American lewish Periodical Cade

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Page 16

Thursday, May 25, 1950

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

From Aaron to Houdini, Each Era
Dazzled by Jewish Magicians' Feats

By, MARTI N SILVER
UR EDITOR ASKED me to write a piece on magic. But when this article. was finished and
placed on his desk I could plainly see represse danger in his face.
These writers, he must have thought, are a difficult bunch to handle, they like to go off on a
tangent, and when you reprimand them they are as likely to tear up the pieces as to tell you to do the
job yourself.
We will not argue with the phus, a name he made famous in
After escaping from Prussia,
editor for two good reasons—no the strange world of necromancy. the Philadelphia-born Jew who
editor can afford to lose an argu-
By this time his fame had had become the darling of kings
ment and no writer can afford to
reached every corner of Europe, and queens made the rounds of
lose a job.
and the aristocrats of that con- Europe's royal courts. When
So pause for a moment and tinent were competing with each Frederick the Great died in 1786
let your mind hark back to the other for Mayer's skill and en- he returned to Prussia, where he
days of the Jewish struggle for tertainment. The first offer he performed with sensational suc-
liberation from Egypt. And you received from the Duke of Cum- cess for the next nine years.
will realize that the at or skill berland, who was so fascinated
In 1795, at the age of 45, Phila-
of magic played an overwhelm- by the magicianship of the young delphus caught a cold at one of
ing role.
American that he kept him in his performances and died after a
You will remember that when England for an entire year and. short illness.
• • •
Moses and Aaror first appeared crowned him with the title "As-
before Pharaoah with a plea that trologist, Alchemist aryl Artist
ONE OF THE MOST unique
he let their people go, the of Mathematics and Magic."
Jewish magicians was a Polish-
Egyptian, ruler asked them for
• • •
born Jewish youth who came to
"a wonder." Whereupon Aaron
MAGIC WAS ONE of the great- the United States, found life here
cast his rod before Pharaoah and est sources of entertainment for uninteresting and returned to
it turned into a serpent.
the courts of Europe in those Europe, where he scored un-
Since sorcery and secret arts days, and before long the young paralleled success under the
were not alien to the Egyptians Jewish magician found himself Italian-sounding name Belaccini.
of those days, Pharaoh called flooded with invitations from
Born Samuel Berlach in a
in his magicians and they dupli- royalty. Fiery, colorful Cather- small town in Poland in the year
cated the Aaron performance. ine II of Russia stretched out her 1827, the future magician seemed
But in the end Aaron's rod swal- firm hand and weaned young at first destined to spend the rest
lowed up the rest of the rods. Jacob to St. Petersburg, where of his life as a blacksmith. But
Later, Aaron's rod transformed he performed successfully and after plying his trade as a black-
Egypt's waters into blood.
profitably.
smith's apprentice for a number
Again Egypt's magicians dupli-
This was in 1771. The next of years, restless Samuel decided
cated the feat. Still later came two years saw Mayer visiting al- to seek fortune in distant
the frogs. And again the magi- most every royal court and with America, where, it seems, he did
cians of Egypt were able to match mounting applause. In 1773 he not fare well.
Aaron's skills. In the end, how- received the then fabulous sum
Ton poor to buy a return
ever, Jewish magic prevailed.
of 300 Austrian thalers for a ticket to Europe, Samuel jumped
• • •
single performance at the royal. a ship. When the sailors re-
ported to the captain that they
SORCERY, WITCHERY and court in Vienna..
From letters of people who at- had found a stowaway aboard
magic never played a role in
Jewish life since the early days. tended Mayer's performances ship the youth's life seemed to
In fact those secret arts are for- some 200 years ago, it appears hang on a thread, as it was not
bidden practices among Jews. that the secret of his success lay uncustomary in those day1 to
Yet, despite all bans Jews have in a charming personality and drop stowaways into the sea.
Resourceful Barlach however
occupied a prominent place in the overpowering will. It is said his
audiences became entranced even found a way to save himself. He
world of magic.
One of the leading magicians before he made his stage appear- entertained the crow with magic
tricks until the ship anchored at
of all times was a Philadelphian- ance.
One of Mayer's greater admir- Lisbon, Portugal,
born Jew, Jacob Mayer, whose
Once in Portugal, in the midst
fame and renown was so wide ers was Frederick the Great.
of gay and fun-loving people,
that he gained the distinction of Though Frederick counted among
being called the "King of Magi- his close friends some of the Berlach, or Belaccini as he was
cians." His father, a hawker, leading thinkers, artists and in- now known, began operating on a
was an Austrian Jew who settled tellectuals of his day, such as professional, scale and with phe-
in Philadelphia toward the middle Voltaire, he became so attached nomenal. success. Not only had
to the young magician, whd was he gotten a 'free trip, but his suc-
of the 18th century.
Young Jacob, it seems, was then 25, that he permitted him to cess with the. ship's crew con-
quite an intellectual in his youth. live in one of the swankiest quar- vinced him, \t seems, that he
He was interested in mathematics ters of the royal palace at Pots- owned a skill which would in the
end bring him fame and money.
and physics, while at the same dam.
• • •
Their friendship, which lasted
time delving into that fountain
THE STORY IS TOLD that
several
years,
was
said
to
have
of mysticism known as cabala,
It was probably his preoccu- come to an end as a result of an Belaccini once enchanted King
pation with mysticism that later intrigue. His traducers did such Wilhelm I into appointing him
brought the young man to oc- a good job that Frederick went as permanent court magician. In
cult practices. At 20, Mayer had so far as to order the liquidation the course of a performance at
already been recognized as a of his erstwhile friend. Fortun- the German royal palace, the
wizard in his field, and as he de- ately, news of the king's inten- young Jewish magician handed
cided to make magic his life pro- tion reached Philadelphus in time the king a sheet of paper and
fessions and source of income, he and he made a secret escape from pencil.
As the royal hand began scrib-
changed his name to Philadel- the clutches of his enemies.

