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Inside…
THE MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY
I.B. I.B. I.B. I.B. I.B. SINGER SINGER SINGER SINGER SINGER
An An An An An American-Jewish American-Jewish American-Jewish American-Jewish American-Jewish Journey Journey Journey Journey Journey
see page 4
From the Executive Director 2
Chairman’s Report 3
I.B. Singer: An American-Jewish Journey 4
The Center and the Scholars 6
Lawyers Without Rights 7
Center Newswire 8–11
Brazil: The Hidden “Jewish” State 13
The Early Days of the Hadassah
Medical Organization 14
Development News 16
Fall/Winter 2004/2005 | Volume 1, Issue 2
CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY

2
From the Executive Director
Left to right: Struggle for Soviet Jewry poster, 1964; Sabato Morais, 1823-1897; Letter to Benjamin Peixotto, 1839-1890, U.S. Council to Romania; Molly Picon
in “Circus Girl,” 1928. All images from the Timeline, courtesy of American Jewish Historical Society.
O
ver the past year, there
has rarely been a day
when I have not met or spoken
with someone who has an exciting
new idea for the Center
for Jewish History. One wishes
to collect autobiographies of
North American Jews,
another their photographs,
yet another
their home movies; we
should hold a conference
on the Jewish
role in the American
theatre; we should
exhibit the contributions
of the Soviet
Jewish soldiers to the
Red Army during the
Second World War; we
should have programs
highlighting American Jewish
writers, artists and musicians;
or the Jewish role in medicine,
law and business…and the
ideas never stop.
This coming May, 2005,
the American Jewish Historical
Society will lead the Center’s
efforts in celebrating the challenges
and achievements of
350 years of the American
Jewish experience. All of the
Center’s partner organizations
are committed to plumbing
their collections for their most
interesting and exciting holdings
and sharing them with
the public. We hope that you
will plan to visit us between
May 15 and August 15, 2005 to
see for yourself the wealth and
treasure that is housed here at
the Center. The partner collections
are unparalleled, and are
being preserved and protected
for today’s scholars and for
those of the decades and centuries
to come.
Peter A. Geffen
The Center’s commemoration
of the 350th anniversary
of American Jewry will
not be an exercise in self-congratulation.
Rather, it will provide
a provocative encounter
with our past. Visitors will
likely find themselves asking
as many questions as the exhibition
committee sought to
answer as it planned the commemoration.
What is really
important to examine and portray
in this centuries-long
story? Who are the heroes of
this story, and what makes
their lives heroic?
Last June I had the privilege
of standing in my grandfather’s
footsteps in Kovno,
Lithuania. As I walked the
STANLEY BERGMAN
streets of his childhood, I
wondered what it took for a
young rabbi to decide to leave
his family and birthplace in
1903, and make his way with
his wife and two small children
to America. What could he have
known that lent sufficient
security to his decision?
In Vilna the next day,
the questions continued. Was
the relationship with America
a one-way street? Did Jews
leave Vilna and Kovno never to
return physically or spiritually?
If so, why was I so drawn?
Why did I feel so attached?
What was it about my grandfather’s
own education and
upbringing that made his transition
to America so successful?
Was there something in
the relationship between Jews
and Christians that prepared
him to willingly participate
in the tolerant and mutually
respectful atmosphere of
Atlanta, Georgia, where he
made his home for 60 years? I
had been taught that America
was a completely new beginning
for Eastern European
Jewry in the early years of the
20th century… but was it?
When I returned to the
Center for Jewish History, Dr.
Brad Sabin Hill, Dean of the
YIVO library, took me into the
rare book room and showed me
a one-of-a-kind volume, in
Yiddish, describing America to
the Eastern European Jew, pub-
lished in 1817. I wondered, did
my grandfather read this book?
The Center for Jewish
History is rooted in the question.
Our resources provide
scholars, students and the general
public the opportunity to
look for answers, explore new
understandings and finally
share with the public their
observations and conclusions.
Our partner organizations provide
daily programming that
transports audiences to the far
reaches of the Jewish world,
both in time and in space. In
one week in October, I went
from Emilia-Romanga in Italy,
to Teheran and Shiras in Iran,
to Warsaw and Cracow in
Poland! And now, in a new initiative
begun last month, the
Center is broadcasting its
unparalleled programming to
communities across the country
through state-of-the-art
video conferencing, enabling
audiences on college campuses,
in Jewish community centers,
and in synagogues and churches
to participate (at low cost)
in programs that would otherwise
be beyond their reach.
Enjoy this issue of The
Jewish Experience and help us
to maintain this jewel of the
Jewish people. Visit us when
you visit New York and visit us
online at www.cjh.org.

Published by
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011
212-294-8301 fax: 212-294-8302
website: www.cjh.org
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bruce Slovin, Chair
Joseph D. Becker, Vice Chair
Kenneth J. Bialkin, Vice Chair
Erica Jesselson, Vice Chair
Joseph Greenberger, Secretary
Michael A. Bamberger
Norman Belmonte
George Blumenthal
Eva B. Cohn
David Dangoor
Henry L. Feingold
Max Gitter
Michael Jesselson
Sidney Lapidus
Leon Levy
Theodore N. Mirvis
Nancy T. Polevoy
Robert Rifkind
David Solomon
BOARD OF OVERSEERS
William A. Ackman
Stanley I. Batkin
Joseph D. Becker
Kenneth J. Bialkin
Leonard Blavatnik
George Blumenthal
Arturo Constantiner
Mark Goldman
Joan L. Jacobson
Ira H. Jolles
Harvey M. Krueger
Sidney Lapidus
Leon Levy
Ira A. Lipman
Theodore N. Mirvis
Joseph H. Reich
Robert S. Rifkind
Stephen Rosenberg
Bernard Selz
Bruce Slovin
Mary Smart
Edward L. Steinberg
Joseph S. Steinberg
Michele Cohn Tocci
Roy Zuckerberg
Peter A. Geffen,
Executive Director
STAFF
Ira Berkowitz,
Chief Financial Officer
Robert Friedman,
Director, Geneology Institute
Tamara Moscowitz,
Director of Public Relations
Diane Spielmann, Ph.D.
Director, the Lillian Goldman
Reading Room
Bob Sink, Chief Archivist and
Project Director
Lynne Winters,
Director of Program Production
Natalia Indrimi, Program Curator
Stuart Chizzik,
Associate Director of Development
PARTNER INSTITUTIONS
American Jewish Historical Society
David Solomon,
Interim Executive Director
American Sephardi Federation
Esme Berg, Executive Director
Leo Baeck Institute
Carol Kahn Strauss,
Executive Director
Yeshiva University Museum
Sylvia A. Herskowitz, Director
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
Carl J. Rheins, Executive Director
ACADEMIC ADVISORY
COUNCIL
Elisheva Carlebach, Co-Chair
Queens College
Michael A. Meyer, Co-Chair
Hebrew Union College
Robert Chazan
New York University
Todd Endelman
University of Michigan
Henry L. Feingold
Baruch College
David Fishman
Jewish Theological Seminary
Ernest Frerichs
Brown University
Jane Gerber
Graduate Center of the City
University of New York
Deborah Dash Moore
Vassar College
Lawrence H. Schiffman
New York University
Jeffrey Shandler
Rutgers University
Paul Shapiro
United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum
Chava Weissler
Lehigh University
Beth S. Wenger
University of Pennsylvania
Steven J. Zipperstein
Stanford University
Editor: Jay Michaelson
Managing Editor: Tamara Moscowitz
The Jewish Experience is made
possible, in part, with the
generous support of the
Liman Foundation.
Design: Flyleaf
From the
Chairman
he Center for Jewish History
T is growing at an astonishing
pace. Last year alone, we hosted
nearly 4,500 scholars, writers,
artists, and academics, while our
events and exhibitions attracted
over 45,000 visitors. More tangibly,
we are proud to announce the completion
of six additional floors to properly house and preserve our
priceless archival collections, thus achieving the aims of our
founders: to become the central address for all those interested in
Jewish history and culture. And the best is yet to come.
Thanks to the enthusiasm of the Center’s committed staff,
and the generosity of our donors, we have undertaken an array of
new initiatives, including the high quality digitization of the Center’s
collections of images on our website, www.cjh.org, and
videoconference-based attendance at the Center’s superb public
programs, allowing audiences in every region of the United States
to participate in these events. The generous assistance of city,
state, and federal officials, as well as the many individuals and
foundations, has strengthened our resolve and has enabled us to
establish the Center for Jewish History as an essential part of New
York’s wonderfully diverse cultural life. (See page 16 “Development
News” for details.)
This issue of “The Jewish Experience” has a feature essay
related to each of our five partners’ upcoming exhibits, which represent
a wonderful breadth of subject matters and time periods. In
addition to two exhibits celebrating the Isaac Bashevis Singer centenary,
the coming months will see the openings of “Lawyers
Without Rights,” (Leo Baeck Institute), “For the Health of Israel,”
(Hadassah and AJHS) and, now on view, “Pernambuco, Brazil:
Gateway to New York” (American Sephardi Federation and Yeshiva
University Museum).
We were honored to be selected by Governor George E. Pataki
to host, last September 9, the official state reception marking
the 350th Anniversary of Jewish settlers in America. There will be
many more celebrations of the 350th anniversary taking place
across the land this coming year. But it is only fitting that the
Center for Jewish History, which brings together sources and
materials from every Jewish ethnic community in recent history
— Lodz to Los Angeles, Montevideo to Marrakech — will be
mounting the grandest exhibition of them all: “From Haven to
Home,” sponsored by the Congressionally appointed Commission
on the 350th Anniversary. The exhibit will integrate documents,
photographs, and objects from the vast archival holdings of all the
partners, as well as items from the American Jewish Historical
Society on loan to the Library of Congress.
At such an exciting time, your support for the Center for
Jewish History is vital. I hope that we will continue to be able to
count on you as we enrich the future of the Jewish community by
perpetuating the knowledge of its proud past.
FRED CHARLES
3

