Mizrahi Bookstore Judaicaused.com

AN ARCHIVE OF RABBINIC LETTERS SENT TO NEW YORK PHILANTHROPIST ABRAHAM MEYERS

Antiquarian booksellers are often propelled by the excitement that occurs when you stumble across an important discovery that sheds light on otherwise unknown areas. This week I came across such a discovery, when I was offered a collection of letters sent to a great American philanthropist who has yet to receive his proper recognition, Abraham Meyers of New York. The letters, dated mostly to the early 1930s includes 10 letters from R. Aaron Kotler in Kletzk, 13 Letters handwritten by Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz, several others by Rav A. I. Kook, R. Moshe Rosen, R. Yechiel Michel Gordon of Lomza, R. Isser Zalman Meltzer and others as well as several personal familial letters.

Abraham Meyers arrived an orphan from Poland to New York in the early 1900s and achieved financial success early on. Per the family legend, he traveled back to his native Poland as an adult and used the occasion to visit the saintly Chofetz Chaim (January 26, 1838 – September 15, 1933). Awed and inspired by his experience, he devoted himself to promoting, distributing and encouraging the usage of the sefarim of the Chofetz Chaim and for decades forthcoming imported and distributed the sefarim of the Chofetz Chaim in the New World pro bono. One of the Mishnah Berurah editions published in Piotrikov, Poland, bears a dedication page in honor of Meyers and the first edition published in America, published in 1943 by the Zaks family was also sponsored by Abraham Meyers. Meyers was also a supporter of all the major yeshivas in Eastern Europe, as well as a major supporter of the Ponovezh Yeshiva. In addition, the Chazon Ish made use rent-free of a home owned by Meyers in Bene Brak, which served as the Chazon Ish's residence until his passing.

Among the letters found in this collection are a series of letters by Rav A. I. Kook in 1932 responding to a letter by Meyers requesting assistance in promoting the Chofetz Chaim's works. R. Kook first responds that the Chofetz Chaim is the leader of the generation and it would be an insult to need someone like him to promote the Chofetz Chaim's work. Rav Kook then relents and says that he is willing to write something if the Chofetz Chaim would be agreeable to the idea. In a following letter, apparently after receiving approval, Rav Kook does indeed write a promotional letter encouraging the use and purchase of the Chofetz Chaim's seforim. An additional letter from 1932, this one being a 3 page letter sent by Rabbi Boruch Ber Leibowitz is also devoted to an extensive praise of the Chofetz Chaim and promotion of his sefarim. Abraham Meyers lost his eyesight towards the end of his life, and spent his aging years in the home of his of one of his 10 children,that of his son Hillel, in Long Beach, NY until his passing in the early 1950s.

A COLLECTION OF 37 LADINO CALENDARS

Whether a community's history is well documented and researched is often an accident of nature. Due to a combination of different factors, some Jewish communities records are sparse and hard to piece together, while in others, even in small rather insignificant places, endless records and books exist recording the happenings of the Jewish community. I was excited this week to acquire a large collection of 37 calendar/almanacs written in Ladino, that supplied endless informative information on 3 communities where scholarship has been lagging in digging up and publishing information, that of Izmir, Salonica and Istanbul.

These Calendars, printed in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, shed a bright light on the life in these unique communities and cultures and the language spoken by the Jews within, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Each being 50-100 pages, while they all contain calendars, recording the Hebrew and Secular calendars of the year, supplementary information abounds. In the Salonika calendars, we find at the end of each volume, the details of the Oriental Railway, detailing the information and costs needed for the many stops along the way from Salonica to Paris. Cities such as Monastir (Bitola, Macedonia today) that would be hard to find on a map find prominent mention on the train routes due to the close connection between the Jewish communities of Greece and Monastir. The Salonica and Istanbul calendars have an interesting feature on each month's calendar page, using as a header for each page a name of a different synagogue in the city, thus allowing us to record the names of the community's synagogues at any given year and the disappearing of ones at a certain date and new names being added at later dates. Already in the late 19th century, we find in Salonica synagogues mentioned of Ashkenaz and Italian Jews alongside the local synagogues and those of the Iberian exiles. Another interesting feature of some of the Salonica volumes is a list of the amount of years passed from important Jewish dates, such as the Redemption from Egypt, Destruction of the Temples and the Spanish Expulsion.

