Object No.: 1999.36.1 Donor: Milton Weinstein Description: Two-part green metal sign (28" x 116") with orange letters reading District Grocery Store, 1920s
Background: This sign hung over Harry's Market in Mt. Rainier, Maryland for more than 70 years. Leah and Harry Weinstein bought the market in 1924 and became members of District Grocery Stores (DGS), a cooperative. DGS was formed in 1921 by a dozen Jewish grocers, providing cooperative buying power and a means to fight discrimination from non-Jewish wholesalers.
Through out its 72 years, Harry's Market supplied the neighborhood with groceries, beer and wine, diapers, school supplies, candy and other small necessitates. When Harry and Leah got older and could no longer run the store, daughters Vivian and Ruth (seen here), took over until closing in 1996.
Do you have material documenting a local Jewish-owned business that you'd like to donate to the Jewish Historical Society’s collection? Please contact us at info@jhsgw.org or (202) 789-0900.
In 1994, I contacted Dr. John Y. Simon, the editor of the Grant papers, to ask if there were any documents among those papers that related to Grant's visit to the synagogue. That's how I first learned that among Grant's papers housed at the Library of Congress was an original receipt for the $10 donation the president made to the synagogue's building fund in June 1876.
Since then we have used a facsimile copy of this marvelous document in our exhibits and educational programs. When we learned that the Library of Congress was mounting a comprehensive exhibit about American Jewish life in 2004, we alerted the curators to the existence of the receipt in their collection. It was included in their exhibit, From Haven to Home, next to Grant's Civil War expulsion order, the infamous Orders No. 11.
Earlier this year, I met the new national coordinator for Jewish American Heritage Month, Jennifer Mooney. I suggested to Jennifer that perhaps an appropriate theme this year would be Grant's issuance of Orders No. 11 and President Abraham Lincoln's revocation of that order. This is after all the 150th anniversary year of General Orders No. 11 issued December 17, 1862.
Me with Gary P. Zola, Director of the American Jewish Archives--and the Library of Congress documents relating to General Orders No. 11!
Upstairs in the East Room as members of Congress and dignitaries gathered, President Obama spoke about this little known chapter in American history--giving it context by explaining each of the documents and calling on us to remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in our country.
This is such a wonderful validation of our work at the Society and Museum. We work to uncover, tell, and educate lesser known chapters in American Jewish history for our visitors and the general public. We should be proud that our message is receiving national attention and our role on the national stage is bringing these stories to the fore.
And we should be most proud of our ongoing work to protect and preserve our special historic synagogue--the one that President Grant attended--which has this powerful story to tell.
David displays a picture of Washington
Hebrew Congregation when it used to reside
at Greater New Hope Baptist Church
One of the Historical Society’s most popular events is tours of downtown Jewish Washington. Open to the public in the fall and spring, staff members are also on hand for private events. This morning, Interpretive Programs Manager David McKenzie and I met with a group of 17 Jewish communal professionals for a tour organized by The Jewish Federations of North America.
We started at the Lillian and Albert Small Jewish Museum, formerly the home of Adas Israel Congregation and the first synagogue in the Washington area, to discuss the migration of Jewish groups into the capital and the literal migration of this building from 6th and G to 3rd and G streets in 1969. Outside, we braved the humidity to walk around 7th Street, once a neighborhood with a sizeable Jewish minority in the 19th and early 20th centuries. We also saw the sites of former synagogues-turned-churches as well as the revitalized Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Perhaps the most quirky, if not momentous historical artifact was when David showed us an iron rung for tying up horses on the side of the road, one of the few still left standing in the city.
David also talked about plans in the works to move the historic 1876 Adas Israel synagogue yet again, this time to 3rd and F streets, and answered a few questions for a Ha’aretz reporter. For more information on setting up walking tours with the Society in Washington or Alexandria, click here.
Barely three hours into my internship at the Jewish
Historical Society, I suddenly found myself
heading out to the Five Star Premier Residences in Chevy Chase, Md., to assist with a talk given by Interpretive
Programs Manager David McKenzie.
Residents filled up the community hall to hear about local
history. David’s talk, aided by a PowerPoint presentation of archival
images, touched upon broad events, like the founding of the first synagogues in
the District, and profiles of esteemed Jewish Washingtonians. It was a great way
for me, personally, to get a scope of what the Society is all about.
