I 8 5 1-193 6). 

Rabbi Margolies, who was born in Lithuania, emigrated to the United 

States in I 88 I and after a period of rabbinic service in Boston assumed 

the position of rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York 

City (see pp. 9,19, photo facing p. I 12). After his death. the congrega- 

tion established the school that bears his name. 

The objectives of the educational institution whose fiftieth anniver- 

sary is commemorated with this volume are twofold: to provide "ex- 

cellence in general studies" (Nathalie Friedman [see below], p. 84) and 

"intensive grounding in Hebrew, Jewish history, biblical studies, and 

the intricacies of talmudic reasoning" (ibid.). Because the Ramaz ap- 

proach to education struck a responsive cord in the hearts of Ameri- 

can Jews of varied backgrounds, it has served as a model for many 

schools - Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and community (i.e., 

nondenominational). It has also stimulated a high level of commit- 

ment to Israel (Friedman, pp. 106-109). Consequently this book will 

be of interest to many people beyond the Ramaz "family." 

The essays in the volume deal with three topics: (I) the Ramaz 

School, (2) Orthodox Judaism in the United States, and (3) contempo- 

rary Jewish scholarship and history. 

In the opinion of the reviewers, the decision to include categories 

outside of Ramaz and its era, while introducing some interesting mate- 

rial, nevertheless constitutes a distraction. This is most evident in cate- 

gory (g), Jewish Studies, which contains articles on the Pharisees, the 

American reaction to the Holocaust, pluralism in Orthodox Judaism, 

and the Jews of Iraq. The articles are by and large unrelated to Ramaz


history or to each other and are in some cases disappointingly superfi- 

cial. 

The book has been well edited by Dr. Gurock (though it is marred 

now and then by typos). A section with twelve pages of photos gives 

the reader an idea of the variety of activities going on at the school as 

well as the physical setting within which the institution grew. The 

inclusion of an index to persons and words discussed would have been 

helpful to the reader researching specific items. 

Two significant articles, which represent over 40 percent of the text 

of the book, relate directly to Ramaz. They are Jeffrey S. Gurock's 

"The Ramaz Version of American Orthodoxy" and Nathalie Fried- 

man's "The Graduates of Ramaz: Fifty Years of Jewish Day School 

Education." Gurock examines the "distinct Ramaz version of Ameri- 

can Orthodoxy and Orthodox education" (see especially pp. xii and 

43-49), which, however, remained "a minority opinion within this 

country's Orthodox community" (p. 77). The latter did not necessari- 

ly subscribe to the "progressive" notions of a comprehensive Jewish 

and secular education (i.e., one emphasizing more than Talmud and 

Codes). 

Friedman, the daughter of Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, the school's 

founder and first principal, sets herself a threefold task, organized as 

follows: (I) Looking back: evaluations of the Ramaz experience by 

former students; (2) Ramaz graduates today: the demographics; (3) 

Ramaz graduates today: Jewish identity (p. 85). 

The accent at the school was upon bicultural education (p. 84). 

According to Friedman, "the data suggest that these objectives [i.e., to 

'achieve success in their professions . . . and in business, and be . . . 

good Jews . . . (and) good and loyal Americans'] have largely been 

realized" (p. 120). Ramaz graduates, participating fully in the life of 

America, continue to show close affiliation and involvement with 

Jewish institutions and thought; they have overwhelmingly provided a 

day school education for their children. 

Two essays deal with the growth of Orthodox Judaism in the United 

States: Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff, "The Semi-centennial Celebrations 

of Yeshiva and Yeshiva College," which describes the origins and evo- 

lution of Yeshiva University, culminating in the celebration of fifty 

years of growth in 1936; and Jenna Weissman Joselit, "Of Manners, 

Morals and Orthodox Judaism: Decorum Within the Orthodox Syna-


gogue," which portrays "the 'aestheticizing' of the synagogue service" 

(p. 21), with special reference to Kehilath Jeshurun (see Gurock, p. 

41). 

There are four articles in contemporary Jewish scholarship and his- 

tory. Albert I. Baumgarten, "American Jewish Scholarship on the 

Pharisees," attempts to demonstrate how the affiliations of modern 

writers can color their arguments on topics having emotional under- 

tones. This is an interesting study, but the reviewers feel uncomforta- 

ble with the classical ad hominem argumentation. Rabbi Haskel 

Lookstein, principal of Ramaz School, and son of its founder, observes 

in his "The Public Response of American Jews to the Liberation of 

European Jewry, January-May 1945," that during the first half of 

1945, "The Jewish newspapers and magazines . . . devoted their col- 

umns largely to the war and its conclusion, to Jewish organizational 

issues, to local events and to general American interests" (pp. I 52 f.), 

In other words, American Jews conducted "business as usual" despite 

the dreadful events that were occurring in Europe. Michael Beren- 

baum's "The Problem of Pluralism in Contemporary Orthodoxy: Pol- 

itics, Power, Persuasiveness and Philosophy" is an exploration of "ci- 

vility. . . in American religious life" (p. 162) and the Orthodox "syn- 

thesis between modernity and tradition" (p. 175). Reeva S. Simon, 

"The Impact of the Public Education Law of 1940 on Iraqi Jews," 

presents an essay that is useful in understanding the roots of impas- 

sioned Arab nationalism in Iraq half a century ago, thus indirectly 

helping us appreciate the challenges to the United States today in the 

Persian Gulf. 

The final essay in the collection, "The Goals of Jewish Education," 

is by the late Joseph H. Lookstein, the founder of the Ramaz School. 

This essay (reprinted from Tradition 3 [1960]) brings us back to the 

themes of the earlier part of the volume. It reflects the philosophy of an 

educator whose ideas had a profound influence upon the thinking of 

many young people in America and Israel during this century. 

At a time when pressures from those less tolerant are not wanting 

(e.g., see Gurock, "The Ramaz Version of American Orthodoxy," esp. 

pp. 72 and 76), it is encouraging to read the words of one alumnus, 

epitomizing the school's heritage:


What Ramaz teaches . . . leads to an independence of thought in religious 

matters. I certainly felt encouraged to reach my own decisions in particular 

areas of belief and observance, rather than to accept the authority of denomina- 

tions or movements. This to me is Ramaz' strongest legacy. (p. 96) 

A common theme runs through many of the essays in this book, 

reflecting the life of the Jew in America. It is the theme of harmony: 

harmony between the features of an ancient faith and the routines of 

life in a modern democratic state; and harmony between diverse 

branches of Judaism and different communities. This book will be of 

interest to those who wish to learn more about this theme and about 

the role of day school education in the life of the American Jew. 

-0phra and David Weisberg 

Ophra Weisberg, Ramaz '56, is a first grade teacher in the Jewish 

Studies Program at Yavneh Day School, Cincinnati, Ohio. She taught 

at Ramaz from 1960 to 1962. Her husband, David, Ramaz '56, is a 

professor of Bible and Semitic languages at Hebrew Union College- 

Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati.

A printer's error in the SpringISummer 1991 issue of this journal rendered the 

following review nearly unintelligible. We are reprinting it with apologies to the 

author and our readers. 

Cardin, Nina Beth, and Silverman, David Wolf, Edited by. The Semi- 

nary at 100. New York: Rabbinical Assembly and Jewish Theological 

Seminary, 1987. xviii, 475 pp. 

It is no easy thing to occupy the center of the American Jewish 

religious spectrum. In its efforts to blend a dedication to halakhic 

observance with a full acceptance of conremporary culture, the Con- 

servative movement continually faces the question of the proper pro- 

portions of each. Factions tug to left and right; some constituencies 

argue for stronger adherence to tradition, while others, in the name of 

modernity, ethics, and equity, demand fundamental changes that may 

be incompatible with tradition. 

In the midst of these tensions lies the Jewish Theological Seminary 

of America, the dominant institution of Conservative Judaism, which 

has played a critical role in shaping the movement's particular ap- 

proach to religion. It is fitting, then, that on the occasion of the cen- 

tenary of JTSA the editors of this volume present a collection of essays 

which offer perspectives on both seminary and movement. The book, 

an anthology of evaluations of the present and future state of Conser- 

vative Judaism by thinkers from both within and without its ranks, 

examines the movement's successes and failures in reaching the de- 

sired balance between tradition and change. It thus reflects all the 

theological ambiguities, tensions, and disagreements of a group in the 

middle. It is an honest-at times painfully so-and consistently inter- 

esting portrait of what is arguably the most "American" expression of 

American Judaism. 

Tensions, along with new ideas and strategies engendered by them, 

emerge clearly in the book's first section, whose essays discuss the role 

of JTSA in Conservative Judaism. Elliot Dorff, for example, discusses 

with great clarity the problem of rabbinic education in America: how 

can the seminary overcome the dissonance between a religious tradi- 

tion that demands observance and an environment, of which its stu- 

dents are the product, that prizes freedom and autonomy? He de-


scribes as well some of the mechanisms adopted by the seminary to 

address the difficulty. Rela Geffen Monson criticizes the politics of the 

"clerical elitism" that characterizes the control exerted by the semi- 

nary over the movement. She offers a model for a more positive rela- 

tionship between JTSA and Conservative congregations, one which 

she thinks might bridge the widening gap between a remote seminary 

and a powerless laity. 

In the second section, seminary faculty confront the tension be- 

tween the institution's commitment to the academic study of Judaism 

and the desire of its students for religious meaning: does Wissenschaft 

obscure the vision of the Kadosh Barukh Hu? Ivan Marcus offers an 

incisive look at how an historian can explore with students both the 

academic and the religious significance of texts and events without 

artificially synthesizing the two distinct disciplines. 

The final section concentrates upon the Conservative movement 

and its prospects. Particularly interesting is Elliot Gertel's piece on the 

tenuous sense of Conservative Jewish identity among the laity; he 

finds that the movement has produced an entire generation which 

feels no loyalty to "synagogue, Seminary or United Synagogue." He 

calls upon JTSA to take the lead in teaching Conservative Judaism to 

Conservative Jews, providing them with a clear vision of the ideology 

and principles for which their movement stands. 

Other tensions, religious and theological rather than intellectual 

and sociological, exist as well. What, for example, will be the ultimate 

impact of feminist ideology upon the movement's insistence upon ha- 

lakhah as the guide to authoritative practice? It may not be enough, 

says Leonard Gordon, to remove halakhic impediments to women's 

participation in ritual. Rather, we must expect the inclusion of women 

to have significant and far-reaching effects on the very process of ha- 

lakhic decision. If so, how does this square with the traditional view 

championed by Joel Roth, which holds that decisions must be ren- 

dered according to the immanent criteria of the halakhic system and 

not simply out of a desire to accommodate Jewish law to new histori- 

cal reality? Conservative Judaism regards the congregational rabbi as 

. . 

mara de'atra, the final arbiter of halakhah within the local communi- 

ty. Paula Hyman, however, wonders "whether the Conservative house 

can survive . . . embracing both egalitarian and non-egalitarian posi- 

tions" on women's participation, and suggests that the movement


cannot simultaneously, in the name of local rabbinic autonomy, af- 

firm both without sacrificing its integrity. Ronald Price, meanwhile, 

urges that the movement must not abandon its historical pluralism, 

the ability of groups which hold contradictory religious positions to 

coexist within the Conservative structure. 

All of these authors address the same issue: when it comes to "new 

reality," how do we balance tradition with change? One senses that on 

this issue, a dialogue format would have been preferable to self-con- 

tained essays. It would also have been helpful had the editors included 

an essay by one of the movement's "left-wingn halakhists with a dif- 

fering view of the rabbinic legal process in Conservative Judaism. 

These minor criticisms do not detract from the book's indisputable 

value. The authors deserve our thanks. On this significant anniversa- 

ry, they might have produced a puff-piece history lauding the semi- 

nary's many achievements. Instead, they have given us a work of sub- 

stance. This book is an indispensable guide to today's Conservative 

Judaism, an excellent teaching tool for acquiring an understanding of 

the events and issues which occupy the rabbis, scholars, and laity who 

stand at the center of the American Jewish religious spectrum. 

