Tag Archives: Pennsylvania

Jew of the Week: Solomon Jackson

Magazines like this one owe their existence to the work of Solomon Jackson

Solomon Henry Jackson was born in late 1700s England to parents of Sephardic origin. At a young age he immigrated to the United States, settling in Pennsylvania where he got married. Noticing a great lack of Jewish texts in the New World, Jackson moved to New York and established the first Hebrew printing press in the country. With this press, he was able to publish the very first siddur/prayer book in America (a Sephardic one, catering to the majority of the Jews in the U.S. at the time, who were of Spanish and Portuguese descent), as well as the first Passover Haggada. He also started the first Jewish periodical in the U.S, a magazine called ‘The Jew’. This magazine was primarily an anti-missionary journal, published to counter the dramatic wave of missionaries that targeted poor immigrant Jews for conversion. At the time, approximately 3000 Jews were already living in the U.S., with many more arriving on its shores each day. The magazine thus helped disseminate information that prevented countless Jews from leaving behind their religion, traditions, and heritage. He was also an active leader in a nascent organization called Hevrat Hinukh Na’arim, which strove to promote Jewish education in America. In 1837, Jackson started a movement to bring more Jews to America (saving many from persecution in Europe), and settle the vast expanses of virgin land in the New World. He passed away in 1847, having built a strong foundation for Jewish life to flourish in the United States.

Shavuot Begins Tonight!

Words of the Week

You speak of what you need, but you say nothing of what you are needed for.
– Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi

Jews of the Week: The Warner Brothers

Few people know that the Warner Brothers that brought you hundreds of great films (such as The Dark Knight and The Matrix trilogies) and amazing television programs (Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes) were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Their names were Hirsch Moshe, Avraham, Shmuel and Yakov. Struggling to make a living, the family moved to the U.S., then to Canada, then back to the U.S., at which point the father of the brothers adopted the name Warner, changing it from Wonsal. The brothers worked in various odd jobs – bowling alleys, bicycle shops, meat salesmen – until they finally pooled their earnings and invested in a film projector. They would travel across small mining towns and put on film screenings. Once they saved enough money, they opened a proper theatre in Pennsylvania. It was such a success that they could soon afford to open more than a dozen other theatres.

During World War I, the brothers began experimenting with making their own films. In 1918, they officially opened Warner Brothers Studio in Hollywood, with their first popular film My Four Years in Germany. However, WB only made it big with their famous dog Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd rescued by an American soldier. The dog became such a celebrity that WB signed Rin Tin Tin to star in films for $1000 per week – a great deal of money at the time. WB’s fame continued to rise, and by 1924 they were already the most successful independent studio in Hollywood. WB became a pioneer in motion pictures, and was the first studio to produce a “talking picture”, sparking the “talkie” revolution and changing the course of film. They would do this again in the 1930s, ushering in the “realistic” film period, as well as popularizing children’s cartoons. The success of Warner Brothers would continue to grow over the decades and their reach was extended to music (Warner Brothers Records), television (the WB Network) and even comic books (DC Entertainment). Thanks to the success of the Harry Potter films, WB became the first studio to gross over $2 billion domestically in just one year. They continue to produce hits and elevate film-making to new heights.

Words of the Week

“Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?”
– Hirsch “Harry” Warner, when first hearing of the talking picture.

Jew of the Week: Joseph Seligman

America’s Financier

Joseph Seligman

Born in Baiersdorf, Germany, Joseph Seligman (1819-1880) showed a creative entrepreneurial spirit from an early age. As a youth he would earn money by exchanging foreign coins for travellers while working at his family’s goods shop. At 17, Seligman decided to go out on his own, boarding a steamer for America. In Pennsylvania he worked as a cashier for a salary of $400 a year. From his earnings, Seligman started a small business delivering goods to rural farmers, saving them from having to travel to the city. His first $500 in savings was used to ferry over two of his brothers from Germany. After building a successful clothing business, the brothers went into banking, opening branches across Europe and America. Their wealth continued to skyrocket, so much so that during the Civil War Joseph Seligman disposed $200 million in bond loans to allow the war effort to continue. Historians have called this “scarcely less important than the Battle of Gettysburg”. Seligman was later offered the position of Secretary of the Treasury, but turned it down. He would go on to invest heavily in the development of the United States (as well as Russia and Peru), pumping money into railroads, bridges, shipbuilding, steel, oil and mining, even bicycles and communication lines. Together with the Vanderbilt family, Seligman financed much of New York’s public utilities. In one of the country’s most controversial events of the time, Seligman’s family was denied residence at the Grand Union Hotel by Henry Hilton, on the grounds that Jews were not welcome. Of this H.W. Beecher wrote “When I heard of the unnecessary offense that has been cast upon Mr. Seligman, I felt no other person could have been singled out that would have brought home to me the injustice more sensibly than he.”

Words of the Week

Time must be guarded… Every bit of time, every day that passes, is not just a day but a life’s concern.
– Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Hayom Yom, Cheshvan 17)