The Izmir calendars were published by the local Talmud Torah as a fundraiser, and contain several chapters on the activities of the local organizations, their ambitions and financial obligations. This is followed by a list of an astoundingly broad list of donor names by city of residence, containing for examples Jews from New York, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Cuba, Alexandria, Cairo, Corfu, Cities in England and Mainland Europe. While the Salonica calendars list all the secular and Christian holidays, the Turkish ones list prominently the many Muslim holidays and their corresponding Jewish dates.

The Istanbul calendars, particularly the later ones, added at the end transliteration to Turkish of crucial Jewish prayers, such as that of the Kaddish, Shema Yisrael, Blessings for the Torah etc, indicating a lack of Hebrew literacy among at least part of the community. The Istanbul calendars all begin with a corresponding date from 13 years prior, so one can calculate when their Bar Misvah would occur based on their Arabic Calendar birthday. All these calendars also include the zemanim (specific times of the day in Jewish law), allowing us to understand the customs of these communities in these matters, which can surprisingly differ from tradition to tradition.

With the decimation of Salonica's Jewry in the Holocaust, the dissolution of Izmir's Jews with the establishment of the state of Israel and the slow decline of Istanbul's community to emigration and intermarriage (estimated to be over 50% today), these calendars give a window in to the active religious and cultural life of these communities in their heyday.

The relationship between Jews, sorcery and amulets is a long and complex one. While Jewish tradition is generally opposed to magic and sorcery, there is a long tradition of amulet writing and wearing in Judaism. Already in Talmudic times, a distinction is made between amulets that are proven to be effective, which are permitted to be worn on Shabbat, and unproven ones which are forbidden. A letter I obtained this week tells of an interesting scenario and one community's rabbis approach to dealing with the issue.

Dated 1970, the letter was sent by Superior Rabinato de la República Argentina, the Rabbinical Organization of Argentina to Rabbi Yitzchak Kaduri (c. 1898 – 2006), a renowned Kabbalist and expert in the writing of amulets. The letter reads:

"Dear The Rabbi and Kabbalist, our teacher, Rav Kaduri, Jerusalem

I am hereby approaching you to assist one of our families who reside here in Argentina. I was approached by a woman, who has a neighbor who is an Arab sorcerer who had a fight with her husband. He harmed her husband to the extent that there is no longer peace in their household, and the husband has no relations with his wife at all, they just reside together.

A noted psychiatrist who is an expert on mental illness told her that he husband has no sickness, it is just a case of black magic (MAGIA NEGRA) and referred the wife to a Christian priest who knows how to remove such spells. The priest informed her that he can only assist someone who believes in their G-d, apparently the priest wanted to capture a Jewish soul. Their two sons were also harmed by the sorcerer, one of the boys, completed half his studies in college and suddenly dropped out of college and refuses to continue (he is getting married soon). The young son, while he was young, he was a proud and outspoken Jew, and when the sorcerer heard of this, he informed them that when the child matures, he will switch his blood. Now that the child is 16, he speaks out against the Jewish people and is going out with a gentile woman.

The names of the spouse and sons are...

The request of the woman is that the rabbi assist her in removing the sorcery from her family".

Beneath the text of the letter, we find in Rav Kaduri's handwriting the name of the sorcerer, Jose Alberto of the Khasif family. It is presumed that Rav Kaduri gave them an amulet to resolve the issue, though the results are yet to be known to me.

An astounding letter I acquired this week describes a clash of epic proportions between two noted rabbis, from different backgrounds, cultures and halakhic opinions that converged by chance on the same issue. Within the letter, Rabbi Chaim Oizer Grodzinsky asks? Is Rabbi Ovadya Hedaya a Kabbalist or insane? The background is the (in)famous discussion regarding the possibility of a prenup agreement made that was solve the agunah crisis once and for all. Rabbinic Responsa are replete with questions regarding Agunot and numerous attempts have been made to find a solution to the problem. World War One exacerbated the problem, with countless women losing their husbands in the war, oftentimes with no halakhicly valid confirmation of the husband's passing. The mass immigration of Eastern European Jews to America brought along its share of Agunot as well, with men who preceded their families to the new world occasionally disappearing into the Goldene Medina leaving agunot behind in Europe.

