Yom Kippur Ball, invented 15th of September, 1888 at the Berner Street Club

[seanr]

The Yom Kippur balls were anti-religion events held by Jewish radicals. Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement and is typically austere focussing on the holiest day of on repentance, forgiveness, and seeking atonement for sins. Therefore, the marking of Yom Kippur as a lavish entertainment was offense to Orthodox Jewish tastes. From Wikipedia:

The Yom Kippur balls were countercultural, antireligious festivities held by Jewish anarchists and socialists on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year and day of atonement. Revelers sang, danced, ate, and heard speeches from famous anarchists. The tradition began in England in 1888 and, under the Pioneers of Liberty, recurred annually from New York the year after. By 1891, six other American cities held their own balls.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur_balls (emphasis mine)

The source from Wikipedia is Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Portraits. United States: Princeton University Press, 1988, pp. 291. I don't have this source, but it was reprinted in 2020.

The invention of this ball is credited to London, but the format was quickly exported to New York by the following year (was there some connection between Jewish radicals in London and those in New York?*). Confirmation that it was the Berner Street club that held the first of these balls can be found in

The Workers' Friend, the Hebrew Socialist paper of this week, announces that as a protest against the Jewish religion, and the Day of Atonement the Jewish Socialists and Free-thinkers have organised a banquet for to-morrow, which will take place at the International Working Men's Club. Speeches will be delivered in various languages. The announcement has caused much excitement amongst the orthodox Jews, and it is rumoured that a disturbance may take place at the banquet. If so the members of the International Working Men's Club state that they are prepared, and the aid of the police will not be called in to assist in quelling it.

This banquet is unprecedented in Jewish history in the East End of London.

Cork Examiner - Saturday 15 September 1888, page 2

This was precisely two weeks before Elizabeth Stride was murdered in the Yard of the International Working Men's Club. I note the notion that the club members were willing to enforce their own security, without the aid of the Police.

Are old editions of the Arbeter Fraint archived? - it might be interesting to find the original announcement. I'm a little surprised that I had not heard about this before, the intention (and effect) of the Balls was to create tension with the Orthodox community.

* Hinty hinty hint hint, hint hint hint.

[Paddy Goose]

Interesting that.

... old editions of the Arbeter Fraint...

Here's one - https://forum.casebook.org/forum/rip...-fraint-s-take

[bonestrewn]

Hi, Sean!

This is so fascinating, and I'd never heard of anything like this. I did a quick search and found an article called "A Tempest in Three Teapots: Yom Kippur Balls in London, New York, and Montreal" by Rebecca E. Margolis in Canadian Jewish Studies vol 9 (2001).

She mentions that multiple editors of the Berner St. publication, which she spells as Arbayter Fraynd, moved back and forth between London and New York (she names Johann/Joseph Most and Philip Krantz in particular), and that the publication, prior to the founding of local NY Yiddish publications, "served as the main Yiddish organ of socialist and anarchist propaganda among American anarchists." So it appears there were direct links and active communication between the two immigrant/political communities.

[seanr]

Interesting that.
Here's one - https://forum.casebook.org/forum/rip...-fraint-s-take

The translated section contains a reference to the Yom Kippur ball, and points out the significance of both locations of the Double Event murders having significance to the local Jewish community (the Radicals at the Berner Street Club and the Great Synagogue).

All doubt also disappears that there must be more than one murderer, otherwise they would not be mad men and would have to have a reason for these murders.
One can also not accept the opinions of our little Jews who began with the first murder to assert that G-d was doing this to punish the Socialists, because they gorged themselves on Yom Kippur. Unfortunately for them, the second murder, even more gruesome than the first, occurred near the Duke Place Synagogue, where Dr. Adler gives his vacuous sermons.

[Kattrup]

The Berner Street Club achieved its objective, and caused the more traditional Jews to protest:

The Star, 17th September 1888:

A Feast on a Fast Leads to a Riot.