-Mark E. Washofsky 

Mark E. Washofsky is assistant professor of rabbinics at the Hebrew 

Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. He has 

published numerous articles in the area of Jewish law.

Letters to the Editor 

To the editor: 

I refer to Mark Bauman's article "East European Jews in Atlanta" in 

your FalltWinter 1990 issue, in particular his piece on "A Parallel 

Case in Minneapolis." 

Anyone who purports to be an associate professor of history should 

be able to research his subject sufficiently to enable him to distinguish 

between fact and fiction. His statement "Heiman, like Epstein, guided 

his congregants into the Conservative fold" is pure fiction. 

My father, Rabbi Hirsch Heiman zrrtl, indeed was a colleague and 

close friend of Harry Epstein, but only until Epstein joined the Conser- 

vative movement, after which they drifted far apart. 

Rabbi Heiman instilled in his congregants and students a deep love 

and appreciation for traditional Orthodox Judaism throughout his 

sixteen years as rabbi of Knesset Israel. On the contrary, after one 

hundred and two years, the congregation, the rabbi, and its many 

members have continued to be a strong and growing Orthodox influ- 

ence in the midwestern United States. 

My father passed away in Jerusalem last year, a devout, pious, learn- 

ed Orthodox rabbi who never identified with the ideologies of Con- 

servative or Reform "Judaism" and certainly never guided anyone 

into Conservative fold. 

Sholom A. Heiman 

Jerusalem, Israel 


I have been a member of Kenesset Israel Congregation since I came 

from Poland in 1921. I was very familiar and very close to Rabbi 

Heiman z"t1. At no time did my rabbi do anything that could be con- 

sidered an attempt to move his congregation toward what is common- 

ly called "Conservative Judaism." He believed in the immutability of 

the Torah and conducted his life strictly in accordance with the Shul- 

chan Aruch. To mention that he guided his congregants into the Con- 

servative fold is a gross untruth and a stain on the character of this 

distinguished talmid chocham. 

Reverend S. H. Roberts, Mohel 

Minneapolis, Minn.


Mark R. Bauman replies: 

Mr. Sholom A. Heiman, son of Rabbi Hirsch Heiman, and Rev. S. 

H. Roberts of Minneapolis' Kenesseth Israel Congregation have kindly 

informed me of an error in my article, "Rabbi Harry H. Epstein and 

the Adaptation of Second-Generation East European Jews in Atlanta," 

which appeared in the FallIWinter 1990 issue of American Jewish 

Archives. On p. 142, I incorrectly indicated that Rabbi Hirsch Heiman 

"guided his congregants into the Conservative fold." Apparently he 

remained Orthodox, as did his congregation. 

This information, along with a reading of Jenna W. Joselit's outstanding 

New York's Jewish Jews (~ggo), has caused me to alter my 

interpretation somewhat. In my larger biography of Epstein, the case 

of Rabbi Abraham Mesch of Birmingham will be used to illustrate a 

better parallel, as Mesch's congregation did proceed from Orthodoxy 

to Conservative affiliation. This transformation, however, was clearly 

not inevitable, nor was the only alternative total assimilation. While 

further study will be necessary to determine the impact of continued 

Orthodoxy on such factors as congregational membership and second-generation 

participation in congregations exemplified by Kenesseth 

Israel, clearly historians will have to consider a very wide spectrum 

of traditional options and responses. A major question to be 

addressed will be why some congregations moved from Modern Orthodox 

to Conservative and others did not. The field being explored 

by Joselit, Jeffrey S. Gurock, Aaron Rothkoff, Marc Lee Raphael, and 

others is rich indeed. 


For reasons that escape me, I somehow failed to read the 1990 Falll 

Winter issue of the American Jewish Archives, and thus I missed--or 

was spared!-the article by Shlomo Shafir concerning Dr. Abraham 

Cronbach, my father-in-law. 

I was recently sent a copy of the article, and I wish now to make a 

response. At first I was tempted to let the matter pass unremarked. Of 

making many articles there is no end. And besides, I never could get 

the hang of dealing with all those footnotes that article writers so 

adore.

Letters to the Editor 27 5 

But something that dad taught me kept pressuring me to respond. 

Concerning the time he had stood up at a public gathering to disagree 

with the speaker, he explained to me, "I had to say something lest my 

silence indicate acceptance." 

I read the Shafir article several times and one question that kept 

whispering to me, one itch I could not scratch, was why the article had 

been written in the first place. 

There was nothing new in what was written. There were no hidden 

facts to be exposed. No added knowledge to be offered. In essence the 

article described, in what several people have called "a mean-spirited 

way," the well-known pacifism of Abraham Cronbach, and his for- 

lorn hope that following the war the Jewish community might not be 

among those clamoring for retaliation. 

We may not agree with his position. Practically nobody did. But so 

what? 

The article points out that Cronbach was practically a minority of 

one. 

What a surprise! 

Being a minority of one was practically a way of life for Cronbach. 

He was, we all agree, suigeneris, and being a minority of one is part of 

the package. 

So why the article? As I read it and reread it, I must confess it seemed 

to have been written not for scholarship, nor enhanced knowledge, 

nor even to show that Cronbach had no allies in his action. However 

unworthy, however unjustified, it seemed to have been written simply 

to criticize and ridicule. 

I have since been told, by Abraham Peck, Administrative Director of 

the Archives, that such was not the ease; that the author "in no way set 

out to vilify Dr. Cronbach's name or reputation." 

I am grateful. 

The article was written, I am told, "to show a certain mentalite'of 

American Jewry, one that was unable to understand the depth and 

tragedy of the Shoah." 

Which raises two more questions. First, why would Cronbach be 

selected as example or exemplar of American Jewry when he was so 

totally alone in his beliefs? 

Second, are we to assume that Cronbach was unable to understand 

what was happening in Germany? Cronbach was as much aware, and


as much unaware, as was the rest of Jewish leadership. 

There has never been a day when something of Cronbach does not 

spring to mind. That goes back to the first day I met him in 1942, and 

it has continued every day of my life. And the picture I have, I dare say, 

is more accurate than that which was portrayed in the 1990 Fall1 

Winter Issue of the American Jewish Archives. 

For example, the American Council for Judaism. When I pressed 

him on the reasons for his membership he admitted that when he 

joined he had assumed not that it was anti-Zionist, but that it favored 

a Judaism with an absence or minimum of rituals. It was only later 

that he learned that it was both anti-Zionist, and that it had rituals all 

its own. But when I urged him therefore, to resign, he said, "Your side 

[I being a Zionist] has all the brains, the abilities, the skills. You surely 

don't need me." 

For example, his attitude toward the Nazis. The article gives the 

impression that he was somehow soft on Nazis or Nazism, or that he 

was afraid to speak out against them. What absolute nonsense! 

(I had originally written "malevolent nonsense," but based upon 

Dr. Peck's assurances I have-cautiously and warily-eliminated 

"malevolent.") 

I wonder if the author knew, or cared to know, what happened 

when the word came out that Jews were being forced to wear the 

yellow badge. While most of our leaders wrung their hands, he simply 

asked his wife to make him a yellow badge. Which she did. And sewed 

it on the jacket of his suit. And every day Dr. Cronbach would walk 

from his Cincinnati home in Avondale to the Hebrew Union College in 

Clifton wearing his yellow badge. His reason? 

"We cannot stop the Nazis from forcing our people in Germany to 

wear the badge. But if men and women of good will throughout the 

world would wear it, it would become a mark of honor." 

Yellow badge! The story of the King of Denmark and the yellow 

badge is a myth. With dad it was a reality. 

Yellow badge! I sat in dad's study one night, with Cronbach and Leo 

Baeck. Dad brought out his yellow badge to show it to Baeck, who 

took it in his hands, examined it carefully, and finally said, 

"Dr. Cronbach, I have heard about your yellow badge, and it is very 

fine. It is not, however, quite accurate. Therefore, I have brought you 

mine."

Letters to the Editor 277 

And I sat there as these two saintly human beings wordlessly ex- 

changed their yellow badges. 

For example, in the matter of war and peace. I can remember what 

happened on V-J day when Rabbi Victor Reichert called dad on the 

phone. He said, 

"Dr. Cronbach, this day really belongs to you. Would you come to 

the Victory Service at the Rockdale Avenue Temple, and be our speak- 

er?" 

Dad said, 

"Thank you, but no. Not now. Not yet. There is still too much 

rejoicing over the victory. But ask me again in five years, after the 

passions have died down, and I will gladly address your congregation. 

I will even tell you now what I shall say then. I shall tell them the 

Midrash of the Red Sea, when God admonished the angels for rejoic- 

ing, saying, 'How dare you rejoice when My children, the Egyptians, 

are drowning in the sea!' 

"I shall say to your congregation, 'How dare we rejoice when God's 

children, the Japanese, are dying in Hiroshima and Nagasaki!' " 

For example, his impact upon his students. The two-dimensional 

picture of Cronbach in the Archives article is cartoonlike, with the 

author's conclusion coming like a balloon at the end of the comic 

strip: 

"He did not convince the 'young and innocent mind' of his stu- 

dents." 

There has likely never been a professor at the College who has had a 

greater impact upon the lives of so very many of his students, many of 

whom, I would assume, were as disturbed as I, by the article in the 

Archives. 

Or maybe not. No matter. 

How did Edwin Arlington Robinson put it? 

May they who shrink to find him weak 

Remember that he cannot speak. 

I gathered that the goal of the article was somehow to do damage to 

Cronbach's reputation. But that is all right, too. It was, I believe, Va- 

chel Lindsay who wrote of Governor Altgeld, 

To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name.


I have since been informed that this was not the goal of the article, 

and the assurances of Abraham Peck are greatly appreciated. Unfortu- 

nately, they are not persuasive. More persuasive are the words of the 

article itself that implied that Dr. Cronbach's words and deeds were 

either dangerously foolish, or foolishly dangerous. 

Generations of rabbis, and generations of kids, and generations of 

people in between, have had their lives touched, moved, and changed 

by Dr. Cronbach. Not by what he said, and not by what he did, but by 

what he was. That may not sound dangerous, but apparently to some 

it was. And is. 

Dangerous or not, I have always recognized that there was some- 

thing unnerving about Abraham Cronbach. And I know full well what 

it was. 

What was scary about Cronbach was that he took some of the no- 

blest values of Judaism, and he not only preached them, which would 

have been bad enough. He practiced them. 

Even worse, he lived them! 

And elicited, thereby, more than one highly critical reaction, re- 

sponse, or evaluation. 

Or article. 

Rabbi Maurice Davis 

Narragansett, Rhode Island 

Shlomo Shafir replies: 

During my continuing research for a monograph on American Jew- 

ish attitudes toward postwar Germany at a great many archives in the 

United States, Israel, and the Federal Republic, I saw a number of 

letters both at the American Jewish Archives and the American Jewish 

Historical Society Archives in Waltham, Massachusetts, from which I 

learned about the unusual viewpoint of Rabbi Dr. Abraham Cron- 

bach, a distinguished HUC teacher, who at the end of World War I1 

advocated clemency for the Nazi criminals, the slayers and tormentors 

of the Jewish people in Europe. 

I know very well that Rabbi Cronbach was more or less a minority 

of one in favoring forgiveness and clemency, and that his attitude was 

not at all characteristic of the American Jewish community, although

Letters to the Editor 279 

on such issues as Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s 

initial recommendations for summary execution of major Nazi crimi- 

nals or the so-called "pastoralization" of a divided Germany, major 

differences of opinion emerged among organizations and influential 

individuals. But I never thought that Cronbach's position being an 

exception to the rule in matters of clemency for the Nazis should pre- 

vent me from describing his attitude and from publishing the rather 

interesting exchange of letters between him and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise 

and Henry Monsky as well as between him and Rabbi Eugene Lip- 

man, then a young army chaplain and a former student of his. In 

another historical situation Lipman became an outspoken opponent 

of the American involvement in Vietnam, which he and many others 

regarded as unjust. 

