Rabbi Appel served Temple Israel, Hannibal, Missouri as senior rabbi for less than 1 year (1940) and he is listed along with other rabbis who served St. Louis congregations. The full list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS.
_________________________
While serving as a local rabbi and living in Dortmund, Germany, Appel had been arrested on some trumped up political charges and his wife was vociferous enough to convince the local jailer to release him. Rabbi Appel along with his wife Marta and daughter Ruth escaped Nazi Germany in 1937.
Rabbi Appel was educated in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) but he was never officially ordained. In the United States, Appel served Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsen, Alabama. In 1944, the Congregation hired their first full-time rabbi, Ernst Appel, the scion of a long line of rabbis in Breslau, Germany. Upon gaining American citizenship, he joined the Gadsden community and served as Beth Israel's spiritual leader for two years before taking another pulpit in Maryland at Congregation Beth Israel would eventually close its doors on July 1, 2010.
Rabbi Appel did not master the English language and that may have been why he was unable to secure a long term pulpit. Rabbi Appel's nephew Rudy Appel corrected this information by relating the fact that Rabbi Appel was not ordained from either the Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary. He contends that without affiliation with either of those institutions, the Rabbi was not privy to the infrastructure, social connection, or networking benefits that might have linked him to larger pulpits that would come available during his rabbinate. This writer was also told that Rabbi Appel left Germany with one of his congregation's Torahs and his granddaughter now has it in her possession as a valuable memento of the Rabbi's life and struggles in Germany.
____________________
In 1939 nearly ten thousand children of both sexes, aged between twelve and seventeen, were sent to Britain as a result of that country's agreement to assist the Jews after Kristallnacht. These youngsters were known as the Kindertransport. In England some were accommodated in camps and institutions, while others were housed with families whom they did not know, including non-Jewish families, in a strange land, with an unknown language and customs unfamiliar to them. Many of them remember this period—and especially the first year, when they anxiously awaited the arrival of their parents—as the most difficult time in their lives. Even after the outbreak of war, when it became clear that their parents could not join them until it was over, the lives of many of them were filled with longing. For their part, the parents knew that their children's lives would not be easy. They did not know who would shelter them or to which families they would be sent. They also feared for their children's identity and longed for them. In her memoirs Marta Appel, whose husband, Ernst Appel, was the rabbi of Dortmund, gives the following description:
"My most difficult assignment was organizing the dispatch of the children themselves to the United States, Erez Israel, England and Italy. My heart bled as I witnessed the children's parting from their parents. Yet it was the parents who turned to us, begging us to do everything possible to send the children away as quickly as possible, since they could not bear to see them suffering persecution and hatred. Out of love, the parents were ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them, just so that their children could grow up in peace and freedom." END
From the Jewish Women's Encyclopedia:
by Dayla Ofer
Based on Memoirs of Marta Appel "MEMOIRS OF A GERMAN JEWISH WOMAN"
Written in 1940-1941
_____________________
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Memorial services were held recently at Temple Israel for Rabbi Ernst Appel, who served 53 years as a rabbi. Rabbi Appel, 89, died Saturday, June 9, of infirmities at Delmar Gardens Nursing Home, 837 Leland Avenue, University City.
Rabbi Appel was the descendent of a distinguished German Jewish family, his forefathers having been rabbis in Germany for many generations. His father, Rabbi Maier Appel, served as a rabbi in Germany, and his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also rabbis in the Liberal (Reform) Jewish movement in Germany. His grandfather was Ephraim Willstatter and his great grandfather was Rabbi Benjamin Willstatter, who was the first rabbi in Baden to give a sermon in the German language. (Some of the congregants covered their ears with their prayer shawls in protest, according to Rabbi Appel's widow Marta.)
A great uncle of Rabbi Appel served as minister of finance of Baden during the reign of the Grand Duke Frederic II. Another uncle, Dr. Richard Willstatter, won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of chlorophyll.
Rabbi Appel earned a Ph.D. degree at the universities of Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen and Florence (Italy), served as chief rabbi and teacher in Bingen in Rhine, Germany, and in the large industrial metropolis of Dortmund (Westphalia, Germany). In Dortmund he was the head of a congregation of 5,000 people, and also lectured on religion and pedagogy at the local college. The congregation, while part of the German Reform movement, also was attended by members of the Orthodox community in the area.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Rabbi Appel was subjected to continued pressures as he attempted to continue serving his congregation. In 1935, when his fellow rabbis came to Dortmund to celebrate Rabbi Appel's 25th year in the rabbinate, a Nazi was assigned to observe the meeting. Rabbi Appel and his colleagues spoke in Hebrew to prevent the Nazi from following the proceedings.
