In the Beginning: 1855
Each week The American Israelite will print an item from the first years.
Dear I. M. Wise.
Dear Sir,-Your favor, offering me the corresponding editorship of your valuable Israelite has duly reached me, and with feelings of great gratification I accept of it.
I shall send you weekly articles for the columns of your paper, and their aim and contents shall be nothing but truth and peace.
The great evil, of which we are suffering, is the general unacquaintance with Jewish law and history. The whole knowledge of our Jewish affairs consists in an immediate reliance upon some Minhagim; the general argument, you hear, is; thus we have seen it in our native place in Europe;” and the best intentions get thwarted and wrecked on the rock of inveterate habits and customs.
I remain yours truly,
Dr. Lilenthal
— September 15, 1855
150 Years ago
Death
It is the thought of death that is terrible, not death. Death is gentle, peaceful, painless; instead of bringing suffering, it brings an end to suffering. It is misery’s cure. Where death is, agony is not. The processes of death are all friendly. The near aspect of death is gracious. There is a picture somewhere of a fearful face, livid and ghastly, which the beholder gazes on with horror and would turn away from it but for the hideous fascination that not only rivets his attention, but draws him closer to it. On approaching the picture the hideousness disappears, and when directly confronted it is no longer seen; the face is the face of an angel/ It is a picture of death, and the object of the artist was to impress the idea that terror of death is an apprehension. Theodore Parker, whose observations of death were very large, has said he never saw a person, of any belief, condition or experience, unwilling to die when the time came. Death is an ordinance of nature, and, like every ordinance of nature, is directed by beneficent laws to beneficent ends. What must be is made known.
Items
Dickens always believed in Spiritualism after asking at a seance the attendance of the spirit of Lindley Murray, and being answered by the spectre, to whom he put the question, “Are you the spirit of Lindley Murray?” “I are.”
— September 10, 1875
125 Years ago
Jottings
The Christian tenet of sanctification, pushed to an extreme, has produced a new sect in the mountain district of Tennessee, lying north of Ducktown and Benton, known as the “Holy Dancers.” The “holy dance” is participated in by young and old, male and female, at all times the day or night, whenever the Divine pang strikes them. In the religious orgy they simply dance around in a circle until exhausted, and all over on a pile of straw or a mattress. When they recover they relate the most extravagant stories about the visions and conversations with God and the angels which they held while in a trance state. The conservative people in the neighborhood are doing the best they can to convert them back to the orthodox faith, by burning down their church, having their minister, Rev. Burrings, arrested for lunacy, etc., but in spite of these intelligent and well-directed efforts the sect is growing.
– Rev. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, on his way to Portland, Ore., his new field of labor, was taken dangerously ill and was compelled to leave the train at Helena, Montana, where for more than a week he lay at St. Peter’s Hospital, threatened with appendicitis. We are delighted to state, authoritatively, that all danger has disappeared, and that Dr. Wise’s installation will take place next Friday evening, September 11th. Dr. Jacob Voorsanger of San Francisco will participate in the event.
— September 13, 1900
100 Years ago
The New Year 5686 in America
The New Year is a season for Remembrance and Reminisce. It’s very name, Rosh-ha-Shanah, has a subtitle—“Yom Hashikoron,” “of Remembrance.”
With the Jew, while his feasts and festivals are holidays as well as holy days, they are replete with spiritual meanings and suggestions, in fact, the spiritual is their prime note. The sound of the Shofar symbolizes that.
The year past 5685 (1924-1925) has been for the American Jew a veritable Leshono Tovo, a Good Year. Israel has been happy, contented and at pace. The country is so loves and with which its life and happiness are bound up, has been happy and prosperous and at peace with the world, and striving to contribute its share to human welfare and advancement everywhere.
Israel is a religious people, and it is distinctly as a religious people that it must be considered when distinguished from the great body of the American nation, has made a good record for itself during the past year and its face is steadily set for constant progress.
Jottings
– Constitutionality of the reading of the Bible in the public schools of Virginia was upheld by Judge Edward Freeman in a decision filed in District Court at Virginia, Minn.
