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American Jewish Archives Devoted to the preservation and study of American Jewish

historical records

Director: JACOB RADER MARCUS, Ph.D. Milton and Hattie Kutz Distinguished Service Professor

o f A merican Jewish History

Ass i~ tant Director: ABRAHAM J. PECK, Ph.M.

Published by THE AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, CINCINNATI, OHIO 45220

on the Cincinnati campus o f the HEBREW UNION COLLEGE - JEWISH INSTITUTE O F RELIGION

VOL. XXX APRIL, 1978 NO. 1

In This Issue

Happyville, the Forgotten Colony ARNOLD SHANKMAN 3 The name Happyville, South Carolina, has become a forgotten chapter in the history of American Jewish agricultural colonies. There are reasons for this, as Professor Shankman makes clear in his article. Yet Happyville needs to be remembered, more for the idealism and devotion of its colonists than for the failures which marked its short-lived existence.

A Note on the Genealogy of an Eighteenth-Century Family of Jewish Origin: The Nunez Family of L ~ W ~ S , Delaware SAMUEL REZNECK 20 In colonial America, Jews occasionally left the security of the Jewish community to migrate into the hinterland. Often, deprived of essential contacts, they ceased to be Jewish. Professor Rezneck attempts to reconstruct three generations of one such family.

The Founding of Columbian Council IDA COHEN SELAVAN 24 The Columbian Council of Pittsburgh was founded as a local section of the National Council of Jewish Women. Dr. Selavan examines the early years of the Council and highlights its most important contributions to the life of Pittsburgh Jewry.

J a c o b H. Schiff's Galves ton M o v e m e n t : An E x p e r i m e n t

in I m m i g r a n t Def lec t ion , 1 9 0 7 - 1 9 14 GARY DEAN BEST 43 Although the career of Jacob H. Schiff is usually associated with the world of high finance, Professor Best has carefully documented Schiff's involvement with a plan to send hundreds of thousands of immigrant Jews into the interior regions of the United States and Canada and away from the con- gested cities of America's east coast. The city of Galveston, Texas, would serve as the departure point for many of these Jews. The Galveston Plan, as it came t o be known, necessitated complex political and financial maneu- verings on the parts of Schiff, the American immigration authorities, and the English Territorialist, Israel Zangwill.

Book Review

Fine, David M. The City, The Immigrant and American Fiction, 1880-1 920. 80 Berkow, Ira. Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar.

Reviewed b y ELINOR GRUMET

Brief Notices 8 5

Selec ted Acquis i t ions 94

Il lustrat ions

Life in the Jewish agricultural colony of Happyville, South Carolina, facing page 5; A river scene of the Happyville colony, facing page 10; Jacob H. Schiff', facing page 43; Israel Zangwill, facing page 46.

The American Jewish Archives is indexed in The Index to Jewish Periodicals,

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Patron for 1978

THE NEUMANN MEMORIAL PUBLICATION FUND

Published by THE AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES on the Cincinnati campus of the HEBREW UNION COLLEGE-JEWISH

INSTITUTE O F RELIGION

ALFRED GOTTSCHALK, President

@ 1978 by the American Jewish Archives

Happyville, the Forgotten Colony

ARNOLD SHANKMAN

With few exceptions, Jewish agricultural colonies have not pros- pered in the United States. In the nineteenth and twentieth cen- turies poor land, dread diseases, inexperienced farmers, enormous expenses, and miserable weather have combined t o terminate more than a dozen Jewish farming colonies. Also operative is the fact that after 1880 the trend was from the farm to the city as the mechanization of agriculture made capital investment larger, increased productivity, and rendered many farmers superfluous, thus driving them to the city. Only in southern New Jersey, where they were close to large urban centers and could supplement farming with local work in industry, did large numbers of Jewish farmers organized in colonies thrive for any significant number of years. Historians have long been fascinated by the attempts of Jewish idealists to establish agricultural settlements in such unlikely locations as Sicily Island, Louisiana, Painted Woods, North Dakota, and Bad Axe, Michigan. One short-lived colony, however, is invariably absent from the various chronicles of Jewish agricultural experiments. That colony, Happyville, was established in December, 1905, near Montmorenci, in Aiken County, South Carolina, and was hastily abandoned about two years later. Like the colonies at Beersheba, Kansas, Cotopaxi, Colorado, and New Odessa, Oregon, Happyville was not destined to be a financial success.'

The writer would like to express his appreciation to Morris U. Schappes, Ben Axelrod, Harold Rudnick, and members of the Surasky family for their help in the researching of this article.

' Studies of Jewish agricultural colonies in the United States include Leo Shpall,

Professor Shankman teaches i n t he depar tment of history a t Winthrop Col- lege, Rock Hill, Sou th Carolina.

4 AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, APRIL, 1978

That Happyville has been forgotten is not particularly surprising. Incomplete files of Aiken County newspapers and the absence of any surviving manuscript material have helped t o obliterate the memory of the small colony. Also, Happyville was more a product of Ebbie Julian (E. J.) Watson, South Carolina's Commissioner of Agriculture, Commerce, and I m m i ~ a t i o n , than of the Jewish Agri- cultural Society. For obvious reasons, after Happyville was abandoned, Watson, who was still trying t o attract the "better element" of Europeans to the Palmetto State, no longer mentioned the "Russian colony of Aiken" in his official report^.^

Watson's activities were not notably different from what was then going on in other nearby states. Throughout the South in the early years of the twentieth century there was considerable interest in the subject of immigration. White Southerners became angry and frustrated that in contrast with the rest of the nation their region was not prospering and that Dixie was not attracting her fair share of factories. By Northern standards even Dixie's farms seemed impoverished and underdeveloped. Many whites, seeking a scapegoat for this sad state of affairs, blamed their black agricultural workers, whom they accused of being inefficient, unreliable, dishonest, and lazy. According t o the influential Baltimore Manu-

"Jewish Agricultural Colonies in the U.S.," Agricultural History, XXIV (1950), 120-46; Gabriel Davidson, Our Jewish Farmers (New York: L. B. Fischer, 1943), and his "Colonies, Agricultural: United States," The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York, 1941), 111, 268-69; JosephBrandes,Immigrants t o Freedom, Jewish Communitiesir: Rural New Jersey (Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971); Leonard Robin- son, The Agricultural Activities o f the Jews in America (New York: American Jewish Committee, 1912); Ezekiel Lifschutz, "Jacob Gordin's Proposal to Establish an Agri- cultural Colony," in Abraham Karp, ed., The Jewish Experience in America, IV: The Era o f Immigration (5 vols., New York: Ktav, 1969), 253-61; George Price, "The Russian Jews in America," part 2 , trans. Leo Shpall, in ibid., pp. 300-355; "Jewish Farmers," The American Review o f Reviews, XXXVII (May, 1908), 617-18; Ande Manners, Poor Cousins (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, 1972), pp. 164-97; Samuel Lee, Moses of the New World (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1970), chapter 18; "Jewish Colony Prospers [in New Jersey,] "; Baltimore American, n.d., quoted in the Charleston (S. C.)Newsand Courier, February 2 , 1906.

20ccasionally this colony was called the Polish colony. In either case the colonists were refugees escaping tsarist persecution. On the question of immigration to South Carolina in this period, the best study is Mildred Louise Pettus, "European Immigration to South Carolina, 1881-1908" (master's thesis, the University of South Carolina, 1954).

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HAPPYVILLE, THE FORGOTTEN COLONY 5

facturer's Record, which had a wide circulation south of the Mason-Dixon line, "slothful" Negro fieldhands were unusually prone to "drinking, gambling, and other forms of dissipation." The natural inclination of Afro-Americans, added the Manu- facturer's Record, was "to trifle, to loaf, and to fr01ic."~ Others conducted surveys that uncovered the disturbing findings that 30% of the tillable land in Georgia was idle and that fully 59% of South Carolina's farm property was ~ n i m p r o v e d . ~

Search For Prosperity

In their frantic efforts to find a way to bring prosperity to Dixie some Southern leaders decided that what their region most needed was hardworking European immigrants who would be able to put "untilled . . . acres under cultivation and fill11 southern shops and factories with competent and faithful workers." It was further alleged that competition from foreigners would force Negroes to abandon improvidence and "cheerfully [to] meet the demands upon [the] m in the fields and workshops of l a b ~ r . " ~

Since immigrants did not voluntarily settle in the South in large numbers because economic opportunities were better for them in the industrial North and in the West, it became necessary to induce them to come to Dixie. No ex-confederate state was more innovative in promoting immigration than South Carolina. In 1900, the Palmetto State had a population of just under 1,350,000. More than 58% of the state's residents were black, and of the whites in South Carolina a mere 5,528 were of foreign birth. Rus- sians, mainly Jews, represented 316 of these immigrants, a relatively small percentage of the estimated 2,500 Jews living in the Palmetto State. Before 1905, in a typical year, only a few hundred -often under 100-immigrants would come to live in South Carolina, and of these very few chose agricultural occupations.

3Manufacturer's Record (Baltimore), XLVIII (July 20, 1905), 5 . 4E . J. Watson, comp., Handbook of South Carolina (Columbia: State Company,

1907), p. 259, hereafter cited as Watson, Handbook; Savannah Tribune, February 2, 1907.

5Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Herald, June 14, 1905; Huntsville (Ala.) Mercury, June 18, 1905.


Plainly, something had to be done if the Palmetto State really expected t o attract foreign-born farmer^.^

In I'Jovember, 1903, A. J. Matheson, a successful banker from Bennettsville, and himself of Scottish birth, held a meeting on immigration in Columbia, the state capital. Eighteen of the state's forty-two counties sent delegates, and these men called upon South Carolina legislators to establish a bureau of imrnigra t i~n.~ Governor Duncan Clinch Heyward was receptive to this suggestion, and encouraged the state general assembly to create a department that would promote South Carolina t o industrious aliens. In 1904 the legislature established a state immigration bureau and appropriated $2,000 for it t o carry out its work.8

E. J. Watson, who was selected to head the bureau, was a thirty- five-year-old Columbia newspaperman and secretary of that city's Chamber of Commerce. Despite the lack of an adequate depart- mental budget, he enthusiastically and capably presented the case for encouraging immigration to those South Carolinians skeptical about the need for attracting foreign-born settlers. Watson quickly realized that published literature alone would not entice many aliens to the state, and so in the spring of 1905 he established a New York office at 35 Wall Street. Operating expenses in 1905 totalled a paltry $95.65, but sometime before April, 1906, Watson hired Raymond Griffis to work at the office. One of the primary goals of the New York bureau was t o establish a colony of desirable Russians to farm in South C a r ~ l i n a . ~

Watson was an exceedingly competent and persuasive man. On

Watson, Handbook, pp. 2 5 0 , 5 2 4 , 5 3 1; Jack Diamond, "A Reader in Demography," in Morris Fine and Milton Himmelfarb, eds. American Jewish Yearbook for 1977, LXXVII (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1976), pp. 256-57.

7Pettus, "Immigration," pp. 10-12. Watson, Handbook, p. 5 18.

9"Russian Jews Made Unhappy in South Carolina," Di Varheit (New York), August 21, 1906 (articlelocated by Ben Axelrod and translated courtesy of Morris U. Schappes), hereafter cited as "Russian Jews Made Unhappy"; Charleston News and Courier, January 6 , 1906; E. J. Watson, Second Annual Report of the Commissioner ofAgriculture, Com- merce and Immigration of the State of South Carolina (Columbia: Gonzalez and Bryan, 1905), p. 930 (pagination for all state documents cited as given in Reports andResolu- tions of the General Assembly of South Carolina for the respective years), hereafter cited as Annual Report with appropriate year indicated; Who's Who in America, VI (Chicago: A. N. Marquis, 1910), 2022-2023.


one of his many visits to New York, in 1905, he befriended Charles Weintraub, who had been a piano polisher in St. Peters- burg before he immigrated to the United States. Weintraub, who was fluent in seven languages, had no experience at farming, but shunned materialism and was looking for a quiet life and happy home for himself and several of his friends. Watson, unaware that these Jews were socialists, persuaded Weintraub that in South Carolina a peaceful lifestyle would be possible for Jewish immi- g r a n t ~ . ' ~

At Watson's behest, Weintraub and his friend and business associate, Morris Latterman, journeyed to the Palmetto State in search of vacant land on which they could establish a cooperative agricultural colony. Weintraub, an idealist, did not want to purchase expensive land that had already been farmed successfully. Rather he sought less desirable soil because he believed that "poor land improved was the land that brings forth the best results under proper cultivation." Perplexed by this logic, yet persuaded that Weintraub and his friends were honest and upright men, Watson arranged for the two Jewish immigrants to be shown several pieces of property. Weintraub and Latterman hoped to locate their colony near the seacoast, but Watson convinced them that this was impractical. No suitable site could be found, and the two Russians returned to New York still hopeful of locating a satisfactory colony in Dixie.' '

Watson was too determined to give up on his plan to create a Russian colony, and in August or September, 1905, he again invited Weintraub t o South Carolina to inspect several tracts of land in Aiken County that were being sold by Captain J. R. Wade, an Oakwood real estate dealer. Weintraub readily accepted the invi- tation, and so he and Latterman again journeyed to the South. The two had just formed the Incorporative Farming Association. This was composed of twenty-five Russian and Jewish immigrant

"Watson, Second Report, p. 914; Columbia (S.C.) State, August 6, 1907; Aiken (S.C.) Journal and Review, August 9 , 1907; Robert Hitt, "The Happy Town of Happy- ville," Charleston News and Courier, January 1 3 , 1908, hereafter cited as "Happyville." Mina Surasky Tropp, who grew u p in Aiken at this time, confirmed that the colonists were socialists and she thinks that a few were anarchists. Telephone interview with Mina Tropp, October 17,1977.

"Ibid.


families who subscribed funds to finance the association and also of several others who promised to work in any colony that would be formulated. Colonists would be employees of the corporation and would be paid wages for their work; they would also be entitled to a certain portion of the crops they raised.12

Late in September Weintraub, Latterman, and Watson inspected a 2,200-acre tract owned by Thomas and M. M. Coward. This land was located less than three miles from Montmorenci and only seven miles from Aiken, the county seat. The land, called the Shef- field Phelps Plantation, was then being used as a hunting preserve. It was mainly forest except for a small area that had been cleared but which was subsequently abandoned because of the poor quality of its soil. Although several local farmers doubted that the land, situated on a hillside, could "sprout peas," Weintraub was satisfied that the well-watered tract would be good for growing fruits and vegetables, for manufacturing naval stores, and for raising poultry and livestock. On October 3rd, after he had contacted other members of his association, Weintraub purchased the land, some livestock and farm implements and several buildings located on the plantation, for $6,500, which he paid in cash. He announced that fifty cottages would soon be constructed for settlers, and predicted that 200 immigrants would live on the Phelps tract before Feb- ruary. Since formal transfer of the land was not effected until December, it was not before the middle of that month that Wein- traub and ten families of colonists arrived. On January 11, 1906, they were joined by fifteen more settlers.13

"According to the charter for the Incorporative Farming Association, twenty-five shares of capital stock were sold, each worth $200. It is hard to determine how many, if any, of the association members had prior farming experience. Mina Tropp still has a few volumes from the colonists' library including volumes on anarchism, socialism, drama, and the French Revolution, but nothing on agriculture or saw mills. Telephone interview with writer, October 17, 1977; Tropp to writer, October 18, 1977. On the other hand, Esther Surasky Pinck believes that at least some of the colonists had farmed in Jewish agricultural settlements in New Jersey. Most accounts emphasize the inexperience of the colonists, but a story in the Charleston Newsand Courier on December 23, 1905, seems to agree with Mrs. Pinck's recollections. Charter of Incorporative Farming Association, Records of the Secretary of State, Charter Private Companies no. 4002, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, S.C.; Esther Pinck to writer, August 7, 1977.

l 3 Columbia State, October 6 , 1905; Aiken Journal and Review, January 16, 1906;


The Path to Success Proves Rocky

What was Aiken County like in 1905? What type of home had Weintraub selected for the Russian colonists? Most of the 43,358 people who lived in the 1,096-square-mile county were farmers who grew corn, cotton, wheat, hay, or rye, cultivated fruit or- chards-mainly peaches-or raised livestock. The 3,000 residents of the town of Aiken lived 120 miles from Charleston and 17 miles from Augusta, Georgia. Because of the county's celebrated mild winters and high elevation, scores of wealthy Northerners patron- ized local hotels each January and added to the coffers of grateful innkeepers and merchants. Even though the county's citizens were overwhelmingly Protestant in religion, the Sisters of Mercy in 1900 had established St. Angela's Academy in Aiken, and i t was reportedly one of the finest Catholic schools in the region.14 Several of Aiken's leading merchants were Jewish, and on the High Holy Days "Rabbi" Joseph Silber conducted services in a rented hall. It is unlikely that many of the colonists would attend these religious services. Weintraub was an atheist, and, as Esther Pinck recollects, the newcomers were "considered 'free thinkers,' a common expression at that time for people with no religi~n." '~

Local Jews, however, did welcome the colonists to the county, and though most of the colonists were socialists, relations between the two groups were reasonably cordial. Mina Tropp remembers that her parents often entertained the immigrants. The first time they came to her house one of the immigrant girls wore a taffeta dress and high heels, and Mrs. Tropp recollects that she incred- ulously asked her mother, "How will that girl be able to plow dressed like that? "I6

Hitt, "Happyville"; Watson, Second Annual Report, 1906; Hitt, "Happyville"; Watson, Second Annual Report, p. 914. In contrast with other sources and with the Hitt article it later published, the Charleston News tznd Ccurier on October 5 , 1905, described the Phelps tract as fertile, well watered, and good for stock raising and general farming.

l4Watson, Handbook, pp. 67, 71, 208, 252, 269,527; Charleston News and Courier, October 5,1905.

"There is no information available indicating whether or not Silber was ordained. It is, however, doubtful that, as an Aiken newspaper clumsily wrote, he officiated at the "christening" of newly-born Jewish infants. Esther Pinck to writer, August 7, 1977; telephone conversation with Mina Tropp, October 17, 1977; Aiken Journal and Review, August 23, 1907; see also ibid., October 6,1906; August 16, September 6, 13, 1907.

16 Telephone conversation with Tropp, October 17, 1977.


Also welcoming the newcomers was E. J. Watson, who came to Aiken in January, 1906. Doubtless he discussed with Weintraub the charter for the colony for which Latterman and he had applied on December 30, 1905. On January 22, 1906, corporate status was given t o the Incorporative Farming Association, which then valued its capital stock at $5,000.17

Almost before they unpacked the colonists had to make preparations for a first crop. This was no easy task, for the cleared land was sandy, hilly, and unterraced. Aiken County boasted 87 days of precipitation in an average year. After each rainfall in the wet winter and spring of 1906 soil washed down to the lowlands. Nonetheless, colonists diligently cleared straight furrows, and in their spare time they built several houses and started to dam the creek that ran through their property. Hoping to take full advantage of the water power of the creek, they made plans to purchase equipment for a grist mill, saw mill, and cotton gin. Ignoring farmers who feared they would starve but who were amazed at how hard they worked without an overseer supervising their labor, the Russians optimistically named their colony Happyville.18

Weintraub was eager to promote his colony, so he traveled to Newberry in May, 1906, hopeful of influencing several Jewish families in that town to move to Happyville.19 These Russian Jews, who had arrived in the United States in April, originally intended to become agricultural workers in California. A Mr. Yanovsky urged them to settle in the South and introduced them to Griffis, who persuaded them to go to South Carolina. In New-

17Aiken Journal and Review, January 16, 1906; August 9, 1907; Watson, Second Annual Report, p. 909; Report of the Secretary of State to the General Assembly o f South Carolina for the Fiscal Year Beginning January 1, 1906, and Ending December 31, 1906 (Columbia: Gonzalez and Bryan, 1907), p. 158; Charter of the Incorporative Farm- ing Association. It is unknown whether the colonists received any financial assistance from Charleston's Hebrew Benevolent Society, which raised money in 1905 to assist Jewish immigrants to settle in South Carolina as farmers. Charles Reznikoff and Uriah Engelman, The Jews of Clzarleston (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, I950), p. 225.

l 8 Hitt, "Happyville"; Aiken Journal and Review, May 25, 1906. "In January, 1906, Jews met at the home of M. Cohen in Florence, S. C., to discuss

forming an agricultural colony. This apparently was never formed. There is no evidence that Weintraub was present at this meeting. Columbia State, January 2, 1906; Pettus, "Immigration," p. 25; Aiken Journal and Review, May 25, 1906.

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berry they were shown land and were sold 1,700 acres for the sum of $24,000 "on condition that they pay 10 per cent down and the remainder should be a mortgage at 8 per cent. But they soon found out that they had been overcharged for the mortgage because Mr. Griffis of New York had written that he requires 10 per cent as a brokerage fee." The immigrants, angry at having been misled, were ready to leave Newberry, but it is unknown how many-if any-went to Happyville. The Newberry immigrants were fated to have more problems in their search for satisfactory farming land in the Palmetto State.2o

After he left Newberry Weintraub journeyed to Columbia, bringing Commissioner Watson photos of industrious colonists working in the fields and tending livestock. Watson would later use these photographs in his promotional l i t e ra t~re .~ '

By late spring, 1906, Happyville seemed to be on the road to prosperity. Weintraub assured the editors of the Aiken Journal and Review and the Columbia State that all was well in his colony, that "the crops on the farms are fine and that the colony is splen- didly situated." He expected a dozen families to arrive shortly to supplement those already at work at Happyville, and he expressed the desire that county authorities soon establish a school for the education of the Russian children. Over and over again Weintraub articulated the gratitude of the Jewish immigrants, all refugees who had fled tsarist oppression, to experience "the freedom they enjoy here. "22

Unfortunately for Happyville, the weather in l k e n County in the late spring and in the summer of 1906 was terrible. Even before Weintraub claimed that the crops were "fine," a heavy frost had damaged cotton plants, requiring the replanting of seeds.

20 Subsequently the Newberry immigrants purchased 947 acres of land elsewhere in the state for $800. However, "it turned out that one third of the land, the best soil, did not even belong to those who sold it, another third is swampy, and a large part has tree stumps so overgrown with shoots that you cannot tell what kind of soil it is." After considerable difficulty the immigrants recovered $150 of the purchase price, but had to pay $50 to a lawyer and more than $60 to a surveyor. Each family involved lost at least $400 in South Carolina. "Russian Jews Made Unhappy."

21Columbia State , May 24, 1906. Some of these photos can be found in Watson, Handbook, and in his Third Annual Report.

22 Aiken Journal and Review, May 25, July 31, 1906.


Then, exceptionally heavy rains in July destroyed more than 60% of the cotton plants able to survive the frost and completely ruined the peach crop. A Montmorenci correspondent reported to the Aiken Journal and Review that "few if any [peaches] will be mar- keted this season. Fruits of all kinds are badly damaged and the crop will be shot."23

Determined not to reveal the full extent of damage to their harvest, an unnamed Happyville spokesman reported that "the crops are as good as could be expected, considering the seasons." In truth, nearly all of the corn stalks were carried into "nearby creeks on account of the absence of the proper terrains." The cotton plants were completely ruined, and the colonists were upset because all of the time they had spent completing the dam on their land, installing water wheels and assembling machinery for a ginnery, saw mill, and shingle mill was wasted. The heavy rains, Robert Hitt later reported, carried the nearly-completed "dam to regions other than theirs, thus rendering void their hard toil and expenditure of money. This amounted to several hundred dol- l a r ~ . " ~ ~

Despite the weather, morale was surprisingly good. Colonists had been told that the 1906 weather had been atypical, the worst in years, and so they patiently looked forward to a better crop the next year. Time was spent constructing new homes to replace several makeshift dwellings in which colonists had been living since December. By November, 1906, the Russian colony was asking "all parties having notes signed by Chas. Weintraub as president of the Incorporative Farmers [sic] Association . . . please [to] present the same, Nov. 23 to us at our office at Happy~i l le . "~~

When he wrote his 1906 report to the governor, E. J. Watson tried to view events with as little pessimism as possible. He noted that the thirty-three colonists had begun their agricultural en- deavors "in a systematic manner. They seem to be doing exceedingly well." Perhaps Governor Heyward was somewhat skeptical, for in his January 8, 1907, message to the legislature he spoke of

23Charleston News and Courier, May 12, 1906; Aiken Journal and Review, June 29, July 17 ,31 , September 4,1906.

Columbia State, August 24, 1906; Aiken Journal and Review, July 3 1, 1906; Hitt, "Happyville."

15Aiken Journal and Review, November 16 ,23 , 1906.


South Carolina's need for selected immigration, not the "hordes of undesirables pouring into our great ports." He particularly spoke highly of encouraging the importation of north Italian and Greek farmers. Nothing in his message referred to Watson's pet project, the Russian colony of M ~ n t m o r e n c i . ~ ~

Watson wanted Happyville to succeed, and so in 1907 he brought a Professor Benton of the U. S. Department of Agricul- ture to Happyville to instruct the Russian immigrants on how they could best develop their land. Weintraub was eager to accept Watson's assistance and Benton's suggestions. Because of the weather problems of 1906 money was getting scarce, and rather than spend the last of their savings, the colonists, who now numbered 54, had been selling timber cleared from parts of the

Fortunately for the immigrants, the weather in 1907 was good, and farmers all over the country predicted above-average crops. These predictions encouraged Weintraub, and he spent $1,000 for a planer and a chopper to clear off the rest of the land. Colonists planted a large cotton and corn

Early in August, 1907, Weintraub traveled to Columbia to purchase some machinery for the colony, and to boost interest in Happyville he met with newspaper reporters. Describing his colony as an unqualified success, he spoke enthusiastically about the $16,000 worth of equipment he claimed was at the colony. The colonists, he noted, had installed a 36-inch turbine at the creek, now "dammed up," and this was to be used for the Happyville saw mill and cotton gin. Never one to underestimate the success of his project, he quoted a nameless agent of the federal department of commerce and labor as having called Happyville the best immigrant colony in the nation "on business acumen and success." Weintraub also quoted Commissioner Watson as having boasted that the achievements of the immigrants at Happyville would advertise South Carolina all over the United States.29

26 Perhaps the governor did not want to mention Russian immigrants because of the unhappy experience of the Jews in Newberry. Watson, Third Annual Report, p. 523; Message o f D. C. Heyward, Governor, to the General Assembly of South Carolina, January 8, I907 (Columbia: Gonzalez and Bryan, 1907), p. 3.

"Aiken Journal and Review, August 9,1907; Columbia State, August 6,1907. *'Bid . , Aiken Journaland Review, August 13,1907. 29Columbia State, August 6,1907.


