In the Beginning: 1854
Each week The American Israelite will print an item from the first years.
SANDUSKY—The Jews of the city have organized into a society named the “Society of the Sons of Israel,” with officers as follows: G. Hart, President; M. Haxter, Vice-President; L. Bowman, N. Bear, and S. Frohman, Trustees; A. Billsteine, Secretary. Rooms over Hart’s clothing store are now being fitted up for the use of the society, where regular Saturday (Jew’s Sabbath) services will be held—Mr. Haxter officiating as rabbi until the arrival of a German rabbi, now sent for by the society. A burying ground of one acre has been purchased of the Township Trustees, off the Poor House farm, fronting on the Milan Road. The cemetery will be immediately fenced in and consecrated.
— October 13, 1854
150 Years ago
Local and Domestic
Among the numerous and highly interesting exchanges we receive in this office, none is read with more attention than the Scientific American of New York, and the Boston Journal of Chemistry, published by Messrs. Billings, Clapp & Co., 125 Milk St., Boston, $1.00 per annum in advance. These two journals, besides the practical information which they convey, keep one well posted in the progress of science and industrial arts. Intelligent people who lack the time to read up the scientific literature, which is very vast now, will find in these papers satisfactory information on the most important discoveries in science and art.
The Morals of Darwinism
Dr. C.A. Wheeler makes the following remarks in the Boston Investigator: The law of natural selection is what John Weiss calls “Tragedy in Nature,” by the operation of which the weak are pushed to the wall, while the strong survive. Nature seems to desire the existence of none but the powerful, and the working of her laws seem to bear out that belief.
Such warfare is continually going on in Nature; how plants destroy insects, and insects destroy plants; how the stronger animal kills the weaker, who, in his turn, is destroyed by man; how man destroys one another, and the victor has the laurels. In a simple and barbarous state of society the weak and deformed die, as children, either naturally or by violence.
City Items
MENTAL PLEASURES—A cultivated mind may be said to have infinite stores of innocent gratification. Everything may be made interesting to it by becoming a subject of thought or inquiry. Books, regarded merely as a gratification, are worth more than all the luxuries on earth. A taste for literature secures cheerful occupation for the unemployed and languid hours of life; and how many persons in these hours, for want of innocent resources, are now impelled to coarse pleasures! How many young men can be found who, unaccustomed to find a companion in his book, and strangers to intellectual activity, are almost driven, in the long, dull evenings of winter, to haunts of intemperance and bad society.
— October 15, 1875
125 Years ago
A Letter From M. Alfred Dreyfus
On the anniversary of the trial of M. Dreyfus at Rennes, M. Trarieux, the Senator, who is president of the League of the Rights of Man, sent a letter to the ex-Captain, from whom he has received the following reply:
COLOGNY, near Geneva, Sept. 13.
Sir—On my return from a walk in the suburbs of Geneva I found your letter, which deeply touched me on this sad anniversary of the decision at Rennes against all justice, and in defiance of the evidence. This letter, so generously and so nobly inspired, is as at the same time a touching tribute to the cause of justice. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I was deeply moved also, on seeing how you have penetrated my soul, and understood how much sadness and pain there is still in my life. Assuredly, liberty has been restored to me: I again found my loved ones after so many years of horrible separation.
– ZIONISM has had at least one tangible and commendable result. Dr. Joseph Chasanowitz in Russia has donated a library of 18,00 volumes to Jerusalem, and this has proven a center for all enlightened Jews of that community.
– The Unitarians can complain that they are suffering from a lack of cohesive fellowship. They live too entirely for themselves. They have no bond of union because they have no common heart experience and no Christ. The Unitarians should seek a deeper inspiration of genuine Christianity.
Abraham Lincoln was a Unitarian; so what Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Oliver Wendell Homes, Lowell and almost the entire school of New England writers and thinkers who stand highest on the list of America’s great men. Longfellow, Whittier and Emerson did not believe in a true God. Was Theodore Parker a man who lived for himself alone, or is Edward Everett Hale that kind of man? Why will not our Christian brothers be satisfied with their own faith and permit others to enjoy the same privilege?
