Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

07/05/2026

Adolph Sutro, the Frontier Thesis, and America 250

“You! Asser Levy, you, and those other Jews. Get down from the stockade wall. We Christians defend New Amsterdam (New York). Jews must pay a tax, stand aside”, ordered the Sergeant.
Levy looked at the Sergeant with quiet fury. He did not budge. He said, " We Jews stand shoulder to shoulder with you against any danger. This piece of land is your home. It is ours too. We will defend it with our blood.”
Governor Peter Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam hated Jews. The Jews stayed. They never paid the tax. It was 1654, the first Frontier Experience, where the Jews of the New World met the antisemitic hatred of the Old World. No one would ever again demand, when danger threatened, “Give everyone a gun, except the Jew.”

Mockup of the Sutro Sculptural Gift at the Sutro Tunnel Portico “You!  Asser Levy, you, and those other Jews. Get down from the stockade wall.  We Christians defend New Amsterdam (New Yor…

06/28/2026

Remembering the Jews of Mongolia

https://jashp1.wordpress.com/2026/06/28/in-memory-of-the-jews-of-mongolia/

"Jacob navigated the labyrinthine complexity of the at-times very difficult political maneuvering for site permission. Together, a text was prepared and revised because of sensitivities not Mongolian.
The passing of another hard Mongolian winter and the three language, English, Hebrew, and Mongolian, Jewish Mongolian interpretive stone was recently unveiled beneath a Star of David, and the logos of the crossed flags of the U.S. and Israel, and Jewish Mongolia at the bottom.

I did not know there were Jews in Mongolia.  After Richard Bloom, an award-winning Holocaust film documentarian and friend, sent me a Chabad article about Jews and Mongolia, I learned. Jews in…

05/30/2026

https://jashp1.wordpress.com/2026/05/30/the-scottish-waltz-with-two-lives-ashoken-farewell/

Ashoken  Farewell was composed by Jay Ungar, an American Folk Musician and Composer.  The music, beloved by tens of millions worldwide, has been described as haunting, mournful, hopeful, …

05/21/2026

Canterbury’s ‘celebrity’ Jews.

"There is a third amazing Jew from Canterbury that JASHP and Alan
would have liked to have memorialized - Nathan Isaacs. Isaacs, no relation to the earlier-mentioned Isaac Nathan, is buried in the Old Canterbury Jewish Cemetery near his mother.

Nathan Isaacs was a Jewish man born in Canterbury. Incredibly, he became a trusted Zulu War Chief to the famed Shaka Zulu.

Take a moment to let that sink in...

Nathan, a White Jewish man, became a trusted Zulu War Chief, leading Black Zulu warriors, fighting for Shaka Zulu."

Alan Barnett (left) and Graham Redman, (photo courtesy of Alan Barnett) In contemporary U.K. and around the world, Jews, Jewish historical presence, contributions, and patriotic loyalty are being o…

05/16/2026

Take Me Out To The Ball Game was the 1908 team effort of two friends, Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. Both men had musical backgrounds; Norworth’s Dad was the Choir Director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Von Tilzer was a Jewish man from Indianapolis who composed popular songs.

https://www.wndu.com/2026/05/16/south-bend-cubs-unveil-historical-marker-ballpark-honor-indianapolis-native-albert-von-tilzer/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=276027

The South Bend Cubs unveiled a historical marker at Four Winds Field Friday evening and honored the Jewish and Hoosier roots of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

05/16/2026

Take Me Out To The Ball Game was the 1908 team effort of two friends, Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. Both men had musical backgrounds; Norworth’s Dad was the Choir Director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Von Tilzer was a Jewish man from Indianapolis who composed popular songs.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=276027

The South Bend Cubs unveiled a historical marker at Four Winds Field Friday evening and honored the Jewish and Hoosier roots of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

05/12/2026

John Doe, the Holocaust and Memory

"Confronted with absolute evil, Henry Lesser asked himself, “Why?” What could make a person so completely hateful, so completely psychopathic?"

https://jashp1.wordpress.com/2026/05/11/the-unknown-son-of-abraham/

04/29/2026

Did the Jews and antisemitism save the American Revolution? By itself, probably not. What can not be denied is that, ironically, Jew hatred was a big factor in ultimately saving the American Revolution.
Today, in America, antisemitism has become acceptable, mainstream. It is especially linked to one of the main American political parties. Will antisemitism save the American Revolution this time, or will antisemitism sink it?

Historical JASHP marker in Saint Eustatius Well…yes and no. For many, it is an absurd question. Actually, for “experts,” it is a question not even worth discussing. Yet, it is a true story that t…

04/19/2026

Peace, it begins with the Children.

- A JASHP project:

"Spring brings renewal, hope, and the promise of life. A sense of contemplative peace fills the air, even when, sadly, today, there is so much war and hate in the world. Sullivan County is awash with beautiful six-sided yellow Daffodils."

https://jashp1.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/peace-it-begins-with-the-children/

04/18/2026

Accident or Murder on the Isle de France, WW2