Pesach and American Soldiers

Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
April 2000

Pesach and American Soldiers

In looking over my father's memorabilia, I found a program and menu for a Pesach seder for soldiers that occurred in Casblanca

in 1943. Jewish soldiers were allowed leave to go to Casablanca. My father

had been in heavy fighting in Italy. He never talked about the fighting, but he remembered the sedarim. Since he had a powerful voice and loved to sing, he was able to help lead the singing.² The ability of Jewish soldiers to gather and celebrate was very important for their morale. Frequently soldiers were subjected to anti-Semitism and racism by fellow soldiers and commanding officers. The holiday celebration was a time to leave the fighting and join with fellow Jews in the celebration of freedom. Since I have no notes of the event, I can only imagine what the leader of the Casblanca seder said about the struggle for Jews to leave Egypt and the struggle for the Army to win the War. He probably said the events were connected and now we should all act as free men.

In the book, God's Warriors, by Dov Peretz Elkins (Jonathan David Publishers, 1974) many stories are told of Jewish chaplains who helped take care of Jewish soldiers and save Jewish lives. Rabbi Judah Nadich was an advisor to General Eisenhower. Eisenhower and Nadich were instrumental in getting aid to Jews in DP camps. President Truman sent a very strongly worded letter to Eisenhower concerning the problems of helping the victims. General Patton was fired over the issue of how he dealt with the DPs. When released from the army in December 1945, Rabbi Nadich toured the world to tell what happened and to raise money to help the survivors. Eisenhower and Truman's policy of helping the Jews led directly to the Pesach seder of the Survivor's Haggadah.

In another chapter, Rabbi Elkins, tells of a seder in Goebbels' Castle in April 1945. The war was in its closing weeks. Chaplain Joseph S. Shubow was discussing Passover arrangements with his men. A few days after the discussion, the U.S. Army crossed the Rhine River. This was symbolically connected by the commanding officer of the Ninth Army, General John P. Anderson, to the Jews crossing the Yam Suf (Sea of Reeds). Rabbi Shubow wanted to make that Passover different and memorable to all the Jewish men of the Ninth Army. They learned about the meaning of freedom and talked about the connection between the tyrant of Germany and the Pharaoh. Rabbi Shubnow needed to find a place to hold a seder for 400 people. One of the local residents told him about the castle. The press officer was shocked and amazed. Not only did he help them, but made sure everyone knew of the irony. He wanted to write a script for a movie, because he never thought anyone would believe a documentary story of a Jewish Passover in the home of a Nazi. The words of the young soldier who said that the crossing of the Rhine would be like the exodus from Egypt proved prophetic. A few weeks, later the army took Berlin and Goebbels took his own life. We do not know if he knew about the Passover in his home.

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 Footnotes
1. For those of you keeping count-- in 1998 I mentioned in this column that my personal collection had more than 75 haggadot. As of December 2020 I have more than 178 in the collection.

2. After the War my father had dreams of being an actor and/or radio announcer. He never did either professionally. He kept up his singing and was a regular in the Yiddish Theater and other amateur community theater groups.

Passover Story from Harvard

Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
March 2000

Passover Story from Harvard

In the March-April 2000 issue of Harvard Magazine is a short article by Deborah Schneider¹ about a Pesah haggadah that was issued for a seder in the Munich, Germany, area on April 15-16, 1946. This was first Pesah after World War II. As a collector of haggadot the idea that Harvard Magazine would publish an aricle about a haggdah and the content of this article was very interesting. The big A for the Army of the United States was familiar and even the idea of an Army run seder was familiar to me.²

Saul Touster, a retired attorney and professor at Brandeis University, was cleaning his father's papers and a pamphlet with the Army's big A, insignia of the Third Army fell to the floor. Upon examining it he found out it was a Pesah Haggadah. On the cover was the place and date, Munich Enclave, April 15-16, 1946. At first glance Touster thought the haggadah was for Army personnel in Germany, but as he examined it he was struck by the stark woodcuts of scenes from concentration camps. Touster realized that this haggadah recast the traditional text in terms of liberation from the camps.