Rabbi Appel was president of the local chapter of B'nai B'rith, and his wife, Mrs. Marta Insel Appel, was president of the lodge's auxiliary in Dortmund, and both were arrested in 1937 when B'nai B'rith became a "subversive" organization in the eyes of the Nazis. Mrs. Appel was released from jail first and recalls shouting at the Gestapo office when officials balked at releasing Dr. Appel. "I don't know what gave me the courage but they did release him."
The Appels left Germany in May 1937 with their two daughters, Doris then 17 and Ruth 18. After a four-month stay in Holland, the Appels moved to New York. They stayed at a Quaker settlement with several other German Jewish refugee families near Hyde Park. Later, Rabbi Appel was invited to officiate at High Holy Day services in Sedalia, MO. On a visit to St. Louis in the office of the late Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman of St. Louis, Rabbi Appel was invited to serve as rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Hannibal, Missouri. The invitation was extended by Rev. Raymond Maxwell, an Episcopal minister who remained a lifelong friend.
Rabbi Appel was later to serve as spiritual leader of congregations in Pueblo, CO; Gadsen, AL; Salisbury, MD; Marshalltown, IA; and finally at Temple B'nai Israel in Jackson, TN, from 1957-1967 until his retirement.
Prior to accepting the pulpit in Jackson, TN, Rabbi Appel had been approached by members of the German Jewish refugee community of St. Louis about the possibility of establishing a German Reform temple in St. Louis. He did conduct services for the High Holy Days one year, but the project did not materialize.
He also served as chaplain of the Dutch line ship Statendam, while he and his wife were on a world-wide tour. Throughout his career, Dr. Appel lectured extensively on Jewish, interfaith, historical and philosophical subjects.
Survivors include his wife, Marta and a daughter, Dr. Doris Appel Graber (Mrs. T. M.), a professor of political science in Chicago. Another daughter Ruth Lippman (Mrs. Byron) who had taught German language classes in St. Louis for 14 years, died last year. END
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
_____________________
Email
June 14, 2013
From: Lorraine Gervich
Marshalltown, Iowa
(her recollection of Rabbi Appel written to her son, a friend of the Marshalltown library who'd contacted him.)
"With regard to a Rabbi Appel here in the 50's, this is very possibly the same person. I am not sure of the first name but I think it was Ernst
He was a very highly educated man of German decent and reform following. Your Dad was very impressed with him. He and his wife were small in stature but very dignified and probably the highest caliber of any Rabbi M'town ever had. If I remember correctly he was really too
intellectual for the members of our synagogue who were basically from eastern Europe, unschooled except for their religious teachings and definitely not reform."
_____________________
RABBINIC, EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:
1884
Born Hamburg, Germany
1924-1929
Undergraduate Studies and Ph.D
Studies
Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen, and Florence (Italy)
1930
Minister of Finance
Baden, Germany
1930-1933
Chief Rabbi and Teacher
Unknown Named Congregation
Bingen (Rhine), Germany
1934-1937
Rabbi
Unknown Named Congregation
Dortmund (Westphalia), Germany
1937
Fled Nazi Germany for Holland
1937-1940
Guest - Camp Aberdeen
West Park, NY
(A Quaker Settlement)
1940
Rabbi
Temple Israel
Hannibal, Missouri
1941 April
Became a Naturalized Citizen
United States
1941-1945
Temple Beth Israel (1)
Gadsen, Alabama
1941 Summer
Faculty Member, Religious Studies
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
1946-1947
Rabbi
Temple Emanuel (2)(3)
Pueblo, Colorado
1947-1950
Rabbi
Beth Israel Congregation
Salisbury, Maryland
1951-1955
Rabbi
Congregation Sons of Israel
Marshalltown, Iowa
1956 (spring & summer)
Chaplain
Cruise Ship Statendam
Holland American Lines
(5 different vessels would have the Statendam name under the auspices of Holland-American Lines)
1957-1967
Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Israel
Jackson, Tennessee
(1) The Congregation closed its doors July 1, 2010 due to declining membership. The Congregation drew national attention when it was the victim of a Molotov cocktail fire bomb incident on March 25, 1960 thrown by a Nazi sympathizer. Several members were injured from subsequent gunfire but survived following multiple blood transfusions.
(2) Photos of Temple Emanuel, Pueblo, Colorado can be found on the 2nd page of photos. There are captions to each photo.
(3) Photo of the Temple Emanuel building and pulpit can be found on page 2 of the photos. There are captions to each photo.
_____________________
The rabbi featured on this Find A Grave page is one of many included in a "Virtual Cemetery" of rabbis who've passed but who served on St. Louis pulpits during their rabbinate. The complete "Virtual Cemetery" list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS. Questions about this "Virtual Cemetery" project may be directed to:
Steven Weinreich
Email: [email protected]
_________________________
While serving as a local rabbi and living in Dortmund, Germany, Appel had been arrested on some trumped up political charges and his wife was vociferous enough to convince the local jailer to release him. Rabbi Appel along with his wife Marta and daughter Ruth escaped Nazi Germany in 1937.
