Using American Jewish History as a Vehicle for Strengthening Yahadus

Torah Umesorah Convention 5/18/08

I. What am I doing here?

A. Taught math in yeshiva high school 1965 – 1968

B. Secular Studies Principal for 2 months

C. College professor – mathematician

II. General comments on retelling of history

A. If you relate something, then tell it truthfully

B. Coloring book, Yitzchok;

C. Vayetsei - Lavan and Yaakov

D. Play – Baal Shem Tov of Michelstadt

III. How I became an historian

A. Jewish Press article – The Case for Secular Studies in Yeshivas

B. Large response – letters to editor, and emails; “Where is the curriculum?

C. Follow-up article – Accepting a Challenge

D. Again received large response. None from anyone involved with a yeshiva – one of the reasons I am here

E. Limudei Kodesh and limudei chol should form a seamless entity – don’t just tack on some secular subjects after Limudei Kodesh

F. Example – math, Ayel Meshulash

G. Year of American history – found the following:

In his “General Order Respecting the Observation of the Sabbath Day in the Army and Navy,” issued November 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln announced:

The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiments of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will demand that Sunday labor in the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.

This order provoked more or less public discussion and elicited a lengthy address to the President from one B. Behrend, of Narrowsburg, N. Y., the father of a Jewish soldier in the service, in which he wrote:

To His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States.

By your order of the 16th day of November, 1862, you recommend that the officers and men of the army shall observe the Sabbath and do no work on Sunday, because we are a Christian people. But according to the Declaration of Independence and according to the constitution of the United States, the people of the United States is not a Christian people, but a free, sovereign people with equal rights, and each and every citizen of the United States has the right and liberty to live according to his own consciousness in religious matters, and no one religious denomination, be it a majority or minority of the people, can have a privilege before the other under this our beloved constitution.

Now by the order of your Excellency you give the privilege to those officers and men in the army who by their religious creed do observe the Sunday as a holy day and a day of rest; but you make no provision for those officers and men in the army who do not want to observe the Sunday as a holy day, (as for instance those Christians called the Seventh-day Baptists and the Jews, who observe the Saturday as a holy day and a day of rest,) that they may enjoy the same privilege as those who observe the Sunday as a holy day, as well as for the heathen or the so called infidels, who do not want to celebrate either the Sunday or the Saturday as a Sabbath, but choose perhaps some other day as a day of rest.

Now I stand before you as your namesake Abraham stood before G-d Almighty in days of yore, and asked, "Shall not the Judge of all earth do justice?" so I ask your Excellency, the first man and President of all the United States, Shall you not do justice? shall you not give the same privilege to a minority of the army that you give to the majority of it? I beseech you to make provision, and to proclaim in another order, that also all those in the army who celebrate another day as the Sunday may be allowed to celebrate that day which they think is the right day according to their own conscience; and this will be exactly lawful, as the Constitution of the United States ordains it, and at the same time it will be exactly according to the teaching of the Bible, as recorded in Leviticus xix. 18: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

I gave my consent to my son, who was yet a minor, that he should enlist in the United States army; I thought it was his duty, and I gave him my advice to fulfill his duty as a good citizen, and he has done so. At the same time I taught him also to observe the Sabbath on Saturday, when it would not hinder him from fulfilling his duty in the army. Now I do not want that he shall be dragged either to the stake or the church to observe the Sunday as a Sabbath. Your Excellency will observe in this my writing that I am not very well versed in the English language, and if there should be found a word which is not right, pardon it, and never such a word shall be construed so as if I would offend your Excellency or the people; for I love my country, the Constitution, and the Union, and I try to be always a loyal citizen.

I remain, respectfully, your most obedient servant and fellow citizen,

B. BEHREND
Narrowsburg, Sullivan Co. N.Y. Dec. 4, 1862

Published in The Occident

NOTE: Jewish-history.com believes the soldier's name is Pvt. Herman Behrend, of the 41st New York Infantry, a regiment formed in Sullivan County which included a very large number of Jewish recruits.

When I read this, I said to myself, “There must be a large body of religiously inspiring events in American Jewish history.”

