יום שבת, י״ט תמוז תשפ״וSaturday, July 4, 2026
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Saul Jay Singer serves as Senior Legal Ethics Counsel with the District of Columbia Bar and is a collector of extraordinary original Judaica documents and letters. He welcomes comments at sauljsing@gmail.com. Before commencing his career as a litigator and legal ethicist, he served for fourteen years as an actuary for several ratemaking organizations and insurance companies and as actuary for the National Flood Insurance Program.
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Some critics maintain that the poem was actually a prophetic pre-history of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, as Melville brilliantly considers the friction between science and issues of faith and doubt and the interplay between Jewish life and practices in the biblical past and presents contemporary Jewish life in the Ottoman empire in late-nineteenth century Eretz Yisrael.
He believed that when Zionism succeeds in normalizing Jewish life, Hebrew writers would become capable of producing works of literate genius; as such, as a means to fulfill his vision of national revival, he devoted himself to encouraging Hebrew writers to compose works that blended Judaism with humanism.
Kipnis was a leading pioneer of the Diaspora-negating Zionist narrative and one of its most active proponents, and much of his work was purposely designed to replace Diasporan poems, stories, narratives, culture and traditions.
Kipnis was a leading pioneer of the Diaspora-negating Zionist narrative and one of its most active proponents, and much of his work was purposely designed to replace Diasporan poems, stories, narratives, culture and traditions.
To assure that its graduating students would not experience financial problems, the school paid each of them 1,000 francs, but that largesse proved unnecessary because virtually all of them quickly gained meaningful employment, in most cases very well paid jobs, because the skills that they had gained in Mikveh Israel were in high demand.
Perhaps as a result of what he himself characterized as his mother’s “made-up Judaism, Hirschfeld rejected Orthodox Judaism. Nonetheless, he always believed that he belonged to a great heritage going back through centuries, and I’ve always felt that I am very close to Jewish life, customs, food, even though I never attend synagogue. But I’ve never thought of myself as anything but Jewish.
Over the course of his life, his inventions and over 150 U.S. and international patents have contributed to the advancement of military defense, including tracking systems for submarines, and to television technology, video gaming, electronic toys, and other electronic consumer products.
Poe's best-known fiction works are Gothic horror, and his most recurring themes deal with questions of death and other macabre topics, such as its physical signs, the effects of decomposition, concerns about premature burial, and the reanimation of the dead.
As the sun set over Jerusalem the Golden, reunited at last, Jews of all backgrounds and ethnicities gathered at the Wall on Tisha B’Av for the first time in two millennia.
While it is now known that Yad Avshalom was built about 1,000 years after the death of the Biblical Avshalom, it is not known who commissioned the monument – although the Biblical account in Shmuel Bet (2 Samuel) suggests that it was built by Avshalom himself, as discussed below.
Over a century before the Holocaust, Rav Alkalai predicted that 1940 would be a year of great hardship with an outpouring of wrath that will lead to the gathering of our dispersed in Eretz Yisrael and urged Jews to make aliyah voluntarily before this catastrophic event forced them to settle in Eretz Yisrael.
The focus of the miscarriage of justice against Dreyfus has always been upon the fraudulently-obtained Dreyfus handwriting sample, but it may have been du Paty de Clam’s bogus telegram that was outcome determinative in Dreyfus’s conviction by the tribunal.
When WWI broke out in 1914, he was arrested as an enemy alien and was later released in a prisoner exchange; in his memoir, he notes the irony of his freedom being secured through the intervention of the Pope’s Nuncio on behalf of a Jewish boy he had never seen.
Leading the antisemitic discrimination against the Jews in New Amsterdam was Stuyvesant, who was strongly committed to the supremacy of the Dutch Reformed Church, determined to promote morality and social cohesion through the enforcement of Calvinist orthodoxy, and unwavering in his desire to deport Jews from the colony.
Some authorities suggest that he adopted his views on Jews because he understood Judaism only through the lens of Christianity and that he reduced Judaism to a religion without considering its nationalistic character and, as such, he excluded Zionism from the Jewish identity.