As early as August 16th Weintraub began soliciting business in the Aiken Journal and Review for the Happyville Saw Mill, which had already opened for public business. "We would be pleased to receive'orders for lumber," thqadvertisement read. "All orders will receive prompt attention." Other advertisements announced that on September 15th Happyville would open its shingle mill, grist mill, and cotton ginnery. Weintraub was rather pleased with his ginnery and "guarantee[dl prompt work. Our ginnery is operated by water power, which is well known to be superior to steam."30

Colonists were delighted to learn in October that the Southern Railway Company was building a new depot at Montmorenci, for this would make it easier to market their produce and to attract patrons to their various mills. Evidently residents of Montmorenci also thought that Happyville would become a permanent and successful fixture of the county. By 1907 the local post office was delivering mail directly to the colony each business day. Moreover, the county school board announced in early October that it would open up the Happyville School for the education of the immigrants' children. Because the county school board "realized that an experienced, capable and patient teacher would be necessary on account of the large foreign element in the scholars," it selected as instructor for the school Mrs. E. F. Moseley, one of the ablest veterans in the Aiken County school system. When Robert Hitt visited the school late in 1907 he found the teacher extremely competent and the students unusually bright and eager to learn Eng l i~h .~ '

Beginning of the End

By the fall of 1906 to most observers Happyville was a success. Comn~issioner Watson in his annual report observed that the colony "is doing well and steadily growing." According to state records, the Incorporative Farming Association had raised its capi- talization to $7,200, and there seemed to be every reason to think that the colony was in good financial shape.32 Robert Hitt's

30 Aiken Jour~taland Review, August 16, 23, September 6, 17, 1907. 31 Ibid., October 4 , 2 2 , 1907; Hitt, "Happyville." 32 Watson, Third Annual Report , p. 782; Reports and Resolutions of the General

Assembly of South Carolina for 1908 (Columbia: Gonzalez and Bryan, 1908), 11, 1207.


description of the colony's agricultural operations, which appeared early in 1908, also accentuated the positive:

On their land they did not, as is the general rule in this State, confine their laborslargely to cotton. Only a moderate acreage was planted in this staple. Cow peas, corn, potatoes, and other tubers, succulent food for hogs, foods for cattle, etc., were some of the commodities raised, thus curtailing their farm expenses to a minimum. General gardens furnished palatable foods for the table; the large swamps fenced into pastures were ideal for hogs and cattle, large numbers of which were raised for market, and fur- nishing meats for the table; a large lot fenced with a high wire netting served well for the purpose of keeping goats, numbers of which have been raised.33

Hitt's article was so optimistic about the prospects for Happy- ville that News and Courier readers doubtless were surprised to learn on May 6, 1908, that Happyville was to be abandoned. Several factors prompted the demise of the colony. When he visited the settlement Hitt either had not observed or had chosen not to mention that there was increasing dissension at Happyville. For reasons not made public colonists quarreled about the management of the Incorporative Farming Association in November, 1907, and had elected new officers. Notice was given in the Aiken Journal and Review "that Mr. Charles Weintraub is no longer connected with the Incorporative Farming Association and that it will not be responsible for his contract^."^^

Even though the specific morale problems at Happyville were kept private, probably they were not dissimilar to those experienced by the Newberry immigrants. V. Elpidi (Elpedi), one of the Jews associated with that group, complained about his experiences to the editors of Di Varheit, a Yiddish newspaper. He noted:

I am not saying that the South is bad in general. South Carolina, however, is not good for us. It is an area only for cotton plantations, and anyone who wants to turn to that must have a lot of money. We did not have the money for that. Moreover, we do not have the skills for that. We wanted to be ordinary farmers as we had been in Russia. But the soil to which they led us is not suited for that. Not only are vegetables, potatoes and fruit brought there from the North, but even hay for the livestock. The

33 Hitt,"Happyville." 341bid., Aiken Journal and Review, November 29, 1907; Charleston News and

Courier, May 6 , 1908.


soil is poor except for the growth of cotton, and each fruit turns rotten on the second day . . . who can compete with the Negroes, who work for 50 and 60 cents a day?35

Conditions at Happyville were usually better than what Elpidi reported, but given the unrealistic optimism of Weintraub, it is not unreasonable to assume that some Happyville colonists became disillusioned when things went poorly.

Whatever the morale of the colonists, it is clear that one of Happyville's persistent problems concerned finances. To build their saw mill and ginnery Happyville colonists had encumbered themselves with several large debts from the Coward brothers and others in 1907. These obligations were still outstanding in the spring of 1908. But relatively few farmers had been patronizing the Happyville mills and ginnery. Even worse, farmers in Mont- morenci had organized a joint stock company in 1908 to erect a large and modern ginnery and cotton oil mill near the newly-constructed town railroad depot. This would, of course, lessen business at the Happyville Ginnery and deprive colonists of anticipated revenue.36

Finally, there were weather problems. The winter of 1908 was unusually severe, and this inhibited the planting of crops. An especially unwelcome "cold snap" descended upon the region in late April. A correspondent, writing for the Columbia State on May 2nd, noted that "ice and frost are reported from all parts of the county." Farmers visiting Aiken sadly reported "that about all young cotton and vegetation are killed."37

It was plain to the colonists that Happyville could not, in economic terms, survive another year without getting further into debt. Credit had easily been obtained in the past, but with the disastrous weather, there was little likelihood of borrowing large sums of money. Therefore Happyville's residents decided to turn over their property to their creditors. On May 4th they auctioned

35"Russian Jews Made Unhappy." On August 31, 1906, the Aiken Journal and Review offered a garbled account of Elpidi's story which is full of inaccuracies. The paper commented, "As a matter of fact, several of Elpidey's party are in this county now and are at work."

36 Charleston News and Courier, April 4 , 7 , May 2 , 6 , 1908. 37C~lumbia State, May 2 , 1908.


off some of their equipment and livestock and made arrangements with their lawyer, Julian B. Salley, to sell their farmland at a later date.38

By July, when the Happyville tract was sold, virtually all the colonists had left Aiken. Most had returned to New York or New Jersey, but a few remained in the South seeking non-agricultural jobs.39

M. M. Coward and Thomas Coward, who had sold the Phelps Plantation to Weintraub in 1905 and who had subsequently lent money to the colonists, reported on July 6th that they had received a $3,300 bid for the 2,200 acres. A few weeks later it was announced in the Aiken Journal and Review that Happyville, including its mills, barns, and homes and what was left of the growing crop, had been sold to Charles Weintraub, Baruch M. (B. M.) Surasky, Hiram (Chaim) Surasky, Solomon Surasky and Sam Surasky; the purchase price was given as $5,000. The Sur- askys, prominent merchants in Aiken, and Weintraub publicly announced that they were going "to prove to the people that a Jew can make a success on the farm."40

Such proof was not forthcoming. New colonists never arrived, and before long Weintraub, who did not get along with his new partners, sold his interest in Happyville to the Suraskys. He also sold the colony's library to Hiram S ~ r a s k y . ~ ~ It is thought that he went on to Atlanta. In Aiken County the summer of 1908 was marked by a long drought. This was followed in September by a severe flood that ruined those crops able to survive the May frost. Surasky's Ginnery, as the Happyville Ginnery was now called, advertised "reasonable" prices for ginning cotton and assured farmers that "cotton ginned by water power brings a better price

"Charleston News and Courier, May 6 , 1908; Harold Rudnick t o the writer, July 28, 1977. Mr. Rudnick is a lifelong resident of Aiken.

39 1bid. "'Aiken Journal and Review, July 7, 17, 1908; Mandle Surasky to the writer, August

7 , 1977. "' Most of the volumes of this library were subsequently donated by Mrs. Tropp to a

Jewish old age home in New York. The dozen volumes she still owns were published in New York, Poland, and possibly Russia. They are marked with the stamp "Hebrew Literary Library, Aiken, S. C." Ibid., telephone conversation with Mina Tropp, October 17, 1977;Tropp t o the writer, October 18, 1977.


than that ginned by steam."42 But there was no cotton to gin either way.

Because Aiken obtained its drinking water from artesian wells, and the existing wells in the town were proving inadequate to meet increased water demands, the city council authorized the securing of new sources of supply. B. M. Surasky offered t o let the city secure its water from the "clear springs" of Happyville. The council evidently did not accept his offer. The Suraskys leased their land in 1909 to Louis Cabot. Lillian Surasky Alberts, too young to remember the Russian colonists, recollects "as a child going on picnics on a farm with our uncles & their families too. I assume that must have been the site of the Russian colony." Around 19 16 the tract was sold to a Mr. Corliss; currently it is owned by Gilbert E. M ~ M i l l a n . ~ ~

Happyville was never to be resurrected. The only Jews known to live on a farm in Aiken County in 19 10 were Isaac Danon and his ten-year-old son, who resided near Burkhalter Settlement. Danon was no farmer, though. for he earned his living as a rural crossroads merchant.44

Nor was farming popular with the other 2,500 Jews in the state. In 191 0 Leonard Robinson estimated that only ten Jewish families owned farms in South Carolina. The total size of these ten farms was a mere 766 acres, or barely more than a third the size of Happy~il le.~ '

Happyville failed for the same reasons that virtually all the other Jewish agricultural settlements were abandoned. Colonists who settled in Aiken County, much like the idealists of the Am Olam movement, had inadequate experience with farming.46 As the Charleston News and Courier noted, few of the colonists stayed in Aiken more than a year. Though the population of Happyville typically hovered around fifty, few of those around to

42Aiken Journal and Review, August 18,21, September 4 , 1908. 43C~lumbia State, June 24, 1908; Aiken Journal and Review, July 27, August 4 ,7 ,

14, 1908; September 21, October 19, 23,30, November 2, 12, 1909; Mandle Surasky to the writer, August 7, 1977; Lillian Alberts to the writer, September 14, 1977.

44Aiken Journal and Review, July 10,26, 1910. 45 Robinson, Agricultural Activities, p. 59. 46 On the failure of Jewish farming colonies, see Brandes, Immigrants to Freedom, pp.

4-7; Shpall, "Jewish Agricultural Colonies," pp. 145-46.


abandon the colony in 1908 had arrived before 1907. Especially vexing to colonists was the unusually severe weather, which ruined crops and devastated fields of veteran farmers. But even if the weather had been favorable, one wonders about the long-term success of a colony planted on land generally considered too poor to sprout peas.47

Lastly, since the immigrants were so interested in educating their children, it seems likely that before many years would have passed some of the Russian colonists would have longed for a richer cultural and social life than that available in Aiken. Mina Tropp remembers that the colonists staged Yiddish plays and that Weintraub's library had several volumes with the stamp of a Hebrew literary society and other books by Tolstoi and Anatole F r a n ~ e . ~ ' As socialists, they doubtless would not have easily made friends with their conservative neighbors. What is surprising is not that Happyville failed, but rather that it was able to last for more than two years.

47Hitt, "Happyville"; Charleston News and Courier, May 6 , 1908. 48Telephone conversation with Mina Tropp, October 17 ,1977.

The first issue of the new semi-annual Journal of the Jewish Historical Society of Canada has been published. It is edited by Dr. Jonathan V. Plaut of Congregation Beth El, Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Subscriptions may be obtained by writing to the Editor, c/o Congregation Beth El, 2525 Mark Avenue, Windsor, Ontario N9E 2W2.

A Note on the Genealogy of an Eighteenth-Century Family of Jewish Origin:

The Nunez Family of Lewes, Delaware

SAMUEL REZNECK

The Jews in colonial America, prior to the Revolution, were comparatively few, barely 2,500 of them, as is noted by Jacob R. Marcus, their distinguished historian. Other writers, particularly Malcolm H. Stern and Joseph R. Rosenbloom, have attempted to record as many of them as they could possibly trace in the diverse and often tenuous sources available. Some have undoubtedly escaped these historians, perhaps because they were relatively obscure and unheralded. Jews on occasion migrated from the few Jewish communities then in existence into the countryside, and their travels often brought them to remote and obscure places where they were ultimately lost to Judaism. It is impossible to estimate the scope and magnitude of such drainage from the Jewish community in America, but it may have been not incon- siderable.

One such case, involving a substantial number of individuals, all bearing the name of Nunez, was recently discovered by the writer during a visit to Lewes, on the coast of Delaware, at the entrance to Delaware Bay. Here, in the churchyard of an old Episcopal church named St. Peter's, he came upon a group of gravestones, whose inscriptions permit the reconstruction of an entire family to the third generation. Nunez is known and even noted as a family name of Sephardic origin in eighteenth-century America. The best-known was undoubtedly Dr. Samuel Nunez (Ribiera), who

Dr. Rezneck is Professor Emeritus of History at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York. He has also served as the executive secretary of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

THE NUNEZ FAMILY 2 1

was one of the founding settlers, not only in the Jewish but also in the general community of Savannah, Georgia, in 1733. His descen- dants remained in Savannah, where they played a noteworthy role during and after the Revolution. Among them was a son, named Daniel Nunez.'

The Daniel Nunez whose grave is in Lewes, Delaware, was, however, a contemporary of and not related t o Dr. Samuel Nunez, since he died in 1769, in his seventy-fourth year, which would indicate his year of birth as 1695. Where he came from and how he got t o Lewes is unknown. Marcus refers t o a Daniel Nunez who in 1722 settled in Piscataway Township in New Jersey. In another place, he names a Daniel Nunez as living in Lewes in Delaware in the 1730's. He suggests that these may have been identical. Both were probably the same as Daniel Nunez (da Costa), who was a member of the New York Congregation, Shearith Israel, in 1720, as listed in the oldest existing record of that ~ y n a g o g u e . ~

Of the Daniel Nunez in New Jersey, Marcus writes that he married a Christian woman in 1722 and that he was town clerk and tax collector in Piscataway, as well as a justice in Middlesex County. He was perhaps the first Jew to hold public office in North America. Nevertheless, also according t o Marcus, Daniel Nunez had t o flee from New Jersey in the 1720's in order to escape imprisonment for debt, and thus possibly got t o Lewes. Finally, Marcus cites Malcolm H. Stern t o the effect that a Daniel Nunez Sr., and his son, Daniel Nunez Jr., were buried in George- town, D e l a ~ a r e . ~

The last fact given, on the authority of Stern, is obviously incorrect, since the clear evidence of the gravestones indicates that both Nunez men, father and son, are buried in the churchyard of St.

' Jacob R. Marcus, The Colonial American Jew (Detroit, 1970), I , p. 471; Malcolm H. Stern, Americans of Jewish Descent (Cincinnati, 1960), p. 169; Joseph R. Rosenbloom, A Biographical Dictionary of Early American Jews (Lexington, Kentucky, 1960), p. 136.

'Marcus, op. cit., I, pp. 332,334; Cf. also Marcus, In The Time of Harvest: Essays in Honor o f A . H. Silver (New York, 19631, p. 232.

3Marcus, The Colonial American Jew, I, pp. 442, 446-47; 11, p. 785; 111, p. 1438, n. 24.

Interestingly, Stern gives 1733 as the year the Nunez family was first known to be in America, obviously referring to the Nunez family of Savannah, Georgia, but those of Lewes were there well before that date (Selected Essays in American Jewish History, Cincinnati, 1958, p. 88.)

2 2 AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, APRIL, 1978

Peter's in Lewes, where they lived, married, and functioned in the community. The information available in the inscriptions on the gravestones permits a reconstruction of the genealogy of the Nunez family. Other incidental material supplies some additional information on their life there, but nothing has been uncovered to suggest where the family came from and how they got to Lewes.

In Turner's Some Records of Sussex County, Daniel Nunez is reported as having been elected coroner for the county in 1735. In the same year, he became a member of the vestry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, an office occupied by himself and his son, Daniel Jr., until thelatter's death in 1775. Moreover, in the following year, 1736, he and his wife, Mary, sponsored a girl, Catharine Clewes, who was christened in St. Peter's Church. In 1742, Mary Nunez again appeared as a sponsor at the christening of Lidia Clewes. In 1764, Daniel Nunez appears as a signatory of a letter, with five others, promising to raise £75 for a missionary to be sent by the church. In his will, registered in the same year, Daniel Nunez' occupation is recorded as an "innholder." Here is clear indication of Daniel Nunez' involvement in the religious, economic, and political life of the community at least from 1735, and possibly earlier.4

More informative is the record of the graves in St. Peter's churchyard. The first dated death was in 1744, when Moses, the son of Daniel and Mary Nunez, passed away in his twenty-third year. He was thus born in 172 1, although there is no proof that this birth occurred in Lewes, or that Daniel might have been in Lewes as early as that date. The wife, Mary, died in 1746, aged fifty-three, and must thus have been born in 1693. Probably she was not a native and was already married to Daniel when he came to Lewes.

Daniel Nunez must have married again soon thereafter; a daughter named Esther, born t o Daniel and Diana, is recorded as having died in 1763, in her sixteenth year. Early deaths were unusually common in the Nunez family, as is indicated in the record of the gravestones. Daniel Nunez Sr. himself, however, died at

4C. H. B. Turner, Some Records of Sussex County, Delaware (Philadelphia, 1909), pp. 47, 345; N. W. Rightmeyer, The Anglican Church in Delaware (Philadelphia, 1947), p. 85; Lewes Episcopal Church Record, and Register of Wills (both in the Delaware Archives, Dover, Del.).

THE NUNEZ FAMILY 2 3

seventy-four, in 1769. Another son, whose name is somewhat blurred on the stone, died in 1753 at twenty-one. Sara, a daughter, who was married to Reese Wolfe, died in 177 1 at the age of thirty- three. Her son, named Daniel Nunez Wolfe, fought in the War of 18 12, while his father, Reese Wolfe, had participated in the Revol- ution. Both were substantial farmers in the area.'

Finally, the most long-lived of the Nunez children, Daniel Nunez Jr., died in 1775, at forty-five. He lived long enough to play a quite important role in the community and in the state during the years just preceding the Revolution. He was elected sheriff of Sussex county for several years between 1763 and 1770. He was chosen a member of a Committee of Thirteen in 1774, whose function it was to rally the people of the couny to the support of Boston against Britain's .Intolerable Acts, adopted following the Boston Tea Party. Marcus also notes that Daniel Nunez Jr. was a member of the Delaware House of Representatives and sat on committees with such prominent leaders of the colony as Caesar Rodney and George Read.6 Interestingly, Nunez' early political activity thus paralleled, as it were, the career of another Sephardic Jew on the South Carolina frontier, Francis Salvador, who was killed by Indians in 1776.

Thus does this brief note fill out the record of an eighteenth- century family of Jewish origin, bearing the important name of Nunez. It had ceased t o be Jewish and had become a prominent and active part of a small but historic community in Delaware. Sig- nificantly, it is listed first in the modern "Guide to the Church- yard" of St. Peter's, among noteworthy graves there, with the sad but dubious distinction: "Row of old slate stones of the Nunez family, dating between 1746 and 1775." No other reason is offered for their inclusion with those of governors, judges, and other notables of Lewes, unless it was the unusual character of the family name.7

(No author or editor) A Biographicaland Genealogical History of the State ofDela- ware (Chambersburg, Pa., 1899), I, p. 401; 11, p. 1011; Turner, op. cit., p. 338.

Anna T. Lincoln, Wilmington, Delaware (Rutland, Vt., 1937), p. 82; J. T. Scharf, History o f Delaware (Philadelphia, 1888), I. p. 143; H. C. Conrad, History of the State of Delaware (Wilmington, 1908), 11, p. 691; Marcus, op. cit., I, 446.

7"A Supplementary Guide To The Churchyard," published by Saint Peter's Church of Lewes. Delaware.

The Found-ing of Columbian Council

IDA COHEN SELAVAN

At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a Jewish Women's Congress, organized by Hannah Greenebaum Solomon, was part of the Parliament of Religions. It took her a year of planning and letter-writing to invite the ninety-three representatives from twenty-nine cities. As she worked she pondered:

. . . would it have permanence, or would it be a brief bright tale . . .? In a flash my thoughts crystallized to decision: we will have a congress out of which must grow a permanent organization!'

At the concluding session of the Jewish Women's Congress i t was resolved t o reconstitute the organization on a permanent basis. Various names were suggested. Mrs. Pauline Hanauer Rosen- berg of Allegheny suggested the name "Columbian Union," t o commemorate its beginning at the Columbian Exposition. She was voted down, and the name "National Council of Jewish Women" was a ~ c e p t e d . ~

When Mrs. Rosenberg returned home, she organized a local section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW). Unlike the three sections which preceded it, Chicago, Quincy, and Balti- more, the Allegheny-Pittsburgh Section was named "Columbian Council." It was t o continue for more than a decade as the only section of the NCJW not named for its home city.

The constitution of the NCJW was based on four resolutions passed at the Jewish Women's Congress in 1893 :

Resolved, That the National Council of Jewish Women shall

' Hannah G. Solomon, Fabric o f M y Life, New York, 1946, p. 82. 'Papers of the Jewish Women's Congress, Philadelphia, 1894, pp. 264-65.

24

Dr. Selavan has published in the area of ethnic history. She lectures at the University of Pittsburgh.

THE FOUNDING O F COLUMBIAN COUNCIL 25

1. Seek to unite in closer relations women interested in the work of religion, philanthropy and education and shall consider practical means of solving problems in these fields.

2. Shall encourage the study of the underlying principles of Judaism, the history, literature and customs of the Jews, and their bearing upon their own and the world's history.

3. Shall apply knowledge gained in this study to the improvement of the Sabbath schools and in the work of social reform.

4. Shall secure the interest and aid of all influential persons in arousing the general sentiment against religious persecutions wherever, when- ever, and against whomsoever shown, and in finding means to prevent such persecutions.3

Each local section was given considerable leeway in implement- ing these goals with

the right to take that line of work which should seem the most useful to the conditions and environments of that section, providing, however, that the study of religion and philanthropy be not omitted and parlia- mentary forms adhered to.4

Thus, the women who met on May 2, 1894, to organize themselves officially as Columbian Council could choose whatever projects suited the Jewish community of Allegheny and Pittsburgh.

The Jewish Community of Pittsburgh

There had been Jews in the Pittsburgh area even before the city existed, but they had been transients-fur traders, suppliers of provisions to Fort Pitt, and merchants who used the Fort as a base for their ventures further west. Bernard Gratz of Philadelphia stayed in Pittsburgh from April, 1776, through the Jewish High Holy Days in the fall, negotiating with the Shawnee and Delaware tribes for the renewal of the fur trade. He requested a prayer book from his brother and worshiped by himself, in his room. "Bernard

3Hannah G. Solomon, "Report of the NCJW," American Jewess, April, 1895, p. 28. (From microfilm at the American Jewish Archives.)

4Fannie H. Hamburger, "Columbian Council of Jewish Women," Jewish Criterion, February 5 , 1897. (The most complete holdings of the Jewish Criterion are a t the New York Public Library. There are also less complete holdings a t the American Jewish Archives and Rodef Shalom Congregation. All three collections were consulted.)


Gratz can almost be considered as the first local Jewish resident."' From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, immigration

from Germany brought with it many Jews. As many as 50% of them became peddlers who traveled westward t o Cincinnati, Louis- ville, St. Louis, Cleveland, and as far west as San Franc i~co .~ They bypassed Pittsburgh, possibly because of the ease of traveling via the Erie Canal and then across Lake Erie t o Cleveland. The first recorded Jewish community in Pittsburgh was founded by some former peddlers from Bavaria, who had plied their trade in New York, Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Kilgore and Franklin in eastern Ohio, before settling in Pittsburgh. By then they were established merchants. William Frank and his partner, David Strassburger, Ephraim Wormser (Frank's brother-in-law) and Nathan Gallinger may be considered the founding fathers of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. The first record of this community is in the purchase of a burial ground for a Jewish cemetery on Troy Hill by the Bes Almon Society in 1847.7 By 1853,

Pittsburgh had a total of thirty Jewish families of whom fourteen belonged to the German, i.e. Bavarian, Congregation Shaarey Shamayim. At the same time the "Polish" Congregation, Beth Israel, had twelve members. We are expressly informed that it possessed a synagogue, with all the necessary paraphernalia, and that its salaried congregational official was the hazzan, shohet, and mohel.8

By 1863 there were 150 Jewish families in the Pittsburgh area, of whom 103 belonged to Congregation Rodef Shalom, founded in 1854. When Rodef Shalom voted t o accept a Reform affiliation, the minority who had opposed the move, mainly congregants from

Jacob S. Feldman, The Early Migration and Settlement of Jews in Pittsburgh, 1754- 1894, Pittsburgh, 1959, p. 4. (Mr. Feldman's pioneering study served as the foundation for my historical research.)

6 R ~ d o l f Glanz, "The Immigration of German Jews up t o 1880," YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, Volumes 2-3, 1947/1948.

'Jacob Rader Marcus, "William Frank, Pilgrim Father of Pittsburgh Jewry," in Marcus, Memoirs of American Jews, Philadelphia, 1955. The minute books of the Bes Almon Society were acquired by the American Jewish Historical Society, Waltham, Mass., in 1975.

'Rudolf Glanz, "The 'Bayer' and the 'Pollack,' " in Glanz, Studies in Judaica Americana, New York, 1970, p. 194.

THE FOUNDING OF COLUMBIAN COUNCIL 2 7

Holland, Posen, and Lithuania, reorganized as Tree of Life S y n a g ~ g u e . ~

The details of synagogue splits are significant, for they were mainly along regional lines. It was the German Jews, mainly from Bavaria, who set the tone. They spoke German and English and had usually lived in the United States for some time before settling in Pittsburgh. By the time of the Civil War they were solidly middle class. Many of them were also involved in local German cultural activities. l o

The Jews who had left to form Tree of Life Synagogue were, in the main, more recent arrivals, and many had a Yiddish-speaking background. Most of them spoke German along with other languages, which made it easy for them to adapt to the desirable Germanic life style. Indeed German was taught at Tree of Life School.

In the nineteenth century, more so than in the twentieth century, a Jew from Central Europe was generally a German or Germanized Jew . . . . Bohemian Jews, once they had left the old way of life, did not become Czechs, they became Germans, much as the Hungarians did also. Even as far east as Galicia down to the 1870's or even the 188OYs, those Jews who had left the old way of life, whether the Hasidic or non-Hasidic, usually became Germanized. Moreover, if you were a Jew from Lithuania who came to America about 1865 and wanted to be an American Jew and attain 'status' the thing to do was to be Germanized. To be a respectable, accepted Jew in America was to be a Germanic American Jew.]]

Following a cholera epidemic and famine in Lithuania in 1868,

'Feldman, op. cit. p. 18. The article "Pittsburg" in the Jewish Encyclopedia, written by J. L. L. (Rabbi J. Leonard Levy of Rodef Shalom) claims that Rodef Shalom was the first congregation in Pittsburgh. The article "Pittsburgh" in the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, by Charles Homer Joseph (nephew of one of the pillars of the Tree of Life Synagogue), claims that Tree of Life was the first congregation in the city. Charles I. Cooper, in "The Story of the Jews of Pittsburgh," Jewish Criterion, May 31, 1918, backs the latter claim.

