קהילת יהודי ארה"ב ארצות הברית של אמריקה

Moses Aaron Dropsie (1821-1905), lawyer, businessman and philanthropist, born to a Dutch-Jewish father and a Christian mother. He converted to Judaism at the age of 14 and went on to become a firm advocate of traditional Judaism. He began life as a store-boy, later learned watchmaking, and afterward at the age of 28 studied law under Benjamin Harris Brewster. After his admission to the bar in 1851 he took an active interest in public affairs, was the candidate of the Whig party for mayor of the Northern Liberties district of Philadelphia, PA, in 1852, and, like most members of the party, was strongly opposed to slavery.

Dropsie was instrumental in the development of railways in Philadelphia; and after acting as president of the Lombard and South Street Passenger Railroad (1862-1882), he became in 1888 president of the Green and Coates Street Passenger Railroad. In 1870 he became chairman of the commission appointed by the legislature for the construction of a bridge over the Schuylkill River.

Dropsie took a deep interest in Jewish charitable and educational work. He was a director of the Hebrew Fuel Society, a member of the board of "adjunta" (directors) of the Sephardi Congregation Mikve Israel. He was one of the charter members, and for more than forty years, an officer of the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia. Dropsie was president of the short-lived Maimonides College, the first Jewish theological seminary in America, from 1867 to 1873. He believed that its failure was due to the refusal of the leaders of the New York Jewish Community to help to finance it. He was president of the Philadelphia branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle from 1883 and of Gratz College, America's first Jewish college, since its foundation in 1893. He left his fortune to the creation of Dropsie College, the world's only institution exclusively dedicated to post-doctoral research on Jewish Civilization.

Owing to failing eyesight, Dropsie in 1885 retired from the practice of the law. He translated and edited Mackeldey's Handbook of the Roman Law  (1883), and in addition published (1892) a separate work on The Roman Law of Testaments, Codicils, and Gifts in the Event of Death ("Mortis Causa Donationes").

Moses Levy (1757-1826), US judge, the first Jew to be born in America and to qualify as a lawyer there. His father, Samson Levy, was one of the few Jewish plantation owners in the entire South and owned as many as five slave ships. Despite this fact, he was also an abolitionist and published a pamphlet against slavery, during an extended stay in London.

Levy Moses was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1772. He was admitted to the bar in 1778; from 1802 to 1822 he was recorder of Philadelphia; and from 1822 to 1825, presiding judge of the district court for the city and county of Philadelphia. At one time he was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and he was a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania for twenty-four years. At one time he was considered for he position of Attorney General of the United States.

Daniel Rogov (?1930-2011), food and wine critic, raconteur and journalist, born as David Joroff in the USA. Immediately after completing high school at the age of 15 he went to Paris, France. It was love at first sight in the French capital. Rogov was drawn to the cafes and quickly learned to appreciate French wines and cuisine. He began his journalistic career in Paris by writing articles about food and wine for American magazines and newspapers. He also spent time in Florence, Italy. In later years he wrote in French for magazines in France and Switzerland, and appeared on television programs as an expert on food.

He moved to Israel in 1978 and began writing for the Jerusalem Post, quickly establishing himself as the leading wine expert in Israel. He started writing for the Haaretz newspaper in 1984. Rogov was the author of The Rogov Guide to Israeli Wine, an annual study of the year's best vintner selections. Rogov contributed to Johnson's Pocket Wine Book, and the Tom Stevenson wine report, and managed the Wine Lovers Page website. He was interested not only in the food and the wine but in the wine makers, the vintners and the chefs with whom he spend long hours discussing the quality of grapes, the bouquet of the wine, the ingredients used to bring out the flavor in a particular dish or the ideas that went into the presentation. He liked to write about the ambience of a restaurant, which was no less important than the taste of the food. He was known in coffee shops and restaurants all over the country, but his favorite meeting spot was a coffee shop in Basel Street, not far from his apartment in Tel Aviv. He also wrote a book, Rogues, Writers & Whores: Dining With the Rich & Infamous, in which he related stories about culinary habits and dishes that had been named for royalty, writers, composers, military heroes and courtesans. Nobody was able to check the accuracy of the tales described in the book, but whether they were true or not is immaterial.

He incurred much wrath for writing about non-kosher food but he did a tremendous service for Israel’s wine industry by writing about the high quality of Israeli kosher wines, which improved enormously from year to year and have won gold medals in international competitions for wine in general.

Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976), singer, musician.