In 1912, a rabbi in Algiers, R. Ben-Zion Alkalai, suggested that a husband appoint in advance a rabbinical court as agents to perform a get on his behalf if the need arises. 2 decades later, R. Louis Epstein, an Orthodox trained Rabbi in a Conservative American synagogue proposed to take this idea a step further, having the groom appoint his bride as an agent to write her own get. In the event of his leaving her without a get for a set amount of time, she can then follow up as his agent and arrange for a get for herself. Halakhicly, this solution caused a different set of issues, and within the Orthodox Ashkenazi community, the response was forceful and final, Halakhic Jewry can not accept such a solution. The Agudas Harabanim of America converged and dealt with this subject at length publishing a volume titled Ledor Acharon, with endless rabbanim signing on to the ban on this specific prenup agreement.

This Letter was written by Rabbi Chaim Oizer Grodzinsky, dated 1938, a few months before his passing. Addressed to the Agudas Harabbanim of America and Canada, the second paragraph reads:

"I received a letter from the Rav and Gaon Dr Herzog, may he be blessed, from Eretz Hakodesh, regarding the advanced copy of Shu"t Yaskil Avdi, of Rabbi Ovadya Hedaya s"t (sepharadi tahor) from Yeshivat Porat Yosef in Jerusalem. He concludes halakhicly to agree to Rav Alkalai's proposal in his kuntres Takanat Agunot, that before the kiddushin, a groom can appoint 4 people, sofer, and witnesses along with a messenger to send the get, to perform a get for his wife once they have divorced civilly. He will only betroth her on the condition that he signs this agreement and one condition that he will never retract this agreement.

Per Rabbi Dr Herzog shlit"a, the above mentioned rabbi (Hedaya) is a god-fearing man and a Kabbalist and if so, this is a terrible matter. I am unsure if he is a Kabbalist or an insane man, it would be a good idea to send him a copy of the publication published in America on this matter. I am writing to him today as well and will send him the pamphlet titled En Tenai Benisuin, but this pamphlet only discusses the issue of performing a marriage with a stipulation and not in regards to the appointing a messenger for a get, as was the intention of the rabbis in America who are leaning towards Reform Judaism. Therefore, please send him the publication and request from him to omit this portion of his book so as not to give hand to the sinners, who will rely on this Kabbalist"

Indeed, when Yaskil Avdi was published the following year, in 1939, he revised his position, stating that Rabbi Herzog informed him of the publication on this matter published by Agudas Harabanim and what he wrote is not for practical use.

Rabbi Hedaya was born in 1889 in Aleppo, Ottoman Syria, to Rabbi Shalom Hedaya and Sarah nee Labaton . On both sides he was a descendant of well-known rabbinical families. His great-grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Labaton, was the rabbi of the city. In 1945, he succeeded his father as head of the Yeshivat haMekubalim (Kabbalists Yeshiva) at Bet El Synagogue, the center of kabbalistic study in Jerusalem. His main essay is a responsa called "Ishkil Abdi" which includes eight volumes, seven were printed during his lifetime and the eighth on the tenth anniversary of his death.

He won the Rabbi Kook Prize in Original Rabbinical Literature - for the fifth part of the Yeshkil Abdi Responsa in 1959, and the Israel Prize for Torah Literature (1958), as well as the award "Ish Yerushalayim" in 1967.

A 1922 ATTEMPT TO PREVENT UNSCRUPULOUS HEBREW BOOK DISTRIBUTORS

One volume I recently stumbled upon shed an interesting perspective on the book trade in the Hebrew market in the inter-war era. This copy of of Dramas in Hebrew of Peretz Hirschbein (1880–1948), a Yiddish-language playwright, novelist, journalist, travel writer, and theater director was published in Warsaw in 1922 by the Stybel publishing house. Stybel, was founded 5 years prior by Abraham Joseph Stybel (1884–1946), a patron of Hebrew books and tireless promoter of Hebrew literature. Interested in the world of books from his youth, he became wealthy via his business dealings in Russia during WWI. In 1917 he founded the Stybel publishing house and hired David Frischmann as his chief editor. They began the systematic translation of some of the world's best literature by leading Hebrew writers. When Russia's revolution resulted in the prohibition of Hebrew printing, he moved the operations to Warsaw, then to Berlin and New York and finally to Israel. He escaped Poland just before the outbreak of WWII and passed away in New York in 1946.

