Weather: 37° Sun and clouds mixed. High 37F. warming up rest of the week in the 50's
- Gas prices jumped up 30 cents today at local gas stations
- Supreme Court halts Biden admin termination of Title 42 an immigration policy implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to expel migrants at the border over health concerns, to remain in effect for now.
- Sadigura Rebbe of Bnei brak flew to the US for a quick trip to be menachem avel his grandfather the Ostrov Kalioshin Rebbe on the petirah of his wife Rebbetzin Spiegel
- Ocean County Chief Judge Marlene Lynch Ford is planning to retire on February 1, 2023, FAA News
- European flashpoint is in danger of reigniting a second war on the continent. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has this week put his army on its “highest level of combat readiness” to protect ethnic Serbian areas in northern Kosovo under threat from Kosovo the military will “take all measures to protect our people and preserve Serbia.”
-Sesame bakery thanks everyone for another wonderful Chanukah season no update on what is coming to that location
- Lakewood receives 2 million in federal grants for infrastructure improvement and upgrades township officials have not disclosed how it will be spent
How did Orthodox Judaism come to develop in the winter resort town of Lakewood, NJ?
With an article on Rav Aharon Kotler Zatzal in last week's Mishpacha issue, historian and columnist Dovi Safier @safier follows up with a twitter Thread: How did Orthodox Judaism come to develop in the winter resort town of Lakewood, NJ? see full thread with documents photos and clippings Here
It began 125 years ago with an unlikely trio that included a former student of Rav Leizer Gordon in Telz, a crippled Baltimore heiress and a hotshot former colonel in the Union Army During the winter of 1879, a speculator named Charles Kimball came to Lakewood (then known as Bricksburg) & saw a miraculous recovery from lung disease—which he credited to the pure air that came from the towns abundant pine trees. He now sensed an opportunity. Assisted by a well-marketed myth that local winter temperatures there were 10+ degrees warmer than NYC, he joined forces with a local developer, postmaster and general store owner named Cap. Albert Bradshaw to promote the picturesque lakeside town as a winter health resort. Bradshaw, who claimed he had “done more to benefit Lakewood than any other man” was not, in fact, interested in nurturing religious life. Instead, he wanted to ensure that the shul was built away from the town’s hotels, believing the presence of Jews would diminish their value.
In an article about the early history of Lakewood, BMG archivist Rabbi Moshe Rockove pointed out the irony that “one who fought to end slavery in the South would seemingly pursue segregation in his own backyard by drawing a Jewish Mason-Dixon line in his own town.”
Sinister as his motivations may have been, Bradshaw arranged for the donation of a plot of land on the other side of the tracks, at Park Avenue & 4th St. Goldstein now turned his attention to building the shul—which is where Bertha Rayner Frank of Baltimore enters our story.
Born into a prestigious family of German origin in 1947, her brother, Isidor Rayner was one of the first Jews elected to the US Senate. In her 20’s she developed an illness which left her crippled. With her husband’s passing in 1906, she vowed to donate her fortune to charity.
Her condition had her spending a considerable amount of time in Atlantic City, but when in 1906 one of the hotels she frequented refused to accommodate her niece, telling her that “Jews were not desired as guests,” she decided to make Lakewood her preferred destination. Mrs. Frank agreed to donate $5,000 and help raise the remaining balance from wealthy friends such as Nathan Strauss, George Gould, and John Rockefeller. By the end of 1907, construction was completed, and Congregation Sons of Israel opened. The congregation eventually built a newer location on the corner of 6th and Madison. The original building, known as “the old shul” still stands and is utilized each day by a chaburah from Beth Medrash Govoha. For more, see Here
Video: Rav Boruch Mordechai Ezrachi giving Divrei Hesped at the levaya of his wife today.
I am assuming his wife is a granddaughter of Ostrov Kalioshin - not him.
ReplyDeletePoop puts up dirty shmutz picture on Twitter for clicks ruining someone's Parnassa way to go fakewood poop
ReplyDelete"How did Orthodox Judaism come to develop in the winter resort town of Lakewood, NJ?... It began 125 years ago with an unlikely trio that included a former student of Rav Leizer Gordon in Telz, a crippled Baltimore heiress and a hotshot former colonel in the Union Army"
ReplyDeleteNot mekabel. The 6th Habad Lubavitch Rebbeh came to Lakewood circa 1940. That's the yesod.
Safier is moving along and decent but an amateur
ReplyDelete'irony that “one who fought to end slavery in the South would seemingly pursue segregation in his own backyard by drawing a Jewish Mason-Dixon line in his own town.”'
ReplyDeleteFar from ironic, hardly relevant , and little connection with principles that the union bluecoats were fighting for
But typical heimish bluster