Born in Perlenberg near Hamburg, Germany. She studied singing and her first role was at the Hamburg Opera in 1910. She later left to Vienna where she became a member of the Wiener Staatsoper (then Hofoper) in 1916. She remained in Vienna for 23 years. Lehmann sang in the role of Forbersfrau at the world premiere of "Frau ohne Schatten" by Richard Strauss. From 1922 on she went on music tours through Europe and the USA gaining international fame. Lehman performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1934 and 1935, and at the Salzburg Festival from 1928 to 1935, where she sang under the conductor Arturo Toscanini. After rhe rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, she was ordered to sing only in her native country - Germany. After her refusal she left Germany while on tour in Austria.

Following the Anschluss (1938), she left Austria and the Vienna Opera and immigrated to the USA. She performed in operas until 1946, and sang in recitals until 1951, when she gave her farewell performance at the New York Town Hall. She taught at Masterclasses for singing until her 73rd birthday (1961), and a year later she directed the "Rosenkavalier" by Richard Strauss at the Metropolitan Opera, her last performance.

Cyrus Adler (1863-1940), scholar and tireless worker for the Jewish community, born in Van Buren, a small town in Arkansas, USA, the son of a cotton planter. After the death of his father Adler and his family moved to Pennsylvania, where he was influenced by his uncle and cousin and as a result came to love Jewish tradition and scholarship. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and went on to obtain a Ph.D. Degree from John Hopkins University in 1887.

Between 1887 and 1893 he taught Semitic languages at John Hopkins becoming an assistant professor in 1890. From 1892 he was librarian at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, with a particular interest in Semitics and archeology. Between 1908 and 1940 he was president of the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning and also Chancellor of the Theological Seminary of America and, under Solomon Schechter, he played an active part in the institution's reorganization. In 1905 he was chairman of the Board of trustees and when Schechter died in 1915, Adler became acting president of the Seminary. In 1924 he was elected full president. While insisting on the maintenance of high standards of academic excellence, he was also responsible for constructing the Seminary's new buildings.

He wrote many articles on comparative religion and Semitic languages and was a contributor to the "New International Encyclopedia", an editor of the "Jewish Encyclopedia" and a member of the committee which translated the Jewish Publication Society's version of the Hebrew Bible, published in 1917. He edited the first seven volumes of the "American Jewish Yearbook" (1899-1905). Between 1910 and 1940 he was editor of the "Jewish Quarterly Review".

Adler was one of the founders of the Jewish Welfare Board and also of the Jewish Publication Society, where he was chairman of various committees for many years. In 1892 he helped to found the Jewish Historical Society and served as its president for over 20 years. A joint founder of the American Jewish Committee in 1906, he was elected chairman of its executive board in 1915 in which capacity he represented the committee at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. In 1913 he was one of the founders of the United Synagogue of America and served as its president. Adler's views on Zionism were ambigious and this limited his relationships with the leaders of American Zionism and the leaders of American traditional Judaism.

Max Auschnitt (1888-1959), (also known as Auschnit and Ausnit) industrialist, born in Galati, Romania. He was educated at the Commercial Academy of Vienna, Austria.

Auschnitt was the owner of the Uzinele de Fier si Domeniile Resita (UDR), the largest public company in Romania before WW2 that had 16,669 employees in 1938 and 22,892 in 1948. Along with his brother Edgar, he also owned the Titan-Nădrag-Călan company that in 1938 had over 4,900 employees. Auschnitt was Vice-President of the Union of the Romanian Industrialists, President of the Union of Industrialists of Banat - a region in south-west Romania, and Senator of Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Galati. He also was a director of numerous Romanian and foreign companies, including the Societatea Romana de Telefoane ("The Romanian Phone Company") and Banca Chrissoveloni ("Chrissoloveni Bank"). He also was a close friend of the Romanian King Carol II, until he was forced to flee Romania in 1940. During the Holocaust, Auschnitt took refuge in the US where he remained until his death. All his properties were confiscated by the Communist regime of Romania in 1948.

Henry Hurwitz (1886-1961), editor and educator, born in Butrimonys, Lithuania (then part of the Russian Empire). His family immigrated to the United States in 1891, and he attended Boston and Gloucester, Massachusetts public schools; he received his BA from Harvard University in 1908 and continued his education at the Harvard Law and Business School obtaining an MA in 1911, with a specialty in diplomacy and international law.

In 1906 Hurwitz and several other Jewish students at Harvard met and organized the Harvard Menorah Society for the Study and Advancement of Jewish Culture and Ideals. After receiving his master's degree, Hurwitz continued with the promotion of the Menorah idea and in 1913 helped to establish the Intercollegiate Menorah Association (IMA) which expanded the objectives of the Harvard Menorah Society to a national scale. Henry Hurwitz served as chancellor, a position which he was to retain throughout his career.

