Meppel is relatively small Dutch municipality in the north-easterly agricultural province of Drenthe. It is a market town for dairy products, cereals, and pigs. What is the association between this sleepy country place and cosmopolitan New York City? [Read more…] about Meppel to Manhattan: Duveen, Altman, and the Relocation of European Art
Jewish History
Arthur Szyk: The Artist As Soldier
On April 30th, 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt opened New York’s World’s Fair with an address in which he praised the commercial festival as a “symbol of peace.” An idea dreamed up at the height of the depression, the theme of the Fair was “The World of Tomorrow.” Its opening slogan was an inspiring “Dawn of New Day.” [Read more…] about Arthur Szyk: The Artist As Soldier
New Book: The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902
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Scott D. Seligman’s new book The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York City (Potomac Books, 2020) is a full account of the Great Kosher Meat War of 1902, a milestone in the history of Jewish-American women. [Read more…] about New Book: The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902
Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem
The Underground Railroad Coalition recently announced a major effort to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the New York State constitutional provision that ended slavery in the State on July 4, 1827.
The emancipation provision in the New York State Constitution of 1799 provided for the gradual elimination of slavery in New York, but it did not end the widespread legal race discrimination in the state. The most glaring example of this was the New York State Constitution of 1821, which eliminated property qualifications to vote for white men, but denied black men owning less than $250 worth of property the right to vote. [Read more…] about Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem
Synagogues of Long Island (Podcast)
Brad Kolodny started with some curiosity and an Instagram account but wound up with a coffee table book full of his images documenting synagogues from every corner of Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
He tracked the evolution of the architecture, from simple buildings to post-modern masterpieces, as well as the growth of the Jewish community on Long Island itself. The post-Second World War boom led to a boom in synagogues as well.
On this episode of the Long Island History Project podcast, we discuss the history of Long Island synagogues, the role they play in their communities, and what drives a man to document their storied histories. [Read more…] about Synagogues of Long Island (Podcast)
A Story from the Holocaust in Holland
This week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is Marty Brounstein, author of Two Among the Righteous Few: A Story of Courage in the Holocaust. The book tells the story of Frans and Mien Wijnakker, two Dutch Christians who sheltered Dutch Jews in World War II. [Read more…] about A Story from the Holocaust in Holland
Manhattan’s Mill Street Synagogue: A Short History
The Mill Street Synagogue, the first synagogue in North America, was constructed in 1730 and located on what today is 26 South William Street in Lower Manhattan. It was from this synagogue that two of the leading Jewish figures in eighteenth and early nineteenth century America, Gershom Mendes Seixas and later Mordecai Noah, influenced the Jewish community in the city of New York and beyond.
Although one of the most important sites in the history of the Jewish people in America, currently 26 South William Street is occupied by an Icon parking garage. It’s across the street from Dubliners restaurant and up the street from 85 Broad Street, the old Goldman Sachs building. In a city of perhaps more than 2 million Jewish residents, there is nothing that would inform a passersby or others of the importance of this place. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Mill Street Synagogue: A Short History
The Case Against Peter Stuyvesant
There is a Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan at 16th Street and 2nd Avenue with a statue of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of its New Amsterdam colony, a Stuyvesant High School, and a Stuyvesant Town residential development.
At least one group wants these places renamed and the statue removed. According to Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the head of the Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center “Peter Stuyvesant was an extreme racist who targeted Jews and other minorities including Catholics and energetically tried to prohibit them from settling in then New Amsterdam.” [Read more…] about The Case Against Peter Stuyvesant
Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
Many of the 75 or so people at a recent Catskills History and Preservation Conference were shocked to hear that the Catskills’ heralded resort industry has been in decline since 1965.
That’s not unusual. Most newcomers – and even some old timers who should know better – find it hard to believe that the county’s heyday was over by the mid-1960s. Many cite the existence of dozens of hotels in the 1970s as proof that it couldn’t possibly be so.
And yet these days most historians agree that the Golden Age of Sullivan County’s tourism industry, which began around 1940, came to an end around 1965, and they cite a number of reasons for choosing that particular year. [Read more…] about Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End