10 Louis Hirsch was the secretary of the German-language newspaper Volksblatt in 1896. Samuel Floersheim, father of Bertha Floersheim Rauh, was a member of the Symphonic Society, founded by Carl Ritter of Munich. Most of the members of the orchestra were Germans or German Jews.

"Lloyd P. Gartner, "The Jewish Community in America: Transplanted and Trans- formed," Conference on Acculturation, New York, 1965, pp. 8-9.


a nucleus of Lithuanian Jews came t o Pittsburgh t o join the indi- vidual landsleit who had been there since the fifties. By 1880, of the approximately 2,000 Jews in Pittsburgh, the majority were from Eastern Europe.'' In 1889 there were already about 5,000 Jews in Allegheny, of whom 80% lived in Pittsburgh. By 1897 that number had doubled.13 Thus, in 1894, somewhere in between, there may have been about 7,000 Jews in Allegheny County, most of them in Pittsburgh.

The district in which they lived was one of great ethnic diversity. From a population of slightly more than 21 ,OOOI4 in 1840, it had grown t o over 500,000 in 1910, more than half of which was either foreign born or had foreign born parents.15 In 1894, the year of the founding of Columbian Council, i t was the scene of great labor unrest (the Homestead Massacre of 1892 was still fresh in people's memories), corrupt politics, a police force which supported rather than suppressed vice, and a reputation for smoke, dirt, and ugliness which gave it the nickname "hell-with-the-lid- off."I6 In spite of increasing pressures of population housing, medical care, and education for immigrants were inadequate or lacking entirely.

Jewish Philanthropy

Local Jewish relief work had been carried on traditionally by a Hebrew Benevolent Society from 1854, with a Ladies' Auxiliary dating from 1856. This Auxiliary became part of the Sanitary Commission in 186 1, to aid the wounded during the Civil War, and was called the Hebrew Ladies' Aid Society. At the end of the Civil War it was reorganized as the Pittsburg Israel Damen Unterstuet- zung Vevein, with its most important activities the visitation of the sick and sitting up with the dead. Its founders and leaders were

12American Jewish Yearbook, 1914-1915, p. 374. 13 Feldman, op. cit., p. 64. l4 J. Cutler Andrews, "A Century of Urbanization," Pennsylvania History, January,

1943. ''Peter Roberts, "The New Pittsburghers," Charities and the Commons, January 2 ,

1909. 16Usually credited t o Lincoln Steffens, 771e Shame of the Cities, New York, 1904,

p. 101. However, Roy Lubove, Twentieth Century Pittsburgh, New York, 1969, cites other writers who compared Pittsburgh t o "hell."

THE FOUNDING OF COLUMBIAN COUNCIL 29

the mothers, mothers-in-law, and aunts of the founders of Colum- bian Council. l 7

The Crdmieux Society, founded by Rabbi Lippman Mayer of Rodef Shalom in 1874, the second branch of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in the United States, took responsibility for the handling of Jewish refugees from Russia after 1881 . la The United Hebrew Relief Association of Allegheny County, the result of a merger in 1 880 of the all-male Hebrew Benevolent Society and the Israel Damen, also involved itself in immigrant aid. The women worked as an independent auxiliary, visiting poor families with baskets of food, clothing, and other necessities, and arranging for the hospitalization of the sick.

The founders of Columbian Council were mostly American- born, middle class, with a high percentage of college graduates. As Jews they were very much aware of their responsibilities for the welfare of their fellow Jews, but as modern women they were uncomfortable with their mothers' old-fashioned approach to charity. They favored "preventive philanthropym-teaching poor people skills which would make them self-sufficient. The first step in preventive philanthropy was, in dealing with immigrants, teaching English, civics, and other elements of American life. Colum- bian Council's entrance into this area is presaged by a speech made by Pauline Hanauer Rosenberg at the Columbian Exposition.

No matter how ignorant through oppression these people are, their immediate progeny show marked signs of improvement and Americanism, and removed from the yoke of the oppressor, the third generation of the remarkable people on American soil, with their inherited powers of adapt- ability, will retain only their religion as an indication of Judaism.19

'"Charles I. Cooper, op. ci t . , gives 1861 as the date for the founding of the Ladies' Aid Society, as does Charlotte Heller Shapiro in "The Jewish Family Welfare Associa- tion of Pittsburgh," unpublished master's thesis, University of Pittsburgh, 1933. How- ever, the earlier date was reported in the American Israelite, May 13, 1856. Henrietta Hannauer, a trustee of the Ladies' Aid Society, was the mother of Pauline Rosenberg and Fannie Hamburger, the first two presidents of Columbian Council. Rosalie Rauh, president of the Damen from 1880-1883 and 1887-1906, was the mother of Bertha Cohen, a charter member of Columbian Council and the mother-in-law of Bertha Floersheim Rauh, president of Columbian Council, 1904-1919.

"Kenneth D. Roseman, "American Jewish Community Institutions in Their His- torical Context," Jewish Journal of Sociology, June, 1974; Feldman, op. ci t . , p. 33.

19 Pauline H. Rosenberg, "Influence of the Discovery of America on the Jews," Papers of the Jewish Women's Congress, op. cit., p. 71.


First Steps of Columbian Council

Columbian Council's first official act as an organization was in an area favored by Mrs. Rosenberg, who, although childless, had been active in the Pittsburg and Allegheny Free Kindergarten As- sociation. At a meeting on December 4, 1894, Columbian Council undertook the raising of funds for the establishment of a new school. In honor of its supporters it was named "Columbian Kin- dergarten."

A week later a meeting was called for the purpose of setting up study circles. According to the national guidelines, the adult education efforts of the sections should have been structured along Jewish lines, with the study circles concentrating on the Bible and Jewish history. Members were encouraged to subscribe to the newly established Jewish Publication Society, and Hannah G. Solomon sent frequent inspirational messages to the local sections reminding them that

The aim of the National Council of Jewish Women is to encourage its members in a deeper study of the Bible, our religion, history, and literature, and of the best means of helping our fellows.20

The study circles, which began to meet in 1895, were not very successful. Only seventeen members, on tGe average, attended study circle meetings, and an average of only thirty-five women attended meetings at which papers were read.21 In an attempt to attract more attendance, Dr. Henry Berkowitz, Director of the Jewish Chautauqua Society, was invited to introduce his syllabus in the fall of 1896. The small study circles were consolidated into one large group, but it was disbanded in May, 1 899.22

In contrast, the lectures which were a feature of the monthly meetings were quite popular and were often attended by immigrants who had acquired enough English to understand them. The leaders of Columbian Council considered these talks "a source of educational and intellectual training for the public spirited and progressive members of our ~ o m m u n i t y . " ~ ~ These lectures were,

'"Jewish Criterion, September 2 ,1896 "Ibid. , May 7 , 1897. "Ibid., May 5 , 1899. 23 Ibid., February 5 , 1897.


more often than not, on non-Jewish topics. The women of Columbian Council were criticized for their lack of concern for Jewish education, while they were praised for their philanthropic efforkZ4

Personal Service

Columbian Council's first contacts, as an organization, with adult immigrants was through its Sisterhood of Personal Service, established on May 17, 1895. This group of thirty-five women took the responsibility of visiting impoverished immigrant families on a weekly basis to note ways of improvement, suggest them one at a time, and see that they took root before proposing others.25 Mrs. Rosenberg apportioned a certain number of families to each personal service worker. She urged them to "go slowly but surely, be patient, be sympathetic, . . . do not dictate but suggest changes and irnprovement~."~~

The main goal of the Personal Service Workers was to help families become self-supporting. They worked in conjunction with the Hebrew Relief Society and the Hebrew Ladies Sewing Society who made "sundry garments for indigent applicants who seem to be ever growing in numbers."27 Funds were raised by running bazaars and soliciting goods and funds from the Jewish community. Members themselves also donated materials, clothes, furniture, etc., as needed.

The Personal Service workers involved the immigrant women in production for profit. Orders were given for needlework items for which the women were paid. In the course of these visits, the Council members discovered that "ninety-nine cases out of one hundred neither speak nor understand E n g l i ~ h . " ~ ~ Some members started tutoring immigrant women who were not able to leave

24 Editorial by Rabbi Samuel Greenfield, of Rodef Shalom, founder and editor of the Jewish Criterion, September 2 , 1896.

25Arnerican Jewess, November, 1895, p. 180; Jewish Criterion, November 2 2 , 1895, p. 11.

26 Pauline H. Rosenberg, "A Word About Personal Service," Jewish Criterion, November 8,1895.

"Zbid., December 2 2 , 1895. " B i d . , November 8, 1895.


their homes because of family responsibilities. One such woman reminisced :

I came to Pittsburgh in 1897 from Kapulie, near Minsk. In the old country I had learned Yiddish, Russian, Polish and German, but I could not go to school in Pittsburgh because I was seventeen and I had to stay home and keep house for my widowed father. The ladies from Council came to my house and taught me English. Mrs. Rosenberg showed me how to do my hair. I did embroidery and crocheting for the members of Coun- cil. They treated me as a friend. Later, I myself joined Council and helped make dolls for the poor.29

This woman, and others like her, succeeded in a few years in making the transition from being recipients of aid to becoming full-fledged members of Council. Although they were a small minority during the period under study, these immigrants from Eastern Europe helped to change the composition of Columbian Council.

Columbian Council School

At the first general meeting of Columbian Council Rabbi Lipp- mann Mayer approached the women with the idea of setting up a religious school for the children of immigrants. He had cleared the way for such a venture by first talking to members of the Orth- odox Washington Street Synagogue (Beth Hamedrash Hagadol) who had agreed to allow their children t o attend.30 Columbian Council raised funds for its Mission School by selling subscriptions to The American J e ~ e s s , ~ ' and on December 27, 1895, Mrs. A. Leo Weil announced that the Mission School would be opened in January, 1896. The name "Mission School" led to a great deal of unpleasantness and misunderstanding. The Jewish Criterion considered the name to be an "unfortunate" one. On March 20, 1896, the name of the school was changed to "Columbian School,"

29Mrs. Ida Blatt, interviewed in November, 1974. (Years later Mrs. Blatt's niece married the son of Mrs. Bertha Floersheim Rauh.)

30Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, organized in 1869 by Jews from Lithuania, had, by this time, a large American-born group. I t was the only Orthodox synagogue whose activities were reported, to any extent, in the Jewish Criterion before 1900.

31 A weekly founded and edited by Rosa Sonneschein, which lasted from April, 1895, to August, 1899.


owing t o a misconception on the part of some coreligionists as t o the proper use of the word "mission."32

Columbian School became the most successful project initiated by Columbian Council. Shortly after it opened it was decided to expand the program into that of a settlement house. The leading spirit in this campaign was Mrs. A. Leo Weil. A friend and great admirer of Jane ad darn^^^ and her work at Hull House, she introduced many aspects of settlement house activities. Not only did the volunteers teach the children who came to the school, but they also visited their homes, "and were received with open arms."34 During these visits they met the parents and siblings of their pupils and attempted t o introduce them to Americanization.

In the fall of 1897, the school moved into two rented rooms at 32 Townsend Street, and a few months later the entire house was taken over at $26.50 a month. Members and friends of Colum- bian Council were asked t o donate furniture and equipment, and

'

Mrs. Weil reported:

The rooms have been fitted up, and we now have on the first floor two large rooms and a bath room; on the second floor two school rooms and a library; and on the third floor, one additional room. With this added space, greater and better facilities will be obtained and a correspondingly greater good will be accomplished. We expect now to be able to accommodate at least 100 additional pupils, perhaps more. . . . This school is founded upon the principles upon which the Council is built, not to give alms, but to give what is much more beneficial and much harder to supply, namely, the ability to help one's self, and thus avoid the necessity of help from others.35

The house on Townsend Street' soon became a popular gather- ing place for adults, too:

It was open all day, and soon, by request, in the evening. Anybody could stop in-and did: Poles, and Russians, and Slovaks, and old-time

32 Jewish Criterion, March 20,1896. 3 3 M r ~ . A. Leo Weil was related by marriage to Hannah G. Solomon, founder of the

NCJW who lived in Chicago. She often visited there and knew and admired Jane Addams. She hoped to model the Columbian School and Settlement on Hull House. From an interview with Ferdinand T. Weil, her son, November, 1974.

34 Jewish Criterion, May 7, 1897. 351bid., May 13, 1898.


residents of the Hill whose ancestors had crossed the Alleghenies in covered wagons. Mothers came to see what their children had found that was so interesting-and stayed to plan a bake sale or a sewing group.36

Meanwhile, Rabbi Mayer had been discussing with Mrs. Weil the possibility of Columbian Council's taking over the "Russian School" he had organized in 1890. His school, staffed by three instructors paid by the members of his congregation, had at first held classes in ". . . the Back Room in the Basement of Temple every Sunday afternoon . . . for the Hebrew Russian refugees."37 By November of 1 89 1 enrollment had increased to 1 10 students, and the school had to move to 400 Fifth Avenue.38 The obvious needs of these adults and of the young working people persuaded Mrs. Weil and the Columbian Council to respond to Rabbi Mayer's request. On April 14, 1899, the School announced its plans to "open evening classes for girls who cannot attend during the day."39 On Monday, October 2, 1899, a full-fledged program of evening classes was inaugurated. Courses were offered in elementary school subjects as well as bookkeeping, stenography, and literature. The teachers were all volunteers.

Over one hundred people showed up on the first night of classes:

There were many men advanced in years who appeared to take up the study of English. Over fifty applied to enter the stenography and typing class. The outpouring fairly took away the breath of those in charge.40

The Consolidation Period

Between 1900 and 1905, the Pittsburgh region experienced a strong economic upsurge, followed by a depression. The "era of steel" had arrived as far back as 1875, when Andrew Carnegie had opened the Edgar Thomson works in Braddock, but it was the

"Mildred W. Kreimer, "Southwestern District Religious Schools Celebrate Sixtieth Year," Jewish Criterion, September 11,1953.

37Minutes of Rohef Shalom Congregation, February 2, 1891, in the American Jewish Archives.

38 Feldman, op. cit., p. 62. 39Jewish Criterion,April 14, 1899. 401bid., October 6,1899.


formation of the United States Steel Corporation in 1901 which put 50% of the nation's steelworkers under a single e m p l ~ y e r . ~ '

Along with this expanded industrialization, there was an increased influx of immigrants to work in the mills and to dig the coal which provided the fuel. Very few Jews were involved directly as miners or mill worker^,^^ but many found employment in the milltowns and coal patches as peddlers, storekeepers, and merchants. When the depression of 1903 created an unemployment problem, the most critically affected groups were the newly arrived immigrants, Jews and non-Jews.

Events in Europe also affected the Jewish community of Pitts- burgh. A new regime of oppression in Roumania led to the arrival in America of twice as many Roumanian Jews in 1899 as in 1898; in 1900 eight times as many came, and in the following years the number was even larger.43 The various Jewish philanthropic agen- cies, most of which had headquarters in New York, responded t o the new immigration by attempting to direct the newcomers to other areas of the country. The Industrial Removal Office, founded in January, 190 1, by the Jewish Agricultural Society, working in conjunction with local B'nai B'rith lodges, sent some thousands of immigrants westward.44

Pittsburgh was one of the places to which Roumanian Jews came in proportionately larger numbers than they did to other cities (excluding New York). This was due to the presence in Pittsburgh of a nucleus of Roumanian Jews, related by blood and marriage and landsmanshaft, from the 1880's, who kept bringing over members of their extended families. By 1903 Pittsburgh had a branch of the Industrial Removal Office, headed by Berish C h a i m o v i t ~ ~ ~ (a Roumanian Jew), which arranged for jobs for the

4 1 Lubove, op. ci t . , p. 5. 42There were many reasons for the absence of Jews in heavy industry in Pittsburgh.

See Ida Cohen Selavan, "The Jewish Wage Earner in Pittsburgh, 1890-1930." American Jewish Historical Quarterly, Spring, 1976.

43Samuel Joseph, Jewish Immigration to the United States from 1881-1910, New York, 1914; Joseph Kissman, "The Immigration of Roumanian Jews up to 1914." YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, 1947-1948.

44Samuel Joseph, History of the Baron de Hirsch Fund. The Americanization of the Jewish Immigrant, Philadelphia, 1935.

45The Industrial Removal Office Papers at the American Jewish Historical Society contain a folder of letters written by Mr. Chaimovitz in 1907.


newcomers. A fairly substantial percentage of Jewish immigrants to Pittsburgh after 1900 were able-bodied young people, with some skills, interested in learning English and ambitious to succeed.

The Roumanian Jews were soon joined by Russian Jews, fleeing from the pogroms which had taken on the dimensions of massacres after 1903. Some of them were Socialists (of various shadings) who had been forced to leave because of the repressive measures taken by the Czar's police. Many of the Socialists planned to return to Russia "after the success of the revolution," but meanwhile they looked for jobs and studied English.46

The pressures of immigrants clamoring for education, the long waiting lists, and the disappointment of those turned away because of lack of space at the Townsend Street house influenced Columbian Council to find larger quarters and new sources of income. On March 7, 1900, the Columbian Council School was incorporated and became a separate legal entity.47 The old Slagle mansion at 1835 Centre Avenue was purchased for $12,000. Addi- tional sources of income were obtained, one of these being the Baron de Hirsch Fund, which had been founded in 189 1 to provide the "adult immigrant . . . with a knowledge of the English language, and, in the interest of good government, with the customs of the country and the theory of government." It allo- cated to the Columbian Council School the income from $12,500 invested at 4%.48

On April 1, 1900, the Columbian Council School moved into its "new and commodious b~ilding."~' Here the curriculum was expanded to include many kinds of academic subjects, from elementary to advanced. A major physical change was the addition of a $1 0,000 building, the Peacock Bath House.

46 There are no statistical studies of the countries of origin of Pittsburgh's Jews from the post-Civil War period to 1938. The respondents in the Oral History Project sponsored by the Pittsburgh Section, National Council of Jewish Women, in which I served as Research Assistant, 1969-1970, provided many stories to illustrate the brief survey given above.

4 7 ~ a p e r number 378, Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas. Only a number in a ledger could be found. The actual articles of incorporation seem to have been Iost.

48Eugene S. Benjamin, "The Baron de Hirsch Fund," Proceedings of the National Conference of Jewish Charities, Philadelphia, 1906; Joseph, History o f the Baron de Hirsch Fund. . . , p. 274 ; Jewish Criterion, March 1 , 1900.

491bid., March 22, 1900.


Mrs. A. Leo Wed personally went to Mr. Alexander Peacock, who was one of the recently created millionaires by the formation of the United States Steel Corporation, having been an associate of Andrew Carnegie. Without too much trouble she interested him in the Settlement and he provided the money for a bath house . . . which was known as the Pea- cock Baths.50

The building was opened in February, 1903, adjoining the main building. It included a gymnasium, an assembly hall seating 300, ten showers, three bathtubs and a swimming pool. This made possible the introduction of regular gym and swimming classes which added an athletic dimension to the social clubs.

One of the most significant steps taken by Columbian Council was the hiring of a trained nurse, Miss Cherry, in 1901. She was soon replaced by Miss Anna B. Heldman, who remained with the institution until her death in 1940." A member of the first gradu- ating class of the South Side Training School for Nurses in 1897, and a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Department in the Span- ish American War, Miss Heldman (or "Heldie," as she was fondly called) was the pioneer, in Pittsburgh, of the new profession of "visiting nurse ."

Miss Heldman worked together with John Anthony, principal of the Franklin School, in a pilot survey of health conditions in the public schools. Her report shocked the City Council into establish- ing a system of medical inspection in the city schools. She also did the preliminary research for a Children's Welfare Division of the Department of Health. She saw herself as both nurse and educator:

The watchword is prevention, and this should be the motto of every nurse who enters a home, no matter whether rich or poor, on her responsible mission . . . the poor learn how the sick should be nursed, become acquainted with the method of disinfecting and preventing the spread of disease, and also gain some knowledge of invalid cooking and practical

50S. Leo Ruslander, The Life and Times of S. Leo Ruslander, Pittsburgh, 1964, p. 325.

5'Six months before her death, Overhill Street, on the corner of the Irene Kaufmann Settlement, was named Heldman Street in her honor. In December, 1956, when the Irene Kaufmann Settlement was transferred to a new government body, it was renamed the Anna B. Heldman Community Center, which has since been replaced by Hill House. See Ida Cohen Selavan, "Anna B. Heldman, Angel of 'Hell-with-the-lid-off,' "American Journal of Nursing, in press.


lessons in cleanliness. The example is not always forgotten when the nurse's visits cease . . . . The neighborhood is always willing to learn and do anything that may be of benefit for the health of the community.52

The most important need at Columbian Council School during the early years was for more teachers. The students packed the rooms to overflowing, textbooks and materials were donated or improvised, but the use of volunteers as teachers made the actual running of the school dependent upon their good will and dedica- tion. The dual nature of the School, as a non-formal adult educational institution for immigrants, and as a settlement house for the entire neighborhood, led to certain problems. When volunteer teachers did not show up for their scheduled classes, the residents were pressed into service, thus neglecting the younger people who came for club activities.

It was with its clubs that the School reached the greatest numbers of people. As members grew up, they remained loyal to the Columbian Council School and Settlement, and many of them returned as volunteers to lead new clubs. The weekly programs usually included serious lectures or debates, refreshments, and socializing. Sometimes musical presentations were included. The annual "mock trials" became special events, attended by hundreds of people.53 The Young Folks' Civic League also conducted a series of lectures in Yiddish, "for the education of parents in civic

In budgeting for the School and Settlement the members of Columbian Council often drew upon the resources of wealthy Jews and non-Jews in the community. They also continued to use their traditional fundraising methods, such as bazaars, lectures, dances, cake sales, etc. With the passage of years, more business- like methods of budgeting were introduced.

Introduction of Public Evening Schools

During the first months of 1904, the crowded conditions at the Columbian Council School made it necessary to reject as many people as were accepted. The decision was made to approach the

52Anna B. Heldman, "As the Nurse Sees It," Jewish Criterion, October 5 , 1906. 53S. Leo Ruslander, who sometimes served as judge at these mock trials, gives the

humorous programs of some of them in his autobiography, op. ci t . The name Columbian School and Settlement seems to have come into vogue between 1906 and 1907.

Jewish Criterion, January 24, 1908.


Eighth Ward School Board for permission to use a room in its neighborhood elementary school, the Franklin School. The School Board agreed, if "they furnish their own teacher and pay for jani- tor's s e r ~ i c e . " ~ ~ The beginners' classes moved to the Franklin School and relieved the congestion.

In May, 1905, the Board of the Franklin School agreed to allow the Columbian Council School the use of another room. All through 1904, 1905, and 1906, efforts were made to have the Central Board of Education take over the responsibilities of conducting night schools.56 In her report for 1906, Addie Weihl, the head resident, described these efforts:

In desperation, I appealed once again to Mr. Jamison, one of the directors, and Mr. Anthony, principal of the Franklin School, and thanks to their efforts, it was decided at the board of directors' meeting that night, to bring the matter before the Central Board of Education.57

The minutes of that meeting read:

On motion by Anglock and Amdursky that Mr. Jamison be instructed to ask for Night School in Franklin Building from Central Board of Edu- cation .5s

This time Miss Weihl's efforts bore fruit. The Central Board of Education granted permission for such a school, with five teachers, whose salary would be paid by the Board. In January of 1907 there were 400 people enrolled in these classes. The teachers who had previously worked for the Columbian School and Settlement were retained, "on account of their knowledge of Y i d d i ~ h . " ~ ~

For a number of years, the Franklin evening school was the

"Minutes of the Franklin Sub-District School Board, April 4 , 1904. In the Archives of an Industrial Society, Hillman Library, University of Pittsburgh.

56The campaign to introduce night schools for immigrants via a Central Board of Education had political implications. Until 1911 the control of the public schools was vested in 46 subdistrict boards, which allowed for local politicians to use their influence. The reformers, among whom were many members of Columbian Council, sought to establish a Central Board of Education, and succeeded in doing so on November 15, 1911. See Samuel P. Hays, "The Politics of Reform in Municipal Government in the Progressive Era," Pacific Northwest Quarterly, October, 1964.

57 Yearbook o f the Columbian School and Settlement, 1906-1907. In the Pennsyl- vania Division, Carnegie Library.

"Minutes of the Franklin Sub-District School Board, November 6, 1906, p. 110. In the Archives of an Industrial Society.

"Jewish Criterion, February 1 , 1907.


only one under public auspices in the city.60 There were close ties between it and the Columbian School and Settlement, for, when the six-month term a t the Franklin School was over, many of the students continued at the Settlement.

The response to the opening of publicly sponsored elementary classes for immigrants in 1906 led to the opening of an evening high school in 1907, called "the most important event in the history of the public schools since the establishment of the high school in 1 857."61 Edward Rynearson, principal of the Fifth Avenue High School, and Heber L. Holbrook, principal of the Evening High School, made plans for 300 students. On the opening night 1,000 people showed up, many of whom had learned their basic skills at the Columbian School and Settlement.

Expansion and Change

By 1907, the Columbian School and Settlement had become a well-known institution, visited by distinguished guests, its activities reported in the widely read Charities a n d t h e C ~ r n r n o n s , ~ ~ and in Jewish periodicals. Dr. Lee K. Frankel, manager of the United Hebrew Charities of New York, 1899-1 909,

spoke in the highest terms of the work that is being done by the school. He remarked that he had come prepared to offer suggestions and criticism on the system of the Settlement, but after investigating what had been and is being done he could find no room for adverse comment.63

The Columbian School and Settlement was unique in having Jewish women residents serving a largely Jewish clientele. While some residents left after a year or two, usually t o marry, others stayed for longer periods. The annual reports of the residents for 1906-1 909 give us a picture of industrious, eager, energetic young people, immigrants and volunteers and salaried workers, working together for common goals.

60W. H. Laning, Principal, Franklin School, "Report on a Questionnaire Submitted to the Principals of the Pittsburgh Public Schools by the Survey Commission," unpublished ms., March 31, 1927, Statistician's Office, Pittsburgh Board of Public Education.

"Samuel Andrews, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Cornmon- wealth ofPennsylvania, Harrisburg, 1908, p. 196.

6 2 ~ a r c h 16 ,1907; April 24, 1909. 6 3 Jewish Criterion, February 1 , 1907.


The Slagle Mansion, considered "commodious" in comparison with the house on Townsend Street, became, in the following decade, much too small for the many different activities it housed. "Our establisl-rment is filled to o ~ e r f l o w i n g . ~ ~ Just as important as the lack of space was the breaking down of the building, whose maintenance was a major p r ~ b l e m . ~ '

The pressures upon the facilities inspired some members of the settlement to look for solutions. Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, of Rodef Shalom, and A. Leo Weil approached Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kauf- mann and suggested that they donate a large sum of money to build a memorial to their only daughter, Irene, who had died in July, 1907. In April, 1909, Mr. and Mrs. Kaufmann announced that they would donate $150,000 to be used to erect, equip, and partially endow a new building to be named the Irene Kaufmann Settlement.

