Our New York Letter

The Chicago Chronicle, December 26, 1924

The American press carried the names of four Jewish men who passed away within a fortnight: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor; Julius Kahn, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the House of Representatives; August Belmont, millionaire subway builder and sportsman; Dr. David Neumark, Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati; and a fifth, a stranger within our gates, Rabbi Isaac Friedman, exalted king of the Sadagora court.

That August Belmont, although not a Jew in name was a Jew in origin, is known. When the provisions of his will, disposing of a fortune of from twenty to forty million dollars were made public, it was clear that his interest in racing surpassed all other interests. No sum of any considerable importance was bequeathed by him to any public fund.

The line of demarcation between the Schoenberg family, from which he descended, and the Rothschild family, whom his father represented in America, is distinctly drawn by the provisions of this will.

The sportsmanship of August Belmont was much spoken of in the metropolitan press. The sportsmanship of Rabbi Isaac Friedman is less known. A few paragraphs on the subject will be of interest.

A drama of deep human concern came to a tragic conclusion with the death on East Broadway of the young Sadagora Rabbi.

In the history of the Hassidic movement, the name “Rabbi of Sadagora” is an outstanding one.

Hassidism, originally a movement of the common people with many elements of revolutionary attempt and protest against the stagnation of form and contents in Jewish life of the eighteenth century, based its conception on simplicity of life and insisted on once again introducing enthusiasm and love into Jewish life. God has to be worshipped not in fear of punishment, but in admiration of his majesty, out of love for the Creator, out of the feeling of nearness of the omnipotent and omnipresent Supreme Power.

Insisting on freedom of social intercourse, on real fellowship and brotherhood and joint, joyous worship, Hassidism, at the time, introduced the cult of the leader, the power of personality. The struggle which the leaders of the Hassidic movement had with the old established Rabbinical authorities soon brought about with the Hassidic leaders a drastic change: they drifted from simplicity to asceticism.

Israel Ryschiner, grandfather of Rabbi Isaac Friedman, and descendent of the founders of the Hassidic movement, then revolutionized Hassidic life. Asceticism is not necessary for gaining happiness in this world, or nearness to the omnipotent power. Luxury is conducive to joy, joy is the state of mind necessary for real nearness to God, was the theory he introduced into practice.

A palace, surpassing the castles of the Russian and Polish nobility in the vicinity, was erected in Ryschin, a little town in Podol. A court in royal grandeur was maintained. When the “Ryschiner” had to journey, a courtage of sixteen horses was employed, a luxury enjoyed by only the richest landowners and nobility in Imperial Russia. The period being the time immediately after the French Revolution, the Russian Government, in fear of a revolutionary movement, sensed danger in the “royal behavior” of the Hassidic Rabbi. Arrested, released and again arrested, the royal Rabbi succeeded in transferring his court and establishing his grandeur in Sadagora, then Austria.

Sadagora, a small town, was soon famous as the seat of the Sadagora Court. The fate of many Jewish communities in Galicia and the provinces near the Austro-Russian frontier was dependent upon the orders of the Sadagora “court.” Attacks of great intensity were made against the prestige and power of the Sadagora Hassidic ruler, but Sadagora remained in power. In fact Sadagora, on the death of Rabbi Israel, branched out into several sections, growing with the number of descendants of the dynasty. The World War checked this unique development of Hassidic royalty.

Ten years after Austria’s ultimatum to Serbia, the Rabbi of Sadagora dies on East Broadway in poverty, and congregations seek arbitration before a Rabbinical court as to which should be permitted to bury him, so that a number of high-priced graves might be reserved.