CENTENARIANS PLAN BALL TO TRIP LIGHT FANTASTIC

Here’s a little Friday Flashback from the Archives that Lorie brought to my attention!

March 7, 1923

Devotees Of The Dance Who Have Passed 100 Mark

Invited To Event At Hebrew Home For Aged:

Youths 80 And Over To Make Debut.

Every active disciple of Terpsichore who is 100 years old or more is cordially invited to attend the centenarians’ Ball to be given at the Hebrew Home for Aged March 1, the beginning of Passover. The list of eligibles is limited strictly to devotees of the waltz, quadrille, polka, tango, turkey trot, pigeon-wing cutting or other popular expressions of the poetry of motion, who have reached their tenth decade.

Rush of Eager Applicants

Already Dr. and Mrs. Sigmund Friedler, joint superintendents of the Home, at 2102 East Baltimore street, have organized themselves into a floor committee and received the eager applications of the following eligible, who are inmates of the institution:

Mrs. Chaye Norowitz, 110 years old, born in Poland, “and,” smiled Dr. Friedler, “still going strong.” (“A lot of young people would like to have her appetite,” parenthetically interjected Mrs. Friedler, handing a cup of broth to Mrs. Norowitz.)

Mrs. Rosa Kessan, 100 years old, “who asked my husband on her birthday just a few days ago,” confided Mrs. Friedler,  “to write a letter to God, thanking Him for her continued good health.”

Abraham Cauff, 101 years old, a former Talmudist, who daily reads the Old Testament without glasses – never wore ‘em at all, in point of fact, as he so informs a questioner – and proudly lifts a head that would enrapture a painter of patriarchs.

Isaac Goldman, 101 years old, blind, but as merry as a youth, singing and dancing with the best and most agile of them, with a special preference for Indian dances.

Abraham Cohen, 101 years old; paralyzed to be sure, but insistent upon being present at the Centenarians’ Ball, calling off the figures and in other ways taking a far from passive part.

Mr. and Mrs. Chaye Ezersky, respectively 107 and 105 years old, of 800 North Carey street, have applied for admittance to the home; “and they surely will be here in time for…”

“…the ball,” assured Dr. Friedler, warmly.

“Youngsters” Not Neglected.

This, undoubtedly the most extraordinary ball ever held in Baltimore, will be given in the especially decorated main assembly room of the Home and will open with a “Centenarian Waltz” of such dreamy, yet inspiring measures that the waltzers are expected to perform some amazing feats in Terpsichorean grace and sustained agility.

Of course, there are some younger people in the Home who will not be neglected and for whim dancing will be provided at the conclusion of the ball proper. There are at least a dozen “youths” within their adolescent nineties, to say mothering of Joseph Levi, “a bright kid of 80,” according to the good-humored teasing of the older “boys;” and almost as [???] maidens and matrons who also have reached no further than the 80th milestone in the journey [???]. For these will be given a sort of “Debutante dance.”

You’d be surprised to know how mentally clear our centenarians are.” Proudly declared Dr. Friedler. “Take Mrs. Norowitz, our oldest inmate, for instance. She was married at the age of 14 years and has great-great-great-great grandchildren. Mrs. Norowitz says she has never taken medicine when ill, not even when she had double pneumonia, with a temperature of 104, several years ago. She has an amazing appetite; arises at 6 A.M. every day for tea and cakes, and has a full quart of coffee, two scrambled eggs and lots of bread.

One Of First Jews Here.

“Then, there is Abraham Cauff, the Talmudist, who says that when he came to Baltimore there were less than 15 Jews in the city. He thinks there will be found in the tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen some books which belonged to Moses, abandoned when he fled from Pharaoh’s palace and which will readily disprove the assertions made by some scientists that Moses never led the Children of Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea in which the pursuing Egyptian forces were drowned. He has read much about the discoveries in Tut-Ankh-Amen’s tomb and pronounces the repudiation of Moses’ flight from Egypt all rot.

“Mrs. Rosa Kessan, 100 years old, things the girls of today will be short-lived, because of their general subscription to pills, paints, powder and sweets.”

The building and ground for the Hebrew Home for Aged Incurables, pictured here, were donated by Jacob Epstein in the memory of his parents, Isaac and Jenny Epstein in 1919. JMM Vertical Files.
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