4
Near right: I.B. and Alma
Singer in Manhattan, 1978
(Jack Smith). Far right:
Yiddish P.E.N. Club ID
card, 1935. Accredited in
1926, the Yiddish P.E.N.
Club, was the first branch of the organization dedicated to a
minority literature. Photos courtesy of The Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center.
T
his fall, the Center for Jewish History celebrates
the centennial of one of the most famous Jewish
writers of all time, as it hosts multiple exhibits on the life and
work of Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Singer’s many colorful novels and stories eventually won
him the Nobel Prize for literature. Yet had it not been for a
unique relationship with the Jewish Daily Forward, Singer might
never have become an American, let alone an American writer
who created many works now in our country’s literary canon.
Singer’s curious relationship to the Forward (or, in its Yiddish
pronunciation, the Forverts) is a fascinating tale, and it is one
that illustrates that even as Singer became world-famous, he
remained a thoroughly Jewish writer to the end.
Singer landed on these shores in 1935, arriving with the
help of his brother, Israel Joshua Singer, who was then on the
staff of the Forward. Six months after he arrived, the budding
writer applied for an extension of his visa. He was denied. It was
only when the paper’s editorial staff, led by Abraham Cahan,
wrote to the Commissioner of Immigration on Singer’s behalf
that he was permitted to stay in the country where he would
ultimately flourish.
The letter which won Singer his visa — and, by extension,
won America one of its most engaging writers — is on display as
part of “Becoming an American Writer: The Life and Work of
Isaac Bashevis Singer,” an exhibit sponsored by the Yeshiva
University Museum, which incorporates a cornucopia of Singer
paraphernalia, ranging from family photographs and passports
to Singer’s Yiddish typewriter, with which he allegedly maintained
a kind of supernatural relationship. (“If this typewriter
doesn’t like a story, it refuses to work,” he once said.)
“The visitor to this exhibition will be pulled into Singer’s life
through photographs of scenes from his childhood, portraits of
him posing with other Yiddish writers, and family pictures,” said
Katharina Feil, curator at the Yeshiva University Museum.
Singer’s journey into the pantheon of American writers
I.B. SINGER
An American-Jewish Journey
by Alana Newhouse
likely began in 1953, when the literary critic Irving Howe was
given a copy of his story “Gimpel the Fool,” which Howe persuaded
the novelist Saul Bellow to translate. Within a short time,
editors from the country’s most prestigious publications, including
The New Yorker and Harper’s, were knocking on Singer’s door.
Eventually, in 1977, he won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Even then, as he stood on the podium in Norway, and until
his death in 1991, Singer continued to contribute to the paper
that gave him his first audience.
In its heyday, the Forward, with a circulation of well over
200,000, was the voice of the Jewish immigrant in America. The
paper, which was then a daily, saw as its mission to help these
newcomers adapt into American society while maintaining their
connection to Jewish life and culture. As a member of its staff,
Singer was purveyor of this process, yet he became a beneficiary
of it as well.
At the start of his career at the Forward, Singer, like many
aspiring writers, contributed an assortment of journalistic
pieces, as the artifacts in this exhibition show — from human
interest stories (“What Studies Have Uncovered About Talented
Children”) and news pieces (“English Jews Fought As Heroes,
Died as Martyrs In York Pogrom”) to social commentary and
advice columns (“Why Men and Women Divorce — No Rules But
the Cases Are Interesting”). And he employed a coterie of pseudonyms,
including “Yitskhok Varshavski” and “D. Segal.”
These pieces assured Singer a regular readership, one that
would mature with him throughout his career. Nearly his entire
oeuvre was serialized in the Forward, including articles and stories
that later made it into the pages of The New Yorker, Harper’s and
Playboy. The exhibit offers a fascinating window into Singer’s relationship
with the paper, including his scrapbook with clippings of
the serialization of “Di Familye Mushkat,” which appeared
between 1945 to 1948 in the Forward and was translated into Eng-

Singer (rear center) with other Yiddish writers in Warsaw during the 1930s.
Left to right: K. Molodovsky, Y Kirman, Y. Opatoshu, A. Zeitlin, M. Ravitch.
Photo courtesy of The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.
lish as “The Family Moskat” in
1950, as well as a 1963 award
from the Jewish Book Council
for “The Slave,” which ran in
the paper in 1961.
After the work appeared
in the Forward, Singer worked
Dust jacket of the first edition of
I.J. Singer’s The Brothers Ashkenazi,
translated by Maurice Samuel and
published by Knopf in 1936. Photo
courtesy of The Harry Ransom
Humanities Research Center.
with a bevy of translators to
shape his prose into English,
and he termed these versions
“second originals” because, as
he admitted, the revisions necessary
to capture the subtleties
evoked in Yiddish could be
extensive. To some in the Yiddish
cultural community, the
notion of evoking the world of
Eastern European Jewry in a
language other than Yiddish
was a betrayal, but many others,
fearful that Yiddish was indeed
experiencing its twilight, concluded
that translation was the
only way to ensure a future for
these stories.
To be sure, even in
translation, Singer’s writing
remained soaked in yiddishkeit.
In the words of Sylvia Herskowitz,
Executive Director of
the Yeshiva University Museum,
“Like the demons in Maurice
Sendak’s Night Kitchen, the
mysticism and folklore that I.B.
Singer inhaled in the fervid air
of the shtetl permeated the stories
and characters he invented
in postwar America.”
Singer himself seems to
have had rather nuanced views
on the matter of language
and culture. Though he actively
participated in the translation
of his work, he maintained
that Yiddish “contains vitamins
that other languages
don’t have.” Crucially, throughout
his long, successful career,
Singer never abandoned the
Yiddish language or Jewish
culture. The Forward was not
only Singer’s entry pass to
American culture; as the
exhibit at the Center shows, it
was a continuous source of
nourishment for him — and his
readers as well.
Alana Newhouse is Arts &
Letters editor of the Forward.
Celebrating
the I.B. Singer Centennial
YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
Becoming An American Writer:
The Life and Work of Isaac Bashevis
Singer is a traveling exhibition, part
of the Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial
directed by The Library of
America. On view at the Center for
Jewish History from November 16,
2004 to January 16, 2005, the
exhibit explores the immigrant
literary experience, and showcases
Singer’s life through early photographs
and book covers of some of
his most celebrated works. Organized
in conjunction with the Library of
America’s publication of a three-volume edition of
Singer’s collected stories and a fully illustrated companion
An Album, the exhibit is made possible by a generous
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Singer in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, 1966.
Stefan Congrat-Butlar. Photo courtesy of The Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center.
YIVO GALLERY
Opening November 15, 2004, The
Family Singer will explore the lives
and talent of the Singer family,
including the patriarch, Pinhas
Menahem Singer, a noted rabbinic
author; the brothers I.J. and I.B.
Singer; as well as Singer’s sister,
Esther. Photographs and personal
documents will be on display.
Book jacket of Deborah by Esther Kreitman,
Photo courtesy YIVO Archives.
ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER IN FILM
Presented by Yeshiva University Museum
and YIVO
• November 22, 7pm
Isaac In America, 1986, dir. Amram Nowak
Introduced by Allan L. Nadler, Drew University
• December 13, 7 pm
The Cafeteria, 1984, dir. Amram Nowak
Introduced by Allan L. Nadler, Drew University
• January 10, 7 pm
Enemies: A Love Story, 1989, dir. Paul Mazursky
Introduced by Jeremy Dauber, Columbia University
Presented by YIVO
35