While the orthodox Jews of the East-end were on Saturday celebrating the Day of Atonement by fasting and prayer, the Socialist and Freethinking Hebrews held a banquet at the International Working Men's Club, Berner-street, where speeches were made pointing out that the miseries and degradation of the people were not due to any Divine power, but that they were caused by the capitalists, who monopolised all the means of production and paid starvation wages. The orthodox Jews took great umbrage at this banquet, and assembled in Berner-street in great numbers. The windows of the club were smashed, and when three of the men in the club went out to secure the man who did the damage, they were very roughly handled, till about a hundred of their colleagues went to their assistance. The police subsequently dispersed the mob, and guarded the club till a late hour.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

https://www.casebook.org/press_reports/irish_times/18881001.html#:~:text=Mrs%20Lewis%2C%20wife,on%20last%20night.%22

[seanr]

https://www.casebook.org/press_repor...st%20night.%22

Good spot. Especially the detail about

women and girls are brought there.

There's also this from Mrs Mortimer, who initially thought the commotion at the club was 'another row'. https://www.casebook.org/press_repor...b%20close%20by.

[NotBlamedForNothing]

Good spot. Especially the detail about

Thanks

There's also this from Mrs Mortimer, who initially thought the commotion at the club was 'another row'. https://www.casebook.org/press_repor...b%20close%20by.

A commotion suggests a relatively large number of people - more than 2 or 3. According to Fanny, this was just after 1am.

Eagle: Her feet were about six or seven feet from the gate, and she was lying by the side of the club wall, her head being towards the yard. Another member, named Isaac, was with me at the time. As soon as I saw the blood I got very excited and ran away for the police.

It does not seem Eagle was part of any commotion, so I presume Diemschitz turned into Berner St at 1am at the very latest, and probably more like 12:55. Just that 5 minutes is enough to cause havoc with timelines.

[The Rookie Detective]

The Berner Street Club achieved its objective, and caused the more traditional Jews to protest:

The Star, 17th September 1888:

There was indeed a particular and real hatred between various factions of the Jewish community.


But how does that possibly relate to the murders?...

Well...



Stride - murdered outside a Jewish socialist/radicalist club. (A gentile who herself spoke Yiddish and worked for the Jewish community)

Eddowes - murdered in Mitre Square (another gentile who worked within the Jewish community) but was seen by Lawrende standing yards from the Great Synagogue; the Orthodox stronghold for Ashkenazi Jews.

And... directly next to Mitre Square, the Bevin Marks Synagogue; the Sephardic Jew stronghold for Anglo-Jews (Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese)

Both women are murdered outside or within yards of at least 3 different Jewish places of gathering/worship, covering 3 of the main Jewish groups in London at the time.

But then the man who killed Eddowes, then takes a piece of her apron and places it in the doorway of a building made up almost entirely of Jews, and above is alleged to have been written the phrase...

"The Jews are the men who will not be blamed for nothing"

Was the Ripper a gentile who really wanted to make a point against the Jews?

Would murdering 2 gentile women close to opposing Jewish establishments, have been a conscious choice taken by the Ripper?

But what about the earlier murders?...

Well, Annie Chapman was murdered just yards from another Jewish Synagogue on Hanbury Street

And Nichols was murdered just around the corner from the Brady Street Jewish cemetery (from where 2 female witnesses stated they heard a woman in distress around the time of the murder)

There had always been an argument as to whether there was a Jewish angle to the murders...

Perhaps the letter "Moab and Midian" allegedly sent by the Ripper, is another clue as to the killer's true identity?

An orthodox Jew disgusted at the idea that his fellow brethren were being ruined by gentile prostitutes, or a gentile killer who wanted to frame the Jews?

The anomaly of course bring MJK.

Considerably younger than the previous victims, killed indoors, and inside a room run by an Irishman; ergo, no known Jewish connection.

But, going back to the double event; Stride and Eddowes are linked in several ways, especially the Jewish connection.