My quotations from Rabbi Cronbach's letters never implied that he 

was soft on Nazis or Nazism, or that "he was afraid to speak out 

against them," as Rabbi Maurice Davis falsely alluded. For someone 

like myself, who wore the yellow badge from July 194 I in the ghetto of 

Kaunas (Kovno), it was interesting to learn from Rabbi Davis's com- 

ment about his father-in-law wearing such a badge demonstratively in 

the streets of Cincinnati. 

I fully understand that he opposed punishing the Nazi criminals 

because of high moral principles and his regard for universal human 

rights. But I am still convinced that he was totally wrong and that the 

punishment of at least a part of the major criminals contributed to a 

positive political development in postwar West Germany. As a survi- 

vor of Dachau concentration camp, where I was liberated on April 29, 

1945, by the U.S. Army, I of course never had the slightest doubt that 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made the right decision in engag- 

ing the United States in war against Adolf Hitler, the greatest enemy of 

Jews and of all humanity. By the way, I myself belong to the supporters 

of correct and reasonable relations with the now united Federal Re- 

public of Germany and its people, but without forgetting Nazi crimes 

or forgiving them. 

As for the American Council for Judaism, Rabbi Davis's story 

about Dr. Cronbach's refusing to leave it because the Zionists had "all 

the brains" and did not need him will hardly convince anyone. I do not 

have to elaborate here on the role that the ACJ played in the forties in 

joining forces with all the hostile elements in the American govern-


ment and establishment in order to prevent the creation of a Jewish 

state. 

Moreover, whereas Rabbi Cronbach was a minority of one with 

regard to his plea for clemency for the Nazi criminals in 1945, as a 

lifelong steadfast pacifist and antinational universalist he reflected the 

views of a larger crowd, and despite changing circumstances the same 

tradition still has supporters among American Jewry and also other 

Jewish communities. Both as a Jew and an Israeli, I do not believe that 

kind of pacifism and universalism, with all its high moral values, is 

conducive to Jewish survival in our generation and probably also not 

in future ones.

The American Jewish Archives is pleased to announce the publica- 

tion of The Changing Concept of "Mission" in American Reform Ju- 

daism by Professor Allon Gal of the Ben-Gurion University of the 

Negev, Israel. The publication is number X in our "Brochure Series of 

the American Jewish Archives." 

Professor Gal's work examines the concept of mission, which has 

been a conspicuous characteristic of the American Reform move- 

ment's religious ideology for well over a century. Gal tries to answer 

two basic questions: How persistent has the mission idea been? What 

changes has it undergone? 

The publication is available from the American Jewish Archives, 

3 IOI Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 4 5 220 for $5.00 and $I .oo for 

shipping and handling.


Bletter, Diana, Interviews, and Lori Ginker, Photographs. The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of 

American Jewish Women. Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1989. 224 pp. 

For Jewish men, the sight of a Jewish woman reading from the Torah or holding the holiest 

of Jewish objects evokes little if any response. This is true in the Reconstructionist, Reform, 

and, to a lesser degree, Conservative movements. 

But that was not always the case, and few men concern themselves with the hurt and 

frustration of generations of Jewish women who suffered the indignities of a male-crafted 

and male-controlled religion. 

It took Jewish women to articulate their feelings and struggle for their rights as Jews. 

And yet, Jewish men still do not as a rule listen. What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in 

America? 

This beautiful volume of statements and photographs introduces an incredible variety of 

Jewish women in America and gives voice to a wide-ranging and wonderful group of interpre- 

tations on the female Jewish experience. 

Women who read this volume will perhaps find someone like themselves in it. Men who 

read this volume will experience the wonder of knowing that Judaism is a many-layered and 

leveled religious experience, and that there are layers and levels into whose domain Jewish 

men may not venture. 

Susannah Heschel, the daughter of Abraham Joshua Heschel and one of the women fea- 

tured in this book, is very direct in espousing such a point of view: "1 can see things that a man 

can't because I'm included and excluded at the same time. Having been born a woman gives 

me insight, and an understanding of Judaism that no one has." 

Jewish men may find such directness intimidating but they cannot ignore it. 

Elkin, Judith Laikin and Ana Lya Sater, Compiled by. Latin American Jewish Studies: An Anno- 

tated Guide to the Literature. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press, 1990. xxiv, 239 pp. 

In a little more than a decade, the Latin American Jewish Studies Association, founded at 

the American Jewish Archives, has become the major clearing house and scholars network on 

the Latin American Jewish experience. 

This was not always the case. Professor Judith Elkin, the driving force behind the LAJSA 

during the years of its existence, found great obstacles in her quest to do a scholarly disserta- 

tion on the subject. Fortunately, she was not deterred and her research led to the publication 

of Jews of the Latin American Republics, still the best overview in print. 

Now Elkin along with Ana Lya Sater, a serials librarian specializing in Latin America, have 

produced the essential guide to the most important scholarship in the field as well as to the 

important Latin American Jewish serial publications found in American libraries. 

There are nearly 800 annotated entries in the section on monographs, articles and disserta- 

tions and over zoo publications published in over a dozen Latin American nations. 

We are grateful for Judith Laikin Elkin's persistence and to Ana Lya Sater's research skills. 

Together they have created one of the essential scholarly tools of an established discipline.


Singer, David, Edited by. American Jewish Yearbook (Volume 91). New York and Philadelphia: 

American Jewish Committee and Jewish Publication Society, 1991. xi, 636 pp. 

The 1991 edition of the American Jewish Yearbook is devoted to three important themes in 

the American Jewish experience. Arnold Eisen discusses "Jewish Theology in North Ameri- 

ca: Notes on Two Decades"; Sylvia Barack Fishman writes on "American Jewish Fiction 

Turns Inward, 1960-1990"; and Ruth R. Seldin describes "American Jewish Museums: 

Trends and Issues." There are also very moving obituaries on the great historian Salo W. 

Baron by Lloyd P. Gartner and on John Slawson, the long-time executive vice-president of the 

American Jewish Committee, by Murray Friedman. 

Cohen, David, Edited by. The Jews in America. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1989.223 pp. 

We have had a number of books over the past five or six years which chronicled a day in the 

life of a nation. America has been featured, as have the Soviet Union and the People's Repub- 

lic of China. 

Now a new "day in the lifen volume has appeared, photographed by the same team which 

did America and China and published by the same house that published the other volumes. 

But this book is not about a country of 500 million, or 300 million or even omi ill ion. It is a 

book about a group of individuals who number less than six million and live within a nation 

of varying ethinic and religious groups. 

Why the Jews and not the Irish or the Italians or the African-Americans? Perhaps the 

answer lies in the fact that of all the ethnic groups in this nation only the Jews claim to be a 

religion and a people, so in a sense qualifying for nationhood. 

Or perhaps it is because the image of the Jew in America is one of wealth and success, a 

group that will be able to afford the nearly $50 cost of this volume. 

Whatever the reason, this is a beautifully done book that shows the generally healthy face 

of a small but diverse community at the end of the twentieth century. It is one day in the life of 

American Jewry but there have been many days in that life, and they, too, need to be a part of 

the historical record. 

Dicker, Herman, Edited and Annotated by. The Mayer Sulzberger, Alexander Marx Correspond- 

ence, 1904-1923. New York: Sepher-Hermon Press, 1990. ix, 206 pp. 

The library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America is universally regarded as one 

of the few "world-class" Judaica libraries in existence. 

Yet such an exalted position was not always a part of the library's history. Perhaps it did 

not start out quite as small as the library of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, whose 

books in the early years of its existence were kept in a shoe box, not to guard against theft but 

against mice. 

But it was not until Professor Alexander Marx, a student of the legendary bibliographer 

Moritz Steinschneider, arrived at the Seminary to become professor of history and librarian 

that the library began its climb toward world-class status. 

It was fortunate for Marx that he made the acquaintance of Judge Mayer Sulzberger of 

Philadelphia, one of American Jewry's great leaders of the early twentieth century and an 

architect of the modern Seminary. Judge Sulzberger, too, was a bibliophile and a collector of 

rare books and manuscripts. Together both men shaped an institution that would reflect their 

own genius. 

The nearly three hundred letters of extant correspondence between the two men reflect a 

world of books and book collections that tell us much about the creation of a great American 

Jewish landmark.


Gordis, David M. and Yoav Ben-Horin, Edited by. Jewish Identity in America. Los Angeles: 

University of Judaism, 1991. xv, 296 pp. 

In 1989, the Susan and David Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies, which is housed at 

the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, decided to test the waters of American Jewish 

identity. They assembled the "best and the brightest" of those social scientists who study 

American Jewish life and asked them to assess the state of that identity. 

Such an assessment was necessary, especially in light of Professor Seymour Martin Lipset's 

observation that "as we approach the beginning of the twenty-first century of the common 

era the Jewish community in the United States is probably the least committed, the least 

involved, it has ever been in Jewish religious belief, practice, and ritual." 

Attempting to understand why this should be so and what the future of the community will 

be was the task of such notable scholars as Bruce Phillips, Steven M. Cohen, Henry Feingold, 

Jonathan Sarna, David Ellenson, Harold Schulweis, Alan L. Berger, Deborah E. Lipstadt, and 

Marshall Sklare. 

Karp, Abraham J. From the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress, 

Washington,D.C.: Library of Congress,1991. xxiv, 376 pp. 

For the better part of this century, the Library of Congress has been one of the great world 

repositories of Judaica. 

In 1986, the American Jewish Archives published the first comprehensive guide to Jewish 

manuscripts in the Library (Gary J. Kohn, compiler. The Jewish Experience: A Guide to 

Manuscript Sources in the Library of Congress). 

Now, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Hebraic 

collections of the Library of Congress, that august institution has mounted a major exhibit of 

its holdings and published this beautiful catalogue to accompany it. 

The Library was indeed fortunate to acquire the services of Abraham J. Karp, one of the 

most important historians of the American Jewish experience and himself an internationally- 

recognized collector of American Judaica. 

In the narrative which accompanies the beautiful illustrations from the Library's Judaica 

collection, Professor Karp has written a truly masterful and wide-ranging essay which pro- 

vides ample evidence of his erudition and his gifted narrative style. 

Koenig, Samuel. An American Jewish Community, j o Years, 1889-1939: The Sociology of the 

Jewish Community in Stamford, Connecticut. Stamford: Stamford Jewish Historical Society, 

1991. xxv, 17s PP. 

Over 50 years since it was completed, this study of a small New England Jewish community 

during the Depression years has finally been published. 

Samuel Koenig was for many years a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College. But for a 

number of years before that he had directed sociology studies for the Connecticut Federal 

Writers Project, one of the many outstanding projects formed as part of Franklin Delano 

Roosevelt's Works Projects Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency created to help Amer- 

ica's great Depression-era unemployment. 

Much gratitude must be given to the Stamford Jewish Historical Society for its persistence 

in seeing Professor Koenig's manuscript through to publication. Although,of course, histori- 

ans of today might ask some different questions and interpret their data differently, Koenig's 

work does represent one of the earliest efforts to chronicle the history of an American Jewish 

community at a time when both America and American Jewry were very different.


Perlman, Robert. Bridging Three Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish Americans, 1848-1914. Amherst, 

Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1991. 302 pp. 

This is not a book for those who tend to divide the American Jewish community of the late 

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries into "German" and "East European" Jews. 

Indeed, an important part of Robert Perlman's book is devoted to proving categorically 

that the "invisible" Jews of Hungary, 100,ooo of whom emigrated to the United States in the 

years after the failed revolutions of 1848 until the eve of the First World War, never fit neatly 

into either category. 

Indeed, what Robert Perlman forces us to realize is that this categorization of the "Bayer" 

and the "Polack" (in the memorable description of Rudolf Glanz) was just as erroneous as 

trying to describe a single entity known as Hungarian Jewry. 

When one compounds this with the fact that Perlman suggests at least three co-equal 

identities for these immigrants, well then, one is not certain anymore whether this is not also a 

book on statistics. 

