Tuesday July 22

Attended the farewell
dinner for Judge Strahl
who is leaving for Palestine
to install in Jerusalem the
Judea Insurance Co, given
by the Order sons of Zion,

Only in the midst of
idealists I find myself at home.

------------------

Matt's Notes

Judge Strahl was one of the most prominent leaders of Order Sons of Zion (B'nai Zion) the Zionist fraternal order and mutual support society Papa belonged to. Here's what the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal register had to say about him:

Jacob S. Strahl was born in the New York in 1876, was educated in the New York Public and Hish Schools and received his degree of Bachelor of Laws from the New York Law School in 1897. He was elected Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of New York in 1909. Prior thereto, for nine years, he was associated with former New York Supreme Court Justice James A. Blanchard.

Judge Strahl has shown a great interest in Jewish work. He is the president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association of Williamsburg, and the Nasi of the Order B'nai Zion.

Archived New York Times articles about Strahl attest to his reputation as a liberal judge, as does this 1920 reelection campaign postcard depicting him protecting two hapless tenants from an eviction-minded "rent profiteer." It looks like his campaign methods got him in trouble with the Brooklyn Bar Association, though their campaign to discipline him for "conduct unbecoming an attorney" eventually came to naught. Strahl was no longer the Nasi of B'nai Zion in 1924 ("nasi" roughly translates from the Hebrew as "prince," so I suppose B'nai Zion was no different from other fraternal organizations in its use of grand, archaic titles for its leaders) but he was on its executive committee and obviously one of its most active ambassadors.

Interestingly, the Judea Insurance Company he helped install in Palestine would, five years later, list as its Vice President none other than Vladimir Jabotinsky, one of Israel's founding fathers. This was part of a larger development in which B'nai Zion threw its support behind Jabotinsky's Revisionist Zionism Movement, an aggressive strain of Zionism that put Jabotinsky at odds with the Chaim Weizmann's more moderate, centrist movement. This brings up some interesting questions about which brand of idealism Papa preferred -- as of 1924 he seemed enamored of Weizmann, and as a pacifist he may not have liked Jabotinsky's militarism. I'd love to know where he stood when B'nai Zion aligned with Jabotinsky, but we can only speculate.


----------------

References:

• Check out this life insurance policy signed by Judea Insurance Company Vice President Vladimir Jabotinsky in 1929. Jacob Strahl is listed as President.
• Here's an ad for the Judea Insurance Company (a Google Books excerpt of From New Zion to Old Zion: American Jewish Immigration and Settlement in Palestine, 1917-1939.)
• JUSTICE STRAHL WINS.; Appellate Division Dismisses Proceedings by Brooklyn Bar Association (From the New York Times Archive).

Sunday Mar 9

The unexpected happened
Brother Friedman's wife
died suddenly, and it was
my sad duty as a brother
of one camp to attend the
funeral, which depressed
me.

I spent the evening at
Jack Zichlinsky's house

----------------

Matt's Notes

As noted earlier, Papa was an officer in a new chapter of the fraternal Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion) though this is the first time he referred to a fellow member as "Brother." Papa usually called his friends like Jack Zichlinsky (he of Sheepshead Bay) by name even if they were B'nai Zion members, so I wonder if Papa wasn't quite as close to Brother Freidman.

B'nai Zion functioned in part as a burial society (the rest of their charter included Zionist fund-raising, teaching Hebrew and providing life insurance) so maybe Papa went to Mrs. Freidman's funeral more out of official, "sad duty" than out of pure friendship. Jews require a minyan -- a group of ten or more men -- to say kaddish (the prayer for the dead) at a funeral. I expect B'nai Zion guaranteed such a quorum for the families of all its members, which may be the duty Papa refers to here.

Speaking of which, Papa noted the day before that he "found a message from Lemus" asking him to attend the funeral. This brings up a lot of little questions: How, exactly, did he find this note? Did Lemus slip it under Papa's door? Did he stick it in a mailbox? And who was Lemus? Was he an elected officer of Papa's B'nai Zion chapter charged with distributing notes under such circumstances? Was he the superintendent of Papa's building? Did people like Papa, who didn't have a phone at this time, typically communicate by dropping notes at their friends' and neighbors' apartments?

Must...learn...more...

Tuesday Jan 22

Light

A Poem by
Francis William Bourdillon
-----------------------
The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
with the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

----------------

Matt's Notes

Papa has clearly not shaken the wistful, reflective mood triggered by his Hebrew birthday and the arrival of his niece's wedding photo on the previous day. You need only read this poem a couple of times to understand his mood.

------------

Call for research help

It's about to get harder for me to spend as much time as I'd like on research for this project. That's why I'm asking you, my legions of readers -- and make no mistake, your numbers are so vast that to keep count takes almost all of my fingers -- for help.

I've posted a page on this site called "Cry For Help" with a list of the many people, places, organizations, musical references, events and details of New York life that appear in Papa's diary. If you know about or are interested in any of these subjects, please write to me at papasdiary 'at' gmail.com or post comments about them. If you’d really like to dig in to a subject that might require ongoing research or collaboration, let me know and I'll set up a collaborative document for us to work on.

I've added the list of subjects below, but it'll always be available on the "Cry For Help" page of this site.

Note: If you want to delve into anything under a "some information already collected" heading, please let me know and I'll share with you what I've got.

--------------------------------

Organizations:

Total mysteries:

• David Wolpohn Club
• Downtown Zionist Club
• Holland Belgium Club
• Jewish Students Club
• Judea Insurance Company
• Kessler Zion Club
• Kinereth Camp (probably a B'nai Zion camp in Borough Park)

Some information already collected:

• B'nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion)
• Bar Kochba camp of B'nai Zion
• Hebrew Free Loan Society
• Keren Hayesod
• Montefiore Home (later hospital)
• Tikwaith Yehuda club
• Zionist Organization of America
• Information or artifacts and photos relating to Jewish fraternal organizations in general

People (many names are incomplete in the diary, but most of these people would be affiliated with B'nai Zion, Keren Hayesod or the Zionist Organization of America):

Total mysteries:

• "Rabbi Cook"
• "Mr. Graf"
• Rabbi David Horowitz
• Leibel Krebs (described as "a legendary figure from the old country")
• "Dr. Schecter"
• "Dr. Thon"
• And a ZOA organizer mysteriously named "Blitz"

Some information already collected:

• Joseph Bluestone
• David Blaustien
• Abraham Goldberg
• Arthur Ruppin
• "Judge Strahl"
• Maurice Samuel
• "Mr. Zeldin"

President Calvin Coolidge

• Relationships with Zionism and labor
• February 12 speech on radio
• February 22 speech on radio
• Radio announcement of reelection on November 4

Places

Total mysteries:

• Boisy (?) Hotel
• Café Royal
• Malick's Restaurant
• Regina Mansion
• Snyatyn Synagogue
• Spring Valley, New York -- Jewish summer colonies or other Jewish presence

Some information already collected:

• Pennsylvania Hotel

Movies and Movie Theaters

Total mysteries:

• Academy of Music
• "Song of Love"
• "White Sister"
• Lists of releases playing in New York for each month of 1924

Some information already collected:

• Capitol Theatre
• Clinton Theatre
• "Woman of Paris"

Sports

Some information already collected:

• Abe Goldstein (a professional boxer; won a title fight in 1924)
• 1924 New York Yankees
• 1924 New York Giants
• 1924 Brooklyn Robins (a.k.a. "Dodgers")

Leisure

General and specific information needed:

• Central Park in the 20's, esp. scenes of people rowing
• Coney Island of the 20's (overall experience, transportation, summer rental lockers)

Music (history, clips, general background, 1924 prevailing opinion, reviews or performances and recordings):

• "Drigo's Serendade"
• Eastern European Folk tunes that would have been played in immigrant-oriented Radio in 1924
• Gypsy String Orchestra (particularly their radio presence in the 1920's)
• "Gypsy Chardash"
• "Indian Love Lyrics" (?)
• Kessler's Theater
• "Kreuzer Sonata" (at Kessler's theater on 10/9/24)
• "Rubenstein's Romance"
• "Shubert's Waltz op 64#2"
• "Sleeping Beauty
• "Straus's Waltz, Artist's Dream"
• "Tosca"

Opera (history, clips, general background, 1924 prevailing opinion, reviews or performances and recordings):

• "Cavalleria rusticana" (March 8th Performance)
• "Carmen" (December 4th performance at the Met)
• "Le Roi de Lahore" (March 26th at the Met)
• L'Cock D'or (heard on radio march 30)
• L'Oracolo" (heard on radio march 30)
• Madame Butterfly" (November 22nd performance)
• "Martha" (December 5th performance)
• "Mefistofele" (with Chaliapin, November 24 performance)
• "Pagliacci (March 8th Performance)
• "Tannhauser" (November 5th at the Met)
• General History of the Met, the New York Opera scene, and what the Opera experience would have been like for cash-strapped immigrants

Radio events and history:

• 1924 Democratic convention coverage radio coverage
• November 4 Election returns coverage
• November 5 Coolidge reelection announcement
• 1924 Democratic convention coverage, esp. June 26, June 30, July 8
• April 14 Daughters of the American Revolution ceremony
• Radio Station WEAF
• WNYC history esp. early broadcasts in July and August

Lifestyle:

• Cars (Photos and information regarding cars available to immigrants in the 1920's)
• Writing instruments (Photos of pens and pencils used in the 1920's)
• Telephones (usage and technology in 1924, images of private phones in 1920's)
• Public transportation (trolley and subway history, maps, fare information, usage in 1920's)

Cry For Help

It's about to get harder for me to spend as much time as I'd like on research for this project. That's why I'm calling on you, my legions of readers -- and make no mistake, your numbers are so vast that to keep count takes almost all of my fingers -- for research help.

The following list contains the many people, places, organizations, musical references, events and details of New York life that appear in Papa's diary. If you know about or are interested in any of these subjects, please write to me at papasdiary 'at' gmail.com or post comments about them. If you’d really like to dig in to a subject that might require ongoing research or collaboration, let me know and I'll set up a collaborative document for us to work on.

Note: If you want to delve into anything under a "some information already collected" heading, please let me know and I'll share with you what I've got.

Thanks!

Matt
1/21/07

--------------------------------

Organizations:

Total mysteries:

• David Wolpohn Club
• Downtown Zionist Club
• Holland Belgium Club
• Jewish Students Club
• Judea Insurance Company
• Kessler Zion Club
• Kinereth Camp (probably a B'nai Zion camp in Borough Park)

Some information already collected:

• B'nai Zion (a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion)
• Bar Kochba camp of B'nai Zion
• Hebrew Free Loan Society
• Keren Hayesod
• Montefiore Home (later hospital)
• Tikwaith Yehuda club
• Zionist Organization of America
• Information or artifacts and photos relating to Jewish fraternal organizations in general

People (many names are incomplete in the diary, but most of these people would be affiliated with B'nai Zion, Keren Hayesod or the Zionist Organization of America):

Total mysteries:

• 
  
• "Mr. Graf"
• Rabbi David Horowitz
• Leibel Krebs (described as "a legendary figure from the old country")
• "Dr. Schecter"
• "Dr. Thon"
• And a ZOA organizer mysteriously named "Blitz"
• I.S. Hurwich

Some information already collected:

• "Rabbi Cook"
• Joseph Bluestone
• David Blaustien
• Abraham Goldberg
• Arthur Ruppin
• "Judge Strahl"
• Maurice Samuel
• "Mr. Zeldin"
• Eisig (Isaac) Roth
• David Yelies or Yellis, a Zionist who lived in Palestine and visited New York in 1924
  

President Calvin Coolidge

• Relationships with Zionism and labor
• February 12 speech on radio
• February 22 speech on radio
• Radio announcement of reelection on November 4

Places

Total mysteries:

• Boisy (?) Hotel
• Malick's Restaurant
• Regina Mansion
• Snyatyn Synagogue

Some information already collected:

• Pennsylvania Hotel
• Café Royal
• Spring Valley, New York -- Jewish summer colonies or other Jewish presence

Movies and Movie Theaters

Total mysteries:

• Lists of releases playing in New York for each month of 1924

Some information already collected:

• Capitol Theatre
• Clinton Theatre
• "Woman of Paris"
• Academy of Music
• "Song of Love"
• "White Sister"

Sports

Some information already collected:

• Abe Goldstein (a professional boxer; won a title fight in 1924)
• 1924 New York Yankees
• 1924 New York Giants
• 1924 Brooklyn Robins (a.k.a. "Dodgers")

Leisure

General and specific information needed:

• Central Park in the 20's, esp. scenes of people rowing
• Coney Island of the 20's (overall experience, transportation, summer rental lockers)

Music (history, clips, general background, 1924 prevailing opinion, reviews or performances and recordings):

• "Drigo's Serendade"
• Eastern European Folk tunes that would have been played in immigrant-oriented Radio in 1924
• Gypsy String Orchestra (particularly their radio presence in the 1920's)
• "Gypsy Chardash"
• "Indian Love Lyrics" (?)
• Kessler's Theater
• "Kreuzer Sonata" (at Kessler's theater on 10/9/24)
• "Rubenstein's Romance"
• "Shubert's Waltz op 64#2"
• "Sleeping Beauty
• "Straus's Waltz, Artist's Dream"
• "Tosca"

Opera (history, clips, general background, 1924 prevailing opinion, reviews or performances and recordings):

• "Cavalleria rusticana" (March 8th Performance)
• "Carmen" (December 4th performance at the Met)
• "Le Roi de Lahore" (March 26th at the Met)
• L'Cock D'or (heard on radio march 30)
• L'Oracolo" (heard on radio march 30)
• Madame Butterfly" (November 22nd performance)
• "Martha" (December 5th performance)
• "Mefistofele" (with Chaliapin, November 24 performance)
• "Pagliacci (March 8th Performance)
• "Tannhauser" (November 5th at the Met) would also love an English translation of Heine's Elementargeister, on which this opera is partly based
  
• General History of the Met, the New York Opera scene, and what the Opera experience would have been like for cash-strapped immigrants

Radio events and history:

• 1924 Democratic convention coverage radio coverage
• November 4 Election returns coverage
• November 5 Coolidge reelection announcement
• 1924 Democratic convention coverage, esp. June 26, June 30, July 8
• April 14 Daughters of the American Revolution ceremony
• Radio Station WEAF
• WNYC history esp. early broadcasts in July and August

Lifestyle:

• Cars (Photos and information regarding cars available to immigrants in the 1920's)
• Writing instruments (Photos of pens and pencils used in the 1920's)
• Telephones (usage and technology in 1924, images of private phones in 1920's)
• Public transportation (trolley and subway history, maps, fare information, usage in 1920's)

---------------

Update 6/18/07:

Reader Ben writes:

In your "Notes on Usage" article, you remark that your grandfather began quotations with quote marks at the bottom of the line. This is the typographic standard for German and, I think, Polish. In computer typography (Unicode especially), they're referred to as "low-nine quotes"

Ben is working on some software to facilitate manuscript transcription. You can read about it at his blog, manuscripttranscription.blogspot.com.

Saturday Nov 1

Visited Bar Kochba Camp
in Bronx. Enjoyed
Judget Stahls adress on
his impressions in Palestine
and later went home
together with him.

I have hired a religious man
this eve. to say Kadish for the
soul of my beloved father for
the remaining 5 months as
it will be impossible for me to
do so in the winter however
at every opportunity I will
go to the Synagogue to say it
myself also.

I paid the man $5.00 deposit
and $5.00 more to be paid.

-----------

Matt's Notes

There's lots to cover here but not a lot of time, so let's hit the facts:

1 - The "Bar Kochba" Camp in the Bronx is a chapter of B'nai Zion, a.k.a. Order Sons of Zion, the fraternal order to which Papa belonged. The nickname refers to the fierce warrior, Simon Bar Cochba, who led a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 A.D. and briefly reclaimed much of Palestine before his forces were defeated in 135 A.D. (The revolt had been brewing for some time but apparently started in earnest when the Emperor Hadrian attempted to build a temple to Jupiter where the Jewish people expected to build their Third Temple). I'm sure Papa approved of the "Bar Cochba" camp's nickname because it conveyed an image of strength and competence; he had insisted on nicknaming his own B'nai Zion camp "The Maccabean" after the Jewish warriors of old.

2 - Papa left the Bar Cochba camp (located at 953 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx) with Jacob Strahl, a liberal Judge and former B'nai Zion Nasi (or head) who left for Palestine back in July in order to establish the Judea Insurance Company on behalf of B'nai Zion. Papa attended a farewell dinner on the eve of Strahl's departure and found it inspiring, so he must have been thrilled to travel back to Manhattan with him.

3 - As my mother pointed out a while back, observant Jews say Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, morning and night for the first year after the death of a loved one. I think Papa had been pretty diligent about it and I'm not sure why he felt he'd be unable to continue this practice into the winter (perhaps he expected to work more hours or an earlier shift at the factory) but it's not unusual to hire someone to say these prayers if the need arises. (When Papa died, his sister Clara gave money to a group called the Old Sages of Israel to say Kaddish for him.)

4 - The bottom of this diary page has a printed message that reads:

A REMINDER -- Have you ordered your diary for next year?
For duplicate of this book order by number in front.

I don't know if Papa ever ordered another diary, because this is the only one I have. Can it really be so close to the end?

-----------------

References for this post:

• Simon Bar Cochba at Wikipedia
• Simon Bar Cochba at the Jewish Virtual Library

Sunday May 4

Attended <2> games at Polo
grounds, and after that attended Maccabean
meeting at Pennsylvania
Hotel.

I am glad to notice
that my beloved camp
is progressing even if
slowly, at every meeting
it is my pleasant duty
to initiate new members.

Our meeting was visited
by guests of various O.B.Z.
camps in the city.

--------------

Matt's Notes

I enjoy the ironic, playful tone of the New York Times' baseball writing from Papa's day, but I think the anonymous New York Giants beat writer is my favorite. Here's how he (presumably not she) opens his account of the double header Papa saw:

If 42,000 persons had not been present it would be kinder to say nothing about what happened at the Polo Grounds yesterday. But by this time it is no secret that the Giants brutally assaulted the hapless and helpless Phillies, winning both ends of the Sunday double-header, 13 to 3 and 12 to 3. Not all of the 42,000 saw the massacre through, for some were faint-hearted and others wanted to get home while there was still daylight enough to find their way there.

He goes on to wonder why anyone would see the Phillies in the first place, "even though they were twice offered for sacrifice at the nominal price of $1.10." This serves as a great example of the resourcefulness required of baseball writers to say essentially the same thing 154 times a year (the length of the season in 1924) and also answers my question of what Papa paid for tickets. The Polo Grounds would have had over 10,000 empty seats that day, but I think this photo of the more crowded stands on opening day of 1923 still gives us a good idea of what the field looked like from Papa's point of view:



I also continue to be amazed at how quickly baseball games were played back then. The double header described above wrapped up in four hours (yesterday's Yankees double header took 6) allowing Papa plenty of time to hop on the IRT at 155th Street, head down to Penn Station, and make his "Maccabean" meeting at the Hotel Pennsylvania.