IV. Monthly column in Jewish Press – Glimpses Into American Jewish History as well as longer front page articles

A. My interest is in those people who remained observant in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

B. Most of literature – Jews who did this or that, not about their adherence to Yiddishkeit

C. JHS exhibit – Aaron Lopez, Rebecca Gratz: no mention that both were Shomer Shabbos

V. Much to be taught to yeshiva students

A. Daniel – Columbus – Jews sailed with him, Inquisition, History of Jews in Spain, forced to leave

B. It is not in the book!

VI. People and things to teach about

Aaron Lopez – Colonial Merchant Prince

A. Born 1731, Duarte, escaped Inquisition in Portugal, came to Newport RI in 1752. AJHS exhibit: Became wealthy merchant, Picture – does not look observant and AJHS does not tell you that he was a Shomer Shabbos

B. Changed name from Duarte to Aaron, remarried, had himself circumcised when he came to Newport

C. Shomer Shabbos – ships did sail on Shabbos

D. Shipped kosher meat to Caribbean, founder of Touro Synagogue, large family

E. Bris of Yosef Lopez – Abraham I Abrahams

“Abrahams traveled as far north as Rhode Island in the performance of his craft. It is doubtful that he was paid for performing this religious privilege. More likely he did so out of devotion. In June, 1756 – he was then thirty-six – he began to chronicle his work as a mohel in New York City. His first recorded circumcision was that of his own son, Isaac. He was to grow up, not, as his father had prayed, ‘to the study of the Jewish law,’ but to become a New York physician. He was the only Jewish graduate of King’s, later Columbia, College, prior to the American Revolution. Less than two months after Isaac Abrahams was circumcised, his father was called upon to make a trip to Newport, Rhode Island, at the invitation of a young businessman by the name of Aaron Lopez.”

F. Fled to Leicester, MA during Revolutionary War – Remembered that he and his father-in-law; kept their businesses closed on Saturday and Sunday

Died in 1782 on return to Providence – horse went into water

G. What was he like?

What sort of a Jew was Aaron? He lived in the world of eighteenth-century American Sephardic orthodoxy and simultaneously in the world of the eighteenth-century Gentile milieu. He belonged as much to the one as to the other, and he appears to have been conscious of no inevitable conflict between the two. ‘All who knew him agree,’ wrote a Massachusetts journalist shortly after Aaron’s death, ‘that he was, in the fullest import of the words, a good citizen and an honest man.’ Nearly all we know or can surmise of Aaron’s life lends substance to this observation.”

Ezra Stiles believed “him to have been ‘without a single enemy and the most universally beloved by an extensive acquaintance of any man I have ever knew.’ Aaron’s ‘beneficence to his fam[ily] and connexions, to his nation [the Jews], and to all the world is almost without parallel.’ Such was the buenafama of Aaron Lopez.”

Rebecca Samuels

Petersburg, (VA) January 12, 1791,

Wednesday, 8th [7th ?] Shebat, 5551.

Dear and Worthy Parents:

I received your dear letter with much pleasure and therefrom understand that you are in good health, thank G-d, and that made us especially happy. The same is not lacking with us — may we live to be a hundred years. Amen.

We are completely isolated here. ‘We do not have any friends, and when we do not hear from you for any length of time, it is enough to make us sick. I hope that I will get to see some of my family. That will give me some satisfaction.

You write me that Mr. Jacob Renner’s son Reuben is in Philadelphia and that he will come to us. People will not advise him to come to Virginia. When the Jews of Philadelphia or New York hear the name ‘Virginia, they get nasty. And they are not wrong! It won’t do for a Jew. In the first place it is an unhealthful district, and we are only human. God forbid, if anything should happen to us, where would we be thrown? There is no cemetery in the whole of ‘Virginia. In Richmond, which is twenty-two miles from here, there is a Jewish community consisting of two quorums [twenty men], and the two cannot muster a quarter [quorum when needed?].

Rebecca Samuel

Petersburg, Virginia, 179-

Dear Parents:

I hope my letter will ease your mind. You can now be reassured and send me one of the family to Charleston, South Carolina. This is the place to which, with God’s help, we will go after Passover. The whole reason why we are leaving this place is because of (its lack of) Yehudishkeit.

Dear Parents, I know quite well you will not want me to bring up my children like Gentiles. Here they cannot become anything else. Jewishness is pushed aside here. There are here (in Petersburg) ten or twelve Jews, and they are not worthy of being called Jews. We have a shohet here who goes to market and buys terefah meat and then brings it home. On Rosh HaShanah and on Yom Kippur the people worshipped here without one Sefer Torah; and not one of them wore the tallit or the arba kanfot, except Hyman and my Sammy’s godfather.