Rabbi Appel was educated in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) but he was never officially ordained. In the United States, Appel served Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsen, Alabama. In 1944, the Congregation hired their first full-time rabbi, Ernst Appel, the scion of a long line of rabbis in Breslau, Germany. Upon gaining American citizenship, he joined the Gadsden community and served as Beth Israel's spiritual leader for two years before taking another pulpit in Maryland at Congregation Beth Israel would eventually close its doors on July 1, 2010.
Rabbi Appel did not master the English language and that may have been why he was unable to secure a long term pulpit. Rabbi Appel's nephew Rudy Appel corrected this information by relating the fact that Rabbi Appel was not ordained from either the Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary. He contends that without affiliation with either of those institutions, the Rabbi was not privy to the infrastructure, social connection, or networking benefits that might have linked him to larger pulpits that would come available during his rabbinate. This writer was also told that Rabbi Appel left Germany with one of his congregation's Torahs and his granddaughter now has it in her possession as a valuable memento of the Rabbi's life and struggles in Germany.
____________________
In 1939 nearly ten thousand children of both sexes, aged between twelve and seventeen, were sent to Britain as a result of that country's agreement to assist the Jews after Kristallnacht. These youngsters were known as the Kindertransport. In England some were accommodated in camps and institutions, while others were housed with families whom they did not know, including non-Jewish families, in a strange land, with an unknown language and customs unfamiliar to them. Many of them remember this period—and especially the first year, when they anxiously awaited the arrival of their parents—as the most difficult time in their lives. Even after the outbreak of war, when it became clear that their parents could not join them until it was over, the lives of many of them were filled with longing. For their part, the parents knew that their children's lives would not be easy. They did not know who would shelter them or to which families they would be sent. They also feared for their children's identity and longed for them. In her memoirs Marta Appel, whose husband, Ernst Appel, was the rabbi of Dortmund, gives the following description:
"My most difficult assignment was organizing the dispatch of the children themselves to the United States, Erez Israel, England and Italy. My heart bled as I witnessed the children's parting from their parents. Yet it was the parents who turned to us, begging us to do everything possible to send the children away as quickly as possible, since they could not bear to see them suffering persecution and hatred. Out of love, the parents were ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them, just so that their children could grow up in peace and freedom." END
From the Jewish Women's Encyclopedia:
by Dayla Ofer
Based on Memoirs of Marta Appel "MEMOIRS OF A GERMAN JEWISH WOMAN"
Written in 1940-1941
_____________________
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Memorial services were held recently at Temple Israel for Rabbi Ernst Appel, who served 53 years as a rabbi. Rabbi Appel, 89, died Saturday, June 9, of infirmities at Delmar Gardens Nursing Home, 837 Leland Avenue, University City.
Rabbi Appel was the descendent of a distinguished German Jewish family, his forefathers having been rabbis in Germany for many generations. His father, Rabbi Maier Appel, served as a rabbi in Germany, and his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also rabbis in the Liberal (Reform) Jewish movement in Germany. His grandfather was Ephraim Willstatter and his great grandfather was Rabbi Benjamin Willstatter, who was the first rabbi in Baden to give a sermon in the German language. (Some of the congregants covered their ears with their prayer shawls in protest, according to Rabbi Appel's widow Marta.)
A great uncle of Rabbi Appel served as minister of finance of Baden during the reign of the Grand Duke Frederic II. Another uncle, Dr. Richard Willstatter, won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of chlorophyll.
Rabbi Appel earned a Ph.D. degree at the universities of Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen and Florence (Italy), served as chief rabbi and teacher in Bingen in Rhine, Germany, and in the large industrial metropolis of Dortmund (Westphalia, Germany). In Dortmund he was the head of a congregation of 5,000 people, and also lectured on religion and pedagogy at the local college. The congregation, while part of the German Reform movement, also was attended by members of the Orthodox community in the area.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Rabbi Appel was subjected to continued pressures as he attempted to continue serving his congregation. In 1935, when his fellow rabbis came to Dortmund to celebrate Rabbi Appel's 25th year in the rabbinate, a Nazi was assigned to observe the meeting. Rabbi Appel and his colleagues spoke in Hebrew to prevent the Nazi from following the proceedings.
Rabbi Appel was president of the local chapter of B'nai B'rith, and his wife, Mrs. Marta Insel Appel, was president of the lodge's auxiliary in Dortmund, and both were arrested in 1937 when B'nai B'rith became a "subversive" organization in the eyes of the Nazis. Mrs. Appel was released from jail first and recalls shouting at the Gestapo office when officials balked at releasing Dr. Appel. "I don't know what gave me the courage but they did release him."