"Maccabean," as noted before, refers to Papa's chapter of the Zionist mutual aid society B'nai Zion. It looks like the meeting he attended was larger than usual and included members of other B'nai Zion camps (it must have taken place in one of the Pennsylvania's private dining rooms) because it was an induction ceremony for new members. Papa would have run the meeting and conducted the initiation rituals in his capacity as Master of Ceremonies.

On minor quirk in this entry is Papa's use of the initials "O.B.Z" to refer to B'nai Zion. This must be an inadvertent conflation of the group's Hebrew (B'nai Zion) and English (Order Sons of Zion) names, unless I'm reading his handwriting wrong:



-------------

Additional Notes:

The Jewish Daily Forward, descendant of the venerable Yiddish daily that Papa most certainly read in his youth, published a story about Papa's Diary Project in this week's English language issue. It's called "Dear Diary: Back in Time" and you can read it here.

-------------

References:

• Information on the Polo Grounds at ballparksofbaseball.com
• The New York Times account of the Giants' dismantling of the Phillies

-----------------

Image source:

Opening Day, Polo Ground, 4.26/1923. Library of Congress #LC-B2- 5982-1

Thursday Mar 13

Attend Maccabean camp
meeting.

----------------------

Matt's Notes

Earlier in the year, Papa co-founded a new chapter of the fraternal Order Sons of Zion (B'nai Zion) and persuaded his fellow members to nickname it the "Maccabean" camp. As previously noted, the Maccabees were legendary Jewish warriors, so the nickname carried with it a certain combative edge, a deliberate challenge to the caricature of Jews as physically inept and resigned to bad luck.

Papa may have had another inspiration for his camp's nickname, too: "The Maccabean" was the flagship publication of B'nai Zion's parent organization, the Federation of American Zionists (FAZ). My research here is a little muddy, but it looks like the FAZ became the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) around 1917. In any event, the FAZ/ZOA spun off B'nai Zion in 1908, partly to provide health insurance to its members but also to "help the Zionist Congress in the work of obtaining for the Jewish people a legally secured, publicly assured national home in Palestine."¹

I'm sure Papa had a lot to report at his Maccabean meeting that day, because the night before he'd attended a major event at the Hotel Astor (pictured below) at which a prominent rabbi declared his support for Zionism after years of ambivalence. Papa had felt discouraged in the course of his activist work over the winter, but with the weather warming up and his beloved cause making strides, his spirits must have brightened considerably.

----------------

Additional Notes

I didn't say much about the Hotel Astor yesterday, but here's what I know: It was a 500-bedroom, 300-bathroom beauty that rose ten stories above Broadway on the block between 44th Street and and 45th street.




The wall between its two ballrooms could be moved to accommodate large functions like the one Papa attended, though when it first opened in 1907 1904 the Times got most excited about its thermostats:

In each [room] there is a "temperature regulator." The ordinary method of turning the radiator valves is supplanted by an automatic device enabling the guest to set a pointer upon a clocklike figured scale at a degree of temperature desired.

The building came down, temperature regulators and all, in 1967 to make room for the office tower known as 1515 Broadway, where Viacom now resides. Nyc-architecture.com mourns its passing with a typical, and justified, howl of agony.

(Image source: Library of Congress call number HABS NY,31-NEYO,72-.)

--------------

My mother adds:

Lots of people, including yours truly. would meet their dates at the Astor (under the clock). I think this is mentioned in Salinger or is it Fitzgerald---and I'm sure many other books. I'm amazed that Papa allowed his priceless
treasure to go "into the city" to meet rapacious young men, but I did nonetheless. Relationships were more proper in those days and my dates always took me home.

----------

1 - Quoted from B'nai Zion's 75th anniversary historic review pamphlet.

Friday Feb 29/Saturday Mar 1

[1924 was a leap year, so I've published February 29th and March 1 on this page]

Little Ruchaly still seriously ill, which worries me greatly. After listening for some time to the radio. -- I went to Jack Zichlinsky's house where in company of friend I spent until 1:15 a.m
Ruchaly feels slightly better after visiting some Zionist societies in the Evening with friend Louis Bluestone, I spent the rest of the evening at the Cafe Royal where I met many friends until 3:30 a.m. I sent to parents $5.00

---------------

Matt's Notes

Once, around twenty years ago, my mother, grandmother, sister and I were driving around Brooklyn when my grandmother looked at a building and suddenly blurted out "Jack Zichlinsky lived there!" I laughed for about three hours because she really exploded and I had no idea who she was talking about.

Obviously, though, Jack was a good friend of Papa's since at least the 1920's, so they had really been through the ringer together if their lives were at all similar. My mother tells me that, when Papa died in 1971, Jack cried while saying kaddish for him. Jack's tombstone apparently displays the insignia of the Order Sons of Zion (B'nai Zion) the fraternal order to which he and Papa belonged.

Speaking of B'nai Zion, the March 1 post mentions Louis Bluestone, which surprises me because I thought the "Bluestone" Papa has talked about was Dr. Joseph Bluestone, one of the early B'nai Zion leaders (Papa often says "Bluestone" in the same breath as "Blaustein", who was also a B'nai Zion leader). Perhaps Louis was Joseph's brother or son; I'll have to look into it.

-------------

Update March 1

My mother adds:

What was even more funny about the J.Z. story is that every time we passed Sheepshead Bay, Nana would point out his home. It became a dumb family joke.

Thursday Jan 24

Again meetings

Right from work one
meeting attended at the
Biosy Central Hotel by
the East Side K.H. Executors
and the 2nd meeting
of the Maccabean Camp
at 50 Delancey St,

I notice that our new
camp is gradually
improving.

------------------

Papa worked in a garment factory, but he doesn't write much about it. Perhaps, after so many years of factory work, his routine didn't surprise him enough to warrant much attention in his diary, or maybe he just considered his Zionist activities to be his "real"work.