At its height there were Menorah societies throughout the country, and the many Menorah-sponsored activities included the Menorah Board of Lecturers, the Menorah Summer School, and the Menorah Educational Conference. In 1915, the IMA founded the bi-monthly "Menorah Journal". The "Menorah Journal" was designed to serve as the academic exponent of Jewish culture and ideals in America. Hurwitz was an opponent of political Zionism and believed that American Jewry was a unique entity whose future depended on the development of special American Jewish tradition. Through the publication of the best and most informative articles produced in Jewish history, religion, literature, and modern life, the journal aimed to stimulate an awareness of an interest in Jewish issues, to discuss Jewish problems from all points of view, and to encourage Jewish writers and artists to find themselves within their Jewish heritage. In 1924, a Menorah Writers and Artists Fund was established to sustain the Menorah Journal as the medium for publishing the writings of Jewish thinkers and artists. With the rise of Nazism in the 1930's, the Journal published contributions written by many refugee writers and artists. In 1963, The "Menorah Journal" was officially closed down and the Menorah Association dissolved.

In 1928, Henry Hurwitz helped to organize the Federation of Lithuanian Jews of America. The Federation also hoped to build a bridge between the American Jews of Lithuanian descent and their kinsmen in Lithuania and thus establish a type of cultural exchange for the benefit of both. Hurwitz was elected as the first president of the Federation, a position which he held through 1936. Henry Hurwitz also participated in various other organizations including the American Jewish Congress, the World Union of Jewish Students (of which he as president in 1929), and the Overseas Press Club.

Oszkar Jaszi (1875-1957), political scientist, born in Nagykaroly, Hungary (then part of Austria-Hungary, now Carei in Romania). Jaszi was converted to Christianity by his parents. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Budapest in 1896.

Jaszi was concerned with the problem of national minorities and argued that these minorities should be granted full cultural and social autonomy. However, later he believed that the question of Russian Jewry could be resolved only by the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. He advocated that the Jews of Hungary should assimilate. He was editor of the radical periodical "Huszadik Szazad" ("Twentieth Century") from 1906 to 1919. In 1912 he published "A nemzeti allamok kialakulasa es a nemzetisegi kerdes" ("The Evolution of the Nation States and the Nationality Problem"). The same year Jaszi was appointed to a junior position in the faculty of political science at the University of Kolozsvar (now Cluj, in Romania).

Jaszi believed that after World War I the countries of central Europe should unite into a confederation. In 1917 he therefore participated in the conference held in Bern, Switzerland where, convinced that the entry of the United States into the War spelled disaster for the Central European Powers, he urged that Hungary make peace with Germany jointly with other countries or separately. When the Hungarian people, stripped of all possessions after four years of war, seethed with discontent, Jaszi urged King Charles IV to introduce immediate reforms. A memorandum to this effect was unheeded, and toward the end of October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed. In 1918, following the revolution, Jaszi was made minister of national minorities. He recognized the right of the Jews to national self-determination and also attempted to negotiate a permanent settlement with the national minorities within the Hungarian Republic.

When the Hungarian Soviet regime came to power in 1919, Jaszi left Hungary for Vienna and then Munich,Germany, from where he published a history of the revolution in Hungary, "Magyar kalvaria – Magyar foltamadas" ("Revolution and Counter Revolution in Hungary"). In 1925 he immigrated to the United States, where he lectured at Oregon College, Ohio, and became professor of political science in 1941.

Jaszi was the author of numerous works on politics and political science including "A tortenelmi materializmus allambolcselete" ("History of Historical Materialism", 1904); and "The Dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy" (1929).

Jacob Isaacs (1730-1798), US inventor who lived in Newport, Rhode Island. In 1759 he was one of the signatories of a letter sent to the Shearith Israel Congregation in New York to thank them for their assistance in building the synagogue in Newport. In 1783 he made an offer to build ships and invested a method of desalination of sea water.

Freimann, Aron (1871-1948), scholar and historian, born in Filehne, Poznan, the son of the town's rabbi. In 1898 he began to work in the municipal library of Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and largely due to his efforts the library boasted one of the best collections of Judaica and Hebraica in the world. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, he was dismissed from is position and emigrated to the USA. From 1939 to 1945 he worked as a consultant to the New York Public Library.

Freimann was the author of many books and articles. He produced a complete catalogue of the Judaica collection in the Frankfurt library. He was unable to complete a similar catalogue of the Hebrew books there. Between 1900 and 1922 he was the editor of the journal "Zeitschrift fuer Hebraische Bibliographie" in which many of his bibliographic articles appeared. Amongst his works were "Geschichte der Israelitischen Gemeinde Ostrowo" (1896); a history of the Jews of Frankfurt (1929); "Inyanei Shabbetai Zv"i (1912), and was co-editor of "Germania Judaica", a collection of monographs of medieval German Jewish communities.

Freimann was active in German Jewish communal life and educational institutions.