– At its meeting in Louisville, Ky., the Anti-Evolution League of America chose William Jennings Bryan, Jr., of Los Angeles, as President and appointed a committee to wait upon him and ascertain if he will accept the office. Dr. John Roach Straton of New York was elected Chairman of the Campaign Committee, which will conduct what was termed a nation-wide drive against teaching evolution theory in public schools.
– Soviet Russia is probably the only country in the world that maintains a special Hebrew theatre, where plays are produced in the modern style, but by a special cast of artists in the ancient Hebrew tongue. This theatre which is partially subsidized by the State has its own building, where performances are given from two to four times a week. During the last two years the Hebrew players have scored great successes and nearly the whole Moscow population, Jews and orthodox alike, flocked to see their art, despite their own inability to understand a single word. The Hebrew theatre, known under the name of Habima” has become one of the Moscow’s sight-seeing objects.
— September 10, 1925
75 Years ago
Stanley Cohen Named Program Director of Local NCCJ
Stanley Cohen has just been appointed program director of the Cincinnati office of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, it is announced by Malcolm B. Chandler, Director of the NCCJ. He succeeds Mrs. Harris K. Weston, who is resigning from the position she has held since 1946.
His appointment maintains the representation of Protestant, Catholic and Jewish religious faiths among the staff of the Cincinnati office in an organization dedicated to promoting understand and cooperation among different religious, racial, and cultural groups.
Dr. Wohl Comments on His Findings On His Trip Abroad
In extending aid to Spain, care must be taken to see that aid reaches the people and does not stop with the Franco Government, Dr. Samuel Wohl of Wise Temple said following his recent trip from Europe and Israel.
“We Must find some way to help the people of Spain outside government channels,” he said. “Then people might strengthen and gradually liberate themselves.”
He added that he found persons everywhere he went in Europe who resented the recent U.S. proposal for aid to Franco Spain.
“Israel is the only fortress of democracy in the Near East,” he continued.
He observed also that England has made a remarkable comeback; France is divided and unprepared; and Switzerland benefitted through its neutrality during the two World Wars.
— September 14, 1950
50 years ago
Bas Mitzvah
Our daughter, Pamela Sue Abrams, will be Bas Mitzvah, Saturday morning Sept. 20, 1975, at 10:45 a.m. at Rockdale Temple, Ridge Road.
We cordially invite you worship with us and to attend the Kiddush following the services.
Pamela is the granddaughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Abrams and of the late Mrs. Mary Foxman.
Rabin Appeals For Response
Immediately after initialing of the Sinai agreement with Egypt, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin addressed a special plea to American and Canadian rabbis “to promote the promise” of the new agreement by strengthening Israel greater response to the forthcoming High Holiday program in behalf of Israel Bonds.
Mr. Rabin’s message was cabled to Rabbi Leon Kronish, chairman of the National Rabbinic Cabinet of the Israel Bond Organization, hours after the accord had been approved in Jerusalem and Alexandria.
The Prime Minister said that the new agreement “reflects our determination to make every effort to move toward peace, while carrying forward the social and economic development of Israel, which is so urgent and vital to the Jewish people everywhere.”
— September 11, 1975
25 Years ago
Cedar Village’s Edward Vincour dies
Edward W. Vincour, president and CEO of Cedar Village since May 1999, died September 10.
Vincour, who established the first Jewish hospice in Ohio, was a recognized leader in the field of aging and a pioneer in noninstitutional models of care. In 1991 he received the Dr. Herbert Shore Young Executive Award from the North American Association of Jewish Homes for the Aged.
Vincour was “very loved” by the facilities staff and residents, said Kim Morris, who handles public relations for Cedar Village.
— September 14, 2000
10 Years ago
Cedar Village and West Chester Hospital to collaborate on Fall Speaker’s Bureau
This fall, Cedar Village is collaborating with West Chester Hospital on a three-part speaker’s series that is free to everyone in the community to attend.
The first speaker in the series will address falls and how to prevent them in older adults—a timely lecture, as September is Fall Prevention Awareness Month. Falls are very common in our aging population, and learning how to handle a fall once it happens, as well as getting details how to prevent them from happening again, is crucial to keeping those in that demographic safe and out of harm’s way.
— September 10, 2015
