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COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

When Zachary Welcomed
A Rabbi To The White House

H

appy birthday, Mr.
Presidents James
Polk (born Nov. 2,
1795), Warren Harding
(Nov. 2, 1865), James
Garfield (Nov. 19, 1831),
Franklin Pierce (Nov. 23,
1804) and Zachary Taylor
(Nov. 24, 1784).
Now here's the scoop on
their relations with
the Jewish commu-
nity.
When
Warren
Harding served in the
U.S. Senate, he voted
against the confirma-
tion of Louis D.
Brandeis to the U.S.
Supreme Court. He
was accused of anti-
Semitism, but Alfred
Cohen, a Jewish
friend of Harding's,
attributed the vote to
politics: Brandeis was
a liberal and Harding
was a conservative. In
1922, President
Harding signed a joint con-
gressional resolution
endorsing the Balfour
Declaration. At a speech
given at the cornerstone-
laying of the Washington
Jewish Center, he said,
"Hebraic mortar cemented
the foundations of American
democracy."
Polk appointed New
Jersey politician David
Naar as U.S. commercial
representative to St.
Thomas, West Indies. Naar
served from 1845 to 1848.
In the short time (six
months) that Garfield
served as president, he
named Washington lawyer
Simon Wolf consul-general

to Egypt (earlier, Wolf had
defended Ulysses S. Grant
against charges of anti-
Semitism). After Garfield's
death, American Red Cross
co-founder Adolphus Solo-
mons recommended that
Washington, D.C., establish
a hospital in memory of the
assassinated president. His

angkok, Thailand,
recently opened its
first Chabad Center,
with Rabbi Yosef Kantor at
its helm.
Rabbi Kantor and his
wife, Nechama, already
have established a regular
minyan, an afternoon
Hebrew school, a Shabbat
program and other projects.

1 I

Russia Has
Na'amat Branches

proposal was accepted, cre-
ating the city's first hospi-
tal. Washington's two
Jewish congregations made
the first contributions.
Zachary Taylor was the
first president to welcome a
rabbi — the Reform leader,
Isaac M. Wise — to the
White House.
In 1857, President Pierce
signed the act which
allowed synagogues to be
established in Washington,
D.C. He also was the first
president to nominate a Jew
— Louisiana Sen. Judah P.
Benjamin — to the Supreme
Court. Benjamin declined
the offer and later served as
secretary of state of the

Group Helps With `Get' Education

A

Brooklyn group is
hoping to get the
word out about
gettin, Jewish divorces.
Established in 1986,
Kayama targets religious
leaders, attorneys and mar-
riage counselors, all of
whom are likely to come
into contact with divorcing
couples. It also conducts
programs and workshops in
synagogues to inform mem-
bers of the community
about gettin.

Chabad Opens
In Bangkok

Kayama's goals are both
to reach unaffiliated Jews
and explain the importance
of getting a get, and also
facilitating the process and
helping arrange for the
get. The organization
already has arranged for
hundreds of gettin for
Jewish couples.
For information, contact
Kayama at 1202 Avenue J,
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230, or
call (718) 692-1876.

B

a'amat is set to open
branches in Moscow
and St. Petersburg as
it expands services to the
Russian Jewish community,
still home to more than 1.5
million Jews.
Na'amat members in the
two cities will help establish
ties between families plan-
ning to make aliyah and
those already in Israel. They
also will set up ulpanim,
Hebrew language courses,
sponsor Jewish holiday cele-
brations and hold lectures
on the status of women.

College Creates
Scholarship

Paper Scrip Found From Nazi Camp

A

n old, private collec-
tion from Israel has
yielded a curious dis-
covery: the first known
paper scrip note from the
Nazi concentration camp at
Natzweiler, France.
In a recent issue of The
Shekel, the bimonthly mag-
azine of the American-
Israeli Numismatic As-
sociation, author Lance
Campbell reports that the
note is the first .50 reichs-
mark denomination from
any Nazi camp. Printed on
tan cardboard, it bears the
blue ink seal of a Nazi
eagle and swastika with
the words, "Komman-
dantur K.L., Natzweiler
Waffen SS."

Shlock It To You, Baby

I

magine mixing Motown,
Weird Al Yankovic and
some Judaism.
What do you get?
Shlock Rock.
Lenny Solomon is the
man behind Shlock Rock, a
hip band that plays original
rock songs with Jewish
themes and Jewish parodies
of rock and pop classics. He
has just released his latest
album, "Bring Back That

D

ePauw University of
Greencastle, Ind., has
established the De-
Pauw Judaic Fellows Schol-
arship program through
which outstanding high
school students will receive
$5,000 annual awards to
help them attend the liberal
arts university.
Fellows are expected to
support Jewish life and cul-
ture on campus through out-
reach efforts; maintain lead-
ership in religious services;
and enroll in selected cours-
es on Judaism.
Students will be selected
based on academic achieve-
ments, leadership potential,
involvement in extracurricu-
lar activities and recommen-
dations from rabbis and
community members.
For information, write
program coordinator Rabbi
Joseph Levine, c/o the
Student Affairs Office, De-
Pauw University, Green-
castle, IN 46135, or call
1-800-447-2495.

Located near Strasbourg,
Natzweiler was the only
major concentration camp
the Nazis created in
France. Inmates comprised
Jewish men and women, as
well as members of the
French and Dutch resis-
tance.
Natzweiler also was a
source for some of the
Nazis' infamous "medical
experiments," and prison-
ers were regularly subject
to mustard-gas testing.
Mr. Campbell reports
that more than 100 Jews
were killed at Natzweiler
to provide their skeletons
for study at Germany's
Reich University.

said. "The overall theme of
the album is the Sabbath."
One of Shlock Rock's
songs on the new record
offers a completely new ver-
sion of the Righteous
Brothers' classic, "You've
Lost That Loving Feeling."
There's also a rap number,
"Making Hamotzee," which
is included, Mr. Solomon
says, because "rap is what
kids are into. I had to do a
song that's hip for the
kids and this is it. Then
you have the older stuff
for adults."
And dig this, Tommy
James fans: Shlock's
latest also includes a
very different version of
"Mony, Mony," called
"Asimonim," for those
annoying little tokens
used in Israeli public
telephones.
Shlock Rock's last
parody album, released
two years ago, was
"Sgt. Shlockers Magical
History Tour" (is noth-
ing sacred?).
Why, the average
person may be com-
pelled to ask, does
Lenny Solomon do this?
"We want to reach
out to the Jews, try to Lt
turn them on to a little 1'
Yiddishkeit," he insists. "We _
spark the community with >
c,
Jewish identity, Jewish z
awareness, Jewish pride.
That's the concept."

( -0

Lenny Solomon

Shabbos Feeling" which,
gulp, he says offers a
"Motown theme."
"We took four Motown
tunes and combined them
with eight more songs from
various musical genres," he

LO

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