Moved by the images, Touster decided to find out more about the pictures and why the Army published this booklet. He also wondered how the book came into his father's possession since his father had been a soldier in South Pacific and was never in Europe during the war or in 1946. After retiring from teaching American studies and legal studies at Brandeis, he had time to pursue his quest. This research project became like detective work as the pieces of the puzzle were assembled. He received help from many librarians.

It took him two years to uncover the story. His father was given the rare haggadah as a token of appreciation for his work helping displaced persons. Touster found the name of the Lithuanian writer, Yosef Dov Sheinson,who edited and arranged the haggadah. The ink drawings and texts in modern Hebrew and Yiddish were his work. Touster found the American Army chaplain named in the book, Rabbi Abraham Klausner, living in retirement in Santa Fe. One of Rabbi Klausner's official duties was to hold services for American GIs. He bent the rules to hold a seder for camp survivors. He wanted to provide a seder and a square meal for the undernourished civilians.

Touster identified the woodcut artist with the help of an archivist at Yad Vashem. The artist was Miklos Adler, a Hungarian artist who survived the war.

With his search complete, Touster was able to write the introduction and commentary for the facsimile edition of the Survivor's Haggadah with an English translation published in a trade edition by the Jewish Publication Society (2000). This haggadah is in my personal collection.

Notes:

1. During the revising of this article I noticed that my citation was incomplete. I searched my usual academic databases, EbSCO, ProQuest, Jstor and Google Scholar. None had the full text or even a bibliographic citation. I even asked another reference librarian for help. The magazine's entry in Harvard University's library system (HOLLIS) gave a link to Harvard Magazine's home page which had a link to their archieves. However. the archives only went back to 2001. I tried to phone their office and the call went to voice mail. Today (December 23) I got a reply from Allison M. Kern. She not only gave a nice reply, but also sent a PDF of the article. The full citation is: "Passover Story," by Deborah Schneider. Harvard Magazine March-April 2000 (102:4) page 92C.

Harvard Magazine is written for alumi of Harvard University. I don't know if they purposely are not indexed or the decision as made by Ebsco that this publication does not meet their requirements for inclusion. Saul Touster earned degrees from Harvard in 1946 and 1948.

2. For Passover 1943 the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Army organized a huge Passover seder in Casablanca. My father was there.


 ©2003, 2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised Dec 23, 2020

Special Purim Celebrations

Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
February 2000

Special Purim Celebrations

The holiday of Purim commemorates one of the many times that the Jews of a community, when threatened with destruction, were saved. These deliverance days were inaugurated and celebrated as festivals on their yearly anniversary. The threats include man-made (mobs, tyrants, etc) and natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.). The events are varied, but the common thread is the inauguration of a day of celebration. Families, that were saved, also introduced special family celebrations.

On March 9, 1977, terrorists invaded the Washington, DC headquarters of B'nai B'rith. 136 hostages were held for 38 hours. The hostages were hit, pistol-whipped, and verbally abused. Police were finally able to negotiate an end to the ordeal. All were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms.

When the ordeal was over the hostages gave thanks to God that they were still alive. On the anniversary of the event, a special Purim was established, known as the Frimer Family Purim. ¹

The famous bibliographer, Moritz Steinschneider records 22 Purims ("Purim und Parodie" in MGWJ, vol. 47), The Jewish Encyclopedia (vol. 10 p. 279-283. New York, Funk and Wagnalls, 1905) has 29, and the Encyclopedia Judaica (vol. 13 cols. 1396-1400. Jerusalem, Keter, 1971) has 110. Cecil Roth wrote an important article covering Purims during the period of 1790-1801 ("Some revolutionary Purims" in Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 10 p. 451-482). Philip Goodman in The Purim Anthology (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1949) has a chapter on special Purims.

We seem to have very little written about these special days when the Jews were saved. There are no books devoted to the topic. I would just like to retell one of these events because it parallels the Biblical Purim.

