Jewish Historical Society

The Jewish Historical Society of Maryland has received a $60,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to document all pre-World War II synagogues in Maryland.The research will lead to the development of an extensive architectural and photographic exhibit titled "The Synagogues of Maryland."In announcing the grant, Maryland's Democratic Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes noted that the state is one of the oldest and richest areas of Jewish settlement and culture in the United States.

Raoul Wallenberg stamp to be presented todayMichael Furey, acting postmaster of Baltimore, will present an enlargement of the Raoul Wallenberg stamp to the Jewish Historical Society, 11 Lloyd St., at 11 a.m. today.The stamp honors the Swedish diplomat who rescued tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis in Hungary.Members of the Baltimore Philatelic Society, former Wallenberg associate Herbert Froehlich and Eva Schomfeld, whose family survived largely because of Wallenberg's efforts, also will receive a framed commemorative of the stamp.

The true story of the Old Bay Line steamer that glided out of Baltimore harbor nightly on a circuit to Norfolk and wound up playing a role in the founding of Israel is one of those maritime sagas so rich it became a best-selling novel and then a movie.Now the passenger boat with two identities and lives -- one as the President Warfield, the other as the Exodus 1947 -- is the subject of a new exhibit at the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, where the ship's original brass bell and steam whistle are on display.

BALTIMORE will soon be the home of a $2.25 million history and education center that has been touted as the nation's"largest and most advanced facility for the study, understanding and appreciation of regional American Jewish history."The Jewish Historical Society of Maryland has set May 5 as the groundbreaking for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, a 12,000-square-foot expansion of its three-building campus at 15 Lloyd St. near Lombard Street. When complete in late 1997, the brick-and-stone building will contain a 2,000-square-foot exhibition gallery, expanded library, visitor orientation center, museum shop, entrance court, staff offices and more than 4,000 square feet of new storage and processing space for the growing collection of documents and photographs.

As the third decade of this century began, Baltimore's Jewish community had 20 organizations in place to help the needy within it. The concept of organized charity has deep roots in Judaism, and Baltimore Jewry was doing its part to continue the tradition. But in 1920 a question was raised: Why not unite those 20 separate charities into a single philanthropic and community-building organization? The unification proposal got the nod and in January 1921, the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore was born.

Harold Clem, 87, historian, national security authorityHarold J. Clem, a historian, political scientist and national security expert who helped restore democracy to Germany after World War II, died Friday at his home in Bethesda of congestive heart failure. He was 87.He was a political adviser to the U.S. Commission for the State of Bavaria from 1949 to 1952, helping restore democracy to what was then West Germany.The Frederick native also participated in an Allied postwar program to return artworks and other cultural property to nations looted by the Nazis.

If the Jewish family deli survives, it may one day have to thank the brisket at Martin Lev's Edmart Delicatessen in Pikesville. For it was there that the oven-roasted beef of L. John Harris' mother met its match.Harris, 49, is the director of the Deli Project, a national exploration into the history and success of the Jewish food phenomenon once so central to many neighborhood shopping districts. The project is being directed by the Judah Magnes Museum of Berkeley, Calif., in collaboration with the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland.

Hendler's Ice Cream, a Baltimore favorite for generations, could easily have melted from memory after the much-larger Borden conglomerate bought out the local owners.But part of the once-thriving creamery soon will have more exposure than ever, even though the Hendler brand name is gone.Over the past week, the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland has been removing the mahogany wall panels, mantel and trim from the board room of the historic Hendler building at 1100 E. Baltimore St.Using each piece, workers will reconstruct the 22-foot-square room as part of a $3.5 million expansion of the society, one block away at 15 Lloyd St. When the addition opens in 1997, L. Manuel Hendler's board room will become the society's board room.

TUCKED along a side street off Central Avenue between Baltimore and Lombard streets in East Baltimore stands the one-story brick structure that houses the Jewish Historical Society. The building sits between the old Lloyd Street Synagogue, the first synagogue built in Maryland (in 1845) and now a museum operated by the society, and B'nai Israel Synagogue, the only functioning Jewish house of worship left in downtown Baltimore, which the society owns and leases to the congregation for a dollar a year.

In an outburst of Zionist enthusiasm, David Ben-Gurion, the first premier of Israel, once called Henrietta Szold of Lombard Street "the greatest Jewish woman in 400 years."Fifty years after her death, the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland brilliantly brings her to life with an exhibition that opens tomorrow -- "Daughter of Zion: Henrietta Szold and American Jewish Womanhood.""This is the most complicated exhibit we've ever done," says Barry Kessler, assistant director of the society and curator of the exhibit.