This volume was published in Warsaw but includes an unrecorded 2 pages preceding the title page describing the hardships of the state of affairs for publishing and the unscrupulous people that were challenging Stybel's survival. The text describes the wildly fluctuating currencies and the inability of the publisher to even cover their cost in most countries they are selling their publications due to the unstable currency exchanges. The only possibility of coming out even is by their profit of the volumes sold in the United States where the currency was stable and the exchange rate favorable.

The issue Stybel encountered was crooked book dealers who were buying quantities in Poland at reduced rates and then selling them in the States at a reduced price relative to the price Stybel was attempting to sell it at. As an attempt to resolve the issue, Stybel noted any copies that were destined to the states with a stamp and signature of the publishing house's head indicating that this copy was permitted to be sold in America. Whether this solution succeeded is unknown but Stybel's economic situation had deteriorated to the extent that within a few years he was forced to sell his publishing rights and manuscripts to N. Twersky in Tel Aviv.

A brief pamphlet that I recently came across might have seemed insignificant when it was first published but has achieved prominence due to the current historical revisionism in the Palestinian Muslim world. Titled: A brief guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif Jerusalem. It was published in Jerusalem in 1929, the year of the Arab riots in Palestine (“the Buraq Uprising”) and the Hebron Massacre. Written from a Muslim perspective, it was published by the Supreme Moslem Council (with the notorious M***i of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al-Husseini, at its helm), and it acknowledges and emphasizes the Jewish History of the temple mount.

From the section within titled the Historical Sketch, pages 4-8: "The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest (perhaps pre-historic) times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to the universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (2 Samuel XXIV, 25)."

The NYT in 2014 noted that "Temple denial, increasingly common among Palestinian leaders, also has a long history: After Israel became a state in 1948, the Waqf removed from its guidebooks all references to King Solomon's Temple, whose location at the site it had previously said was 'beyond dispute'. At the 2000 Camp David Summit, then-Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat is alleged to have told then-American President Bill Clinton that "Solomon's Temple was not in Jerusalem, but Nablus." A short year later, in October 2015, the NYT had joined the revisionist Palestinian version of events, stating that "The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitely answered, is whether the 37-acre [15-hectare] site, home to Islam's sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and al-Aqsa Mosque, was also the location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone." Within a few days, the newspaper responded to feedback by changing the text to "The question, which many books and scholarly treatises have never definitively answered, is where on the 37-acre [15-hectare] site, home to Islam’s sacred Dome of the Rock shrine and Al Aqsa Mosque, was the precise location of two ancient Jewish temples, one built on the remains of the other, and both long since gone."

This original publication though allows us to see what was universally believed until it was convenient for propaganda purposes to erase the historical evidence and attempt to destroy the archaeological remains of the temples now under the Muslim Waqf control.

The free-end paper on a copy of a chumash printed in Luneville in 1808 I acquired this week had an interesting genealogical inscription. In the days when empty paper was scarce and costly, the free-ends of books were often used to record information. In the case of sefarim particularly, which were generally kept within the family for generations, we can often find the owner of a sefer recording the life-cycle events of his family.

This volume records the milestones of the life of a German Jew who left him family and homeland to try his luck in the New World in 1853. It records his arrival in the then fledgling Jewish community of Syracuse, NY, and his marriage there shortly after. The birth of his children are recorded as well, followed by the untimely death of his infant daughter. The writer, clearly a learned Jew, based on his style of writing and use of numerous abbreviations and Hebrew Calendar dates, writes as follows:

לזכרון עדות
לי ולמשפחתי לדורות עולם
אנכי אליה בר ה"ה מאיר אריה הלוי מן זאאר וועלינגען הלכתי מן אבי ואמי ללכת לאמר[יקא]
יום ג' אלול תרי"ג אייגשטיעגען אין דיאס שיפף יום ג' אלול תרי"ג ובאתי בנאוי יארק יום ב'
ט"ז תשרי ב' דח"ה של סכות תרי"ד לפ"ק ובאתי אל ק"ק זיעריקוס יום ד' פרשת לך לך תרי"ד לפ"ק
איך מאכטע חתנה מיט פיגלה בת שמואל מפאפענהיים יום ג' ל"ג בעומר תרי"ד לפ"ק פק"ק
זיראקוס כנסת שלום ר' זעליג מסדר קידושין
בתי בילה נלדה במז"ט יום ש"ק ג' אייר תרט"ו לפ"ק הקב"ה יגדלה לחופה ולמעשים טובים אמן
בתי מלכה נולדה במז"ט יום ב' אדר"ח אדר תרי"ח לפ"ק והקב"ה יגדלה לחופה ומעשים טובים אמן
בני יעקב נולד במז"ט יום ה' ט"ו אייר תרי"ט לפ"ק המקום יגדלהו לתורה ולחופה ולמעשים טובים א[מן]
בתי אסתר נלדה יום ג' י"ט טבת תרכ"א לפ"ק והקב"ה יגדלה לחופה ולמעשים טובים אמן
בתי אסתר הלכה לעולמה ונקברה ביום ג' א' דר"ח אלול תרכ"א לפ"ק תהי' נשמתה צרור בצרור החיים.

