Jewish History

Even if you’ve never been there, you might have an opinion about Newark, New Jersey. For some, it is the quintessence of urban decay. For others, it is a vibrant community of creativity and entrepreneurship. For Philip Roth, arguably the greatest Jewish-American author to dip his quill in ink, it was home.

Since most of his work was in some way autobiographical, not much in his vast oeuvre doesn’t touch upon Newark in some way. So for three days in mid-March, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in the heart of downtown Newark, will celebrate the hometown chronicler with “Philip Roth Unbound: Illuminating a Literary History.”

The weekend festival will feature readings of his work by celebrities (Matthew Broderick, Peter Riegert, Morgan Spector), two looks at theatrical presentations of his work (“Sabbath’s Theater” with John Turturro, “The Plot Against America” with Sam Waterston, S. Epatha Merkerson, Tony Shalhoub, Eric Bogosian and others), plus a slew of writers and intellectuals getting into the nitty gritty of Roth’s books, analyzing them in ways that would cause Alexander Portnoy to complain.

The panels will be audio recorded and will, pending permission, be made available in some kind of podcast form.

The weekend will expand out of NJPAC’s fancy digs (at the intersection of the very-Newark Sarah Vaughan Way and Wayne Shorter Way) for an audio-guided tour of the Newark Public Library, an evening of comedy at a Jewish delicatessen, and even a bus tour visiting locations from Roth’s life and his fiction. (As if we can tell the difference at this point!)

(full article online)


www.timesofisrael.com

Even Portnoy wouldn’t complain about Newark gala for provocative author Philip Roth

Actors John Turturro, Matthew Broderick and Tony Shalhoub, plus a slew of appropriately edgy writers, will head up a 3-day literary festival for the hometown hero March 17-19
www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 

Today in Jewish History​

• First Property Purchase in the US by Jewish Congregation (1677)

In 1658, fifteen Jewish families emigrated from South America to (what was to become) the United States. These families were of Sephardic lineage and settled together in Newport, Rhode Island, where they established a Jewish congregation. For many years they held weekly prayer services in private homes.

When the need arose for a Jewish cemetery, the community purchased a piece of land on Wednesday, February 28, 1677.

This was the very first piece of land in the colonies which was owned by a Jewish congregation. In this cemetery are buried many of the early members of this congregation, and it is still maintained by the Jewish community.

For more about the Newport Jewish community, see entry for the 8th of Elul.
 
From at least the 10th century CE until the 15th, the Rhineland city of Mainz was one of the major Jewish centers of northern Europe. Much earlier—in the 1st century BCE—three Roman soldiers from modern-day Syria or the Golan Heights were buried there, and their gravestones remain. Henry Abramson explains why scholars have concluded that these soldiers were Jews, and how they got there. (Video, 20 minutes.)





mosaicmagazine.com

The Three Jewish Soldiers Serving the Roman Empire in Ancient Gaul

What their gravestones tell us.
mosaicmagazine.com mosaicmagazine.com
 
The seven-letter 10th-century BCE inscription in Ancient South Arabian script on a pithos from the Ophel. (photo: Daniel Vainstub; all rights reserved © Dr. Eilat Mazar; after Mazar 2015)
The seven-letter 10th-century BCE inscription in Ancient South Arabian script on a pithos from the Ophel. (photo: Daniel Vainstub; all rights reserved © Dr. Eilat Mazar; after Mazar 2015)

After stumping epigraphers for over a decade, a mysterious First Temple-era inscription uncovered at the Ophel, a stone’s throw from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, may finally have been deciphered.

According to a new study by Dr. Daniel Vainstub, the seven-letter inscription etched on a large clay jar records one of the ingredients found in the incense mixture used in the Temple — perfumed gum resin or labdanum.

According to readings of Exodus 30:34, aromatic labdanum (Cistus ladaniferus) is likely the second component of the Temple worship’s incense.