The building is to be erected on the present site at 1835 Centre Avenue. . . . . Mr. Kaufmann will contribute annually to the Settlement 25% of the maintenance fund contributed by the community, which agrees to raise $10,000 annually .66

In June of 1909 Mrs. A. Leo Weil submitted her resignation as president of the Columbian School and Settlement. During all the years when financial support was uncertain and the women had balanced their budget with cake sales and "begging," her leadership had been unchallenged. With the arrival of large sums of money and the promise of more, the Board seemed to feel the need for male leadership of the Settlement. Mr. Nathaniel Spear was elected, the first in an unbroken chain of male presidents.

Educational Contributions

Although most of the educational innovations introduced or supported by the Colum bian School and Settlement eventually became part of the public education system, its pioneering adult evening classes, begun in 1899, were its outstanding contribution. This was not a new idea in the United States, but in Pittsburgh, Columbian Council was the first institution to offer year-round

641bid., January 24, 1908. 6 5 Ruslander, op . cit. , p. 3 1 1 .

Jewish Criterion, April 16, 1909.


free evening classes for adults. It was also the driving force behind the introduction of such courses under public sponsorship.

The importance of this contribution may be seen in the statistics for the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where, in 19 10, 460,045 immigrants over the age of 15 could not speak English, and 20.1 % of these were unable to read or write any language. Of 263 urban centers with over 2,500 inhabitants, 127 had over 1,000 foreigners, more such communities than any other state in the Union.

Only 42 communities had any evening school facilities for immigrants over the age of compulsory attendance. Only 29 of these maintained public facilities. . . . In the school term 1914-191 5, the total number of foreign pupils enrolled in these evening schools aggregated less than 20,000, a remarkably small number as compared with those unable to speak English and illiterate. 67

In Pittsburgh, for the term 1913-19 14, 2,464 students were registered at the Franklin Evening School, and 1,541 students were enrolled at the Fifth Avenue Evening High Thus, one neighborhood in Pittsburgh supplied more than 20% of all evening school pupils in the entire state.

The Settlement also sponsored the notion that "the immigrant- as well as the American workingman-should share in the mental wealth of humanity.'"j9 The social and athletic clubs, the debating societies, the music courses, and the plays and entertainments enriched the often humdrum lives of the immigrants. The lecture series and the art, music, and theatre classes became the province of all. This aspect of Columbian Council's innovative work was not fully integrated into the public school system. It continues as an integral feature of its successors, Hill House in the Hill District and the Jewish Community Centers of Oakland, Squirrel Hill, East Liberty and South Hills.

67Commissioner of Labor and Industry, Annual Report, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, 1916, pp. 1158-1159.

68Evening Schools and Extension Work Circular, 1913-1914, in the Pennsylvania Division, Carnegie Library.

691saac Spectorsky, "The Newcomer and the Night School," Charities and the Com- mons, 1907, p. 892.

Jacob H . Schiff, American financier, philanthropist, and protagonist of the Galveston Movement

Jacob H. Schiff's Galveston Movement: An Experiment in Immigrant Deflection,

1907-1914*

GARY DEAN BEST

The "systematic, persistent, and ruthless" persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, which began in 188 1, provoked a dual response from the leaders of American Jewry. In the international sphere American Jewish leaders, like the banker Jacob H. Schiff, of Kuhn, Loeb and Company, sought to ameliorate the condition of their coreligionists in Eastern Europe through a variety of financial and diplomatic methods. At home, they were confronted with the rising Jewish immigration into the United States. A particularly acute problem in this latter regard was the tendency of Jewish immigrants to carry the "impression . . . that there is only one place in the United States and that is the city of New York." To men like Schiff this posed an enormous burden for the Jews already there, who found that they had to "care for almost 75% of all the immigrants who come to the United States."' - -

The Politics of Deflection

In 1891. Jacob H. Schiff was sure that the United States could

*The author wishes to express his gratitude to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a summer stipend which supported research for this project in 1976, and to a valued colleague, Professor Louis P. Warsh, for his helpful comments on an early draft of this paper.

1 Maldwyn A. Jones, American Immigration (Chicago, 1960), pp. 102-3; Schiff to Simon Wolf, December 29, 1890, Schiff Papers, reel 678, American Jewish Archives, hereafter cited as SP.

Professor Best teaches history a t the University of Hawaii at Hilo.


still absorb u p t o two million additional Russo-Jewish immigrants in the next decade or two, but only if those immigrants could be distributed over the interior of the country, rather than concentrating in the northeastern port cities. By that year, in fact, New York Jews had already undertaken serious efforts to "remove" Jewish immigrants from the unhealthful and crowded conditions of the ghettoes to the interior of the country. These efforts were carried out through a variety of programs. Agricultural colonization was attempted in a number of states, from New Jersey to Oregon. The creation of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, in 1891, brought funds from Europe to aid in the solution of the problem. This fund of $2.5 million was contributed by Baron Maurice de Hirsch, a wealthy German Jew, and the trustees of that fund, according to its historian, "tried out almost every possible solution-agricultural colonization, suburbanization (on a small scale), the removal of industries to outlying districts, the transportation of families to a [sic] smaller towns and industrial centers, and so on." But all such efforts continued to be dwarfed by the size of the immigration of the 1890's, and the resettlement of a few hundreds of immigrants per year scarcely made an imprint on the crowded conditions in New York City and the other large northeastern port cities. In a further attempt to meet the problem, the Industrial Removal Office was organized in New York City by the de Hirsch Fund, and it sent agents t o the various parts of the country to find employment for New York Jews. With such "requisitions" in hand from inland communities, the IRO sought out likely candidates to fill the jobs, and aided in their relocation. Close cooperation was fostered between the Industrial Removal Office in New York and the local Jewish communities throughout the United States. In the first year of its operation, the IRO was able t o remove nearly 2,000 persons t o 250 communities throughout the ~ o u n t r y . ~

While contributing t o these efforts as a member of the board of

ZSchiff to Baron de Hirsch, October 23, 1891, SP #678; Schiff to Kalman Haas, November 5, 1891, SP %92; Samuel Joseph, History o f the Baron De Hirsch Fund (n.p., 1935), pp. 184-87. For the response of American Jews to the immigration of East European Jews into the United States, see Zosa Szajkowski, "The Attitude of American Jews to East European Jewish Immigration (1881-1893)," Publications o f the American Jewish Historical Society, X L (March, 195 l), 22 1-80.

SCHIFF'S GALVESTON MOVEMENT 45

the Baron de Hirsch Fund, Jacob Schiff continued to exert himself in behalf of improved conditions for Jews in Russia. He approved of the protest delivered to Russia over the Kishinev massacre in 1903, and during 1904-1 905 he was instrumental in floating nearly $200 million of Japanese war bonds in the United States. He hoped, thereby, to contribute t o Russia's defeat in her war with Japan, a defeat which he felt would trigger a revolution in Russia and bring to power a government that would be more liberal in its treatment of Jews. Indeed, i t seemed for a time as if Schiff's strategy was succeeding when revolution did break out in Russia during the war. The Czar was forced t o make concessions in the direction of more liberal government. The end of that war, however, brought reaction and renewed repression of the Czar's Jewish subjects. The tide of emigration from Russia rose once again in 1906, and Schiff began to despair that the conditions of Russian Jewry could ever be improved in their homeland. Perhaps the only solution lay in emigration. As he wrote Israel Zangwill in late 1905, Schiff believed that if reaction set in against the Jews, "then the time will have arrived for him to leave Russia as our forefathers have left Egypt and Spain and then, too, the fate of Russia will become sealed as has been the case with every country that has driven out the Jews." Should emigration be necessary, the United States, with its liberal immigration laws, offered the only prospect for the absorption of large numbers of Russian Jews, but not if that emigration continued to be funneled directly into New York City.3

There were at this time primarily three different approaches by those who saw in emigration the solution to the problem of Russian Jewry. The Zionists advocated the reestablishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Jewish Territorial Organization

Cyrus Adler, Jacob H. Schiff: His Life and Letters (Garden City, 1928), 11, 117-19; Gary Dean Best, "Financing a Foreign War: Jacob H. Schiff and Japan, 1904-5," American Jewish Historical Quarterly, LXI (June, 1972), 313-24; Schiff to Israel Zangwill, Novem- ber 21, 1905, SP #678; see also Zosa Szajkowski, "Paul Nathan, Lucien Wolf, Jacob H. Schiff and the Jewish Revolutionary Movements in Eastern Europe, 1903-1917," Jewish Social Studies, XXIX (January, 1967),22-23. For a description of Jewish Con- ditions in New York City, see Moses Rischin, The Promised City: New York's Jews, 1870-1914 (Cambridge, 1962). For the muckraker response to Jewish crowding in the cities, see Rudolf Glanz, "Jewish Social Conditions as Seen by the Muckrakers," Yivo Annual o f Jewish Social Science, IX (1954), 308-31.


(ITO), which had split off from the Zionists, was led by Jewish writer Israel Zangwill and sought to create autonomous Jewish territories wherever practicable. The Jewish Colonization Society (ICA), financed by Baron Maurice de Hirsch, assisted East European Jews in emigrating t o new lands-primarily t o Argentina. Jacob H. Schiff regarded both the Zionists and the territorialists as impractical and utopian, particularly in their inability to respond quickly and on the scale necessary to meet the problem that was emerging in Russia in 1906. But more than this, Schiff disagreed with the basic philosophy of both the Zionists and the territorialists. Schiff argued that "the Jew must maintain his own identity-not apart in any autonomous body but among the nations, where alone he can fulfill the mission which is assigned him to promote the unity of God and the brotherhood of man among the people of the earth." Jews should not seek to live apart in ghettoes, even if they were self-governing states, but should integrate themselves into the life of the nation wherever they found them~elves .~

As reaction began to gain the upper hand in Russia in mid-1 906, Schiff sought t o divert Zangwill's Territorial Organization from what he regarded as philosophically incorrect and impractical ob- jects into correct and immediately useful channels. It was no longer enough, he decided, to remove Jews from the eastern port cities as they accumulated there. If the United States were to absorb the two millions of Jewish immigrants which might have to be accommodated, those immigrants would now have to be "removed" directly into the interior of the United States by diverting them through ports other than those of the east coast. This was necessary since the eastern port cities offered such attractions t o the Jewish immigrant that he rarely bestirred himself to move elsewhere. The large Jewish population of New York City, which made it by the early twentieth century the largest Jewish city in the world, meant the existence of a full religious, cultural, and social life for the Jewish arrival, no matter what his language. This contrasted markedly with the alien environment of the rest of the country for him. While there had, as yet, been little negative reaction t o

4Schiff to Zangwill, November 21, 1905, SP #679; see also Naomi Cohen, "The Reaction of Reform Judaism in America to Political Zionism (1897-1922)," American Jewish Historical Quarterly, XL (195 O), 36 1-94.

Israel Zangwill, Zionist and Territorialist; critic a n d supporter of the Galvcston movement


the growing Jewish population in the eastern cities, Schiff and others feared that further immigration, on the scale necessary to relieve conditions in Russia, inevitably had to lead to demands for re- strictions on immigration. Thus, to preserve the United States as a destination for Jewish emigrants fleeing oppression in Eastern Europe required that the rest of the nation be opened up more fully to these people. But that would require a mechanism in Russia, and elsewhere in Europe, to propagandize destinations alternative to New York City among prospective emigrants, and to make the necessary arrangements for transporting them there. The ideal mechanism, as Schiff saw it, was the Jewish Territorial Organization. If the IT0 would take up the Russian part of the operation, Schiff promised Zangwill, he would contribute up to $500,000 for the American end of the operation. He believed that if the operation were properly handled, up to four million Jews could be moved into the interior of the United States and into Canada within five or ten years, with two million of the total accommodated in the United States. Movement on such a scale would largely solve the Jewish problem in Russia, while simul- taneously relieving the congestion in eastern cities. Moreover, Schiff believed that the United States Government would give such an effort "full moral support."'

According to Schiffs understanding, more than 60% of the 1.5 million Jews in the United States were living in New York City and other eastern port cities, while "not ten per cent are located West of a North to South line, drawn throught a point fifty miles west of Chicago." However, it bears repeating that Schiff was not concerned only with deflecting immigration from the east to the interior of the country. He was concerned also with making possible a larger Jewish immigration into the United States. As he wrote to Judge Mayer Sulzberger, he was concerned with the question: "What can we do . . . not only to divert the stream of Russo- Jewish immigration into the American 'Hinterland,' but even to promote a considerably larger immigration than we now receive, into this territory?" Schiff had good reason to believe that cooperation, or at least an understanding attitude, would be forthcoming

'Schiff to Zangwill, August 24, 1906, SP, Box 2364; Schiff to Paul Nathan, August 27,1906, SP #692; Schiff to Mayer Sulzberger, September 27, 1906, SP #2364.

48 AMERlCAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, APRIL, 1978

from the federal government. A coreligionist, Oscar S. Straus, was serving as Secretary of Commerce and Labor, under which department operated the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. And the Commissioner-General of Immigration, Franklin P. Sargent, had suggested just such a diversion of immigration, preferably through the port of New Orleans, when Schiff had talked with him early in 1 906.6

America versus Europe

Throughout the formative period of the Galveston Movement, as it came to be called, and throughout the very life of the movement, Schiff had ever to be extremely attuned to the sensitivities of the leaders of the Jewish societies in Europe. Zangwill, especially, was ever cautious that his I T 0 should get at least as much credit as was due, and that its prestige should not be damaged by association with failure, by criticism, or by cooperation in an inferior relationship with other groups. Thus, Zangwill was at first not willing to fit his organization into Schiff's proposal. Schiff had in mind cooperation between the ICA, the ITO, and the Hilfsverein der Deut- schen Juden. Zangwill was unwilling to cooperate with non-territorialists like the ICA, and wanted the full measure of credit for the work in Europe for his own society. He even proposed that the American portion of the deflection work should be placed under the I T 0 banner if he cooperated in the venture. In putting forth his arguments, moreover, Zangwill showed no reluctance to be offensive in his language. Gradually, however, Zangwill was brought to accept a mechanism which would have the I T 0 propagandize in behalf of the southern gulf ports of the United States as entry points for Russian Jews seeking to emigrate to the United States. The I T 0 would then handle their transportation as far as Bremen, Germany, where they would be temporarily cared for by the Hilfsverein and placed on steamships destined for the gulf ports of the United States. By October, 1906, the plan had been broadened t o include Galveston as a port of entry, as well as the New Orleans originally suggested by Sargent. In the United States, the place- ment of the immigrants in the American hinterland would be

Schiff to Mayer Sulzberger, Septelmber 27, 1906, SP #2364.


handled by the Industrial Removal Office working in much the same way as i t handled the removal of Jews from New York City. Incoming immigrants would be met at the gulf ports, matched with the "requisition" from the inland communities arranged for by the Industrial Removal Office, and then sent on their way to their new homes. To Zangwill, Schiff emphasized the necessity for sending only young, sturdy immigrants, ready to do whatever work was available."

On November 1 2, 1906, Cyrus L. Sulzberger presented Schiff's plan for the diversion of immigrants into the interior to a meeting of the Industrial Removal Committee. By this time, Schiff had definitely settled on Galveston as the gulf port to be utilized. Galveston was chosen because it was served by regular steamship service from Bremen by the North German Lloyd line, and was served, also, by a railroad network which penetrated into all of the proposed area of settlement. It was also a city sufficiently small that it would not likely attract immigrants to settle there permanently in preference to those locations arranged for them by the removal office. Another reason was doubtless the determination that the immigrants should not be placed in the southern states. As Schiff put it: "I am afraid Jewish immigration into the South would, to a very large extent, be used to place i t in competition with Negro labor, and to attempt. . . to diminish the 'black pre- dominance.' " Such a situation would work to the detriment of the Jewish immigrants and ought to be avoided. The "Plan for the Diversion of Immigrants by Way of Galveston," presented to the Industrial Removal Office, provided that immigrants arriving through that port under the auspices of the mechanism should be sent on into the interior almost immediately after they arrived there, making their journey a continuous one. Since the agency at Galveston would have a manifest containing all the relevant information concerning the immigrants at least a couple of weeks before they arrived, sufficient time would be available for arranging for their distribution into the interior. This "continuous journey'' would not only spare Schiff's group the cost of boarding the immigrants in Galveston, but would also prevent their developing

'Schiff to Zangwill, October 16, 1906, and Schiff to Nathan, October 25, 1906, SP #692; Schiff to ZangwilI, October 25, 1906, SP #678.


any attachment for Galveston. In conducting the operations at Galveston, the cooperation of the small Jewish community in that city was to be enlisted. As for the distribution of the immigrants, Schiff's plan provided that: a) the immigrants should be placed west of the Mississippi river exclusively, if that was possible, and only if sufficient cooperation could not be obtained in that area were they to be sent to contiguous states east of that river; b) they were not to be sent directly to industrial establisilinei~ts at first, because needs changed and because immigrants needed a chance to adjust. Instead, they wouldbe consigned t o Jewish communities, but "should the Jewish community in any case refuse to cooperate for insufficient reasons, it might possibly serve our purpose to obtain direct requisitions from employers in that locality"; c) distribution should preferably be made to communities where there were already some Russian Jews; d ) discretion should be allowed the organizers to commit the removal office to a grant of not more than $10 per immigrant. The office should also seek t o obtain half-rate railway fares for the immigrants on the railroads leading out of Galveston.'

Schiff refused to label the American portion of the operation as an I T 0 concern. When the immigrants arrived at Galveston they must sever their relationship with the ITO, and must understand that before they ever left Germany. Searching for a name for the agency to be established at Galveston, Schiff first considered "The United Immigration Office," before settling, finally, on "The Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau." Schiff's problems with Zangwill were not at an end, however. Schiff was insistent that the immigrants be aware that in the United States they were likely to be required to work on Saturdays, the Jewish Sabbath. For Zang- will, this was only further proof that Jews could not be integrated into non-Jewish societies, but ought to exist separately in the kinds of autonomous communities that his I T 0 was seeking to establish. By early January, 1907, however, the difficulties had been ironed out, and an understanding had also been reached between the I T 0 and the Hilfsverein for their cooperation in the

8'LMinutes of the Meeting of November 12, 1906," in Industrial Removal Office Papers, Box 1 , American Jewish Historical Society Library; Morris Waldman, "The Galveston Movement," The Jewish Social Service Quarterly, I X (March, 1928), 201 ; Schiff t o Zangwill, November 8 , 1 9 0 6 , SP #678.

SCIIIFF'S GALVESTON MOVEMENT 5 1

European end of the movement. Schiff now busied himself with creating the Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau [JIBB] to prepare for the arrival of the first ITO-sponsored Jewish immigrants at Ga lve~ ton .~

Morris D. Waldman was dispatched from New York City to Galveston with letters of introduction from Schiff and Cyrus L. Sulzberger to Rabbi Henry Cohen of that city, to "organize an immigration office in connection with the movement which we are endeavoring to inaugurate for diverting a part of the Russian. Jewish immigration through the gulf ports. . . .".By mid-January of 1907, Schiff was writing to Zangwill that he was in frequent communication with Sulzberger and that he was "deeply gratified the American 'hinterland' project is now fairly started." He noted that agents were at Galveston, and reassured Zangwill that "when your first shipload arrives in Galveston everything will be found' ready for the proper reception and distribution of the immigrants which it brings." Like Zangwill, Schiff felt that "a good part of the success of the entire project depends upon the way those who arrive at first shall fare." By the end of that month the JIIB had rented a building, ordered stationery, and was busy negotiating for a half-rate on the railroads. Meantime, to make conditions at Gal- veston even more comfortable for the arrival of large numbers of immigrants, Schiff and Sulzberger solicited the aid of Secretary of Commerce and Labor Oscar S. Straus in getting a bill through Congress authorizing the construction of an immigration station in that city.'

On a trip to Washington late in January, Schiff found the Secretary of Commerce and Labor strongly supportive of the Galveston movement and of the proposed immigration station. More encouraging was the support of President Theodore Roose-

9Schiff to Cyrus Sulzberger, December 5 , 1906, and Schiff to Nathan, December 5 , 1906, SP #692; Bressler to Waldman, January 14, 1907, Galveston Immigration Plan Papers, Box 3, American Jewish Historical Society Library, hereafter cited as GIPP; Schiff to Nathan, December 20, 1906, and Schiff to Nathan, January 3, 1907, SP #692.

loSchiff to Rabbi Henry Cohen, January 8, 1907, and Sulzberger to Cohen, January 8 , 1907, Henry Cohen Collection #2538, American Jewish Archives; Schiff to Zangwill, January 14, 1907, SP #692; Waldman to Cyrus Sulzberger, January 18,1907, GIPP #3; Schiff to Nathan, January 23, 1907, SP #678; Waldman to Bressler, January 28, 1907, GIPP #3; Schiff to Zangwill, February 14,1907, SP #692; Sulzberger to Straus, February 14, 1907, GIPP #1; Schiff to Straus, February 15,1907, SP #692.


velt. As Schiff wrote to Paul Nathan of the Hilfsverein, "President Roosevelt was particularly happy that we are making this effort t o open this new door to immigration to the United States instead of concentrating it in the north Atlantic ports as has been the case hitherto." This evidence of support from the federal government was important for the operation's prospects of success. The movement had received its initial encouragement from the Commissioner- General of Immigration. Now it had evidence of strong support from his superior, the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and from the President himself. Given the great variety of laws governing immigration, and the latitude permitted in the interpretation and application of those laws, a friendly attitude on the part of the authorities could help to ensure the success of the Galveston movement, while a hostile authority could doom it. From the beginning Schiff insisted that the immigration laws should be scrupulously honored since "everything must be avoided which can possibly induce our officials to place obstacles in the way of the proposed immigration." Thus, Schiff reprimanded Nathan for assuring some immigrants that part of their traveling expenses would be paid if necessary. He was willing only that they should be assured that, if the situation required it, the JIIB would contribute t o the expense of their transportation from Galveston t o their ultimate destination. l 1

Despite all of the preparations made in Galveston, however, months passed without the arrival of any immigrants there. Letters flowed between Galveston and New York, and between New York and London, but the I T 0 was, for many weeks, unable to supply the immigrants for whom the mechanism had been created. The difficulty was in the continued inability of the Jewish societies in Europe to cooperate. Relations between the I T 0 and the Hilfs- verein had soured. Schiff wrote Sulzberger that he was "discouraged and disgusted" with the behavior of both Zangwill and Nathan in permitting their personal vanity to "damage so important a project" as the Galveston movement. He was, however, particularly irked with Zangwill's continued insistence that the I T 0 be given all credit for the program and that if that were not the case the

" Schiff to Nathan, February 25, 1907, SP #692; Schiff to Nathan, January 23, 1907, SP #678.

SCHIFF'S GALVESTON MOVEMENT 5 3

project "had better not be done at all." To Nathan, Schiff expressed doubt whether it was advisable t o go on with the Galveston project. He was, he said, "greatly discouraged" for the success of the project because of the inability of Zangwill and Nathan t o cooperate with one another. "Now the whole work has been made doubtful" because they continually placed their personal and organizational interests above "the general good," and he warned Nathan that he and Zangwill would have "to bear the responsibility if the Galveston plan fails. . . ." As weeks passed, and the I T 0 was unable to muster a significant number of emigrants at Bremen for the voyage t o Galveston, Schiff became increasingly critical of Zangwill. The difficulty, as Schiff saw it, was that Zangwill irritated people with his brusque manner and drove into opposition the very persons whose cooperation was needed t o make the project successful. Zangwill's own explanation for the delay was the redtape involved in getting passports, as well as the opposition of the ICA to the ITO's work in Russia, an opposition which was, in Zangwill's eyes, the result of ICA jealousy of the prestige which the I T 0 was receiving from its association with the Galveston movement.12

While Schiff was somewhat skeptical about Zangwill's charges against the ICA, he made earnest efforts t o enlist ICA cooperation in the Galveston movement. To one ICA leader Schiff wrote:

It is inexplicable to me and my friends here how it can be possible that important altruistic societies such as the Jewish Colonization Association, the Hilfsverein, and the Jewish Territorial Organization should for a moment hesitate for any reason whatsoever to cooperate in a project which is destined to have so far reaching a beneficent influence upon the Jewish immigration from Russia into the United States. . . .

When the ICA declined to cooperate with the I T 0 and the Hilfs- verein in the Galveston movement unless they were given exclusive control of the movement, Schiff unburdened himself candidly to Narcisse Leven of the ICA that he saw "absolutely no justification for this demand." When he had first conceived the Galveston movement it had been only the I T 0 and the Hilfsverein which he had found willing to join in the movement. He had a special object in recruiting the ITO, he told Leven, and that was t o divert the I T 0

12Schiff to Sulzberger, May 2, 1907; Schiff to Nathan, May 2, 1907; and Schiff to Sulzberger, May 6 , 1907, SP #692; Bressler to Waldman, May 17, 1907. GIPP #3.


from its territorialist objectives since he felt "that the creation of larger autonomous centers. . .would be certain to lead in years to come to difficulties which should be avoided." But the I T 0 was admirably equipped to be utilized for the objectives of the Gal- veston movement. Thus, if the ICA disagreed with the objectives of the ITO, it ought willingly t o join in cooperation in the Galves- ton movement, since that movement was designed t o thwart the objectives of the ITO! The news from Zangwill that the ICA was hostile t o the Galveston work being undertaken by the I T 0 in Russia, he wrote, had shocked him. Leaders of great movements should be able to look beyond jealousy and suspicion and the "shortcomings and peculiarities of others" in order t o cooperate. If the Galveston movement failed, he assured the ICA leader, "no little share of the responsibility for this will be upon the trustees of your association." Still, there is ample evidence that Schiff reserved his greatest criticism for Zangwill, of whom he wrote that "Kis hand is against everybody and, in consequence, everybody's hand is against him."13

Meantime, however, the spirits of the American side had been somewhat raised by news that the first group of immigrants would arrive in late June or early July. The SS Cassel actually arrived on July 1 , 1 907, and 54 ITO-sponsored Russo-Jewish immigrants arrived. As reported to the leaders of the Galveston movement in New York:

The steamer did not arrive until Monday morning, at 8:00 o'clock. The steerage passengers were not started through their formalities until 10:OO o'clock. Inspector-in-Charge Holman was as kind as he could be. He gave us a pen section for ourselves on the docks, and arranged to have our people off among the first. We had all of our proteges in the building, by noon. Each one had a bath, a good substantial dinner, an hour or two to smoke their cigarettes and drink their tea $ la Russe and write letters home to their dear ones. They were a very tractable lot of people and were pro- fuse in their expressions of delight and gratitude for the comfortable reception we gave them. We did not overdo it. A little coloring was added to the incidents of the day by the visit of the Mayor, who addressed the group in a few well chosen words, which were translated by Rabbi Cohen. The chief magistrate shook hands with each one of the individuals.