Yet, quite seriously, this is an important book, even though it deals with a minor group in 

the larger scheme of East European Jewish immigration to America. Perlman makes a strong 

case for the necessity of carefully understanding the world of pre-1900 East Central Europe 

before attempting to assess the kinds of cultural baggage brought over by the various Jewish 

immigrant communities and especially their relationship to the host countries from which 

they came. This must be understood in its linguistic, regional and religious senses. 

Fortunately, Perlman does not dispute the final aspect of the Hungarian-Jewish journey to 

and in America: Hungarian Jews are today American Jews and co-exist easily in both worlds 

despite the inherent tensions that are a part of even this identity. 

Urofsky, Melvin I. and David W. Levy, Edited by. "Half Brother, Half Son": The Letters of Louis 

D. Brandeis to Felix Frankfurter. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. 659 pp. 

If such a thing as "the Jewish seat" on the Supreme Court ever existed, it was due in great 

part to theextraordinary talent and achievements of Louis D. Brandeis and Felix Frankfurter. 

Indeed, the power wielded by both men in their respective periods on the Supreme Court 

belies the continuing argument about the total "powerlessness" of the American Jewish 

community in the years before 1939. 

The two editors, who also previously published five volumes of the letters of Brandeis, 

claim that because of these letters "it should now be possible for historians to trace back to 

these two men a host of congressional and judicial initiatives, political appointments in all 

branches of the federal government, developments in Zionist politics and Palestine policy, the 

hiring of particular personnel by leading American law schools, and even some specific laws 

and social programs." 

If one adds to this the lingering controversy over a 1982 book (The BrandeislFrankfurter 

Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices by Bruce Allen 

Murphy) which concluded that the extrajudicial activities of both men were at best unethical, 

then the 671 letters written by Brandeis to Frankfurter in the years 1910 to 1941 are a 

welcome and important addition to the scholarly sources available for our understanding of 

these two legal giants of American Jewish life and history.

"AACI-Transformer for Current Changes 

in Israeli Life" (convention report), 

49 

Abba Hillel Silver: A Profile in American 

Judaism (Raphael), reviewed, 

235-243 

Abraham, Henry, 3 5 

Adapting to Abundance: Jewish 

Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and 

the Search for American ldentity 

(Heinze), reviewed, 245-249 

Agricultural colonies, 104 

in Mexico, 15-18 

Agudath Israel of America, 106 

Ahad Ha-Am (Asher Ginsburg), 97-98, 219 

Alabama, 26 

Albright, William E, 60 

Alcohol Information Committee, 168 

Aliyah, to Israel, 48 

See also Immigration, to Israel 

Allen, Jose, 14 

Alpert, Jordan S., 105 

Alpert family (Bangor, Maine), 105 

"The Alperts and Cohens of Bangor, 

Maine" (Alpert), 105 

Alsberg, P. A., 263 

Alschuler, Alfred S., 106 

Altgeld, John P., 106 

"The America I Want' (Lenkoff), 107 

American Anthropological Association, 230, 

American Council for Emigres in the 

Professions, zoo 

American Council for Judaism, 276, 279 

American Council for Zionism, 106 

American Drug Store (Mexico City), I 2 

American Federation of Labor (AFL), 7, I 2, 

I4 

American Indian languages, 226, 227, 231 

Americanization and acculturation, 

194-196 

Index 

on Lower East Side, I 15, 118-121 

passim, 129, 245-249 

of ybrdim, 84 

American Jewish Archives, 278, 285 

American Jewish Periodicals Center, 25 5 

and Latin American Jewish Studies 

Association, 262, 283 

American Jewish Committee, I 39, I 41, 

143,284 

American Jewish Conference, 239, 241 

"American Jewish Fiction Turns Inward, 

1960-1990" (Fishman), 284 

American Jewish Historical Society 

Archives, 278 

"American Jewish Museums: Trends and 

Issues" (Seldin), 284 

"American Jewish Scholarship on the 

Pharisees" (Baumgarten), 268 

American Jewish Yearbook (vol. 91), 

reviewed, 284 

American Jewry 

photographic survey of, 284 

and postwar Germany, 278 

rabbinate of, 23 5 

American Lawyer, 73 

American Legion, Post 102, 122 

American Magazine Youth Forum, 107 

The Americans (Boorstin), 247 

American Zionist Emergency Council 

(AZEC), 237-242 passim 

Amilat, 262 

Anarchism, 12 

Andrews, Lincoln C., 161, 165 

"Anniversary-October, 1965" 

Uuergensen), 25 2 

Anschluss, 183-184, 185, 186 

Anthropology, 225 

Anti-Semitism, 228, 258 

in 1920s U.S., 121, 136, 163-164 

at Yale, 227 

in Austria, 184-184, 199


in Brazil, 92, 94 

and Christianity, 167 

during Civil War, IOI 

in Germany, 101, 250-252 

and Holocaust rescue efforts, IOO 

and Louis Brandeis, 258 

in Mexico, 15-16, 18, 263 

on Wall Street, 73 

and Prohibition, 136, 163-164 

Arabs, in Israel, 81 

Arbeiter Ring (Workmen's Circle), 20, 107 

Arcana Caelestia (Swedenborg), 65 

Arendt, Hannah, 203, 258, 260 

Argentina, Jews of, 55-57, 263-264 

"Argentinian and Jew: The Ambiguity of 

Identity" (Klenicki), 55-57 

Ariel, Yaakov, 221 

Army, U.S. 

Hospital Corps, 8 

Military Intelligence Division (MID), 7, 8, 

I4 

Army contractors, 29 

As a Driven Leaf (Steinberg), 57 

Asais, Charles E., 17 

Asceticism, 137 

Ashkenazi, Elliot, 38 

"As I Remember" (Heymont), 105 

Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of 

America, 144, 145, 151, 152, 165, 

166 

Assembly of Orthodox Rabbis. See 

Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox 

Rabbis of America 

Assimilation, I 8 I 

and Jewish education, IOO 

Association of Americans and Canadians in 

Israel, 4 1-5 1 

Aunt Minnie Goldsmith Award, 106 

Austria, Nazi takeover of, 182-191, 198 

Austrian Airlines, 205 

Avni, Haim, 263 

Backal, Alicia, 263 

Baeck, Leo, 104, 276 

Balfour Declaration, 21 8 

Balin, Carole B., 106 

Baltimore, Md., 103 

Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 103 

Bankier, David, 263 

Banking and finance, 25-37 passim, 71-75 

Bank Leu, 73 

Bank of England, 3 I 

Barcelona, Spain, 148 

Baron, Salo W., 230, 284 

Bauman, Mark R., 273, 274 

Baumel, Judith Tydor, IOO 

Baumgarten, Albert I., 268 

Bayersdorf, Bavaria, 26 

Bayside High School (Queens, N.Y.), 72 

Beals, Carleton, I 2, 13 

Bellefair (Cleveland, Ohio), 103 

Benamozegh, Eliahu, 57 

Benedict, Ruth, 225, 231 

Ben-Gurion, David, 82, 142, 240 

Ben-Horin, Yoav, 285 

Benjamin, Walter, 87 

Bennett, David H., 99 

Berenbaum, Michael, 268 

Berger, Alan L., 285 

Berger, Elmer, 106 

Berrol, Selma C., 99 

Beth Israel Hospital (New York City), 118 

Bethlehem Steel Co., 196 

Beth Tzedec Congregation (Toronto), 257 

Bibliographic information 

Library of Congress Judaica holdings, 

285 

on Latin American Jewry, 283 

Biltmore Conference, 239 

"Biography" Uaffe), 253 

Birmingham, Ala., 274 

Blacks, 107, 124 

"Blacks and Jews: The American 

Experience" (museum exhibit), 107 

Blackstone, William, 207, 217, 219 

"Black Woman, Enroute" Uaffe), 252 

Blair, D. H., 143, 147 

Bletter, Diana, 28 3 

Boas, Franz, 225, 226, 227, 231 

"The Body of This World" Uaffe), 253 

Boesky, Ivan, 73, 74 

Bohm, Gunter, 263 

Boorstin, Daniel J., 247 

Bootlegging, 165 

Boston, Mass., 150 

Braden, Spruille, 264

Brandeis, Louis D., 41 

and anti-Semitism, 25 8 

and Frankfurter, 258-260, 286 

and Prohibition, 168 

and Zionism, 46, 220, 242, z58-t~g 

The BrandeislFrankfurter Connection: The 

Secret Political Activities of Two 

Supreme Court Justices (Murphy), 

reviewed, 286 

Brandt, Willy, 203, 204 

Brav, Ruth E., 105 

Brav, Stanley R., 105 

Brazil, Jews of, 92-95, 264 

Brecht, Berthold, 87 

Breslau, David, 48 

Bridging Three Worlds: Hungarian-Jewish 

Americans, 1848-1914 (Perlman), 

reviewed, 286 

Brooklyn Law School, 9 

Brooklyn Navy Yard, 196 

Bruck, Connie, 73 

Brumberg, Steven E, 99 

Buber, Martin, 57 

Burnham, "Tubby", 74 

Burt, Robert A., 25 8-261 

Bush, George (1796-1859), 59-69 

picture, 58 

Bush, Grete, zoo 

"A Business Elite: German-Jewish 

Financiers in Nineteenth-Century 

New York" (Supple), 75 

Cahan, Abraham, 247 

California, University of 

Berkeley, 9, 214, 231, 245 

Davis, 246 

California Gold Rush, 27 

California State Board of Pharmacy, 9 

Calles, Plutarco Elias, 7, 12-20 passim 

"Cambios en la relacion de la Organization 

Sionista Mundial hacia la comunidad 

judia y movimiento sionista en la 

Argentina, hasta 1948" 

(Schenkolewski), 263 

Camus, Albert, 5 5 

Canadian Jewish News, 256, 257 

Canadian Jewry, 25 5-257 

Canadian National Museum, 226, 231 

Index 

Cantors, 226, 228 

Cardenas, Lazaro, 19, 20 

Cardin, Nina Beth, 270 

Cardozo, Rachel Hart, 105 

Cardozo family, 105 

Carosso, Vincent P., 75 

Carranza, Venustiano, I 2 

Carrillo, Felipe, 7, 12 

Central Conference of American Rabbis 

(CCAR) 

centennial conference, roo 

Committee on Responsa, I 5 5 

and Prohibition, 139, 141, 151, 155, 159, 

163 

and Zionism, 214, 216 

"The Chagall Windows" (Juergensen), 252 

'Thai" Uuergensen), 252 

Chanukah, 126 

Chaplains, 106 

Charleston, S.C., 103 

Charnin, N., 77 

Chicago, University of, 226, 228 

Chicago Daily Tribune, 104 

Children of Circumstances: Israeli 

Emigrants in New York (Shokeid), 

reviewed, 80-86 

Chile, Jews of, 203 

Chinese 

in Mexico, 263 

in U.S., 124 

Christian Socialist Party (Austria), 182 

Christian Zionism, 59, 64, 68, 207, 217 

Cincinnati, Ohio, 100, 103, 152 

Cincinnati Talmud Torah, 103 

Citibank, 72, 73 

City University of New York 

Bernard Baruch College, 72 

Brooklyn College, 285 

City College, 230 

Queens College, 81 

Civil War, U.S., 27, 28, 33, 101, 105 

Cleveland, Ohio, 103, 237 

Cloak, Suit & Skirt Manufacturers' 

Protective Association, 104 

Cohen, David, 284 

Cohen, Elias, 167 

Cohen, Morris Raphael, 230 

Columbia University, 226, 230

Columbus Day, 125, 126, 128 

Communism 

among Eastern European Jews, 20, 

76-78 

among German intellectuals, 87 

in Argentina, 5 5 

in Mexico, 7, 14, 14, 15 

in U.S., 76-78 

Communist Party. See Communism 

Conference on Jewish Relations, 230 

Congress, U.S. 