The Appels left Germany in May 1937 with their two daughters, Doris then 17 and Ruth 18. After a four-month stay in Holland, the Appels moved to New York. They stayed at a Quaker settlement with several other German Jewish refugee families near Hyde Park. Later, Rabbi Appel was invited to officiate at High Holy Day services in Sedalia, MO. On a visit to St. Louis in the office of the late Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman of St. Louis, Rabbi Appel was invited to serve as rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Hannibal, Missouri. The invitation was extended by Rev. Raymond Maxwell, an Episcopal minister who remained a lifelong friend.
Rabbi Appel was later to serve as spiritual leader of congregations in Pueblo, CO; Gadsen, AL; Salisbury, MD; Marshalltown, IA; and finally at Temple B'nai Israel in Jackson, TN, from 1957-1967 until his retirement.
Prior to accepting the pulpit in Jackson, TN, Rabbi Appel had been approached by members of the German Jewish refugee community of St. Louis about the possibility of establishing a German Reform temple in St. Louis. He did conduct services for the High Holy Days one year, but the project did not materialize.
He also served as chaplain of the Dutch line ship Statendam, while he and his wife were on a world-wide tour. Throughout his career, Dr. Appel lectured extensively on Jewish, interfaith, historical and philosophical subjects.
Survivors include his wife, Marta and a daughter, Dr. Doris Appel Graber (Mrs. T. M.), a professor of political science in Chicago. Another daughter Ruth Lippman (Mrs. Byron) who had taught German language classes in St. Louis for 14 years, died last year. END
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
_____________________
June 14, 2013
From: Lorraine Gervich
Marshalltown, Iowa
(her recollection of Rabbi Appel written to her son, a friend of the Marshalltown library who'd contacted him.)
"With regard to a Rabbi Appel here in the 50's, this is very possibly the same person. I am not sure of the first name but I think it was Ernst
He was a very highly educated man of German decent and reform following. Your Dad was very impressed with him. He and his wife were small in stature but very dignified and probably the highest caliber of any Rabbi M'town ever had. If I remember correctly he was really too
intellectual for the members of our synagogue who were basically from eastern Europe, unschooled except for their religious teachings and definitely not reform."
_____________________
RABBINIC, EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:
1884
Born Hamburg, Germany
1924-1929
Undergraduate Studies and Ph.D
Studies
Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen, and Florence (Italy)
1930
Minister of Finance
Baden, Germany
1930-1933
Chief Rabbi and Teacher
Unknown Named Congregation
Bingen (Rhine), Germany
1934-1937
Rabbi
Unknown Named Congregation
Dortmund (Westphalia), Germany
1937
Fled Nazi Germany for Holland
1937-1940
Guest - Camp Aberdeen
West Park, NY
(A Quaker Settlement)
1940
Rabbi
Temple Israel
Hannibal, Missouri
1941 April
Became a Naturalized Citizen
United States
1941-1945
Temple Beth Israel (1)
Gadsen, Alabama
1941 Summer
Faculty Member, Religious Studies
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
1946-1947
Rabbi
Temple Emanuel (2)(3)
Pueblo, Colorado
1947-1950
Rabbi
Beth Israel Congregation
Salisbury, Maryland
1951-1955
Rabbi
Congregation Sons of Israel
Marshalltown, Iowa
1956 (spring & summer)
Chaplain
Cruise Ship Statendam
Holland American Lines
(5 different vessels would have the Statendam name under the auspices of Holland-American Lines)
1957-1967
Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Israel
Jackson, Tennessee
(1) The Congregation closed its doors July 1, 2010 due to declining membership. The Congregation drew national attention when it was the victim of a Molotov cocktail fire bomb incident on March 25, 1960 thrown by a Nazi sympathizer. Several members were injured from subsequent gunfire but survived following multiple blood transfusions.
(2) Photos of Temple Emanuel, Pueblo, Colorado can be found on the 2nd page of photos. There are captions to each photo.
(3) Photo of the Temple Emanuel building and pulpit can be found on page 2 of the photos. There are captions to each photo.
_____________________
The rabbi featured on this Find A Grave page is one of many included in a "Virtual Cemetery" of rabbis who've passed but who served on St. Louis pulpits during their rabbinate. The complete "Virtual Cemetery" list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS. Questions about this "Virtual Cemetery" project may be directed to:
Steven Weinreich
Email: [email protected]
Rabbi Appel served Temple Israel, Hannibal, Missouri as senior rabbi for less than 1 year (1940) and he is listed along with other rabbis who served St. Louis congregations. The full list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS.
