RIJH Notes Volume 13.4 (Nov. 2002)

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes

Volume 13 November 2002 Number 4

Rhode Island Jewish Historical MOTES November, 2002 Volume 13, Number 4

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association 130 Sessions Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906-3444

502

Publications Committee Stanley Abrams, Chairman

Aaron Cohen Geraldine S. Foster

Eleanor F. Horvitz Jay Orson, M.D.

Harriet Frank Harold Gadon

James Reibman, Ph.D. Lillian Schwartz Jerome B. Spunt George Goodwin, Ph.D.

James Tobak

Leonard Moss, Ph.D., Editor

Copyright © 2002 by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

Printed in the U.S.A. Published for the Association by RICHARD ALAN DOW / TFXHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS, Laconia, NH

The Library of Congress National Serials Data Program (NSDP), Washington, D.C. 20540, which operates the U.S. Serials Data System, has assigned the following International Standard Serial Number f/S5A^j to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, a publication of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association: ISSN 0556-8609.

Front Cover Rabbi Saul Leeman (left) and Rabbi William Braude, participants, civil rights march, Selma to Montgomory, Alabama, March 1965.

503

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association 130 Sessions Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906

E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://www.rijha.org

David Charak Adelman (1892-1967), FoMnder

Board of Directors

George M. Goodwin, Ph.D.* President James Reibman, Ph.D.* First Vice President Carl Feldman* Second Vice President Charlotte Penn* Secretary Harriet Frank Assistant Secretary Jack Fradin* Treasurer Herbert L. Rosen Assistant Treasurer Leonard Moss, Ph.D., Editor Ex-Officio

Honorary Members Bonnie N. Goldowsky Lynn Stepak Eleanor Horvitz Melvin Zurier

Past Presidents David Adelman Aaron Cohen Beryl Segal (1898-1980) Geraldine S. Foster Seebert J. Goldowsky, M.D. (1907-1997) Robert A. Kotlen Benton H. Rosen (1914-2002) Marvin Pitterman, Ph.D. Stanley Abrams Jerome B. Spunt Robert Berkelhammer* Erwin Strasmich

Eugene Weinberg*

Members-at-Large Stephen Brown Herbert Iventash, O.D. Cary Coen Jay Orson, M.D. Anita Fine Howard Schacter Harold Gadon Lillian Schwartz Maxine Goldin Milton Stanzler

Stephen Yarlas

Presidential Appointments Stuart W. Levine, D.D.S. James W. Tobak

•Members of the 7-member Executive Committee

505

Table of Contents Notes from the Editor 507

"Italians Don't Hate Jews!" Some Evidence to the Contrary from Prewar Providence 509

by Stefano Luconi

The Mikveh in Rhode Island 527 by Eleanor Horvitz

Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part 1 532 by Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz

Rhode Island Jewish and Catholic Press Coverage of Civil Rights, 1954-1965 548

by Lauren Antler

Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport 571 by Rebecca Warren

Guardians of Health: The Jewish Health Professionals of Rhode Island 594

by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D.

" I Did My Duty": An Akman's Service in World War 11 599

by Stanley Abrams

Bibliographical Notes 607

Forty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Association 608

Necrology 610

Errata 616

Funds and Bequests 617

Life Members of the Association 619

Index to Volume 13 621

506 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes

507

Notes from the Editor

History records not only pious or pretty facts and noble or inspiring conclusions but also dangerous doings — petty, repulsive, ugly, even scandalous. True history reports what actually happened, not what a later generation selects according to some ideological or personal agenda; writers of history may interpret but not invent. Only in this way may we grasp our reality — our ultimate security, our best guide to survival.

In my five years as editor of the Notes, many authors have siuprised me, a newcomer to Rhode Island Jewish history. I did not know, for instance, that a certain animosity existed between the Italian and Jewish communities in Providence before the Second World War: all was not harmony and brotherhood. Nor did I fully realize how much suffering had been experienced by immigrants to Rhode Island in their native countries, especially in Russia and Eastern Europe, and then sometimes in their new country as well: America did not always flow with milk and honey. And I had no idea how a youngster was brought up, for better and worse, in the old Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island, or how Jewish soldiers prayed, fought, and died in war.

I also see now that Jews have not always been leaders in the arts, in civil rights causes, or in protests against anti-Semitism. I already knew that not every Jew is an Einstein, a Heifitz, or a Freud, but in reading essays and interviews in the Notes I have learned more about the idiosyncrasies as well as the spiritual depth of a people that has endured so much and yet persisted. I hope that more surprises are in store, not always pleasant and uplifting, as we continue to sift through our local history and gain perspective on the realities of ordinary as well as extraordinary Jews.