6
The Center
and the Scholars
by Michael A. Meyer and
Elisheva Carlebach
A
lthough the Center for Jewish History hosts numerous popular
programs for Jewish and general audiences in New
York, its fundamental purpose is to serve the national and international
community of Jewish scholars, especially modern Jewish
historians. We historians had long felt the need for a single institution
that brings together under one roof so many of the archival
and literary resources we require for our work. We also welcomed
the establishment of the Center because of its possibilities for
conducting our research in an
environment conducive to the
scope of our scholarship. Here,
veteran and, especially, younger
scholars are able to interact with
their counterparts studying American,
German, East European or
Sephardic Jewish history. The
results are a mutual fructification
and a synergy that inspire better
scholarship and a deepening of
American Jewish culture.
To explore these possibilities,
and to establish a framework
for furthering them, the Academic
Advisory Council of the Center was
established. Today it consists of
fifteen members who serve on the
faculty and staffs of leading academic
and research institutions,
among them Stanford University,
the University of Pennsylvania,
the University of Michigan, New
York University, the Jewish Theological
Seminary, and the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
We are a diverse group —
seasoned scholars and younger historians,
men and women from various sections of the country who
work in one or another of the fields represented by the Center.
The Council’s principal function is to provide an academic
perspective: to advise, propose, and evaluate. Because we know
the needs of Jewish scholars, we are in a position to suggest to
the Center how to create the best environment for its Reading
Room, make the most effective use of its resources, and create
programs that will win the approval and support of the scholarly
community. Together with the Association for Jewish Studies,
whose national office has recently been established at the Center,
we provide an essential link to the large and growing
community of Jewish scholars.
Toward that end, we have initiated programs that raise the
Center’s profile among our colleagues and in the Jewish world.
For example, shortly after the Center opened, the Council organized
a major academic conference entitled “Centers of Modern
MICHAEL LUPPINO
The Lillian Goldman Reading Room
Jewish Studies,” which drew both university professors and a
general audience. It highlighted the vistas for integrated study
of various aspects of the modern Jewish experience that the Center
laid open before us.
The most remarkable success of the Council lies in its fellowship
and seminar program. Each year a few outstanding
graduate students are selected to receive fellowships that enable
them to pursue their doctoral research at the Center. They utilize
its rich resources, often in more than one of the Center partners’
collections. Fellows’ responsibilities include the delivery of a
research paper at seminars open to all members of the Center
community and conducted by a senior scholar. By attending the
seminars and by presenting their own research to the critical eyes
of others, the fellows develop a capacity for creative criticism and
learn to make effective oral presentations. As they encounter
each other informally during their stay at the Center, the
fellows are able to discuss research
techniques and gain a broader
understanding of fields adjacent to
their own. Thus the Center serves as
an important venue for the training
of future Jewish historians who
will preserve and transmit a living
heritage.
At the regularly held meetings
of the Council, and through
our committees, the Council
explores new opportunities for
enhancing the work of the Center.
We are currently engaged in planning
the Center’s commemoration
of the 350th anniversary of Jewish
settlement in America. We are
discussing a scholar-in-residence
program, which would enable
junior and senior historians to
spend a semester or a year at the
Center in order to consult with
staff and advise the graduate
fellows while pursuing their own
research. We are exploring the
use of video conferences, and an
effective use of prizes to
encourage research and publication.
We are also seeking to learn from other, longer
established institutions, such as Washington’s Holocaust Museum,
about how we can become a bridge connecting archival
treasures, scholars, and the public.
The Center, with its rich and diverse collections of
resources, is an unparalleled venture in the history of Jewish
scholarship. The Academic Council is devoted to transforming
these resources from historical documents and museum artifacts
into writings and presentations that will combine scholarship on
the highest level with relevance to the creative development of
American Jewish culture.
Michael A. Meyer (Hebrew Union College) and Elisheva
Carlebach (Queens College) are co-chairs of the Center’s Academic
Advisory Council

Lawyers
Without Rights
Jews and the Rule of Law
Under the Third Reich
by Carol Kahn Strauss
On April 7, 1933, shortly after assuming power, Adolf Hitler
ordered all non-Aryan attorneys to be relieved of their civil service
positions, including university professorships and administrative
positions throughout the legal system. The effect was
devastating: at the time of the proclamation, there were almost
20,000 lawyers in Germany, and about half of them were Jewish.
The numbers, and the accomplishments, are staggering. In
Berlin alone, there were 3,400 lawyers, of whom approximately
2,000 were Jewish. Jews who had been trained
as jurists worked as teachers, judges, notaries,
administrators, and trial advocates. They were
experts in commercial law, contracts law, labor
law, penal law, family law and civil procedure.
They developed theories of sociology and the
law, pioneered modern concepts of women’s
rights, and expanded the definitions of
free speech. All of these were subsequently
denounced as “Jewish perversions” by the Nazis.
How had Jews become so numerous in the
German legal profession?
One possible reason is ideological: throughout Jewish
history, the rule of law was of central importance. Traditional
Judaism is a religion of law, whose important precepts, codes and
guidelines are found in the Bible, the Talmud, and rabbinic decisions.
In the traditional Jewish view, law is holy and a necessary
part of religious life.
A second reason was practical. Secular law — the legal systems
of the nations in which Jews lived — also mattered to Jews,
especially during the 19th century when, with the onset of
emancipation, the state regulated almost all of their activities.
Jews were enmeshed in legal systems whether they were religious
or not.
Convention of Lawyers in Duesseldorf, 1949, (Bild Berichte; Berben-Binder,
Dusseldorf). Photo courtesy of Leo Baeck Institute.
Finally, there is an economic reason, stemming from emancipation
itself. By the 1850s, Jews throughout most of Central
Europe were able to participate in the judicial professions, even as
they were still barred from most academic pursuits. It was virtually
impossible for a Jew at that time to become a professor of
literature — but he could be a doctor of laws. The result of all
these causes was a legal profession that was disproportionately
inhabited and maintained by Jews — a fact not lost on the Nazis.
The effects of the 1933 ruling were seismic. German judges,
like their British and American counterparts, receive the same
education whether headed for private practice or government
work. After graduation, however, German judges work their way
up through the judicial system, much like any other civil
servant, rather than being chosen after experience in the private
sector. Consequently, one year after the law was passed, there
were 10,000 immediate vacancies in the judicial system,
and twice that number of openings throughout
the legal profession, all waiting to be filled by
Lawyers
non-Jews.
Perhaps surprisingly, most of the
Without
disbarred Jewish lawyers did not immediate-
Rights ly leave Germany. They thought the shock
Exhibition
was temporary, and feared the difficulty of
relearning the law in another country —
December 5, 2004 –
particularly America, whose legal system is
February 28, 2005
derived from English common law, in contrast
to Germany’s foundations in Roman law. Language
also presented a problem; Greek and Latin
were more familiar to many German jurists than English.
As a result, most Jewish lawyers stayed and worked in
whatever capacity they could. As one Dr. Ludwig Bendix wrote
to his clients, “I had to give up my activities as lawyer and
notary, however, having practiced and studied German law my
whole life, I feel so closely linked with German law that even if
it were only for this innermost idealistic reason, I have to continue
my activities within the new framework that remains
under current legislation.”
Dr. Bendix became a “legal advisor” or rechtsberater, often
the last resort of many Jewish lawyers. Such activities led to a
special statute to curtail even this attempt to survive: the “Law
continued on page 12
37

8
MELANIE EINZIG
SHIRA KOHN
Center Newswire Events
Celebrating 350
Years of Jewish Life
in America
MELANIE EINZIG
MELANIE EINZIG
SHIRA KOHN
E
F
G
A
MELANIE EINZIG
“This program really
got me interested
in Judaism and
genealogy. It was a
great way to spend
three weeks.”
Samberg
Family
History
Program
Governor George E. Pataki
hosts a reception to
celebrate the start of the
350 Anniversary of Jewish
Settlers in North America
with 200 friends and
colleagues at the Center
on September 9, 2004.
(A) Sidney Lapidus,
C
President of the American
Jewish Historical Society;
B State Assemblyman Ryan Scott Karben; Governor
George E. Pataki; and Center Chairman Bruce Slovin;
(B) Sidney Lapidus accepts the State’s Proclamation from Governor George E. Pataki; (C) Peter
A. Geffen, Executive Director of the Center with Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Executive Vice President
of the New York Board of Rabbis.
Nineteen teens from the New York
metropolitan area worked side by
side with scholars, curators, and
professional genealogists to
research their family’s history using
the Center’s vast archival collection
and library. (E) Participants view a
cloth wimpel, used as a ritual object
in German Jewish communities, in a
workshop with Yeshiva University
Museum curator Gabriel Goldstein;
(F) Samberg students on their way
to Ellis Island, July 15, 2004;
(G) Dylan Suher wearing a
traditional robe at the Bukharian
Jewish Community Center,
July 28, 2004.
D
SIMONA ARU
SIMONA ARU
MELANIE EINZIG
Senator Arlen Specter Visits
Dignitaries and political officials often visit the Center to view the
magnificent collections of the partner organizations. Chairman Bruce
Slovin escorted Senator Specter and his wife, Joan on October 4, 2004.
(D) Left to right: Bruce Slovin, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (PA), Joan
Specter, and Yeshiva University Museum Director Sylvia Herskowitz.
October 4, 2004.
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Jews
& Justice
The Jews & Justice series is an
J exploration of contemporary and
legal traditions of the Jewish people
and their relevance to current thinking and practice. Preceding each
panel discussion, The David Berg Foundation hosted a reception for
speakers and friends. Clockwise from above: (H) Suzanne Last Stone,
Professor of Law at Benjamin Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University
(left), co-curator of the Jews & Justice series, with Michele Tocci, a
member of the Center’s Board of Overseers and President of The David
Berg Foundation, underwriters of the program; (I) Left to right:
Professors Elaine Pagels (Princeton University), Abdulaziz Sachedina
(University of Virginia) and David Berger (Brooklyn College and the
Graduate Center at the City University of New York), panelists for
“Tolerance: The Perspectives of Religious Traditions,” June 22, 2004;
(J) Russell G. Pearce (left), Professor of Law, Fordham University Law
School and co-curator of the Jews & Justice series with Peter A. Geffen,
Executive Director of the Center and Edward Rothstein, New York Times
reporter and moderator of the "The Passion" panel February 26, 2004
I