In any event, knowing he went right from the factory to a series of meetings gives us another small hint as to what the atmosphere in those meetings was like. I'm not sure yet whether they convened in smoky, crowded social club basements, in private apartments where boxes of Zionist flyers stood in for chairs, or in little rented offices papered with Yiddish posters. Maybe Papa and his compadres pressed around the corner table of a kosher restaurant in a tight ring, craning their necks to see whatever papers or materials their leader spread out before them, urgently pointing and gesturing.

We do know, though, that they were all probably dirty and tired, their clothes and hair and nails carrying with them whatever traces of grease or thread or dust or blood their professions exposed them to. I wonder, too, how many of them were like Papa -- clever, articulate people who couldn't wait to rush from work to these gatherings where their ideas and powers of reason and most serious thoughts, having been suppressed all day, could finally burst forth and collide in the air. Maybe the American Zionist and labor movements benefited, in some way, from the way this pent-up intellectual energy fueled the urgency of meetings like the ones Papa attended.

By the way, for those of you just joining us, "K.H" refers to Keren Hayesod, a Zionist fundraising organization that's still around today. "The Maccabean Camp" refers to Papa's chapter of the Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion) a charitable fraternal organization I've mentioned before. Here are some stats about them from the 1924-1925 American Jewish Year Book:

ORDER SONS OF ZION
Org. Apl. 19, 1908. OFFICE: 44 E. 23rd, New York City
Fourteenth Annual Convention, July 1923, New Haven, Conn.
Camps, 101. Members 7,000.
PURPOSE: Fraternal and Zionistic

And here's a little more background from the 1917-1918 Jewish Communal Register:

PURPOSE: "Aims to improve the condition of the whole Jewish people at large and to help the Zionist Congress create for the Jewish people a publicly owned, legally secured home in Palestine."

BENEFITS: Graded insurance against death ranging from $100.00 to $2000.00. Health and accident insurance.

ACTIVITIES: Supports Jewish and Zionist Educational Institutions. Encourages the study of the Hebrew language

An essay in the Register also has some interesting things to say about the importance of fraternal orders like B'nai Zion:

In their present form the Jewish Orders constitute a valuable and important factor in our communal life. The interests of about a million Jews are involved in their existence and welfare. Their influence for good is of inestimable value to our social activities. In his lodge and order, the Jew, who is a member, finds an agency which affords to him and his family a certain measure of protection in the event of death, illness or distress, and at the same time, a ready means to aid and assist others when in similar circumstances.

But:

With all the good features these organizations possess, and the good work they actually do, their existence as a whole, with very few exceptions, is uncertain and insecure.

As mentioned before, the Jewish fraternal system did indeed become far less important to Jewish life as Jews found other means to organize and Americanize. Still, greatly transformed descendants of fraternal organizations -- including B'Nai Brith and B'Nai Zion -- still carry on.

June 26, 1926 (A.M.) - Buffalo

[Note: This postcard is the first note Papa wrote to my grandmother while he was at a Zionist Organization of America conference in 1926. To see large-sized images of the card, click the thumbnail images on the right of this page.]

--------


Sat. Morning

My dear Jeanie:

Well I am here, I retired
in my sleeper in N.Y. and awoke
this morning in Bufalo. It is
a fine town. I am now preparing
my ammunition to shoot pictures
at Niagara Falls. It feels great
to be here among so many
co-idealists,¹ There is no sea as
in Long Branch² but I'll have
enough of the falls. My friends
are rushing me and the bus is
waiting to take me to the falls.
I therefore write only a card³

Harry

---------------

Matt's Notes

1 - Papa was in Buffalo "among so many co-idealists" at the 29th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America.

2 - Five days earlier, Papa had gone to Long Branch, New Jersey to attend the convention of Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion) the Zionist fraternal order and mutual support society to which he belonged. The New York Times briefly described this gathering:

Sons of Zion in Convention

Long Branch, N.J. June 20 -

Two hundred delegates and as many
more visitors attended the opening of
the seventeenth annual convention of
the order Sons of Zion at the Scarboro
Hotel today. Commissioner W. Stan-
ley Bouse welcomed the delegates.
Louis Lipsky, Chairman of the Zionist
Committee, spoke. The convention
closes tomorrow, when new officers
will be installed.

And, the next day:

Sons of Zion Elect Officers

Long Branch, N.J. June 21.--

The Sons of Zion, meeting in the Scar-
boro Hotel here today, elected Sol
Friedman of New York, President;
Judge Jacob S. Strahl, New York, Vice
President; Jacob I Kiskor, Brooklyn,
Secretary, and Max Fenwick, New York,
Treasurer.

Long Branch was a well-established beach resort community at the time, less than 20 miles as the crow flies from Papa's usual seaside haunts at Coney Island:



Papa probably attended the Sons of Zion conference with the same fraternal brothers, like Blaustein, Bluestone, and Zichlinsky, that he used visit Coney with in 1924. The conference may have been all business, but I'm sure Papa's ocean-loving crew found a moment to join the frolicsome crowds on the beach, like those pictured in this 1923 photo of Long Branch:



Here's a shot of Long Branch's Broadway as it may have looked to Papa during the busy summer season:



And here's the Scarboro hotel, where the B'nai Zion conference took place and where Papa most likely stayed. According to Eddie at historiclongbranch.org (the source of all these Long Branch images) the corner of Bath and Ocean Avenues saw two incarnations of the Scarboro hotel over the years, but by the time Papa got there the newer, modern version was in place:



We should also note that Judge Jacob Strahl, the newly elected President of B'nai Zion mentioned in the Times article above, made a couple of personal appearances in Papa's 1924 diary: one in which Papa accompanied him home from the Bronx after a lecture, and one in which Papa attended a dinner in his honor.

3 - The front of this particular card reads:

67:--Statler Hotel and McKinley Monument, Buffalo, N.Y.

Buffalo was the site of hotel pioneer E.M. Statler's first permanent hotel. Built in 1907, it featured amenities for which his hotel chain would later become famous: cheerful service, affordable rates, and luxuries, like bathrooms in every room, normally unavailable to proletarian travelers. (As my legions of readers who get together each weekend to quiz each other on Papa's Diary trivia no doubt are aware, my comments on Papa's January 30th, 1924 diary entry quotes a brochure about Statler's Hotel Pennsylvania in New York that advertises these very sorts of advantages.)