(full article online )

www.timesofisrael.com

Newly deciphered inscription gives clue to biblical Queen of Sheba’s Jerusalem visit

Discovered at the Ophel adjacent to the Temple Mount, seven letters on clay jar sherd are written in dialect and script stemming from the Arabian Peninsula, epigrapher suggests
www.timesofisrael.com www.timesofisrael.com
 
​
 
What It Is

These metal cans are witnesses to the mechanical printing processes once housed in the basement of our historic East Broadway building, which we relied on for decades to produce a broadsheet newspaper. They contained oil to keep the gears moving, and kerosene and other solvents to clean metal plates and blocks of type.

Why I Love It

When I see these cans, I think of our 30th anniversary issue in 1927, in which our predecessors boasted about how machine-driven printing had transformed the crafting of our Yiddish newspaper. It took 11,000 pounds of ink and 441,000 pounds of paper to publish that 80-page special edition, the editors noted on its front page, along with the work of 80 writers who produced 430 columns. The NYC edition weighed in at close to 2 ⅓ pounds.

Where They Came From

In 2010, as the Forward was moving to its current office in Manhattan’s Financial District, Louis Katz, our last Yiddish typesetter, asked me to come see him.

Arriving upstairs at the row of desktop computers in what had once been the composing room, I watched Mr. Katz, a short, voluble titan we gingerly called “Ketsele,” reach up to the top shelf of the typesetters’ closet to pull out these two cans. He’d held onto them long after the Forward made the switch from linotype press to digital typesetting — a moment of revolution in his fakh, or trade. They’re a memory of the labor required to share our forebears’ words of wisdom with the public.
 
Sixties Fan said:
From at least the 10th century CE until the 15th, the Rhineland city of Mainz was one of the major Jewish centers of northern Europe. Much earlier—in the 1st century BCE—three Roman soldiers from modern-day Syria or the Golan Heights were buried there, and their gravestones remain. Henry Abramson explains why scholars have concluded that these soldiers were Jews, and how they got there. (Video, 20 minutes.)





mosaicmagazine.com

The Three Jewish Soldiers Serving the Roman Empire in Ancient Gaul

What their gravestones tell us.
mosaicmagazine.com mosaicmagazine.com
Click to expand...

Dr Abramson, one of my favorite historians.
 
An Italian historian seeking to debunk rumors of a “foreign” background has instead discovered documentation indicating that famed artist Leonardo da Vinci was actually a Jew.

According to an article reprinted on the Aish.com website from Tablet Magazine, da Vinci’s mother – Caterina – was a Circassian Jew born somewhere in the Caucasus

Caterina was apparently “abducted as a teenager and sold as a sex slave several times in Russia, Constantinople, and Venice before finally being freed in Florence at age 15,” according to the report, which quotes the book written by historian Carlo Vecce, “Il sorriso di Caterina, la madre di Leonardo.”

The historian, one of the top specialists on da Vinci, told Aish journalist Marc Weitzmann that he “simply found it impossible to believe that the mother of the greatest Italian genius would be a non-Italian slave.”

However, he added, “Now, not only do I believe it, but the most probable hypothesis, given what I found, is that Caterina was Jewish.”

What he found while doing research for his book was a document that turned up during the reconstruction of da Vinci’s library that made the artist’s Jewish roots clear.

The document, dated November 2, 1452 – seven months after the artist was born – was an emancipation act signed by Leonardo’s father, Piero da Vinci, in his professional capacity regarding “the daughter of a certain Jacob, originating from the Caucasian mountains.”

Piero da Vinci was the business attorney for the rich merchant’s wife who owned Catarina as a slave, and who lived in Florence.

Da Vinci senior was “no stranger to the Jews … His main customers were among the Jewish community of Florence,” Vecce said.

The professor added that he believes Caterina bequeathed some of her “wild Circassian spirit” to her son, whose ability to think freely and creatively as an engineer as well as an artist resulted in his eventual centuries-long worldwide fame.



 
oja50.org

10 - OJA50

Established in 1897 in Toronto, this volunteer-run organization has enabled women to impact and strengthen their communities, promote women’s rights and further human welfare through service, education, and social action.
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