Topic: Building The Armed Forces
Having themselves been subjects of British colonial rule, the framers of the U.S. Constitution sought to disperse military power, giving Congress the power to declare war and making the president the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. As a result, two forces have continuously shaped U.S. military establishment: the need to build and maintain a professional army countered by an equally strong push to keep the military under civilian control.
1774 The First Continental Congress urges the people to arm and form their own militias.
1775 The Second Continental Congress resolves to raise six companies of riflemen, appoints a committee to establish rules for the army, and elects George Washington to be conmmander in chief.
1783 The Confederation Congress discharges the troops in the Continental Army, and George Washington resigns his commission.
1784 The Confederation Congress authorizes a small force that is the nucleus of the institution maintained by government under the Constitution (1789).
1789. Congress's power to "raise and support armies" is established in the Constitution. The War Department is established, with Henry Knox named its first secretary.
1791 The Second Amendment accepts the idea of compulsory military service that is the legacy of the individual colonial militias.
1791-1898 Even though a small standing army of "regulars" is maintained, the United States primarily draws on volunteers and state militias throughout this period. Volunteer militias provide the primary source of manpower in the Indian wars, the Mexican War, and the Spanish-American War. They are the basis of both the Union and the Confederate armies.
1798 The Navy Department is established, with Benjamin Stoddert named its first secretary.
The U.S. Marine Corps is established under control of the secretary of the navy. Marines have participated in all U.S. wars, and their specialized training has made them experts not only in amphibious landings but in counterinsurgency and guerrilla warfare. Today they are self-sufficient units, with their own tanks, armor, artillery, and air forces.
1802 The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, is founded to train professional army officers.
1845 The United States Naval Academy is founded at Annapolis, Maryland, to train professional naval officers. (31)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Jewish Knowledge (5)
Topic: Jewish Tid-Bits Manhattan #3
The Jewish Messenger was initiated in 1857 as a project of the students of the Rev. Samuel M. Isaacs, minister of Shaarey Tefilah. From a student project, the Messenger grew into a major organ for Orthodox Judaism in the East. In 1859, the Rev. Mr. Bondy of Anshe Chesed began the publication of The Hebrew Leader. Between 1885 and 1900, almost 100 Yiddish journals were born. By 1914, the largest of the Yiddish newspapers, the Jewish Daily Forward, under the editorship of Abraham Cahan, reached a circulation of 200,000.
When the Russian pogroms sent a flood of immigrants to these shores, the Jewish community of New York was transformed. Between 1881 and 1910, 1,562,000 Jews came to America.
Most of the immigrants settled on the Lower East Side. While many of them peddled or went to work in factories manufacturing cigars, leather, metal goods and other articles, most of them went into the expanding needle trades. This was the classical sweatshop-and-tenement era, when workers labored long hours for little wages.
Orthodox Judaism flourished in New York City, although the first Russian Orthodox synagogue, the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, had been organized as early as 1852. The heder, Talmud Torah, and yeshiva became the vogue. In 1888 about 15 of the major Orthodox congregations in the city joined in a Federation of Congregations, and brought over Rabbi Jacob Joseph as their chief rabbi. The chief financial support of the federation was to come from a tax on kosher meat. The federation soon disbanded, however, and other attempts at a kehillah (city-wide community) also failed.
The new immigration creted the need for such institutions as the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the Baron de Hirsch Fund, the Hebrew Technical School for Girls and the Hebrew Technical Institute for Boys, Beth Israel Hospital, the Educational Alliance, Henry Street Settlement, and scores of congregational sisterhoods and other organizations. To protect the rights of Jews wherever they lived, the American jewish Committee was organized.
With the coming of World War I, immigration was reduced drastically; it was slowed to a trickle by the Johnson-Lodge Bill of 1924. Not until the nightmarish Hitlerian era was there another mass migration of Jews to these shores, though in comparatively small numbers. (22)
Photo Credit: Immigrants Coming To The Land of Promise-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 LC-USZ62-7307
Sources Utilized to Document Information
Contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net
The Jewish Messenger was initiated in 1857 as a project of the students of the Rev. Samuel M. Isaacs, minister of Shaarey Tefilah. From a student project, the Messenger grew into a major organ for Orthodox Judaism in the East. In 1859, the Rev. Mr. Bondy of Anshe Chesed began the publication of The Hebrew Leader. Between 1885 and 1900, almost 100 Yiddish journals were born. By 1914, the largest of the Yiddish newspapers, the Jewish Daily Forward, under the editorship of Abraham Cahan, reached a circulation of 200,000.