Like the Hotel Scarboro in Long Branch, the above-pictured version of the Statler Hotel that Papa stayed in was not the original, but a second incarnation. Statler built it in 1923 (and renamed the first Statler the Hotel Buffalo) so when Papa stayed there in 1926 it must have still felt fresh, novel and impressive. It may well have been the most comfortable place that Papa ever stayed, since until then he had known only Jewish ghetto life in Eastern Europe and tenement life on the Lower East Side of New York. Developers converted the building to office space in 1984 and renamed it Statler Towers, but as of this writing it's under new ownership and on its way to becoming a mixture of condominium, hotel and commercial space.

Interestingly, Papa addressed this card not to my grandmother's home on Hart Street in Brooklyn, but to an address just around the corner at 185 Pulaski Street. No one in my family is entirely sure what was at this address, but we think it was a factory owned by my great-grandfather and that my grandmother worked there. This is probably right. Mail was delivered twice a day in those days, so Papa would have addressed letters to her daytime address to make sure she got them as soon as possible. Perhaps he thought this would give him an advantage over other suitors who, he was convinced, were competing with him for her affections.

------------

References:

• Sons of Zion Elect Officers, from the June 22, 1926 New York Times
• Sons of Zion in Convention, from the June 20, 1926 New York Times
• Statler Hotel information at Wikipedia
• A biography of E.M. Statler at forgottendetroit.com

Wednesday Apr 23

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

-----------

Matt's Notes

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

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

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

------------

Additional References

• This site has some photos of Kvutsak Kinneret
• Here's some more on the Sea of Galilee at Wikipedia

Thursday Oct 23

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

---------------

Matt's Notes

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

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

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



-------------

References for this post:

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

------------

Image sources:

• Hotel Astor: Library of Congress call number HABS NY,31-NEYO,72-.
• David Yellin: Appropriated from the Jewish Agency for Israel Web site.

Sunday Feb 17

After a rather monotonous
day spent the Evening at
home with some friends
(Bluestone, Blaustein & Julius)
at a little sociable game.

---------------

Papa was hanging out that night with at least two important figures (Bluestone and Blaustein) from the early days of the Order Sons of Zion. I learned this when I called B'nai Zion's New York office a few months ago; I don't remember exactly how the conversation went, but I think one of the people I spoke to mentioned Bluestone and Blaustein without prompting, and the historical brochure they subsequently sent me devotes prominent space to them.

Since I'm not a practiced historian and I was just starting this project when I made that call, I didn't yet know what it was like to stumble on the the answer to a question I'd never considered, in this case "who were Bluestone and Blaustein?" At most, I'd made a mental note to ask my mother if she'd ever heard of them, but they certainly weren't on my mind or written down anywhere. So, it really rang my bell when they suddenly showed up in my research -- it was like I'd found $20 in the lint screen of the dryer or bumped into David Bowie at the deli.

I half expected the B'nai Zion people to thank me for some reason. They had, after all, devoted their lives to an organization founded by Bluestone and Blaustein. If they hadn't visited my grandfather that night, Bluestone might have gotten run over by a trolley, or Blaustein could have been falsely arrested for smuggling prohibition hooch. At the very least, my grandfather probably served them sandwiches. Doesn't B'nai Zion at least owe me lunch?

Anyhow, nowadays the buzz of sudden discovery is more familiar and routine, more along the lines of finding a parking spot in Chinatown as opposed to hitting the numbers. Still, every name on my Cry For Help list could give me that Bluestone/Blaustein feeling again, so there's nothing for me to do but chase the dragon.

Tuesday July 15

Went with Jack Z. to arrange
with a lawyer about the
camp credit union.

I am alarmed not having
received any call yet
about my naturalization.

----------------------------

Matt's Notes

"Jack Z." is, as we've noted before, the august Jack Zichlinsky, one of Papa's best friends and a brother in the Zionist fraternal organization Order Sons of Zion (B'nai Zion). Immigrants like Papa were used to getting a number of financial, medical and legal services through private, dues-supported organizations like B'nai Zion, which was already a burial society and a reseller of life insurance for its members. As an officer of his local chapter Papa was obviously responsible for organizing its credit union as well.

Though he's discussed B'nai Zion many times before, this entry has the first mention of Papa's naturalization status. According to The National Archives and Ancestry.com Web sites, naturalization would have been a two-step process for Papa: after living in the U.S. for at least two years, he would have filed a Declaration of Intention to naturalize (a.k.a. "First Papers") and after a waiting period of another three to five years he would have filed a Petition for Naturalization.

Ancestry.com's New York County Supreme Court Naturalization Petition Index shows that Papa probably filed his petition in June of 1920. He'd been waiting a while for his naturalization, but I wonder why he picked July 15th, 1924 to feel especially worried about it. Maybe Jack Z.'s own naturalization has just come through and he'd discussed it with Papa while they were out and about, or maybe naturalization chatter had increased in the local community, in the newspapers, or on the radio for some reason. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, a bill that imposed heavy immigration restrictions on Eastern Europeans (among other groups) had also become law couple of months earlier -- maybe Papa had just gotten around to worrying about it now since it happened around the time of his father's death. In any event, I have to look into this more.

-----------------------------

Additional References

• The Lower East Side Tenement Museum Web site has a good overview of immigration law.
• Wikipedia's entry on the Immigration Act of 1924
• HUGE VOTES FOR EXCLUSION; House 308 to 58, Senate 69 to 9, Pass Immigration Bill. (From the May 16th, 1924 New York Times.)

Thursday Aug 28

Had another little meeting
at the order S.O.Z. offices
rehearsing the rituals

----------------

"Order S.O.Z." stands for "Order Sons of Zion," a.k.a. B'nai Zion, the Zionist fraternal organization Papa belonged to.

It's slightly unusual for him to refer to the parent organization or mention a visit to its 23rd street offices; most of his B'nai Zion activities revolved around "The Maccabean," as his Lower East Side chapter, or "camp," was nicknamed. He was his camp's Master of Ceremonies, though, so it looks like he had to attend occasional refresher courses in fraternal ritual (like the initiation rite he conducted a few days ago to swear in a new member with the fantastic name of "Treskinoff.")


Papa's Diary Map

---------------------

Note: I'm having some trouble finding out exactly what kind of rituals B'nai Zion might have conducted in the 20's, so if you, dear reader, know anything more about this kind of thing, please send a note or drop a comment.

Thursday Jan 10

Attended meeting of our newly
organized camp of the order
Sons of Zion,
I'm glad that my motion
to call name our org, Maccabean
was passed although after a big battle.