The source is, Old European Jewries, by David Philipson (Philadelphia, Jewish Publication Society, 1894). The city of Frankfurt-am-Main was home to Jews from about the year 1360, when permission was given to settle in the city. They had no political rights, nor could they hold office. In 1460 they were compelled to live in a ghetto. In the 17th century, there was a particular animosity by the members of the trade guilds against the Jews. The trade guilds wanted the Jews expelled from the city. Their leader was a baker, Vincent Fettmilch. On August 22, 1614, they attacked. However, the Jews had been warned. The Jews prepared to resist by procuring arms and defensive gates. After removing their wives and children to a safe place, the men went to the synagogue to pray. While there, they heard the mob attacking the gates. Since the mob couldn't break the gates, they entered the ghetto through a house next to the gate. A fight followed for the next eight hours. Two Jews and one attacker were killed. The Jews were outnumbered and overwhelmed. The mob plundered the houses until a band of armed citizens stopped them. The town council advised the Jews to leave, because they could not be protected. They remained away for a year and a half until order could be restored

The leaders of the mob were convicted and beheaded. The Christian population was required to pay the Jews 175,919 florins as compensation for the damages. In memory of these events, the 19th of Adar was a fast day, remembering of the departure from Frankfurt and the 20th of Adar became a holiday called Purim Fettmilch, in honor of their return.

New Books

Rabbi Yitzchak Sender has just published his 13th book, The Commentators' Al Hanissim : insights of the sages on Purim and Chanukah, vol. 1 Purim. This book continues his Commentator series. Rabbi Sender is a master teacher and Senior Rosh Yeshiva at HTC. This book examines the halacha and customs for Purim in the Tanach and Talmud in light of the writings of commentators such as Rashi; Elijah, the Vilna Gaon; Rambam and others. The book is lacking an index and a bibliography.

Muktzeh: a practical guide : a comprehensive treatment of the principles and common application of the laws of muktzeh, by Simcha Bunim Cohen. (Mesorah Publications, 1999) The author in his preface hopes that this book will meet the needs of both the newcomer and advanced Torah scholar. The footnotes not only have the bibliographic references, but also have extensive quotes of the Hebrew source texts.

Etymological dictionary of Biblical Hebrew : based on the commentaries of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, by Matityahu Clark (Feldheim Publishers, 1999) One of the most important contributions to the understanding of the Tanach made by Rabbi Hirsch has been to use the etymologies of words to understand the text. In this book Rabbi Clark arranges in alphabetical order, by roots, all the words that Rabbi Hirsch uses in his commentaries. Rabbi Clark, who is a lifelong educator and student of Rabbi Hirsch, lives in Jerusalem.

The Ancient Synagogue : the first thousand years, [by] Lee I. Levine (Yale University Press, 1999). This is a massive (748 pages) study which is a development of Professor Levine's teaching and research for the past twenty years. During this time he has edited and written articles on the history and archeology of the ancient synagogue. Professor Levine covers the archaeology, physical characteristics, and the social and communal roles of the synagogue. The bibliography and indexes cover 132 pages.

Professor Levine (1939- )was a professor of Jewish history and archaeology at Hebrew University.

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Footnote

1. The story was told by Rabbi Norman Frimer in his book, A Jewish Quest for Religious Meaning : collected essays. (Hoboken, NJ : Ktav Publishing House ; Washington, DC : B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundations, 1993)

 ©2004, 2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised December 15, 2020

Name Authority

Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
January 2000

Name Authority

Names fascinate me. As gabbai of my shul, one of my tasks is to be the keeper of the Hebrew names. I keep records of names for the purpose of preparing cards for calling people for an aliyah. It is interesting to see how some families have recurring names in the generations. We have families with unconventional spellings of names, families with easy names to remember and families with difficult to pronounce names.

Sometimes the Library receives calls for help with names. When a child is born parents consult name books for ideas. When a rabbi writes a ketubah or get sometimes he needs to check sources to make sure the names are spelled correctly.

