Jacob Joseph and the Jewish Daily Forward
December 17, 2008 Forward, History, Modern Orthodox
Rabbi Jacob Joseph was the only chief rabbi of New York. This is what Wikipedia writes about New York’s only chief rabbi.
His tenure was marked by the divisiveness of New York Jewry, and the polemic of the kosher slaughterhouses of the city. Vehemently anti-religious Yiddish newspapers such as Die Forwards and Die Wahrheit unleashed their wrath, spreading false and malicious rumours about the chief rabbi’s personal life.
Eventually, after six years, the Association stopped paying his salary. The butchers then paid him until 1895.
There is only one problem. The Forward did not begin publication until 1897. Now, let’s see if Wikipedia’s Forward page (which the article links to) mentions that and…yup. “It was founded in 1897.”
Menachem Butler published an excerpt of a book implicating the Forward which has spread over the net.
That blog and with it, that post, is gone, but it was him. Look.
Newspapermen representing papers like Die Forwards and Died Wahrheit unleashed their wrath upon him with an overabundance of venom. They caused rumors about the personal life of the chief rabbi and made him despised and troubled.
Menachem Butler apparently published an excerpt that was incorrect from, “The Life and Work of Judah David Eisenstein as Reflected Primarily in His Memoirs” by Rabbi Robert L. Samuels.
This post has been edited by site owner.
Pictured below: Vehemently venomous wrathful anti-religious “Jews” bent on slandering frum people!
17 comments
Menachem Butler is avery nice guy and an honest man.
What you found is a mistake, DK, not an attempt to smear.
I adjusted the post to reflect this, thanks.
Menachem Butler apparently based his essay on a translated source that was incorrect, “The Life and Work of Judah David Eisenstein as Reflected Primarily in His Memoirs” by Rabbi Robert L. Samuels.
Actually, his post is simply a long quote from that source, in which there is one brief (incorrect) mention of the Forward.
Since the source is a doctoral thesis that translates and extensively quotes from a much earlier source, and it is that earlier source that is mistaken, and the mistake made is very minor, your entire post as it now stands doesn’t seem valid.
A man who in 1922 is remembering events that took place 30 years earlier on another continent, and whose mistake is apparently mixing up the Forward with any number of other Yiddish papers of that era, is most likely making an honest error of memory.
I’d say that a doctoral student missing this small mistake (as apparently did his advisor and the committee, as did Butler), by itself proves little, if anything.
May be a “small mistake,” but it’s all over the net. Anyway, edited it some more.
If this causes Disney to do Newsies 2, I am blaming you.
This topic was sure a blast from the past. Thanks for bringing it up. I am actually currently involved in a longtime project about Judah David Eisenstein, including a critical English edition of his autobiography and his related writings. Thanks, as well, for your (now-edited) kind designation that I am “[a] rising star in the right-wing Modern Orthodox OU/NCSY world.” Many would agree that an extensive sociological paper is required to even describe which community that even is!
Awww, the little yingerlach.
I’m the one in the cap.
Those kids were newspaper sellers not the vehemently venomous wrathful anti-religious “Jews” bent on slandering frum people.
Those were writers who wrote articles for the paper. You are mental.
Those were writers who wrote articles for the paper.
There was no such article in the Forward.
oh so those kids in the picture aren’t antisemites either?
No, face. Those kids were not anti-semitic. The Forward writers were not anti-semitic, their delivery boys were not anti-semitic.
Any other questions?
I think it only fair to explain why progressive newspapers of the day objected to Rabbi Joseph’s tenure.
He was paid $2500 a year at the time when the average Jewish working class man was lucky to earn a tenth of that sum. In addition he insisted that his debts of 5000 roubles (which I assume was a large sum) owed to Russian creditors be settled by the NY kosher eating public. He also had the use of an expensive house.
The newspapers objected to what they saw as his extravagant and comfortable lifestyle being paid for by a flat rate tax on poultry. Apart from the question of monopoly, social activists objected to a flat rate tax as being regressive taxation being particular hard on poor larger families. At that time few kosher eating families were middle class.
David you dont make sence. You clearly state “Pictured below: Vehemently venomous wrathful anti-religious “Jews” bent on slandering frum people! ” but then you ttell me in your comment it’s not true! You are EXTREMELY warped.
face, it was a joke. Everyone except you knew it was a joke. It was making fun of the way the Forward was being so harshly denounced for something they didn’t have anything to do with. Hence, the recap of misplaced exhortations.
Oh ok I get it, not so funny but i can see where your coming from. PLease dlete the post so peepel wont misunterstand. its a cyber stumbling block. thnx!
face, it is mid winter and peepel are cold and miserable. Please tell us a good joke to cheer us for Hanukah. I am sure that DK won’t mind.
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