You can believe me that I crave to see a synagogue to which I can go. The way we live now is no life at all. We do not know what the Sabbath and the holidays are. On the Sabbath all the Jewish shops are open, and they do business on that day as they do throughout the whole week. But ours we do not allow to open. With us there is still some Sabbath. You must believe me that in our house we all live as Jews as much as we can.

All the people who hear that we are leaving give us their blessings. They say that it is sinful that such blessed children should be brought up here in Petersburg. My children cannot learn anything here, nothing Jewish, nothing of general culture. My Schoene [my daughter], G-d bless her, is already three years old, I think it is time that she should learn something, and she has a good head to learn. I have taught her the bedtime prayers and grace after meals in just two lessons. I believe that no one among the Jews here can do as well as she. And my Sammy [born in 1790], G-d bless him, is already beginning to talk.

I could write more, however, I do not have any more paper.

I remain, your devoted daughter and servant,

Rebecca, the wife of Hayyim, the son of Samuel the Levite

VII. Jews in Revolutionary War – most Jews sided with the colonies –

Most Jews were merchants and hence were unhappy with the financial interference of the British into their business

A. Gershom Mendes Seixas, revolutionary chazzan, NY Jews fled to Philadelphia, Moses Mordecai and son Jacob Mordecai, the Sheftalls of Savannah

B. Some sided with British – David Franks, Isaac Touro, chazzan in Newport, RI

C. Island of Saint Eustatius supplied the revolutionaries with much needed materials.

Hayyim Salomon (1740 – 1785)

“Only thing that I learned in yeshiva about American Jewish history is that Chayim Salomon financed the Revolution.” Sorry, may not be true. Hayyim Solomon did not finance the Revolution. Loaned money to prominent Americans in the government and served as financial agent

A. Email - Was he observant?

B. Jacob I. Cohen, Esther Elizabeth Whitlock Mordecai, Kesuva

VIII. Israel Baer Kursheedt (1766 – 1852)

Sources: Asmonean and the Occident (Isaac Leeser) 1852

A. Early American Jewry – no ordained rabbis stayed here from 1654 until 1840 - Rabbi Abraham Rice – 1840; He found chaos in the Jewish community of Baltimore

B. Chazzanim, better educated Ba’alei Batim, mohellim: businessmen

C. Level of Torah knowledge was so low that many European communities would not accept a Get or gayrus from America

D. One Talmud Chocham here who came before 1800 – IBK

Youth - Born in Sing-hafen, Germany near the Rhine on the 4th day of Pesach in 5526. (April 6, 1766)

A. Orphaned at young age, mother relocated to Kursheidt (near Konigswinter)

B. Showed brilliance – sent to yeshiva of Rav Nosson Adler (1741 – 1800) in Frankfurt

C. Most famous student R. Moshe Schreiber (Chasam Sofer, 1762 - 1839)

D. Good student

Among IBK’s fellow students were two who particularly distinguished themselves and attained considerable eminence - Rav Avraham Bing (1742 – 1841) and Rav Wolf Heidenheim (1757 – 1832). Rav Bing became the Chief Rabbi of Wurzburg. His students included Rav Jacob Ettlinger, Rav Nathan Marcus Adler, Chacham Isaac Bernays, and Rav Seligman Baer Bamberger. Rav Heidenheim is known for his many literary publications, including a Hebrew commentary on, and a German translation of, the Machzor. Rodelheim Machzor.

According to the above cited articles from the Asmonean and the Occident, Rav Nosson Adler held these three students in equal estimation. Rav Adler used to say that Reb Avraham was a charif (acute logician), Reb Wolf a medackdek (grammarian and philologist), and Reb Yisroel a chochem, a wise man whose accomplishments in Torah learning were universal.

Studies interrupted in 1792 by French Revolution

A. General Adam Custine invaded Frankfurt

B. Asked Jew where to camp – beautiful park, off-limits to Jews

C. Contract to supply Prussian army – how sheltered yeshiva boy was able to do this. Danger, dealing with gentile military men