House Committee on Immigration, I 64, 

165 

Library of, 285 

Connecticut Federal Writers Project, 285 

Conservative Judaism 

and Americanization, I 68 

in Argentina, 56 

current state of, 270-272 

in Israel, 48 

and Jewish Theological Seminary, 

270-272 

and Orthodox Judaism, 156, 273, 274 

and Prohibition, 137-138, 154-155 

and women, 271, 283 

Constitution, U.S. 

Eighteenth Amendment, 13 5 

Consumer Shield, 50 

Consumption, culture of, 246 

Continental Distributing Co., 144, 145 

Conversion 

to Christianity, 63 

to Judaism, 204 

Cooperatives, agricultural, I I 

Cotton trade, 25, 28-32 passim, 36 

Crisco, 246 

Cronbach, Abraham, 274-280 

Cultural relativity, 227 

Czechoslovakia, German invasion of, 194 

Dachau (concentration camp), 279 

Daniel Webster Literary Social Union, 103 

Darnell, Regna, 225-232 passim 

Dartmouth College, 59, 60, 67 

Das Exil im Exil (Sahl), reviewed, 87-88 

Daughtery, Harry M., 145 

Davis, Maurice, 279 

Davison, E. C., 14 


Day, Mrs. George parmelee, 232. 

Day, Ralph A., 147 

Day schools, 266 

Dearborn Independent, I 36, I 63 

The Death Book of Theresienstadt, 201 

Deep in the Heart: The Lives and Legends 

of Texas Jews (Winegarten & 

Schechter), reviewed, IOI 

Della Pergola, Sergio, IOO 

Democratic Party, 127, 129 

Demographic information, 105 

on Brazilian Jewry, 92, 94 

on Civil War military service, 105 

on Jamaica Jewry, 105 

on New York Orthodox Jewry (ca. 

1g18), 161 

DeNette, Louie, 19 

Depression (I~~os), 237, 285 

Detroit, Mich., 103 

Diaz, Porfirio, 16 

Dicionario Biografico (Wolf f & Wol ff), 


Dicker, Herman, 284 

Dietary laws, 246, 247 

and New York Kehillah, 167 

and wines, 145-1 52 passim 

Dina demalkhuta dina (talmudic dictum), 

136 

Dingol, S. O., I 5 

"Disillusionment at Dawn" Uaffe), 252 

The Divorce Laws of Mexico (Haberman), 

20 

Divorces, Mexican, 8, 20 

Dollfuss, Engelbert, 182, I 83 

Dominguez, Esperanza (Mrs. Roberto 

Haberman), 19 

Dorff, Elliott, 270 

Draft evasion, 8 

Dreller, Louis, 104 

Dress and Waist Manufacturers Association, 

104 

Drexel, Burnham Co., 71-74 passim 

Drob, Max, 137 

Dual loyalty, 45 

Dubnow, Simon, 229 

East End (London), 125 

Eastern European Jews, in U.S., 76, 

120-121, 127,209, 245-249

East Side Neighborhood Association, 124 

Edgerton, Franklin, 230 

Education 

Jewish, 100, 266-269 

public, 99 

"rational", 12 

Education and the lmmigrant (Pozzetta), 

reviewed, 99 

Edward Sapir: Linguist, Anthropologist, 

Humanist (Darnell), reviewed, 

225-234 

Eichhorn, David, 216 

Einhorn, David, 209 

Einstein, Albert, 203, 229 

Einstein, Izzy, 143-1 50 passim, 161, 166 

picture, 134 

Eisen, Arnold, 284 

El Deastre (Vasconcelos), I z 

Elkin, Judith Laikin, 264, 283 

Ellenson, David, 28 5 

Ellner, Joseph, Co., 9-1 I passim 

El Paso, Texas, 19 

Emergency Committee for Zionist Affairs, 

23 8 

Emergency Committee on Jewish Refugees, 

I7 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 66 

The Encyclopedia oflewish Genealogy 

(Kurzweil & Weiner), reviewed, 

100-101 

England, Lois H., 106 

English Institute (Mexico City), 12 

Epstein, Harry, 273 

Epstein, Louis H., 104 

Erlangen, University of, 209 

Ethnicity, Jewish, 120, 129 

The Ethnic Myth (Steinberg), 248 

Existentialism, 5 5 

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 7, 8 

Federal Writers Project, Connecticut, 285 

Federated Jewish Charities of Boston, 17 

Feinberg, Louis, 104, 105 

Feingold, Henry, 28 5 

Felsenthal, Bernhard, 21 5, 216 

Ferrer, Francisco, I z 

"A Financial Elite: New York's 

German-Jewish Investment Bankers" 

(Carosso), 75 

Index 29 I 

First Boston Corp., 71 

First Social Workers Conference (Merida, 

Mex.), I I 

Fisher, Mary E (Mrs. George Bush), 67 

Fishman, Sylvia Barack, 284 

Ford, Henry, 121, 136, 163 

Foreign Language Department, Ministry of 

Education (Mexico), I 3 

"Forty Years After Liberation" Uuergensen), 

252 

Frankfurter, Felix, 258-261, 286 

Franklin, Benjamin, 249 

Franklin, Leo, 139 

Frantz, Douglas, 71 

Franz Rosenzweig: His Life and Thought 

(Glatzer), 55 

Free Loan Association (New York City), 

I 18 

Freiheit, 78 

Fresno, Calif., 9 

Freud, Sigmund, 197, 229 

Friedman, Jerome, 62 

Friedman, Murray, 284 

Friedman, Nathalie, 266, 267 

Friesel, Evyatar, 242 

From the Ends of the Earth: Iudaic 

Treasures of the Library of Congress, 

Washington, D.C. (Karp), reviewed, 

285 

Fuerth, Bavaria, 209 

Fundraising, for Zionist causes, 237, 263 

Furnishing merchants, 3 63 

Fusion Party (New York City), 123 

Gal, Allon, 261 

Gartner, Lloyd P., 284 

G'dud Ha-Avodah, 80 

Genealogy, 100-101, 105-106 

Gerchunoff, Alberto, 264-106 

German Jews, in U.S., 26-38 passim, 75 

German language and culture, zoo 

Germany, in Nazi period, 87, I 82-191 

passim 

Gerstenfeld, Samuel, 167 

Gertel, Elliot B., 106, 271 

Ginker, Lori, 283 

Ginzberg, Eli, I 5 7 

Ginzberg, Louis, 155-159, 162 

"Give Me My Childhood Again: The Grand


Street Boys' Association, 

1915-1945" (Marx), 115-133 

Glanz, Rudolf, 286 

Glaser, Joseph B., IOO 

Glass Houses: Ten Years of Free Lancing 

(Beals), I 2 

Glatzer, Nahum, 55 

Glazer, Simon, 152 

Gleacher, Eric, 72 

Glickman, Mark, 106 

"The Goals of Jewish Education" 

(Lookstein), 268 

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, zoo 

Goldberg, Moshe, 45 

Golden Medal of Merit of the City of 

Vienna, 204 

Goldman, Marcus, 75 

Goldman, Sachs Co., 71 

Goldman, Shalom, 68 

Goldman, Solomon, 228 

Goldmann, Nahum, 241 

Goldstein, Israel, 104, 241 

Goldstein, Jonah, 123-124, 126-128 

passim 

Gombiner, Abraham (Magen Auraham), 

155-156, 158,162 

Gompers, Samuel, 7, 12, 14, 15 

Gordis, David, 285 

Gordon, Ernest, 164 

Gordon, Leonard, 271 

Goren, Arthur A., 99 

Goslars, Lotte, 87 

Gottheil, Gustav, 216 

Gottschalk, Alfred, 97, 106 

A Grammar of the Hebrew Language 

(Bush), 62, 63 

Grand Street Boys' Association, I I 5-13 3 

Grand Street Boys' Foundation, I 25-126 

Grand Street House (Surrey, England), 125 

Grant, Ulysses S., 27 

Grape juice, Jewish ritual use of, 154-162, 

162-163 

Greenfield, Murray, 42 

Griffel, Suzanne, 106 

Grobman, Alex, 106 

Grodzinski, Zvi Hirsch, I 52-153, 163 

Grossman, Philip, 229 

Grosz, George, 87 

Grynszpan, Herschel, 189 

Gurock, Jeffrey S., 267, 268, 274 

Gurs (detention camp), 196 

Habad Hasidism, 84 

Haberman, Robert, Jr., 20 

Haberman, Roberto, 7-21 

Habonim, 45 

Hagy, James W., 103 

Halakhah (Jewish law) 

in Conservative Judaism, 272 

and feminist issues, 271, 283 

Half Brothet; Half Son: The Letters of 

Louis D. Brandeis to Felix 

Frankfurter (Urofsky & Levy), 

reviewed, 286 

Halperin, Samuel, 241 

Handlin, Oscar, 246 

Hanover, N.H., 60 

Harby, Isaac, 104 

Harding, Warren G., 16, 165 

Harper Family Library, 605 

Harvard College, 63 

Hashomer Hatzair, 56 

Hasidism, 84, 162 

Hattis, Gertrude, 43 

Haynes, Roy, 159 

Hebrew Home (Washington, D.C.), 106 

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), I I 8 

Hebrew IanguageIHebrew studies, 60-63 

passim, 219, 229 

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of 

Religion, 57 

founding of, 104 

Hebrew at, 219 

Jerusalem campus, 105 

Kohler's presidency of, 212-216 passim, 

219 

library, 284 

Zionism at, 213-216, 235 

Heiman, Hirsch, 273, 274 

Heiman, Sholom A., 7-73, 274 

Heinze, Andrew R., 245-249 passim 

Heller, James, 216-217 

Heller, Max, 216, 217 

Hellman, Max, 29-3 2 passim 

Hellman, Theodore, 29 

Henequen fiber, 10, 11

Hershan, Lisa, 183, 194, 197 

Hershan, Stella, I 8 1-206 

Hertz, Emanuel, 157-206, 160-206 

Herut, 56 

Herzl, Theodor, 2 I 2 

Heschel, Abraham Joshua, 283 

Heschel, Susannah, 283 

Heuss, Theodor, 203 

Hexter, Maurice B., 17-18 

Heymont, Irving, 105 

Hierophant, 66 

Higham, John, I 36 

Higham, Robin, 164 

Hillman, Sidney, 246 

Hillquit, Morris, 246 

Himmelfarb, Harold S., 100 

Hirsch, Samson Raphael, 209 

Historiography 

business history, 25 

community histories, 285 

Latin American Jewish Studies, 262, 283 

newspapers as sources, 255 

of sacred texts, 271 

social history, 245 

Hitler, Adolf, 182, 183, 199, 228 

Hoffheimer family, 104 

Holocaust 

American responses to, roo, 268 

and Cronbach, 275-277 

German/Austrian responses to, 199, 

zoo-201, 203 

and Jewish Communists, 78 

Juergensen's poetry on, 251 

rescue efforts, roo, 106 

and Zionism, 81 

"Homelessness," Jewish, 25 8 

Hoover, J. Edgar, 14 

Horney, Karen, 203 

Horowitz, Samuel, 167 

House of the World Worker (Mexico), 12 

Hungarian Jews, in U.S., 286 

Hurewitz, Isaac Simha, 158, 162 

Hyamson, Moses, 160 

Hyman, Paula E., 99, 271 

Identity, Jewish. See Jewish identity 

Iliesco, Basilio, 13, 19 

Immigration Act, U.S. (1924), 16, 121, 164 

Index 

Immigration and immigrants 

to England, 248 

to Israel, 41-51 passim, 80, 81, 83 

to Latin America, 186 

Argentina, 248, 263 

Bzazil, 92, 94 

Mexico, 7, 17-18, 21, 263 

to U.S. 