I accepted the nomination
and Election of Master of Ceremonies
and I certainly will see to it
that all rituals be strictly
enforced.

[note: a continuation of the next day's entry fills the bottom of this page]

---------------------------

Matt's Notes

Looks like Papa was a member of a Jewish fraternal order, and presumably in his capacity as Master of Ceremonies he was the keeper of rituals and parliamentary procedures. At the moment I have no idea what they were up to (I've never joined any sort of order myself, though I am a member of the Film Forum at the $150 level) but I'm looking into it (and please chime in if you know anything about Jewish fraternal organizations). Papa's account of a "big battle" over the group's nickname hints at some organizational self-importance or frivolity, but I really I don't think he'd be part of it unless it was somehow directed toward raising funds for a Jewish homeland, serving the labor movement or performing acts of charity.

Then again, maybe it was just a club. Papa was single, prone to sadness, and in only the 11th year of reconstructing his life from scratch in a burgeoning, indifferent city; he might have just wanted to go somewhere for a heated discussion every so often, to replace the people he had lost with a few manufactured "brothers," to hedge against loneliness. He was just a human being, after all. I'll need to remind myself of this as the year progresses, to view his journal not as a lost gospel but a sliver of a life, a look at a twenty-nine-year-old, a man younger than me, who had not yet become who he would be. As I mentioned previously, he has been an abstraction to me all these years, remembered more as a feeling than as a real person. To see him as fallible and real is, perhaps, another way to relate to him more closely, to put his example within reach.

Update

Shows you how much I know. The above meditation on relating to my grandfather still stands, but in poking around a little more I've learned that immigrant fraternal organizations cropped up all over the place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Fraternal societies played a big role in American life back then; for many immigrants, to join an order was a way to become in effect more American.¹

Jewish immigrants formed plenty of their own orders, often geared toward community service (B'nai Brith is a well-known example, though until today I knew nothing of its fraternal origins). B'nai Zion, my grandfather's order, was formed in 1908 and still operates today as a charitable organization. When Papa joined, they were certainly not frivolous -- they helped provide life insurance to immigrants and were closely allied with Keren Hayesod. (For more, check out the B'nai Zion Web site). I've been in touch with them, so I'll add updates as I learn more.

-----------------

References for this post

1 - Soyer, Daniel, "Entering the 'Tent of Abraham': Fraternal Ritual and American-Jewish Identity, 1880-1920", Religion and American Culture, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer, 1999), pp. 159-182

June 27, 1926 - Buffalo

[Note: To see full-sized scans of this letter, click the thumbnail images on the right of this page.]

--------

Please pardon
my abrupt script
and corrections

June 27, 1926.
1:55 a.m.

My dear Jeanie:

This is the third time that I am writing
to you today¹, and believe me this certainly
was an adventurous day for me.

I shall try to describe to you in my way of
today's events.

The day was very fair when a group of
us started out in a big car from the hotel
for the falls, which are twenty-five miles
from here.

After an hour ride we reached the
stormy Niagara river, and soon afterward
the beginning of the American rapids and
a few minutes later we've reached our destination.
We came to a spot where the most bewitching
most enchanting (believe me I haven't got
enough words to describe it) spectacle presented
itself before my eyes.

If I were a poet perhaps I'd be able to give

./.

2

you a fair description of the view, however
I will make an attempt to do it in my
meagre way.

The American part of the falls were before
my eyes, a picture of unsurpassing beauty
and splendor, On a stretch of about 5 city
blocks streams from the Niagara river falling
into a depth of about 200 feet and the suns
reflection makes it look like an endless
stream of pearls, the reaction on the bottom
of the falls makes it look like a huge
white cloud.

After recording things on my camera²
we boarded the car again headed for the
international bridge, after paying a toll
to the American officers of for leaving the country
we reached the Canadian side where
I had to produce my citizen papers
(I took it along as I've been told that I'd
need them)³ in order to be let through,
Well in Canada the falls presented themselves
in their full beauty and the Canadian
horseshoe falls are yet more beautiful
than the American.⁴

./.

3

There I stood as in a haze I could
hardly believe my eyes, I saw Gods
wonder which no artist can paint, I
would travel to the end of the world to see
another such sight, I shall relate to you
in person about this sight.

Now while I Canada I thought it was the
proper time to quench my thirst (Canada
is not a dry country) and revenge myself
on old Volstead,

Yes I drank three glasses of honest to
goodness beer, enough to last me until
the prohibition act is repelled.⁵

I also brought a little bit of Canadian
candy for you,

Of course by the time you receive this
you will have received the card that
I mailed in Canada.

Well after speeding through some Canadian
Villages we returned late in the afternoon
to the dear old U.S.A.

Here at the hotel we are busy all evening
with receptions tendered in our honor.

./.

I hope that the pictures of the falls that
I've snapped come out O.K. especially
the one of myself with the falls as a
background.

I believe that I have faithfully
described to you my experiences, and
now I will call it a day.

You may read this letter to your folks
to whom I'm sending my kindest regards
I expect to be very busy the next 3 days⁶
however if I should have time I shall
write you more.

Hoping that this finds you in best
of health I am as ever

Your

Harry

----------------

Matt's Notes

1 - Papa had already sent two postcards to my grandmother after his arrival in Buffalo for the Zionist Organization of America's annual convention, one immediately before he left his hotel for a tour of Niagara Falls and one a few hours later from the Canadian side of the Falls.

Papa wrote this letter at 1:55 AM on Hotel Statler stationery, presumably in his room. (Little amenities like stationery and pens usually associated with higher-priced hotels helped cement the Statler hotel chain's reputation among travelers of modest means.) His excitement and exhaustion are evident in the "abrupt script and corrections" for which he apologizes at the top of the letter:





2 - As mentioned previously, I have had Papa's No. 3A Autographic Kodak (Model C) camera in my possession since I was a kid, and it may be the camera he refers to in this letter. However, the few amateur photo prints I have from this period of Papa's life are too small to have come from a 3A Autographic, so he may have had a different camera at the time. Alas, I'll probably never know for sure unless photos from his Buffalo trip turn up somehow.



3 - In July of 1924, Papa wrote in his diary of his frustration with the glacial pace of the naturalization process, so he couldn't have been a citizen for that long when he visited Canada in June of 1926. Did he feel a little rush of pride when asked to prove his citizenship, or was the commotion at the border (surely all the Zionist companions with whom he rode to the Falls were immigrants and had to produce their papers as well) too distracting?