Each author in the library catalog must have a unique name entry. If two authors have the same names, the cataloger must differentiate them. The usual method is to add a birth year (and death years if no longer alive). A few weeks ago we received a book written by David Cohen.¹ ''David Cohen" is a common name. In order to catalog the book I had to check sources to see how his name had been entered by other libraries. The book had not been cataloged by any other libraries. Since the book was requested for immediate use, I decided to do original cataloging. The blurb about the author of the book said that he was a rabbi of a congregation in Brooklyn and gave the name of the congregation. He had no middle name or date of birth.

I checked my bibliographic sources and found 32 authors on Jewish subjects with the same name. There were over 30 more authors on topics from sciences and humanities. None of the authors matched the author of the book in hand.

I thought that the publisher could help. A call to the publisher told me that the congregation was not just in Brooklyn; it was in Flatbush. I used the internet to search for the congregation. I found a lawyer who was a member and sent him an e-mail. He replied within two hours with the author's birth date (1932). With this authority, establishing the author's name in the catalog was then easy to complete.

 

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1. The book is :Templates for the ages : historical perspectives through the Torah's lenses by David Cohen; translated by Sara Cohen. New York, Mesorah Publications, 1999.

<  ©2003, 2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.

Last revised Dec. 15, 2020

Audio recordings and Klezmer Music

Librarian's Lobby
by Daniel D. Stuhlman
December 1999

Recent Gifts, Audio Recordings and Klezmer Music

I received a call from a lawyer about a woman who died without children and who had a 1000 recent Judaica books in her apartment. The lawyer wanted to know if the Library was interested. I made an appointment to examine the collection. When I arrived I saw boxes and boxes containing music CDs, cassette tapes and video tapes on the floor. The shelves were full of books. Since the Library had no CDs and few music tapes, I started to look for the Jewish albums. I was more excited about the recordings than the books. I took three boxes of them back to the Library, rather than books. Most of the CDs were still in their original shrink wraps, unopened and never played. Evidently the woman liked to buy them more than play them. I was never told the name of the woman. The executor of the estate did not want a thank you letter.

A Confidential Recording

Think back to the mid-1950's. How would someone distribute information to a large audience without writing it in the newspapers, magazines, TV or radio? Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman, vice-president of the United Jewish Appeal had that problem. In the sleeve of a children's record from one of recent gifts was a ten inch 33 1/3 record labelled: Special report, by Herbert A. Friedman. Important: Highly Confidential. No part of this recording may be broadcast, published or reported in the press.

This recording reported on the difficult situation in Poland in 1955-56. According to the American Jewish Year Book the Jewish population of post-war Poland was impossible to determine with great accuracy. In the late 1940's 30,000 former Zionist party members emigrated to Israel. Over 25,000 refugees who spent the war years in the Soviet Union returned to Poland. Poland was not a safe place for Jews after the war. There were anti-Semitic attacks and pograms.¹

Stalin's death in 1953 and new leadership in Poland in 1956 eased some of the tensions between the Jews and the rest of the population. Poland freely gave exit visas to Jews. This recording is a report of private and secret activities of the UJA in 1956. The recording mentions activities by months but not the year. I am assuming the year was 1956, based on the events as reported in the American Jewish Year Book and Encyclopedia Judaica. The UJA was afraid that if the mass emigration was reported in the press, the Polish authorities would stop the visas. The problem that the UJA had was money. Rabbi Friedman said that it costs about $1000 to save each person. He asks for money to save the remaining Jews of Poland. He tells of Jews leaving Poland by train, ship and airplane. They were sometimes leaving at more than 1,000 per week. Rabbi Friedman says over 50,000 Jews left Poland. The American Jewish Year Book 1959 reports that 30,000 Jews left Poland between 1956 and 1957. Whole towns were emptied of Jews.

This story of Polish emigration has not been told in great detail. Rabbi Friedman's recording is an interesting historical document, shedding light on the methodology of fund raising and the Jewish situation in Poland in the mid-1950's.

