Two of the children of R. Aharon Tzevi & Rebecca Friedman - Rachel and Abraham - married two of R. Schachne & Reitza Isaacs children - Abraham and Rachel! These two couples went on to produce several Friedman/Isaacs grandchildren, two of whom were named Nathan. Both Nathans, my grandfather and Professor Nathan Isaacs settled individually in Massachusetts and became close friends.
The following account of our early family history is taken from an essay about Nathan Isaacs by his brother Elcanan Isaacs, published in 1964 in the book Men of the Spirit, edited by Leo Jung.
Schachne Isaacs (1811-1887), the paternal grandfather of Nathan Isaacs, landed in New York City in 1853 with his wife and six children. He came at the urging of his brother Lazarus, who about 1820 had left the village of Libawa, SuwalkProvince, on the border of Lithuania and Germany and had gone to England. A few years later, he joined a group of English Jews who were migrating to Cincinnati, Ohio, where earlier co-religionists had established a prosperous settlement. Lazarus had become ill and was ministered to by a young English nurse. Eventually they were married and settled in Cincinnati.
In that city, at that time more or less a frontier community, Lazarus became a successful manufacturer of hats and caps. From time to time he urged his brother, Schachne, to join him. The latter, however, was reluctant to leave the comfort and security of Libawa for the Ohio wilderness but finally promised to come. He took the long journey with regret. It was planned that Schachne, who had semikhah (the rabbinic diploma) and kabbalah, (authorization to act as a shohet), although he never practiced these callings except for his own family needs, was to spend his time in study.
All went well until Schachne discovered that Susannah, the wife of Lazarus, though she was a devout orthodox Jewess, had not been Jewish at the time of her marriage. He severed relations immediately and thereafter he, his wife, Reitza Kashan, and his family of small children were on their own. He moved to Darrtown, near Cincinnati, and opened a general store. The fact that the Sabbath was the shopping day for the farmers in the vicinity did not create a problem for Schachne. On that day the store remained closed. Gradually the farmers learned that it paid to make a special trip during the week. In the early days there was much shoddy material on the market but in this general store honest value was given. The admiration for Schachne’s uncompromising religious principles and the quality of his merchancise ultimately led to a complete change of the buying habits of the community. Subsequently Schachne moved to Cincinnati where he entered the wholesale dry goods business under the name of S. Isaacs and Sons.
Throughout his life he was known as a “fire-eater,” eternally vigilant in the observance of orthodoxy and against any innovation. His portrait, painted by Henry Mosler, shows his reddish hair and penetrating steel blue eyes. When presented with a copy of Isaac M. Wise’s reform prayer book, he publicly burnt it in a stove. In 1875, Elijah Holzman dedicated his volume, “Emek Refaim” to Reb Schachne for his stand in this matter. When the large orthodox congregation, of which he was a member, failed to include plans for a mikvah in a proposed building, he resigned in protest and in 1866, started a new congregation, Kehillah Kedosha Bet Tefillah, which became one of the largest in the Middle West and is still known as Reb Schachne’s Shul.
For the promotion of Jewish Life in the United States he maintained steady correspondence with the great orthodox leaders in Europe, notably Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spector of Kovno.
Schachne had eleven children; the seventh son, Abraham, was born in 1859, in Hamilton, Ohio. Abraham, following in his father’s footsteps, was a wholesale dry goods merchant until his death in 1928. He served as president of Reb Schachne’s Shul for many years and with his brother Moses, during the critical years of Russia’s persecution of the Jews, promoted the immigration of victimized families to Cincinnati and thereafter aided them to establish themselves. Many of the Russian Jewish Families in Cincinnati owe their success to the first aid given to them by the Isaacs brothers, whose systematic activity on their behalf was a forerunner of the modern Jewish Social Service Agency.
Dr. Boris D. Bogen, in his autobiography, “Born a Jew,” on page seventy-three, referred to the tradition of the Isaacs family which would eventually affect Nathan Isaacs:
“Cincinnati Jewry looked up to the Isaacs as to courageous men standing on a summit unattainable to all others. There shone about them an aura of aristocracy which seemed far finer and rarer that the aristocracy of the richer German Jews.”
Abraham had much of the character of his father. One of his betes noires was the hazan who overperformed, who in his singing went “endlessly upstairs, downstairs, backwards, forwards and sidewise.” It was not uncommon, therefore, for the congregation to see Abraham and his nine sons express their disapproval of the hazanic longwindedness by stalking out of the synagogue in the midst of the service.