I ask writers to take a chance. Where is an account of Jewish gangs and gangsters, or bankruptcies, or dysfunctional homes in the 1920s and 1930s? Who will look at failures and discords, as well as achievements, of Jewish participation in Rhode Island business, professional work, politics, and family life through the years? What have been the emotional and economic consequences of the poverty, anti-Semitism, and other severe challenges we have faced? When we know and accept the bad along with the good, the disturbing as well as the comforting, then we can say that our community has finally matured, that we can accept, wholeheartedly and without reservation, our place in the fascinating panorama of local history.


As always, certain individuals have expedited that process of self-examination in practical ways by helping with the publication of this journal. I am grateful to Aaron Cohen, Stan Abrams, Anne Sherman, and Judy Aaron. As we have said before, we would like more people to participate. In order to encourage active involvement with our readers, we shall experiment with a page devoted to letters to the editor. Please direct your remarks, positive as well as negative, to a specific author and article published in the Notes. We especially welcome letters that 1) correct errors of fact; 2) offer new facts; 3) dispute interpretations of fact. Correspondents should identify themselves and their city of residence. Send your comments (typed, i f possible) to the Editor, RIJHA, 130 Sessions Street, Providence 02906, or email them to LenmossOl @aol.com. The goal is to stimulate an active dialogue that contributes to the Jewish historical record of Rhode Island.

Leonard Moss

"Italians Don't Hate Jews!" Some Evidence to the Contrary from Prewar

Providence by Stefano Luconi i ; ? ' ^ ^ . f ;

At the forty-eighth annual meeting of the RIJHA on May 5, 2002, David Kertzer, professor of anthropology and Italian studies at Brown University, delivered the thirty-second Adelman Lecture on the Vatican's role in the rise of modem anti-Semitism. The lecture followed Professor Kertzer's internationally known book on the same subject, The Popes Against the Jews. Needless to say, the book, while treated seriously in academic circles, was criticized in journals published by official Vatican sources.

Italian anti-Semitism is nothing new, of course, as was painfully evident in Mussolini 'sfascistic political program during World War Two. Professor Stefano Luconi, who teaches North American history at the University of Florence, has traced the influence of Mussolini's program, inaugurated in 1938, on the Italian community in Providence. His essay is "a case study of the response of[Rhode Island] Italian Americans to the racial policy of their ancestral country." This essay offers a parallel to the study in the Notes of 1999 (Vol. 13, No. 1) by Nicole Herschenhous on the attitude of the Jewish community in Providence toward prewar anti-Semitism in Germany. Both essays call upon local newspapers and other publications to gauge the response to anti-Semitism displayed by different ethnic segments in Providence during the years preceding the outbreak of the Second World War.

Professor Luconi, author of four books on Italian-American relations, completed the research for this article during his tenure as a visiting scholar in the History Department at Brown University in 2002. He received research fellowships also from Brown University in 1997, from the John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization in 2000, and from the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives in 2002-3. We are fortunate to receive this informative essay from a distinguished Italian educator.

Publication of the "Manifesto degh scienziati razzisti" (Manifesto of Racial Scientists), a joint declaration by a group of little-known academicians who contended that "the Jews do not belong to the Italian race," marked the official beginning of the fascist anti-Semitic campaign in Italy

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 13, No. 4, November, 2002


on July 14, 1938.' After milder challenges to the equality of "Hebraism" within the broader Italian society during previous years, in a few months legislation denied Jews civil rights, segregated them, and paved the way for the ItaUan participation in the Holocaust while Germany occupied part of the country between September 1943 and April 1945.̂

Dictator Benito Mussolini's support of Nazi racial policy had a broad echo abroad, especially among Italian emigrants and their offspring.' In the United States, most Italian Americans were outspoken admirers of fascism and had supported // Duce's, regime in particular at the time of Italy's invasion and annexation of Ethiopia between October 1935 and May 1936.* That colonial venture and other alleged achievements of Mussolini's government made Italian Americans proud of their ancestral identity and operated as a sort of ethnic compensation that redressed in part decades of discrimination in their adoptive country. After fascism had apparently turned Italy into a great power, Italian Americans no longer suffered from the stigma of belonging to what was a supposedly inferior people in the eyes of many individuals of Anglo-Saxon descent.̂