4 - I've seen the Horseshoe falls from the Canadian side and, though the cynic in me wants to say the whole thing is a cheesy tourist trap, I cannot help but agree with Papa. They Falls really are spectacular and I remember them fondly. Alas, not everybody has the same experience:



5 - I love this passage because it comes so unexpectedly and places Papa so squarely in the 1920's. Alcoholic beverages would have been a real attraction for American tourists who visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls during Prohibition, and here we have Papa, who wasn't a big drinker, hitting a bar and downing three beers out of pure excitement. (In later years, according to my mother, he liked to stroll on hot days from his Brighton Beach apartment to a Boardwalk bar and enjoy a glass of bock. I wonder if, having experienced Prohibition firsthand, he had a little more fun than other people did when he ordered a beer legally.)

I had a similar, though less satisfying, experience at the Canadian Falls a few years ago when I bought and smoked a dry, disgusting Cuban cigar just because it was legally available. I suppose, if American-Cuban relations ever normalize, the only harmful vice worth traveling to Canada for will be poutine.



6 - The Zionist Organization of America's conference in Buffalo had 1000 attendees that year, and Papa was one of 200 from New York. The agenda set forth by Chairman Lewis Lipsky in his opening remarks (delivered, most likely, at one of the "ceremonies" Papa refers to in this letter) included the need to address Britain's recent lackluster support of the Zionist cause in Palestine and the condemnation of a Joint Distribution Committee effort to designate a region of the Ukraine for Jewish settlement, which the Z.O.A. saw as an attempt to distract Jews from the Zionist cause.

Most absorbing for Papa would have been the the Z.O.A.'s rejeection of a resolution adopted by his own fraternal organization, Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion) to push the Zionist movement toward the aggressive, nationalistic, "revisionist" Zionism advocated by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Interestingly, though B'nai Zion had adopted this stance at a conference attended by Papa a few weeks earlier, several prominent B'nai Zion leaders, including the writer Maurice Samuel, objected to it and said so at the Z.O.A. convention. I'm not sure where Papa would have stood, but we know he admired Samuel and may even have been friendly with him (he mentions Samuel several times in his 1924 diary and refers to him as "Maurie" at one point) so I would imagine he joined Samuel among the dissenters.

A final note: In this letter, Papa starts using this symbol at the bottom of every page except the last:

I assume it means "turn the page" or "more to come". From now on I'll include it in my transcriptions and write it out as "./."

---------

References:

• ZIONIST CONVENTION OPENS IN BUFFALO; Lipsky Criticizes the British Mandate in Palestine and Russian Project There. The New York Times, June 27, 1926.
• ZIONISTS OPPOSE STRIFE IN PALESTINE; Repudiate Endorsement of Anti-Arab, Anti-British Plan by Order Sons of Zion. The New York Times, June 29, 1926.
• ZIONISTS PROPOSE COOPERATION OF ALL; Buffalo Convention Votes to Push Negotiation for Accord on Palestine. The New York Times, June 30, 1926.
• The poutine photo comes from Wikipedia
  

Thursday Sept 11

Visited Julius Zichlinsky

-------------

Julius Zichlinsky was the brother of Brooklyn's own Jack Zichlinsky, and both were, I am told, members of Papa's Zionist fraternal organization, Order Sons of Zion (a.k.a. B'nai Zion).

As we've discussed before, such groups provided essential services to immigrants like Papa; B'nai Zion sold affordable life insurance, guaranteed its members a proper Jewish burial, and ran a credit union that Papa and Jack helped organize. I'm not sure if fraternal orders guaranteed friendship among its members as well, but Julius and Jack were two of Papa's closest companions in 1924 and, in fact, remained so for the rest of their lives.

Thursday July 17

Maccabean meeting

---------------

Matt's Notes

"The Maccabean" was, as readers of Papa's diary know, the nickname for his chapter (or camp) of the Zionist fraternal organization B'nai Zion, or Order Sons of Zion.

As we learned back in January, Papa lobbied for the nickname and had to fight for its acceptance, probably because its reference to the Maccabees, the ancient warrior heroes of the Hanukkah story, struck other chapter members as too warlike. Papa was a pacifist himself, but he also believed in challenging the racist perception of Jews as weak and submissive. He and his contemporaries promoted the image of the "muscle Jew" for practical reasons as well, since physical preparation was essential to survival in the rugged, unforgiving terrain of Palestine.

In any event, Papa had felt rather aimless and depressed while temporarily out of work during the garment industry's slack season, so I hope the chance to meet with his B'nai Zion compadres and do some work for his beloved Zionist cause relieved a bit his malaise.

Friday Jan 18

Same as yesterday
in my company were Sister
Clara & husband.


I.M.W.
again writes me to help him
I shall give the letter to Budiener

----------

Matt's Notes

I can't quite figure out what the second section of this entry says. I.M.W. (if I'm reading that right) might be a reference to Papa's brother, Isaac, over in Europe (Papa has started to write something that looks like "Isaac" and crossed it out, though it's mostly illegible). I'm also having trouble with the last word of the entry (Budinier? Badinez?) so I don't know to whom or what Papa plans to give "I.M.W's" letter.



My other theory is that this is a reference to the tubercular acquaintance "I. Marlanoff" from Papa's January 2nd entry, and "Budiener" is a doctor or representative of a landsmanshaft, or mutual aid society. Supported by dues, such groups served as ready-made social networks for new arrivals, formed religious congregations, and provided medical care, loans and burial services to landsman (people from the same place).

Papa's charitable fraternal order, B'nai Zion, probably qualifies as such an organization. Many of his old friends are buried in Sons of Zion cemetery plots and I know they ran a credit union and resold life insurance. But while many of the old landsmanshaftn were geared toward people from the same town, I don't think B'nai Zion was. Such narrow regional focus might even have been on the wane by the 20's as Jews stitched themselves into a broader community and as formal support became more available from government agencies and organizations like labor unions. This would be consistent with the overall evolution of fraternal organizations, which, as noted earlier, grew less chauvinistic as the path to Americanization grew clearer.

By the way, I learned a lot about the landsmanshaftn during a visit to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum yesterday (they have a link to some good information here) and I also got a much clearer idea of what Papa's living situation must have been like in early 1924. I'll add more about that later.