Houdini

By RABBI JOSEPH H. PROUSER

This Shabbat marks the 100th anniversary of the October 31, 1926 death of renowned magician Harry Houdini.

Born Erich Weisz in Budapest, Hungary, Houdini was the son of Cecilia and Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weisz.

Houdini moved to Appleton Wisconsin when his father (a Conservative-trained Rabbi) assumed the pulpit of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation there.

In 1887 – a time of greater Jewish unity – Houdini celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in an Orthodox shul, where his Conservative father and the Reform community cheered him on.

Houdini gained fame as an escape artist, escaping Baltimore’s City Jail in 1905, the water torture chamber in 1915, and chains and a strait jacket (while suspended upside down from a crane!) in 1916.

Houdini was the founding president of the “Rabbis’ Sons Theatrical Benevolent Association.”  Assisted by Vice President Al Jolson and Secretary Irving Berlin, these rabbis’ sons raised money to assist the families of American soldiers fighting in World War I.

Harry was a good Jewish son. At the height of his success, he bought his mother a dress once worn by Queen Victoria.

Houdini’s correspondence shows that – after his beloved mother’s passing – he attended minyan every single day for the requisite 11 months to say Kaddish in her memory.

There’s no escaping it: his memory, too, is a blessing.

Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the editor of “Masorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.” The latest edition of Masorti published in the summer of 2026 and honors the American Sestercentennial. A subscription is $18 per annum. Print copies are available from Ben Yehuda Press and Amazon.