Piece Of Art

Napoléon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821. The 5 feet, 7 inches of his height was normal for his time, but the British newspaper cartoonists had him shown as much smaller for political reasons. His famous "hidden hand" images were a broadcast signal of his links to the Freemasonry Brotherhood. The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries , by Jacques-Louis David, 1812. Below, when he was younger. The following drawing demonstrates the "Sign of the Master of the Second Veil," (7th Degree Mason) from Duncan's Masonic Ritual and Monitor , 1866. View other "hidden hand" examples, here and here . John W. Booth, whose membership among Masons is today mostly expunged. George Washington, whose Freemasonry membership is celebrated. "The evidence in favor of a Masonic initiation previous to Napoleon’s assumption of the imperial title is overwhelming: The initiation took place in the body of an Army Philadelphe Lodge of the — Ecossais — Primitive Rite ...

Events out of context often float adrift in time. April 14, 1865 has become important as the day that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln. For Americans of the Jewish faith, it was also Passover. I share the following snippet to revisit how it felt during these under-discussed moments of the War Between the States. Chapters in American Jewish History Of Civil Seders in the Civil War For American Jewry during the Civil War, the Passover story was especially powerful. Northern soldiers saw clear parallels between the Union freeing the South's slaves and Moses leading the ancient Hebrews out of Egypt. However, creating a seder during in a war zone requires flexibility and creativity. In 1862, the Jewish Messenger published an account by J. A. Joel of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Regiment of a seder celebrated by Union soldiers in Fayette, West Virginia. Joel and 20 other Jewish soldiers were granted leave to observe Passover. A soldier home on leave in Cincinnati shipped matzot and ha...