When the Russian pogroms sent a flood of immigrants to these shores, the Jewish community of New York was transformed. Between 1881 and 1910, 1,562,000 Jews came to America.
Most of the immigrants settled on the Lower East Side. While many of them peddled or went to work in factories manufacturing cigars, leather, metal goods and other articles, most of them went into the expanding needle trades. This was the classical sweatshop-and-tenement era, when workers labored long hours for little wages.Orthodox Judaism flourished in New York City, although the first Russian Orthodox synagogue, the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, had been organized as early as 1852. The heder, Talmud Torah, and yeshiva became the vogue. In 1888 about 15 of the major Orthodox congregations in the city joined in a Federation of Congregations, and brought over Rabbi Jacob Joseph as their chief rabbi. The chief financial support of the federation was to come from a tax on kosher meat. The federation soon disbanded, however, and other attempts at a kehillah (city-wide community) also failed.
The new immigration creted the need for such institutions as the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society, the Baron de Hirsch Fund, the Hebrew Technical School for Girls and the Hebrew Technical Institute for Boys, Beth Israel Hospital, the Educational Alliance, Henry Street Settlement, and scores of congregational sisterhoods and other organizations. To protect the rights of Jews wherever they lived, the American jewish Committee was organized.
With the coming of World War I, immigration was reduced drastically; it was slowed to a trickle by the Johnson-Lodge Bill of 1924. Not until the nightmarish Hitlerian era was there another mass migration of Jews to these shores, though in comparatively small numbers. (22)
Photo Credit: Immigrants Coming To The Land of Promise-Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 LC-USZ62-7307
Sources Utilized to Document Information
Contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net
Jewish Knowledge (1)
Topic: Jewish Knowledge A-Z #1
AB, NINTH DAY OF:
Observed as a strict fast, lasting 24 hours. Commemorates the fall of the First and Second Temples. Is also the anniversary of the Fall of Bettir in 135 ending the Bar Kokba war, and of the explusion of the Jews from Spain. It is the great day of mourning in the Jewish calendar. The special ritual is keyed to sorrow, being largely the recital of the Book of Lamentations, the Kinoth or Dirges relating Jewish martyrdom, and Judah Halevi's Zionide. Among the Ashkenazim this sense of mourning is emphasized by worshippers sitting on the floor, removing the curtain from the Ark, and by visitng cemeteries on that day. The Sephardic service is similar except that the Ark is covered with a black curtain, and the reader records the number of the years "of the exile." This fast is regarded as one of the observances to be abolished at the Restoration. It was therefore one of the fasts that Shabbethai Zebi, as evidence of his Messiahship, ordered abolished. Reform Jews no longer observe this fast.
ABLUTIONS:
Ritual purification by washing. Required by Jewish law after rising from sleep, prior to praying and eating, before entering a holy place. Priests were commanded to wash their hands and feet before entering the sanctuary (Ex. xxx. 19). The washing of the whole body is most frequently directed in Scripture. Of the many ablutions that formed part of the ancient ritual, the washing before eating, the washing of the priests before the recital of the Blessing of the Kohanim, the immersion of females after menstruation, washing the dead, etc., still survive as orthodox practices.
ABODAH
"Divine Service", originally the sacrificial ritual of the Temple. The Term is now usually applied to the special feature in the Additional Service of the Day of Atonement which recites the Temple ritual according to Leviticus xvi and the details in the Mishnah. The only service in which Jews prostrate themselves. The recital is the most picturesque in language and melody of the Atonement service. The history of the traditional melody is not known. The service is well expressed by Solomon Ibn Gabirol in his poem "Happy who saw of old." The following stanza expresses the central theme of the Abodah:
Happy he who saw the crowd, That in adoration bowed
As they heard the priest proclaim: "One, Ineffable, the Name,"
And they answered, "Blessed be God the Lord Eternally,
He whom all created worlds extol." Happy he whose eyes
Saw at last the clouds of glory rise, But to hear it afficts our soul.