The Fashion Steet connection should also not be overlooked.

So much more to unravel here.

[Paddy Goose]

There had always been an argument as to whether there was a Jewish angle to the murders...

Yes there has been a constant discussion of the Jewish angle. The "Polish Jew" suspect being front and center. But there are various shades of the possible angle which you listed many of.

And there is another angle, too. There was Jewish prositution, although none of the Ripper victims were Jewish. And there was a nineteen year old Jewish cadet pimp named Joe Silver, a recent immigraant, who worked out of a brothel in Leman Street and went on to be a notorious career criminal on both sides of the Atlantic and the continent of South Africa. His name was Joe Silver and he was indeed profiled as the real "Polish Jew" Ripper in the book The Fox and the Flies by Charles van Onselen. The book is certainly worth checking out to better understand the criminal underworld in that era and Silver's long and sordid part in it. He was an avowed abuser and hater of women. A real snake.

Or, conversely, proximity of Jews and Jewish sites to the Ripper could be nothing more than geographical coincidence. The Ripper may not have been a Jew. Just the Whitechapel District of the greater East End had 75,000 residents at that time, while today there are only 25,000. A densely packed urban area. There were ne'er do well's aplenty in that lot.

[The Rookie Detective]

Yes there has been a constant discussion of the Jewish angle. The "Polish Jew" suspect being front and center. But there are various shades of the possible angle which you listed many of.

And there is another angle, too. There was Jewish prositution, although none of the Ripper victims were Jewish. And there was a nineteen year old Jewish cadet pimp named Joe Silver, a recent immigraant, who worked out of a brothel in Leman Street and went on to be a notorious career criminal on both sides of the Atlantic and the continent of South Africa. His name was Joe Silver and he was indeed profiled as the real "Polish Jew" Ripper in the book The Fox and the Flies by Charles van Onselen. The book is certainly worth checking out to better understand the criminal underworld in that era and Silver's long and sordid part in it. He was an avowed abuser and hater of women. A real snake.

Or, conversely, proximity of Jews and Jewish sites to the Ripper could be nothing more than geographical coincidence. The Ripper may not have been a Jew. Just the Whitechapel District of the greater East End had 75,000 residents at that time, while today there are only 25,000. A densely packed urban area. There were ne'er do well's aplenty in that lot.

Any chance this Joe Silver was pimping out non-Jewish prostitutes?

Wasn't it mentioned somewhere at the time that Mary Kelly was seeing another man named "Joe?"

At 19, he could well have been the young man seen by PC Smith who was talking to Stride opposite the yard.


I will be sure to check put this Joe Silver. He sounds like an intriguing yet repulsive fella.

[Paddy Goose]

He was not pimping non-Jewish prostitutes at that time although I can't be sure of that. In other times and places yes he pimped various women. He circled back to London later. Silver was a pimp/procurer eventually all over. London, NY, Buenos Aires, Johanesburg.

Yes the author, in his attempt at a Ripper profile, got into the "Joe" thing. He was actually suggesting Joseph Issacs was in fact Joe Silver. And yes he included young man on Berner. All that. I say attempted profile, because, as a Ripper suspect book, it was almost universally ignored. Including here. Scant a mention of him. But yes, it is a very thorough disturbing study of this rat of a human speciman and the "TransAtlantic World"

But yes, in general, the possible Jewish angles to the crimes are there. And they are varied and go in multiple directions. Again, Jewish immigration to London was steadlily increasing at the time. and would peak a little later, around 1910 in what Chaim Bermant called "the Deluge" Of course many Jewish travelers went on to NY and the US. For some immigrants, London was only a stopover.. Maybe a couple years and move on.

And there was lots of population movement in East London then. Not just Jewish, but many other immigrants, as well as people from all over England, Scotland and Wales. It makes finding the Ripper not just a needle in a haystack but an acre of haystacks. Haystacks that get up and move around the field.