D. Peace in 1795 – decided to leave Germany – Conditions for Jews not good. Special taxes, bridge tax

X. Hamburg – London, ship to Boston

A. Heard there was a Jewish community there

B. Booked passage on Simonhoff, 70 to 80 ton vessel

C. Passage took 70 days!

D. Spoke no English – captain, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Bible

E. Arrived in Boston at end of 1796 – only one Jewish family, left for NY after short time

XI. Small number of Jews in America – Jewish population of NY

According the “The Rise of the Jewish Community of NY” by Hyman B. Grinstein

NY 1796

“Israel Baer's first impressions of Jewish life in New York must have left him crestfallen. In material terms, the Jewish community consisted of a synagogue building on Mill Street dating back to 1730, an adjoining hebra [meeting place and schoolhouse], the minister's house, and a cemetery on Chatham Square. Its upkeep was the cause of frequent outbreaks [disagreements] among the trustees of Shearith Israel; until 1825, it would be the only Jewish cemetery in New York City. They [the Jews of New York] knew little of Jewish traditions. Neglect, apathy, and petty bickering were pervasive.” (The Seixas – Kursheedts, pages 29 -30)

Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745-1816) Appointed Chazzan of SI at age 23 –

A. Not rabbi – served almost 50 years – patriotic Chazzan, left NY for Philadelphia during Revolutionary War.

B. Quickly made acquaintance of IBK – appreciated value of IBK’s learning

C. On January 18, 1804, he married Sarah Abigail (Sally) Seixas (1778 – 1854), the eldest daughter of Chazzan Seixas. Sarah was the favorite child of Rev. Seixas and IBK became his favorite son-in-law.

D. In New York IBK went into business. “He had his share both of prosperity and of adversity, like all other men. But the one never rendered him arrogant, the other could not cast him down. There were in his character two remarkable traits that still kept him upright and enabled him to preserve the serenity of his mind: trust in God and good opinion of men. He was incapable of believing in the bad intentions of others. And though he, more than once or twice, suffered severely from his confidence being abused, he could not be persuaded that the cause was other than imprudence or folly on the part of those through whom he suffered. His trust in God was firm and not to be shaken, as it sprung from his profound conviction of the truth of his religion and consequently in the wisdom and goodness of Providence.” (The Asmonean)

Communal Activities

A. As a man with a growing family, it was only natural for IBK to become involved in the Jewish education offered by Yeshibat Minhat Arab, which Shearith Israel had established in 1731. He believed strongly that Jewish education was “the first thing that ought to be pursued in life.” With this goal he worked diligently to expand the curriculum of this yeshiva.

B. In 1808 IBK was appointed to a committee of six to draft a detailed proposal and regulations for the reorganization of the yeshiva into a real Jewish day school for boys and girls. The school remained active until 1822. Its aims, as articulated by Israel Baer, were: 1) to instruct students in religion and morality, 2) to make sure their actions are in harmony with these teachings, and 3) to “impress on their minds the excellence of our belief.” In 1810, in recognition of his service to the Jewish community, IBK was elected parnas (president) of Shearith Israel and served for one term.

C. Israel Baer fought many battles at Shearith Israel; not all were victorious, especially in matters involving ingrained customs. In 1809 he and other forward-minded congregants attempted to restrict Mi she-Berakh prayers, made on behalf of individuals called to the Torah (for which it was customary to make a donation to the synagogue) to three per person. The plan was not adopted.

Richmond, VA – 1812-1824

A. Chazzan

B. Isaac Leeser, forefront of everything Jewish in 19^th Century

C. Jacob Mordecai – Female academy, Warrenton, NC

D. While residing in Virginia, IBK became acquainted with Thomas Jefferson and even visited him on more than one occasion at Monticello.

Return to NY – family of 11 with 9 children

New York’s Jewish community had changed a great deal in the 12 years the Kursheedts had lived in Richmond. The majority of the Jewish community was now of Ashkenazic background, and they were unhappy with the Spanish-Portuguese (Sephardic) ritual of Shearith Israel, the only synagogue in the city. In 1825 in an attempt at compromise, IBK organized a separate Ashkenaz minyan at the synagogue. The leaders of the congregation, however, refused to let the minyan continue, and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, New York’s second oldest congregation which followed Ashkenazic ritual, was established that same year.

In about 1834 IBK played a key role in the establishment of Hebra Terumath Hakkodesh, which aided the poor of Israel. On August 19, 1840 he chaired a gathering of New York’s Jewish community to protest the Damascus Affair. “When a Franciscan friar and his Muslim servant disappeared, the Jews of Damascus were accused of having killed them to use their blood for Jewish Passover rites. A number of Damascene Jews were arrested and tortured to make them ‘confess’ to the crimes. Some Jews died; even Jewish children were taken prisoner.” (The Seixas – Kursheedts, page 46)

His Last Days

A. Hyman Grinstein writes on page 220 of his The Rise of the Jewish Community of New York, “Israel B. Kursheedt, whose rabbinical knowledge was undoubtedly outstanding in the city in the first half of the nineteenth century, was a retiring person who rarely went out of his way to make his influence felt in the community. When he was approached on legal or ritual problems, he would prepare an answer; occasionally he led a movement or made a suggestion. His leadership was not aggressive, nor did he leave any books as tangible monuments to his scholarship.”

