CJH - Virtual Treasures

Virtual Treasures

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Important web content is sometimes overlooked or given low rank by search engines. I have found some of these objects by searching, going far beyond the first 20 or even 50 search results. Or, as I did today, when searching for one thing I find a treasure that I soon learn is not easily found. That's how I found the menu for the famous "Trefa Dinner" held in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883.

An annotated link for this hard-to-find content will let you find it easily. Further, search engines that index these "gems" will, I believe, give them higher rank, helping all web users find them more easily. True, these links aren't related to Cleveland Jewish History, but they are worth a visit.

Trefa Dinner Menu

The July 11, 1883 banquet in Cincinnati to honor the first ordination class of Hebrew Union College included non-kosher food: clams, crabs and more. News of this "trefa dinner", with food forbidden by ancient Jewish customs, spread quickly and widely.

Images of the four page menu were furnished to the Ohio Memory website by the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.

In the Journal of the American Jewish Archives Lance J. Sussman, writes:

Ironically and sadly, a celebration in honor of the first ordination class of the Hebrew Union College (HUC), which was supposed to signal a new era of intrafaith cooperation among American Jews, instead proved to be a call to arms and contributed to the permanent factionalization of American Jewish religious life.

To read "The Myth of the Trefa Banquet", click here. [pdf]

Link added July 28, 2008

Special Treasures From the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary

Beautiful virtual exhibits of some of the world's oldest Jewish books, from the greatest Jewish library in the Western Hemisphere.

Link added August 5, 2008

more to come