— October 18, 1900
100 Years ago
Jottings
A decision of German governmental authorities grants Jewish women of Germany the right to vote and to hold office by election. In accordance with this decision, the election to the Kehillah in Berlin was postponed until late autumn in order to permit Jewish women to participate in the elections for the first time. Jewish women of Berlin have taken steps to organize in order to obtain proper representation on the community board.
– Of the 506 students to pass the New York State bar examinations, 238 are Jewish. Half the number newly-fledged Jewish lawyers worked have too many by another half.
— October 15, 1925
75 Years ago
Bar Mitzvah
Mr. and Mrs. Sam Horwitz, of 324 Hearne Avenue, announce the forthcoming bar mitzvah of their son, Barry, Saturday. Oct. 21, at the Ohav Shalom Synagog, 425 Forest Avenue.
Cabinet Collapses In Israel As Needs Are Cited
JERSUSLEAM (SPL).—Israel experienced on Sunday, Oct.15, its first Cabinet crisis since the state was established in May 1948.
David Ben-Gurion, prime minister, resigned Sunday evening on the eve of Parliament’s reconvening Monday, Oct. 16, after a two-month recess.
The regulation and Cabinet collapse came when religious bloc members of the 12-member cabinet told Mr. Ben-Gurion they would not accept appointment as minister of commerce and industry, Jack Gering, non-party member and former South African industrialist.
The religious bloc (Orthodox and Conservative) wanted the post to go to one of its own group.
The situation is tied in with Israel’s economic and financial crisis.
Christian Century’s Hopkins Playing Rough With Israel
The Christian Century, the well-written and skillfully edited interdenominational magazine of American Protestant opinion, has long held an anti-Zionist bias.
In the years of the painful struggle for a National Homeland for the Jews, the Christian Century’s opposition to the Zionist movement was just one more adverse factor in an important battle of ideas. But now that the State of Israel is a reality and many of Zionism’s former foes have graciously acknowledged a change of heart and opinion, the magazine’s die-hard attitude deserves scrutiny.
— October 19, 1950
50 years ago
Bar Mitzvah
Our son, Charles Ephraim Kichler, will be called to the Torah to participate in Sabbath Services on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah at Isaac M. Wise Temple, Eighth and Plum Streets, on Saturday morning, October 11, 1975, at 10:45 o’clock.
We cordially invite all our friends and relatives to worship with us on this happy occasion and to be our guests at the Kiddush following the services.
(No card)
Caroline and Ross Kichler
Bar Mitzvah
Our son, Alan Jeffrey, will celebrate his Bar Mitzvah on Saturday, the twenty-fifth of October at ten forty-five in the morning, at Isaac M. Wise Temple, Eighth and Plum Streets.
Alan is the grandson of Mrs. Julius J. Fialco (Sadie), and the late Julius J. Fialco. Mrs. Helen Friedman and the late Jacob Friedman.
Please share our joy in worship and join us for Kiddush following the services.
Harriet and Ron Friedman.
— October 16, 1975
25 Years ago
Janet Makrauer, businesswoman and mother, passes away at age 86
Janet Makrauer, 86, passed away on October 7, 2000. Mrs. Makrauer was born in Middletown, Ohio as the daughter of the late George and Minnie Mehl. She was the wife of late Irvin Makrauer. She is survived by her children: Zola Makrauer and George (Taaron) Makrauer. Surviving grandchildren are Emmy and Scott Berning; and Ellyce Makrauer and several nieces and nephews.
In 1966, Mrs. Makrauer, together with her late husband, was co-founder of Amko Plastics. She was a gifted leader and innovator in the plastic packaging industry for more than thirty years.
— October 19, 2000
10 Years ago
A Bushel of Apples
Preschoolers along with their parents, grandparents and congregants were invited to “find their own apple stars” as they took part in a novel PJ Library Storywalk, the first session of Etz Chaim’s new preschool program. Taking place on a warm, breezy late summer morning in Swaim Park, the program started out with Hebrew songs and games. The children then sat on a picnic blanket while listening to The Apple Tree’s Discovery, read from an oversize big book version of the Jewish folktale.
Everyone then retraced the story by following numbered signs throughout the park, each featuring pages from the book.
— October 15, 2015