Another reason why IBK did not play a larger role in public affairs was most probably because there were very few people in America at the time he lived who could appreciate the extent and value of his learning. However, perhaps more importantly, he had a very marked influence on his nine children. He made sure to give all of them the best Jewish education he could. The result was that all married Jewish spouses (save for one, who never married) and were strongly attached to Judaism. This was no small feat in light of the high rate of intermarriage in America during the first part of the 19^th century.

B. According to the Asmonean obituary, IBK was more than beloved by his family – he was almost idolized. His family devoted themselves to caring for him during the last two years of his life when he was ill and suffering. During this period he was confined to his home, and many came to visit him simply to be in the presence of a man who was a living example of a true Jewish patriarch.

He passed away at age 86 surrounded by family and friends. Someone present at his passing, witnessing his serenity of spirit, “involuntarily burst out in the words of Scripture, ‘May I die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like his.’”

His son Gershom Kursheedt – Judah Touro, New Orleans

VIII. Civil War

There may be those who think that almost all the Jews who came to America during the 19th century left their observance of Yiddishkeit in the Old World. While it certainly is true that many Jews became lax in their observance of the precepts of the Torah, there were those who clung steadfastly to the religion of their ancestors. This commitment to Torah and mitzvos was maintained by some Jewish soldiers who fought during the Civil War, both on the Union and Confederate sides, despite the difficulties and hardships they faced. The morning of April 20, 1861, nineteen-year-old Albert Luria received a message that his (Confederate) company was to leave for Norfolk, Virginia, in two hours.

Albert joined his company, the Columbus City Light Guards, Company A, 2d Georgia Infantry Battalion, and marched to the depot, where amidst the crowd were members of his family. Aunts, uncles, and cousins had walked to Columbus to send young Albert off to fight, though they were prosperous planters accustomed to riding in carriages. It was Saturday, and, after all, the family members were Orthodox Jews.

''I did not anticipate seeing them,'' the young soldier wrote in his journal, ''for as it was Saturday I knew they could not ride and hardly expected they would pay me the compliment of walking in.”

Albert's parents, Eliza and Raphael J. Moses, were born and raised in observant Jewish homes in Charleston and descended from a long line of Jewish Southerners. Raphael Moses was so proud of his Sephardic ancestry that, not wanting his old family names to die out, he named one son, Albert, "Luria" and another son, Israel, "Nunez" to carry on those old Sephardic names.

A successful lawyer and planter in Columbus, Moses also volunteered for the Confederate army and achieved the rank of major as Gen. James Longstreet's chief of commissary. In addition to Albert Luria, two other sons of Raphael J. Moses served in the Confederate armed forces.

Albert Luria was severely wounded on May 31, 1862, and died shortly thereafter.

Jewish Soldiers Observe Pesach During The Civil War

For American Jewry during the Civil War, the Passover story was especially powerful. Northern soldiers saw clear parallels between the Union freeing the South's slaves and Moses leading the ancient Hebrews out of Egypt. However, creating a seder in a war zone requires flexibility and creativity. In 1862, the Jewish Messenger published an account by J. A. Joel (of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment) of a seder celebrated by Union soldiers in Fayette, West Virginia. Joel and twenty other Jewish soldiers were granted leave to observe Passover.

Joel's account of the seder was included in a letter to his sister:

While lying there (near the village of Fayette), our camp duties were not of an arduous character, and being apprised of the approaching Feast of Passover, twenty of my comrades and co-religionists belonging to the Regiment, united in a request to our commanding officer for relief from duty, in order that we might keep the holydays, which he readily acceded to. The first point was gained, and, as the Paymaster had lately visited the Regiment, he had left us plenty of greenbacks. Our next business was to find some suitable person to proceed to Cincinnati, Ohio, to buy us [matzos]. Our sutler (civilian provisioner to the army post) being a co-religionist and going home to that city, readily undertook to send them.