One particularly memorable item was a photocard of himself and his crew standing in front of the Sphinx on which he has written In Mitzraim just at the right time of year; expect to be in Palestine for Pesach.
The oldest surviving Yale seal may be found on the 1749 master’s diploma of Reverend Ezra Stiles, who went on to serve as Yale’s president (1778-1795).
my favorite tale of a Jewish horse thief is Sholem Aleichem’s generally unknown Moshkeleh Ganev (Moshe the Thief), which he serialized in twenty episodes in a Warsaw Yiddish daily before it was published in book form in Warsaw (1913) and, after Aleichem’s death in 1914, in Kiev (1927).
Noah’s plan for a temporary Jewish homeland in the United States – the restoration of the Jews to Eretz Yisrael and the reestablishment of Jerusalem as the eternal Jewish capital was always the ultimate goal – may have had its genesis in his removal from a high government position because he was Jewish.
The 1934 Fair represented the largest and most prestigious concentration of buildings executed in the International Style up to the time; it made a crucial contribution to a local evolution of modern form and details, and it formed the basis for the definition of the content of situated modernism and its promotion in Eretz Yisrael.
When Samuel arrived in Jerusalem to commence his term as High Commissioner, he was deeply moved by his greeting, as the Yishuv welcomed him enthusiastically, calling him “the First of Judea” and greeting him with a seventeen-gun salute and endless words of welcome.
Interestingly, a proposed Knesset bill in 2012 proposed to simplify the structure of the celebration so that Yom Ha’Atzmaut would always fall on a Thursday, but the proposal failed because many legislators and citizens were unhappy about a summary dismissal of the significance of the fifth of Iyar, the date on which Israel had declared independence in 1948.
Although some 4,000 volunteers – again, most of them Yishuv youth – went house-to-house collecting money from the public, the Tax for Our Defense failed to meet the goal of raising 2.5 million pounds within a month.
One of the first to foresee the impending Holocaust, Rav Herzog wrote countless letters to European Jewish leaders warning about the coming cataclysm and urging them to leave but, sadly, his entreaties went largely unheeded.
There is an ongoing debate amongst scholars as to whether the earliest text of Dayenu was created before or after the destruction of the Second Temple.
Over and above his public welfare efforts on behalf of milk pasteurization and preventing tuberculosis, Straus’s largesse and contributions were by no means limited to Jewish institutions and causes.
Wilson recognized in American Jews a spiritual force that had adapted itself to the American spirit and made broad contributions to the advancement of the welfare of the nation and of the world.
The U.S. government offered to spare the lives of both Rosenbergs if Julius provided the names of other spies and if they admitted their guilt, but they refused, saying that they were innocent and would not bear false witness.
The scope and variety of Purim celebrations over the past few centuries are truly remarkable, and I present here some of my favorite such Purim announcements and invitations from my extensive collection of Purim materials.
The religion of the von Trapp family is the subject of some discussion among critics, with some claiming that they were Jewish.
Havdalah and Kiddush are therefore flip sides of the same coin; the essence of Kiddush is to distinguish between the mundane (weekdays) and the holy (Shabbat), and the essence of havdalah is to differentiate between Shabbat and weekdays.
Some rabbanim through the centuries have encouraged Jews to mark Purim Katan specifically with a joyous feast... One of the great supporters of Purim Katan observance was the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Some of the older men were telling grand tales of where they were and what it was like attending previous Birkat HaChamah ceremonies, but the story that I will never forget was told by a 92-year white-bearded rabbi, who merited to attend his fourth(!) such service.
There can hardly be a subject that might, at first blush, be considered more unsuitable for cartoons than the Holocaust. Yet they played a more crucial role in provoking anti-Nazi sentiment, generating support for the victims of the Shoah, and engendering publicity regarding the Holocaust, than hundreds of essays, articles, and newspaper reports ever could.