from Asia and Latin America, 99 

of Eastern European Jews, 99, 106, 

I20 

from Germany and Austria, I 7, I 20, 

193, 209, 226, 24~-24passim, 263 

from Hungary, 99, 286 

of Irish and Italians, 99, 248 

from Israel, 80-86 

from Lithuania, 23 5, 266 

Los Angeles, 99 

opposition to, 16, 99, 121, 164 

from Romania, 7, 8 

"The Impact of the Public Education Law 

of 1940 on Iraqi Jews" (Simon), 268 

Indianapolis, Ind., 60, 103 

Indian Hill Factory (Ala.), 35 

Inquisition, Mexican, 17 

Insider trading, 71, 73 

Institute of Social Science (Mexico), 13 

Intercollegiate Menorah Association, 103 

Interfaith activities, 121, 126 

Intermarriage, 21, 21 I 

Internal Revenue, Bureau of, 13 5, 139, 151 

International Association of Machinists, 14 

International Harvester Co., 10 

International Ladies Garment Workers 

Union, 104 

The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of 

American Jewish Women (Bletter & 

Ginker), reviewed, 283 

Iraq, Jews of, 268 

Iroquoian languages, 231 

Ishi (Yahi Indian), 23 I 

Islam, 60 

Israel, Clare, 104 

Israel, Clarence, 104 

Israel, State of 

Arab minority, 8 I 

consumer movement, 50 

immigration to, 44-51 passim, 80, 83, 85

2-94 American Jewish Archives 

Lebanon campaign, 25 7 

partition and statehood, 238, 240, 241 

political parties, 46 

Six-Day War, 49 

state archives, 263 

and U.S., 240 

Yishuv period, 44, 80, 260 

Jacob ben Asher (Ba'al Haturim), 98 Jaffe, 

Dan, 252-254 

Jassy, Romania, 8 

Jerusalem Post, 42 

Jewish Agency, 47-49 passim 

Jewish Colonization Association, 92 

"Jewish Commercial Interests Between 

North and South: The Case of the 

Lehmans and the Seligmans" 

(Ashkenazi), 25-3 9 

"The Jewish Concept of Wine and Its Use" 

(Hyamson), 160 

Jewish Daily Forward, 246 

Jewish Education Worldwide: 

Cross-Cultural Perspectives 

(Himmelfarb & Della Pergola), 

reviewed, IOO 

The Jewish Experience: A Guide to 

Manuscript Sources in the Library of 

Congress (Kohn), reviewed, 285 

Jewish Family and Children's Service 

(Indianapolis), 103 

Jewish Forum, 160 

Jewish identity 

in Argentina, 5 5-5 7 

of Edward Sapir, 227, 228 

in Israel, 264 

and Jewish education, IOO 

in Latin America, 264 

in Mexico, 264 

in prewar Austria, I 81, 194 

in U.S., 194, 285 

of yordim, 84 

Jewish Identity in America (Gordis & 

Ben-Horin), reviewed, 285 

Jewish law. See Halakhah (Jewish law) 

The Jewish Presence in Latin America, 262 

Jewish Sheltering Home for Homeless and 

Aged (Philadelphia), 104 

Jewish Social Studies, 230 

"Jewish Studies as a Subject of Latin 

American Studies" (Merkx), 262 

Jewish Theological Seminary, 160, 166, 

270-272, 284-272 

Jewish Theology (Kohler), 210 

"Jewish Theology in North America: Notes 

on Two Decades" (Eisen), 284 

Jewish Welcome Committee (Vienna), 205 

"Jews and American Investment Banking" 

(Weisberger), 71-75 

The Jews in America (Cohen), reviewed, 

284 

The Jews in Mexico (Hexter), 17 

Jews of the Latin American Republics 

(Elkin), 283 

Joffee, S. A., 147-150 passim picture, 138 

Johnson, Alvin, 203 

Jones, James E., 154 

Joselit, Jenna Weissman, 267, 274 

Joseph, Fred, 73, 74 

Joseph, Samuel, 161, 162 

Joseph Ellner Co., 9 

Juduica Latinoamerica: Estudios 

Historico-Sociales, reviewed, 

262-265 

Judaism, University of, 285 

Judeus no Brasil-Seculo XIX (Wolff & 

Wolff), reviewed, 92-95 

Juergensen, Hans, 250-252 

Junk bonds, 71, 74 

Kahal Kodesh Shaangare Yosher (Kingston, 

Jamaica), 105 

Kahn, Ava E, 51 

Kallen, Deborah, 43 

Kansas City, Kans., I 52 

Karp, Abraham J., 285 

Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, 279 

Kay, David, 73 

Kehilath Jeshurun Congregation (New York 

City), 266, 268 

Keren Hayesod, 237 

Kessler, Jimmy, IOI 

Khrushchev, Nikita, 77 

Kingston, Jamaica, 105 

Kisch, Egon Erwin, 87 

Klein, Philip Hillel, 167 

Klenicki, Leon, 57

Klich, Ignacio, 263 

Kligler, Israel, 43 

Knesset Israel Congregation (Minneapolis), 

273 

Koenig, Samuel, 28 5 

Kohler, Kaufmann, 207-223 

picture, 208 

Kohn, Abraham, 105 

Kohn, Gary J., 285 

Kohn, Josef, 105 

Kollel America Xferet Yerushalayim, 43 

Kowalska, Marta, 263 

Kramer, John E, 143, 145 

Kristallnacht, I 89 

Kroeber, Alfred L., 225, 226, 231 

Kroeber, Theodora, 23 I 

Kugelmass, Jack, 99 

Kuhn, Abraham, 75 

Kuhn, Loeb & Co., 71 

Kuhn, Netter & Co., 104 

Ku Klux Klan, 121, 165 

Kurzweil, Arthur, 100-IOI 

Labor Zionism, 45, 103 

Labor Zionist Alliance (Cincinnati), 103 

La Botz, Dan, 21 

"Lady in Waiting" Uaffe), 253 

La Guardia, Fiorello, 126 

Landsmanshaftn, 42, I 20, I 29 

Langley, Ernest S., 143 

Language (Sapir), 226 

Lasker Colony (Kansas), 104 

Latin American Jewish Studies: An 

Annotated Guide to the Literature 

(Elkin & Sater), reviewed, 283 

Latin American Jewish Studies Association, 

262, 283 

La Voz de Revolution, 10 

Lazard Freres Co., 73 

League of Resistance (Mexico), I I 

Lee, Fanny, 44 

Lee, William E., 44 

Lehman, Abraham & Co., 35, 36 

Lehman, Emanuel, 27, 28, 33, 75 

Lehman, Henry, 26-29 passim 

Lehman, Herbert, I 26 

Lehman, Mayer, 27, 28, 33, 3~~75 

picture, 34 

Lehman Brothers Co., 35, 36, 72-73 

Index 

Lenkoff, Leon G., 107-73 

Lerner, Isaias, 5 5 

Lesser, Jeff, 95 

" 'Let Them Drink and Forget Our 

Poverty': Orthodox Rabbis React to 

Prohibition" (Sprecher), 13 5-179 

Levendel, Louis, 2 5 5-257 passim 

Leventhal, B. L., 147 

Levias, Caspar, 21 3-214 

Leviatin, David, 76-79 passim 

Levin, Joseph, I 52 

Levin, Shmaryahu, 154, 215 

Levinas, Emmanuel, 57 

Levine, Dennis, 71-73, 74 

Levine, Max S., I I 5, 1 17 

Levine, Philip, 72 

Levine, Selma, 72 

Levine & Co.: Wall Street's Insider Trading 

Scandal (Frantz), reviewed, 71-75 

Levinsky, David (literary character), 247 

Levy, David W., 286 

Lienhardt, Geoffrey, 225 

The Life of Mohammed (Bush), 60, 62 

Lifshitz, Jacob, 104 

Liga de Resistencia (Mexico), 124 

Likud, 82 

Lindsay, Vachel, 277 

Linguistics, 225-227 passim 

Lipman, Eugene, 279 

Lipset, Seymour Martin, 285-227 passim 

Lipsky, Louis, 241 

Lipstadt, Deborah E., 285 

Lithuania, 235 

Liturgy and prayer, 211-212 

Liverpool, England, 3 5 

Loker, Zvi, 263 

London, Meyer, 249 

Lookstein, Haskel, 268 

Lookstein, Joseph H., 267, 268 

Los Angeles, Calif., 99 

Los Angeles Times, 71 

Louisville & Nashville Railway, 30 

Lovett, Robert A., 240 

Lower East Side, 143, 152, 235, 259 

communal politics of, 123-124 

crime in, I 24 

immigrant life in, 115-121 passim, 

245-249


as "old neighborhood", 119-120 

and political radicalism, 121, 246, 249 

as subject of "good old days" myth, 125, 

129 

women in, 246 

Lowie, Robert H., 225 

Lubavitcher Rebbe, 84 

MacDougal Club (New York City), I 17 

MacDowell, Edward, 225 

McFadden, Bernard, 76 

Mack, Julian W., 260 

Mack, Leon, 104 

Mack, William J., 104 

Madero, Francisco I., 18 

Madrid, Spain, 148 

Magnes, Judah L., 43, 124, 215 

Maimonides, Moses, I 5 8 

Malaga, Spain, 148 

Mallea, Eduardo, 5 5, 56 

Malter, Henry, 214 

Mandelbaum, David G., 225, 228, 230, 231 

Mann, Thomas, 87, zoo, 203 

Mann Act (White Slave Traffic Act), 8 

Mapai, 56 

Marburg, University of, 229 

Marcel, Gabriel, 57 

Marcus, Ivan, 271 

Margolies, Moses Z. (RaMaZ), 139-153 

passim, I 67, 266 

picture, I 3 8 

Margolis, G. Wolf, 144-152 passim, 166 

picture, 142 

Margolis, Max, 214, 21 5 

Maritain, Jacques, 57 

Marks, Morris S., I I 5 

Marsh, 0. O., 10, 11 

Marshall, George, 240 

Marshall, Louis, 17, 139-165 passim 

Marx, Alexandec 284 

Marx, Jeffrey, I 29 

Mason, A. T., 168 

Mass, Roman Catholic, 140 

The Mayer Sulzberg, Alexander Marx 

Correspondence, 1904-1923 

(Dicker), reviewed, 284 

Mead, James, I 26 

Mead, Margaret, 225, 230, 231 

Meir, Golda, 4 I 

Memoiren eines Moralisten (Sahl), 87 

"A Memoir of Nazi Austria and the Jewish 

Refugee Experience in America" 

(Hershan), 18 1-206 

"Memoirs of Ruth E. Brav: Mostly Family 

Recollections by a 20th Century 

Reform Rebbitzen" (Brav), 105 

Mennonites, I 5 

Menorah Journal, 228 

Menorah Wine Co., 143-152 passim, 164, 

165 

"Merchant Women of Charleston, 

1703-1830'' (Hagy), 103 

Mesch, Abraham, 274 

Mesmer and Swedenborg (Bush), 66 

Mesmerism, 66 

"Message of Israel" (broadcast), 107 

Mexican Revolution, 9, I I, I 2 

Mexico, 7-21 

Jews of, 15-19 National Universi 

Meyers, Allen, 101 

Michaelman (North American Steel Co. 