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Luminous Manuscript
and Biblical Species
Diaspora: Homelands
in Exile at the
United Nations
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A reception for over 200 guests was
held on April 1 for the opening of
Luminous Manuscript, a large-scale
work by Diane Samuels installed in
the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg
Great Hall at the Center. The
reception also honored Michele Oka Doner, who created the Center's first
public art commission, Biblical Species. Clockwise from far left: (K) Guests
explore Luminous Manuscript, a mosaic tablet twenty-two feet high and
twenty feet in width, made of engraved crystal clear Starphire glass, individually hand-mounted over
Jerusalem stone tiles. (L) Please touch the art: Elizabeth Kingsley explores Luminous Manuscript.
(M) A meditative moment shared by Board of Overseers Chairman Bruce Slovin (right) with colleague and
benefactor, Joseph S. Steinberg; (N) Biblical Species, terrazzo floor by artist Michele Oka Doner;
(O) Detail from Luminous Manuscript;
(P) Sculptor
Michele Oka
Doner;
(Q) Michele Oka
Doner (left),
Bruce Slovin,
Diane Samuels,
Joseph S.
and Diane H.
Steinberg.
Q
See Development News for further information on page 16.
On June 21, the Center for Jewish History and the Department of Information
at the United Nations hosted a reception for an exhibition of selected works
of French photographer Frédéric Brenner. The photographs were on view
in conjunction with the United Nations' historic seminar, “Confronting Anti-
Semitism: Education for Tolerance and Understanding.” Below left: (R) Frédéric
Brenner (left) and admirer. Clockwise from near right: (S) Chaikhana, Teahouse
(Frédéric Brenner), 1990. Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery, NYC;
(T) Raymond Sommeryns (left), Director
of Outreach Division of the Department of
Information at the United Nations; and
Frédéric Brenner; (U) Dr. Ruth Westheimer
and Bruce Slovin; (V) Peter Geffen
introducing Frédéric Brenner; (W) Guests
browse through the catalogue Diaspora:
Homelands in Exile, a collection of
Brenner’s photographs of Jewish lives in
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different parts of the world, taken over a
25-year period.
MATHILDE DAMELE
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JOSHUA KESSLER
9

10
LEO BAECK INSTITUTE
ARCHIVIO CENTRALE DELLO STATO
Center Newswire Recent Programs
Exhibitions
A
F
Performance
Clockwise from top: (H) Between Two Worlds: The
Dybbuk, one of the most popular plays in Jewish
theater, was performed in an award-winning adaptation
for adult puppet theater, produced by Tears of Joy
Theater and Mark Levenson, February 19-21, 2004
(Yeshiva University Museum) (I & J) A staged reading
of The Last Days of Mankind, written between 1915 and
1922 by the great satirist Karl Kraus, the work explores
various aspects to the nature of war and the media’s
response. A work considered by many to be a
precursor to contemporary thinking on global conflict.
Left to right: Actors Robert Zuckerman and Emanuele
Secci, April 28 (co-presented by the Leo Baeck
Institute, the Centro Cultrale Primo Levi, KIT-Kairos
Italy Theater, and the Jewish Heritage Project.)
(K) The Jews of Iran, an evening of viewing the
pictorial history, “Esther’s Children,” with a slide
presentation by Houman Sashar and a concert
performance by Tania Eshaghoff (pictured here).
(American Sephardi Federation)
G
AMERICAN SEPHARDI FEDERATION
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PHOTO: HENRI SILBERMAN
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ARCHIVIO
CENTRALE
DELLO STATO
YIVO ARCHIVES
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YESHIVA UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
Clockwise from far left:
(A) Intriguing Women •
Martha Kaestner on a
bicycle. The pioneering
achievements of
Jewish women in
modern times covered
C a wide field from social
welfare, to the arts, to
medicine and physics. A tribute to their creativity, brilliance, and
ingenuity was shown through personal correspondence, books,
unpublished manuscripts, and rare documents. (Leo Baeck Institute);
(B) Pioneers, Superstars and Journeymen in Major League Baseball,
1871-2004 • Through December 30, 2004. (American Jewish
Historical Society) (C) Archie Rand: Iconoclast • Day One, “Seven
Days of Creation” (1966) was one of the
works on display by Archie Rand, an artist
whose body of work draws on sources
ranging from pop art to Biblical subjects.
(Yeshiva University Museum) (D) Covers &
Sheets: Early 20th Century Yiddish Sheet
Music • These rare materials from the
YIVO Collection represented popular
Yiddish songs from the turn of the
century, when Jewish migration to
America reached its peak. (YIVO)
(E) Jewish Costumes in the Ottman
Empire – The Sephardim & The Turks;
Living Together for 500 years •
March 31 – May 15, 2004. (American
Sephardi Federation) (F) The Other
Modigliani – A Life of Peace and
Democracy • An exhibition on loan from
the Archivio Centrale dello Stato in Rome,
The Other Modigliani examined the life
and work of Guiseppe Emanuele (Mené)
Modigliani, one of Italy's earliest socialists
and union leaders, who was elected to Parliament. Shown here:
Mené leaving the United States after a triumphant lecture tour,
as he listens to members of Local 89, Ladies Garment Workers
Union singing “Bread & Roses” from the pier. (Centro Culturale
Primo Levi) (G) Mené and his wife Vera.
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MELANIE EINZIG
Films
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Expression and Exploration:
Paths of Jewish Artists
Monday Night Film Series
(L) Pearl Lang in The Possessed, 1978;
(M) Berlin’s Jewish Museum: A Personal Tour with
Daniel Libeskind, 2000;
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MELANIE EINZIG
S
LEO BAECK INSTITUTE
O
Great Nights in
the Great Hall
Summer film and
concert series attracts
nearly 1,000 visitors
L
M
Lectures
YIVO ARCHIVES
Symposium: Jerusalem of
the North: Yiddish Montreal
(N) Yiddish Montreal, Children from Yiddish-language
Peretz schools, Montreal, Canada (1930s). (YIVO)
Clockwise from top left: (O) Legendary
drummer Chico Hamilton; (P) Humorist Flash
Rosenberg; (Q) Special premiere of Rosenstrasse, film image courtesy of Samuel
Goldwyn Films; (R) Bill Crow, bassist and jazz historian; (S) The Loft on 28th Street,
a look at W. Eugene Smith’s archival photography, accompanied by a performance
with jazz historian Bill Crow
(T) Clarinetist Ken Peplowski
performed with John
“Bucky” Pizzarelli.
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12
Lawyers Without
Rights
continued from page 7
Against the Abuse of Legal
Advice,” passed in late 1935.
By Kristallnacht, November 9,
1938, 173 so-called Jewish
“legal consultants” remained.
By 1945, only four of them
were still alive.
Ironically, just as the
purge of Jewish lawyers
stripped the German legal
profession of half of its practitioners,
the legal complexities
of Hitler’s reign were many. For
example, Nazi racial policies
were extraordinarily complex,
as arbitrary and ridiculous as
they were fierce. The Nuremberg
Laws of 1935 officially
designated a Jew as anyone
who was “more than 50 percent”
Jewish — a seemingly
simple definition, but actually
extremely complex. Medically,
of course, Jews are not a race
(a cultural concept which is
not scientific in any case). And
with converts into and out of
Judaism, these “stiff-necked”
people were exceedingly difficult
to identify. Converts to
Christianity remained Jews
under the Nazis, while the socalled
mischlinge who had one
or more Jewish parents or
grandparents, were subsequently
categorized as half-Jews or
quarter-Jews. The vague concept
of “Jewish identity”
included religion, heredity,
nationality, and intent. Confusion
ensued.
The German courts
upheld and interpreted the
Nuremberg Laws in ways that
were inevitably detrimental to
Jews. For example, one case in
March 1933 regarded a film production
company, UFA, which
had signed a contract with a
Jewish director (Eric Charell)
for film rights to his novel. Five
days after paying Charell the
first installment, UFA withdrew
the contract, citing a clause
that declared the agreement
null and void in the case of the
director’s “death, illness or a
similar reason.” The Supreme
Court agreed that, indeed, a
“similar reason” had been provided,
since the new racial
policies altered Charell’s legal
status to the extent that they
prevented him from carrying
out his duties.
The Charell case was a
clear articulation of the civil
death of Jews, which took
place long before their physical
annihilation, and served as
a precedent for a variety of
decisions by lower courts.
Illegal termination of leases,
employment contracts, pension
benefits and many other forms
of discrimination against Jews
in civil suits all became rationalized
under Nazi jurisprudence.
No effort was spared to construe
every law as restrictively as possible,
to the detriment of Jews.
In reality, the German
legal system had been undergoing
a perversion of justice
even before Hitler became
Chancellor. There was a famous
decision by Germany’s Supreme
Court in 1925 that essentially
ruled that the interests of the
state stood above the law. By
implication, this meant that
even the most heinous crimes
were not punishable if they
were committed in the interest
of the state, while, conversely,
legal actions were punishable
if they ran counter to those
interests. Thomas Mann commented
that such legal
doctrines “ought to be left to
fascist dictators,” and indeed
they were.
What is shocking is how
long Hitler’s special judges
remained in power, long after
the Third Reich was finished. In
1959, the so-called Committee
for German Unity presented a
report to Chancellor Adenauer
filled with documentary evidence
showing that more than
800 of Hitler’s special court
judges and military judges still
occupied positions of responsi-
bility in the West German judicial
system, even though it had
been proven that they
committed terrible crimes
under the Nazis. In 1958, the
West German Federal Prosecutor
admitted that the “mass of
today’s judges and public prosecutors
were already active …
between 1933 and 1945 … The
rule of law perished but they
survived.”
The German Jewish
lawyers were not so lucky, of
course. Of those who survived
the Holocaust, fewer than 10
percent actually resumed the
practice of law. A high percentage
took their own lives.
Not too long ago, the Bar
Association of the Federal
Republic of Germany recognized
the terrible injustice
done to their Jewish colleagues
and mounted an
exhibit entitled Lawyers without
Rights that opened in the
German Bundestag. The exhibit,
which will open at the Leo
Baeck Institute on December
5, 2004, very simply states the
names and accomplishments of
many Jewish lawyers, together
with their fates after 1933.
The biographical portraits give
viewers deep insight into the
historical, social, and political
consequences of the expulsion
of this vital and vibrant professional
class. As the material
from the exhibit and the Leo
Baeck Institute archives clearly
shows, all of them lost their
profession, most of them lost
their country, and a large
number lost their lives. That
we remember them today is
due in large part to the farsighted
founders of the
Institute — including Rabbi Leo
Baeck, Martin Buber, Robert
Weltsch, and Hannah Arendt
— who understood the importance
of a cultural repository
to catalogue authentic material
that would become part of
the permanent record. Many
of the papers, unpublished
books, memoirs, legal correspondence
of these once
honorable jurists are preserved
at the Leo Baeck Institute.
Viewed in the light of
what we now know, a phrase
engraved in the Holocaust
Memorial of the Appellate
Court in New York City is particularly
apt: “Indifference to
Justice,” it says, “is the Gate
to Hell.”
Carol Kahn Strauss is the
Executive Director of
the Leo Baeck Institute.
Convention of Lawyers in Duesseldorf, 1949, (Bild Berichte; Berben-Binder,
Dusseldorf). Photo courtesy of Leo Baeck Institute.

