Peter Pan Prevails

I'm not much for academia. What do you call a 55 year old man who has spent his life with 18year olds, Peter Pan. New York City's Fordham University, a Jesuit Institution, recently cancelled an appearance by Ann Coulter. Until I read about the cancellation, I never realized that Fordham was Jesuit. I know that Muhlenberg College is Lutheran, but I also know it's about the only place in Allentown to get a good bowl of matzo ball soup. After their Republican Club announced Coulter's appearance, University President Joseph McShane used the Jesuit card. He expressed hope that the student body wouldn't stand idly by while such a demoness spoke. The Republican Club was forced to cancel her, to spare the speaker from being ambushed. One of the highest voter turnouts in Allentown last Tuesday was at Muhlenberg, students are engaged and curious. Fordham's President did his students a disservice.

A Tailor from North Street

The Allentown Housing and Development Corp. recently purchased a home at 421 North St. That block of North Street was destroyed by fire, and the agency has built a block of new houses on the street's south side; it will next develop the other side of the street. The deed transfer caught my attention because Morris Wolf lived in the house in 1903. Wolf signed up with the Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry on July 18, 1861, in Philadelphia, when he was 22 years old. He was a private in Company A, of the 3rd Cavalry. This unit was also known as the 60th Regiment and was later called Young's Kentucky Light Cavalry.It defended Washington, D.C., until March 1862, then participated in many of the war's most famous battles: Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. Wolf had signed up for three years and was mustered out Aug. 24,1864.

Recently, to commemorate Memorial Day, the local veterans group placed more than 500 flags at Fairview Cemetery. If that wasn't enough of a good deed, the group also set upright more than 300 toppled grave markers. Visiting Fairview recently, I saw they had not overlooked the graves of either Mr. Wolf, or another veteran, Joseph Levine. I have concerned myself with Allentown's Fairview Cemetery for the last few years. I first became interested in the small Jewish section, called Mt. Sinai. This was the first organized Jewish cemetery in Allentown. Currently, all the synagogues have their own cemeteries, and Mt. Sinai has been mostly unused for many decades.

Mr. Wolf lies next to his wife, Julia, who died in 1907. Morris would live on for 30 more years, passing away in 1937, at age 98.
Mr. Levine, a World War II veteran, and his wife, Ethel, were the first and last people to be buried there after almost 25 years of inactivity. When Ethel died at age 93 in 2000, it was the first burial at Mt. Sinai since 1976. Joseph was 103 years old when he passed away in 2006.

The Housing and Development Corp. and North Street are now part of Allentown's new neighborhood initiative called Jordan Heights.Although soon there will be a new house at 421 North St., there is a history that will remain with the parcel. Once a tailor lived there who fought in the Battle of Gettysburg.

reprinted from November 2011

Hurricane Sandy Tree Fund

My post for last Monday revealed the devastation Hurricane Sandy wrought on the trees of our park system. Early in the week I visited the Park Department, leaving a message that I wanted to establish an independent tree fund to help address some of this damage.

   Although City Officials never responded to my message, last night Friends Of The Parks sent me an advanced copy of their new initiative.  Students of this blog know that for my taste, I find that group too cozy with the Administration.  However, I will put the trees first, and inform my readers that Friends has now established a Hurricane Sandy Fund, they can also be reached at 610 432-7275.

A Modern Inquisition

The leadership of some mainstream Christian Churches, including the Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran Dominations, have sent a letter to the United States Congress asking that aid to Israel be curtailed because of Israel's maltreatment of the Palestinians. Ironically, the groups most endangered in the middle east because of their religion, are the Christians.* Copts are fleeing Egypt for their lives, Christians have fled Iraq for their lives, and the Christian sects in Syria will be endangered when Assad falls. Mainstream Jewish groups are finally beginning to be fed up with their Christian counterparts, no longer trying to explain and justify Israel's preference for survival in a hostile part of the world. Today, 20 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. The church leaders should concern themselves with the fate of Christians in the Arab world, on that they remain almost silent. The Photograph is of a church burning in Egypt.

*Because of Israel, the Jews can defend themselves,and the Christians in Israel.

The Night of Broken Glass

In 1938, on the nights of November 9 and 10, the Nazis whipped up anti-Jewish riots in a pogrom now known as Kristallnacht.


During these two nights, synagogues were set on fire and thousands of Jewish shop windows were broken.



Ninety one Jews were killed. 30,000 were arrested and taken to camps, a harbinger of the Holocaust.

Pawlowski's Freakout

Although President Obama won handily in Allentown, there are a few polling places where Republican and conservative candidates are in play. One of those bastions is the 17th Ward, 3th District, conducted at Sons Of Israel Synagogue. Although one of highest turnout polling places in Allentown, Obama won by less than 30 votes. Voters arriving there witnessed an unusual sight, the mayor of Allentown trying to disenfranchise their right to petition. Pawlowski told the press that he was concerned that the water lease opponents were being deceptive about his proposal.

"We have gotten reports that circulators are telling people that the city will be selling the plants," Pawlowski said in a statement. "We have spent nearly four months educating people about a proposed lease/concession. We can't allow a distortion of the facts. We are seeking to make sure that individuals are getting the correct information."

I have no doubt that the petition circulators were following the letter of the law. They are well aware of the administration's scrutiny and actions against their effort. In regard to distortion, Pawlowski should tell the voters that the lease will not expire until their grandchildren need a nursing home.