A little bit Northern, a little bit Southern, the city claims a rightful place in Hadassah’s heart and history.

Baltimore, hailed as the most Southern of Northern cities and the most Northern of Southern cities, draws its vigor and charm from both sections of the country. It is a big city but a small town, a place that might well be called the “land of pleasant living,” a name once given to Maryland by the Jewish-owned National Bohemian Beer. But since the redevelopment in the 1970’s of the colorful Inner Harbor with its historic shops, restaurants and stores, Baltimore has set a standard for urban renewal. Its ethnic neighborhoods—each with its own character, history and cuisine—have made it a major travel-destination city, welcoming nearly 14 million business and leisure visitors each year.

Jews take great pride in their contributions to the growth of the city. Though Henrietta Szold’s name and work are known the world over, the Russian Jewish night school she founded for immigrants became the model for immigrant night schools around the country.

Major Jewish contributors such as Joseph Meyerhoff, a real-estate developer, and Jacob Blaustein and his family, who made their fortunes in oil distribution, were behind the creation of some of the city’s major cultural institutions, including the Baltimore Symphony, based in the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall; the Baltimore Museum of Art; the Morris Mechanic Theater; and Center Stage.

In 2001, the museum unveiled its redesigned galleries housing the Cone Collection of post-Impressionist and modern art, amassed at the turn of the century by the legendary Baltimore sisters Dr. Claribel and Etta Cone, and donated to the museum in 1949. Its 500 works by Matisse are considered the most comprehensive in the world.

History:
Although there were Jews living in Maryland as early as the 1600’s, the area was not noted for religious tolerance. It was not until 1826 that the state passed its “Jew Bill,” enabling them to hold public office without taking a Christian oath.

The heart of the Jewish community was East Baltimore. The larger, more diverse community did not take shape until about 1830, with the influx from the German-speaking countries of Central Europe. It was on East Baltimore streets that they established their homes and businesses. Arriving impoverished, they quickly prospered and began to build the synagogues that are now visited by Jews from around the country.

The Germans were followed in the late 1800’s by newcomers from Eastern Europe, in some cases fleeing much harsher circumstances than those suffered by German Jews. But they found a settled neighborhood and employment in the garment trade and retail businesses such as Hutzler Brothers, H. Sonneborn and Hochschild Kohn’s.

They also found a Jewish infrastructure—organizations, charities and social services that helped the arrivals from Russia with money and employment. Although the Jews were divided into two tightly knit groups, members took care of one another, a pattern that continues to this day.

As the East Europeans settled into East Baltimore, the German Jews, threatened by their Old World dress, speech and manner, began to move west and north into Eutaw Place. Yet by the turn of the century, Russian Jewish intellectuals arrived, and the “downtown” Jews became known as a community of learned rabbis, vibrant in their Yiddishkeit and close in their family ties.

More than social class separated the Jewish population. The introduction of Reform Judaism in the 1840’s created battles over religious ideology. As groups began to splinter off and form new synagogues, they created in Baltimore the phenomenon in Jewish life known as “the shul we don’t go to.”

Community:
Baltimore has the highest percentage of observant Jews per capita of any city in the United States. Seventy percent of its Jewish population of 100,000, an increase of six percent in the last 15 years, reside in five zip codes. The city boasts 47 synagogues and a high synagogue affiliation.

The breakthrough of Jews moving into Northwest Baltimore followed the establishment of several synagogues on Park Heights Avenue. From there they continued into Pikesville, Stevenson and Owings Mills. Other neighborhoods with significant Jewish numbers include Green Spring, Randallstown and Mount Washington.

Upper Park Heights is the site of the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Family Services. About 20 Orthodox, Conservative and Reform synagogues line the mile-long stretch that extends north-south from Beth El to Beth Jacob. The area has its own eruv, which allows for carrying and pushing strollers on the Sabbath. The neighborhood also boasts a parade of kosher businesses, including a supermarket, butcher shops, bakeries, eateries and Hebrew bookstores. The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore is one of the oldest and strongest federations in the country.