Though his struggle to remain faithful to Judaism while being true to his art remained a source of conflict throughout his life, the Hebrew-speaking Israëls was evidently a Zionist.
He was pedantic about textual matters, became a renowned spokesman for the traditional Jewish interpretation of scripture, and played a crucial role in providing basic materials to support the religious needs of an English-speaking community largely unfamiliar with Hebrew.
Although he could have completed the project in France, Chagall used the assignment as an excuse to travel to Eretz Yisrael, arriving there in February 1931. Feeling very much at home in a land of Yiddish and Russian speakers, he was impressed by the pioneering spirit of the kibbutzniks and he was deeply moved by the holy places.
Upon its release, critics acclaimed and celebrated the Biblical Prologue, but they were generally highly critical of the Story section of the film, which was broadly characterized as clichéd in both its narrative and characterizations.
The barbed wire mezuzah that Ramon took with him into space – he joked about affixing it to the shuttle door – was by San Francisco Artist Aimee Golant, the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Although Rav Reines may not have been the first Orthodox rav to support the idea of a Jewish return to Eretz Yisrael, Zion, it was he who answered Herzl's call to become involved in the political movement and it was he who almost single-handedly took on the anti-Zionist charedi rabbinate.
Recognizing that the full potential of the Archive was not possible absent a catalog that methodically and systematically organized and described its contents, the Jewish Historical Institute and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum joined forces to prepare and publish such a catalog.
Lazarus wrote several pieces on Jewish holidays, including The New Year (Rosh Hashana, 5643), in which she beautifully conveyed her vision of a people rolling homeward to its ancient source.
Many of our greatest artists have produced striking graphic works on these subjects, and I present here a selection of original artwork and related items from my Chanukah collection.
In America, Kissinger played down his Jewish roots and sought to assimilate. When he was sworn in as the first Jewish Secretary of State, he took his oath on Shabbat – his observant elderly parents were therefore forced to walk to the swearing-in ceremony – and on a Christian bible.
In Eli, Sachs made evident her belief that the future could not be built on the ruins of hatred and revenge; instead, she hoped that her poetry would be an agent of healing and a source of renewal.
Although corporate interest underscored both his former clients and his campaign supporters, he showed independence in his two terms as governor, supporting the creation of a Public Service Commission with strong powers to regulate corporate activity.
In a 1964 correspondence to a Jewish friend, she wrote, I admire and respect the Jewish people and their traditions and feel a kinship with them.
Roosevelt visited Israel four times, the first in 1952, and the last eight months before her death in 1962... In many letters to her friends and in her newspaper columns, she frequently sang the praises of the extraordinary beauty of the Israeli landscape, and she often lauded Israel’s educational institutions and healthcare facilities.
For more than a decade, Huberman had been a regular performer with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and, even when Jewish musicians were being dismissed from major orchestras and blacklisted, he was one of the few Jews not fired.
In a previous Jewish Press article, I displayed and discussed the cards issued for the first seven Congresses, and I present here the official cards from the Eighth Zionist Congress through the Thirteenth Congress along with a brief discussion of the highlights of each.
A police search of Hilsner’s house yielded no incriminating evidence, and he maintained that he had left the city on the afternoon of the murder long before it could have been committed.
Freud joined the Viennese branch of B'nai Brith in 1897 and became an active member during his first years, serving as the organization’s president and working actively to grow the chapter and to recruit Jewish friends to the organization.
Taylor worked to save European Jews from the Holocaust and he interacted directly with the pope in this effort.
Today, we have a clear picture of the true function of Robinson’s Arch: it was part of a monumental staircase that connected a gate in the Temple Mount’s outer precincts with the Herodian Street far below.
I present here from my collection several of my favorite artistic depictions of this most sacred Jewish site.
The first reference to the Jewish practice of written Rosh Hashana greetings may be found in the Book of Customs of Rabbi Yaakov ben Moshe Moelin (1365-1427), aka the Maharil, the religious leader of German Jewry in the fourteenth century.
Few people know that Bloch was also an accomplished photographer, a passion that began early in his teens and through which medium he further exhibits his extraordinary compositional skills.
