Spring 2020 Newsletter

JHSD News

The Coxe House project continues apace. The architects have submitted detailed plans for the renovations, which include making the ground floor accessible for all visitors, controlling temperature and humidity for proper storage of archival materials, and even a installing a small freight elevator for moving materials up and down between floors (the staircases of this building are steep, narrow and angular!).

OPENING SOON
Co-President Dr. Gerry Resnick and all of the board of the JHSD are looking forward to welcoming you to our future home at the Delaware Center for Jewish
History in the Coxe House.

We will hold a grand opening when the building is move-in ready and when Wilmington is COVID-19 restriction-free. A good possibility, if all goes according to plan, is spring 2021 after Shavuot and before Memorial Day.
With the new location comes added operating costs. The Board has reexamined membership categories and simplified the dues structure. Dues
will increase slightly in 2021, with the exception of student membership, which will be free of charge.
Jewish organizations and businesses are especially encouraged to support the JHSD’s mission by becoming institutional sponsors.
Finally, in light of recent events, members of JHSD’s Board of Directors would like to express our support for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color residents of the City of Wilmington, and Delaware as a whole, as they press for equality, economic justice and social reforms. In the spirit of Tikkun Olam, we pledge the following: to undertake our work with introspection, to recognize the history of structural and systemic racism in the United States, and to acknowledge and respect the diversity of the communities Jewish Delawareans call home.

Read the JHSD Spring 2020 newsletter

 

Book Signing Events, June 26, 2019

Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue: Delaware's Jewish Judges

JUSTICE, JUSTICE SHALT THOU PURSUE:
DELAWARE’S JEWISH JUDGES

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue: Delaware's Jewish JudgesJoin us for these book signing events
The Jewish Historical Society of Delaware is pleased to announce the publication of Justice, Justice Shalt Thou Pursue: Delaware’s Jewish Judges: A History based on the program presented by Richard D. Levin at the JHSD Annual Meeting. The story of Delaware’s Jewish Judges spans 118 years and offers biographical sketches of thirty-eight remarkable men and women from Delaware’s Jewish community who have served in the Delaware Judiciary.

$10 trade paperback

DELAWARE HISTORY MUSEUM
504 North Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19802

Noon-2:00 PM

SIEGEL JCC 
101 Garden of Eden Road
Wilmington, DE 19803

5:00-8:00 PM

JHSD Annual Meeting and Program

Annual Meeting April 23, 2014 at 7:30 PM at Siegel JCC

reserve a seat todayJoin us at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 at the Siegel Jewish Community Center for the launch of the JHSD’s newest publication. This attractive volume is an artful translation of poems written by Rabbi Simon Krinsky and originally published in Yiddish in 1936.  This work, is now available to a wider audience in the skillful and sensitive translations of Rabbi Edward Zerin.

The JHSD program will feature Rabbi Peter Grumbacher who will introduce the book and Yiddish scholar, Ruth Fisher Goodman, will read selected poems. Archivist Gail Pietrzyk will talk about the adventure of transcontinental proofreading with Rabbi Zerin.

Copies of A Tribute to my Teacher Rabbi Simon Krinsky will be available at the program. Continue reading “JHSD Annual Meeting and Program”

New JHSD publication

A Tribute to my Teacher Rabbi Simon Krinsky: His Poetry until 1936A Tribute to my Teacher Rabbi Simon Krinsky:
His Poetry until 1936

Now Available

Sixty poems in Yiddish with English translations

Rabbi Simon Krinsky was born in Poland and ordained in Palestine. In 1931 he came to Wilmington, Delaware with his growing family to begin his career—twelve years as Principal of the Adas Kodesh Hebrew School followed by twenty years at Temple Beth Emeth as Principal of its Hebrew Department. In all, Rabbi Krinsky served every Jewish congregation in the State of Delaware, filling in for the local rabbis when they were on vacation, teaching the Bar/Bat Mitzvah students for the congregation in Dover and upon his retirement as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Newark, Delaware.
Rabbi Simon Raphael Krinsky was beloved by his congregation and by his students. When he retired Temple Beth Emeth named him Scholar for Life.

The Jewish Historical Society of Delaware is pleased to publish this volume of Rabbi Krinsky’s poems in a dual-language edition.  Originally published in Yiddish, these moving poems have been sensitively translated by Rabbi Edward Zerin.

TRADE PAPERBACK $9.95
194 PAGES
STANDARD SHIPPING $3.50
An additional fee of .55 is charged to place your order using PayPal.
This charge offsets the cost of accepting PayPal and credit card payments.
If you mail a check to the JHSD please make your payment in the amount of $13.45.

Please contact the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware for pricing of wholesale purchases, international shipping and other questions.

An e-book edition of this work will be available shortly.

About the Translator

Rabbi Edward ZerinRabbi Edward Zerin was ordained at Hebrew Union College in 1946. He has been a faculty member of Drake University, Grinnell College, and Boston University. He is the author of nine books, including Jewish San Francisco: From the Gold Rush to Today (2006), and The Birth of the Torah (1962). Rabbi Zerin has a long and distinguished record of Jewish history writing and consulting.

Advance Reviews

Rabbi Edward Zerin’s poetic translations are moving tribute to his teacher and mentor Rabbi Simon Krinsky. These poems represent a wide range of sensitivity, feeling and emotions, romance and pessimism. Rabbi Krinsky calls us to a concern for social justice and fairness to all. At the same time he conducts a conversation with the Jewish tradition. The translations are a pleasure to read preserving the spirit of the original. This volume should find a place in Jewish homes and libraries everywhere.

Paul Howard Hamburg, Librarian for Judaica,
Yiddish and Israel Studies, University of California—Berkeley

What Rabbi Krinsky, a Hebrew educator with a poetic soul composed in Yiddish Rabbi Zerin shaped into a sensitive English. It is a pleasure to read these poems in both languages.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Bringing together the Yiddish poetry of Rabbi Krinsky, written during the Great Depression, and the English translation by his student Rabbi Zerin 80 years later is a tribute to two great teachers and scholars. Rabbi Krinsky was able to treat ordinary events and nature in a wonderful rhyming pattern. Rabbi Zerin bridges the gap of being true to the meaning of the Yiddish words and converting it into English in a masterful way. This side-by-side printing is both a learning and inspirational approach. In my opinion, this book ranks in the top ten percent of books like it. It will make a great gift.

Philip “Fishl” Kutner—Founder and editor of Der Bay