'3Schiff to Narcisse Leven, June 5 , 1907, SP #678; Schiff to Hallgarten, June 24, 1907, SP #692; Schiff to Leven, July 10, 1907, SP #678; Schiff to Sulzberger, July 15 , 1907. SP #692.


The Galveston newspapers gave extensive coverage to the first operation of the JIIB, commenting on the "busy activity" until late hours of the night, the "babel of tongues," and the movement of the immigrants through the hands of the JIIB and onto the trains spiriting them away to their eventual destinations.14

The initial fifty-four ranged in age from 18 to 42, and represented trades as varied as locksmiths, bakers, bookkeepers, noodle and macaroni makers, bookbinders, electricians and shoemakers, as well as many others. They were dispatched by the JIIB to such states as Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wisconsin; to sizable cities like Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Milwaukee, and to smaller ones like Davenport, Quincy, and Dubuque. At this time the decision was made, too, to provide services to Jewish immigrants arriving at Galveston who had not traveled under the sponsorship of the ITO. Immigrants who thus came of their own accord with a prefixed destination were not to be furnished with railroad tickets or money, but any who arrived without a destination, and were willing to place themselves under JIIB tutelage, "should be treated in the same manner as those who are sent through the I T 0 or Hilfsverein agency." Thereafter, immigrants continued to arrive in various numbers at Galveston. The procedure never varied. As the Galveston Rabbi Henry Cohen described it:

The medical examination by the port marine surgeon, the interrogation by the immigration inspectors, and the examination of baggage by the custom house officers is followed by the removal of the immigrants and the baggage in large wagons from the docks to the Bureau headquarters-about half a mile. Then the distribution of mail long looked for by the aliens, the refreshing bath and the wholesome and generous meal; the facilities for writing home and for reading Yiddish papers published since the passengers' embarkation; the questioning of the individuals and the filling out of the consignees record by the office management; the selection of locality according to the requisitions of the interior agent and the purchasing of railroads tickets; and then supper; the apportionment of food sufficient to last each immigrant for the whole up-country journey and a little longer; then the baggage wagons for the neighboring depot and the departure from the bureau of those who are to leave on the night trains; the checking of baggage to destinations and the leave-taking from one another after a

14Cohen to Waldman, July 11, 1907; Waldman to Bressler, July 3, 1907, GIPP #3; see, for example, Galveston News, July 2, 1907.


month's constant companionship-often pathetic; the comfortable placing of the travelers in the railroad coaches by the bureau's employees; then telegrams to the interior committees notifying them of the departure of their allotment so that the latter should be met at the station; the retiring of the remainder to bed (what a change from the steerage bunks!) to leave on the morrow or thereafter, according to circumstances-all this and more must be seen to be realized! 15

The Galveston movement had barely been launched, however, before a severe financial recession developed in the United States, making it impossible for the JIIB to place anything but a handful of immigrants. The European end of the operation was now discouraged by the shutting of the door at Galveston by the JIIB, but there was no alternative. Disappointed, Schiff wrote Sulzberger in December that it was too bad that "just as we could see the assured success of the movement in sight, this setback should have come." To Zangwill he explained that he had "never seen such a sudden change from prosperity to general depression and dis- couragement." Only because Schiff felt that a handful of immigrants, at least, should continue to be sent through to keep the machinery in operation were any immigrants at all sent. Not until the end of 1908 did Schiff begin to regain hope that conditions would improve by March or April of 1 909, sufficiently to restore operations to the maximum level.16

Despite the fact that only a token number of immigrants were being sent through the Galveston movement, Schiff continued to be called upon to make peace between the European Jewish societies and between the JIIB and Zangwill. At one point Schiff wrote Zangwill impatiently that "I am frank to say, I am getting somewhat tired of having constantly to seek the maintenance of peace between the I T 0 and ICA and the Hilfsverein." Between the JIIB and the I T 0 there was the question of what t o do with immigrants who arrived at Galveston without I T 0 sponsorship. Zang-

'SWaIdman to Bressler, July 3, 1907, GIPP #3; Schiff to Bressler, July 3 , 1907, SP #692.

'6 Rabbi Henry Cohen, "Galveston Immigration Movement, 1907 to 1910," pamphlet in SP #678; Schiff to Sulzberger, December 2, 1907, SP #692; Schiff to Zangwill, December 4, 1907, SP #678; Schiff to Bressler, June 15, 1908; Schiff to Zangwill, December 30, 1908, SP #692.


will quarreled with the JIIB decision to give assistance to non-IT0 immigrants who were willing to put themselves under the sponsorship of the JIIB. Zangwill's position was that, since the I T 0 made an effort to screen immigrants before sending them to Galveston, the JIIB ought not t o give any assistance t o non-IT0 immigrants appearing there. To give such assistance would mean "that anyone who is refused by our bureaus has simply to turn up in Galveston [ to] receive exactly the same treatment as the accepted," Zang- will argued, and in that event how could the I T 0 "possibly either select or regulate the arrivals at Galveston?" If the JIIB did not take care to limit its preferential treatment to I T 0 cases, it would find itself "swept by an enormous flood," Zangwill argued, and such a flood would destroy the Galveston movement, burying it under a tide of immigrants "overwhelming in quantity and not uniformly good in quality." What apparently triggered this out- burst from Zangwill was the expressed intention of the ICA to send immigrants independently to Galveston, a move against which Zangwill "protested vigorously" since he argued that the I T 0 could provide all of the immigrants that the JIIB could handle "and only chaos would ensue from the existence of two discon- nected European bodies." Of course, it was precisely that discon- nection which Schiff had worked constantly to correct, without success, because of Zangwill's opposition. As for the non-IT0 immigrants, it was the position of Rabbi Cohen at Galveston that all Jewish immigrants arriving at Galveston should be assisted by the JIIB, whether I T 0 or non-ITO, since many of them had embarked for Galveston because of the JIIB/ITO publicity of that port and of the "hinterland" which was being spread throughout Russia. A compromise was reached at the October 20, 1908, meeting of the Galveston leaders, at which both Schiff and Zangwill were present, under which the JIIB at Galveston was authorized to grant loans of up to $2 for individuals and $5 for families who were non-ITO. However, in a memorandum submitted by Cyrus Sulzberger as the basis for future cooperation between the JIIB and the ITO, it was stated that:

Those intending to emigrate must. . . be made clearly to understand that if they are desirous of securing the advantages of the Galveston Bureau, they must submit themselves to the scrutiny of [ITO] representatives and receive their sanction which is to be evidenced by a ticket or certificate.


Bearers of such ticket or certificate will be cared for at Galveston-all others must look out for themselves. . . .I7 Then, just as conditions appeared to be improving in the United

States, making .it possible for the JIIB to resume accepting as many immigrants as the I T 0 could send, the European end of the operation faltered when the I T 0 ran afoul of the Russian authorities and was branded illegal. Schiff wrote Zangwill that he expected by the summer of 1909 that the JIIB would be able to absorb larger numbers of immigrants, and that he hoped, therefore, that "when the moment comes that the I T 0 will have become legalized in Russia, or failing that, which I would deeply regret, that arrangements can be made to place the Galveston work where it can most efficiently be looked after." This, of course, would have meant a transfer of the Russian operation t o the ICA, and would have been a confession of failure by the ITO. In the summer of 1909, the I T 0 was able t o reestablish its legality, but despite the JIIB's requests for additional immigrants, there was no response from the ITO, bringing from Schiff a gentle reminder to Zangwill of an earlier promise by the latter that if ever the I T 0 was unable to handle the task adequately it would call upon the ICA for assistance.l8

The summer of 1909 also brought an organizational change. Schiff had come to the conclusion that some more efficient means had to be found to coordinate the arrangements at Galveston, and so he formed a permanent Galveston committee. The membership was to consist of Schiff, Sulzberger, Professor Morris Loeb, David M. Bressler, and Morris D. Waldman, and was t o "give regular attention to all questions which may present themselves in connection with the Galveston plan." Schiff reiterated that he was "anxious to place myself and my means into accomplishing all that can be done to open the wide territory beyond the Mississippi to a large Jewish immigration." A few weeks later Schiff announced

'7Schiff to Zangwill, December 8, 1907, SP #692; Schiff to Zangwill, May 28, 1908, SP #678; Zangwill to Cohen, December 13, 1907, Cohen Papers #2538; Cohen to Bressler, April 14, 1908, Miscellaneous Papers, Box 107 1 , American Jewish Archives; "Minutes of Meeting of October 20, 1908," GIPP #3.

I8Schiff to Zangwill, March 11, 1909; Schiff to Bressler, July 6 , 1909; and Schiff to Zangwill, July 7, 1909, SP #692.


to Zangwill the formation of the committee, which included, in addition to the above named, Reuben Arkush, president of the Industrial Removal Office, and Rabbi Henry Cohen of Galveston. In his letter to Zangwill Schiff established the terms under which he would regard the Galveston movement as a success. Unless the movement reached the point where it was placing an average of 200 a month, or 2,500 a year, meaning an inflow of approximately 25,000 in a decade, he would not, he told Zangwill, regard the movement as a success. These figures were, of course, considerably in excess of those then being furnished by the ITO. In late October, however, the IT0 was authorized by the Galveston Com- mittee to increase its monthly shipments to Galveston from 75 t o 100.19

Even when the numbers arriving from the I T 0 increased, however, complaints began to be made by the JIIB concerning the quality of the immigrants received. The JIIB was receiving complaints from the inland communities about the unwillingness or inability of immigrants t o work because they had no trade, and Schiff reemphasized t o Zangwill the need for the I T 0 to send only such immigrants as were suitable to "take up actual work of some sort" in the United States. When, in December, the Galveston Committee authorized a further increase to 125 immigrants per month, Schiff chided Zangwill again that he had been told by Bress- ler "that quite a number of the immigrants are by no means what they should be and that if this continues it is certain to give a setback to the entire work." The greatest problem, however, continued to be the low number of I T 0 immigrants arriving at Galveston. Despite the continual raising by the Galveston Committee of the quota of immigrants it could handle through that port city, the numbers, far from increasing, continued t o drop off. While the Galveston representatives of the Industrial Removal Office beat the bushes of the Midwest and West for "requisitions" of immigrants with considerable success, the immigrants thus requisi- tioned were not arriving at Galveston. Again, it was difficulties of the I T 0 with the Russian Government which were apparently at

19Schiff to Sulzberger, July 12, 1909, SP #678; Schiff to Zangwill, August 9, 1909; Schiff to Zangwill, August 30, 1909, SP #692; "Minutes of Meeting of October 29, 1909, GIPP #3.


fault, but this did not ease the frustration of those at the Ameri- can end. Considerable time and money had been expended to induce the inland communities to accept larger numbers of immigrants, and there was concern that "the future of the movement may be jeopardized if it should develop that after all our repre- sentations we have not the immigrants to send." Once again Schiff suggested to Zangwill that it was time t o ask for help from the ICA, since "if we are not in a position t o feed the interior outlets which we have opened, they are likely to dry up." Schiff understood the ITO's difficulties with the Russian Government, he told Zangwill, but conditions were so favorable in the United States for absorbing the immigrants now that the work in Europe had t o be carried on, with or without the IT0.20

Bureaucratic Dilemma

By mid-1 910, however, the United States Government had replaced the Kussians as the prime irritant to the Galveston movement. The arrival of a new Inspector-in-Charge, Alfred Hampton, at Galveston, early in 19 10, quickly brought an end to the friendly relations which had existed between the JIIB and the immigration authorities in that city. On May 6, 19 10, Hampton wrote to the Commissioner-General of Immigration concerning the Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau, "the alleged purpose of which is to divert Jewish immigrants from the Northern ports," and told him that:

Upon assuming charge of this district recently I was surprised to learn that it had been the custom each month to admit at this port many destitute Jewish aliens, that is, Jewish aliens without money, and without friends or relatives in this country, upon assurances being given by the representatives of the aforesaid Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau that said aliens would be cared for during their temporary detention in this city, and provided with the necessary transportation, provisions, and funds to reach certain designated southwestern points, where upon arrival they would be given work.

=OSchiff to Zangwill, November 11, 1909; Schiff to Zangwill, December 2, 1909; Bressler to Schiff, December 13, 1909; and Schiff to Zangwill, December 17, 1909, SP #692; "Minutes of Meeting of December 20, 1909," GIPP #3.


Hampton furnished his superior with such information as he had gathered concerning the European side of the operation, and concluded that an investigation was called for "in order to ascertain whether the Jewish Society is acting as agency of the steamship company in soliciting immigration and whether the steamship is secretly reducing rates, or whether the Jewish Society is . . . soliciting immigration and supplying a portion of the passage money as a charity." Hampton expressed concern that the immigrants arriving under I T 0 sponsorship might "come under the class of assisted aliens, or paupers, or contract laborers, as the case may be." He asked for guidance from his superiors on the extent t o which it wished him "to recognize the Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau in its capacity of self-appointed guardian of Jewish alien arrivals in this country, without funds or money." In response t o Hampton's inquiry and suspicions concerning the Galveston movement, the Bureau ordered an investigation t o determine whether the promises of jobs made by the JIIB t o the arriving immigrants were actually being carried out, while the Secretary of Commerce requested an investigation by the Justice D e ~ a r t m e n t . ~ '

Meanwhile, in contrast to the policy of the authorities at Galves- ton during the first three years of the movement, Hainpton began to exclude aliens who arrived at that port without adequate funds, despite guarantees furnished by the JIIB, triggering appeals and protests from the JIIB and from the Galveston Committee in New York. Schiff sought the assistance of Congressman William S. Bennett, of New York, in intervening with Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel, explaining that:

We are . . . now facing governmental methods at Galveston . . . which, if persisted in, are certain to break up the movement through Galveston, and will result in throwing back upon New York and other northern ports the entire stream of immigration which we have been taking such pains to deflect and which the large American hinterland can digest to such better advantage than the East.

The immediate issue was the exclusion of some thirty immigrants who had arrived on the SS Hanover on June 23rd. Acting Secre-

Hampton to the Commissioner-General, May 6, 1910;Keefe to Hampton, June 13, 1910; Secretary of Commerce to the Attorney General, June 16, 1910, Record Group 85, File 52779129, National Archives, hereafter cited as RG 85-52779129 NA.


tary of Commerce and Labor Benjamin S. Cable defended the department's position to Congressman Bennett:

These aliens were excluded by the board mainly on the ground that they were likely to become public charges. This appears to be a proper ground in some of the cases, but there is another good reason for exclusion, namely, that all of them 'have been induced or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promise of employment.' . . . The records show, and it seems to be an established fact, that the Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau advertise and distribute literature in Russia, and by this means and through their agents or correspondents there, advise Russian Hebrews to go to Galveston rather than New York, that they do not have to show any money at Galveston; that many Jews have gone to Galveston and that the Jewish Society would take care of them and provide them with work in Galveston or elsewhere. . . . Our investigation shows that while work has been secured for the aliens admitted to the Jewish Bureau in the past, it is of a temporary nature and they are frequently changing, also that they are sometimes out of work.

Cable indicated that he did not believe the practice should suddenly be instituted of excluding such people, in view of the fact that such cases had been admitted for a long period of time before this, "but there is no reason why the law should not, within a short time, be administered at Galveston as at other ports. . . . >, From Galveston, Inspector Hampton similarly argued that the impression had to be corrected that Galveston was more lax in its enforcement of immigration laws than the other ports. Quite clearly the sympathetic attitude on the part of the authorities, which Schiff had all along understood t o be important for the success of the Galveston experiment, was no longer to be forthcoming if the views of Cable and Hampton were to prevail.22

Through the summer and on into the fall of 1910, the Galves- ton Committee attacked the Cable-Hampton position on the legality of the actions of the Galveston movement. The movement, through its representatives and immigration lawyers, was com- pelled once again to argue that the immigration from Russia was not solicited or stimulated, but rather came as a result of the "intolerable conditions" which existed in Russia. To the extent

==Schiff to Felix Warburg, June 28, 1910, Felix Warburg Papers #161, American Jewish Archives; Cable to Bennett, July 14, 1910; Hampton to the CommissionerGen- e~a l , July 16, 1910, RG 85-52779/29 NA.


that the immigrants were "solicited" or "induced," i t was for the purpose of deflecting them to Galveston in preference to the crowded eastern ports. Immigration was not being increased, they asserted, but rather deflected; the immigration to Galveston had not increased the immigration to the United States "by one per- son," since the arrivals at Galveston were at the expense of the eastern ports. Finding jobs for the immigrants was not a violation of the law, and, moreover, had been "recognized and tacitly approved" by the government at the time the Galveston movement had been inaugurated. Nor was there any violation of the law in assisting the immigrants through private charity once they arrived, so long as they did not become public charges. Providing additional arguments in behalf of the Galveston movement were Simon Wolf, Washington-based lawyer, chairman of the Board of Delegates of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and resident member of the Independent Order B'nai B'rith, as well as immigration lawyer Max J. Kohler and New York Supreme Court Justice Nathan B i j ~ r . ' ~

Obtaining little satisfaction in altering the Cable-Hampton position through the force of their arguments, the Galveston Commit- tee began in August to move in the direction of political pressure. On August 22, 19 10, Schiff dispatched a long letter to Cable in which he traced the motivation and history of the Galveston movement, including its initial inspiration from the Bureau of Immigra- tion itself. He defended the movement against all the charges that had been made against it within the Department of Commerce and Labor. In such an enterprise, he argued, the movement "had every right to expect the good will of the authorities, and until recently this appears not to have been withheld." But recently, however, "and for no satisfactory reason," the Department of Commerce and Labor had begun to cast "needless difficulties in the way of the admission of those who arrive at Galveston," and if that policy were persisted in, the movement would break down. If such a breakdown did occur, he warned Cable, the Taft administration

Z3''Statement of Facts Submitted by David M. Bressler, Esq., Honorary Secretary 'Jewish Immigrants' Information Bureau,' July 21st, 1910, on Rehearing of Galveston Appeals," RG 85-52779129 NA; Simon Wolf to Bressler, August 3, 1910, GIPP #I; Schiff to Kohler, August 15, 1910, Max J. Kohler Papers, Box 4, American Jewish Historical Society Library.


would be "held responsible by a considerable section of the American people, and because of this I am sending a copy of this communication to the President for such consideration, if any, as he may himself desire t o give to this not unimportant subject." He also asked that his letter be placed before Cable's superior, Secre- tary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel, when he returned from his vacation. That this letter was intended primarily for the President rather than for Cable is clear from Schiff's account of this episode to Zangwill in which he wrote that "I have just addressed the President-for the letter I have written to Assistant Secretary Cable . . . is meant t o a greater degree for the President than for the Department of Commerce and Labor."24

Cable's reply gave the movement no satisfaction, since the Assis- tant Secretary simply pointed out that if his position was incorrect, "the courts would probably set me right upon proper application," thus encouraging Schiff and the Galveston Committee t o take the matter t o court. Schiff's position, however, was that litigation would be fatal to the movement, since the spectacle of drawn-out judicial proceedings would destroy the confidence of the emigrants from Russia. The success of the movement had just come into sight, Schiff told Charles D. Norton, secretary to President William Howard Taft, when Cable had stepped in and "wantonly" crushed it. The only means by which confidence could be restored, he told Norton, was the "retirement" of Cable from his office. Linking this problem with the difficulties which the Jewish community was also experiencing with the President over his unkept campaign pledge to secure the right of American Jews to travel to Russia on American passports, like other American citizens, Schiff wrote Norton that:

We have in other respects experienced keen disappointment because of the nonfulfillment thus far of platform pledges and personal promises made during the last Presidential campaign, and if I now write so unreservedly, it is partly because I do not wish to see the President, whose loyal supporter I have been ever since he was nominated, placed into a false position or lose the goodwill of the important section of the American people for whom I venture to speak in this.

24 Schiff to Cable, August 22, 1910, SP #678; Schiff to Zangwill, August 23, 1910, SP #692.


To Simon Wolf, Schiff wrote that, "if the Galveston Movement is broken down, someone is going to be punished for it-not the man lower down, but the man higher up." To another correspondent he argued that "we may have t o employ earnest measures in order to make our friends in the administration understand that we are not to be trifled with and that platform pledges and campaign promises must stand for something more than for campaign con- sumption only, and must be made good."25

The pressure on the top level of the Taft administration was obviously having its effect. From the President's secretary came word that he had "gone over Mr. Schiff's letters with the President, who is in full sympathy with what Mr. Schiff is trying to do," and as a result the administration was arranging for a conference between representatives of the Galveston Committee and the Secre- tary of Commerce and Labor. Meanwhile, President Taft visited the immigration station at Ellis Island, New York City, on October 18th, and made remarks which were taken as a hopeful sign by Schiff. In his talk there, Taft expressed support for the deflection of immigration away from the eastern port cities and into the interior, leading Schiff to feel encouraged in the belief that the Presi- dent had the Galveston movement in mind. Perhaps Secretary of Commerce and Labor Nagel interpreted the President's comments in the same way, for his correspondence with the President's secretary grew conciliatory in the latter part of the month. Nagel con- fessed that he could see no provision of the immigration law that was being violated "strictly speaking" by the Galveston movement, even though he still had the impression that "as a whole it does result in the kind of immigration which it is for the Bureau to scrutinize closely and perhaps to d i s c o ~ r a g e . " ~ ~

In December the oft-postponed meeting finally was held when Schiff, Kohler, Bressler, and Abram I. Elkus sat down with Nagel,

25S~h i f f to Norton, August 29, 1910, SP #692; Schiff to Wolf, August 30, 1910, copy in GIPP #1; Schiff to Kraus, September 1, 1910, SP #692; see also Naomi Cohen, "The Abrogation of the Russo-American Treaty of 1832," Jewish Social Studies, XXV (January, 1963), 3-41.

26 Norton to Kohler, September 9, 1910, Kohler Papers #3; Kohler became a member of the Galveston Committee on September 23, 1910, see "Memo," September 23, 1910, GIPP #3; Schiff to Kohler, October 19, 1910, SP #692; Kohler to Schiff, October 22, 1910, Kohler Papers #4; Nagel to Norton, October 27, 1910, RG 85-52779129 NA.


Cable, and Attorney General George Wickersham for a meeting which lasted for two hours. As Schiff described the meeting to Zangwill a month later:

Mr. Kohler made the very able opening argument while I did the summing up. I gave them the full history of the development of the Galveston movement and I ended by saying that we had endeavored in every way to keep within the law and believed that we had done so: that we had expected encouragement on the part of the government in the undertaking,-which was at once humane and patriotic; that we had the assurance of the Presi- dent that he was in sympathy with our work, and that it would have his support in every way in which it could lawfully be done; that we felt not we but the Department of Commerce and the immigration authorities were on the defense, and finally that if present methods were to be continued, of which we ought in justice to be frankly advised, we would close up our Bureau at Galveston A d leave the responsibility for this to the present federal administration, which I thought in the face of the statement of the President in his message to Congress, that everything should be done to better distribute immigration, was a pretty heavy responsibility to take. When I had finished, Secretary Nagel made at first a show of being very much offended because of the aggressive manner in which I had spoken. The Attorney General took me aside and said to me, 'Mr. Schiff, try not to make them antagonistic here; I will help you if I can.' And finally Mr. Nagel calmed down and gave us the assurance that it was his desire to do what could be done under the law to help our work.

According to Kohler's recollection of that meeting years later:

Annoyed at the technicalities which were being gone into before the two Cabinet Officers, [Schiff] suddenly jumped up and said, shaking his finger at Secretary Nagel, 'You act as if my organization and I were on trial! You, Mr. Secretary, and your department are on trial, and the country will rue it if this undertaking-so conducive to promoting the best interests of our country, as well as humanity-is throttled by your Department's unreasonable obstacles!'

Almost coincidental with the meeting, Washington policy was put to the test when, in mid-December, Galveston authorities excluded Jewish immigrants on the grounds of "inability to speak English, insufficient funds for transportation to points where they might work, no friends or relatives to assist." The JIIB reported thzt it had been "utterly disregarded" by the authorities in Galveston in making their decision. The question now was whether the authorities in Washington would sustain these exclusions, or show evi-


dence of a new cooperative policy toward the JIIB as a result of the political pressure brought to bear by the Galveston Committee. The latter was the case. On December 23rd, Secretary Nagel wrote to the President's secretary that the meeting with Schiff and his counsel had been held in obedience to his instructions and that i t had been decided to give "just as much consideration as can be given to Mr. Schiff's enterprise." Nagel enclosed a memorandum giving his general views on the Galveston movement, which was t o guide immigration policy during the balance of the Taft administration. Nagel's memorandum stated that:

The inquiries which have been made both at the hearing had on the 14th day of December and in other ways do not bear out the conclusion that this immigration is assisted, or induced, or solicited in the proper sense of the law. We have the unqualified assurance that these immigrants are not encouraged to come to this country, but that they are merely advised to go to Galveston instead of New York after their decision to come to this country is formed. Such activity is in keeping with the policy of the Department, and so long as the agency that has interested itself in this immigration restricts its efforts to the purposes just indicated there appears to be no objection. . . . My conclusion is that these aliens ought to be admitted, and that so long as the system is followed substantially as has been represented and conditions otherwise remain the same future cases may be passed upon in accordance with this rule. . . . The conclusion is arrived at after conference with the Assistant Secretary who has given careful thought to the matter and who is in accord with the decision.

As for the excluded immigrants of mid-December, Nagel admitted thirteen of them at once, and the remainder were admitted later. The President's secretary responded that the President "approved your friendly attitude toward the Jewish Immigration Society in its efforts to direct immigration from New York to Texas, as well as your suggestion of legal limitations upon their activities abroad." Any future pressure on the Galveston movement would have to be applied with reference to the operations of the I T 0 and the Hilfsverein in Europe, and not to the JIIB in Galveston. An investigation by the State Department, however, failed to unearth any hard evidence of violations of the law at the European end, either.27

z7Schiff to Zangwill, January 11, 1911; Kohler to Mortimer Schiff, October 14, 1925; JIIB to Schiff, December 15, 1910, SP #692; Nagel to President Taft, December 23, 1910, with enclosures; Norton to Nagel, January 15, 1911, RG 85-52779129 NA.