_________________________
While serving as a local rabbi and living in Dortmund, Germany, Appel had been arrested on some trumped up political charges and his wife was vociferous enough to convince the local jailer to release him. Rabbi Appel along with his wife Marta and daughter Ruth escaped Nazi Germany in 1937.
Rabbi Appel was educated in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) but he was never officially ordained. In the United States, Appel served Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsen, Alabama. In 1944, the Congregation hired their first full-time rabbi, Ernst Appel, the scion of a long line of rabbis in Breslau, Germany. Upon gaining American citizenship, he joined the Gadsden community and served as Beth Israel's spiritual leader for two years before taking another pulpit in Maryland at Congregation Beth Israel would eventually close its doors on July 1, 2010.
Rabbi Appel did not master the English language and that may have been why he was unable to secure a long term pulpit. Rabbi Appel's nephew Rudy Appel corrected this information by relating the fact that Rabbi Appel was not ordained from either the Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary. He contends that without affiliation with either of those institutions, the Rabbi was not privy to the infrastructure, social connection, or networking benefits that might have linked him to larger pulpits that would come available during his rabbinate. This writer was also told that Rabbi Appel left Germany with one of his congregation's Torahs and his granddaughter now has it in her possession as a valuable memento of the Rabbi's life and struggles in Germany.
____________________
In 1939 nearly ten thousand children of both sexes, aged between twelve and seventeen, were sent to Britain as a result of that country's agreement to assist the Jews after Kristallnacht. These youngsters were known as the Kindertransport. In England some were accommodated in camps and institutions, while others were housed with families whom they did not know, including non-Jewish families, in a strange land, with an unknown language and customs unfamiliar to them. Many of them remember this period—and especially the first year, when they anxiously awaited the arrival of their parents—as the most difficult time in their lives. Even after the outbreak of war, when it became clear that their parents could not join them until it was over, the lives of many of them were filled with longing. For their part, the parents knew that their children's lives would not be easy. They did not know who would shelter them or to which families they would be sent. They also feared for their children's identity and longed for them. In her memoirs Marta Appel, whose husband, Ernst Appel, was the rabbi of Dortmund, gives the following description:
"My most difficult assignment was organizing the dispatch of the children themselves to the United States, Erez Israel, England and Italy. My heart bled as I witnessed the children's parting from their parents. Yet it was the parents who turned to us, begging us to do everything possible to send the children away as quickly as possible, since they could not bear to see them suffering persecution and hatred. Out of love, the parents were ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them, just so that their children could grow up in peace and freedom." END
From the Jewish Women's Encyclopedia:
by Dayla Ofer
Based on Memoirs of Marta Appel "MEMOIRS OF A GERMAN JEWISH WOMAN"
Written in 1940-1941
_____________________
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Memorial services were held recently at Temple Israel for Rabbi Ernst Appel, who served 53 years as a rabbi. Rabbi Appel, 89, died Saturday, June 9, of infirmities at Delmar Gardens Nursing Home, 837 Leland Avenue, University City.
Rabbi Appel was the descendent of a distinguished German Jewish family, his forefathers having been rabbis in Germany for many generations. His father, Rabbi Maier Appel, served as a rabbi in Germany, and his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also rabbis in the Liberal (Reform) Jewish movement in Germany. His grandfather was Ephraim Willstatter and his great grandfather was Rabbi Benjamin Willstatter, who was the first rabbi in Baden to give a sermon in the German language. (Some of the congregants covered their ears with their prayer shawls in protest, according to Rabbi Appel's widow Marta.)
A great uncle of Rabbi Appel served as minister of finance of Baden during the reign of the Grand Duke Frederic II. Another uncle, Dr. Richard Willstatter, won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of chlorophyll.
Rabbi Appel earned a Ph.D. degree at the universities of Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen and Florence (Italy), served as chief rabbi and teacher in Bingen in Rhine, Germany, and in the large industrial metropolis of Dortmund (Westphalia, Germany). In Dortmund he was the head of a congregation of 5,000 people, and also lectured on religion and pedagogy at the local college. The congregation, while part of the German Reform movement, also was attended by members of the Orthodox community in the area.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Rabbi Appel was subjected to continued pressures as he attempted to continue serving his congregation. In 1935, when his fellow rabbis came to Dortmund to celebrate Rabbi Appel's 25th year in the rabbinate, a Nazi was assigned to observe the meeting. Rabbi Appel and his colleagues spoke in Hebrew to prevent the Nazi from following the proceedings.
Rabbi Appel was president of the local chapter of B'nai B'rith, and his wife, Mrs. Marta Insel Appel, was president of the lodge's auxiliary in Dortmund, and both were arrested in 1937 when B'nai B'rith became a "subversive" organization in the eyes of the Nazis. Mrs. Appel was released from jail first and recalls shouting at the Gestapo office when officials balked at releasing Dr. Appel. "I don't know what gave me the courage but they did release him."
