Friday, February 1, 1957

Pioneering Role Claimed by Jonas
Disproved by the Jewish Archives

Joseph Jonas bragged that he
was the first Jew to settle in
the Ohio Valley and gloried in
the role of pioneer. In Cincin-
nati, where he long held the
title as the city's only Jew, he
wrote of himself in the third
person: "Solitary and alone he
remained for more than two
years."
But Dr. Jacob R. Marcus, di-
rector of the American Jewish
Archives, asserts that "No Jew
is ever the first Jew anywhere
... there is always another who
has been there before him." And
with that statement, he intro-
duces the story of Jonas Hor-
witz, a new contender for Joseph
Jonas's pioneering title.
New material just acquired by
the American Jewish Archives,
a research center located on the
Cincinnati campus of the He-
brew Union College-Jewish In-
stitute of Religion, sheds fresh
light on Jonas Horwitz, the ver-
satile Jewish physician and in-
tellectual, and proves that he
was there first, though he didn't
stay.
Recently - discovered records
reveal that Horwitz was a Ger-
man-Jewish immigrant, a jack-
of-all trades and master of none.
To judge by his name, he was
a member of one of Europe's
great rabbinical families, and he
had an excellent Hebrew educa-
tion. He received his medical
degree from the University of
Pennsylvania in 1815, just three
years after his arrival in Amer-
ica.
There is a strong likelihood
that Horwitz helped finance
- his medical education by edit-
ing the first Hebrew Bible in
America, a beautiful, two-
volume work which sold at the
then high price of $14.
By 1816, Horwitz had started
on his travels and there is docu-
mented evidence of his arrival
in Cincinnati. Pioneer Jonas
arrived in 1817.
Horwitz had crossed the Blue
Ridge and the Alleghenies by
stagecoach to Pittsburgh and had
taken a keel boat down the river
to Cincinnati. On arrival, he ad-
vertised in the Liberty Hall and
Cincinnati Gazette warning the
good citizens of the coming of a
smallpox epidemic which would
carry off their children by the
dozens—unless they turned to
him for help. His advertisement
proclaimed that he had some
"genuine vaccine matter" which
he had brought from Philadel-
phia.
An anonymous letter-writer,

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probably a doctor, denounced
Horowitz's alarmist statements
in a later issue of the same pa-
per. Whether for that reason
or for some other, Horwitz de-
cided not to stay in Cincinnati
and returned to Philadelphia.
By December of 1817, Horwitz
had married Deborah Andrews,
the granddaughter of the Am-
erican Revolutionary patriot,
Haym Salomon. Horwitz was
not a money-maker; in addition
to practicing medicine in Phila-
delphia, he taught Hebrew.
When in 1818, he heard that
Thomas Jefferson was about to
establish a university in Vir-
ginia, Horwitz wrote to Jeffer-
son's friend, Judge Thomas
Cooper, asking him to intervene
to get him a faculty post. The
doctor wanted a job as professor
of oriental languages. In a letter
he wrote to Jefferson directly,
he agreed to teach German as
well. He never got the job.
By the early 1820s, he was
living in Baltimore. Years later,
when the Mexican war broke
out in the 1840s, he became the
surgeon of a company of Jewish
volunteers.
Horwitz founded a family
distinguished in American an-
nals. His son, Dr. Jonathan
Phineas Horwitz, headed the
naval hospital at Tabasco dur- •
ing the Mexican war and dur-
ing the Civil War, he was per-
sonal physician to Gideon
Wells, Secretary of the Navy
in Lincoln's cabinet. He was
commended by Congress for
his work with the United
States Bureau of Medicine and
Surgery to which he was
named chief in 1865.
Another direct descendant of
Jonas Horwitz and Haym Salo-
mon is the well-known diplomat
and statesman, William Chris-
tian Bullitt, Jr., former Ameri-
can Ambassador to the Soviet
Union and France.

Mrs. Manning Heads
Special Gifts Group

Mrs. Lewis H. Manning will
be chairman of the special gifts
cabinet of the Allied kwish
Campaign Wo-
men's Division.
Mrs. Man-
n ing has
n amed her
cabinet and an-
nounced that
the special
gifts section
will hold. a
briefing meet-
ing Monday,
Feb. 18, and a
f u n d raising
meeting Wed-
Mrs. Manning nesday, Feb.
27.
Mrs. Ben Jones and Mrs.
Philip R. Marcuse are special
gifts executive vice chairmen.
Mrs. Leo Mellen, campaign vice-
chairman, is Advisor to the
cabinet. Mrs. Harry L. Jackson
is workerg' briefing chairman.
Prospect r e v i e w committee
chairman is Mrs. Ben Mossman;
assignments c h a i rman, Mrs.
Nathan H. Schermer; Mrs. Nor-
man J. LeVy, Vice-Chairman,
and Mrs. Carl Wois, assistant.
Special gifts secretary is Mrs.
Harold Ehrlich. Mrs. Nathan N.
Kaplan is a member-at-large of
the special gifts cabinet.

