AJA Educational Articles
In 1903, after a lengthy search for a suitable replacement for Isaac M. Wise, Kaufmann Kohler was invited to interview for the presidency of HUC. He was unanimously approved by the HUC board and accepted the position, which he retained until his retirement in 1921. His presidency included many significant accomplishments: the restructuring of the…
In 1995, the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli ultra-nationalist. The assassination happened at the peak of an anti-violence rally in support of the Oslo peace process, an attempt to create a framework for finding a solution to the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. Rabin, his successor, Shimon Peres, and Palestine Liberation Organization…
We take a moment to highlight the Big Brothers/Big Sisters Association of Cincinnati. This association, founded in 1910, was a charter member for what would later become Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The organization dates back to 1903 when Irvin F. Westheimer, an American Jewish Businessman from Cincinnati, befriended a fatherless child and decided to…
The Interdenominational Community Thanksgiving Service was founded in 1902 by Dr. Leo M. Franklin, Rabbi of Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan from 1899-1941. The first service, called “A Citizens’ Interdenominational Thanksgiving Service”, was held on November 27, 1902, in the Detroit Opera House. An account in the Detroit News stated that a capacity crowd…
After his ordination at HUC in 1902, Julian Morgenstern studied in Europe and received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg. He served several small congregations in the Midwest, and then returned to HUC in 1907, the first American-born scholar to be appointed to the HUC faculty. On January 29, 1921, a minority of the…
Alfred Gottschalk was born in Oberwesel, Germany on March 7, 1930. His father fled to New York in 1938 after narrowly escaping arrest by the Gestapo. Alfred and his mother joined him in 1939. After graduating from Brooklyn College, Gottschalk attended HUC-JIR (first in New York and then in Cincinnati), where he received his rabbinical…
President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Five years prior to the address, Lincoln – who was campaigning for senator at the time – encountered the Bavarian-Jewish Photographer, Samuel G. Alschuler while representing clients in court in Urbana,…
Do you enjoy the Times Square ball drop ushering in the New Year? We have American Jewish newspaper publisher Adolph S. Ochs to thank for this beloved tradition. Ochs was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 12th, 1858, and began his work in the newspaper business at a very young age, delivering newspapers, working as…
On January 1st, 1959, Caroline Klein Simon became the second woman to be sworn in as New York Secretary of State. Simon was born November 12th, 1900 in New York City. In 1925 she graduated from New York University Law School. As a woman, she struggled to find work. Simon took an unpaid job at…
December 2nd, 1763, Members of the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island witnessed the dedication of the Touro Synagogue, the oldest standing synagogue building in the United States. It is the only synagogue to survive from the colonial era. The synagogue was designed by Newport citizen Peter Harrison. At the onset of the American Revolution,…