Translated roughly as:

As a record and testimony for myself and my family in generations to come:
I, Eliyahu son of Rabbi Meir Aryeh Halevi from Saarwellingen (Germany), left my father and mother to travel to America on the 3rd of Elul 5613 (1853). I boarded the ship on the 3rd of Elul 5613 and arrived in New York on Monday, the 16th of Tishre, the second day of Sukkot 5614. I arrived at the Jewish community of Syracuse, on Wednesday, in the week of the Parashah of L**h L**ha, 5614 (1853).

On Tusday, Lag Baomer 5614 (1853), I wed Feigele the daughter of Shmuel from Poppenheim, in the congregation Knesset Shalom in Syracuse, the mesader kiddushin was Rav Zelig.

My daughter Beila was born with good Mazal on the 3rd of Iyar 5615 (1855). May God raise her to marriage and good deeds. Amen.

My daughter Malka was born with good Mazal on Monday, the second day of Rosh Hodesh Adar 5618 (1858). May God raise her to marriage and good deeds. Amen.

My son Yaakov was born with good Mazal on Thursday. the 15th of Iyar 5619 (1859). May God raise him to Torah, marriage and good deeds.

My daughter Esther was born with good Mazal on Tuesday, 19th of Tevet 5621 (1861). May God raise her to marriage and good deeds. Amen.

My daughter Esther passed away and was buried on Tuesday, the first of the Rosh Hodesh of Elul 5621 (1861), may her soul rest in peace.

I was fortunate to be able to acquire recently a beautiful handwritten manuscript of an original work that looks to have been prepared for print but never made it to the press. The manuscript is a Hebrew translation from the Yiddish "Der katorshznik", containing short stories by Nahum Meïr Schaikewitz (1849-1905), also known by his pseudonym "Shomer".A very popular writer, Shomer was very prolific, aside from a score of Hebrew novels, he wrote over 200 Yiddish novels. His novels were printed cheaply for the masses, and his audience, the Yiddish speaking Jews in Eastern Europe were a ready audience. Over 30 of his plays were produced as well, performed in Russia and later the Yiddish theatres of New York.

This manuscript of approx. 450 pages, is dated 1891, it contains 32 chapters, written with the pseudonym Yeshay' Ben Amotz, perhaps a play on his last name Schaikewitz. While the Yiddish version was published, the Hebrew seems to have never been printed. Many of Shomer's publications though are very scarce, having been printed on lower grade paper that deteriorated over time and being a secular writing, disposed of when not of use, as opposed to religious writing which was often preserved for religious burial.

Many thanks to Fred MacDowell for his identifying the contents.

SHEET MUSIC FROM THE THERESIENSTADT GHETTO

A group of Jewish sheet music I acquired recently tell the horrific tale of life under the weight of the N**i terror in Theresienstadt. Theresienstadt, the notorious N**i concentration camp, served as well as part of an elaborate N**i deception, used in propaganda to create an illusion that the Jews were not being sent to the death camps but rather "resettled". While the killing camps were in operation, the publicly stated purpose of the Jews being rounded up and sent east was "resettlement in the east". In June 1944, after world pressure, the International Red Cross was allowed to visit the camp to determine the conditions. The Germans made efforts to "beautify" the camp, and the Jewish prisoners were allowed to stage social and cultural events for visiting dignitaries. Once the visitors left, the deportations and horrific conditions resumed.

For a time, cultural life at Theresienstadt was allowed to develop. Authors, scholars, musicians and Yiddish Theatre shows gave performances and a lending library existed. Despite ninety percent of the Jews that went through Theresienstadt not surviving the war, those that were kept alive attempted to keep the Jewish culture and semblance of normalcy in whatever forms possible.