Klezmer Music

Two exhibit cases of the Jewish music are now displaying materials related to klezmer music. Klezmer music has its roots in Eastern European Jewish folk music. The musical sounds frequently include a glissando 2 , which is a rapid scale that blends all the sounds between the first and second note. Klezmer is happy, peppy and upbeat. It has an improvisational component like jazz. Classic instruments used by Klezmer musicians are the clarinet, violin and hammered dulcimer (This is a type of keyboard instrument that uses a hammer to strike strings. It is called tsimbal in Yiddish or Czech). Contemporary Klezmer bands use almost any instrument found in a symphonic band or orchestra. Klezmer musicians played for weddings, parties and other happy occasions. Some groups even played for non-Jewish functions because they were so good. However, socially they were not respected. Leonard Bernstein's father once told him never become a Klezmer musician. The frelichs and other wedding dances have roots in the Eastern European Klezmer tradition. The Chicago area has two bands that are important in the revival of the Klezmer tradition, the Ruby Harris Orchestra and the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. Ruby Harris once played with the Diaspora Yeshiva Band, an early Jewish Rock group / Klezmer group. The Maxwell Street Klezmer Band has performed locally, nationally and in Europe. They are famous for the big band sound.

Many famous American Jewish entertainers made significant contributions to klezmer music.

Klezmer music contrasts with the central European music of the Chazzan and choir. The controlled precise sound of the chazzan came from training, experience and connection to the tefilah. Improvisation was limited. While the Chazzan may sing outside of the synagogue, his sound was always more formal than the klezmer.

The Library display has samples from our music collection, sheet music (loaned from the collection of Ruby Harris), and other materials loaned from the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band and the Highland Park Public Library.

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Notes:
1. On Aug. 11, 1945 in Cracow and in Kielce on July 4, 1946 thousands of Polish people ran amuck through the Jewish quarters and injured or killed Jews. In 1945 352 Jews were reported murdered for anti-Semitic reasons. By the end of 1947 only about 100,000 Jews remained in Poland.
2. One famous glissando is the clarinet solo at the beginning of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

 ©2003, 2006, 2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised Dec. 5, 2020

Rabbi_Harold_Smith

Originally published in October 1999. Some slight revisions were made for clarity and updating.

Librarian's Lobby October 1999

A Visit with Rabbi Harold P. Smith

Rabbi Berish Cardash and I visited the home of Rabbi Harold P. Smith¹, former vice-president of Hebrew Theological College (HTC). He also served terms as president of the Chicago Rabbinical Council (CRC) and Chicago Board of Rabbis (CBR) R. Rabbi Smith is donating his books to the Library. After showing us his books, he brought us to his dining room. Behind a room divider and under a cover there was a file cabinet with his all of speeches and sermons stored on 4" x 6" hand-written note cards. He said that while he can't give us the cabinet now, he wrote into his will that the file cabinet and its contents will go to the HTC Library. He gave samples of the sermons and permission to quote parts. My selections are in the next part of this column.

Selections from the Speeches of Rabbi Harold P. Smith
[Quoted with Rabbi Smith's permission]

Delivered at the Annual Banquet of Hebrew Theological College 1980

[Rabbi Smith talks about a visit with the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune. An editor asked] "Rabbi Smith, it is apparent from our conversations that you have broad perspectives on many subjects. Why are all the articles you submit to us only on the subject of Israel?" ... I told my friends at the Chicago Tribune that in my judgment the very existence of Israel is greatly endangered by the menacing intentions of the hostile Arab countries ... I have to write the same article in different words with different approaches with the hope that some of your people will start listening.
 

Delivered to the faculty some time in the early 1970's

... " Ki-'esh 'ehad uba-lev 'ehad [As one voice and one heart]"; Rashi -- and that is the only way to build a Torah institution ....

Delivered before Yizkor Shemini Atzeret in the late 1960's ²

...which reminds us that Israel still has many problems, of which the hostility of her surrounding neighbors is one, albeit a very serious one. Lack of stability in several of the Arab states and Nasser's unconcealed ambitions appear to make [a] solution to this problem highly unlikely in the near future. The costs of [Israeli] defense are enormous. Israel can not relax its vigilance even for a moment.