___Alice Lucas, translation.
ADDIR HU:
Popular hymn, chanted during the Passover Seder service. It was introduced about the end of the 15th cent. Its tune is a 17th cent. composition.
ADON OLAM:
The most familiar hymn in the Jewish liturgy, and used in all rituals. It is a metrical hymn, 10 lines in length in the Ashkenazi version, 12 in the Sephardic, and in some rituals 16 lines. It glorifies the supremacy of God. Though it has been credited to Solomon Ibn Gabirol its author is unknown, but it is presumed to have been composed in the 12th cent., and was inserted in the liturgies of the 15th cent. The following, by Jessie E. Sampter is a good paraphrase of the first stanza:
The everlasting Lord who reigned, Ere yet was formed or shape or thing,
When all was made as he decreed, Was even then acknowledged King. (22)
Sources Utilized to Document Information
Contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net or miriam@thehistorybox.com
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Table Of Contents : Mimi Speaks Blog
There are many people who love to read blogs, but just don't have the time to waste, or are in the mood to go through it's entire contents trying to find something that may be of interest to them. Usually when people approach a blog, they like to go quickly from one thing to the next. As for actually reading the text, there is little evidence of that unless the subject matter should catch their eye, then it becomes worthwhile.
Since my blog was started in 2007, there have been postings of 201 tid-bits of information, which talk about history, life situations, goals and success. So my dear reader, for your benefit, I am making every attempt to improve the navigation to this treasure trove of information as quickly as possible. For this purpose I have created a table of contents divided by categories, for easy accessing. However if there is something that may catch your eye, I suggest you find yourself a comfortable chair, and while you're at it, grab a steaming hot cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese and you'll be all set to settle down for a while. So happy reading.
Since my blog was started in 2007, there have been postings of 201 tid-bits of information, which talk about history, life situations, goals and success. So my dear reader, for your benefit, I am making every attempt to improve the navigation to this treasure trove of information as quickly as possible. For this purpose I have created a table of contents divided by categories, for easy accessing. However if there is something that may catch your eye, I suggest you find yourself a comfortable chair, and while you're at it, grab a steaming hot cup of coffee and a bagel with cream cheese and you'll be all set to settle down for a while. So happy reading.
MAIN DIRECTORY
Contact: miriammedina@earthlink.net
(A. ) Getting To Know Mimi (B.) N.Y.C. History (C.) East Harlem
(D.) Spanish Harlem (E.) Black Harlem (F.) New York State (G.) Urban/Suburban Living Issues
(D.) Spanish Harlem (E.) Black Harlem (F.) New York State (G.) Urban/Suburban Living Issues
Table of Contents (3)
(H.) Chit-Chat Over Coffee Swirls
Table of Contents (4)
(I.) Jewish Knowledge (J.) Self-Improvement (K.) Historical Facts On England & United States
Table of Contents (5)
(L.) Miscellaneous (M.) Timetables (N.) Ethnic Groups (O.) Legal Talk
(P.) Entertainment: Backward Glances (Q.) Immigration
Table of Contents (6)
(R.) Women__Bio Sketches, Feminine Fancies, Recipes, Kitchen Talk.
(S.) Worship
Table of Contents (7)
(T.) A Little Taste of History, (U.) U.S. History-Transportation, (V) U.S. History-Panics, Economic Depressions
Table of Contents (8)
(W) ¿Habla Español?
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(H.) Chit-Chat Over Coffee Swirls
Table of Contents (4)
(I.) Jewish Knowledge (J.) Self-Improvement (K.) Historical Facts On England & United States
Table of Contents (5)
(L.) Miscellaneous (M.) Timetables (N.) Ethnic Groups (O.) Legal Talk
(P.) Entertainment: Backward Glances (Q.) Immigration
Table of Contents (6)
(R.) Women__Bio Sketches, Feminine Fancies, Recipes, Kitchen Talk.
(S.) Worship
Table of Contents (7)
(T.) A Little Taste of History, (U.) U.S. History-Transportation, (V) U.S. History-Panics, Economic Depressions
Table of Contents (8)
(W) ¿Habla Español?
************
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