Further Difficulties

Three years of the Galveston movement had produced scant results. Scarcely begun, the movement had been crippled by the recession in the United States. That ended, the I T 0 had run afoul of the Russian Government, disrupting the European end of the operation. Then, in 19 10, the movement had suffered from the attitude of the authorities in the United States. Now, in 191 1, the leaders of the movement were encouraged that the Secretary of Commerce and Labor was endeavoring to be fair and reasonable, and that his memorandum would "give notice to the immigration authorities in Galveston not to be too hasty in excluding immigrants." Schiff now felt for the first time that "we have turned the corner and that henceforth immigrants at Galveston will not be turned back except for physical illness or other incapacity to become wage earners." No longer would the amount of money brought with them by the immigrants be a factor in deciding whether or not to admit them. Now Schiff exhorted Zangwill to "accelerate the movement" of Jewish immigrants into Galveston since the "small parcels" which had been coming were hardly sufficient to maintain the machinery of the operation there. But, while the Galveston movement encountered little difficulty from the authorities through the remainder of the Taft administration, 19 1 1 and 19 12, the great frustration of the movement was once again the inability of the I T 0 to furnish immigrants in sufficient numbers and of adequate quality to satisfy the ''requisitions" which were being obtained from inland communities. In Septem- ber Schiff again raised the possibility of cooperation with the ICA if the I T 0 was unable to handle the task adequately, or of replac- ing the I T 0 with the ICA. In November he wrote Zangwill that "things must take a different turn with you if we are to continue the Galveston movement under the auspices of the ITO." The American side was dissatisfied with both the numbers and the quality of the immigrants arriving at Galveston, and Schiff warned that "it can only result in harm if we go on in this way much longer." While agreement was reached to continue the affiliation with the ITO, at least through 19 12, the poor quality of the immigrants, of which Schiff had for some time been complaining, began gradually to manifest itself in increased deportations. While his correspondence makes it clear that he had for some time been con-


cerned about the quality of people the I T 0 had been sending, Schiff now began to lash out at the authorities over the high number of deportations that were taking place from Galveston in early 19 1 2.'*

Complaints were also flowing in to the JIIB concerning the quality of the steerage accommodations on the North German Lloyd steamers, and the callous treatment to which the immigrants were submitted while on board, conditions which, if allowed to persist, were certain to discourage immigrants from entering the United States via Galveston. Schiff wrote Zangwill of the complaints and asked that pressure be brought in Bremen to improve the situation, but without effect. Numbers continued to be unsatis- factory, and for Jacob Schiff, whose financial contribution was being drained away by salaries, rents, and other expenses, the meager number of immigrants flowing from Europe was a constant frustration. In mid-1912 he wrote Zangwill that "we must have more immigrants of a proper sort if the movement is to be kept alive instead of gradually fizzling out." The I T 0 was aver- aging only about ninety persons per month, and they should be sending twice that number. Late in the year, Dr. David Jochel- mann, the director of the I T 0 emigration work in Russia, made a tour to observe the Galveston work in the United States. After- wards, Jochelmann reported to the Galveston Committee that a new problem had arisen to plague the Russian end of the operation-a lack of money. With sufficient funds, he told the committee, an adequate number of immigrants could be sent, but the fund upon which the emigration work had been drawing was nearly exhausted. At the same meeting of the Galveston Com- mittee it was decided to engage a "guide" to accompany the immigrants on the North German Lloyd ships and to ensure that they received proper treatment."

28 Schiff to Zangwill, January 11, 191 1 ; in January Nagel addressed the convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, after which Schiff asked him point blank whether he considered the work of the JIIB to be illegal, to which the Secretary replied that he did not, Schiff to Zangwill, January 23, 1911; Schiff to Bressler, Sep- tember 27, 1911; Schiff to Zangwill, November 21, 1911; Schiff t o Zangwill, January 2, 1912, SP #692; Schiff t o Cohen, January 22,1912, Cohen Papers #2538.

29Schiff to Cohen, August 30, 1912, Cohen Papers #2538; Schiff to Zangwill, February 2, 1912; Schiff to Zangwill, May 7, 1912, SP #692; "Minutes of the Meeting of November 30, 191 2," GIPP #3.


The Galveston Committee was much encouraged by the report - of David M. Bressler, honorary secretary of the committee, who had accompanied Jochelmann on his inspection tour. According to Bressler's brief account of the trip, they had interviewed at least six hundred of the immigrants in midwestern and southwest- em cities and found "with the exception of not more than ten," that all of them were gainfully employed and earning respectable wages, while quite a number were engaged in small business and were earning even more. Quite a number of the immigrants were found t o own their own homes, and some even other real estate as well, while practically all of them had bank accounts. They found numerous complaints among the immigrants-with the facilities at Bremen, with their treatment aboard the North Ger- man Lloyd steamers, with the long trip between Bremen and Gal- veston, and with the quality of the assistance provided them, in some cities, by the Jewish community. As a result of these complaints, most of the immigrants who had sent for their families had brought them in through the eastern ports rather than through Galveston. Still, Bressler had found that, despite these complaints, there was universal approval of the concept of the Galveston movement and a belief that its purpose could be the more readily realized if the hardships of the journey between Bremen and Gal- veston could be minimized. Bressler concluded that the work of the Galveston movement had been "highly successful" and he found no evidence that any considerable number of the immigrants settled via Galveston had subsequently moved east t o the Atlantic port cities. Thus encouraged, Schiff wrote Zangwill that there was still $350,000 remaining of the original half-million he had promised t o the Galveston movement, and that the JIIB was now prepared to settle a minimum of 250 immigrants monthly.30

While Schiff sought to get conditions in Bremen and on the North German Lloyd steamers improved, Zangwill sought further funds with which t o continue the emigration work in Russia. Zangwill had, by this time, been diverted somewhat by a territorialist scheme centered in Angola, but he continued to assure Schiff that he was "putting Galveston before the Angola or other work,

'""Brief statement with regard to trip," by David M. Bressler, in GIPP #3; Schiff to Zangwill, December 3,1912, SP #678.


because I do not like to see a thing dropped half-way." Still, the difficulty in raising money, combined with his interest in the Angolan scheme, seemed t o make Zangwill more receptive to the idea of turning the Galveston work over t o the ICA. He told Schiff that "the absorption of the Galveston work by another body would leave me freer for my African, so you need not consider the ITO, though as long as you desire, it is ready to work heart and soul with YOU." Schiff, of course, had long been frustrated by the ITO's inability to supply immigrants in the quantity and quality needed at Galveston, and by Zangwill's unwillingness to cooperate in the operation with the ICA from fear of being stamped as a failure in handling the operation alone. At this hint that Zangwill might, at least, be willing to give up the operation to the ICA, Schiff acted with unseemly haste to rid himself, at last, of the ITO. Schiff had already heard from Franz Philippson of the ICA that that group was willing t o take over the Russian portion of the Galveston movement, and so at a meeting of the Galveston Com- mittee, Schiff sought and received authority to "address the ICA formally and officially setting forth the ITO's inability longer t o continue its operation in the Galveston work, and requesting them formally to undertake . . . the work about to be discontinued by the ITO." Schiff was authorized to write Zangwill asking that the IT0 continue the work until the ICA was able to take i t over. To Zangwill, Schiff wrote that it was apparent that the I T 0 was unable to secure the financial support that it needed t o continue the operation, and since time was of the essence, and since Zang- will, himself, was not opposed to the absorption of the Galveston work by another society, he was writing t o the ICA to try to make arrangements with it for the continuance of the work. Not surprisingly, Zangwill was upset at Schiff's haste in seizing upon a letter which he had written merely to bring Schiff up to date on the situation, to abandon the I T 0 abruptly for the ICA!31

It was as if Schiff had long been waiting for just such an expression from Zangwill of his willingness to transfer the work to an-

"Schiff to Nathan, December 5, 1912, SP #692; Zangwill to Schiff, December 26, 1912; Zangwill to Schiff, January 18, 1913; "Minutes of the Meeting of February 12, 191 3 ; Schiff to Zangwill, February 13, 19 13, GIPP #3; Bernard Marinbach, "The Galves- ton Movement," unpublished dissertation, The Jewish Thcological Seminary of America, 1977, p. 231.


other society on friendly terms, to rid the movement of him. To Philippson of the ICA, Schiff wrote that it was a source of great satisfaction for him that the ICA was ready to take over the Euro- pean end of the Galveston movement. "Strictly between ourselves," he told Philippson, "it has long been our wish here that the ICA should do so, but Zangwill has all through opposed so violently the proposal that the I T 0 should give up even a part of this work that it was not practicable to include the ICA in the project." However, the situation had now changed, and Zangwill was prepared to withdraw and to permit the ICA gradually to take the operation over. The prospects were good, finally, that the Galves- ton movement could be taken out of Zangwill's hands and placed in those of the ICA, but, Schiff cautioned the ICA leader, "as you probably already know, it is impossible to deal with Zangwill, and I therefore beg you in the interest of the cause. . . to make the thing as palatable as possible for him and particularly to avoid injuring his pride, because otherwise the transference will not be easy ." The ICA, however, did manage to injure Zangwill's sensitive pride, making the process of transference unpalatable for him. An ICA investigation of the ITO's Russian operation concluded that the I T 0 had been extremely wasteful in its use of funds there, and that the ICA could have accomplished the same scale of work for nearly one-fourth of the I T 0 expenditure. The I T 0 and the ICA continued to negotiate for some basis of cooperation during the period of transference, but the Russian branch of the ICA vetoed any association with the ITO, arguing that: I ) the I T 0 was illegal in Russia and forced to do its work there "under a disguise"; in such a situation the officially recognized ICA should not endanger its position in Russia by cooperating with an outlaw; 2) the ICA could do the job better if it did not cooperate with the ITO; and 3) the ICA had, up to that point, kept aloof from the "ism's" which divided the Jewish community; t o enter now into an arrange- ment with the territorialists in the Galveston movement would excite the Zionists and others t o "passionate polemics which will do no one any good." As a result, the disposition of many of the ICA leaders to cooperate with the I T 0 in the Galveston movement along the lines outlined by Schiff foundered on the opposition of the Russian committee, and the ICA was forced to reject Schiff's plan. Once again Schiff was forced back into harness with Zangwill and the ITO, despite his obvious lack of enthusiasm for his partner.


The difficulties of the ITO, however, indicated that the end of the Galveston movement was approaching, and Schiff began to look ahead to the 10,000 figure as a possible terminal point, a figure which he estimated, in October, 1913, could be reached within a year.32

Now a new problem reared its head at Galveston. Deportations for physical and health reasons were on the increase, especially for hernia. Schiff wrote Zangwill that he could not see why, "with the insistence of our immigration authorities to exclude those afflicted with hernia, those still continue t o be sent on in such large numbers." The I T 0 had been repeatedly warned not t o send such immigrants, but the warnings were not being heeded, he charged. While the hernia problem was almost certainly a legitimate objection on the part of the authorities at Galveston, as evidenced by Schiff's own comments to Zangwill, the scrupulousness with which the physical examinations were carried out and interpreted by the authorities there was almost certainly influenced by the reasser- tion of Inspector Hampton's misgivings concerning the legality of the JIIB operation, now that the Taft administration had been replaced by that of Woodrow Wilson. A letter from Hampton, reciting for his superiors again his concern about the operation, set off a flurry of renewed interest within the Bureau of Immigration in determining the legality of the Galveston operation. Interest- ingly, when Assistant Commissioner-General F. H. Lamed, a hold- over from the Taft years, was asked by the new Commissioner- General for an opinion on the Galveston movement, he did not cite the Nagel memorandum, which had been the basis of the Bureau's policy toward the movement in 19 1 1 and 19 12. Instead, Larned cited the opinion of the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Benjamin Cable, in opposition to the Galveston movement. Cable's position, reported Lamed, was "that the immigration of Jews through Galveston under the auspices of the Jewish Society there was a violation of the immigration laws," and he added that "I believe the officials of the Bureau have always concurred in Mr. Cable's views with respect to this matter." At

JZSchiff to Philippson, February 13, 1913, SP #692; both Bressler and Schiff felt that the ICA estimate was too low; see Bressler to Warburg, May 20, 1913, GIPP #3; Schiff to Zangwill, May 13, 1913, SP #692; M. Sarschawsky and D. Feinberg to JIIB, August 13, 1913, Warburg Papers #165; Schiff to Zangwill, October 27, 1913, SP #692.


Hampton's suggestion, a detailed report was requested from the medical examiner at Galveston, and an investigation was ordered of the activities of the IT0 in Russia.33

The report of the surgeon at Galveston revealed a high incidence of health and physical defects at that port. During the first nine months of 1913, 5,998 immigrants had arrived at Galveston, of whom 2,462 (41%) were Jews, and 3,536 (59%) non-Jews. A total of 5.2% of all arriving aliens had been found to be "possessed of defects of a serious character, truly a remarkable and disturbing proportion." Jews, in this respect, were substantially more numerous than non-Jews. Jews were found to be especially distinguished under the categories of hernia, poor physique, and very defective vision. Examinations at Galveston were no more thorough or demanding than elsewhere, the doctor argued, and he concluded that "Taken as a whole, I regret to say, the immigration coming in at this port is not so desirable as to physical qualities as it easily might and certainly should be." As for the report of the investigation in Europe, it again offered no support for Hampton's allega- tions concerning the Galveston operation. The investigator, W. W. Husband, found no evidence that the IT0 was either encouraging immigration or contributing to the expenses of the emigrants.34

In confronting the new problems at Galveston, Schiff recognized that the situation was less promising for effectual protest than in 19 10. President Wilson had signed into law an act creating separate departments of Commerce and Labor. The Bureau of Immigration had been placed under the Department of Labor, under Secretary William B. Wilson, a former labor official and a restrictionist where immigration was concerned. Thus, the situation at Galveston was only an example of what was happening in various degrees at the other ports as well. However, the situation at Galveston worsened, and while the leaders of the Galveston movement did not question the fact that the doctor at Galveston was "a thoroughly conscientious official," there was also no doubt that he was "unduly severe in his examinations," and that he magnified

"Schiff to Zangwill, October 27, 1913, SP #692; Hampton to the Commissioner- General, August 21, 191 3; Larned to the Commissioner-General, September 8, 191 3; the Commissioner-Genera1 to Hampton, September 12, 1913, RG 85-52779129 NA.

34L. P. H. Bahrenburg to Hampton, October 6, 1913; W. W. Husband to the Com- missioner-General of Immigration, October 29, 1913, RG 85-52779129 NA.


"minor ailments to the point of unfairness," with the result that the "percentage of exclusions at Galveston" became "the highest from any port in the U.S.," and it was easy to understand why the Galveston route was losing its popularity among immigrants from Rus~ i a .~ '

The combative attitude of 1910 was no longer present in the Galveston Committee in 19 14 when it faced this new governmental challenge. Schiff had already, the previous year, tentatively pro- jected the end of the movement for the 10,000th immigrant, expected to reach Galveston in late 1914. Now, at a meeting of the Galveston Committee in January of 19 14, Schiff suggested that the time had perhaps come to discontinue the work of the JIIB. At that meeting Schiff was convinced by the other members that it would be a mistake to do so, but three months later, at yet another meeting of the Committee, Schiff made a convincing argument for discontinuing the movement. After seven years of existence, "five of which might be called the active years," the Galveston movement had expended $235,000 in distributing between eight and nine thousand immigrants through Galveston. During this period of time, however, the volume of immigration through Galveston had not increased appreciably, and at no time during this period "had the yearly numbers coming to Galveston exceeded 3% of the total Jewish immigration for one year. . . ." The Committee concluded that two factors were principally responsible for the limited success of the movement: 1) the inadequate steamship facilities between Europe and Galveston; and 2) the unduly severe enforcement of the immigration laws and regulations at Galveston. Despite attempts to correct the first of these factors, there had been no improvement in the steamship service between Bremen and Galveston. As to the second factor, it had been convincingly demonstrated that not only were exclusions and deportations at Galveston significantly higher than at the northern ports, but enforcement was becoming progressively more severe and more rigorous as time went by. For the calendar year 1913 the percentage of Jewish exclusions at Galveston was nearly five per cent, and in the first quarter of 19 14 it had climbed to nearly

3SSchiff to Zangwill, November 24, 1913, SP #692; Bressler to Schiff, March 31, 1914, GIPP #l.


6%. There were also a number of cases of immigrants entering through other ports successfully after they had been excluded at Galveston. Schiff's view was that these two factors "constituted an insurmountable handicap to the realization of the purpose for which the movement was started," and he suggested that the time had come to discontinue the Galveston movement. The decision was made to discontinue the movement after September 30, 1914, except that assistance would continue to be extended to the wives and children of JIIB removals, in meritorious cases, until the end of the year.36

In reporting the results of the April 9th meeting to Zangwill, Schiff blamed the medical examinations at Galveston, but also pointed out that the I T 0 representatives in Russia and in Bremen appeared to be "unable t o prevent a considerable number of immigrants who do not come up to the standards set by our immigration laws and government regulations to embark for Galveston," nor had the Galveston movement been successful in improving conditions on the North German Lloyd steamships. Thus, Schiff privately expressed three reasons for the failure of the movement-the inability of the I T 0 to perform its function properly being the third reason, and the one not publicly expressed because of Zangwill's sensitivities. Zangwill, ever concerned that the ITO's image should not be tainted by any suggestion of failure in its work, replied that "the winding up will not occur before we have sent our one-hundredth party, so I do not think it should be presented t o the public as a failure. On the contrary, we celebrate the dispatch of our one-hundredth party declaring the route open." When Zangwill learned that the Galveston Committee was preparing a statement on the discontinuance of the movement, he expressed concern. The Russian Emigration Committee of the ITO, he told Schiff, was "still very uneasy lest they should be given over to their enemies as a failure after all their years of strenuous work." He repeated his suggestion that the movement should be celebrated as a success after its one-hundredth party, with the announcement that the Galveston port of entry no longer needed "artificial guidance." This concern by Zangwill with the image of the I T 0 that

36"Minutes of Meeting of January 12, 1914"; "Minutes of Meeting of April 9, 1914," GIPP #3.


would be conveyed by any public statement in the United States on the discontinuance of the Galveston movement led t o contro- versy between the I T 0 and the Galveston Committee over the wording and timing of any such ~ t a t e m e n t . ~ "

Various schemes were advanced during the summer of 1914 for continuing the deflection of immigration away from the eastern ports without the JIIB, but all such discussions were rendered academic by the outbreak of war in Europe late that summer. On November 2, 1914, Schiff addressed identical letters t o his colleagues on the Galveston Committee, in which he wrote:

Now that the Galveston Committee has closed its work, I want to express to the members of the committee my deep appreciation of the cooperation and valuable advice I have received from you as . . . my colleagues on the committee in the effort on our part to solve an important problem of great and lasting value both to the immigrant, as well as to our own country. In this I believe we have a right to feel that we have, in a measure, succeeded, for aside from the fact that we have settled almost 10,000 immigrants in the vast hinterland of the United States, every one of whom is likely to form more or less a center of attraction for others to follow, we have acquired experience which is certain to be most useful in further efforts which must come to deflect immigration into and through the over- crowded cities of the north Atlantic coast to ports where it can be more practically distributed over the sections of the United States, where the immigrant is actually needed and where his well-being can be better assured than in the large centers of the eastern part of the United States.

From this it is clear that Schiff contemplated further efforts to deflect immigration after the war ended. His death in 1920, however, and restrictive immigration legislation of the 1920's put an end to the deflection movement.38

An Assessment

Thus, the movement was wound up by the end of 1914, with

37S~h i f f to Zangwill, April 14, 1914; Zangwill to Schiff, April 24, 1914, and May 1, 1914; Zangwill to Schiff, May 22, 1914, SP #2364; Schiff to Solomon, June 8, 1914; Solomon to Schiff, June 5 ,1914, GIPP # l .

38See, for example, Bressler to Schiff, July 29, 1914; Schiff to Bressler, August 4 , 1914, GIPP #1; Schiff to Cyrus Sulzberger, November 2, 1914, SP #678, for one of the letters; Zangwill to Arthur Meyerowitz, October 21, 1920, SP #692.


disappointment that it had succeeded in placing only approximately 10,000 Jewish immigrants through Galveston in nearly eight years of activity-far from the goals sought for the movement-but with some satisfaction that a beginning had been made in exploiting the "hinterland" for Jewish immigration, and a feeling that valuable experience had been gained. Ironically, the outbreak of the war would certainly have interrupted the Galveston movement during the war years, even if i t had not been for the other reasons that made its discontinuance seem advisable. In the United States, the length of the trip from Bremen to Galveston and the high rate of exclusions and deportations at Galveston were given as the principal reasons for the discontinuance of the movement, with Schiff publicly giving priority to the latter, while David Bressler emphasized the former. Still, these two reasons certainly do not adequately account for the demise of the movement. There is good reason for seeking further cause for Schiff's disenchantment with the movement he had created in his disillusionment with Israel Zangwill and the ITO. Schiff's continual displeasure with the inability of the I T 0 to deliver immigrants in the quantity and quality required t o make the Galveston movement a success is evident from the correspondence in the Schiff papers and elsewhere. Schiff's frustration with Zangwill and the I T 0 manifested itself in numerous attempts to bring the ICA into the Galveston movement-attempts which were frustrated by both the ICA and the ITO, but which Schiff understood as being, at bottom, caused by Zangwill's inability to work with others.

Schiff's frustration with the unwillingness or inability of the Jewish societies in Europe to close ranks and work with him without regard to the "ism's" and jealousies which divided them, in a project which Schiff clearly conceived as the solution t o the problems of Russian Jewry, was continually in evidence. Add to this his frustration at the unwillingness of European financial sources, like the Rothschilds, to support the European side of the movement t o the extent that it could be properly operated. The Galveston movement had already been reduced to a limp by 1912, which circumstance had caused Schiff again to try to work out a transference of the European side of the movement from the I T 0 to the ICA in such a way as not to damage the sensitivities of the ITO, but without success. Even before the beginnings of the stringent application of health and physical standards at Galveston,


Schiff and the others in the movement were critical of the I T 0 for the poor quality of the immigrants arriving at Galveston. The high rate of exclusions and deportations that began in 1 9 13 was only official confirmation of what Schiff had been complaining to Zangwill about for months previously. There seems little doubt that Schiff held Zangwill, himself, at fault for most of the movement's difficulties, but that he felt constrained from saying so publicly.

While the Galveston movement did not begin to live up to the expectations Schiff had for it in the beginning, it did attain modest success. At an expenditure of approximately $250,000, the 10,000 Jewish immigrants settled through Galveston became the "nuclei" which Schiff had sought for larger Jewish communities later. This was less than half the 25,000 that Schiff had planned on (but at an expenditure of half what he had contemplated), and i t did not set off the great movement of Russian Jews to the inland United States for which he had hoped. Nor was the movement successful in defusing agitation for restrictive immigration laws, as he had hoped, for restrictive laws began to be passed in 1921. Still, for the 10,000 concerned-and for their families, friends, and other Jews drawn by their presence there-their deflection into the interior rather than into the eastern port cities was highly significant. In September of 1906, as Schiff was formulating the Galves- ton movement, he wrote to Cyrus Sulzberger: "When this reaches you, Yom Kippur is behind us and may all our sins and errors have been forgiven and the power vouchsafed us to discharge the serious duties which on no generation and no class of our coreligionists have been laid so heavily and at the same time so properly, as upon the American Jews." It was this sense of responsibility that led Schiff t o work for eight years, at great personal expense, to attempt to deflect Russo-Jewish immigration away from the eastern seaport cities in order that the United States might be preserved as a land of refuge for his oppressed corelig- i o n i ~ t s . ~ ~

39The breakdown of expenses of the Galveston Movement can be found in "Fi- nancial Statement of receipts and disbursements on account of the Galveston Committee, New York City, January of 1907 to October 14,1914," in SP #444; Schiff to Sulzberger, September 27,1906, SP #2364.

Book Review

Fine, David M. The City, The Immigrant and American Fiction, 1880-1 920, Metuchen, N. J. and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1977. x, 182 pp. $8.00

Berkow, Ira. Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1977. xiv, 532 pp. $14.50

These two books are best set aside for some attention as projects undertaken, in part, to recover the authors' personal urban origins, as well as to record specific history. Their modes are very different: David M. Fine, Director of the American Studies program at Cali- fornia State University, Long Beach, has written a genre study, a history of ghetto fiction written in English with a definite cultural focus. Excluded here are not only the literature of rural immigrant enclaves, but the writing from or about the various urban China- towns. Fine's interest lies in that mass immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe which settled in cities on the East coast, whose numbers precipitated the legislation restricting immigration in 192 1 and 1924. The majority of the newcomers were Italians, but those who lived in the urban slums, and who recorded that experience in fiction sometime between 1880 and 1920 were overwhelmingly Jewish. (Wayne Miller's Comprehensive Bibliography for the Study o f American Minorities corroborates Fine's asser- tion.) So Fine's material and intention are interesting t o the historian of American Jewish culture. By granting Abraham Cahan a full chapter, Fine's organization argues that the Yiddish editor was the period's major ghetto fictionalist, and he concludes his study quite personally: "As we recover a part of our history through these novels and stories, we realize that we are not so far removed from the past they record as we sometimes think."

A genre study derives its energy from the record of the conflict between literary convention and personal innovation. The honesty of personal composition was championed between 1880 and 1 920 as "realism," for along with the great bulk of popular nineteenth century fiction, tales of the tenement had been romanticized, and

BOOK REVIEW 8 1

the hard facts of poverty sublimated to issues of moral idealism. Fine's account of the origins of the genre in the nineteenth century British and American novel is conceptually the strongest section of his book. He summarizes the attitudes of that middle- class narrative which has traditionally presented urban poverty t o readers of fiction. The power of literary convention is especially striking in the career of a former immigrant, then outside observer, like Jacob Riis: How the Other Half Lives. Riis7s collection of articles on slum neighborhoods takes a reformer's measure of the hardness and degradation of urban poverty; but his fictional sketches, on the other hand, collected in Out o f Mulberry Street (1897)' impute a gentle faith and moral purity to their ghetto protagonists. Nor were Jewish writers themselves exempt from the pressures of literary sentiment. Aben Kandel's "Outline for a Jewish Opera," published in the Menorah Journal in 1928, includes this stage direction: "Fannie Hurst, Bruno Lessing and lesser writers enter slowly wheeling a pushcart upon which rests a tub of pickle juice. Upon their backs they carry large typewriters equipped with automatic tear glands. Solemnly they take down the typewriters, lift them up and lower them into the tub of pickle juice, and get the full flavor of the East Side into their machines. Then, heaving with alternate sobs and chuckles, they disguise themselves as natives and clamber aboard the carousel." Fine makes the point more temperately through concise plot summary, and by a comprehensiveness which oddly excludes Fannie Hurst. Among those who treat their material with more originality, he would include Mike Gold (Irwin Granich) and Henry Roth; but only his consideration of Cahan is more than summary.

The book's value is as a descriptive catalogue. Here, in one volume, are all the early types of the genre: the toughs, paupers, and prostitutes with hearts of gold; the Italians with stilettos; the clever street arabs; the villainous Fagins, sweatshop owners, and landlords; the gamblers, drunkards, and con-men; the idealistic labor organizers; the comic partners in the garment business. And the themes of estrangement between old-world fathers and new- world sons; hostility between uptown and downtown Jews; and the spiritual ordeals of Americanization. Fine shrewdly observes that many "ghetto" novels written by immigrants tend to affirm the values of acculturation, because the activity of fiction-writing is itself already an "adjusted" behavior.