Although the Pavilion drew broad and favorable media coverage and won awards, it ultimately failed in its greater purpose: to sell the nations of the world on the idea that Jewish resettlement of Eretz Yisrael was both a solution to the Jewish Question and in the interests of the international community.
A medical maverick, he frequently challenged prevailing medical norms, maintaining his faith in his own theories and abilities in the face of strong opposition, and he was colorful and combative when defending his most enduring contributions to medicine.
Although he presented a supremely confident public face, Dewey was deeply concerned that the Regents would fire him. Accordingly, he and his two greatest supporters, Funk and Singer, commenced an ambitious campaign designed to skew the Regents’ decision in Dewey’s favor, focusing particularly on the Jewish community.
Halévy’s seminal work, La Juive (“The Jewess,”1835), essentially a “one-hit wonder” for him that became one of the cornerstones of the French repertory for a century, was one of the grandest of grand operas and included a formal ballet, major choruses, and spectacular processions and celebrations.
Dali was also influenced by his experiences in Spain, where Jewish culture has a long and complex history, and he may have been drawn to Jewish themes as a way to explore the intersection of different cultural traditions.
Innumerable bizarre theories are still floating around regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper, including one that identifies Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland)...
During Israel’s early years, the general public mostly accepted the Status Quo Agreement for several reasons, including that most Jews who were not observant were still generally traditional; there was broader interest in preserving unity in the young country...
The Federation also gave Jewish farmers more purchasing power by, among other things, launching a bureau that liberally granted credit to struggling farmers who needed assistance and offering reduced prices on essential goods to Jewish farmers in need, such as seeds and farming implements.
She was particularly interested in whether the future of the Jewish nation in the Land of Israel would also affect the state of psychoanalysis, and whether the new ties to the land would cause the Berlin analysts in Eretz Yisrael to suddenly become landowners or even farmers.
Any document from the Revolutionary War period relating to Jewish soldiers, particularly those killed or wounded for the cause, is truly extraordinary and monumentally rare, let alone one originally signed by Franklin.
Apologists have engaged in all kinds of contortions to try to explain away Lawrence’s antisemitism.
LEHI characterized Bernadotte as a British and Arab puppet who threatened the establishment of a Jewish state on both banks of the Jordan River and, after gathering intelligence about his schedule and movements, it decided to assassinate him...
Even after leaving office, Cleveland continued to stand up for the Jewish people.
In honor of my grandson’s bar mitzvah, and in honor of what I hope and pray will be a long lifetime of his putting on tefillin every day, I have selected for this article some of my favorite bar mitzvah and tefillin items from my collection.
By feeding off upstanding English citizens, Stoker’s Dracula maintains the survival of his race, just as Jews newly arrived in Great Britain sustain themselves by usurping money and wealth through devious means, leaving their victims” dry.
Interestingly, by accepting the Torah, the Jewish people took on 606 new mitzvot – there were already sheva mitzvot B’nei Noach (the seven commandments that had been given to non-Jews at the time of Noah) – and the name “Ruth” in Hebrew has the numerical value of 606.
While Cardozo accepted membership in the Century Club, an elite and exclusive Washington club that discriminated against Jews – for which he was criticized by Felix Frankfurter, his later successor on the Supreme Court, and others – he also proudly joined the Judean Club.
During his time in office, Thant oversaw the entry into the UN of dozens of new Asian and African states, and he was a steadfast opponent of South African apartheid.
Some critics suggest that the Frankenstein monster was named after Jacob Frank who, at the time that Shelley wrote her novel, was perhaps not only the dominant issue in the Jewish world of Eastern Europe but was very well known in non-Jewish circles as well.
In fact, it was not Ben Gurion who came up with the phrase but, rather, he put forth the language that Beham had used in his draft weeks earlier before the politicians became involved in redrafting the document.
In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the enigmatic factory, which operates behind mammoth locked iron gates – and from where no one ever comes out – continuously belches pillars of smoke out into the air, an unmistakable analogy to Nazi crematoria.