To Make Butzel
Award at JWF's
Meeting Tuesday

Detroit Jewish community's
achievements during the past
year will be reviewed by Judge
Theodore Levin, president of the
Jewish Welfare Federation, at
Federation's 31st annual meet-

NCRAC Approves 'Ten Commandments'

NEW YORK, (JTA) — "The
Ten Commandments," Cecil B.
deMille's latest venture in bibli-
cal themes, has "positive com-
munity relations values" for
Jewry, apart from any criticisms
that have been made on other
grounds, according to the Na-
tional Community Relations Ad-
visory Council.
A spokesman for the NCRAC,
emphasizing that the coordinat-

ing organization was not acting
as a motion picture critic, said
that the overall effect of the
film was to portray the chil-
dren of I s r a el as people of
"enormous faith and determina-
tion to endure much for the
sake of their faith."
The evaluation was made by
the subcommittee on motion
pictures of the NCRAC standing
committee on mass media. •

DR. W. J. WELLMAN

Osteopathic Physician and Surgeon

Announces
the opening of an office in Detroit

Suite 222, Farwell Building
1249 Griswold

Detroit 26, Michigan

Hours by Appointment

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PRACTICE LIMITED TO TREATMENT OF OBESITY
Member of the National Glandular Society
American College of Endocrinology and Nutrition

THE MONEY YOU WORKED SO HARD FOR
REALLY WORKS FOR YOU AT THIS NEW

The Late Fred Butzel

ing, 8 p.m., Tuesday, at the Es-
ther Berman Branch of the
United Hebrew Schools.
Highlighting the meeting will
be the seventh annual presenta-
tion of the Fred M. Butzel Me-
morial Award for outstanding
communal leadership. The recip-
ient of the award is selected by
a committee consisting of presi-
dents of Federation member
agencies, the president of the
Detroit Service Group and the
president of the previous recip-
ients of the award.
The late Julian H. Krolik was
honored with the initial pre-
sentation of the Butzel Award
in 1951. Henry Wineman, Judge
W i 1 Hain Friedman, Abraham
Srere, Mrs. Joseph H. Ehrlich
and Samuel H. Rubiner re-
ceived the 'awards in succeeding
years.
The names of award winners
are inscribed on a bronze pla-
que in the lobby of the Butzel
Memorial Building.
Nine members-at-large will
be elected to Federation's 65=
man board of governors at the
meeting.
Reports will be presented by
John E. Lurie, 1956 Allied Jew-
ish Campaign chairman, Fed=
eration treasurer Max J. Zivian
and Women's Division president
Mrs. Lewis B. Daniels.
The Women's Division will
present a musical skit and di-
vision members will be hostesses
at a refreshment hour after the
meeting.

Church Building Acquired
By Philadelphia Temple
PHILADELPHIA, ( JTA ) —
Temple Adath Sholem has pur-
chased the church building and
ground of the First Reformed
Dutch Church here and will
take occupation next August.
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'Religious Revival' Subject
of Synagogue Council Parley
Leading authorities • in the
KOSHER
fields of psychology, sociology,
Jewish education and religion
PAREV6
will undertake a comprehensive
analysis of the theme, "The
Current Jewish Religious Re-
spotless kitchens
vival," at the second annual
comes this
•
general assembly of the Syna-
•
wonderful gefilte
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gogue Council of America,
fish,
with
the
broth
•
March 24 and 25, at Columbia
•
naturally
jelled. It's deli-
University, New York.
•
ciously
different!
Try
it
and
Dr. Max D. Davidson, of Perth
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see!
Look
in
the
FROZEN
•
Amboy, N. J., vice-president of
FOOD
cabinet
of
your
fa-
•
the Synagogue Council, was ap-
•
vorite food store.
pointed national chairman of
the general assembly commit- •
From the spotless kitchens of MOTHER'S FOOD PRODUCTS, Inc., Newark 5, N. 1.
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tee, it was announced by Dr: •
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Distributed by RASKIN FOOD CO.
Abraham J. Feldman of Hart- •
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8542 Linwood, Detroit 6; Phone TYler 4-4678
ford, Conn., president of the
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Council.
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