In order to protest against the anti-Semitic program in 1938, a group of Mussolini's Italian-American opponents held a rally at New York City's Manhattan Opera House on November 20,193 8. The banner headline of the handout that summoned the meeting read "Italians Don't Hate Jews."* As historian Benedicte Deschamps has recently documented, anti-fascists of Italian ancestry did come out against Mussolini's anti-Jewish legislation.' Yet scholars have tended to extend the stand of this handful of II Duce's diehard foes to the position of their ethnic community as a whole. In this view, most studies generally suggest that, despite previously blatant fascist loyalties, the great bulk of Italian Americans began to distance themselves from Mussolini's regime after passage of the 1938 anti-Semitic provisions.*

However, a close look at New York City's rally suggests a different story. Previously, more than twenty thousand people of Italian descent had crowded the Madison Square Garden to celebrate Ethiopia's annexation to Italy and the establishment of a fascist empire in eastern Africa on July 13, 1936.' In contrast, fewer than five thousand individuals attended the meeting at the Manhattan Opera House sixteen months later.'" Furthermore, one year after the meeting, Ralph Ninfo — the son of one of the organizers of the 1938 protest, New York City's American Labor Party Councilman Salvatore Ninfo — was sentenced for declaring " i f I had my way, I would

Italians Don't Hate Jews!" 511

hang all Jews in this country" at a rally of the notoriously anti-Semitic Christian Front." So was it really true that "Italians don't hate Jews"?

This article is a case study of the response of Italian Americans to the racial policy of their ancestral country. It focuses on Providence's "Littie Italy" and shows that many Italian Americans did not condemn fascist anti-Semitism and even endorsed Mussolini's anti-Jewish measures. Although Providence was home to only 53,635 people of Italian birth or parentage in 1930 (the last year the U.S. Census included data on the nativity of U.S.-bom individuals), as opposed to the 1,070,355 Italian Americans who lived in New York City, the experience of this community is nonetheless revealing. Since 21.2 percent of its total population was of Italian descent in 1930, Providence was one of the U.S. cities with the highest concentration of ItaUan Americans in the decade that preceded the outbreak of World War

Like most of their fellow ethnics throughout the United States, Providence's Italian Americans had become staunch supporters of fascism. Radical socialist movements had shaped the political life of the Italian-American settlement in the Federal Hil l districts before World War I and in the early interwar years.'' But they had almost completely vanished before Italy's invasion of Ethiopia, when the spread of fascist sentiments reached a climax within the local community. As Albert Peter Russo has written about Providence's "Little Italy" in the mid- 1930s, "there were those on Leo Avenue who thought // Duce was the best thing that had happened to Italy since the introduction of the tomato plant. A smaU number of dissenters regarded him as a pompous despot. They kept it to themselves."'" Another Italian American, Mary MeroUa Hansen, has similarly recalled that "the Italian communities in Rhode Island admired Mussolini of Italy during the 1930s.... When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, Mussolini was considered a hero.'"'

The passing of the 1938 anti-Semitic legislation did not impair Mussolini's following among Italian Americans, who continued to celebrate en masse fascist festivities such as II Duce's seizure of power and the victory over Ethiopia.'* (Only Italy's entry into World War I I on June 10, 1940, and especially the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and their ancestral country on December 11,1941, forced them to disavow their allegiance to Mussolini.'') The Italian Echo, the Providence-based Italian-language weekly, found nothing critical to say about the "Manifesto


of Racial Scientists." Neither this newspaper nor The Providence Journal or The Jewish Herald — Providence's Jewish weekly — reported any denunciation of fascist anti-Semitism on the part of members of the city's Italian-American community in the subsequent weeks. Actually, in order to mention a couple of examples of Italian-American sympathy with the lot of Jews in their ancestral country, or any disapproval of Mussolini's anti-Semitic legislation. The Jewish Herald had to turn to Italian communities in other states. It mentioned the decision of the leaders of the New York City Federation of Apulian Associations of America to award Governor Herbert H. Lehman, a Jewish politician, a life membership in their organization as a gesture of good wil l in response to the anti-Semitic overtones that targeted his campaign for reelection in 1938.'^ It also pointed to the case of Rocco Pallotti and roughly four hundred other Italian Americans from Hartford, Connecticut, who petitioned Mussolini for a more lenient attitude toward the Jews.''