The Shadal’s beliefs, teaching, and writings were characterized by the strictest fidelity to halacha, and he was perhaps the fiercest critic of Jewish Science and higher Torah criticism.
R. Auerbach’s recognition of the State of Israel was so profound that he ascribed to it the term “The Kingdom of Israel,” a term which he applied broadly to a broad range of halachic issues, such as the definition of Eretz Yisrael.
Freleng, who was self-taught and had no formal training in animation, began his incredible career at United Film Advancement Services at age 17, where he met a fellow animator who later introduced him to Walt Disney, who invited him to join the Disney Studio in California.
Carvalho’s broad public fame was not based entirely upon his critical role in the Dreyfus case, which was but one of the many famous cases in which he served as a graphology expert.
Beautiful flowers will grow in the garden, they are the Children of Israel. From the heat of the sun they will swim, from heaven’s dew they will bloom again!
LBJ was an important initiator in providing American aid to Israel. As early as 1951, with Israel in desperate need of money and material to settle the massive influx of Jewish immigrants, he successfully lobbied the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for $150 million (equivalent to $1.66 billion in 2022 dollars) in support.
Sabin’s interest in Eretz Yisrael began when he first traveled to the Middle East in 1943... The visit triggered his memories of his grandfather’s Torah stories about ancient Egypt and the Exodus and reawakened his Jewish feelings.
Although most of the prominent Jews in colonial America were strong supporters of the colonialists and their struggle for independence, Hart was a conspicuous exception.
Through his lawyer, Peter Zürcher, Lutz threatened SS commanders with war crime charges if the Jews of the Pest ghetto were not protected and, as a result, most of the 70,000 Jews of the Pest ghetto survived until the Russian Army liberated the city on January 18, 1945.
There is also evidence that Edison's financial legacy helped to fuel the Institute for Historical Review, a movement dedicated to denying that the Holocaust ever occurred.
Notwithstanding the tribunal’s strict imposition of restrictions on taking photographs... D’Addario proved to be incredibly prolific, as he took many thousands of amazingly sharp photographs in both monochrome and color.
After considering various sites in the Caribbean to deport the Holocaust survivors, including British Honduras, and Trinidad, the British decided to transfer them to Mauritius.
Perhaps inexplicably, Eliot voiced support for the State of Israel and increasingly viewed Judaism as a paradigm for the survival of diverse religious cultures in an increasingly secular world.
Goldberg, who successfully fought for a cease-fire that would not require Israeli withdrawal as a condition precedent to any peace agreement, recognized that Israel’s pre-1967 borders were all but indefensible as Auschwitz borders.
Many critics consider 'Lincoln, the Man of the People' it to be the greatest poem ever written about the beloved and immortal president.
Always a Zionist pragmatist, he played a leading role in the first Zionist Congresses, including serving as Hebrew Secretary of the First Congress (Basle, 1897) and as president of the Twentieth Congress (Zurich, 1937).
It was as Webster’s emissary to Berlin that Solomons visited the Jewish ward in a Frankfort Hospital and determined to raise funds to help found Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Wolf also made important contributions depicting the regional character of San Francisco at a time when it was becoming a sophisticated city and cultural center.
I have aggregated here a selection of such items, most relating to American and Israeli political leaders that I hope readers will enjoy.
Almost certainly because of Einstein’s reputation and prestige, McEwen took immediate action, the result of which was that Ehrmann was granted an exit visa to emigrate to the United States, where he arrived in New York via England on September 12, 1939, and was sworn in as an American citizen in 1945.
Wald asserted that Air Force data had ignored the thousands of bombers that had been unable to return to base because they’d been struck in other plane sections, including the engines, the cockpit, and the tail which, he maintained, are the very areas that must be more heavily armored.
Rotta’s interventions not only resulted in saving Jewish lives on his own account, but he also facilitated and promoted the ability of others, including particularly Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz, to perform their heroic work.
July 3, 2026 