They Smile Again

y

The family shown above was brought to Israel by United Jewish
Appeal funds. After several months in an immigrant reception
camp, the family became part of a new settlement in the Judean
hills near Jerusalem. In Detroit the UJA derives its funds from
the Allied Jewish Campaign.

bling over the paper Belaccini
told the king: "I assure Your Ex-
cellency he will not be able to
write a single word without my
consent."
The powerful monarch gazed at
his youthful entertainer with
disdain, thinking no doubt who
was this impudent young man
undertaking to:dictate to a king.
But when Wilhelm tried to write
his fingers would not move, so
fully was he under the hypnoSis
of the young Jew from Poland.
As the bewildered spectators
were taking on the unusual scene;
Belaccini turned to the kinway-
ing: "I release you, Your Excel-
lency, from my charm, but I di-
rect you to write the following
five words: 'Belaccini is my court
magician'."
Sure enough, the king wrote
out those five words, and Belac-
cini thus became Wilhelm's per-
manent court magician.
There were a number of other
great Jewish magicians in the
19th century, among them Horace
Goldin, born in Vilna, the city
famed until its destruction by
Hitler s the "Jerusalem of Lith-
uania," and Herman the Great, a
product of France.
The greatest Jewish magician
of all time was, of course, Hou-
dini, whose name has become a
synonym for magic. So much has
been written about him that it
would be idle to go into details
here beyond recalling that his
Jewish name was Hershel Weiss

and that his father was a rabbi.
Interesting enough, Hershel,
like Samuel Berlach who turned
Belaccini, started out as a black-
smith. As a youth of 17 Hershel
fell upon a biography of the
famous French magician Robert
Houdini. He became so entranced
by what he was reading that he
not only decided to emulate the
Frenchman but to adopt his name
as well.
It .s elementary, of course,
that no magician possesses su-
pernatural powers. But, as long
as we retain our weakness for the
world of make-believe, the magi-
cian and his tricks will continue
to intrigue us.