For all the importance of its contribution as a register, Fine's book has serious shortcomings with respect to the conceptualiza- tion and mode of presentation of its material. The repetitions of plot-summary and contrast-and-compare criticism here do not finally distill to a single coherent argument. In a concluding section, Fine is unable to push us beyond the obvious and very familiar generalizations about acculturation. The problem seems to be that he has not accepted the limitations of his inquiry, wanting a certain genre of fiction to bear the burden of social history, which it cannot. So his competent introductory chapter on xenophobia and immigration restriction seems out of scale, if not out of place. And his thumbnail histories of the Settlement House and the Jewish labor movement sit awkwardly as the proper frame for his literary material. Fine also offers summaries of the non-fiction of Riis, Jane Addams, and several others. One can only wonder about his principle of selection on so large a topic. Are these writers' positions truly representative of certain popular attitudes towards immigrants, as Fine's argument suggests?

Popular fiction implicitly carries the history of the popular imagination of the time, and it carries the history of its authors' imaginations, which may be read from it to the extent that any given book is something more than purely popular. Fine misses some of what may be read by assuming forty historical years to have the thematic coherence ascribed to a literary genre. So he does not give appropriate weight to the cultural ironies of the biographies of figures like Henry Harland and Ludwig Lewisohn. For social history-for urban or Jewish history-one needs documents other than fiction as primary sources. Fiction has only certain kinds of stories to tell.

Maxwell Street is by Ira Berkow, a syndicated sports columnist, and is not a work of critical scholarship, but of journalism. It is a Chicago book, concerned with the old Chicago ghetto called "Jew- town" by Blacks-who have been the majority there for the last thirty years. It is a Chicago book in that its conception owes a lot to the oral histories of American folk collected by Chicago-based Studs Terkel. But Berkow lacks Terkel's art as editor and inter- preter at this point in his career. The seams of composition are too visible here. Human nature is too tough and too sentimental. So is the prose, when it is not absolutely malformed by the rococo of feeling, as in Berkow's introduction.

BOOK REVIEW 83

The fascination of this book lies in the material itself. It is astonishing how many significant careers were begun in the few bldcks surrounding the old Maxwell Street market. Paul Muni grew up there, as did prizefighters Jackie Fields (nd Finkelstein [the Fields is from Marshall Fields] ) and Barney Ross (Rosofsky); Barney Balaban, the executive director of Paramount Pictures; Jacob Arvey, chairman of the Cook County Democratic Commit- tee; actor Irving Jacobson; Benny Goodman; Meyer Levin; Admiral Hyman Rickover; Arthur Goldberg; Jack Ruby; William S. Paley; and Tene Bimbo, the Gypsy king. It is a large book, and there are numerous interviews with ordinary people that evoke the trials of immigrant passage and of keeping shop in a bazaar. Among recent inhabitants, we read the words of the hooker on the corner and the cop on the beat. The excitement and violence of the place is the emergent landscape. Politicians once knew the ward as the "Bloody Twentieth"; and in 1924, when his pious father was murdered by hoodlums in his grocery store, Barney Ross knew where to find Capone.

The transcripts of just-talk and the talk of the famous about their pasts are wonderful. But the book is not consistently good: Where his subjects, one supposes, would not grant him interviews- as Rickover and Paley did not-Berkow pieces together a cursory biography from secondary sources. The whole is punctuated by a Dos Passos montage of newspaper articles recording the career of the area itself; but the weakest aspect of composition is the intru- sion of Berkow's personal intention to recover his own past. As a boy he sold women's nylons and men's belts in the area, and dis- tressingly we find the chapter on Jack Ruby to be as much about Berkow's maternal grandparents who lived on the same block as the Rubinsteins, as about the events of November 25, 1963.

What is finally valuable here? The book is excellent on under- world figure Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzic, the syndicate's business manager, and Joseph Rend "Yellow Kid" Weil, master con-man. It's also fine on fighters Ross, Fields, and King Levinsky. There's a marvelous description of his trade by Ray Novick, who used to be a puller for a clothing store on Maxwell Street; and John L. Keeshin (of German Jewish origin) and Meyer Laser describe the growth of their respective trucking and feather operations. Dr. Beatrice Tucker, former director of the Chicago Maternity Center located since the thirties in the Maxwell Street area, tells her story


here, as do the black street troubadours Hound Dog Taylor and Arvella Gray. The chapter on Paramount's Balaban is good; as is the one on Arvey; the one on Donjo Medlevine, the talent agent; the one on Benny Goodman. This book about a street tells street stories best, but for the biographies of those in the learned profes- sions, and for a concise and readily accessible history of the Max- well Street district as an urban area rather than a neighborhood, one must go elsewhere.

ELINOR GRUMET

Ms. Grumet, a literary historian and translator, is completing her doctoral dissertation, a history of the Menorah Journal, at the University of Iowa.

Brief Notices

Baron, Salo W., and George S. Wise, Edited by. Violence and Defense in the Jewish Experience. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1977. xii, 362 pp. $12.00

"Remarkably," states Professor Salo W. Baron, in the Introduction to this volume, "despite the great importance, even urgency, of understanding the varying attitudes to war, those of the Jewish people, in both theory and practice, have never been satisfactorily examined."

The purpose of this book, which emerged from a seminar on violence and defense in Jewish life held at Tel-Aviv University in 1974, is an attempt to deal with the problems posed by Professor Baron. Sixteen authorities discuss violence and defense in the Jewish experience during the ancient, medieval, modern, and contemporary periods. Among the authors in this book are Salo W. Baron, Harry Orlinsky, Uriel Tal, Ben Halpern, and David Schers. The latter two authors deal with violence and defense in the American and Latin American Jewish experiences.

Borowitz, Eugene B. Reform Judaism Today: Book Two: What We Believe. New York: Behrman House, Inc., 1977.201 pp. $2.45

In June, 1976, the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued a document which expressed its view of the "spiritual state of Reform Judaism." It was the first time in nearly forty years that the group had made such a formal declaration. The document, Reform Judaism: A Centenary Perspective, has taken the form of a three-volume work. Book Two: What We Believe articulates the Reform vision of God, Torah, and Israel as it is defined in the contemporary sense.

Chametzky, Jules. From the Ghetto: The Fiction of Abraham Cahan. Amherst, Massa- chusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1977, xiv, 161 pp. $10.00

For over half a century Abraham Cahan devoted himself to making the Jewish Daily Forward the most widely-circulated and most influential Yiddish-language newspaper in the United States. Cahan's contributions to American Jewish immigrant life are legend: his introduction of the Bintel Brief, a general advice column, which has become a notable source for the study of the Americanization process; his introduction of human interest stories with a mass appeal; his encouragement of an Ameri- canized Yiddish, among others.

There was another side to Cahan's achievements which has not been the subject of critical evaluation. Cahan was an author of considerable talent, whose works, including the classical The Rise of David Levinsky, mark him as one of the founders of a Jewish-American school of literature. Professor Chametzky's book is the first attempt systematically to analyze Abraham Cahan's fiction. According to the author, Cahan "was a pioneer explorer in the duality of Jewishness and Americanism-a subject that was to occupy every consciously Jewish writer in this century.. . ."

86 AMER~CAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, APRIL, 1978

Churba, Joseph. The Politics of Defeat: America's Decline in the Middle East. New York: Cyrco Press, lnc., 1977. 224 pages. $10.00

In 1976, Dr. Joseph Churba was a Special Advisor to Air Force lntelligence at the Pentagon, and the Air Force's senior Middle East intelligence estimator. When, in that same year, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General George S. Brown, publicly characterized Israel as a military "burden," Dr. Churba felt it necessary to criticize Brown's comments. It was the second time in as many years that Brown had made disparaging remarks about American Jews or the Jewish state. He had, in fact, been reprimanded by President Gerald R. Ford for his first statement about the American Jewish community and its relationship to United States support for lsrael.

A short time after his criticism of General Brown, Churba was stripped of the special security clearances necessary for his intelligence duties and forced to resign. This mix of events was not an isolated one. It demonstrates, among others, Churba's argument that segments of the Pentagon and State Department are out t o "get" Israel by consistently and deliberately downplaying Israel's role as a factor in America's overall military strategy. The existence of these elements in our foreign policy planning institutions has led only to an unbalancing of the power equation in the Middle East-to the detriment of the United States. Churba's thesis does not augur well either for America's role in international affairs or for the continued existence of the Israeli state. Both issues are of the utmost importance to American Jewry.

Cohon, Beryl D. Come, Let Us Reason Together: Sermons Presented in Days of Crisis. New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1977. xii, 75 pp. $5.95

The sermons in this volume were delivered by Rabbi Cohon, the founding rabbi of Temple Sinai, Brookline, Massachusetts, during the early days of America's entry into the Second World War. Many of his congregants had sons who were drafted or who had volunteered for active service. I t was t o them that Cohon delivered a group of sermons whose appeal was to "reason and faith in a moral Providence presiding over our human destinies."

Davis, Moshe, Edited by. World Jewry and the State of Israel. New York, Arno Press, 1977. xix, 372 pp. $12.00

The contents of this volume are part of the papers and discussions which formed the Continuing Seminar, a conference of distinguished Jewish thinkers who met under the auspices of Israel's president, Ephraim Katzir, and whose chairman was Professor Moshe Davis, head of the Hebrew University's lnstitute of Contemporary Jewry.

Three issues concerned the participants in the Seminar: "current manifestations of anti-Jewishness" in the world; the state and nature of Jewish identity and identifi- cation; the centrality of Israel and the interaction of the world's Jewish communities. Among the participants represented in this book, both as authors and as discussants, are Emil Fackenheim, Salo W. Baron, Marie Syrkin, Michael Meyer, Abraham Karp, Alfred Gottschalk, Ezra Spicehandler, and Irving Greenberg.

Dawidowicz, Lucy. The Jewish Presence. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. xiii, 308 pp. $12.95

In this volume of essays written over a period of fifteen years, Lucy Dawidowicz

BRIEF NOTICES 8 7

has attempted to assess what she terms the "Jewish presence." To Professor Dawido- wicz the term implies "the preoccupation of Jews with themselves and with the nature of their Jewishness." Beyond this, she means also "the space that Jews occupy in the minds of non-Jews and the ambience that Jews have created in the non-Jewish world."

Professor Dawidowicz has examined all these phenomena in a series of.essays that demonstrate her exceptional grasp of the many areas of Jewish history. There are several interesting essays that deal with American Jewry, among them a case study of the American Jewish "way of life," a critique of the early Reform movement, and a discussion of the Jewish labor movement in America.

Dinnerstein, Leonard, and Frederic Cople Jaher, Edited by. Uncertain Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. x, 325 pp. $4.00

This collection of readings in ethnic history is a new and revised edition of The Aliens: A History of Ethnic Minorities in America. It contains an essay by Professor Leonard Dinnerstein on East European Jewish migration.

Drinan, Robert E. Honor the Promise: America's Commitment t o Israel. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1977. xi, 250 pp. $7.95

Is there something "fundamentally anti-Semitic in (the) Catholic and Protestant versions of Christianity?" Can, therefore, an overwhelmingly Christian America really carry out a long-term commitment to the survival of Jewish Israel? These are but two of the many questions that Congressman Robert F. Drinan, the first Catholic priest ever elected to Congress, asks in a book that analyzes the theological and political bases of America's relationship with the Jewish homeland.

Drinnon, Richard and Anna Maria, Edited by. Nowhere at Home: Letters from Exile of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. New York: Schocken Books, 1975. xxiii, 282 pp. $6.95

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who came to America in the 1880's. Neither one ever began the long process of attempting to reconcile a Jewish spirit with an American one, the major preoccupation-beyond survival-of so many of their fellow newcomers.

Instead, both began to speak out against big business, big government, and the evils of bourgeois, capitalistic society. Goldman and Berkman were anarchists, be- lievers in a form of libertarianism or humanistic communism which violently disagreed with the compulsory communism introduced by Lenin shortly after the Rus- sian Revolution in 1917. Yet this made no difference to J. Edgar Hoover and other authorities, who viewed the pair's intense revolutionary activities during the First World War as the precursor of a Marxist attempt to overthrow the American government. In 1919 both anarchists were deported, first to the Soviet Union, which they detested and left in 1921, and then to a life of exile. They lived apart, but remained devoted to each other.

The letters in this volume chronicle the loneliness of exile, but they also attest to the intensity of Goldman's and Berkman's ideals, which remained unshakable to the end of their lives. There is little in these letters to suggest a sense of Jewishness on the part of the correspondents. It is fair to assume that both Goldman and Berk-


man were in the tradition of what Isaac Deutscher has termed the "non-Jewish Jew" who, according t o Deutscher, ". . . went beyond the boundaries of Judaism. They all found Jewry too narrow, too archaic, and too constricting. They all looked for ideaIs and fulfillment beyond it. . . ."

Feingold, S. Norman, and William B. Silverman, Edited by. Kivie Kaplan: A Legend in His Own Time. New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1976. viii, 258 pp. $8.95

For anyone who ever received a card with the words "Keep Smiling" o n it from the cheerful, heavy-set man who made a profession out of distributing them, Kivie Kaplan was a character not easily forgotten.

A year after his death, those who knew and admired him have taken the time t o write personal statements expressing their feelings about the man and his work. Kivie Kaplan was many things t o many people: a staunch supporter (and national president) of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a dedi- cated member of the Reform Jewish movement, a generous contributor of money and advice, and a great friend of the State of Israel. Above all, Kaplan was a decent and righteous man living the kind of life which indeed made him a legend in his own time.

Holli, Melvin G., and Peter d'A. Jones, Edited by. The Ethnic Frontier. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977.422 pp. $7.95

This volume of writings about ethnic group survival and identity in Chicago and the Midwest includes an essay by Victor Greene on the role of Jewish communal leaders, and one by Edward Mazur on the history of "Jewish Chicago" t o 1940.

Kluger, Richard, Members of the Tribe. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Com- pany, 1977 ,471 pp. $10.00

Rarely has the American Jewish community witnessed a more brutal display of unfettered anti-Semitism than with the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915. Vigilante violence against the Jew, unlike its Eastern European counterpart, the pogrom, had never played a major role in the relations between Jew and Gentile in America. With the killing of Frank, many Jews wondered if all that had changed. Frank's defense attorney described his client's death as "the most horrible persecution of a Jew since the death of Christ."

Richard Kluger has based his novel upon the Leo Frank case. While the names of most of the actual characters have been changed, Kluger has retained the tension, blind bigotry, and injustice of an incident which remains a low point in the history of Jewish-Gentile relations in the United States.

Lavender, Abraham D., Edited by. A Coat of Many Colors: Jewish Subcommunities in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1977. xiii, 324 pp. $17.95

To be a white, middle-class, Jewish male of German or East European background and living in an urban area in the northeast part of the United States is t o be a com- posite of the American Jewish community. It is precisely this generalization that A

BRIEF NOTICES 89

Coat o f Many Colors attempts to overcome with a series of essays dealing with numerous Jewish "subcommunities" in the United States. The "subcommunities" under discussion are small-town ~ e w s , Southern Jews, poor Jews, Hasidic Jews, Black Jews, Jewish women, and Sephardic Jews.

Magnes, Beatrice L. Episodes. Berkeley: Judah L. Magnes Memorial Museum, 1977. 124

PP. Early in her life, Beatrice Lowenstein, of the New York Lowensteins, decided that

she would not remain within the confines of her New York, German-Jewish, upper middle-class background

It was this streak of rebelliousness in her character, perhaps, which attracted her future husband, Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, whose own nonconformist attitudes drove him to resign the pulpit of Temple Emanu-El of New York, the most coveted position in the Reform rabbinate.

Episodes is a small volume, filled with the memories of a life spent at the side of one of the more remarkable individuals in modern Jewish history.

Menendez, Albert J. Religion at the Polls. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1977. 248 pp. $5.95 (Paperback)

The author is interested in assessing the influence of religious beliefs and affilia- tions upon the voting behavior of the American populace. He does this with a historical examination of the voting behavior of major and minor religious groups in the United States, an examination of the influence of religion in Congressional legislation, and a case study of the religious aspects in the Carter-Ford campaign. The book is enhanced by several appendices filled with statistical information on the relationship between religious beliefs and voter behavior.

Nelson, Walter Henry, and Terence C. F. Prittie. The Economic War Against the Jews. New York: Random House, 1977. xiv, 269 pp. $10.00

The politicization of petrodollars, which began with the great Arab oil embargo in 1973, prompted Nelson and Prittie to publish in detail the efforts of certain Arab states to prevent all countries, including the United States, from having any business dealings with Israel.

In all fairness to the Arab nations, this book should not be compared with or looked upon as a sequel lo Lucy Dawidowicz's The War Against the Jews, 1933- 1945. Arab rhetoric aside, no "final solution" in mass-murder terms seems to be part and parcel of this "economic war." Instead, certain aims, such as Israel's withdrawal from Arab areas captured in 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state, appear to motivate the instigators of the economic boycott. Nevertheless, if we accept the fact that the term "anti-Zionist" is merely a clumsy attempt to disguise the avowal of one's anti-Semitism, then any organized attempt to destroy the economic, and hence the nation-state, basis of the Jewish state cannot be tolerated. History can be repeated and the enemy, as the saying goes, does not always have to enter through the same door.


Norton, Wesley. Religious Newspapers in the Old Northwest to 1861: A History, Bibli- ography, and Record of Opinion. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1977. xi, 196 pp. $12.50

Among the newspapers discussed in Professor Norton's book are Isaac M. Wise's The Israelite and Die Deborah. Norton presents Wise's views on America, Catholics, the Republican Party, slavery, and several other antebellum issues.

Polner, Murray. Rabbi: The American Experience. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. vii, 244 pp. $8.95

According to Murray Polner, "this book . . . is a popular social history of a group of people functioning as religious specialists in a particular time and place." There are many kinds of rabbis in American Jewish life, and they function in varying degrees of success and failure. Polner is almost certainly correct when he states that the American rabbi, although ". . . stripped of his traditional authority, censured by his legion of critics, discarded in growing numbers by the ultra-Orthodox, ignored by millions of secular Jews . . . nonetheless continues to play a central, if reduced, role in American Jewish life." It is unfortunate that such a centrality is now predicated upon a number of factors which threaten greatly to diminish the religious vitality of the American Jewish community.

Rose, Peter I. (with the assistance of Liv Olson Pertzoff). Strangers in Their Midst: Small-Town Jews and Their Neighbors. Merrick, New York: Richwood Publishing Co., 1977. xiii, 224 pp. $12.95

Sociologist Peter Rose has been interested in small-town Jewry since the late 1950's, when he was a doctoral candidate at Cornell University. His dissertation provided him with material for several articles, some of which became classics in the sociological study of American Jewish life in the non-urban environment.

Eighteen years after its completion, Professor Rose has finally published his dissertation along with a follow-up chapter on the children of the small-town Jews he had interviewed nearly two decades earlier.

Rosenfeld, Lulla. Bright Star of Exile: Jacob Adler and the Yiddish Theatre. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1977. xv, 368 pp. $12.95

For Lulla Rosenfeld, a granddaughter of Jacob P. Adler, this book was no doubt a labor of love. In it she has produced a brief history of the Yiddish theatre, portray- ing the lives of the great stars of the Yiddish stage, both in Europe and America. More importantly, she has reconstructed the life and career of her grandfather, the great Yiddish actor, Jacob P. Adler. I t was Adler, more than anyone, who made the Yiddish theatre in America an important part of the nation's cultural life.

Rosenthal, Gilbert S. , Edited by. The American Rabbi. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1977. x , 200 pp. $10.00

Each of the essays in this volume deals with a different aspect of the role of the American rabbi. The rabbi is portrayed as scholar, educator, Zionist, theologian, among several roles. Some of the rabbis who have contributed essays are Gilbert S. Rosenthal, Judah Cahn, Alvin Cass, Chaim Rabinowitz, and Mordecai Waxman.

BRIEF NOTICES 9 1

Samuelson, Myron. The Story o f the Jewish Community o f Burlington, Vermont. Burl- ington, Vermont. 1976. 187 pp.

The author has consulted numerous primary sources for this study. It would have enhanced the scholarly worth of this book if he had made reference to those sources in a documented form. Nevertheless, he has illustrated his book with numerous photographs, which in themselves are valuable pieces of visual documentation.

Sandrow, Nahma. Vagabond Stars: A World History of Yiddish Theater. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1977. xi, 435 pp. $20.00

This is an impressive book. Dr. Sandrow has attempted to show through fourteen well-written chapters that Yiddish theater is inexorably bound with Yiddish language, that both are expressions of the Jewish people and can be understood only in that context. She employs a useful, comparative analysis, demonstrating that the history of the Yiddish theater, its development and impact, were parts of larger cultural movements, yet were able to retain a sense of uniqueness. Added to the narrative are over one hundred illustrations of Yiddish posters, portraits of actors, sheet music covers, and other pieces of visual documentation.

Seixas, Gershom Mendes. A Religious Discourse: Thanksgiving Day Sermon, November 26, 1789. New York: Jewish Historical Society of New York, 1977. xvi, 16 pp. $2.00

Although he has been dead for over one hundred and sixty years, the Reverend Gershom Mendes Seixas, spiritual leader of the Spanish and Portuguese Congre- gation Shearith Israel, remains a revered name in American Jewish history. This Discourse was delivered only a few months after George Washington had been inaugurated in New York City as the first President of the United States of America. As if to solidify the great impact of that historical event and its meaning for the Jews of America, Reverend Seixas defined the role which his coreligionists would have to play as responsible and emancipated citizens of a nation which embodied a great new experiment in human freedom.

Sheehan, Edward R. F. The Arabs, Israelis and Kissinger. New York: Reader's Digest Press, 1976. xii, 287 pp. $8.95

Subtitled "A Secret History of American Diplomacy in the Middle East," this book is written by a journalist who, because he was briefed by State Department officials, had access to secret information regarding Henry Kissinger's diplomatic activities in the Middle East.

Siegel, Seymour, Edited by. Conservative Judaism and Jewish Law. New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1977. xxvii, 337 pp. $15.00

This book is a reader in Conservative Judaism's approach to halachah, or Jewish law. It attempts to demonstrate the diverse approaches to halachah within Conserva- tive Judaism, yet seeks to show that all approaches are "rooted in the notion expressed by Solomon Schechter that Jewish law expresses the 'collective conscience' of 'Catholic Israel.' " This is a 'conscience' which, according to Professor Siegel, "is formed by tradition and yet grows within the world." Among the authors whose articles appear in the volume are Mordecai M. Kaplan, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Louis Finkelstein, and Boaz Cohen.


Silver, Samuel M. Mixed Marriage Between Jew and Christian. New York: Arco Publish- ing Company, 1977. 107 pp. $5.95

In this primer for couples contemplating an interfaith marriage, Rabbi Samuel M. Silver offers a bit of realistic advice: "If you're smart, you'll marry someone in your own group."

Yet one need only check the society column of the Sunday New York Times to realize that many couples have not been realistic (or smart) in their choice of marriage partners. Marriages between Christians and Jews are on the rise. Rabbi Silver is aware of this phenomenon, and has fully accepted it as an unalterable (for the time being) part of American life. The remainder of his little book is devoted to advising such a couple and their present and future families on the best manner in which to help the marriage succeed.

There is another aim, however, in his acceptance of the reality of interfaith marriage. Rabbi Silver is not unaware that the changing social mores of our society have brought the whole concept of institutionalized marriage into question. His purpose, then, beyond stating the pros and cons of intermarriage, is to build a line of defense against those that challenge the holy state of matrimony. Intermarriage, it seems, is better than no marriage.

Spalding, Henry D. A Treasure-Trove of American Jewish Humor. Middle-Village, New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1976. xvii, 429 pp. $12.50

One of the finest characteristics that can be attributed to a people is the ability to laugh at itself. Jews have been known for this quality, especially during times of danger and uncertainty. American Jews, too, have possessed such an ability, and the stages of New York, Las Vegas, and other entertainment centers have always con- tained their share of stand-up Jewish comedians who were able to make sport of family and friends.

Henry D. Spalding has collected many of these gems, including stories dealing with such unlikely characters as Bret Harte, Felix Frankfurter, Stephen S. Wise, Louis D. Brandeis, and others. Heard the one about Haym Salomon?

Stein, Leon, Edited by. Out of the Sweatshop: The Struggle for Industrial Democracy. New York: QuadrangleIThe New York Times Book Co., 1977. xvi, 367 pp. $12.50

For most of the immigrant Jewish women who came from Russia to America at the end of the nineteenth century, the art of sewing was as much a part of their lives as the arts of cooking and baking. People who are poor do not discard items of clothing very readily, and they will often patch and repatch garments as long as they remain in one piece. Sitting by the light of a candle or gas lamp, such women would spend long hours mending clothing for their families. It was, however, a labor of love, a Jewish mother caring for the needs of her family.

After their immigration to America, therefore, when there arose a need for such women to find employment in order to survive, they were prepared to enter the world of the garment trade with skills learned long ago. What they were not prepared for was the world of the sweat shop. The sweatshop, according to this volume, "is a state of mind as well as a physical fact. Its work day is of no fixed length; it links pace of work to endurance. It demeans the spirit by denying to workers any part in determining the conditions of or the pay for their work."

BRIEF NOTICES 93

Out of the Sweatshop tells the story of this industrial ordeal, and portrays the struggles of working women to achieve a sense of self, to articulate their needs as workers. From the f i s t hesitant efforts to organize arose finally the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, an important contributor to the development of the labor movement and industrial democracy in America

Vida, George. Some Comments on the Passover Haggadah. Berkeley, California: Congre- gation Beth El, 1977. 33 pp.

Rabbi Vida, scholar in residence at Congregation Beth El, offers some interesting theories on various problems connected with the traditional text of the Haggadah. He introduces this small work with the translation of an introduction to the Passover Haggadah written in Hungarian by Emil Roth, a Hungarian rabbi (and a cousin of Rabbi Vida), who perished at the hands of the Nazis.

Wallerstein, Morton L. 7?ze Public Career of Simon E. Sobeloff. Richmond, Virginia: Marlborough House, 1975. xvi, 139 pp. $2.95

This is a small volume written to recount the public career of Judge Simon E. Sobeloff, who served as Solicitor General of the United States, as Chief Judge of Maryland's Court of Appeals, and as Chief Judge of the United Statescircuit Court for the Fourth Circuit.

I t describes with sensitivity and an obvious knowledge of jurisprudence some of the more important legal activities and court cases involving Judge Sobeloff during his distinguished career.

Selected Acquisitions

Congregational and Community Records and Histories

Baltimore, Md., Baltimore Hebrew Con- gregation. Deeds for land to be used as burial ground, 1831 and 1838; Manu- script; Xerox copy (Received from Ira Rosenswaike, Phila- delphia, Pa.)