Photo: Still from the film “The Rock and the Star”
(Katia Mesel, 2004), showing a group of Brazilian
Jewish women embroidering designs based on paintings
by Franz Post, Echout, Rembrandt and others. Part
of the exhibit Pernambuco, Brazil; Gateway to New York.
Brazil:
The Hidden
“Jewish” State
by Monique Balbuena
The coupling of the terms “Jew” and “Latino”
often elicits surprise, especially in the US,
where Jews are often identified as Ashkenazi,
Yiddish-speaking, and Eastern European. However,
Jewish communities in Latin America
formed an essential part of their countries’ cultural
fabric, and, as evidenced by the Center for
Jewish History’s current exhibition on Recife,
Brazil and early settlement in New York (see
sidebar), have had an enormous influence on
American Jewry as well.
As we rediscover the stories of Jewish
Latin American communities, we often mirror
the process of contemporary Jewish Latino
authors and writers themselves. In the words of
Professor Edward H. Friedman, “a common
motif of Latin American narrative is the rewriting
of history, that is, the emendatory encoding
of the Jewish subject into history.”
Brazil, colonized by the Portugese, is a
unique case in point. In the 16th century, the
Portuguese were heavily identified as “gente da
nação” (“people of the nation”), a euphemism
for Jews. Erasmo, for example, wrote in 1530
that the Portuguese were “a race of Jews.” In
1674, Gaspar de Freitas Abreu complained that,
“Only us, the Portuguese, among all the
nations, are stigmatized as Jews or Marranos,
and it’s a shame.” Portuguese diplomat Dom
Luís da Cunha wrote in 1736 that “‘Portuguese’
was synonymous with ‘Jew’ in foreign countries.”
Indeed, although in 1496 Jews were
forcefully baptized with holy water at the docks
in Lisbon, the number of mixed marriages
between Old Christians and New Christians —
the baptized Jews — was so high by the 16th
century that, scholar C.R. Boxer estimates,
between one third and one half of the population
in Portugal had some Jewish blood.
The Portuguese were leaders of 16th century
maritime expeditions, and in their pre-capitalist,
expansionist and mercantilist endeavors.
The colonial beginnings of Brazil are marked by
the presence of New Christians and Crypto-Jews,
who had a constant presence in the new territory
as merchants, sugar plantation owners, slaveowners
and traders, educators, writers and even
priests. In his essay on the Sephardic experience
in colonial Latin America, titled “These of the
Hebrew Nation” (included in Martin A. Cohen
and Abraham J. Peck’s anthology, Sephardim in
the Americas), Allan Metz writes that “the Jewish
history of colonial Latin America … is essentially
that of … New Christians who were
judaizers. ... Well represented in commercial,
professional, and political activities, the New
Christian presence greatly enhanced Latin
America’s development.” Brazilian Ambassador
Rubens Ricupero assesses the interweaving of
Jewish and Brazilian histories: “The origin of
the country and the fate of the Sephardic Jews
in the 15th and 16th centuries are inseparable
threads of the same fabric.”
This intimate association between
Sephardic Jews and the beginnings of what
would become the country of Brazil has had
important effects on Brazilian customs, sayings
and folk traditions. Not only were Crypto-Jews
among the first writers of the colony, thereby
leaving their mark in national literature, but
the Brazilian Jewish environment also bore its
imprint on Jewish literature. Recife, the capital
of Pernambuco, where openly Jewish life flourished
again under Dutch rule, has the oldest
synagogue and mikveh of the Americas. The
first Hebrew poem in the Americas was written
there by Isaac Aboab da Fonseca, and there too
were printed the first American Jewish books,
in 1636. Recife also saw the initial Latin American
contribution to Responsa literature, and
from there departed the twenty three Jews who
continued on page 18
Pernambuco,
Brazil: The Gateway
to New York
350 years ago, twentythree
Sephardic Jews
from Recife, Brazil were
forced to flee their
adopted homeland and
found themselves on the
shores of New York, then
named New Amsterdam.
Despite opposition
from Governor Peter
Stuyvesant, this small
Jewish community was
finally allowed entry into
the city and took root in
an American society far
away from the reach of
the Inquisition.
Two partner institutions
of the Center for Jewish
History, the Yeshiva
University Museum and
the American Sephardi
Federation, are cosponsoring
a special
exhibition, Pernambuco,
Brazil: Gateway to New
York, on view through
December 31, 2004. The
exhibition depicts the
historical and cultural life
of Portuguese Jews from
their first settlement in
the early 1500s in Recife,
Brazil until the historic
exodus in 1654 of
twenty-three members of
the community who landed
at New Amsterdam.
Organized by Dr. Tania
Kaufman, Director of the
Jewish Historical Archive
of Pernambuco in Recife,
the exhibition illustrates
the day-to-day lives of
Sephardic Jews in Recife.
For more information,
visit the Center for
Jewish History online
at www.cjh.org.
13

14
he history of the
T Hadassah Medical
Organization is the subject of an
upcoming exhibit developed under the auspices of the American
Jewish Historical Society. The exhibit tells the stories of some of
the men and women who built the Hadassah Medical Organization
and how, in turn, the infrastructure of the medical system
of the modern State of Israel was formed. Public health clinics,
well baby care, school lunches, playgrounds, immigrant medical
services, hospitals — all were developed by Hadassah, and when
the local or state government was able to finance and administer
them, they were gradually transferred and Hadassah moved
on to its next challenge.
Hadassah first became involved with healthcare in Palestine
in 1913, when founder Henrietta Szold secured a donation
from Nathan and Lina Straus to cover the cost of sending two
public health nurses to Jerusalem for a year. The nurses visited
families and schools and set up a basic public health clinic with
a focus on mothers and children. By the end of World War I,
Hadassah was ready to lead a complete medical unit of about 44
health professionals in Palestine. The doctors, nurses, dentists
and sanitarians spread throughout the Jewish settlements there,
setting up hospitals, clinics, and public health stations.
In the 1920s and 1930s Hadassah was financing a nursing
school, clinics and health stations, playgrounds, school lunches
and well baby care, and hospitals. By 1939 it had financed and
®
The Early Days of the
Hadassah Medical
Organization
by Susan Woodland
Left: The camp at which Florence Nathanson worked as a Hadassah
nurse in 1950. Right: Nurses and patients in front of the
government hospital for adults constructed by the Jewish
Agency. Photos by Florence Kaplan Nathanson, courtesy of
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.
opened a medical center
on Mount Scopus,
adjacent to the campus
of the Hebrew
University. As quickly
as Hadassah set up
medical institutions,
these institutions were
as quickly transferred to
the municipalities in
which they stood.
Upon Israeli statehood
in 1948, tremendous
new medical needs
strained the resources of
the new government. Some
leaders proposed that Hadassah
concentrate on the care of this
flood of immigrants — poor, ill,
and uneducated. But Hadassah,
focused on raising money
and planning for a new medical
center at Ein Karem,
declined to take on the major
responsibility for this overwhelming
task, preferring a
limited role in supplying medical
care in a few key transit
camps.
One of these was at Rosh
Ha‘Ayin, where the Jewish
Agency built a transit camp for
Yemenite immigrants. There,
Hadassah set up a children’s
hospital and staffed it for two
years, until the government
health service was prepared to
take over. The children suffered
from malnutrition, acute
intestinal infection and malaria,
among other illnesses.
Desperate for additional nursing
staff beyond that which
was being trained in Hadassah’s
nursing school in
Jerusalem, Hadassah placed
ads in Jewish newspapers in
the United States, looking for
American nurses willing to
spend at least six months
working in the immigrant
camp at Rosh Ha‘Ayin.
Florence Kaplan (later
Nathanson) saw one of these
ads when a friend pointed it
out on a hospital bulletin
board. A Brooklyn native who
had attended nursing school at
the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn
(now known as the
Interfaith Medical Center),
Nathanson became one of the
six American nurses hired and
sent by Hadassah in 1950 to
work for nine months at the
camp. (Mrs. Nathanson has generously
lent her photograph
album, which documents her
experiences in Israel in 1950,
as part of the Hadassah Medical
Organization exhibit.) “I
didn’t know about Hadassah at
all,” she recounts. “But I liked
the idea of doing work in the
new Jewish homeland. I was
not from a Zionist family, but
the work sounded appealing,
and real.”
For the Health of Israel — Hadassah’s Medical Work 1912–1967, opens January 18, 2005.
Presented by Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America Inc. in conjunction with the
American Jewish Historical Society. The exhibition has been underwritten with a generous grant
from the Smart Family Foundation.