The Appels left Germany in May 1937 with their two daughters, Doris then 17 and Ruth 18. After a four-month stay in Holland, the Appels moved to New York. They stayed at a Quaker settlement with several other German Jewish refugee families near Hyde Park. Later, Rabbi Appel was invited to officiate at High Holy Day services in Sedalia, MO. On a visit to St. Louis in the office of the late Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman of St. Louis, Rabbi Appel was invited to serve as rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Hannibal, Missouri. The invitation was extended by Rev. Raymond Maxwell, an Episcopal minister who remained a lifelong friend.
Rabbi Appel was later to serve as spiritual leader of congregations in Pueblo, CO; Gadsen, AL; Salisbury, MD; Marshalltown, IA; and finally at Temple B'nai Israel in Jackson, TN, from 1957-1967 until his retirement.
Prior to accepting the pulpit in Jackson, TN, Rabbi Appel had been approached by members of the German Jewish refugee community of St. Louis about the possibility of establishing a German Reform temple in St. Louis. He did conduct services for the High Holy Days one year, but the project did not materialize.
He also served as chaplain of the Dutch line ship Statendam, while he and his wife were on a world-wide tour. Throughout his career, Dr. Appel lectured extensively on Jewish, interfaith, historical and philosophical subjects.
Survivors include his wife, Marta and a daughter, Dr. Doris Appel Graber (Mrs. T. M.), a professor of political science in Chicago. Another daughter Ruth Lippman (Mrs. Byron) who had taught German language classes in St. Louis for 14 years, died last year. END
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
_____________________
Email
June 14, 2013
From: Lorraine Gervich
Marshalltown, Iowa
(her recollection of Rabbi Appel written to her son, a friend of the Marshalltown library who'd contacted him.)
"With regard to a Rabbi Appel here in the 50's, this is very possibly the same person. I am not sure of the first name but I think it was Ernst
He was a very highly educated man of German decent and reform following. Your Dad was very impressed with him. He and his wife were small in stature but very dignified and probably the highest caliber of any Rabbi M'town ever had. If I remember correctly he was really too
intellectual for the members of our synagogue who were basically from eastern Europe, unschooled except for their religious teachings and definitely not reform."
_____________________
RABBINIC, EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:
1884
Born Hamburg, Germany
1924-1929
Undergraduate Studies and Ph.D
Studies
Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen, and Florence (Italy)
1930
Minister of Finance
Baden, Germany
1930-1933
Chief Rabbi and Teacher
Unknown Named Congregation
Bingen (Rhine), Germany
1934-1937
Rabbi
Unknown Named Congregation
Dortmund (Westphalia), Germany
1937
Fled Nazi Germany for Holland
1937-1940
Guest - Camp Aberdeen
West Park, NY
(A Quaker Settlement)
1940
Rabbi
Temple Israel
Hannibal, Missouri
1941 April
Became a Naturalized Citizen
United States
1941-1945
Temple Beth Israel (1)
Gadsen, Alabama
1941 Summer
Faculty Member, Religious Studies
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
1946-1947
Rabbi
Temple Emanuel (2)(3)
Pueblo, Colorado
1947-1950
Rabbi
Beth Israel Congregation
Salisbury, Maryland
1951-1955
Rabbi
Congregation Sons of Israel
Marshalltown, Iowa
1956 (spring & summer)
Chaplain
Cruise Ship Statendam
Holland American Lines
(5 different vessels would have the Statendam name under the auspices of Holland-American Lines)
1957-1967
Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Israel
Jackson, Tennessee
(1) The Congregation closed its doors July 1, 2010 due to declining membership. The Congregation drew national attention when it was the victim of a Molotov cocktail fire bomb incident on March 25, 1960 thrown by a Nazi sympathizer. Several members were injured from subsequent gunfire but survived following multiple blood transfusions.
(2) Photos of Temple Emanuel, Pueblo, Colorado can be found on the 2nd page of photos. There are captions to each photo.
(3) Photo of the Temple Emanuel building and pulpit can be found on page 2 of the photos. There are captions to each photo.
_____________________
The rabbi featured on this Find A Grave page is one of many included in a "Virtual Cemetery" of rabbis who've passed but who served on St. Louis pulpits during their rabbinate. The complete "Virtual Cemetery" list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS. Questions about this "Virtual Cemetery" project may be directed to:
Steven Weinreich
Email: [email protected]
_________________________
While serving as a local rabbi and living in Dortmund, Germany, Appel had been arrested on some trumped up political charges and his wife was vociferous enough to convince the local jailer to release him. Rabbi Appel along with his wife Marta and daughter Ruth escaped Nazi Germany in 1937.