Holiday Hop Dance Set
for Sunday Evening

The holiday hop committee of
the Jewish Center announces that
the next dance will be held on
Sunday evening at the Center.
Dancing be from 9:30 to
12:30 p.m. to the music of Bert
Djerkiss and his orchestra.

FORESTRY MEETING

TEL AVIV—(ISI) — Amihud
Goor, director of the forestries
department of Israel's Ministry of
Agriculture, will represent Israel
at A meeting in Algiers on refor-
estation, conservation and soil
utilization to be held under the
auspices of the UN Food and Ag-
riculture Organization.

Temple Israeli Prepares to Celebrate
A Gan Eden in Michigan
R~i b b i Fram's 25th ear in Detroit

Temple Israel has appointed a
committee to plan a community-
wide celebration to commemorate
Rabbi Leon Fram's coming to De-
troit 25 years ago, it was an-
nounced by Harry C. LeVine
president of the
temple.
T h e commit-
tee consists of
LeVine; Jacob
A. Citrin, vice-
president; Arth-
ur J. Hass, sec-
retary; Louis H.
Schostak, treas-
urer; Maurice H.
Levin, president
of the Men's
Club; Mrs. Wil- Rabbi Frain
4 tam P. Greenberg, president of
the sisterhood, and Jack 0. Lef-
ton and George M. Stutz, board
members.
The committee is planning a
program which will give all in-
Jividuals and groups who have
benefited from Rabbi Fram's
.erviccs and leadership an oppor-
tunity to express their apprecia-
tion. The committee plans to en-

large its membership to put the inspired, and admiration and es-
celebration on as large a basis as teem of the congregations, group
and individuals served by his
possible.
ministry, guided by his knowl-
PASS RESOLUTION
Temple Israel's board of trus- edge, and comforted by his un-
tees has passed a resolution of derstanding.
MAN OF CHARACTER
tribute. to Rabbi Fram, which
reads in part:
v-We do therefore resolve that
"Rabbi Leon Fram commenced Rabbi Leon Fram has attained
his ministry in Detroit in July
exemplary stature as a rabbi, ed-
of 1925. Now at the expiration of
25 years, In the prime of his use- ucator, scholar, journalist, men-

fulness and strength, it is right
that we should r e v i e w his
achievement during this eventful
quarter of a century, and utter
our acknowledgement."
After listing Rabbi Fram's ser-
vices to religious education, civic
projects, Zionism, the city and
the state, the resolution con-
tinues:
"We of Temple Israel are as-
sociated with Rabbi Fram in re-
ligious fellowship. The reputation
earned by him is shared by us.
To him alone belongs the ,great
satisfaction of accomplishment,
the knowledge of the affection
held for him by hundreds of chil-
dren now. grown to maturity
whose education he directed and

I

tor, and civic servant, and that
he is fulfilling his mission to bring
to all men the ideals of justice,
righteousness and love in a faith
in God and man, and that we
regard him, in the words of Em-
erson, 'a man of character ,who
is the conscience of the commun-
ity in which he dwells.'
"It is further resolved that a
suitable occasion be arranged to
give wider expression to this ac-
knowledgement."
Rabbi Fram was called to De-
troit in 1925 by Temple Beth El.
In 1941, he was called by the new
congregation of Temple Israel
which is now in the process of
completing the building of its
temple.

A VERITABLE PARADISE NOW

COMPLETED, NEAR LEXINGTON,

75 MILES FROM DETROIT.

Modern ranch type homes have just been built on
ten acres of rolling country grounds, on toriof a bluff
overlooking Lake Huron, set among tall white birch
and pine trees. These homes, latest in design and
facility, consist of a living and dining room combina-
tion, 15 x 26 in size, 3 large bedrooms, kitchen, bath
and utility, all in natural knotty pine interior. The
beach, one of the finest in Michigan, has 400 feet of
pure white sand.

This is not a resort project but intended for those
seeking pleasures of country estates—limited to five
homes in entire area. All made possible at surpris-
ingly low cost to congenial families.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT

MR. JACK CAMINKER

MR. LOUIS SCHOSTAK

WOodward 3-8632