Nathan Isaacs’ maternal grandfather, Rabbi Aaron Tzevi Friedman, also played an important part in Jewish affairs of his time. He was born in Stavisk, Poland, in 1822 and died in New York City in 1876. In 1844 he moved to Bernkastel-on-the-Moselle in Germany where he became rabbi and shochet. He married Rebecca Lieberman of Frankfort. In 1848, he was invited to come to New York to oversee the shehita of the city. To refute the attacks by Henry Bergh, president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Rabbi Friedman wrote in 1874 a defense of shehitah entitled “Toov Ta’am,” which two years later was translated into English, French, and German. It was a scientific explanation of shehita and so impressed Bergh that ever after he insisted on eating only kosher meat. The Jewish Encyclopedia, in the biography of Rabbi Friedman, says: “His strict orthodoxy and learning caused him to be widely known as the ‘Ba’al Shem’ of America.
The seventh of the twelve children of Rabbi Friedman was Rachel (1861-1929). At a very early age she showed considerable intellectual ability, When she was four years old, she insisted on accompanying her brothers and sisters to school. The teacher permitted her to attend and she soon showed such competence that she continued there with the rest of the class and was graduated from high school at the age of twelve. Throughout her life she maintained her intellectual interests and long before the cult of rapid reading developed, she read one or two complete books in an afternoon, the contents of which she could remember with ease. She was also a poetess of some local note.
Abraham Isaacs and Rachel Friedman were married in New York City on June 2, 1878. Incidentally, a brother and sister of each [Abraham Friedman and Rachel Isaacs] were also married to each other thus doubly uniting two of the leading orthodox families of the 1870’s. In both families there were eleven children and two of the sons of Abraham Friedman who achieved prominence in religious circles were Moses Friedman of New York City and Nathan Friedman of Taunton, Massachusetts. The children of Abraham Isaacs were the late Aaron Z. Isaacs, and Isaac Isaacs, both businessmen in Cincinnati; Rebecca F. Isaacs; Nathan Isaacs, the subject of this biography; the late Major Schachne Isaacs, Associate in Psychology at Johns Hopkins University and later associated with the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Dr. Raphael Isaacs, Director of the Hematology Research Laboratory of the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago; Mrs. Nesh Isaacs Rothfield, formerly Instructor in Political Science at the University of Cincinnati; Dr. Elcanan Isaacs, lawyer an associated with The American University; Dr. Moses Legis Isaacs, formerly Assistant Professor at Columbia University and Dean of Yeshiva University; Dr. Asher Isaacs, Professor of Economics at the University of Pittsburgh and the late Judah M. Isaacs who was engaged in business in New York City. In all, eight of the brothers and sisters were elected to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa Society and four were included in Who’s Who in America.
Impressed no doubt by the example of their parents, the Isaacs’ children took to books naturally. One large room at home was the library with bookcases covering its walls. Books also filled the third floor that extended over the whole house. Abraham Isaacs had inherited a very considerable library of Hebrew books from his father, who had imported many volumes from Europe. He added to these books, buying especially to assist itinerant authors until with his oldest son, Aaron, he had amassed one of the largest libraries of Hebrew books in the area. His greatest enjoyment was to spend an evening browsing through these books.
In addition, each month brought a supply of American and British magazines. Great cantors, such a Sirota, were available on records as well as Caruso and other opera stars. There was no lack of stimulating discussion and even extended argument ranging from philosophical theories to ethic problems of Conduct.
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In later postings I plan to share other sections of this book relating the life and accomplishments of Nathan Isaacs.
In an earlier posting I passed on my late father's conjecture that the woman in the painting was Aharon Tzevi's second wife. After communication with several cousins, I am convinced that he never took a second wife, and that the portrait is, in fact, Rebecca Lieberman Friedman. It seems that I was also mistaken in suggesting that the portraits were painted from life. Cousin Kit Wang produced copies of the very photographs from which the paintings were later made, and as can be seen below hers is clearly marked.
Good news for those of you who have asked about copies of the book. My daughter, Dr. Sarah Gross, did a Google search of Aaron Zebi Friedman and discovered that the Tuv Taam English text has been fully digitized and is available for all to read on Internet Archive. The link is:
The Hebrew edition of Tub Taam opens with a frontispiece adorned with Scriptural verses in a style typical of Rabbinic treatises of the period.
The border text is made up of verses 64 through 80 of chapter 119 of the Book of Psalms. It is in verse 66 that the phrase Tuv Ta'am appears - the only place in the entire Hebrew Bible where that combination of words can be found. This verse translates:
Teach me good discernment and knowledge for I have believed in Your commandments.
So here, in its only Biblical context, the expression Tuv Ta'am refers to good discernment - the ability to perceive, and judge well, proper spiritual direction and understanding. In other places in the Bible the word ta'am alone is used to mean "taste" or "reason" - referring to the discernment of both the senses and the intellectual powers.
