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TIB SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, October 21, 1966
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OFF THE RECORD .... by Nathan Ziprin
In Memoriam
(A Seven Arts Feature)
American Jewish history on
the whole has been a relatively
little tilled field.
True, we have an American
Jewish Historical Society and it
has reached the point where it
is now to have its own beautiful
building, but on the whole it has
attracted few professional his
torians. The economic and pro
fessional rewards are few and
those who take to it must be
animated by a great love of their
people in addition to having lit
tle financial competence on the
side to sustain them while they
are in pursuit of research.
Years back, the lawyer Max J.
Kohler, son of the noted rabbinic
leader Dr. Kaufman Kohler, did
some extraordinarily fine work
in American Jewish history.
Harry Simonhoff, who has just
passed away, was also a lawyer,
the son of a rabbi and a great
lover of his people. With a fine
wife but no children, he seemed
to make the whole Jewish people
his family. Everything Jewish
appeared attracted to him, and he
rejoiced in chronicling Jewish
events, Jewish dignity.
One would have normally ex
pected that a Southern-born Jew
raised in a predominantly non-
Jewish environment would have
little relish for Yiddish, yet
Simonhoff was tremendously
proud when one of his books was
serialized and published in the
New York Yiddish-language
daily, The Day-Morning Journal.
The fact that it reached the Yid
dish-speaking seemed to please
him almost more than its original
publication in English. Simon
hoff had a profound attachment
to all things cultural in Jewish
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life. Though born in a climate
where Yiddish was rarely if ever
spoken, Simonhoff developed a
tremendous interest in the work
of YIVO, a Yiddish-fostering
organization whose origin was
Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithu
ania.
Simonhoff could not be called
religious perhaps from the pure
doctrinal point of view, but he
had an attachment to Jewish
values, traditional and secular,
that almost bordered on mystic
ism. He was familiar with the
writings of the unbelievers and
could quote them extensively,
but on Friday evening at his
home he would never sit down
for his Sabbath meal without re
citing the Kiddush. He was not
a conscious seeker of mitzvoth,
yet his private life was domin
ated by mitzvoth almost daily.
His chief virtue was the mitzvah
of “machnis orech,” a phrase that
challenges translation in Eng
lish. Hospitality is a shade lower
than “machnis orech,” for the
Hebrew term not only envisages
shelter and sharing but seeking
out of wayfarer and sojourner.
Heinrich Heine somewhere re
fers to his many sidedness. “ I am
a Jew, I am a Greek, I am this
and I am that,” the immortal poet
once said of himself. Simonhoff
too was a many sided man of
varied interests. He was a lawyer,
a real estate operator, a Jew, an
American, a lover of the Latin
classics and of Hebrew and Yid
dish creativity. In addition, he
was a scholar and a man of
affairs.
“Separate thyself not from the
community” ... is an adage of
the Ethics of the Fathers—an ad-
Philadelphia
Police Guard
Synagogue
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — A
police detail has been assigned
to watch Congregation Shari
Israel here, after six incidents
of vandalism by neighborhood
youths during the past two years.
In the incidents, the last of
which occurred three weeks ago,
bands of youth pelted the syna
gogue building with stones dur
ing and between prayer services.
In some cases, the building was
broken into.
Harry Beitchman, secretary of
the 100-member congregation,
told the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency that, although prayer
shawls were found strewn about
the sanctuary on those occasions
when the building was broken
into, there was no evidence of
desecration. He said the intrud
ers evidently ransacked the
synagogue in search of money or
valuables. Police Capt. Michael
Rotman, commander of the Civil
Disobedience Squad, said that a
tactical foot patrol had been as
signed to the synagogue for this
year’s holiday services, and
would remain on duty until fur
ther notice.
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monition which Simonhoff ob
served most meticulously. For
all of his love of books and
scholarship he always made it a
point to participate in practical
Jewish affairs. At times this was
not easy for him, for he was a
man of strong convictions who
was not averse to battling for
them, often to the discomfort of
his best friends who were on the
other side of the fence. He was
a non-conformist. He was intol
erant of shallowness and could
not be content with the shallow,
who often upbraided him for be
ing stubborn when in fact he was
only uncompromising. Simonhoff
was not unaware that his stand
often provoked criticism, but he
insisted always on upholding his
position when he thought that
the issue at hand involved Jew
ish dignity.
In his later years, Simonhoff
deviated from his history-writing
path to the field of historical fic
tion. His first fictional endeavor
was The Chosen One, a book
dealing with the Messianic theme
and impact in Jewish history
Shortly before his death, he com
pleted another book of historical
fiction, this one dealing with
Father Abraham out of the
Biblical page and he planned to
do a second volume on that patri
arch. When we visited him a year
ago, he told us he found fiction
a great personal delight, much
more interesting than that of
straight recording of historical
events. The pure historian, he
said, is simply a by-stander, an
observer, “but in historical fic
tion the writer becomes a par
ticipant, almost a character in
history. Since I have begun toy
ing with the novel form I seem
to have undergone a chemical
change, a change in perspective
and in grasp of understanding. If
history were told as a story, more
people would use it as a guide in
evaluating current problems and
the torments of our day.”
Something of the warm South
ern sun was in Simonhoff. It is
chilling to know that he is no
more.
Soviet Bans Tour
Of Orchestra
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The
Soviet Government, in a sur
prise move, has canceled the
scheduled tour of Russia by the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Experts here interpreted the ac
tion as a new effort at intimidat
ing Soviet Jewry. The orchestra
had been scheduled to leave for
Moscow November 10.
The decision, which appeared
to be final, was conveyed this
week by A. Yakushenko, the
the Soviet Charge d’Affairs in
Israel, to the Israeli Foreign Min
istry. The Soviet diplomat gave
as the reason “the world anti-
Soviet campaign launched by
Israel” on the subject of the situ
ation of Soviet Jewry. Last June,
the Soviets postponed the tour
four days before its then sched
uled departure on the pretext of
inability to find suitable concert
halls.
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