When Ida Katz died earlier this month, a few days shy of her 100th birthday, her son, Dr. Morton I. Katz, a retired Pikesville orthodontist, said his mother had spent her early years living with her family at Yaazor, the Hebrew Colonial Society of Maryland's 351-acre commune that was on the border of Baltimore and Howard counties. Her death stills yet another voice from what has to be a dwindling band of survivors who can recall what daily life was like at Yaazor, because no trace of the community now exists.

ALMA B. HANDELMAN, age 82, of Reisterstown, formerly of Wilmington, DE, died February 13, 2006 in Wilmington, she had been a member of Cong. Beth Shalom and its sisterhood, Deborah Heart & Lung Foundation, Jewish Community Center, Volunteer at the Gift Shop of the A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children and the Jewish Historical Society. She is survived by her son, Fred A. Handelman of Reisterstown; grandchildren, Lisa Berman, Tom Handelman and Marcie Cooke; two nieces and a nephew. Graveside services are Thursday in Wilmington.

Raoul Wallenberg stamp to be presented todayMichael Furey, acting postmaster of Baltimore, will present an enlargement of the Raoul Wallenberg stamp to the Jewish Historical Society, 11 Lloyd St., at 11 a.m. today.The stamp honors the Swedish diplomat who rescued tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis in Hungary.Members of the Baltimore Philatelic Society, former Wallenberg associate Herbert Froehlich and Eva Schomfeld, whose family survived largely because of Wallenberg's efforts, also will receive a framed commemorative of the stamp.

The Jewish Historical Society of Maryland has received a $60,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to document all pre-World War II synagogues in Maryland.The research will lead to the development of an extensive architectural and photographic exhibit titled "The Synagogues of Maryland."In announcing the grant, Maryland's Democratic Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes noted that the state is one of the oldest and richest areas of Jewish settlement and culture in the United States.

Harold Clem, 87, historian, national security authorityHarold J. Clem, a historian, political scientist and national security expert who helped restore democracy to Germany after World War II, died Friday at his home in Bethesda of congestive heart failure. He was 87.He was a political adviser to the U.S. Commission for the State of Bavaria from 1949 to 1952, helping restore democracy to what was then West Germany.The Frederick native also participated in an Allied postwar program to return artworks and other cultural property to nations looted by the Nazis.

The true story of the Old Bay Line steamer that glided out of Baltimore harbor nightly on a circuit to Norfolk and wound up playing a role in the founding of Israel is one of those maritime sagas so rich it became a best-selling novel and then a movie.Now the passenger boat with two identities and lives -- one as the President Warfield, the other as the Exodus 1947 -- is the subject of a new exhibit at the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, where the ship's original brass bell and steam whistle are on display.

If the Jewish family deli survives, it may one day have to thank the brisket at Martin Lev's Edmart Delicatessen in Pikesville. For it was there that the oven-roasted beef of L. John Harris' mother met its match.Harris, 49, is the director of the Deli Project, a national exploration into the history and success of the Jewish food phenomenon once so central to many neighborhood shopping districts. The project is being directed by the Judah Magnes Museum of Berkeley, Calif., in collaboration with the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland.

BALTIMORE will soon be the home of a $2.25 million history and education center that has been touted as the nation's"largest and most advanced facility for the study, understanding and appreciation of regional American Jewish history."The Jewish Historical Society of Maryland has set May 5 as the groundbreaking for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building, a 12,000-square-foot expansion of its three-building campus at 15 Lloyd St. near Lombard Street. When complete in late 1997, the brick-and-stone building will contain a 2,000-square-foot exhibition gallery, expanded library, visitor orientation center, museum shop, entrance court, staff offices and more than 4,000 square feet of new storage and processing space for the growing collection of documents and photographs.

As the third decade of this century began, Baltimore's Jewish community had 20 organizations in place to help the needy within it. The concept of organized charity has deep roots in Judaism, and Baltimore Jewry was doing its part to continue the tradition. But in 1920 a question was raised: Why not unite those 20 separate charities into a single philanthropic and community-building organization? The unification proposal got the nod and in January 1921, the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore was born.

TUCKED along a side street off Central Avenue between Baltimore and Lombard streets in East Baltimore stands the one-story brick structure that houses the Jewish Historical Society. The building sits between the old Lloyd Street Synagogue, the first synagogue built in Maryland (in 1845) and now a museum operated by the society, and B'nai Israel Synagogue, the only functioning Jewish house of worship left in downtown Baltimore, which the society owns and leases to the congregation for a dollar a year.