Thus the choice of Tuv Ta'am as the title of this work refers to the reasoned, tasteful, well-discerned quality of the Divine laws of shechita - the Jewish manner of slaughtering animals for food - this in contrast to the initial observations of the ASPCA inspector.
The text in the center of the page summarizes the purpose of the book: to respond to the criticisms of the non-Jewish authorities regarding shechita, and to demonstrate the purity and painlessness of the Torah process, in contrast to the general practice of striking the animal on the head with a sharp iron instrument.
Those who are familiar with Hebrew will appreciate that the year of publication is expressed by extracting the number from the text of an appropriate rabbinic quote. In this case the year 5635 (1875) is extracted by gematria (number to letter numerology) from the Mishnah in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers):
By three things is the world sustained: law, truth and peace. As it is stated (Zachariah 8:16), "Truth, and a judgement of peace, you should administer at your gates."
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At this point in this blog, I shall be moving on to continuing the family history. If there are those who would like to have access to the complete text of Tub Taam, please let me know and perhaps I can make it available in a digitized form.
The text of the letter from the ASPCA which led to the writing of Tub Taam appears at the beginning of the English edition:
The following letter has been sent by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to Mr. Henry Westheimer.
SOCIETY PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
Rooms of the Society, No. 826 Broadway, Corner of 12th Street New York
January 9, 1866
Mr. Henry Westheimer:
Sir:
An employee in the service of this Society reports to me that the cruelty inflicted – needlessly – on dumb animals while slaughtering them at your establishment, is of the most barbarous, revolting and wicked character.
This statement has before been communicated to this Society, and it is proper that I call your attention to the fact, with a view to its immediate correction.
You are forbidden by the laws of the State, as well as that higher law of God, thus to mangle and torture His creatures.
You should, at least, so far feel for the miserable lot of the creatures which support, and in so many ways contribute to the well-being of mankind, by killing them with merciful dispatch, and in no way can this be so perfectly done as by a blow from a pointed axe on the head.
At any rate, these horrible scenes must end, and you must not suppose that the laws of this State are to be daily violated by you without responsibility any more than by any other citizen.
If you believe that there is a God in Heaven – tremble! For you may be certain that misfortune will overtake you sooner or later, for these infractions of His natural laws.
I desire to hear from you on this subject before addressing myself to the public authorities, which I shall do, if unheeded by you; but I trust that this appeal will obtain a share of that mercy and pity which you yourself will one day ask of your Maker.
The 1904 English edition of Tub Taam opens with the following "Sketch of Aaron Zebi Friedman":
Some men, modest, pious and self-sacrificing are content to spend their lives humbly but reverently working for the Holy Cause of Religion. Who shall measure their life work, the life of any one of them? No human eye notices, no human heart sympathizes, holds true of many such a life work, or life. But often when the dust of the Beth Haim covers the worker, the value of his work is realized, and when the life is spent, the value of the life is discerned.
The work and life of Aaron Zebi Friedman eminently illustrates what we have stated.
Modest, pious and self-sacrificing, he spent his life humbly but reverently working for the Holy Cause so dear to him. While his piety, self-sacrifice and scholarship were indeed recognized during his life, it is even now that the value of his work and the inspiration of his life appeal to all who admire the qualities we have named, and who understand what work and life mean in human duty.
At a very early age he was acquainted with the contents of the Bible and Talmud. Cabbalistic works were studied by him, and his controversial skill in Talmudic subjects won for him the friendship of grand Rabbi Liberman, whose daughter Rebecca he subsequently married. At the age of seventeen, he was appointed Shohet of the city of Slavisk and the neighboring county, which post he held for several years. He was then called to fill a position as Rabbi and Shochet in Bernkastle-on-the-Moselle. Here he remained several years, beloved and revered by all who knew him. During this period he studied medicine, mainly to benefit the poor, many of whom recognized in him their benefactor. Too close application to his duties impaired his health and a sea voyage to America was ordered. The whole town turned out en masse to bid their beloved Rabbi God-speed, and to the day of his death he was in correspondence with the members of his flock, who wrote to him for spiritual advice and guidance.
His letters of credentials from leading Rabbis of Europe secured for him shortly after his arrival in this country the position of supervising some of the largest abattoirs in New York. He taught many pupils Shechitah and his seal was recognized by the Orthodox Jews of New York. In 1866, The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, through its President, Mr. Henry Bergh, declared the Jewish method of slaughtering animals to be “cruelty – needlessly inflicted.” But Rabbi Friedman’s able defense in his treatise “Tub Taam” convinced the Society of the error of their judgment. “Tub Taam” was originally published in Hebrew and testimonials commending the book and indorsing the author’s careful treatment of the subject were received from leading rabbis and physicians of Europe and America. In 1876, the book was translated by Prof. Buttenweiser into English, but owing to the illness of the author, the translation was never placed on sale.