Baltimore, Md., Fell's Point Hebrew Friendship Congregation. Constitution, and rules and regulations for the government of the cemetery, n.d.; Printed; Xerox copy (Received from the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, Baltimore, Md.)

Binghamton, N.Y., Temple Concord. Min- utes and miscellaneous material, 1950- 1975 ; Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Concord.)

Brownsville, Tenn. "Jewish Community and Cemetery Study of Brownsville," by Stephen Udelsohn, 1975; Manu- script; Xerox copy (Received from Stephen Udelsohn, Memphis, Tenn.)

Buffalo, N.Y., Temple Beth Zion. Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 1890-1958; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Beth Zion.)

Charleston, S.C., K. K. Beth Elohim. Con- gregational records, including membership lists, financial statements, and correspondence, 1855-1872; Manu- script; Xerox copies (Received from Solomon Breibart, Charleston.)

Chicago, Ill., Congregation Bene Shalom. Letter from Rabbi Douglas Goldhamer, describing the growth and development of this congregation, sponsored by the

Hebrew Association of the Deaf, 1975; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Douglas Goldhamer, Skokie, Ill.)

Colorado Springs, Colo. Documents from the "Orthodox Kehila" of Colorado Springs, 1900; constitution, bylaws, membership lists, ledger, organiza- tions, and miscellaneous material of Temple Beth El, 1923-1971; and constitution, minutes, newsletters, correspondence, and miscellaneous material of Temple Shalom, 1971-1972; Manu- script and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from William J. Gordon, Colorado Springs.)

Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., Temple Israel of Northern Westchester. Minutes of the Board of Trustees, minutes of congregational meetings, correspondence, and reports, 1948-197 1 ; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Israel.)

Grand Rapids, Mich., Temple Emanuel. Board minutes, 1947-1966; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Emanuel.)

Hagerstown, Maryland, Congregation B'nai Abraham. Deeds, mortgages, and congregational history, 1892-1901 ; Manu- script and Printed; Xerox copy (Received from Mark Panoff, Hagers- town.)

Jersey City, N.J., Temple Beth-El. Minute books, 1893-1971; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm copy (Received from Temple Beth-El.)

Knoxville, Tenn. Documents relating to

SELECTED ACQUISITIONS

the Knoxville Hebrew Benevolent As- sociation, 1859-1893; charter of the Knoxville Hebrew Congregation, 1893; and plan of the city indicating Jewish points of interest, 1855; Manuscript and Printed; Xerox copies (Received from Matthew I. Derby.)

Lancaster, Pa. "The Method of Local His- tory: The Case of Lancaster, Pa.," by David A. Brener, 1977; 5ppescript and Prin fed; Xerox copy (Received from David A. Brener, Lan- caster.)

Lexington, Ky., Temple Adath Israel. Minutes, 1951-1956; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Adath Israel.)

Long Beach, N.Y., Temple Emanu-El of Long Beach. Minutes, and miscellaneous materials pertaining to the congregation, 1947-1956, 1958-1959, 1965-1966, and 1970-1975 ; Manu- script and v p e s c r i p t ; Microfilm (Received from Temple Emanu-El of Long Beach.)

Louisville, Ky. "The Louisville Jews: 1840-1855, The Beginning of the Com- munity," by David Berman, 1975; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from David Berman, Louis- ville.)

Louisville, Ky., Temple Adath Israel. Min- utes, 1952-1976; and Board of Trus- tees minutes, 1947-1976; vpescr ip t ; Microfilm (Received from Temple Adath Israel.)

Memphis, Tenn., Congregation Children of Israel. Constitution and bylaws, 1907; Prin ted (Received from Jacob R. Marcus.)

Newport, R.I., Congregation Yeshuat Israel. Constitution, bylaws, and rules of the congregation, 1893; Printed (Received from A. Piza Mendes, New York, N.Y.)

North Dakota. Inventory and list of sources of the Jewish Historical Project of

North Dakota, 1977 ; Ppescript; Xerox COPY (Received from the Jewish Historical Project of North Dakota, Fargo, N.D.)

Oak Park, Ill., Oak Park Temple. Corres- pondence, announcements, and records of the Oak Park Temple, formerly the Washington Boulevard Temple, 1878-1966; Printed, Manuscript, and Typescript (Received from the Oak Park Temple.)

Pittsfield, Mass., Temple Anshe Amunim. Minutes of board meetings, 1933-1960, and 1963-1975; miscellaneous reports to and minutes of annual congregational meetings, 1946-1949; and bylaws, 1946; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Anshe Amu- nim .)

Port Gibson, Miss., Congregation Gemi- luth Chassed. Minutes and ledger book of the Ladies Auxiliary, 1889-1904; and corrrespondence relating to congregational activities, 1894; Manuscript and npescr ip t ; Microfilm (Received from Congregation Beth Israel, Meridian, Miss.)

St. Louis, Mo., Temple Emanuel. Board minutes, 1957-1976; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received f ~ o m Temple Emanuel.)

San Francisco, Cal., Congregation Sherith Israel. Prayers, hymns, exercises, and rules and regulations for the government of the Hebrew and Religious School, 1879 and 1896; Printed (Received from Robert Levinson, San Jose, Cal.)

Seattle, Wash., Temple de Hirsch-Sinai. Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 1899- 1972; and Temple Tidings, 1909-1935; Manuscript and Typescript; Microflm (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Stroum, Seattle, through the University of Washington Libraries, Seattle.)

Tinton Falls, N.J., Monmouth Reform


Temple. Minutes and miscellaneous records, 1953-1976; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from the Monmouth Reform Temple.)

Washington, D.C. "History of the Sephardic Jews of Washington, D.C.," by Luna Ereza Diamond, 1975 ; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Luna Ereza Diamond, Bethesda, Md.)

Washington Township, N.J., Temple Beth Or. Minutes and miscellaneous material, 1962-1975; Manuscript and Type- script; Microfilm (Received from Temple Beth Or.)

West Bloomfield, Mich., Temple Kol Ami. Minutes of the Board of Trustees, and congregational meetings, 1966-1976; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Kol Ami.)

West Lafayette, Ind., Temple Israel. Min- utes and miscellaneous material, 1973- 1976; Typescript and Printed; Micro- film

Records and Papers of Sc

Alpena, Mich. Hebrew Benevolent Society. Minutes, 1875-1954; record of deaths, 1890-1948; treasurer's receipt book, 1897-195 1 ; miscellaneous materials, 1875-1924; and minutes of the Temple Beth El Sisterhood, 1944-1966; Manu- script and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from Temple Beth El.)

Baltimore, Md. Hebrew Hospital and Asylum Association of Baltimore City. Constitution and bylaws, 1868; Type- script; Photostat

Baltimore, Md. The Workmen's Circle. Brief history of the Baltimore branch of the Workmen's Circle, 1901-1976; Typescript and Xerox copy (Received from the Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, Baltimore.)

Chicago, 111. Johanna No. 9 , United Order

(Received from Temple Israel.) Wilmington, N.C., Temple Israel. Trea-

surer's records, 1876-1888; school roll book and report card for the congregational school, indicating the Hebrew- German curriculum, 1898-1901; minutes of the Carpet Fund Society, 1898- 1905; and servicemen's guest book with signatures of men stationed at Camp Davis, N.C., 1944; Manuscript (Received from Martin Weitz, Wilming- ton.)

Worcester, Mass. Constitution, bylaws, and records of the United Jewish Charities of Worcester, Mass., Inc., 1920-1930; records of the B'nai B'rith Cemetery Corporation, 1922-1937; bylaws and minutes of Congregation Sha'arai Torah, 1904-1940; copies of the Jew- ish Civic Leader, 1927-1929 and 1933; and clippings and photos relating to Louis Glixman; Manuscript and Type- script; Microfilm (Received from Mrs. Rose Klein, Worcester.)

~cieties and Institutions

True Sisters, Inc. Correspondence, constitution, bylaws, and history, 1846- 1973; Typescript, Printed, and Manu- script; Xerox copy (Received from Mrs. Arthur Baer, Chicago.)

Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis. Found- ing document of the ECRR, 1912; Typescript and Manuscript (Received from the Hebrew Union Col- lege-Jewish Institute of Religion, New York.)

Fort Wayne, Ind. Jewish Federation. Board Minutes, 1924-1970; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from the Indiana Jewish Historical Society, Fort Wayne.)

Hartford, Conn. Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, Ararat Lodge No. 13.

SELECTED ACQUISITIONS 9 7

Bylaws, 1851; and record book, 1852- 1866; Manuscript; Microjilrn (Received from the Jewish Historical Society, West Hartford, Conn.)

Lafayette, Ind. Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, Barzillai Lodge No. 111. Application certificates, 1868-1946; dues books, 1868-1947; bylaws, 1896; financial logs, 1868-1946; and board minutes, 1874-1963; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from the Indiana Jewish His- torical Society.)

Terre Haute, Ind. Minutes, 1859-1959, financial records, 1908-1 949, roll call book, 1908-1915;program, 1924-1925, 1927-1928, and bylaws, of the Na-

tional Council of Jewish Women; minutes of the Hebrew Ladies Benevo- lent Society, 1897-1925; minutes and papers of the Federation of Jewish Women, 1964-1968; and papers relating to the history of the Terre Haute Jewish Community, 1974; Manuscript and Typescript (Received from the Indiana Jewish His- torical Society.)

Terre Haute, Ind. B'nai B'rith, an Eden Lodge. Bylaws, 1876; papers and board minutes, 1868-1881; minutes and financial records, 1949-1952 and 1955; Manuscript and Typescript; Microfilm (Received from the Indiana Jewish His- torical Society.)

Documents

Bennett, Allen B. Rochester, Minn. Miscel- laneous documents pertaining to the first Reform rabbi being certified as a chaplain by the American Protestant Hospital Association, 1976; Typescript and Printed; Xerox copy (Received from Allen B. Bennett.)

Dreben, Sam; San Francisco, Cal. Service record, 1899-1919; Typescript (Received from the General Services Administration, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C.)

Kahn, Adolphus; Indianapolis, Ind. Mili-

Kahn, 1863, 1865, and 1907; and a memorial tribute to him written by members of his post of the Grand Army of the Republic, n.d.; Printed, Typescript, and Manuscript; Xerox COPY (Received from Willard Kahn, Cin- cinnati.)

Schoenberg, Arnold; Paris, France. Certi- ficate of conversion to Judaism, 1933; Manuscript; FZench; Xerox copy (Received from Eugene Mihaly, Cin- cinnati.)

tary and other documents pertaining to

Letters and Papers

Adams, John Quincy; Washington, D.C. Letter from Secretary of State Adams, with a transcript of the list of passengers who arrived in the United States from 1819 to 1820; 1921; Printed; Photostat copy

Anti-Semitism. Letter to Dr. Jacob R. Marcus from Leonard N. Simons, concerning the barring of Jews from membership in the Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, Mich., 1975; Manu- script

(Received from Leonard N. Simons, Detroit.)

Berman, Morton M.; Kfar Witkin, Israel. Correspondence and minutes relating to his professional activities, primarily with regard to the moving of the Union of American Hebrew Con- gregations from Cincinnati to New York City, and the merger of the He- brew Union College with the Jewish Institute of Religion, 1946-1957; "Zi- onist Reminiscenses," by Rabbi Ber-

9 8 AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHNES, APRIL, 1978

man, recalling his personal experiences of, and devotion to, the Zionist movement, 1900-1970, n.d.; and "The History of Temple Isaiah Israel, Chicago, Ill., 1852-1952; the story of the United Congregations B'nai Sholom, Temple Israel, and Isaiah Temple," written by Rabbi Berman, 1952; Manuscript, v p e s c r i p t and Printed (Received from Morton M. Berman.)

Blank, Sheldon H.; Cincinnati, Ohio. Per- sonal correspondence, announcements of the death of Israel I. Mattuck, personal correspondence of Mrs. Sheldon H. Blank, 1936-1973; and ordination certification of Dr. Blank, 1923;Manu- script and Typescript (Received from Sheldon H. Blank.)

Bloch, Ernest; San Francisco, Cal. Letter from Bloch, recommending Gertrude Englander as a pianist and teacher, 1928; v p e s c r i p t (Received from A. L. Villensky, Cin- cinnati.)

Brown, David; Bellaire, Ohio. Various articles by Dr. Brown, concerning his war-time experiences, and correspondence regarding his articles on the subjects of nuclear proliferation and the Holocaust, 1942-1968; Typescript; Xer- o x copies (Received from Mrs. David Brown, Wheeling, W. Va.)

Dalsheimer, Leon; Baltimore, Md. Corres- pondence between Dalsheimer and Dr. William Rosenau, concerning efforts t o establish a Hebrew National Col- lege for the training of students in the Reform movement. 1864 and 1901; Manuscript and Dpescript; Photostat (Received from Isaac M. Fein, Brook- line, Mass.)

Davis Family; Chicago, Ill. Documents, photographs, and correspondence pertaining t o the activities of the Davis family and their work in Palestine through the Nathan Davis School for

Girls in Talpioth, Israel, 1926-1932; Typescript, Manuscript, and Printed; Hebrew and English (Received from Hayim Goren Perel- muter, Chicago.)

Englander, Benjamin H.; Asbury Park, N.J. Sermons, correspondence, and congregational papers concerning the relationship between Rabbi Englander and Temple B'nai Israel, Irvington, N.J., 1948-1970; Typescript, Printed, and Manuscript; Xerox and v p e s c r i p t copies (Received from Benjamin H. Eng- lander.)

Felsenthal, Bernhard; Chicago, Ill. Letter from Dr. Isaac M. Wise to Rabbi Felsenthal, offering the latter a position at the Hebrew Union College as Professor of Biblical Exegesis, 1879; Manuscript; German with Typescript English translation

Frank, Leo M.; State Farm, Ga. Letter to William Bauer from Frank, relating Frank's safe arrival at the Georgia State Prison and his improving health, 1915; Manuscript; Xerox copy (Received from Mrs. Helen B. Abraham, Atlanta, Ga.)

Gottschalk, Alfred; Cincinnati. Letter to Dr. Gottschalk from Israeli Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, expressing his regrets for being unable t o attend an academic convocation at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Biblical and Archaeological School, Jerusalem, and praising the work of the school and the Reform movement in Israel, 1975; letters from various individuals responding to Dr. Gottschalk's letters of congratulations and support, 1972-1977; "Your Future as a Rabbi," ordination address delivered by Dr. Gottschalk, 1976; v p e s c r i p t , Hebrew and English; Xerox copies (Received from Alfred Gottschalk.)

Immigrants and Immigration. Notes taken


from immigration documents in Liver- pool, England, by Sefton D. Temkin, concerning Jewish immigration to America via Liverpool, 1840-1930; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Sefton D. Temkin, Albany, N.Y .)

International Conference of Jewish Com- munal Service. Correspondence between Gerald B. Bubis and various individuals, concerning the activities and efforts of the International Con- ference of Jewish Communal Service, 1969-197 1 ; Typescript; Xerox, Type- script and Mimeographed copies (Received from Gerald B. Bubis, Los Angeles, Cal.)

Josephson, Myer; Philadelphia, Pa. Letter, n.d .; Manuscript; Yiddish (Received from Philip D. Sang, Chicago, Ill.)

Kashruth; Prussia, London, England, and New York, N.Y. Correspondence concerning shochets, 1869, 1874, and 1880; Manuscript; Hebrew and Ger- man; Xerox copy

Meyers, Sidney; Cincinnati, Ohio. Corres- pondence and minutes concerning his activities as chairman of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Re- ligion Board of Governors, 1962-1966; Typescript (Received from Sidney Meyers.)

Rice, Abraham; Baltimore, Md. Various papers and letters by and about Rabbi Rice's activities in fostering Orthodoxy in America and his founding of the first Hebrew school in the United States, 1860-1904; Manuscript; English, Ger- man, and Hebrew; Xerox copies (Received from Rose Greenberg, Balti- more.)

Schechter, Solomon; New York, N.Y. Correspondence of Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary of Ameri- ca with Dr. S. Poznanski of Warsaw, Russia, containing Schechter's comments on the necessity of a center of

Jewish learning in America, and Poz- nanski's being a part of such a center, 1902 and 1908; Typescript and Manu- script; English and Hebrew; Photo- stat copies (Received from Isaac Fein, Baltimore, Md .)

Senior Family; Cincinnati, Ohio. Letters of Max Senior, Emma K. Senior, James K. Senior, and the soldier's diary of the latter Senior; 1918-1919; Typescript copies (Received from Kate S. Dorst, Berke- ley, Cal.)

Shapiro, Joseph G.; Bridgeport, Conn. Mis- cellaneous correspondence and documents relating to Judge Shapiro's activities 1906-1974; Manuscript, Type- script, and Printed (Received from Samuel M. Silver, Stamford, Conn.)

Strauss, Therese Abraham; Cincinnati, Ohio. Correspondence, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous materials relating to her life and activities, 1897- 1949 ; Manuscript and Typescript; Eng- lish, Italian, and German; Xerox copies (Received from William V. Strauss, Cincinnati.)

Thurman, Samuel; St. Louis, Mo. Letters from Rabbi Thurman to his daughter, Mrs. Harold Thurman, and miscellaneous Thurman family correspondence, 191 2-1 976; and scrapbook relating to Thurman's activities at the inaugura- tion of Harry S. Truman as President of the United States, 1949; Manuscript and Typescript; microfilm (Received from Mr. and Mrs. Harold Thurman, Coral Gables, Fla.)

Trilling, Lionel; New York, N.Y. Corres- pondence between Diana Trilling and Elinor Grumet, regarding Ms. Grumet's research into Trilling's activities with The Menorah Journal, 1975; Type- script; Xerox copies (Received from Elinor Grumet, Cincin- nati.)

AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES, APRIL, 1978

Autobiographies, Biographies, Diaries, and Memoirs

Bloch, Edward; Mobile, Ala. Memoirs of bauer Family, Bavarian immigrants, Bloch, containing considerable reminis- and early residents of Cincinnati, censes of Mobile, Alabama, during the Ohio, ca. 1857, written by Ms. Levy, Civil War, and the occupation of the 1945; Typescript; Xerox copy city by Union Forces, n.d.; Typescript (Received from Malcolm H. Stern, New (Received from Eugene Bloch, Flush- York, N.Y.) ing, N.Y.) Liss, S.; Brooklyn, N.Y. Memoirs of his

Goldin, Aaron. Travel diary, describing life in Russia and his experiences in the trip he and his wife, Belle, made to America after immigrating in 1892, Palestine in 1925; Manuscript; Yiddish; 1950; Typescript,, Xerox copy Typescript translation by Rabbi Dov (Received from Mr. and Mrs. James Edelstein; Xerox copy Powell, Tarzana, Cal.) (Received from Ms. W. L. Cohodas, Ishpeming, Mich.) Sanger Family; Dallas, Tex. "A History of

Greenebaum, Jacob, Sr.; Chicago, Ill. the Firm Sanger by ~ ~ ~ ~ b i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ h ~ , 1859; printed; xerox Lehman Sanger, relating to the activi-

COPY ties of Isaac Lehman and Philip Sanger

(Received from Jacob R. Marcus.) after the Civil War, n.d., and copy of

Kenar, Labush; Denver, Colo. Autobio- a newspaper article, '<The Story graphy relating his early youth in Sanger Brothers," The Dallas Morning

Russian Poland from his birth, 1893, News, 1950; Typescript and Printed;

his emigration t o the United States in 1912, and his struggle in ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ , (Received from Mrs. Philip A. Sanger, 1953; Typescript; Mimeographed copy Tex.) (Received from Saul Besser, Dallas, Solomon, Joseph; New York, N.Y. Auto- Tex.) biography, 1975 ; Typescript; Xerox

Levy, Emilie Jane; Cincinnati, Ohio. "My copy Family," the history of the Hutten- (Received from Joseph Solomon.)

Genealogies

Auerbach Family. Family tree, 1800-1950; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Ms. Heidi Ellen Auer- bach, Berkeley, Cal.)

Baer Family. "Record and History of the Baer Family ," 1750-1890; Printed; Thermofax copy (Received from Mrs. Dan Netter, Meridian, Miss.)

Buttenwieser Family. Family tree, 1780- 1975; and American Jewish Archives autobiographical questionnaire of Sadie Klingenstein Klau, 1975; Printed (Received from Mrs. David W. Klau, New York, N.Y.)

Frank Family. Genealogical notes, 1819-

1964; and obituaries of William K. Frank, 1964. Manuscript; Typescript; and Printed; Xerox copies (Received from James A. Frank, Pitts- burgh, Pa.)

Rittenberg Family; New Orleans, La. Family tree of Rabbi Isaac Rittenberg and Miriam Rittenberg, 1834-1973; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Leon H. Rittenberg, Jr., New Orleans.)

Winski Family; Lafayette, Ind. Family history, 1818-1975; Typescript (Received from the Indiana Jewish Historical Society .)


Oral History

Holocaust. "Talks with Holocaust Sur- vivors," notes of conversations with several Holocaust survivors, conducted and prepared by David Gal-Zar, 1975; Typescript (Received from David Gal-Zar, Cin- cinnati.)

Israel, Clarence E.; Cincinnati, Ohio. Transcript of oral interview regarding his Civil Rights activities, 1975; miscellaneous materials pertaining to his activities, 195 3-1 967; Manuscript; Typescript; and Printed; Original and Xerox copies (Received from the American Jewish Committee, New York, N.Y., and Clarence E. Israel.)

Koller, Leib; Detroit, Mich. "Reflections:

From A Father To His Son Concerning Events During World War 11," by Leib Koller; n.d.; Printed (Received from Israel B. Koller, Santa Barbara, Cal.)

North Dakota. Oral interviews, conducted by Alfred A. Thal, relating to Jewish agricultural settlement in North Da- kota, 1972-1975; Tape Recording (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred A. Thal, Bismarck, N.D.)

Wolfson, Mitchell; Miami Beach, Fla. Transcripts of oral interviews relating his youth and later successes in business and civic activities, 1973-1974; D p e - script; Xerox copy (Received from A. Harold Murray, Miami.)

Miscellaneous

Alschuler, Al; Miami Beach, Fla. Rough draft for an article relating the efforts and successes of Alschuler's maternal antecedents (Colman-Niederman), among those Jews who pioneered the settlement of the Dakota Territory and Deadwood City, S.D., 1876; 5 p e - script; Xerox copy (Received from A1 Alschuler.)

Anti-Semitism. Articles from The Ameri- can Hebrew, B h a i B'ritlz magazine, and other publications regarding anti- Semitism in the United States, 1887- 1939; and various articles pertaining to the situation of Jews in Germany, Rus- sia, and Palestine, 1933-1940; Printed and Typescript; Original and Microfilm copies (Received from A. James Rudin, New York, N.Y.)

Bachmann, Richard; St. Petersburg, Fla. Tributes to Bachmann on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, recounting his emigration from Germany, and his successful medical career, 1975 ; Type- script; Xerox copy

(Received from David J . Susskind, St. Petersburg.)

Backman, Jules; New York, N.Y. "Tomor- row's American," commencement address given by Dr. Backman at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Los Angeles, 1976; Tape Recording

Baltimore, Md. List of marriage licenses issued to Jewish couples, 1809-1929; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Malcolm H. Stern.)

De La Motta, Isaac; Savannah, Ga. Ac- count of the death of De La Motta, 1794, as recounted by Emanuel De La Motta, 1975; 5ppescript. Xerox copy (Received from Jacob R. Marcus.)

Dropsie College; Philadelphia, Pa. Article, "The Dropsie University (The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learn- ing) 1908-1918," by Frank J. Ruben- stein, 1976; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Frank J. Rubenstein, Baltimore.)

Fram, Harry; Los Angeles, Cal. Lecture on Zionism, delivered to the Zion Society,


Los Angeles, 1901; Manuscript; Xerox COPY (Received from the Jewish Community Library, Los Angeles.)

Harby, Isaac; Charleston, S.C. The Gord- ian Knot or Causes and Effects, a play in five acts, by Harby, 1810; Printed; Xerox copy (Received from Mrs. Katherine Gilbert, Sumter, S.C.)

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; Cincinnati, Ohio. A three-day symposium entitled "Whither Liberal Religion? The Hard Questions," held in honor of the Centennial of the Col- lege-Institute, with papers delivered by Jewish and Christian scholars, and discussion by various theologians, 1975; Tape Recordings

Hirsch, Emil G.; Chicago, Ill. "Emil G. Hirsch: Reform Advocate," thesis submitted by Bernice Ann Heilbrunn to Radcliff College, Cambridge, Mass., in partial fulfillment of the require- ments for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with honors, 1970; Typescript; Xerox copy (Received from Ms. Bernice Ann Heil- brunn, New York, N.Y.)

Kibbutz Yahel, Israel. Service of dedica- tion for the first Reform kibbutz, 1976; Typescript; English and Hebrew; Xerox copy (Received from Stanley F. Chyet, Los Angeles.)

Newman, Joseph R.; Pittsfield, Mass. Account book used in his tailoring business, 1861-1865; Manuscript (Received from Robert G. Newman, Pittsfield.)

Philippsborn, Adolf; Harlingen, Tex. Re-

cord of births, deaths, marriages, Bar Mitzvot, confirmations, and con- versions during the tenure of Rabbi Philippsborn in his various congregations, 1942-1961 and 1963-1966; Typescript (Received from Henry B. Philippsborn, Dallas.)

Plough, Abe; Memphis, Tenn. Text of the speech made by Plough at the dedica- tion of the new temple complex of Temple Israel, Memphis, 1976; Type- script; Xerox copy (Received from Alfred Gottschalk.)

Tannenwald, Theodore, Jr.; Washington, D.C. "Justice and Experience: The Humanizers of the Law," an address delivered by Judge Tannenwald at the graduation exercises, HUC-JIR, Cin- cinnati, 1976; AJA autobiographical questionnaire, with genealogical and vital statistics appended, 1976; and statement of appreciation for his service as a member and chairman of the HUC-JIR Board of Governors, from Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, 1975; Typescript; Original and Xerox copies (Received from Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., and Alfred Gottschalk.)

Voorsanger, Henriette M. (Mrs. Elkan); San Francisco, Cal. Statement by Mrs. Voorsanger recalling the Chicago meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1934, at which Jacob Rader Marcus' plea to American and World Jewry to help get every Jew out of Germany was passionately opposed by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, 1976; Typescript (Received from Mrs. Elkan Voor- sanger.)

IN FUTURE ISSUES

A bibliographic introduction to and survey of demo- graphic studies of Jewish communities in the United States.

A moving memoir of Jewish life as it was lived in northern Ontario, Canada, during the Depression years of this century.

A scholarly account of a key American diplomat and his relationship to the Zionist movement at the end of World War 11.

A discussion of the "new consciousness" emerging in American Jewish literature.

A study of the rise and fall of the legendary Intercol- legiate Menorah Association.

The American Jewish Archives on the Cincinnati Campus of the

Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Alfred Gottschalk, President