official), 196 

Milken, Michael, 74 

Minneapolis, Minn., 273 

Mobile, Ala., 27, 35 

Monis, Judah, 63 

Monsky, Henry, 279 

Monson, Rela Geffen, 271 

Montgomery, Ala., 27, 28, 33, 35 

Montor, Henry, 24 I 

Montreal, P.Q., 255, 256 

Moore, Deborah Dash, 99, I 19 

Morgan, Stanley & Co., 71 

Morgen Journal, 147, 149 

Morgenthau, Henry, Jr., 241, 279 

Morgenthau family, 105 

Morones, Luis N., 7-20 passim 

Morristown, N.J., 60 

Moscow purge trials, 77 

Mouniec Emanuel, 57 

Mulqueen, Joseph, I 18 

Munich, University of, 62 

Munich Agreement, 194 

The Murderers Among Us (Wiesenthal), 

20 2 

Murphy, Bruce Allen, 286

Murphy, John B., 8, 10, 11 

Museums, 284 

Musher; Nathan, 144, 145, 149 

Mussolini, Benito, I 83 

Nader, Ralph, 50 

Nassau, Bahamas, 73 

National Archives (Brazil), 93 

National Association of Manufacturers, 105 

National Can Co., 74 

National Prohibition Act. See Volstead Act 

Nativism, in U.S., 136, 164, 165 

Naturalization 

in Brazil, 93, 94 

in U.S., 44, 195, 197 

Naval Intelligence, Office of, I I 

Nazi Party (Austria), 183 

Nazism, 182-191 passim, 204, 227, 228, 

230 

postwar AustrianIGerman attitudes toward, 

199, 202-203, 203, 204-205 

Nazi-Soviet Pact, 77 

Negro Actors' Guild, 125 

Neumann, Emanuel, 241 

Neumark, David, 21 5 

Newgass, Benjamin, 3 5 

Newgass, Rosenheim & Co. (Liverpool), 3 5 

New Jersey, Jews of, IOI 

Newman, Stanley, 228, 229 

New Mexico, University of, 262 

New Orleans, La., 29, 35, 36 

Newport, Ky., 103 

New School for Social Research, 203-204 

New York Board of Jewish Ministers, 169 

New York Call, 9, I I 

New York City, 27, 103, 161, 245 

census of Orthodox Jews (ca. 1918), 161 

distribution of sacramental wine 

' (1922-z5), 161 

political clubs, 127-128 

Prohibition arrests, 165 

See also Lower East Side 

New York Civil Service Commission, 9 

New York Cotton Exchange, 3 5 

New York Kehillah, 123, 167 

Bureau of Social Morals, 124 

New York's Jewish Jews Uoselit), 274 

New York Times, 143, 144, 147, 150, 161, 

Index 297 

163, 165 

New York University, 9, 59, 61, 63, 67, 

123, I973 203 

Niccoll, Mrs. Ray, 20 

Niers, Gert, 88 

"Ninth Street Bar; Seen Through Glass" 

Uaffe), 252 

Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, 

262 

Noah, Mordecai Manuel, 41 

Nordheimer, Isaac, 62 

North American Steel Co., 196 

Notes on the Old Testament (Bush), 60, 63 

Obenvesel, Germany, 106 

Obregon, Alvaro, 12, 14, 15 

Ohio State Legislature, 237 

Ohio State Senate, 104 

Omaha, Nebr., 152-1 53 

"On U.S. I" Uaffe), 252, 253 

Oral history, 74, 101, 106 

Ortega y Gasset, Jose, 55 

Orthodox Jewish Archives, 106 

Orthodox Judaism 


and Conservative Judaism, 273, 274 

and Prohibition, 135-179 passim 

and Reform Judaism, 149 

status of rabbis, 166, 167 

in U.S., 106, 266, 267 

and Zionism, 21 3 

Pacernik, Gary, 254 

"Pacific Ideas-A Letter to Walt Whitman" 

(Simpson), 254 

Pacifism, 274-280 passim 

Palestine. See Israel, State of 

Palestine Foundation Fund, 237 

Palestine Post, 44 

Papanek, Ernst, 198 

Participant observation, 8 I 

The Party of Fear: From Nativist 

Movements to the New Right in 

American History (Bennett), 

reviewed, 99 

Patriotism, 121 

See also Americanization and acculturation 

Patt, Ruth Marcus, 107


Patton, George S., 104 

Christianity (Bush), 67 

Pearl Harbor, 194 

Princeton Biblical Repository, 64 

Peck, Abraham J., 107, 175, 276, 278 Princeton Theological Seminary, 59 

Pecora, Ferdinand, I 27 

"The Problem of Pluralism in 

Peddlers, 26, 27, 28 

Contemporary Orthodoxy: Politics, 

Peekskill, N.Y., 76 

Power, Persuasiveness and 

Peltz, Nelson, 74 

Philosophy" (Berenbaum), 268 

"The Pen Name of Asher Ginsburg" 

Processos de Naturalizacao de 

(Tsevat), 97-98 Zsraelitas-Seculo XZX (Wolff & 

Pennsylvania, 27 

Perelman, Ronald, 74 

Perlman, Robert, 286 

Wolff), reviewed, 92-95 

Procter & Gamble Co., 246 

"Professor George Bush: American Hebraist 

Peron, Evita, 56 

and Proto-Zionist (Goldman), 59-69 

Peron, Juan D., 55, 263-264 

Progress, and Judaism, 210-21 I 

Peronism, 56, 57 

Prohibition, I 35-179 

Peru, Jews of, 263 

and anti-Semitism, 163-164 

Pharisees, 266, 268 

and Protestantism, 140 

Phelps, William Lyon, 232 

The Promised City (Rischin), 245-164 

Philadelphia, Pa., 104 

The Prophecies of Daniel (Bush), 63 

Philanthr~p~/~hilanthropists, 75, I I 8, 125, Proskauec, Adolph, 105 

149, 229 

Philippson Colony, Brazil, 92 

Protestantism, 59 

Evangelical, 207 

Phillips, Bruce, 285 

liberal, 210, 21 I 

Pick, Elise, 201 

and nativism, 136 

Pike, Kenneth, 23 I 


Piscator, Erwin, 87 

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 121, 

Pittsburgh Platform, 207 136 

Pletscher, Bruno, 73 

Providence Journal, I 44-1 50 passim, I 63, 

Pluralism, 50 

165, 166 

in Orthodox Judaism, 266, 268 

"The Public Response of American Jews to 

in U.S., 41, 258, 259 

the Liberation of European Jewry, 

Poale Zion, 20 January-May 1945" (Lookstein), 

Poland, 80, 194 

Polier, Justine Wise, 106 

268 

Puerto, Felipe Carrillo, I I 

Pomerania, 226 

Pope, Daniel A., 249 

Puritanism, 259 

Popular Front (1936-391, 77 

Queen Mary (ship), 190, 193 

"Portrait of an Unsung Genius" (Siskin), Queens, N.Y., 72, 81 

225-234 

Posner, Victor, 74 

Powell, John W., 227 

Pozzetta, George E., 99 

Preaching, 237 

"Preface" Uuergensen), 252 

Presbyterianism, 59-60 

Pressburg, Yeshiva of, 62 

Price, Ronald, 272 

Priesthood and Clergy Unknown to 

"Rabbi Harry H. Epstein and the 

Adaptation of Second-Generation 

East European Jews in Atlanta" 

