Jewish History

It took a lot of chutzpah for Stan Mack to do what he has done.To attempt to consolidate 4,000 years of Jewish history - from Abraham's first discussion with God in the desert to today's turmoil over peace in the Middle East - into a 265-page book and, of all things, in cartoons.But that is exactly what Mack, a 62-year-old New York City illustrator, set out to do in his new book, ``The Story of the Jews: A 4,000-Year Adventure.''``I concluded that there was room for a popular overview of Jewish history that put everything into perspective,'' said Mack.

Lillian Braiterman Crane took one look yesterday at a photo on display in the newly expanded Jewish Museum of Maryland, and the memories came flooding back.The photo depicted a teen-ager who secretly left his home in Maryland to enlist in the Jewish Legion, an all-Jewish fighting force organized by the British army during World War I to free Palestine from Turkish control. It was her brother, William Braiterman, who enlisted under an alias so he wouldn't be rejected from service."He didn't tell my mother where he was going, and he lied about his age because he was only 17, and he had to eat a lot of bananas so he would weigh enough, but he got in," Crane said.

The loss of two treasured pieces of Jewish heritage in the past four months in Annapolis appears to have stirred little notice in this 303-year-old city, where residents fiercely protect beloved old buildings.In December, a five-alarm fire destroyed Annapolis' first Jewish department store, leaving only a crumbling facade. Last month, flames destroyed its first synagogue.But Anna Greenberg, a 68-year-old city native, activist and guide for the small, private Jewish Heritage Tour of Annapolis, mourns the loss of the buildings -- not only the lost bricks and mortar, but the stories behind them.

Mission: To preserve and interpret regional American Jewish history and culture. Located in East Baltimore, where Maryland Jewish history began, the museum holds more than 1 million photographs, papers and objects in addition to changing exhibits. The building is situated between two landmarks that were saved by the museum - the Lloyd Street Synagogue, built in 1845, and the B'nai Israel Synagogue, built in 1876.Latest accomplishment: In March, the museum more than doubled its size with the opening of the two-level, 12,000-square-foot Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building.

The loss of two treasured pieces of Jewish heritage in the past four months in Annapolis appears to have stirred little notice in this 303-year-old city, where residents fiercely protect beloved old buildings.In December, a five-alarm fire destroyed Annapolis' first Jewish department store, leaving only a crumbling facade. Last month, flames destroyed its first synagogue.But Anna Greenberg, a 68-year-old city native, activist and guide for the small, private Jewish Heritage Tour of Annapolis, mourns the loss of the buildings -- not only the lost bricks and mortar, but the stories behind them.

If the Jewish Museum of Maryland had less faith in the city, it might have bailed out long ago.Surrounded by public housing, vacant lots and rundownwarehouses, its property near Lloyd and Lombard streets in East Baltimore hardly seems the ideal spot to build a $2.3 million expansion.But if museum directors had left the area for more tourist-friendly environs, they never could have created the gem that opens today.The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building is the most noble of architectural works -- a structure that not only grows out of its surroundings but strengthens them.

PHILADELPHIA - Bernard Levinson is challenging a sacred cow of biblical scholars, and some of the biblical scholars are challenging back.The bearded, 45-year-old Canadian sits at the head of the long table in the sixth-floor conference room of the Center for Judaic Studies, formerly the Annenberg Research Institute, in the 9-year-old modern-Colonial building.Listening thoughtfully, after polishing off a kosher lunch, are the 17 biblical scholars - 12 men and five women, all called fellows - who are spending the academic year doing research at the center, and several visitors from the University of Pennsylvania.

Contemporary artists of the former Soviet Union have become increasingly well known in the West over the past decade, and a dozen of the most respected are featured in "Here and There: Then and Now" at Washington's B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum.Some of the artists are Jewish and some are non-Jewish but focused on Jewish themes; some live in Russia and some now live in Western Europe or the United States. Their common ground, according to museum director and curator Ori Z. Soltes, is that "each artist necessarily finds the issue of identity at the center of his or her work; the path to that center is as diverse as the vastness of both Soviet and Jewish history would lead us to expect."

Robert Bly's "Sibling Society." It's an overview of life i America that's very well done. He talks about all sorts of social problems. ... It had a tremendous impact on the way I think. While I was reading it, I kept thinking, Wow, he's right on with that. I kept wishing I had thought of it first. Anyone who's concerned about what's going on in our country should read it.Something I'm re-reading, and would recommend highly to young Jewish people, and anyone interested in Jewish History, is " Jews, God and History," by Max I. Dimont.

WARSAW, Poland -- In the belief that Poles should understand more about the long history of Jews in their country than the abbreviated account of the Holocaust taught in schools, an effort is under way to build a Jewish museum here.But both at home and abroad there is ambivalence.American Jewish organizations, who are expected to be among the major donors, say they will not consider financing the museum until the government pays restitution for Jewish property confiscated by the Nazis and then nationalized by the Communists after World War II.The museum's backers, who include curators at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, also say they must overcome a view among some Jews that after the killing of 3 million Polish Jews, it is not worth artificially reviving a dead culture.