FRED CHARLES
One Woman’s Story
We traveled by boat, on the S.S. LaGuardia,
an old decrepit ship left over from World
War II, for a long time. I think it was two
weeks, but it seemed much, much longer…
We arrived during a snowstorm in
Jerusalem. We had to stay there for a week because of the flooding.
Water was pumped in from Tel Aviv and use was restricted.
When the roads were navigable, we traveled to Rosh Ha‘Ayin,
which was a flooded, muddy mess. Our white nurses’ shoes were
useless in this mud. The Israeli nurses who we were replacing at
Rosh Ha‘Ayin laughed at our uniforms which were so impractical
in the mud and dirt and mess of the camp; they were wearing
boots and slacks.
A government hospital was caring for the Yemenite adults,
but it had been determined that special care was needed for the
children. We were given the responsibility to care for the children.
The parents lodged in tents which were very small and
narrow, with uncertain hygiene; the children were removed from
their parents’ tents to lodge with the nurses in Quonset huts.
Communication was difficult. The parents spoke Arabic,
the Israeli nurses spoke Hebrew, and we spoke English. . . . We
studied Hebrew conversation and technical Hebrew. One of the
American nurses, Bea Perlmutter, learned Hebrew very quickly,
and became our head nurse. She was responsible for writing up
the nurses’ notes.
The children were in bad shape. Some were blinded by trachoma;
some suffered from tuberculosis; almost all had
dysentery. One little girl, Bracha, had tubercular meningitis.
There was often shooting around the periphery of the
camp, which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. In 1950
Mrs. Nathanson stayed on for nine months (her account of her
experiences is excerpted above), but ultimately returned to
Israel years later, and found it greatly changed. What
impressed her the most? “Rosh Ha‘Ayin had become a real
town with paved streets.”
Rosh Ha‘Ayin was just temporary housing on very barren
land. There were snakes and rats. Once winter was over, the
flooding stopped and it became very dry and hot. The Hamsin
– the dry winds – would blow the top layer of sand, which
got into everything including the babies’ noses and mouths.
We used wet sheets and cheesecloth to cover the beds. We
were warned not to drink too much water which could cause
water intoxication.
Soap and water were rationed. It was difficult even for
the nurses to maintain acceptable hygiene standards. The food
was plain but nutritious. We had sour cream, cheese and eggs
for breakfast. There was one cook. The only meat we had all
week was the Friday night chicken.
The Israeli nurses returned to the cities where they were
needed once we were settled. Doctors came on rounds but did not
live at Rosh Ha‘Ayin. We divided up the shifts among the 6 nurses,
to cover the responsibilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We
worked day shifts one week, and night shifts the next.
On infrequent days off we went to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and
Beersheva where we saw the new hospital Hadassah was supporting
there. I came down with malaria and went to Hadassah
Hospital in Jerusalem. I was there during the Independence
Day parade.
Eddie Cantor had helped raise money to finance sending
these Yemenite refugees to Israel by plane. They were skeptical
about leaving by plane, as they were coming from a very primitive
lifestyle. But there is a line in the Talmud that says, “They
would be delivered on the wings of eagles”, and taking the Talmud
at face value, these true believers flew from the middle
ages into the 20th century.
The Lillian Goldman Reading Room
O
Photo at left: Florence Kaplan Nathanson,
courtesy of Ms. Nathanson
Susan Woodland is the Hadassah archivist. The Hadassah
Archives, on deposit with AJHS since the opening of the Center
for Jewish History in 2000, document the history of the medical
work sponsored by the American women who have led
Hadassah since its inception in New York in 1912.
ver 4,000 visits are made to the exquisite and accommodating Reading Room
annually — scholars, academics, writers, as well as the general public make
use of the extraordinary resources available, representing nearly fifty countries in
parts of the world as far reaching as South Africa, Singapore, Estonia, Argentina and
Israel. Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9:30 am–5:15 pm. Friday, by appointment only.
For information on the Center’s Graduate Seminars for academic audiences, you can
contact Diane Spielmann, Director at dspielmann@cjh.org.
15

16
Development News
The Center for Jewish History thanks the many individuals, foundations, and government agencies whose generosity
is essential to the growth of its dynamic programs. (A list of donors of $10,000 or more appears on pages 18–19.)
Here are some of the new programs, grants, and developments at the Center and its five partners that are taking
place due to the generosity of institutional and individual supporters.
New Members Join Board of Overseers
The Board of Overseers, established in December 2002, is charged
with advising and assisting the Board of Directors in the development
and fulfillment of the Center’s mission. It now comprises
twenty-seven distinguished individuals with expertise in business,
finance, law, medicine, philanthropy and scholarship.
The Center is proud to welcome three new members to its
Board of Overseers each of whom brings unique qualities and
experience that will further the mission of the institution.
William A. Ackman who is a Managing Member of the General
Partner of Pershing Square, L.P., received his undergraduate
degree from Harvard College, and an MBA from the Harvard Business
School. He was previously Chairman of The Jerusalem
Foundation, and is involved with the Human Rights Watch and
the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, among many other
philanthropic endeavors.
A trustee of the 92nd Street Y since 1968, Joan Jacobson
served as Chairman and President of the Board at which time she
played a key role in restoring the Y’s classical music programs, in
addition to developing new initiatives. A writer of fiction, Mrs.
Jacobson is on the Board of Governors of the Poetry Society of
America and the Board of the Hudson Review, a literary journal.
She is a graduate of Smith College.
Ira Jolles serves as Senior Counsel in the Energy, Utility
and Infrastructure Group at Thelen Reid & Priest, LLP. He is a
director of the Regional Plan Association, LRB, Ltd. (publisher of
the London Review of Books), The Rashi Association, and the
Cahnman Foundation. Mr. Jolles received his J.D. from Harvard
Law School and A.B. from Columbia College.
We look forward to the lasting and significant contributions
from our three newest members.
JOSHUA KESSLER
Luminous Manuscript
A detail of Luminous Manuscript, by Diane
Samuels (above left); Joseph S. Steinberg,
Benefactor and Arnold Lehman, Director of
The Brooklyn Museum (above right)
On April 1, the Center dedicated Luminous Manuscript, an outstanding
work of large-scale art, commissioned and generously
underwritten by Joseph S. Steinberg, a member of the Center’s
Board of Overseers, and his wife, Diane. On permanent display in
the Center for Jewish History’s Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great
Hall, Luminous Manuscript is the creation of conceptual artist
Diane Samuels and serves as an artistic gateway to the breadth
and depth of the partners’ extensive archival collections and its
unique cultural programs. Containing 80,500 pieces of glass,
112,640 alphabetical characters from 57 writing systems, and
170 documents taken from the partners’ archives, Luminous
Manuscript serves as a magnificent representation of the multifaceted
aspects of the Center and will stimulate thought and
reflection for years to come. Visitors to the Center are encouraged
to touch the sculpture, take advantage of the informative,
interactive kiosks, and pick up a copy of the catalogue, which
was underwritten by John W. Jordan in honor of Mr. Steinberg.
Far left: Manhattan Borough President C. Virgina
Fields; Left to right: Center Chairman Bruce Slovin
with Council Speaker Gifford Miller and Council
Members Eva Moskowitz, David Weprin, and Christine
Quinn. The Center held a breakfast for members of the
City Council on October 20, 2004;
The Center Expands
In June 2004, the New York City Council approved an additional $1 million grant (support from the New York City Council now totals
$3.5 million), to be applied to the expansion of six new archival floors for the Center. This is the latest milestone in the building
campaign, with a goal of $6 million, begun in the fall of 2003 under the leadership of Center Chairman Bruce Slovin. Additionally,
through the determined efforts of the Center’s long-time friend and supporter, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, the
Center was also awarded a grant of $600,000 (support from the Borough President totals $1 million). Bruce Slovin and the Center’s
Board of Overseers deeply appreciate the efforts of Borough President Fields, as well as the continued support and enthusiasm of
New York City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and New York City Council Members Eva Moskowitz, Christine Quinn, and David Weprin.
SIMONA ARU

Cahnman Preservation Laboratory
The Center recently received a generous grant of $250,000 from The Cahnman Foundation to support the Preservation Laboratory, which
has been renamed to reflect the generous gift of this magnanimous donor. Serving as the central hub for safeguarding the irreplaceable
documents and artifacts of Jewish history, the Werner J. and Gisella Levi Cahnman Preservation Lab assures the longevity of
memoirs, communal documents, photographs, objects, and films which would otherwise be in peril from the damaging effects of time.
Clockwise from above:
Rare excerpts from El Lyssitsky’s
illustrated Chad Gadiah.
Warsaw 1923. (YIVO Archives)
Posters restored by the Cahnman
Preservation Laboratory, YIVO
archives. Left: The opening of Rabbi
Dr. Silber, a drama in three acts by
Shalom Asch, presented on
August 4, 1931 in the Dramatic
Theater. City unknown. Below:
Appeal to Jewish Women: With the
upcoming local elections in Pinsk,
we urge the women to vote on the
list of Jewish women. Date unknown.
(The appeal is repeated on the
poster many times.)
Above: Stage Design by Hugo Steiner-Prag (1880 -1945) for Leppin’s The
Grandson of the Golem. (Leo Baeck Institute)
17

