1933

It was 1933 that the Jewish World changed forever. It was also 1933 that a book called “The Friday Night Book” the subtitle being “A Jewish Miscellany” was published by the Soncino Press in 1933. There was no identified writer. A few copies survive, one being a Prize for Maurice Blank (my father-in-law for 2nd place at his Cheder in 1938. Here and there flashes of the Jewish World in 1933 come to the fore, and there is a certain innocence about the book.

Here are some extracts. I have also commented some of the entries The saddest one is the first one, for ten years later things would have changed forever.

Curiouser and Curiouser. Facts about the Jews 

Today a quarter of the Jews in the world live in Poland, another quarter in the Ukraine, and a third quarter in the United States

Comment: Then came the Holocaust

According to anthropomorphic tests the Jews are the smallest people in Europe. Their height averages 5ft 5 in 

Comment: The average height of an Israeli (male) in 2010 is 5ft 10 inches. Must be all that shakshuka and hummus. According to the Jewish Encyclopaedia in 1906 average height was 5 foot 3. As for Moses, hardly Charlton Heston was he?

Coffee was first sold in England by the Jew Jacob in 1650 

Comment: True! n 1651, a man named Jacob, said to have been a Jewish immigrant from Lebanon, opened the first coffee house in England, in Oxford at The Angel Inn (where The Grand Café is now). Levantine Jews had only recently bought coffee from Turkey via Venice. 

Jewish Magic A Selection 

As demons hover around graves it is necessary for those who return from the cemetery after attending a funeral to wash their hands before entering any house. 

Sneezing is a premonition of death. Hence after a sneeze pronounce “Health” Comment: Gezundheit!

A person who is drunk should have his palms and knees rubbed with oil and salt, accompanied by the wish “As this oil evaporates, so may the wine evaporate from A, the son of B 

You’ll love this one, but don’t try it at home. “The magic cure for a person choking on a bone is to place on his head another bone of the same kind whilst someone standing by exclaims “One, one, it goes down; swallow, swallow, it goes down; one, one 

A nail from a gallows is regarded as an antidote against wounds. 

Jewish Wit and humour 

The Manager of a restaurant saw one of his patrons inclining his head towards the fish on his plate and apparently engaged in conversation with it.

‘Excuse me,’ he asked, “what are you doing?”

 “What am I doing? I’m talking to the fish.” 
“And what did you say to him?”

 I said “Good evening Mr Fish!”
“And what did he reply?”
“He said “Good evening, Mr Cohen!”"
 “Well – and -?”
“I said, “How are you, Mr Fish?""
"And he replied, “I’m all right Mr Cohen.""
 “I said “Where do you come from, Mr Fish?”
 "He said, “From the Danube, Mr Cohen.""
"I asked “Is there any news from the Danube, Mr Fish?”"
" and he answered “How should I know? I’ve been in this Restaurant for nearly two months. ""

Two Jews decided to convert to Christianity and as they were important people in their town the ceremony was to be performed by the bishop himself. They waited at the Cathedral on the appointed afternoon, and the time passed but the Bishop did not arrive. At last one of them grew impatient “Do you know ,” he said, “if this goy doesn’t arrive soon, we shall be late for Mincha” 

GEMATRIA

 Comment:- From Wikipedia - Gematria is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used. A well-known short example of Hebrew numerology that uses a gematria cipher is the word חי chai (lit. "alive"), which is composed of two letters that (using the assignments in the Mispar gadol table add up to 18. This has made 18 a "lucky number" among the Jewish people. Donations of money in multiples of 18 are very popular. 

The Talmud has a proverb that “when wine enter the secret escapes because he Hebrew for wine and the Hebrew for secret have the same numerical value of 70.

The decimal value of notation was adopted from the Persians, arising from the use of 10 fingers for counting. This custom was probably adopted by the Rabbis from the Romans. The term digit has its origin in finger symbolism. The Babylonians however use Base 60, and there are traces of this in the Talmud.

 For example “sleep is one sixtieth part of death”, that is a minute fraction.

 “A person visiting a sick person relieved him of a sixtieth part of his illness”. 

It was pointed out though that it only removes one sixtieth of the remaining illness, so the second person remove 1/60th of 59/60. After the 60th visitor therefore a quarter of the illness would remain

The Kosher Kitchen

YUM 

Chopped Onion and Chicken Fat 

Chop one yellow onion very fine, add 4 tablespoons of chicken fat (melted), salt to taste. Serve on slices of Rye bread. If desired, a hard boiled egg chopped very finely may be mixed with the onions.

 Chopped Herring 

Soak herring a few hour, when washed and cleaned, bone and chop.. To one herring take one onion, one sour apple, a slice of white bread which has been soaked in vinegar, chop all these; add one tablespoon oil, cinnamon and pepper. Put on platter in shape of a herring and sprinkle the chopped white of a had boiled egg over fish and then the chopped yolk 

Palestine Scenes 

Comment: This should be seen from a pre WW2, Pre-Israel perspective. 

TEL-AVIV (1933) Tel-Aviv is a Jewish township like none other in the world, where almost all its 60,000 inhabitants are Jews (Comment: 202 – 460,000) …….The police, bus drivers, scavengers are Jews; the language is Hebrew. Twenty-five years ago the site was rolling sand dunes. Then an English Jew constricted a high school on the dunes, and around that school, which now stands in the middle of the main street, a town has grown. Comment: Not entirely true. It was always planned. 

Conversational Hebrew

The book has conversational Hebrew with useful phrases for the visitor to Palestine (no Israel yet), especially Tel-Aviv. Here are some samples of useful phrases that you might need:

At the Hotel:

Is there a bath in the room?
Not in the room, but in the hotel we have all kinds of baths, electric, sulphur, and sea water”

At the hairdressers 

“Do you want a shave?”
" Yes, but don’t touch my moustache” 

“A hot towel?” 

“No. Part my hair in the middle” 

At the restaurant
“Is this place taken”.
 “No. Take your seat please”
“Thanks. You are evidently Palestinian, and I am a stranger here”
 “Our Tel-Aviv is not strange to anyone”
“I don’t know what to choose”
“Never mind, the food here is tasty and fresh”

Comment: These days it would be “Does the hotel have wi-fi?”
”What's the hygiene rating of the restaurant?”

Choice of Pearls

Solomin Ibn Gabirol (died 1069) quotes

If a man lack money he should have a wife who will conceal his faults. If he lack a wife, he should have silence to conceal his defects. If he lack silence, the best thing for him is the grave.

Better a faithful stranger than a deceitful relative.

---

These books are available from Amazon:

Kosher Foxtrot
Jews and the Sea
The Definitive Guide to Jewish Miscellany and Trivia