(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Professor David Jacob Simonsen, former Chief Rabbi of Denmark, celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday in Copenhagen. He was the recipient of many messages of congratulation from Jewish bodies in Denmark and abroad. The Danish B’nai Brith Lodge gave a banquet in his honor, at which the speakers included William Nathan, former president of the lodge, Emil Jacob, president, and Chief Rabbi Friediger.
Professor Simonsen was born in Copenhagen in 1853, son of the banker, Jacob Simonsen. After graduating at Copenhagen University, he studied at the Rabbinical Seminary in Breslau under Frankel and Graetz. In 1879 he became assistant to Chief Rabbi Wolff, being the first Danish-born rabbi of the Copenhagen congregation. On Chief Rabbi Wolff’s death in 1891, Simonsen was unanimously chosen to succeed him as Chief Rabbi of Denmark. He was Chief Rabbi for eleven years, resigning his office in 1902, on which occasion King Christian IX. conferred upon hm the honorary title of professor.
It was due to him and Moses Melchior, then president of the Copenhagen Jewish Community that King Frederick VIII. of Denmark decided in 1907 to intervene with Czar Nicholas on behalf of the Jews of Russia.
The parents of Yehudi Menuhin, famous boy violinis, have signed a nine year contract with the Victor Talking Machine Co. This contract calls for a minimum of four annual selections during the first three years, and then a minimum of six selections annually during the following six years. The selections for the current year have already been recorded by Yehudi in the Oakland, California, plant of the Victor Talking Machine Company.
A joint campaign for the United Palestine Appeal and the United Jewish Campaign was concluded in Erie, Pennsylvania, with $6,000 raised. Milton Schaffner was chairman of the drive.
A dinner at a restaurant on the Place de I’Opera was given Friday night by Mr. and Mrs. Walter P. May of Pittsburgh on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary. The sixty-four guests who joined in the celebration were brought by Mr. and Mrs. May to Paris to the celebation. At the banquet the guests were presented with jewelled gifts. Not since pre-war days has Paris witnessed such a lavish entertainment, the dinner and the trip will cost Mr. May about $100,000 it was stated.
Mr. May, known as the “drugstore king,” paid the expenses of his sixty-four friends on a trans-Atlantic liner and their hotel, sightseeing and theatre expenses in France stipulating that they “should not be allowed to spend a dime” on their trip. Among the guests are Mr. and Mrs. Isidore. Rothstein Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Steinfirst, Dr, and Mrs. Samuel H. Goldenson of Pittsburgh, Mrs. Jonas Rice, Stanley Rice of Philadelphia, and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Heilbroner of New York.
Max Epstein of Chicago was revealed as the anonymous connoisseur who acquired a Botticelli masterpiece at Munich for $235,000.
Interviewed in Cherbourg before his departure for home, the president of the General American Tank Car Company confirmed the purchase.
The Jewish Immigrant Aid Society of Canada will tender a banquet to Lyon Cohen on Monday, May 14, on the occasion of his sixtieth anniversary.
Mr. Cohen is the honorary President of the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, the President of the Jewish Colonizatoin Association, Canadian Committee, and the Honorary President of the Federation of Jewish Philanthroples.
A novel plan to raise funds for the erection of a new temple center for Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, Des Moines, lows, has been adopted.
The plan, formulated by Joseph I. Brody, vice president of the congregation, is the B’nai Jeshurun Temple Trust.
Mr. H. Cohen, Morris Mandelbaum and Nate Frankel have been named trustees, and the Bankers Trust company has been designated as the depository for the trust fund.
The declaration of trust directs the trustees to invest and reinvest the trust fund including income and accumulations in bonds or mortgages.
The trust is to be held intact until officials of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun notify the trustees that a new temple is about to be erected, and that the money on hand plus the amount of the trust fund, will cover the cost of the new edifice.
The trust provides that if the congregation fails to build the new temple within a certain period, the accumulated funds shall go to the Hebrew Union college at Cincinnat?, Ohio.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