When The Italian Echo decided to pay attention to Mussolini's racial policies in mid-August 1938, it operated as a mere mouthpiece of the fascist regime. In response to criticism that Italy had adhered to Nazi anti-Jewish doctrines, the weekly reprinted an article from // Legionario, a bulletin published in Rome for Italians abroad. This piece argued that Mussolini had not drawn upon Hitler's solution in coping with the "Jewish problem." According to the bulletin, while German legislation discriminated against Jews, fascism wanted to established a "separate but equal" system for its Jewish population. The article also contended that it was not hostility toward Jews that had prompted Mussolini's racial turn. Rather, // Duce planned to protect the "purity of the Italian race" from the "contamination," namely from miscegenation, that would otherwise result from the interaction between blacks and whites in the recently established Italian empire in Africa.2o

In late July, fearful that emphasis on fascist anti-Semitism would provoke retaliation against Italy in the form of economic sanctions. Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's Minister of Foreign Affairs, urged the Italian diplomatic and consular representatives to act in order to have the contents and implications of // Duce's racial measures downplayed in the countries where they served.'' Many Italian-language newspapers in the United States complied with Ciano's instructions because most of them were on the payroll of the Ministry of Popular Culture, the fascist agency that coordi-

'Italians Don't Hate Jews! 513

nated Mussolini's propaganda abroad and subsidized the great bulk of the Italian-American press. According to Fortune magazine, at least eighty Italian-language newspapers out of the 129 that circulated in the United States were still "more or less fascist" at the time of Italy's entry into World War I I in June 1940.̂ ^

This probably included The Italian Echo as well. Indeed, when Count Ciano himself recalled Guido Segre, a Jew who was the Italian consul in Boston and Providence, The Italian Echo rushed to deny that this decision had any relation to Mussolini's racial policy and ascribed the termination of Segre's work to a common turnover in the diplomatic personnel.^' Similarly, in the aftermath of the fascist decrees of November 17 that prohibited marriages between Italian "Aryans" and other races. The Italian Echo pointed out that this provision did not apply to Jews only and, therefore, could not be labeled as an anti-Semitic measure.̂ '*

But The Italian Echo eventually overdid fascist authorities in its display of anti-Jewish attitudes. In mid-December, its leading columnist — Carlo Del Ponte — sang the praises of Father Charles E. Coughlin, one of the most prominent American anti-Semites in the interwar years, and agreed with him that the Jews' only way to salvation was conversion to Christianity together with a relentless fight against communism and their own ancestral greed.^' In addition, reference to a speech that Roberto Farinacci had made in Munich charging Jews with planning a second world war may have been an overzealous attempt by The Italian Echo to pander to Mussolini's regime.^ Even though the publication of this kind of "news" hardly satisfied Count Ciano's wish to downplay Italy's anti-Semitism, Farinacci was heralded as an outstanding leader in the fascist hierarchy, one of its most fanatic anti-Semites." Moreover, echoing Father Coughlin's radio sermons was definitely not a way to satisfy officials in Rome who wished to conceal their anti-Semitism. Not only the Ministry of Popular Culture but also // Duce himself regarded this Catholic priest as a dangerous demagogue whom the fascist regime had to keep at a distance in order not to further impair the already strained relations between the United States and Italy.^*

A perusal of The Italian Echo reveals further examples of blatant anti-Semitism. In late February 1939, for instance, an article by Angelo Scioli maintained that Jews deserved persecution because their greed for money had made a large number of people suffer.^' Four months later, Carlo Del Ponte tried to ridicule President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife as


"Jewish-Dutch offspring" who were under the influence of "ghetto-originated chromosomes" and a "Jewish clique" of advisors.'"

Similar insulting characterizations of Roosevek recurred m fascist propaganda in Italy only after the U.S. president had harshly stigmatized Mussolini's eleventh-hour declaration of war against France. By July 1940, Itahan newspapers began to suggest that Roosevelt's alleged Jewish ancestry accounted for the antagonistic attitude of the United States toward Italy." Later, as mihtary conflict between the two countries loomed, Roosevelt became "a Jew of Dutch extraction" and "a slave of the world Jewish-Masonic alliance," in the words of Italy' s journalists.'^ In his typical colorful language, radio broadcaster Mario Appelius not only contended that Roosevelt was inspired by "a sectarian [anti-fascist] hatred with a Jewish origin and influence," he even claimed that the American president was both a "Jewish-made tractor" that Hebraism used to drag the United States into the war and "a kind of king Zerubbabel charged with rebuilding the temple of Zion on the ruins of five continents.""

Earlier, however, when the U.S. president still tried to negotiate Mussolini's neutrality in the conflict by offering // Duce significant concessions,'" the fascist regime had refrained from attacking Roosevelt with such scurrilous arguments, at least through early June 1940. Not so The Italian Echo. During this critical period the Providence newspaper, at odds with the attempt of Mussolini's regime to pacify other countries, delivered virulent propaganda; the same pervasive anti-Semitism that had led the Italian-language weekly to disregard Count Ciano's instructions a few months earlier informed the effort made by this newspaper to belittle Roosevelt through an outrageous stigmatization of his presumed Jewish lineage.

