Israel's 70 Festival Stamps Honor World Synagogues

Friday, August 21, 1970-.5

THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS

LA Teachers College of Yeshiva U. Is Moved

LOS ANGELES—The West Coast
Teachers College, an affiliate of
Yeshiva University, New York,
moved to its new quarters, the for-
mer structure of Cong. Shaarei
Tefila, Beverly. Blvd. and Poin.
setta, Monday.
The college, established in Feb-
ruary to provide programs in

education and Hebrew language,
literature and culture, offers a
four-year program leading to the
Hebrew teachers diploma.

NI TOO 111•• Tlal

Five world.famons synagogues will be featured on Israel's 1970 festival stamps to be issued
SepL 7. According to the Israel Philatelic Agency in America, the festival stamps are traditionally
issued in time to be used on High Holiday mall. This year's set will picture in multicolor and gold
synagogues in Craeow, Tunis, Amsterdam, Moscow and New York. Designed by E. Weishoff, the square
stamps will be printed in post office sheets of 15 stamps and five tabs. Of special interest in this
new set are the tabs which have the manses of the temples and their locations in the Languages of
their countries. On the 0.12 is the Stara Synagogue in Cracow, which dates from the 14th Century and
is thought to be Poland's oldest synagogue. On Use 0.15 is the Great Synagogue in Tunis, which was
occupied by the Nazis in November 1942 and liberated in May 1945. Amsterdam's Portugese Syna-
gogue, which was dedicated in 1675 and accommodates over 1,500 worshipers, is on the 0.35. On the
0.40 is the Great Synagogue in Moscow, which was built in 1891. Once built, the provisional gov-
ernment rescinded the temple's permit on the pretext that it was illegal. A rabbi and a community
leader asked that it be reopened but were expelled from the community. The temple was never allowed
to open. On the 0.60 is the Shearith Israel Synagogue in New York City.

Five _Jewish Generals of the Civil War

Prof. Jacob R. Marcus, director
of the American Jewish Archives
at Cincinnati's Hebrew Union Col-
lege, is frequently asked whether
there were any Jewish generals in
the Civil War. A Jew always an-
swers a question by asking a ques-
tion: "What do you mean by gen-
eral? What do Abu mean by Jew?"
Dr. Marcus gives the answers:
During the Civil War period
there were two types of general,
not only good and bad, but also
regularly commissioned and brev-
etted.The brevet rank, an honorary
one, was frequently awarded to an
officer for gallantry in action or for
some special meritorious service.
A Christian definition of a Jew
is anyone concerning whom there
is a reminiscence of Jewish origin.
And the Jewish definition? If a
man says he is a Jew, if he asso-
ciates and affiliates with Jews,
then he is a Jew.
We can now proceed to answer
the question: Were there Jewish
generals in the Ova War? 'There
were at least five of apparent
Jewish descent. No Jews were
regularly commissioned as gen-
erals, but two Jews, officers on
active duty, were given the nom-
inal rank of brigadier general.
Thre are reputed to have been
brevetted as brigadiers, and one
a militia brigadier in 1860, the
year before war was declared.
There may have been more gen-
eral officers of Jewish background,
but we will never be sure. A great
deal of prejudice against Jews
manifested itself in both the Union
and Confederate armies, and many
Jews sought low visibility. Under
the circumstances some brave sol-
diers found that discretion was the
better part of valor.
Henry Moses Judah, a West
Point graduate and a Mexican War
hero, was already a brigadier in
the early part of the Civil War.
Despite his good Jewish name,
Judah was only remotely of Jew-
ish ancestry. His father vies an
Episcopal clergyman. His grand-
father, though circumcized, had
lived as a Christian. His great
grandfather, Michael Judah, of
Norwalk, Conn., had married a
Gentile, but lived as an observant
Orthodox Jew.
Pr u s si a n-born CoL Jones
Frankle of Massachusetts was
brevetted as a brigadier in Sep-
tember 1865 after the war was
over. His name is obviously a
variation of Jonas Fraenkel, and
he may have been related to the
Prussian Jewish philanthropist
who endowed Breslau's Jewish
Theological S e min a r y, after
which the present-day Jewish
Theological Seminary of New
York is closely patterned.
Frankle seems to have lived as
a Christian, and the same is true
of two other "Jewish" generals.
Frederick Salmon, whose brother
Edward was a wartime governor
of Wisconsin, left the service as

a two-star major general of brevet
rank; Charles Eberhard Salmon,
also of Wisconsin, attained the
rank of brigadier. These two gen-
erals, both Prussian-born, were
very likely related and, possibly,
of ultimate Jewish origin.
Frederick' Knefler, a native
Hungarian, was always known as
a Jew. He was colonel of the 79th
Indiana Infantry when he was
brevetted as a brigadier general.
Edward Selig Salmon, a native
of Schleswig-Holstein, entered the
army as a first lieutenant and left
it as a brigadier general. He was
only 24 years of age and had been
only six years in this country
when he. became an alderman in
Chicago. He distinguished himself
for his heroic conduct at the bat-
tles of Chancellorsville, Gettys-
burg and Chattanooga. After the
war, President U. S. Grant ap-
pointed him governor of Washing-
ton Territory. Salmon was then
only 34 years of age, but the Presi-
dent was partial to war time of-
ficers who stood out as successful
leaders of men.
Max Einstein, another Ger-
man immigrant, was already a
brigadier general of militia in
Pennsylvania in 1860, before the
start of the conflict, but fought
in the war as the colonel of
an infantry regiment.
Philip J. Joachimsen, a native
Silesian, was brevetted brigadier
general in the New York militia
by the governor of his state. Years
later he was to become one of
the most distinguished Jews in
New York City, an outstanding
communal leader and founder of
Jewish institutions.
Maj. Leopold Blumenberg of
the Maryland v olun t eers was
wounded at the Battle of Antietam

and was compelled to relice from
active military service. President
Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's suc-
cessor, is said to have appointed
him a brevet brigadier general of
volunteeks.
Lt. Col. Leopold Newman, of
the 31st New York Infantry, died
in a Washington hospital of
wounds received in battle. Con-
temporary tradition has it that
before he expired, President Lin-
coln visited him and promoted
him to the rank of brevet briga-
dier general.
These Jews who carved out mili-
tary careers for themselves in the
Civil War period were Central
European immigrants. In Ger-
many and in Austria the Jew was
still a second-class citizen. For
these newcomers — in a martial
sense at least—America was in
deed the land of unlimited oppor-
tunity.

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