Rabbi Appel was educated in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) but he was never officially ordained. In the United States, Appel served Congregation Beth Israel in Gadsen, Alabama. In 1944, the Congregation hired their first full-time rabbi, Ernst Appel, the scion of a long line of rabbis in Breslau, Germany. Upon gaining American citizenship, he joined the Gadsden community and served as Beth Israel's spiritual leader for two years before taking another pulpit in Maryland at Congregation Beth Israel would eventually close its doors on July 1, 2010.
Rabbi Appel did not master the English language and that may have been why he was unable to secure a long term pulpit. Rabbi Appel's nephew Rudy Appel corrected this information by relating the fact that Rabbi Appel was not ordained from either the Hebrew Union College or the Jewish Theological Seminary. He contends that without affiliation with either of those institutions, the Rabbi was not privy to the infrastructure, social connection, or networking benefits that might have linked him to larger pulpits that would come available during his rabbinate. This writer was also told that Rabbi Appel left Germany with one of his congregation's Torahs and his granddaughter now has it in her possession as a valuable memento of the Rabbi's life and struggles in Germany.
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In 1939 nearly ten thousand children of both sexes, aged between twelve and seventeen, were sent to Britain as a result of that country's agreement to assist the Jews after Kristallnacht. These youngsters were known as the Kindertransport. In England some were accommodated in camps and institutions, while others were housed with families whom they did not know, including non-Jewish families, in a strange land, with an unknown language and customs unfamiliar to them. Many of them remember this period—and especially the first year, when they anxiously awaited the arrival of their parents—as the most difficult time in their lives. Even after the outbreak of war, when it became clear that their parents could not join them until it was over, the lives of many of them were filled with longing. For their part, the parents knew that their children's lives would not be easy. They did not know who would shelter them or to which families they would be sent. They also feared for their children's identity and longed for them. In her memoirs Marta Appel, whose husband, Ernst Appel, was the rabbi of Dortmund, gives the following description:
"My most difficult assignment was organizing the dispatch of the children themselves to the United States, Erez Israel, England and Italy. My heart bled as I witnessed the children's parting from their parents. Yet it was the parents who turned to us, begging us to do everything possible to send the children away as quickly as possible, since they could not bear to see them suffering persecution and hatred. Out of love, the parents were ready to sacrifice what was dearest to them, just so that their children could grow up in peace and freedom." END
From the Jewish Women's Encyclopedia:
by Dayla Ofer
Based on Memoirs of Marta Appel "MEMOIRS OF A GERMAN JEWISH WOMAN"
Written in 1940-1941
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Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Memorial services were held recently at Temple Israel for Rabbi Ernst Appel, who served 53 years as a rabbi. Rabbi Appel, 89, died Saturday, June 9, of infirmities at Delmar Gardens Nursing Home, 837 Leland Avenue, University City.
Rabbi Appel was the descendent of a distinguished German Jewish family, his forefathers having been rabbis in Germany for many generations. His father, Rabbi Maier Appel, served as a rabbi in Germany, and his maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were also rabbis in the Liberal (Reform) Jewish movement in Germany. His grandfather was Ephraim Willstatter and his great grandfather was Rabbi Benjamin Willstatter, who was the first rabbi in Baden to give a sermon in the German language. (Some of the congregants covered their ears with their prayer shawls in protest, according to Rabbi Appel's widow Marta.)
A great uncle of Rabbi Appel served as minister of finance of Baden during the reign of the Grand Duke Frederic II. Another uncle, Dr. Richard Willstatter, won the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the synthesis of chlorophyll.
Rabbi Appel earned a Ph.D. degree at the universities of Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen and Florence (Italy), served as chief rabbi and teacher in Bingen in Rhine, Germany, and in the large industrial metropolis of Dortmund (Westphalia, Germany). In Dortmund he was the head of a congregation of 5,000 people, and also lectured on religion and pedagogy at the local college. The congregation, while part of the German Reform movement, also was attended by members of the Orthodox community in the area.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Rabbi Appel was subjected to continued pressures as he attempted to continue serving his congregation. In 1935, when his fellow rabbis came to Dortmund to celebrate Rabbi Appel's 25th year in the rabbinate, a Nazi was assigned to observe the meeting. Rabbi Appel and his colleagues spoke in Hebrew to prevent the Nazi from following the proceedings.
Rabbi Appel was president of the local chapter of B'nai B'rith, and his wife, Mrs. Marta Insel Appel, was president of the lodge's auxiliary in Dortmund, and both were arrested in 1937 when B'nai B'rith became a "subversive" organization in the eyes of the Nazis. Mrs. Appel was released from jail first and recalls shouting at the Gestapo office when officials balked at releasing Dr. Appel. "I don't know what gave me the courage but they did release him."
