Henrietta Szold meets Gluckel of Hameln - Critical Essay - Brief Article

Judaism, Spring, 2002 by Roberta Hanfling Schwartz

WHEN IN THE EARLY 1880S AN OBSCURE SCHOLAR IN A small city in central Galicia, Przemysl, undertook to publish the correspondence between Rabbi Samuel David Luzzato (1780-1865) and Rabbi Solomon Rappaport (1790-1867), reflective of their deep involvement in matters of Jewish scholarship, he needed to seek support near and far to underwrite the venture. As was not uncommon, Eisig Gruber wrote to persons in Europe and the United States who had been known to respond to solicitations for funds to publish Jewish texts. Contributors' names would be prominently displayed on the opening pages of the book, with places of residence listed alphabetically.

A survey of the supporters of M'chtav Bekorel (1) yields 177 names. Of this total 166 were scattered from Amsterdam to Ancona and beyond; eleven such benefactors turned up in the United States. Boston, Wilmington, Chicago, and Houston showed one pre-subscriber each, while Baltimore and Philadelphia had three and four Maecenases, respectively. Students of nineteenth-century American-Jewish history will have little trouble identifying the following sustainers. From Baltimore they were Reverend A. Kaiser, and in Philadelphia, Dr. S. Hirsch, Reverend Dr. Marcus Jastrow, Mayer Sulzberger, and Dr. S. Morais. Except for Sulzberger, who came to the United States as a child, they were all born and educated abroad and carried European Jewish scholarship with them across the ocean.

Like them, Benjamin Szold (1829-1902), born in Hungary, arrived in Baltimore in 1859, with bride, brother-in-law, and cousin in tow. Fresh from study at the University of Breslau, he carried private ordination and accepted the invitation to serve as rabbi of Oheb Shalom Congregation. That was the direct cause for his emigration, as it was for Marcus Jastrow (1829-1903). The latter traveled to Philadelphia from Worms, in 1866, to officiate at Rodef Shalom Congregation. There would be many parallels in their lives. Identical age, congregational struggles over radical reform, scholarly connections, and geographic proximity bound them together over decades. A nuptial tie brought them yet closer. 0In 1888, Jastrow's son, Joseph, married Szold's daughter, Rachel. Jastrow's position, on the executive board of the European society to publish long dormant Hebrew manuscripts, Mekitze Nirdamim, (2) may well have strengthened the bonds with European-Jewish scholarship for both of them.

Clearly, it was into a home well informed by Wissenschaft des Judenthums and religious life that the first-born child of Sophie Schaar and Benjamin Szold was born. Henrietta's (1860-1945) status as first child was enhanced by a hiatus of five years between her and the next sibling. The second and third offspring died in infancy. Of the five Szold girls who grew into adulthood, it was only Henrietta who learned Hebrew and some Aramaic from Papa. Latin and French she acquired at school. For her father, she worked as literary secretary, researcher, proofreader, and confidante. Sitting on his right side, at the dining room table day in and day out, year in and year out, she absorbed his teachings and exchanged ideas, often in her mother tongue, German.

By age 17, Henrietta had established her own byline, in the New York based Jewish Messenger. She chose to be identified by the distinctive nome de plume, Sulamith. That was the title of the first Jewish German-language periodical, established in Leipzig, in 1806, as well as the biblical name of the Song of Songs heroine. From 1878-1883, she contributed 35 articles to the Messenger, on a wide variety of topics. Some recorded marriages and a few deaths, but her main emphasis was on substantive issues: She pleaded for the need to reform charity distribution and education programs, noted the establishment of new synagogues and a new prayer book. Antisemitism and social discrimination drove her journalist's quill, as did some of her father's polemics. Only one article in this entire output dealt with the matter of translation of classical Jewish texts (3) but, in retrospect, one can see here the beginning of a trend.

Teaching at a girls' high school, establishing a night school for newly-arrived Jewish immigrants, and volunteering for work at the recently founded (1888)Jewish Publication Society filled the decade of the 1880s for Szold. In 1893 she assumed the position of Secretary of the Publication Committee of the Society, a post she held until her resignation was submitted in 1916. Her editing and revising of books the Society published, proofreading of major works, translations of texts from German, Hebrew, and French, creating indices for volumes that were published elsewhere without indices, are examples of the enormous importance of Henrietta Szold for the late beginnings of Jewish publications in the United States. In addition, the London Jewish Chronicle called her "the leading Jewish essayist in America." (4) Her name was internationally recognized.

Small wonder that when Solomon Schechter came to Philadelphia on his first visit in 1895 he would look up Szold. Since the Society headquarters were in Philadelphia, she had moved there in 1893. Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Dr. Solomon Solis-Cohen, and the Committee of the Gratz Foundation called Schechter to present six lectures on rabbinic theology. He invited Szold to join him for dinner, and then invited himself to stay at her parents' home in Baltimore. Schechter noted that an upcoming lecture at Johns Hopkins University would bring him to that city. Szold quickly communicated to her parents that she was in no way responsible; indeed, he had invited himself. Furthermore, she warned they should be prepared for a high maintenance guest but, with all that, she was certain they would appreciate his company, and "Papa will enjoy having a man with whom he can discuss Torah." (5) Schechter wrote to his wife in Cambridge, "He (Rabbi Szold) is a dear old man full of sweetness and light. His daughter (Henrietta) is a very educated girl, an excellent Jewish scholar, but very nice and feminine." (6)