(Bauman), 273, 274 

Rabbinical Assembly, I 5 I 

Rabbis 

Conservative, 271-272 

education and training of, 140, 165, 270 

Orthodox, 140, 165-168, 235

Prohibition violations by, 15362, 

163-168, 165-168 

and sacramental wine privilege, 140, 

161-162 

Radin, Paul, 225 

Railroad bonds, 75 

Rakeffet-Rothkoff, Aaron, 267 

Ramaz School, 266-269 

Ramaz: School, Community, Scholarship 

and Orthodoxy (Gurock), reviewed, 

266-269 

Raphael, Marc Lee, 235, 238, 241, 274 

Rashi, 974 

Reagan, Ronald, 105 

"Rebel for a Cause: A Study of Trude 

Weiss-Rosmarin" (Griffel), 106 

Reconstruction (post-Civil War), 28-30, 

33-37 

Reconstructionist Judaism, 283 

Red Scare (1919), 121 

Reformed Society of Israelites, 104 

Reform Judaism, 100, 219 

and Americanization, 168 


covenant theology, z I o, 219 

and German Jews, 75, 209 

and messianism, 207, 21 I 

mission of Israel, 210, 211, 212, 218 

Pittsburgh Platform, 207 

and Prohibition, 137, 153, 154-155 

as seen by Orthodox Jews, 149 

status of rabbis, 166 women's status, 

283 

and Zionism, 207, 209, 214, 215-216, 

219, 220 

Refugees, 193 

from Austria, I 86 

in Brazil, 94 

from Nazi Germany, 80, 87, 182, 250, 

263 

rescue and relief efforts, 106, 192 

Regional Confederation of Mexican 

Workers (CROM), 12, 15, 19 

Reich, Ilan, 73 

Remarque, Erich Maria, 87 

Representative Men (Emerson), 66 

Republican Party, 27, 127 

Resources for Latin American Jewish 

Index 

Studies, 262 

Revlon Corp., 74 

Riave, Louis R., 105 

Richert, Victor, 277 

Riemer, Yehuda, 86 

Rischin, Moses, 245-246 

Risk arbitrage, 71 

Ritualism, in American Judaism, 99 

Rizzoli's International Bookstore (New York 

City), zoo-201 

"Roberto Haberman and the Origins of 

Modern Mexico's Jewish 

Community" (La Botz), 7-22 

Roberts, S. H., 273, 274 

Robinson, Edward, 62 

Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 277 

Robinson, Ira, 257 

Rockdale Avenue Temple (Cincinnati), 277 

Rockefeller Foundation, 203 

Rockefeller Institute, 229 

Rodeph Shalom Congregation (New York 

city), 103 

Rolland, Modesto, 10 

Rolland, Romain, 55 

Roman Catholicism 



Romania, Jews of, 217 

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 106, 194, 198 

Roosevelt, Franklin D., 197, 279, 285 

Rosalsky, Otto, I I 5 

Rosenwald, Julius, 229 

Rosenzweig, Franz, 56, 57 

Rostow, Eugene V., 240 

Roth, Joel, 271 

Rothapfel, "Roxy", 246 

Rothkoff, Aaron, 274 

Rotterdam, Netherlands, 8 

Rotterdam (ship), 8 

Round for One Voice (Jaffe), reviewed, 

250-254 

Russia, Jews of, 151, 217 

Sabbath, 137, 246, 247 

Sackett, Suzanne Fike (Mrs. Roberto 

Haberman), zo 

Sahl, Hans, 87-88 

St. Lawrence University, 9


St. Louis, Mo., 27 

St. Patrick's Day, 126 

St. Poltens, Austria, 181 

Salomon Brothers Co., 71 

San Francisco, Calif., 27 

San Remo Conference, 219 

Sanua, Marianne, 99 

Sao Paulo Academy of History, 93 

Sapir, Edward, 225-234 

picture, 224 

Sapir, Jacob, 226 

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, 227 

Sarna, Jonathan, 285 

Sartre, Jean-Paul, 5 5 

Sater, Ana Lya, 283 

Schafler, Samuel, 97 

Schechter, Cathy, IOI 

Schechter, Solomon, 166 

Schenkolewski, Silvia, 263 

Schiff, Herbert H., 105 

Schiff, Jacob, 75 

Schiff, Ursula (Mrs. Hebert Schiff), 105 

Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich, zoo 

Schindler, Alexander, 23 5 

Schloessinger, Max, 214 

Schreiber, Moses, 62 

Schroeder, J. H., & Co., 32 

Schudson, Michael, 249 

Schulweis, Harold, 285 

Schuschnigg, Kurt von, 183 

Schuster & Feuille Co., 20 

Schwab family, 106 

"Sectarians" Uuergensen), 2 5 I 

Securities and Exchange Commission, 71, 

7 3 

Sefer Knesset haRabbanim, 165 

Seldin, Ruth R., 284 

Self-hatred, Jewish, 259 

Seligman, Babette (Mrs. Max Stettheimer), 

27 

Seligman, Frances (Mrs. Theodore 

Hellman), 29 

Seligman, Hellman & CO., 29, 3 1 

Seligman, Henry, 27, 29 

Seligman, James, 27 

Seligman, J., & Bros., 27 

Seligman, J. & W., & CO., 29, 31 

Seligman, Jesse, 27, 29 

picture, 24 

Seligman, Joseph, 26-33 passim, 75 

Seligman, Leopold, 27 

Seligman, William, 27-32 passim 

Selma, Ala., 27, 28 

The Seminary at roo (Cardin & Silverman), 


Seville, Spain, 148 

Shaaray Tefila Congregation (New York 

City), 103 

Shafir, Shlomo, 274-280 passim 

Sharon Steel Corp., 74 

Shlesinger, Sigmund, 106 

Shokeid, Moshe, 80-81 

Shopkeepers. See Storekeepers 

Silver, Abba Hillel, 215, 235-243 

picture, 236 

Silverman, David Wolf, 270 

Silverstone, Aaron, 144, 148 

picture, 146 

Silverstone, Gedaliah, 148 

picture, 146 

Simon, Reeva S., 268 

Simpson, Louis, 254 

Singer, David, 284 

Siskin, Edgar E., 228, 231 

picture, 224 

Six-Day War, 49 

Sklare, Marshall, 28 5 

Skolnick, Laurie (Mrs. Dennis Levine), 72 

Slawson, John, 284 

Slobin, Mark, 99 

Smejkal (Viennese friends of S. Hershan), 

205-206 

Smith, Alfred E., 123, 127 

Smith, Barney & Co., 72 

Smith, Moe W., 145 

Soapes, Thomas E, 106 

Social Democratic Party (Austria), 182, 198 

Socialist Party 

in Austria, 187 

in Mexico, I I 

inU.S.,9,11, 20,121, 127,246 

Sofer, P., 148 

Sokolow, Ira, 73 

Sommerfield, Adolph W., 105 

Sonderling, Jacob, I 54 

Sonneschein, Rosa, 106

Sorin, Gerald, 79, 99 

Southern .New Jersey Synagogues (Meyers), 

reviewed, so1 

"The Soviet Flun Uaffe), 253 

Spanish Jewry, 148 

Spier, Leslie, 225 

"The Spiritual Foundations of Judaism and 

Other Essays" (Feinberg), 104 

Sprecher, Hannah, 168 

Stalin, Joseph, 77, 78 

Stamford, Conn., 285 

Stamford Jewish Historical Society, 285 

State Department, U.S., 142, 240 

Steinberg, Milton, 57 

Steinberg, Stephen, 248 

Steinschneider, Alexander, 284 

Sterling, Louis, 125 

Stettheimer, Max, 27 

Storekeepers, 26, 27, 28 

The Story of an Argentinian Passion 

(Mallea), 55 

Strauss, Nathan, 21 5 

Strength from Eating (McFadden), 76 

Der Stuermer, 187 

Sullivan, Christopher D., I I 8 

Sullivan, Harry Stack, 225, 230 

Sulzberg, Meyer, 284 

Supple, Barry E., 75 

Swedenborg, Emanuel, 65 

Swedenborgianism, 65-68 passim 

Switzerland, 190, 191-1 92 

Synagogues, IOI 

Syrian Jews, in Brooklyn, N.Y., 99 

Syrkin, Marie, 41 

Takelma Indians, 226 

Tallassee Textile Mill (Ala.), 35 

Talmud, study of, 228-229, 230 

Tammany Hall, I 27 

Tanu Rabbanan: Our Rabbis Taught 

(Glaser), reviewed, IOO 

Tedlow, Richard S., 249 

Telegraph, economic effect of, 30 

The Temple (Cleveland), 237, 238, 241 

Temple Beth-El (New York City), 209 

Temple Beth El Hebrew Relief Society 

(Detroit), so3 

Temple Emanu-El (New York City), 26 

Index 301 

Testamentos e Inventarios (Wolff & Wolff), 


"Testimony" uuergensen), 250 

Testimony: Selected Poems, 1954-1986 

Uuergensen), reviewed, 250-254 

Texas, Jews of, 10s 

Texas Jewish Herald, I 5 I 

Theology, Jewlsh, 284 

Theresienstadt (concentration camp), 197, 

201 

Thorberg, Brundin (Mrs. Roberto 

Haberman), 9, 19 

Tiferet Israel Congregation (Cleveland), 23 8 

Der Tog, 147 

Togeblatt, 147 

Toller, Emst, 87 

Toronto, Ont., 256 

"Tragedy of Shylock" gaffe), 253-254 

A Treatise on the Millenium (Bush), 62 

Triangle Flre, 246 

Truman, Harry S., 240 

Tsevat, Matitiahu, 98 

Two Jewish Justices: Outcasts in the 

Promised Land (Burt), reviewed, 

258-261 

Ulfelder, Sidney, 17 

Unamuno, Miguel de, 55 

Unfilled Promise; Rescue and Resettlement 

ofJewish Refugee Children in the 

United States (Baumel), reviewed, 

I00 

Union of Orthodox Rabbis, 139-152 

passim 

United Jewish Appeal, 237 

United Jews of Newport (Newport, Ky.), 

103 

United Nations, 23 8 

United Palestine Appeal, 237 

United Synagogue, Committee on Religious 

Observance, I 37 

University of Judaism, 285 

University Settlement (New York City), 123 

"Unraveling an American-Jewish Synthesis: 

Rosa Sonneschein's The American 

Jewess, 1895-1899" (Balin), 

reviewed, 106 

Urofsky, Melvin I., 286


Utah, 30 

Valdez, Miguel Aleman, 30 

The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of 

Israel Revived (Bush), 65, 68 

Vargas, Getulio, 94 

Vasconcelos, Jose, 12, 13 

Veterans Administration Hospital (Lebanon, 

Pa.), 20 

Vieira, Nelson, 264 

Vienna, Austria, 181, 182, 196, 198-206 

passim 

Vienna, Congress of, I 99 

Vietnam War, 279 

The Virile Powers of Superb Manhood 

(McFadden), 76 

Volstead Act, 135-137,165 

Wagner, Robert E, 126 

"Waiting for You to Reappear in the House 

We Never Left" Uaffe), 254 

Walker, James J., 115, 124, 127 

"Walt Whitman at Bear Mountain" 

(Simpson), 254 

Warburg, Felix, 224 

War criminals, Nazi, 202-203, 279, 280 

Washofsky, Mark E., 272 

Waterman, T. T., 23 I 

Watertown, N.Y., 27 

Wechsberg, Joseph, zoz 

Weiner, Miriam, 100-IOI 

Weinreich, Max, 229 

Weisberg, David, 269 

Weisberg, Ophra, 269 

Weisberger, R. William, 75 

Weisser, Michael R., 42 

Weiss-Rosmarin, Trude, 106 

Weizmann, Chaim, 238, 241 

Wernik, Joseph, 48 

West End Synagogue (New York City), 103 

Wheeling, W.Va., 237 

"When Wine Enters, Secrets Are Revealed" 

(Horowitz), 167 

White Paper on Palestine (1939), 238 

White Slave Traffic Act, 8 

Whitfield, Stephen J., 249 

"Whitman on the Scaffold" Uaffe), 254 

Whorf, Benjamin, 23 I 

Wiesenthal, Simon, 201-203 

Wilkis, Robert, 72, 73 

Wilson, Woodrow, 9, 16, 164, 165 

Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies, 

285 

Wine, Jewish ritual use of, 137, 140, 162 

Winegarten, Ruth, IOI 

Winkler-Campagna, Helga, 204 

Wise, Isaac Mayer, 100, 219 

Wise, Stephen S., 107, 164, 168, 215, 238, 

239, 2419 279 

Wishram Indians, 226 

"With the Bolsheviks of Yucatan" 

(Haberman), I I 

Wolfenstein, Alfred, 87 

Wolff, Egon, 92-95 passim 

Wolff, Frieda, 92-95 passim 

Women 

in Colonial and Early National periods, 

103 

and Conservative Judaism, 271 

on Lower East Side, 246 

organizations of, 103, 104, 106 

status of, in Judaism, 283 

suffrage of, in Mexico, I I 

Women's Auxiliary of the Hebrew Home 

(Washington, D.C.), 106 

Workmen's Circle, 20, 107 

"Workmen's Circle: Its New Jersey Story" 

(Patt), 107 

Works Projects Administration (WPA), 285 

World War I, 8, 101, 122, 220 

World War I1 

and American sealers in Israel, 43-44 

and German nationals in U.S., 195 

and Grand Street Boys' Association, I 23, 

refugees, 94, 100, 106, 195, 263 

See also Holocaust 

World Zionist Organization and 

Argentinian Jewry, 263 

Organization Department, 48 

Wyman, David, roo 

Yale University, 226-1 3 I passim

Yellow badge, 276 

Yeridah, 80 

Yeshiva University, 267 

Yiddish language and culture, 78, 229, 230 

in Canada, 256 

Kovno dialect, 229 

Yiddish newspapers, 147, 246 

in Canada, 256 

Yiddish Scientific Institute of Vilna (YIVO), 

229 

YIVO Annual, vol. 19, reviewed, 99 

YIVO World Convention (1938), 229 

Yohanan ben Zakkai, 211 

Yordim, in Queens, N.Y., 81-86 

Young, Mel, IOI 

Young Men's Hebrew Association Literary 

Circle (Cincinnati), 103 

Yucatan Peninsula, 10, I 1 

Yudelovich, A. A., 147-150 passim 

picture, 142 

Index 

Zionism 

and aliyah from U.S., 41 in Argentina, 

56, 263, 264 

at Hebrew Union College, 214-217 

and Brandeis, 258-259, 260 

and Christians. See Christian Zionists 

and Frankfurter, 259 

and Holocaust, 81 

and Kohler, 207-221 

opposition to, 77, 106, 209, 212-213, 

219, 276 

and Orthodox Judaism, 207, 212-213, 

213-221, 217 

political, 212, 217 

in U.S., 46, 209, 220-221, 237-239, 

258-259, 286 

and yeridah, 8 I, 82 

Zionist Congress, Twenty-first, 238 

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), 

239, 7-42 

Zuckmayer, Carl, zoo 

Zurich, Switzerland, 192

Monographs of the American Jewish Archives 

I. Jewish Americana (1954) 

2. An American Jewish Bibliography 

by Allan E. Levine (1959) 

3. Reference to Jews in the Newport Mercury, 1758-1786 

by Irwin S. Rhodes (1961) 

4. The Theology of Isaac Mayer Wise 

by Andrew E Key (19 62) 

5. Manual of the American Jewish Archives 

by David M. Zielonka (1966) 

6. Selected Items of American Jewish Interest in 

the Yiddish Periodicals of Russia and Poland, 1862-1940 

by Leo Shpall (1966) 

7. Commerce and Contraband in New Orleans during the 

French and Indian War 

by A. P. Nasatir and James R. Mills (1968) 

8. The Jews of Coro, Venezuela 

by Isaac S. Emmanuel (1973) 

9. A Century of Memories: 

The East European Jewish Experience in America 

edited by Uri D. Herscher (1982) 

10. Among the Survivors of the Holocaust-1945 

The Landsberg DP Camp 

Letters of Major Irving Heymont, 

United States Army (I y 82) 

I I. The Jewish Experience. 

A Guide to Manuscript Sources in 

the Library of Congress 

compiled by Gary J. Kohn (1986) 

12. We are Leaving Mother Russia: 

Chapters in the Russian-Jewish Experience 

by Kerry M. Olitzky (1990)

Brochure Series of the American Jewish Archives 

I Tracing Your Jewish Roots 

Malcolm H. Stern (1977) 

I1 Latin American Jewish Studies 

Judith L. Elkin (1980) 

111 Jews, Judaism and the American Constitution 

Milton R. Konvitz and Leo Pfeffer (1982) 

IV Sir Moses Montefiore: American Jewry's Ideal 

Mosbe Davis (1985) 

V Style and Situation: The Emergence of American Jewish 

Fiction 

Stanely E Chyet (1985) 

VI Jews in the Origins of Modern Science and Bacon's 

Scientific Utopia: The Life and Work of Joachim Gaunse, 

Mining Technologist and First Recorded Jew in English- 

speaking North America 

Lewis S. Feuer (1987) 

VII The American Rabbinate, 1960-1986: A Bibliographic 

Essay 

Gary P. Zola (1988) 

VIII Saints and Sinners: The Underside of American Jewish 

History 

Arthur A. Goren (1988) 

IX Sing A New Song: American Jewish Poetry Since the 

Holocaust 

Gary Pacernick with photographs by Layle Silbert (1991) 

X The Changing Concept of "Mission" in American Reform 

Judaism 

Allon Gal (1991)

Brief Notices - American Jewish Archives

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