We were anxiously awaiting to receive our matzos and about the middle of the morning of [the eve of Passover] a supply train arrived in camp, and to our delight seven barrels of matzos. On opening them, we were surprised and pleased to find that our thoughtful sutler had enclosed two Hagedahs and prayer-books. We were now able to keep the seder nights, if we could only obtain the other requisites for that occasion. We held a consultation and decided to send parties to forage in the country while a party stayed to build a log hut for the services. About the middle of the afternoon the foragers arrived, having been quite successful. We obtained two kegs of cider, a lamb, several chickens and some eggs. Horseradish or parsley we could not obtain, but in lieu we found a weed, whose bitterness, I apprehend, exceeded anything our forefathers 'enjoyed'.... The necessaries for the choroutzes we could not obtain, so we got a brick which, rather hard to digest, reminded us, by looking at it, for what purpose it was intended.

At dark we had all prepared, and were ready to commence the service. There being no [cantor] present, I was selected to read the services, which I commenced by asking the blessing of the Almighty on the food before us, and to preserve our lives from danger. The ceremonies were passing off very nicely, until we arrived at the part where the bitter herb was to be taken. We all had a large portion of the herb ready to eat at the moment I said the blessing; each [ate] his portion, when horrors! what a scene ensued in our little congregation, it is impossible for my pen to describe. The herb was very bitter and very fiery like Cayenne pepper, and excited our thirst to such a degree, that we forgot the law authorizing us to drink only four cups, and the consequence was we drank up all the cider.

There, in the wild woods of West Virginia, away from home and friends, we consecrated and offered up to the ever-loving God of Israel our prayers and sacrifice. I doubt whether the spirits of our forefathers, had they been looking down on us, standing there with our arms by our side ready for an attack, faithful to our God and our cause, would have imagined themselves amongst mortals, enacting this commemoration of the scene that transpired in Egypt.

There were Jewish soldiers in the Confederate Army who were just as committed to Judaism as those who fought for the North. The following is a letter written by a Jewish Confederate soldier, Isaac J. Levy of the 46th Virginia Infantry, from his camp in Adams Run South Carolina, in which he detailed to his sister how he and his brother Ezekiel (''Zeke'') celebrated Passover in the army:

Adams Run

April 24th, 1864

Dear Leonora,

No doubt you were much surprised on receiving a letter from me addressed to our dear parents dated on the 21st which was the first day of [Pesach]. We were all under the impression in camp that the first day of the festival was the 22nd and if my memory serves me right I think that Ma wrote me that Pesach was on the 22nd inst. Zeke .... was somewhat astonished on arriving in Charleston on Wednesday afternoon, to learn that that was the first [seder] night. He purchased [matzos] sufficient to last us for the week. The cost is somewhat less than in Richmond, being but two dollars per pound. [Editor's Note: For point of reference, matzah in New York City was then 6 cents a pound.] We are observing the festival in a truly Orthodox style. On the first day we had a fine vegetable soup. It was made of a bunch of vegetables which Zeke brought from Charleston containing new onions, parsley, carrots turnips and a young cauliflower also a pound and a half of fresh [kosher] beef, the latter article sells for four dollars per pound in Charleston. Zeke E. did not bring us any meat from home. He brought some of his own, smoked meat, which he is sharing with us, he says that he supposes that Pa forgot to deliver it to him.

Love to all

Your affectionate Brother

Isaac J. Levy

Isaac J. Levy was killed at Petersburg, August 21, 1864. He was 21 years old.

Such were the efforts expended by Jewish soldiers during the Civil War to maintain their religious observances in spite of overwhelming difficulties. These inspiring recollections will, no doubt, enhance your students Pesach experience.

IX. So much more –

Please see http://personal.stevens.edu/~llevine/pub.html for articles about the people listed below.

Isaac Leeser, Harry Fischel, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Drachman, Rabbi Jacob Joseph, Samuel Nunez, Asser Levy, Jacob Barsimson, Rabbi Dr. Schepschel Shaffer, Alfred Mordecai, Rabbi Dr. Henry P. Schneeberger, founding of Yeshivas Etz Chaim and RJJ, Rabbi Moshe Meir Matlin, founding of REITS, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, Recife, Brazil, Jewish communities in the Caribbean, General Grant’s Expulsion of the Jews, Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Shneersohn, the Peixottos, Jacob Mordecai, Alfred Mordecai, Columbus Day 1892, Rebecca Gratz, Rebecca Machado Phillips, Mordecai Manuel Noah – Haven for the Jews, Rabbi P. M. Teitz, Abraham I. Abrahams, Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster, etc.

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