The neighborhood has thrived in part because of the Associated’s Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc. (CHAI), which encourages Jewish families to resist urban flight and assists with rentals and home purchases, and a neighborhood grassroots surveillance program that has helped reduce crime. The Associated has achieved a seamless social and philanthropic merger between the Germans and the Russians. Its president, Darrell Friedman, has been unofficially dubbed “the mayor of Jewish Baltimore.”

The rigorously Orthodox community has grown in size and visibility in the past two decades. The spiritual and physical center of this universe—with its shtiebels, black-frocked rebbes and students—is the Ner Israel Rabbinical College on Mt. Wilson Lane in Pikesville (telephone: 410-484-7200). The Baltimore Jewish Times provides weekly coverage of news and entertainment.

Sights:
Visit Jewish history, past and present, within walking distance of the harbor. The Jewish Museum of Maryland at 15 Lloyd Street (732-6400) comprises the restored Lloyd Street and B’nai Israel synagogues and the museum building. It was the threatened demolition of the Lloyd Street Synagogue that sparked the founding of the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, now the Jewish Museum of Maryland, with its preservation and interpretation of the state’s Jewish life.

Built in 1845 by the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation at the corner of Lloyd and Watson, the Lloyd Street Synagogue is one of the oldest synagogue buildings in America and on the National Register of Historic Places. Its first members were German Jews. Faithfully restored, it is a Greek Revival structure whose main sanctuary features a women’s balcony and a reproduction of the synagogue’s original Torah Ark from 1860. High in the wall facing east are three round stained-glass windows. The center window has a white Star of David on a cobalt-blue backround encircled in red, thought to be the earliest architectural use of the symbol in America. It is noteworthy also for its early mikve and turn-of-the century matza oven. The synagogue is open for tours Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday at 1 and 2:30 and also holds public programs.

The original congregants of B’nai Israel—the Moorish Revival building with its hand-carved wooden Ark—left Lloyd Street Synagogue to avoid the influences of Reform Judaism and formed Chizuk Amuno (Hebrew for strengthening of faith). In 1895 B’nai Israel, another Orthodox congregation, bought the building and absorbed the congregation. The oldest synagogue building in continuous use in Baltimore, it holds Shabbat and holiday services.

Lombard Street from Jones Falls to Central Avenue was once the commercial center of East Baltimore. Attman’s Deli at 1010-1023 E. Lombard (563-2666) is in the heart of what was once the old Lombard Street market. Founded in 1829 as Nidchei Yisrael, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation at 7401 Park Heights Avenue (764-1587) is the descendant of the Lloyd Street Synagogue. Initially Orthodox, it joined the Reform movement in the 1890’s. The most striking feature of its present home, built in the 1950’s, are 16 stained-glass windows tracing the history of the Jewish people from biblical times to the establishment of the State of Israel.

Temple Oheb Shalom, at 7310 Park Heights Avenue (358-0105), was formed in 1853 when younger members became dissatisfied with the Orthodoxy of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. Benjamin Szold was hired to become the rabbi.

Founded in 1960, The Jewish Museum of Maryland has two galleries featuring changing exhibitions that focus on interpretations of regional Jewish history. Its reference library houses 2,500 books. The museum also sponsors performances, film series, lectures and family programs. It runs walking tours of historic East Baltimore and an extensive bus tour of Jewish Baltimore. Call 732-6400, or go to www.jewishmuseummd.org for information.

Culture:
Baltimore’s Jewish Film Festival, held in April at the Gordon Center for the Performing Arts of the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center, draws thousands of people. The festival features first-run Jewish films. The Jewish Book Festival takes place in November.

For entertainment, lectures, concerts, theater and art exhibits, Baltimore boasts two Jewish community centers, at 5700 Park Heights Avenue (542-4900) and in suburban Owings Mills, 3506 Gwynbrook Avenue (356-5200).

Side Trips:
History is alive in Baltimore, but many of the tourist attractions are futuristic. The Inner Harbor, all warehouses and dilapidated buildings 30 years ago, is Baltimore’s premier entertainment destination, six blocks of history, science, food, fashion and fun. It features Harborplace with shops and restaurants, the National Aquarium—two pyramid-shaped buildings that are an architectural as well as a maritime wonder—the U.S.S. Constellation, the only surviving Civil War vessel; and the Maryland Science Center with a 3D Imax theater and planetarium.