For residents who lived through much of what David talked
about, the talk was noticeably more personal. We learned as much about
them as they did about us. One woman relayed that her husband’s grandfather
was Moshe Yoelson, cantor at Talmud Torah Congregation at 467 E Street, SW, from 1892
to the 1920s, and entertainer Al Jolson’s father.
We quickly ran out of copies of the accompanying book, Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community, which is available for sale. To view the online exhibition, click here.
Object No.: C1-21 Description: Photograph of Arthur Welsh, at the controls of a Wright brothers airplane, and smoking cigar, 1909-1912.
Background: Born in Russia in 1881, Laibel Wellcher immigrated with his family to Philadelphia and moved to Washington as a teen. His family lived above the grocery store his mother ran at 900 G Street, SW. When he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1901, Wellcher changed his name to Arthur Welsh. His marriage to Anna Harmel in 1907 was the first wedding in Adas Israel’s new synagogue at 6th and I Streets, NW.
After watching Orville Wright’s flight demonstrations at Fort Myer, Virginia, in 1909, Welsh joined the Wright brothers’ first training class. A skilled pilot, Welsh trained many of America’s first aviators. One of his students was Hap Arnold (seen here at far left, with Welsh), who went on to become the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces during World War II. Arnold later remembered, “Welsh taught me all he knew. Or rather, he taught me all he could teach. He knew much more.”
In 1912, Welsh was tragically killed in a crash at the College Park Airfield during a test flight of a new military plane designed by the Wright brothers. He was buried in the Adas Israel cemetery in southeast Washington. The Yiddish newspaper Forward reported, “All present were in tears including Mr. Orville Wright and his sister who were doing all they could to console the mother and wife of the deceased.”
Commemorate Welsh’s centennial and legacy with a special medal commissioned by the Jewish Historical Society. This limited edition, 2 ¼” medal is available in several finishes including Bronze ($50), Silver-plated ($75), and Gold-plated ($100). For more information, contact (202) 789-0900 or rsvp@jhsgw.org.
To learn more about Arthur Welsh, join us on Tuesday, June 12th at 7:00 p.m. at the College Park Aviation Museum when we’ll celebrate his centennial with a special program, exhibition, and dedication of commemorative plaque. A reception follows the program.
Transportation: Free parking at the Aviation Museum or reserve seats on a private motorcoach from Adas Israel Congregation for $20 per person. Bus departs at 6:00 p.m., returns at 9:30 p.m. Advance registration and payment required online or (202) 789-0900.
Object No.: 2008.4.1 Donor: Frank Rich, Sr. Description: Invitation to reception for the Grand Army of the Republic’s National Encampment, 1892
Background: In 1861, German immigrant Abraham Hart joined the Union forces in Pennsylvania. He was wounded in battle the next year and convalesced in Washington. Hart remained in the city and, after the war, he worked as a lawyer and served as commander of the Department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic (a Union veterans’ organization). Union veterans attended annual multi-day gatherings, or encampments, to commemorate their Civil War service. This invitation to a reception during an encampment is in a scrapbook that Hart’s great-grandson Frank Rich, Sr., donated to the Society.
Do you have material documenting local Jewish life during the Civil War that you’d like to donate to the Jewish Historical Society’s collection? Please contact us at info@jhsgw.org or (202) 789-0900.
To learn more about Jewish Americans’ role in the Civil War, join us on May 3rd at the National Archives when scholar Jonathan Sarna talks about his recent book, When General Grant Expelled the Jews.
An extra travel size bottle of shampoo and bar of soap may not make much of a difference in your life, but for others struggling with poverty and homelessness it makes a big difference. The Society decided to collect toiletries for our neighbors at Community Family Life Services, as our part for Good Deeds Day--a world-wide day of service that originated in Israel and is organized locally by the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
Joel Wind, JHSGW board member (seen here), and I dropped off a bag of toiletries at Community Family Life Services (CFLS), which operates down the street from us at First Trinity Lutheran Church, and we met their Executive Director, Claudia Thorne. We saw first-hand people benefitting from CFLS’s services while we made our donation. Check with us in March 2013 to find out what our next Good Deeds Day project will be.
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