My good buddy the scholar Josh Harrison בעמ"ס Chakira Blog mentioned to me today that he wanted a good picture of the late great Kaiser Franz Josef I יר"ה, ז"ל. He wants to be a "good Austro-Hungarian patriot," he says. The Kaiser was a great friend of the Jews, and not for nothing did the number of Jews under his rule grow from 700,00 to 1.225 Million. They simply wanted to live under his protection. How right he is! Where else do we hear people telling jokes and anecdotes a hundred years after a man passes on? You ever heard the one about the Polish king? me neither. But we all know the joke about the Kaiser hearing the news of his imminent arrival in town in the Mikveh. So I decided to join his new Kaiserphile movement. I printed out the picture you see above on my printer that's at the end of the cartridge and hung it up on my office wall. Not very glamorous, the office. I know. So there. I'm now a proud member.
Nu, tell us the joke; don't leave us hanging!
ReplyDeleteFranz Joseph I., not II. The only ruling Franz Joseph II. was the late Prince of Lichtenstein.
ReplyDeleteI stand corrected. Thank you, Shimon.
DeleteUse his Jewish name!
ReplyDeleteEphraim Yosef
As much as you magyars loved and love him, the use of the language of the germans ym"sh is nauseating. At least to us poylishe yidden.
ReplyDeleteWhich brings us to Wilhelm II, and a mas'ase with the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe, horses and kishuf.
ReplyDeleteAnyone remember the mokor for this ?
I saw it printed long ago.
r' yosef chaim wouldn't go out to see wilhelm when he came to ey, saying he is amalek
ReplyDeleteC'mon....somebody must know !
ReplyDeleteIt's a unique bit of trivia....
Hey Reb Hersh,
ReplyDeleteBig fan of the blog, at my ex's grandmother's funeral in williamsburg one of the maspidim included a story of Franz Josef. Ever since I was wondering, has anyone ever collected and published stories Jews tell of the Kaiser?
best,
shaul