[Lewis C]

Any chance this Joe Silver was pimping out non-Jewish prostitutes?

Wasn't it mentioned somewhere at the time that Mary Kelly was seeing another man named "Joe?"

At 19, he could well have been the young man seen by PC Smith who was talking to Stride opposite the yard.


I will be sure to check put this Joe Silver. He sounds like an intriguing yet repulsive fella.

Kelly had relationships with at least 2 Joes, Joseph Barnett and Joseph Fleming.

[seanr]

Yes there has been a constant discussion of the Jewish angle. The "Polish Jew" suspect being front and center. But there are various shades of the possible angle which you listed many of.

And there is another angle, too. There was Jewish prositution, although none of the Ripper victims were Jewish. And there was a nineteen year old Jewish cadet pimp named Joe Silver, a recent immigraant, who worked out of a brothel in Leman Street and went on to be a notorious career criminal on both sides of the Atlantic and the continent of South Africa. His name was Joe Silver and he was indeed profiled as the real "Polish Jew" Ripper in the book The Fox and the Flies by Charles van Onselen. The book is certainly worth checking out to better understand the criminal underworld in that era and Silver's long and sordid part in it. He was an avowed abuser and hater of women. A real snake.

Or, conversely, proximity of Jews and Jewish sites to the Ripper could be nothing more than geographical coincidence. The Ripper may not have been a Jew. Just the Whitechapel District of the greater East End had 75,000 residents at that time, while today there are only 25,000. A densely packed urban area. There were ne'er do well's aplenty in that lot.

The trouble with a suspect book as a format is it misleads by the focus on one person in particular. Far more illuminating is the networks of over-lapping communities which stretch out beyond Whitechapel.
Whitechapel is too often spoken about as though it was an island, a closed in crowded mileu, cut off from the external world, rather than a district in the capital of an Empire. Nothing definitively links Joe Silver to Whitechapel or Aldgate in 1888, but as an example of a type, the kind of person who was travelling the world between London, New York, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, Charles van Onselen's work is commendable.
With docks well connected to destinations such as America, South America, and South Africa, London — and Whitechapel in particular — would have served as a point of departure for those travelling onward from Eastern Europe.

There were at least three quite different communities identifiable in Whitechapel. The first were the Orthodox religious communities, some with roots in the area stretching back to Cromwell and the Interregnum. The second were the radical political circles, represented by the Berner Street club, whose members often held unorthodox or atheistic beliefs. A third, very different milieu was the world Joseph Silver moved in. Contemporary observers referred to certain gangs of men around Aldgate as the “Yiddisher Boys,” and to young women in their orbit as “Yiddisher Girls”.

How sharp the distinctions between these communities were, is difficult to gauge. It doesn't seem to be like Buenos Aires, where members of one community were banned from Synagogue and formed their own society and had to found separate Synagogues and cemeteries just for their members. Nothing so clear-cut appears to have occurred in Whitechapel, where boundaries between religious, radical, and street worlds were perhaps more porous.

[Paddy Goose]

An excellent overview Sean of the big picture.

I did read the van Onselen book. I assume you did too.

Most all of his book was actually not a suspect book. But yes it was a biography which stuck to the main protagonist. To me that is a good thing in writing.Yet van Onselen did give us a tour of the "Atlantic world."

I didnt know "Nothing definitively links Joe Silver to Whitechapel or Aldgate in 1888," I thought the author did link him through his arrival and departure in London and placed him in the Leman Street orbit as a cadet pimp. Otherwise he would not have profiled him as the Ripper, which as I understand it, he did not start out to do. He began his study of Joseph Silver because of his henious crimes in South Africa, where van Onselen is a history professor.

We obviously agree on much. As I said in post 12 " Jewish immigration to London was steadlily increasing at the time. and would peak a little later, around 1910 in what Chaim Bermant called "the Deluge" Of course many Jewish travelers went on to NY and the US. For some immigrants, London was only a stopover.. Maybe a couple years and move on."