The Appels left Germany in May 1937 with their two daughters, Doris then 17 and Ruth 18. After a four-month stay in Holland, the Appels moved to New York. They stayed at a Quaker settlement with several other German Jewish refugee families near Hyde Park. Later, Rabbi Appel was invited to officiate at High Holy Day services in Sedalia, MO. On a visit to St. Louis in the office of the late Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman of St. Louis, Rabbi Appel was invited to serve as rabbi of the Jewish congregation of Hannibal, Missouri. The invitation was extended by Rev. Raymond Maxwell, an Episcopal minister who remained a lifelong friend.
Rabbi Appel was later to serve as spiritual leader of congregations in Pueblo, CO; Gadsen, AL; Salisbury, MD; Marshalltown, IA; and finally at Temple B'nai Israel in Jackson, TN, from 1957-1967 until his retirement.
Prior to accepting the pulpit in Jackson, TN, Rabbi Appel had been approached by members of the German Jewish refugee community of St. Louis about the possibility of establishing a German Reform temple in St. Louis. He did conduct services for the High Holy Days one year, but the project did not materialize.
He also served as chaplain of the Dutch line ship Statendam, while he and his wife were on a world-wide tour. Throughout his career, Dr. Appel lectured extensively on Jewish, interfaith, historical and philosophical subjects.
Survivors include his wife, Marta and a daughter, Dr. Doris Appel Graber (Mrs. T. M.), a professor of political science in Chicago. Another daughter Ruth Lippman (Mrs. Byron) who had taught German language classes in St. Louis for 14 years, died last year. END
Obituary
St. Louis Jewish Light
June 20, 1973
Reproduced with Permission
Source: AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
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June 14, 2013
From: Lorraine Gervich
Marshalltown, Iowa
(her recollection of Rabbi Appel written to her son, a friend of the Marshalltown library who'd contacted him.)
"With regard to a Rabbi Appel here in the 50's, this is very possibly the same person. I am not sure of the first name but I think it was Ernst
He was a very highly educated man of German decent and reform following. Your Dad was very impressed with him. He and his wife were small in stature but very dignified and probably the highest caliber of any Rabbi M'town ever had. If I remember correctly he was really too
intellectual for the members of our synagogue who were basically from eastern Europe, unschooled except for their religious teachings and definitely not reform."
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RABBINIC, EDUCATIONAL AND PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY:
1884
Born Hamburg, Germany
1924-1929
Undergraduate Studies and Ph.D
Studies
Berlin, Breslau, Erlangen, and Florence (Italy)
1930
Minister of Finance
Baden, Germany
1930-1933
Chief Rabbi and Teacher
Unknown Named Congregation
Bingen (Rhine), Germany
1934-1937
Rabbi
Unknown Named Congregation
Dortmund (Westphalia), Germany
1937
Fled Nazi Germany for Holland
1937-1940
Guest - Camp Aberdeen
West Park, NY
(A Quaker Settlement)
1940
Rabbi
Temple Israel
Hannibal, Missouri
1941 April
Became a Naturalized Citizen
United States
1941-1945
Temple Beth Israel (1)
Gadsen, Alabama
1941 Summer
Faculty Member, Religious Studies
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
1946-1947
Rabbi
Temple Emanuel (2)(3)
Pueblo, Colorado
1947-1950
Rabbi
Beth Israel Congregation
Salisbury, Maryland
1951-1955
Rabbi
Congregation Sons of Israel
Marshalltown, Iowa
1956 (spring & summer)
Chaplain
Cruise Ship Statendam
Holland American Lines
(5 different vessels would have the Statendam name under the auspices of Holland-American Lines)
1957-1967
Rabbi
Congregation B'nai Israel
Jackson, Tennessee
(1) The Congregation closed its doors July 1, 2010 due to declining membership. The Congregation drew national attention when it was the victim of a Molotov cocktail fire bomb incident on March 25, 1960 thrown by a Nazi sympathizer. Several members were injured from subsequent gunfire but survived following multiple blood transfusions.
(2) Photos of Temple Emanuel, Pueblo, Colorado can be found on the 2nd page of photos. There are captions to each photo.
(3) Photo of the Temple Emanuel building and pulpit can be found on page 2 of the photos. There are captions to each photo.
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The rabbi featured on this Find A Grave page is one of many included in a "Virtual Cemetery" of rabbis who've passed but who served on St. Louis pulpits during their rabbinate. The complete "Virtual Cemetery" list can be found at SAINT LOUIS RABBIS. Questions about this "Virtual Cemetery" project may be directed to:
Steven Weinreich
Email: [email protected]
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