18
Brazil…
continued from page 13
would found the first Jewish
community in the American
colonies, in New Amsterdam.
The imbricated histories
and identities of Jews, Portugese,
and Brazilians still resonate
today in the work of
contemporary writers and
artists. Moacyr Scliar, for
example, is a Brazilian Ashkenazi
writer who in 2003 was
elected to the Brazilian Academy
of Letters. His novel, The
Strange Nation of Rafael
Mendes, recounts Brazilian history
through the lives of successive
generations of Jews
and Crypto-Jews, leading up to
a contemporary Brazilian man,
ignorant of his Jewish ancestry.
The Mendes’ genealogical
line traces the itinerary of a
Jewish family and, ultimately,
its role in the colonization of
Brazil, its political independence
from Portugal, and its
transformation into a nationstate.
Scliar’s fictional, mythologized
narrative of origins is
not dissimilar from the project
of those historians and scholars
of history involved with the
cultural archeology of Latin
American Jewry: an inscription
of the Jewish subject into
the tale of the national tribe.
Monique Balbuena is the
Assistant Professor of Literature
at the Clark Honors
College at the University of
Oregon and was a 2003–04
Starr Fellow at Harvard
University.
Sharing Our Commitment
The Center for Jewish History announces with gratitude and
deep appreciation the following donors of $10,000 or more
whose gifts will help further its mission to preserve the Jewish
past, protect the present, and secure the future. This roster represents
individuals, foundations, corporations, and government
agencies that have generously contribution to our efforts.
FOUNDERS
S. DANIEL ABRAHAM, DR. EDWARD L.
STEINBERG—HEALTHY FOODS OF
AMERICA, LLC
ANONYMOUS
ANTIQUA FOUNDATION
EMILY AND LEN BLAVATNIK
ESTATE OF SOPHIE BOOKHALTER, M.D.
BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN—
C. VIRGINIA FIELDS,
MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT
LEO AND JULIA FORCHHEIMER FOUNDATION
LILLIAN GOLDMAN CHARITABLE TRUST
KATHERINE AND CLIFFORD H. GOLDSMITH
THE JESSELSON FAMILY
THE KRESGE FOUNDATION
RONALD S. LAUDER
BARBARA AND IRA A. LIPMAN AND SONS
NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL—
GIFFORD MILLER, SPEAKER
NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF
CULTURAL AFFAIRS
NEW YORK STATE—
GOVERNOR GEORGE E. PATAKI
NEW YORK STATE—
ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SHELDON SILVER
NEW YORK STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT,
LIBRARY AID PROGRAM
RONALD O. PERELMAN
BETTY AND WALTER L. POPPER
RELIANCE GROUP HOLDINGS, INC.
INGEBORG AND IRA LEON RENNERT—
THE KEREN RUTH FOUNDATION
ANN AND MARCUS ROSENBERG
THE SLOVIN FAMILY
THE SMART FAMILY FOUNDATION
JOSEPH S. AND DIANE H. STEINBERG
THE WINNICK FAMILY FOUNDATION
SPONSORS
STANLEY I. BATKIN
JOAN AND JOSEPH F. CULLMAN 3RD DIANE AND MARK GOLDMAN
HORACE W. GOLDSMITH FOUNDATION
THE GOTTESMAN FUND
GRUSS-LIPPER FOUNDATION
THE SAMBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION
THE SKIRBALL FOUNDATION
TISCH FOUNDATION
THEODORE AND RENEE WEILER FOUNDATION
PATRONS
WILLIAM AND KAREN ACKMAN
ANONYMOUS
JUDY AND RONALD BARON
JAYNE AND HARVEY BEKER
ROBERT M. BEREN FOUNDATION
THE DAVID BERG FOUNDATION
BIALKIN FAMILY FOUNDATION—
ANN AND KENNETH J. BIALKIN
GEORGE AND MARION BLUMENTHAL
ABRAHAM AND RACHEL BORNSTEIN
LILI AND JON BOSSE
LOTTE AND LUDWIG BRAVMANN
THE ELI AND EDYTHE L. BROAD FOUNDATION
THE CAHNMAN FOUNDATION
CONFERENCE ON JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS
AGAINST GERMANY—RABBI ISRAEL
MILLER FUND FOR SHOAH RESEARCH,
DOCUMENTATION AND EDUCATION
THE CONSTANTINER FAMILY
MR. AND MRS. J. MORTON DAVIS
DONALDSON, LUFKIN & JENRETTE
MICHAEL AND KIRK DOUGLAS
THE DAVID GEFFEN FOUNDATION
GEORGICA ADVISORS LLC
WILLIAM B. GINSBERG
NATHAN AND LOUISE GOLDSMITH FOUNDATION
JACK B. GRUBMAN
FANYA GOTTESFELD HELLER
SUSAN AND ROGER HERTOG
INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES
JOAN L. JACOBSON
MR. AND MRS. PAUL KAGAN
LEAH AND MICHAEL KARFUNKEL
SIMA AND NATHAN KATZ AND FAMILY
BARCLAY KNAPP
MR. AND MRS. HENRY R. KRAVIS
CONSTANCE AND HARVEY KRUEGER
SIDNEY AND RUTH LAPIDUS
MR. AND MRS. THOMAS H. LEE
LEON LEVY
GEORGE L. LINDEMANN
THE MARCUS FOUNDATION
MARK FAMILY FOUNDATION
CRAIG AND SUSAN MCCAW FOUNDATION
LEO AND BETTY MELAMED
EDWARD AND SANDRA MEYER FOUNDATION
DEL AND BEATRICE P. MINTZ FAMILY
CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
RUTH AND THEODORE N. MIRVIS
NEW YORK STATE—
SENATOR ROY M. GOODMAN
NUSACH VILNE, INC.
SUSAN AND ALAN PATRICOF
ANNE AND MARTY PERETZ
CAROL F. AND JOSEPH H. REICH
JUDITH AND BURTON P. RESNICK
THE MARC RICH FOUNDATION
RIGHTEOUS PERSONS FOUNDATION—
STEVEN SPIELBERG
STEPHEN ROSENBERG—GREYSTONE & CO.
LOUISE AND GABRIEL ROSENFELD,
HARRIET AND STEVEN PASSERMAN
DR. AND MRS. LINDSAY A. ROSENWALD
THE MORRIS AND ALMA SCHAPIRO FUND
S. H. AND HELEN R. SCHEUER FAMILY
FOUNDATION
FREDERIC M. SEEGAL
THE SELZ FOUNDATION
THE SHELDON H. SOLOW FOUNDATION
DAVID AND CINDY STONE—
FREEDMAN & STONE LAW FIRM
ROBYNN N. AND ROBERT M. SUSSMAN
HELENE AND MORRIS TALANSKY
WACHTELL, LIPTON, ROSEN & KATZ
DR. SAMUEL D. WAKSAL
FRANCES AND LAURENCE A. WEINSTEIN
GENEVIEVE AND JUSTIN WYNER
BARBARA AND ROY J. ZUCKERBERG
BUILDERS
JOSEPH ALEXANDER FOUNDATION
DWAYNE O. ANDREAS—
ARCHER DANIELS MIDLAND FOUNDATION
ANONYMOUS
BEATE AND JOSEPH D. BECKER
ANTHONY S. BELINKOFF
HALINA AND SAMSON BITENSKY
ANA AND IVAN BOESKY
CITIBANK
ROSALIND DEVON
VALERIE AND CHARLES DIKER
ERNST & YOUNG LLP
MR. AND MRS. BARRY FEIRSTEIN
RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND
ARNOLD AND ARLENE GOLDSTEIN
JOHN W. JORDAN
THE SIDNEY KIMMEL FOUNDATION
GERALD AND MONA LEVINE
THE LIMAN FOUNDATION
MERRILL LYNCH & CO., INC.
LOIS AND RICHARD MILLER
ARLEEN AND ROBERT S. RIFKIND
MRS. FREDERICK P. ROSE
MAY AND SAMUEL RUDIN FAMILY
FOUNDATION, INC.
SAVE AMERICA’S TREASURES
I. B. SPITZ
SHARON AND FRED STEIN
JUDY AND MICHAEL STEINHARDT
JANE AND STUART WEITZMAN
DAPHNA AND RICHARD ZIMAN
GUARDIANS
MR. AND MRS. SAMUEL AARONS
MR. AND MRS. MERV ADELSON
ARTHUR S. AINSBERG
MARJORIE AND NORMAN E. ALEXANDER
ANONYMOUS
MARCIA AND EUGENE APPLEBAUM
BANK OF AMERICA
SANFORD L. BATKIN
BEAR, STEARNS & CO., INC.
VIVIAN AND NORMAN BELMONTE
JACK AND MARILYN BELZ

