The Times has been against Jews being in Israel since 1883

Date Published: September 23, 1883,
Article Summary: Well meaning gentiles are helping no one when they pay Jews to go to Palestine. The Jews don't want to go and when they get there its no surprise that they end up starving because Jews make lousy farmers. Also, they don't need any help from you with the emigrating. If there's one thing Jews have always known how to do on their own its emigrate. Besides, Jews contribute a hell of a lot to this country, and we don't want to lose them.  [Click on the image to enlarge it]

HT: Rabba bar bar Chana

---

Search for more information about how things change at 4torah.com.

The first Jerusalem Day

The Times ran no less than nine articles on June 8 1967 about the conquest of the old city. All of them are after the jump. All can be made larger with a click. Don't miss the vomit inducing one about the Pope. 

How the Times reported the Rabbis March on Washington

Rabbis March on Washington as per Wikipedia:

The Rabbis' March was a protest for American and allied action to stop the destruction of European Jewry. It took place in Washington, D.C. on October 6, 1943, three days before Yom Kippur. It was organized by Hillel Kook, nephew of the chief rabbi of mandatory Palestine, and involved more than 400 rabbis, mostly members of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada[1], from New York and cities throughout the eastern United States.

Though the delegation was reluctantly received by Vice-President Henry Wallace, President Franklin D. Roosevelt avoided meeting the rabbis, both out of concerns regarding diplomatic neutrality, but also influenced by the advice of some of his Jewish aides and several prominent American Jews. Many thought the protest would stir up anti-Semitism and claimed that the marchers, many whom were both Orthodox as well as recent immigrants (or first-generation Americans), were not representative of American Jewry. Shortly before the protest reached the White House, FDR left the building through a rear exit to attend an Army ceremony, and then left for a weekend in the country. Disappointed and angered by the President's failure to meet with them, the rabbis stood in front of the White House where they were met by Senator William Warren Barbour and others, and refused to read their petition aloud, instead handing it off to the Presidential secretary, Marvin McIntyre.

The march garnered much media attention, much of it focused on what was seen as the cold and insulting dismissal of many important community leaders, as well as the people in Europe they were fighting for. The headline in the Washington Times Herald was, "Rabbis Report 'Cold Welcome' at the White House." Editors of the Jewish Daily Forward commented, "Would a similar delegation of 500 Catholic priests have been thus treated?"

One of the participants was Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, later to be one of the most important and famous American Orthodox rabbis.

Same story, as reported in the New York Times on October 7, 1943

[Click to enlarge]

How mean was this post? On the DovBear scale of rudeness, I give it a zero. 

---

Search for more information about [topic] at 4torah.com.

A hachnachas sefer Torah, as reported by the New York Times in 1852

---

I like everything about this story, and the thought of a sleepy community of Albany Jews welcoming a new sefer Torah to their shul. I'm especially charmed by the tone ("an excellent and appropriate address"(!)) and the errors in the transliterations of the Hebrew words.  I love that the reporter cared to find out what the Torah's garments are called - and came away with kele hakoesh, and I note that the ceremony began at an "early hour" - presumably so the participants would miss no work.

Now for some puzzlements: Why did they delay the ceremony? April 7, 1952 1852 was 18 Nissan, the first day of chol hamoed. Why did the congregation wait for the first day of chol hamoed, when they could have started the holiday with a new Torah? And what became of their children? How many of the crowd that turned out on that spring day 158 years ago have children who know that they are Jewish?

[Note: The last question isn't a slap at America. I'd ask the same question if the crowd had gathered in Poland or Hungary in 1852. Many - most? - of their descendants assimilated, too.]

---

Search for more information about [topic] at 4torah.com.

Times Treasure #3

Today's blast from the past discusses a Shabbos riot in Williamsburg from 1966. According to the article the riot, which actually occurred on Saturday night, long after Shabbos had ended, was the first of its kind in Williamsburg.

As you'll see, the crowds reaction seems justified - they were parading in the street and a driver didn't like it, and the paper's coverage seems fair.

I share it here as reminder and a record of those days of old.

---

Search for more information about Ytev Lev Satmar at 4torah.com.

The things they used to put in the newspapers

Nowadays, no self-respecting paper would run a puff piece like this, and certainly not one that did nothing but announce the names of wealthy people who had made sizable donations to an marginal college.

I wonder how these wealthy people would feel if they knew Orthodox Jews, today, generally believed that the 1920s were a time when no one in America cared about Orthodox Judaism, or Orthodox Jewish law. 

In my imagination, I can almost hear Samuel Levy shouting, "You know-nothing jerks! We cared about Orthodox Judaism and Orthodox Jewish law to the tune of $62,700,000 in 2010 dollars using the Consumer Price Index as a means of calculating the relative value of a dollar! So there!"

I looked Samuel Levy up, and found that he was also a member of NYC's Board of Education during the 20s and 30s. In his 1953 Times obituary Levy is given credit for being "instrumental in changing school rules and regulations for that Jewish students could observe their holy days without penalty." 

Another big name on the list is Nathan Lamport,who died in 1928 at the age of 74, and gave Yeshiva $300,000, but the most noteworthy name, I think, is Harry Fischel founder of the Uptown Talmud Torah, founder of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, charter member of National Jewish Welfare Board, and one of the original five incorporators of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

May their memory be a blessing.

---

Search for more information about great, forgotten Jews at 4torah.com.

Levi Eshkol Goes to Shul

This will be the last one for a few days... Still need a name

---

Search for more information about famous aliyot at 4torah.com.

Rabbi Aron Kotler, Rabbi Moses Feinstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Solivetchik assist at a wedding

As I wait for lightening to strike in the form of a suitable, catchy name for my new feature, I present the next entry: A short piece from 1962, announcing the wedding of Rivkah Teitz to Rabbi Yosef Blau.*

I think its neat that the three greatest names in Orthodox Judaism attended this wedding, and find it beyond precious that the Times described their participation this way: "[The mesader kidushin, Rabbi Pinchas Teitz] was assisted by Rabbi Aron Kotler, Rabbi Moses Feinstein and Rabbi Joseph B. Solivetchik."

ASIDE
My dear friend @yeshivaguy is fond of insisting on Twitter that Rabbi Aron Kotler made a habit of publicly disgracing and defaming Rabbi Joseph B. Solivetchik. I don't believe it for a second, and am deeply offended on Rabbi Kotler's behalf. But assuming @yeshivaguy is right (he's not) one wonders how the assisting at this wedding may have went.

RAK: Man, I didn't know you were going to be here!
RJBS: Um, I was invited. Also, the groom is my student
RAK: Jeez... now people are going to think we're friends. [pout]
RMF: Gentlemen, its time for us to start assisting.
RAK: Let Joe B. do it. I'm out of here.
RJBS: Haven't I told you a 1000 times not to call me Joe B?
RAK: Whatever

END ASIDE

I also note in this article a hint of a generational shift. The senior Rabbis are identified by their English names (Aron, Moses, Joseph) but the groom is Yosef.

Finally, will we ever again see a day when a Lakewood Rosh Yeshiva attends the wedding of a Barnard graduate with plans to continue her education at Columbia?

* I know who they are. Not relevant. For more information see Yosef Blau and Pinchas Teitz

---

Search for more information about things you don't see anymore at 4torah.com.