Port Discovery is an exciting children’s museum that features Hiflyer, a tethered helium balloon that rises 450 feet in the air. It’s a great place from which to view the city.

A water taxi that runs a continuous loop around the Inner Harbor also connects the visitor to Baltimore’s restored and picturesque neighborhoods of brick row houses and condominiums, cafés, restaurants and shops—Fells Point with its cobblestone streets; the newly developed Canton; and Fort McHenry, where the Star Spangled Banner was written (the original manuscript is in the Maryland Historical Society, 201 West Monument Street; 675-3750). The newly renovated Walters Art Gallery, 10 blocks north of the Harbor, features a four-story, glass-walled atrium and a floating spiral staircase. Across the street is the country’s first Washington Monument.

The city boasts a rich and varied Jewish educational system, with day schools and Hebrew schools of every religious stripe. Rela Gefen, the only woman to be president of a major Jewish university, heads the Baltimore Hebrew University. Its dean for academic affairs connects tourists to summer archaeological excavations in Israel (check its library holdings at www.bhu.edu).

An unusual opportunity both for Jewish study and tours of Jewish Baltimore and Annapolis is the five-day Elderhostel program under the aegis of Baltimore Hebrew University. It offers courses in art, music, movies, mysticism and politics. Elderhostel lodgings are at the newly dedicated Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in the rolling hills of Maryland. For information contact Baltimore Hebrew University, 5800 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21215, attention: Elaine Eckstein (410-578-6904, or e-mail: elder@bhu.edu).

Annapolis, Maryland’s capital, with its back streets and narrow alleys with Colonial charm, is home to the United States Naval Academy. Its oldest synagogue is the Orthodox Kneseth Israel (263-3924).

Personalities:
Henrietta Szold, Baltimore’s most famous Jewish citizen, was a pioneer in the health-care and social-welfare systems of Israel. One of her greatest contributions was defining a strong new identity for American Jewish women, but she is best known as the founder of Hadassah and the mother of Youth Aliyah, which rescued young Jewish refugees in Europe during the war.

The only American delegate to the First Zionist Congress in 1897, Rabbi Schepsel Schaffer, was from Baltimore.

Dr. Alan Guttmacher was longtime president of the Planned Parenthood Federation; and Bernard Sachs was the neurologist who first described Tay-Sachs disease. Also from Baltimore were Larry Adler, the legendary harmonica virtuoso; businessman Louis Bamberger; and Cass Ellliot (born Ellen Cohen) of the 60’s group the Mamas and the Papas.

Shoshana Cardin chaired the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Books and Film:
The Zionist struggle of the 40’s was exemplified by the story of the Exodus, an aging bay steamer rescued in 1946 by a group of Baltimore Zionists. It carried 4,500 Jewish refugees to Palestine, only to be captured by the British and returned to Germany. Exodus, the book based on the tragic event, was written by Leon Uris, a Baltimore native, and made into a movie starring Paul Newman.

Barry Levinson’s films, Diner, Avalon and Liberty Heights, have affectionately portrayed Baltimore, particularly the Jewish family.

Jewish Baltimore (Johns Hopkins University Press) by Gilbert Sandler offers a history of the city’s neighborhoods and people through reminiscences and photographs. Other historical perspectives are offered in Uncommon Threads: Threads That Wove the Fabric of Baltimore Jewish Life (Pecan Publications) by Philip Kahn, Jr., and The Making of an American Jewish Community (Jewish Publication Society) by Isaac M. Fein. A good place to find the flavor of Baltimore’s early Jewish community is in the three best biographies of Henrietta Szold, Summoned to Jerusalem (Harper & Row) by Joan Dash; Woman of Valor (Simon & Schuster) by Irving Fineman; and The Szolds of Lombard Street (Jewish Publication Society) by Alexandra Lee Levin.

Recommendations:
Baltimore does not rival New York in kosher eating places, but it far outstrips its Washington, D.C., neighbor. Reiserstown Road runs parallel to Park Heights Avenue and forms a long corridor of kosher eateries with a full range of prices and offerings. Easy-on-your-budget hotels are the Holiday Inn Inner Harbor and the Days Inn. For an upper-end stay, book at the Hyatt.

In any case you’ll find big town Northern vigor wrapped up in small-town Southern charm.