As the Obama administration moves to transform Palestinian arguments about Israeli settlements into U.S. policy, an examination of the facts underlying these issues is appropriate. There may be no better place to begin than the swimming pool at Rimonim, a Jewish settlement in the heart of the West Bank. The scene is a familiar one. Families picnicking together. Mothers yelling at children to be careful. Young children calling out to moms to watch them do dangerous things. But it is the view from the hilltop pool that is striking.

A 400-year-old Torah, saved from the sands of Iraq, has found its way to a synagogue in western Howard County. The scroll of Hebrew scripture, containing the first five books of the Bible, was found by U.S. soldiers among the ruins of a synagogue in Mosul, Iraq. A Jewish expert in Torahs who leads a worldwide effort to rescue scrolls like this got it out of the country and repaired it. Now, that piece of history has landed in Fulton, housed in an ark at Temple Isaiah. The Reform congregation plans a year of educational events centered on this Torah and the Jews of Arab nations, beginning today with presentations by Rabbi Menachem Youlus, who is a sofer, someone trained in the transcription of Torahs.

Eleanor Betty Hirsh, an educator who championed preservation of the Lloyd Street Synagogue and was a founder of the Jewish Historical Society, died of cancer Sunday at her Pikesville home. She was 83. Born Eleanor Betty Rosenthal in Baltimore and raised in Mount Washington, she was a 1940 graduate of Forest Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree in education from Goucher College. She was known by her initials, E.B. She joined Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, and in 1975 became the second woman to serve as its president.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The sign in the window of Max's Clothing Store is a symbol of a dying tradition in the South. The clothing shop, opened by the owner's Jewish immigrant father 70 years ago, is going out of business. It wasn't supposed to happen so soon. Maurice Krawcheck, 68, had planned to pass the company to his sons, just as his father, Max, had done. But one of his boys became a lawyer and the other, a clothing manufacturer. There was no one left to mind the store. Family-owned retail stores, many started by Jews who settled in the South as peddlers, have helped fuel the economies of Southern towns for 300 years.

The Historical Society of Carroll County is displaying We Call This Place Home: Jewish Life in Maryland's Small Towns, an exhibit produced by the Jewish Museum of Maryland. The exhibit tells the story of Jewish merchants and other Jewish residents who established roots in small communities across Maryland. Stories and artifacts from several of Carroll County's Jewish merchants and families are featured, including pieces from the former Kann's Department Store, the Rosenstock Store, artifacts from Beth Shalom Congregation in Taylorsville, and items on loan from the Weiner and Holniker families in Eldersburg.

Handel's `Messiah' to be performed in Ellicott City Handel's Messiah will be performed with soloists and orchestra at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4100 St. Johns Lane, Ellicott City. Sheet music will be provided for anyone who would like to sing along. A free, outdoor Christmas pageant, which includes a live Nativity scene and display of more than 100 creches from around the world, will start at 6 p.m. Dec. 13 at the church. The Mormon Choir of Washington will give free performances from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 13. Information: 410-715-4544.

William J. Clothier II, 86, a former tennis star, international spy and grandson of the co-founder of the Strawbridge & Clothier department stores, died of leukemia Saturday at his home in Valley Forge, Pa. While Mr. Clothier won national tennis titles, he also was secretly working as a special agent for the FBI and later worked for the CIA. Mr. Clothier, whose father, William J. Clothier, was a national singles champion, toured on the grass-court circuit...

For the next three weeks, observant Jews will not marry, listen to music, buy or wear new clothing, take a pleasure trip, cut their hair or shave. During the last nine days of the period, they also will refrain from consuming meat, fowl or wine (except on the Sabbath), sending gifts, doing laundry, bathing for pleasure and swimming. And on the final day of the three weeks, they will not eat, drink, bathe, wear leather shoes or engage in sexual relations. Instead, they will spend that evening sitting on a low chair or on the floor of their dimly lighted synagogues as the Book of Lamentations is mournfully chanted.

For the next three weeks, observant Jews will not marry, listen to music, buy or wear new clothing, take a pleasure trip, cut their hair or shave. During the last nine days of the period, they also will refrain from consuming meat, fowl or wine (except on the Sabbath), sending gifts, doing laundry, bathing for pleasure and swimming. And on the final day of the three weeks, they will not eat, drink, bathe, wear leather shoes or engage in sexual relations. Instead, they will spend that evening sitting on a low chair or on the floor of their dimly lighted synagogues as the Book of Lamentations is mournfully chanted.

A Memorable Place In Berlin, a place of deep emotion By Sibylle Ehrlich SPECIAL TO THE SUN My daughter Marion and I flew to Berlin on Sept. 6 for the opening of the Jewish Museum. Two years ago, I had donated many letters, documents, photos and objects to the museum that I felt were of historical value. My husband, a Holocaust survivor, had lived "underground" in Berlin after his family had been deported to Auschwitz. Of particular interest to the museum was a leather briefcase he took with him as he crawled across the Swiss border at night; in it he had taken, among other things, a poetry book belonging to his mother, her silk scarf and a place setting of the family silver.