THE BENDHEIM FOUNDATION
TRACEY AND BRUCE BERKOWITZ
MEYER BERMAN FOUNDATION
BEYER BLINDER BELLE
THE BLOOMFIELD FAMILY
BOGATIN FAMILY FOUNDATION
RALPH H. BOOTH II
BOVIS LEND LEASE LMB, INC.
CARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK
DASSA AND BRILL—MARLENE BRILL
ETHEL BRODSKY
CALIFORNIA FEDERAL BANK
PATRICIA AND JAMES CAYNE
CENTER SHEET METAL, INC.—VICTOR GANY
CHASE MANHATTAN CORPORATION
CAREN AND ARTURO CONSTANTINER
CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON
THE NATHAN CUMMINGS FOUNDATION
ELLA CWIK-LIDSKY
IDE AND DAVID DANGOOR
ESTHER AND ROBERT DAVIDOFF
ANTHONY DEFELICE—WILLIS
THE PHILIP DEVON FAMILY FOUNDATION
BERNICE AND DONALD DRAPKIN
E. M. WARBURG, PINCUS & CO., LLC
HENRY, KAMRAN AND FREDERICK ELGHANAYAN
MARTIN I. ELIAS
GAIL AND ALFRED ENGELBERG
CLAIRE AND JOSEPH H. FLOM
FOREST ELECTRIC CORPORATION
DAVID GERBER AND CAROLYN KORSMEYER
ROBERT T. AND LINDA W. GOAD
GOLDMAN, SACHS & CO.
REBECCA AND LAURENCE GRAFSTEIN
EUGENE AND EMILY GRANT
FAMILY FOUNDATION
CLIFF GREENBERG
LORELEI AND BENJAMIN HAMMERMAN
JAMES HARMON
ELLEN AND DAVID S. HIRSCH
Center for Jewish History
CENTER HOURS*
Monday–Thursday 9am–5:30pm
Friday 9am–2pm
Sunday 11am–5pm
*For evening programs contact: 917-606-8200
PARTNERS
American Jewish Historical Society
(AJHS)
www.ajhs.org 212-294-6160
American Sephardi Federation (ASF)
www.asfonline.org 212-294-8350
Leo Baeck Institute (LBI)
www.lbi.org 212-744-6400
Yeshiva University Museum (YUM)
www.yumuseum.org 212-294-8330
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
(YIVO)
www.yivoinstitute.org 212-246-6080
ADA AND JIM HORWICH
HSBC BANK USA
PAUL T. JONES II
GERSHON KEKST
KLEINHANDLER CORPORATION
KNIGHT TRADING GROUP, INC.
JANET AND JOHN KORNREICH
KPMG LLP
HILARY BALLON AND ORIN KRAMER
LAQUILA CONSTRUCTION
THE FAMILY OF LOLLY AND JULIAN LAVITT
LEHMAN BROTHERS
EILEEN AND PETER M. LEHRER
DENNIS LEIBOWITZ
ABBY AND MITCH LEIGH FOUNDATION
LIBERTY MARBLE, INC.
KENNETH AND EVELYN LIPPER FOUNDATION
CAROL AND EARLE I. MACK
MACKENZIE PARTNERS, INC.
BERNARD L. AND RUTH MADOFF FOUNDATION
SALLY AND ABE MAGID
JOSEPH MALEH
LAUREL AND JOEL MARCUS
MR. AND MRS. PETER W. MAY
THE MAYROCK FOUNDATION
DRS. ERNEST AND ERIKA MICHAEL
(all facilities closed Saturdays)
ABBY AND HOWARD MILSTEIN
MORGAN STANLEY & CO.
AGAHAJAN NASSIMI AND FAMILY
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
THE FAMILY OF EUGENE AND MURIEL
AND MAYER D. NELSON
THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY
BERNARD AND TOBY NUSSBAUM
PAUL, WEISS, RIFKIND,
WHARTON & GARRISON
DORIS L. AND MARTIN D. PAYSON
ARTHUR AND MARILYN PENN
CHARITABLE TRUST
MR. AND MRS. NORMAN H. PESSIN
PHILIP MORRIS COMPANIES INC.
DAVID AND CINDY PINTER
ROSA AND DAVID POLEN
NANCY AND MARTIN POLEVOY
YVONNE AND LESLIE POLLACK
FAMILY FOUNDATION
GERI AND LESTER POLLACK
FANNY PORTNOY
PUMPKIN TRUST—CAROL F. REICH
BESSY L. PUPKO
R & J CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION
ANNA AND MARTIN J. RABINOWITZ
JAMES AND SUSAN RATNER
PHILANTHROPIC FUND
ANITA AND YALE ROE
THE FAMILY OF EDWARD AND
DORIS ROSENTHAL
JACK AND ELIZABETH ROSENTHAL
SHAREN NANCY ROZEN
LILLIAN GOLDMAN READING ROOM
Monday–Thursday 9:30am–5:15pm
Friday By appointment only
CONSTANTINER DATE PALM CAFÉ
Monday–Thursday 9am–4:30pm
Sunday 11am–4:30pm
FANYA GOTTESFELD HELLER
BOOKSTORE
Monday–Thursday 11am–6pm
Sunday 11am–5pm
(Also open on select evenings; call in advance.)
GENERAL TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Box Office 917-606-8200
Reading Room 917-606-8217
Genealogy Institute 212-294-8324
General Information 212-294-8301
Group Tours 917-606-8226
THE HARVEY AND PHYLLIS SANDLER
FOUNDATION
CAROL AND LAWRENCE SAPER
ALLYNE AND FRED SCHWARTZ
IRENE AND BERNARD SCHWARTZ
JOSEPH E. SEAGRAM & SONS, INC.
ALFRED AND HANINA SHASHA
ELLEN AND ROBERT SHASHA
SIMPSON THACHER & BARTLETT
SKADDEN, ARPS, SLATE, MEAGHER
& FLOM LLC
ALAN B. SLIFKA FOUNDATION
SONY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
JERRY I. SPEYER/KATHERINE G. FARLEY
THE SAM SPIEGEL FOUNDATION
MEI AND RONALD STANTON
ANITA AND STUART SUBOTNICK
LYNN AND SY SYMS
LYNNE AND MICKEY TARNOPOL
THOMAS WEISEL PARTNERS
ALICE M. AND THOMAS J. TISCH
TRIARC COMPANIES—NELSON PELTZ
AND PETER MAY
SIMA AND RUBIN WAGNER
WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES
PETER A. WEINBERG
ERNST AND PUTTI WIMPFHEIMER—
ERNA STIEBEL MEMORIAL FUND
DALE AND RAFAEL ZAKLAD
HOPE AND SIMON ZIFF
THE ZISES FAMILY
LIST COMPLETE AS OF AUGUST 24, 2004
AFFILIATES
American Society for Jewish Music
212-294-8328
Association for Jewish Studies
917-606-8249
Austrian Heritage 212-294-8409
Centro Culturale Primo Levi
917-606-8202
Gomez Mill House 212-294-8329
Jewish Genealogical Society of New York
212-294-8326
Yemenite Jewish Federation of America
212-294-8327
COVER: Top to bottom: I.B. Singer. On back of photograph: “Isaac in 1935;” Cover of Oyfn Hayrev-Front Keyn Nayes (1930), Singer’s Yiddish translation of
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929); Nobel Lecture (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1978); Dust jacket of the 1950 Knopf edition of The
Family Moskat; I.B. Singer with book. Bernard Gottgryd. Photos courtesy of The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
19

Upcoming Highlights
Visit www.cjh.org for complete schedule. Events begin at 7pm unless
otherwise noted.
FILM/EXPRESSION & EXPLORATION
The Paradoxes of Survival November 29
Three Films of Judy Chicago:
The Dinner Party, The Holocaust Project, Resolutions: A Switch in Time
Discussion with Judy Chicago and Gail Levin December 6
Man Ray, Prophet of the Avant-Garde, dir. Mel Stuart December 20
LECTURES & DISCUSSIONS
From Vietnam to Washington: An Orthodox Surgeon’s Odyssey
(AJHS and YUM) 6pm, November 30
1654: A Pivotal Year for American Jewry
(YUM and ASF) December 7
Journey Through the Minefields: From Vietnam to
Washington, an Orthodox Surgeon’s Odyssey
(AJHS and YUM) 6pm, November 30
The International Court of Justice and Israel’s Fence:
Just Politics or Justice?
Part of the Jews & Justice series (AJHS) December 9
The Face of Eastern European Jewry 4pm, December 14
(YIVO and LBI)
CONCERTS
Jewish Humor from Oy to Vey: A Chanukah Concert
(The American Society for Jewish Music) 3pm, December 12
Chanukah Gelt: Storytelling and Concert 2pm, December 26
Videoconferencing of events available at low-cost.
Contact rchodorov@cjh.org for information.
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY
www.cjh.org
The Constantiner
Date Palm Café
Light fare, offered at moderate prices
in an intimate, quiet setting
All products and food are glatt kosher and
produced under the supervision of Foremost
Caterers. For group reservations and to inquire about catering services,
kindly call 917-606-8210. Hours: Monday–Thursday, 9am–4:30pm
and Sunday, 11am–4:30pm
GRAND RE-OPENING!
Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Bookstore
New items for sale
Visit the Center’s newly renovated bookstore with rich offerings
of scholarly and contemporary books, jewelry and objects on
Jewish history, culture, and language. Telephone: 917-606-8220.
Hours: Monday–Thursday, 11am–6pm; Sunday, 11am–5 pm. Open
select evenings, please call in advance.
Become a Friend of the Center
Support the Center for Jewish History with a gift of $36 or more,
and you will become a Friend of the Center and be eligible for the
following benefits:
• Take advantage of a 10% discount at the Fanya Gottesfeld
Heller bookstore.
• Enjoy a 10% discount in the Constantiner Date Palm Café.
• Receive a 15% discount on the price of your ticket for
Center sponsored events, films, concerts, and lectures.
For further information call the Development Office, 917-606-8281,
or e-mail schizzik@cjh.org. Please show your support and become a
Friend of the Center.
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