The Sheet Music I acquired bear ownership stamps of the Theresienstadt Ghetto Library. Given the context, the music, mostly cantorial and Yiddish Theatre titles from New York are astonishing. One such is "Hatikvah", featuring a portrait of Theodore Herzl, whose daughter was murdered in Theresienstadt. Another is titled Jerusalem, while another is an elegy for the victims of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory fire.

The Orthodox Union in 1933 - Insight into the issues of the era

A fascinating find I acquired recently is the full first year of the publication "The Orthodox Union", which began its publication in 1933. The myriad of issues discussed in this monthly publication, put out by the Orthodox Union, tells of the issues that faced Orthodox Jewry in American in the period.Many problems are familiar today, with many others a product of the times.

Some of the headlines include, "Destroy The Mushroom Synagogue", an attack on pop-op shuls and small shteibel minyanim, "Union Protests Against Holding College Entrance Examinations on Saturday and Holy Days", "All Factions Combine To Help German Jews", "Orthodox Congregations Organize to Raise $1,000,000 to Aid Synagogues and Educational Institutions in America". The effects of the depression and the New Deal of President FDR was cause for conversation as well, with several articles decrying the requirements of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) that certain sectors of industry work set days of work, interfering with the observance of the Sabbath and Holidays. Later issues show that this issue was resolved by diplomacy and via the court system.

A major concern in these publications was the student life for Jews in campuses throughout the USA, with surveys and reports of Jewish life from colleges in nearly every state. Many of the communities that are mentioned in these pages have had their Orthodox communities greatly diminished in the decades since, such as the report of the founding of an Organization to Unite Omaha, Nebraska's Orthodox Synagogues and from Oklahoma, where we hear that "Jewish Students Active in All Campus Activities, No Prejudice Exists". A recurring concern though is the lack of religious observance in the colleges, such as the report from Univ. of Pennsylvania "Outstanding Member of Senior Classic Jewish - Jewish Students Lax in Religious Observance".

The Kashruth industry in this era was still in its infancy, and we find many of the Kosher brands advertising throughout the pages, such as the advertising for Sunshine Kosher Crackers which states; " You can see it isn't the meat of pig... but you cannot see the lard in crackers!". The very first company in the US to receive the certification of the Orthodox Union, Heinz, advertised here as well, listing 57 varieties that were determined to be kosher. Others ads include ones by Kosher Borscht Belt destinations as well as kosher sailing lines to Palestine.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373802830247

A Haggadah, Yiddish Advertisements, the Great Depression and the fall of the Bank of United States

A rare Haggadah I just acquired, tells a story of a mighty bank and the Jews that became destitute as it fell. The Haggadah was published as a promotion and with advertisements for the Bank of United States, with Yiddish ads on covers and free-ends. The bank was the brainchild of a true rags to riches Jewish immigrant to the United States, Joseph S. Marcus. Born in Telz in 1862, he schooled in Essen, immigrated to the United States at age 18, worked first as a tailor, a businessman in the garment industry and finally a banker. He first founded Public Bank in 1906, and the Bank of United States in 1913. He was known for his philanthropy, supporting Beth Israel Hospital and the Hebrew Association for the blind. He died on July, 3, 1927. After his death, his son Bernard Marcus headed the bank, and it quickly expanded, acquiring many small banks in the NYC area, reaching 62 branches by 1930.

On Dec 10, 1930, crowds gathered at the branch on Southern Blvd in the Bronx seeking to withdraw their money, and began what is considered the bank run that cascaded into other bank runs that led to the Great Depression. The New York Times reported that the run was based on a false rumor spread by a small local merchant, a holder of stock in the bank, who claimed that the bank had refused to sell his stock.

By the next day, the bank was taken over by the Superintendent of Banks, the stock of the bank went from $91.50 to a low of $2. by the end of December, 1930, 608 banks closed their doors, with the Bank of United States accounting for more than a third of the $550,000,000 deposits lost.

The advertisements in this haggadah, advertise the bank as "א באנק פאר יעדען איינעם" (a bank for everyone) and "די גרעסטע שטערקסטע בענקס אין אמעריקא" (The largest, strongest bank in America) and offering 4% interest on deposits. Despite the failure of the bank and the great depression, the Jewish book-world did gain from the failure, as the bank building on 77 Delancy Street was taken over by the Hebrew Publishing Company. At this location, for over 40 years until 1976, millions of Jewish books, greeting cards and sheet music were published.