There is the problem with water. The growing population and continued expansion of agriculture are draining Israel's fresh water supplies...

[Rabbi Smith's speech continues with the need to invest in Israel Bonds.]
Recent gifts

A library user walked into the reading room saw all the boxes of books that we are processing and asked if we had an advertisement encouraging people to donate books to the Library. We don't. But from the number of gifts we have received in the past four months it certainly seems so. In the past month we received books that belonged to the late Rabbi Menachim M. Goodman. His collection included Judaica (including over 40 sermon books) and non-Judaica. Sermon books that duplicated what the Library owned were given to the CRC collection. Hazzan Abraham Mendelsberg donated hazzanut materials including sheet music, music books and audio records. His donation included music written by the masters of hazzanut, Pierre Pinchik, Max Janowski, and Abraham Moshe Bernstein. Books also came from the collections of the late Rabbis Albert Ellison and L. Feinberg.

Recent articles

The current issue (October 1999 v. 32:8) of The Jewish Observer (pages 17-20) has an article, "The secular enforceability of a Beis Din judgment, " by Shlomo Chaim Resnicoff.³ He deals with the questions of, " Why would the American courts support the beis din process?; and Wouldn't enforcement of a rabbinic arbitration agreement violate some constitutional principle regarding the supposed separation of church from state?" These are no light matters. Under American law the Beis Din is under the category of arbitration. Two parties agree to have a third party listen to their case and decide it. The arbitration agreement must in writing and signed by all relevant parties. For "public policy" reasons courts in different locations may not enforce the same agreements that work in other locations. Child support or child custody are types of cases that are not uniformly enforceable.

Hazzan Macy Nulman, an expert in Tefilah and Jewish music, writes in Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy ("The Greetings of the Jewish People." v. 21, 1998-1999 pages 6-19) about Jewish greetings. The article tells about the history of greetings and the differ-ences between Askenazic, Sephardic, and Hasidic exchanges. The greeting of shalom dates back to Biblical times. Several pages deal with Rosh Hashana greetings. The article concludes with the lack greetings on Tisha b'Av and to mourners.

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1. Rabbi Smith wrote a book for children, A Treasure Hunt in Judaism, published by Hebrew Publishing Company in 1942 with a revision in 1950. This book explains Jewish customs and ceremonies for teenagers. Rabbi Smith retired from the Yeshiva in the early 1980's because of health reasons. He told me that he went to Switzerland for three years for treatments and then returned to Chicago. He showed us his entry in Who's Who. He had so many activities and honors, that his entry was three times the size as most others.

2. Rabbi Smith was the Rabbi at Agudath Achim of South Shore from 1949-1969. The Shabbat and holiday sermons were delivered there. Many of his books were lost when the synagogue closed. A chair in practical rabbinics was named in his honor at HTC. The plaque is hanging in his hallway. A rabbi told me that he remembers Rabbi Smith's homiletics class. Rabbi Smith's style was to write his sermons on 4 x 6 cards and spread the cards out on the lectern. When a card was completed he moved a new one on the surface. Rabbi Smith was known for his friendly speaking style. He had several favorite topics-- Israel, Jewish Education, Klal Yisrael, and Unity of Am Yisrael.

Note: Rabbi Smith passed away on Nov. 9, 2011 at age 98. Here is a link to an obituary from the JUF News. https://www.juf.org/news/local.aspx?id=413349

3. Professor Resnicoff is a musmach and a professor of law at DePaul University School of Law in Chicago.

4. Macy Nulman is the former director of the School of Jewish Music, an affiliate of Yeshiva University. Once, when passing through Chicago he visited our Library.
 

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Daniel D. Stuhlman is president of Stuhlman Management Consultants, Chicago, IL, a firm helping organizations turn data and information into knowledge. We are looking for new clients and opportunities. Visit our web site to learn more about knowledge management and what our firm can do for you.

 © 2006, 2020 by Daniel D. Stuhlman. All rights reserved.
Last revised November 17, 2020