Jewish History

Jewish Tales of the Old West: A Butcher on the Comstock

During the 1870’s, the population of Nevada’s legendary Comstock Lode, then at the height of mining fever, surged to nearly 25,000. In the canyons and down the slopes, housing was scarce, the noise was unceasing, the air nearly unbreathable and the violence endemic.1 Between them, the towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill were a crowded jumble of miners’ cabins, stamp mills, luxury mansions, hotels, restaurants, saloons, stores and stables, all built over an underground city of mining tunnels, adits and shafts. These underground works ultimately produced over 300 million dollars’ worth of precious ore that built the city of San Francisco and made fabulous fortunes for the fortunate. Among this crowd of fortune-seekers lived a Jewish community of about 500, and one of its most influential members was a butcher from Germany named Mark Strouse (1845-1898). [Susan E. James, Ph.D]

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Business & Finance, Jewish History, Travel and Food, USA

‘Squirrel Hill’ Portrays Pittsburgh Community Where Tree of Life Massacre Occurred

This journalistic tour-de-force tells the story of October 27, 2018, the day an antisemitic gunman snuffed the lives of 11 congregants at the three small congregations that occupied the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is not simply a depiction of the carnage, but also a portrait of the community in which it happened.  Author Oppenheimer, a former religion columnist for The New York Times, methodically tells us the stories of the victims, including those who barely escaped with their lives, and of the diverse reactions in the community to the shooting.  There were those who organized vigils; those who protested a photo-op visit to the synagogue by then President Donald Trump with his wife, Melania, daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.  Additionally, there were trauma tourists, compelled perhaps like moths to a flame, who wanted to see the site.  There were also presumptuous would-be helpers, who felt they knew better than Squirrel Hill’s residents how the victims should be mourned.   And there were fundraisers, who through various appeals including a Go-Fund-Me effort, raised millions of dollars for the families of the victims and for the congregations themselves. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA

Birds of a Feather

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Under the title “Early Birds: Soaring with the Ancients,” the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has put together an exhibition of archaeological items from the Land of Israel and the Ancient Near East depicting birds of various kinds. Upon entering the exhibition area and before inspecting even one

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

The Story Behind ‘Ussishkin’ Street

While strolling around Rechavia, one notices a pattern in the street names of the community: they are almost all named after sages of the Golden Age in Spain. A few examples are Radak, Ibn Ezra, Saadia Gaon, Ramban (Nachmanides), and Ben-Maimon (Maimonides or Rambam) – parenthetically, the street was named Ben-Maimon and not Rambam in order to differentiate it from Ramban, which sounds very similar.
Why was Yehuda Halevi, one of Spain’s most prominent scholars, philosophers and poets during the Medieval Period, missing from the street names? [Gedaliah Borvick]

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Jewish History, Middle East, Travel and Food

Netherlands Memorialize 102,000 Holocaust Victims

A new memorial in Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter pays tribute to the more than 102,000 Dutch victims of the Holocaust, the Associated Press reported. The National Holocaust Memorial of Names, which was unveiled on Sunday, is comprised of stainless-steel panels and a series of brick walls placed at different angles that together form four Hebrew letters, which spell out a word that means “In Memory of.” Each brick is inscribed with the name, date of birth and age at the time of death of a Dutch citizen who was murdered in Nazi concentration camps during World War II or died while being transported to the camps. [JNS.org]

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International, Jewish History

Good News from Israel (September 19, 2021)

NETANYA, Israel — In the Sept. 19, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include: 
–3 million Israelis have had their Covid antibodies boosted tenfold.
–Israeli surgeons successfully separate twins conjoined by their heads.
–Israel’s first female Muslim IDF Major.
–An Israeli startup converts text into video read by an animated narrator.
–The value of Israel’s trade with Arab states in 2021 is triple that of 2020.
–Israeli pianist wins international record contract.
–The Land of Israel reveals more Jewish history. [Michael Ordman]

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Business & Finance, International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Science, Medicine, & Education, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food, USA

Shooter at Chabad of Poway Pleads Guilty in Federal Court

John T. Earnest of San Diego pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to a 113-count hate crimes indictment, admitting that he set fire to an Escondido mosque and opened fire in a Poway synagogue because he wanted to kill Muslims and Jews. The religiously- and racially-motivated attacks resulted in the murder of one person and the attempted murders of 53 others. [U.S. Attorney’s Office, San Diego]

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International, Jewish History, San Diego County, USA

UC San Diego Announces 2021-2022 Holocaust Living History Workshop Series

LA JOLLA, California (Press Release) — The University of California San Diego’s Holocaust Living History Workshop (HLHW) is returning this fall with a yearlong series of seven lectures that underscore the theme “Beyond the Great Silence: The Holocaust in Art, Memory, and Life.” Now in its 13th year as a collaborative project between the UC San Diego

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Jewish History, San Diego County

Jewish life in Berlin subject of new show at city’s Jewish Museum

Published by DPA The French photographer Frédéric Brenner has been following Jewish life in the Diaspora beyond Israel for decades. Between 2016 and 2019, he created a series about Jews in contemporary Berlin, a city once rich with Jewish life and traditions before the Holocaust. Some 50 of these works are now among the latest

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International, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

OpEd: Two Jewish Issues the Biden Administration Must Clear Up

The Biden administration’s actions beg two disturbing Jewish-themed questions: Why would a president lie about such an insignificant detail as visiting a Pittsburgh synagogue? How can a U.S. Foreign Service officer be effective at his job when he demeans Jews and homosexuals? [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, USA

Biography Tells of Jewish Family’s Holocaust Survival in the Forest

Meticulous research documents the lives of the Rabinowitz family in small town Poland; their suffering after the Nazis invaded; their miraculous escape to the forest, where they survived in hiding for several years; their post-war relocation to Italy, while awaiting permission to immigrate to Palestine; their decision to move instead to the United States; their lives in Connecticut; and the marriage of daughter Ruth to a future rabbi, from whom author Rebecca Frankel received her Jewish education. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, USA