In 1940, Mishkan Israel celebrated its Centennial (1840-1940) with a book of essays commissioned (I assume) from scholars. I had seen it some months ago (got it through the Interlibrary loan, love ILL). Seemed to me at the time that the essayists had a palpable sense of unease. These Jewish writers wrote in 1940, the Nazis are in power, WWII is underway in Europe, the US is not in the war. The fate of the Jews is unknown though the Third Reich has not come up with their Final Solution.I suppose that it's not very fruitful to try to figure out when the Allies knew and when they knew it. Why, later in the war, did they not bomb the camps. I figure that those in leadership figure it was just another pogrom against the Jews. Happened pretty often, maybe it was just part of the European social fabric. Why should they intervene, they had a war to win.
I asked for the book back because I want to read these essays closer, see if I can capture their mood. These authors knew that their European brethren were in grave danger though even they could not know how bad. How prescient were they?
This paper cover of this book has been taped together, very fragile. The last one had been placed in a hardback binding, not this one. From Brandeis University, this copy belonged to Jacob Rader Marcus, a professor of Jewish History at Brandeis. A penciled note on the cover points to page 23 where the essayist Adolph Oko has autographed his essay.
The picture of the 'current temple' on Temple Street, just a block from Maier Zunder's house circa 1940. Such a handsome building, now an arts center. Mishkan Israel fled to the suburbs in 1960.
Also a picture of my mother. She was a member of the confirmation class of 1940. Here she is in her special dress.
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