The book remains a lasting monument to his reverent love for our ancestral faith and customs; a testimony to his scholarship and an evidence of his zeal for the religion in which he was born, for whose interests he labored faithfully all his life and as a servant of which he yielded up his breath.
Shakespeare tells us that the “Evil which men do lives after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones.”
It is a satisfaction to know that the opposite is likewise true. This little book, long forgotten, rises, as it were, out of oblivion to resurrect and bless the memory of the earnest writer and the careful translator.
It had served its purpose in removing the mistaken, but sincere, opposition of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and preserved for the Orthodox Jew the right, so precious to him, of killing the animal according to the prescribed Jewish formula.
Lately the same ignorant opposition developed in Denver and it seemed as though the Jews must forego their cherished privilege of securing kosher meat.
It was then that “The American Hebrew” reprinted copious extracts from this work and forwarded it to representative Jews in Denver. The clever exposition of the subject and the invincible arguments the book contained, again carried the day, and Denver, like New York, withdrew its opposition.
It was then that the children of the writer and translator gladly availed themselves of the precious privilege of perpetuating this little work by having it reprinted. This they did, not only out of respect to the cherished memory of the dear departed ones, but also in the hope that it may continue to spread light upon this important subject and that it may in the future as in the past serve to convince Jew and Gentile alike that the Jewish dietary laws were based on broad scientific and hygienic principles.
Aaron Zebi Friedman was born in Poland, Adar 15th, 5582, (March 8th 1822), and died in New York City the 27th day of Iyar, 5636, (May 21st, 1876).
The graves of Aaron Zebi Friedman and Rebecca Liberman Friedman can be found in the Salem Fields Cemetery in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. They are located in the "Beth HaMedrisch Breuder des Bundes" section which is along Jamaica Avenue adjacent to the cemetery office.
Salem Fields is a beautifully landscaped memorial park, well-known for its architecturally notable mausoleums housing the remains of some of the wealthiest and well-known New York German-Jewish families of the last two centuries, including Guggenheims, Shuberts, Lewisohns, Marshalls, Warburgs, and many others. In contrast our Aaron and Rebecca are resting in modest plots marked by simple headstones.
Unfortunately much of Aaron's epitaph has been eroded away by a century-and-a-half of rains. What can be clearly read is his name in English at the top AARON ZEBI FRIEDMAN. After four unreadable lines (which may well have included his Hebrew name followed by a reference to his authorship of Tuv Taam), is a vertical acrostic. Except for the last line of the acrostic, only the bold initial letters survive, spelling – in three columns from top to bottom – Aharon Tzvi ben Reb Yaakov Shalom Friedmann. What faded away are the verses which likely described something about his life and character. The last horizontal line of the acrostic survives and reads: My soul is with [G-d’s] love – Among the stars – Guarding the wisdom [of Torah]. Below that appear the words: “His soul ascended to G-d on Sunday, the 12th of Iyar.” The year (5736 or 1876) is expressed numerologically as a modification of a verse in the Torah – Deuteronomy 33:19 – which results in: There the righteous [ritual] slaughterers will slaughter" (A reference to Aaron Zebi Friedman’s service as a shochet.) The acronym at the bottom stands for: May his soul be bound up in the bonds of everlasting life.
Thankfully the epitaph of our great-great grandmother Rebecca was made of a more weather-resistant stone and is completely readable. The very moving Hebrew may be translated as:
Here lies the woman, Mrs. Rivka, daughter of Rabbi Yaakov of blessed memory, wife of Reb Aharon Tzvi Friedman, who died on Sunday, the 23rd of Marcheshvan 5626 [1865]. Alas! Sudden, cruel death, you came with frightening haste. You darkened the sun at noon. You struck down this mother of babes and sucklings, and you did not ask if she were old or tender in years. Woe is me! The whimpering of the children: “Come, let us wail on the field of tears, on the grave of our mother who has gone forever, She who would scurry to protect us as the apples of her eye. We have not merited that she raise us up to the chuppah and good deeds.” Accept her soul in the bonds of everlasting life in peaceful rest among the righteous, by the decree of G-d the merciful king. May her soul be bound up in the bonds of everlasting life.
Over the coming weeks and months, we shall be sharing more and more family history through this blog. In time we would like to extend our reach to all Tuv Ta'am descendants. You can help by adding your name to the Followers list below, and by sharing this blog with your children, grandchildren and cousins with whom you have contact. It's important to keep this history alive.