Del Ponte made his derogatory remarks about Roosevelt in the midst of a campaign by The Italian Echo that urged Itahan Americans to warn their Senators and Representatives against siding with the White House and repealing U.S. neutrality legislation.'^ The newspaper perceived the President's pressures on Congress for the lifting of the existing embargo on the sales of American arms and ammunitions to belUgerent countries as a first step toward the supply of U.S. implements of war to France and Great Britain in case these two nations waged war against Italy.'* Del Ponte could have used a wide array of isolationist theses in order to discredit Roosevelt politically and encourage Italian-American participation in those lobbying efforts. Arguments might have spanned from George Washington's fare-

'Italians Don't Hate Jews!" 515

well address against the involvement in foreign alliances to the findings of the Nye Conmiission about the role of the American loans to belligerents in causing the U.S. entry into World War I . But Del Ponte relied instead on disparaging anti-Semitic comments, and he must have been sure that such comments would touch a sensitive nerve among his own readers and would mobilize Italian-American sentiment against changes in U.S. neutrality laws that were likely to damage their ancestral country.

In the same column, Del Ponte also harshly criticized Generoso Pope for his alleged subservience to Jewish interests.'^ The publisher of the New York City-based // Progresso Italo-Americano, the most influential Italian-language daily in the United States, Pope had sometime earlier advised Italian Americans in the United States not to yield to anti-Jewish feehngs.'* A front for the Ministry of Popular Culture, which lavishly provided // Progresso Italo-Americano with propagandistic articles, Pope long operated as an unofficial spokesperson for the fascist regime to reassure Jewish Americans that Mussolini did not intend to persecute their fellow ethnics in order to prevent their lobbying for retaliatory measures against Italy." For instance, even after the issue of the "Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti," in a statement for the Jewish community in the United States, Pope declared on behalf of the fascist regime that Mussolini "would never molest the Jews.""" Since Pope's stand reflected // Duce's wi l l , Del Ponte's attack against the owner of // Progresso Italo-Americano showed once again that anti-Semitism prevailed over a more conciUatory fascist Hne in shaping the editorial policy of The Italian Echo.

Del Ponte's denunciation of the supposed subservience of Italian Americans to "a race that controls finance, industry, and commerce in the United States providing us with the everyday bread to feed our famiUes" — a subservience that Pope epitomized — may reveal the reason for the favorable response by Italian Americans to an anti-Semitic appeal."' Most members of Providence's community were blue-collar workers who held jobs in textile mills, jewelry factories, and metal plants."^ So were numerous Jews."' As aresult, both ethnic minorities ended up struggling for a shrinking number of positions in the same sectors during the Depression of the 1930s. Furthermore, Jews were often employers of Italian Americans in jewehy plants, such as the Brier Manufacturing Company and the Bojar Manufac-mring Company, or in department stores like the Oudet Company. Jews had also long controlled the leadership of the International Jewelry Workers


Union, although Italian-American labors made up the great bulk of its members. Al l this may have caused resentment by Italian immigrants and their children."* After all, in New York City anti-Semitic attitudes in the wake of the 1938 fascist legislation characterized primarily the Italian Americans who worked in Jewish sweatshops and had joined Jewish-dominated labor unions.*' Moreover, the Jewish boycott of Italian-American businesses in Providence in retaliation for Mussolini's racial policy further soured the Jewish-Italian relationships in that city.**

In one editorial of The Italian Echo, the ethnic tensions between Italian Americans and Jews within U.S. society came to the foreground. The weekly contended that Jews not only had "preached racism since Moses' times" and "controlled] America," but they also exploited their hold of the economy to make the Italians, who needed to make a living, submissive. As the anonymous editorialist concluded, "we must not and cannot embrace the cause of those who have exploited us and continue to exploit us, of those who have humiliated us, of those who have prevented us from working and have taken away our bread."*'

Anti-Semitism eventually disappeared from the columns of The Italian Echo after jewelry manufacturer Vincent Sorrentino purchased the newspaper in June 1940 and renamed it the Rhode Island Echo.*^ The coincidence of Italy's entry into World War I I and the fact that the new owner had been married to a Jewish woman (Katie Goldstein) since 1911 ended the newspaper's anti-Jewish stand.*' Sorrentino's choice of his wife is an example that some Italian Americans were not anti-Semitic, although intermarriages had sometimes caused resentment in both communities since the early twentieth century.'" Yet Sorrentino's personal experience offers additional evidence of the spread of anti-Jewish feelings within Providence's Italian-American conununity.

An Italian-bom immigrant from Castellammare di Stabia in the province of Naples, Sorrentino arrived in Providence at the age of 15 in 1906 and found a job as an apprentice plumber. He soon moved to a jewelry factory as an apprentice worker. In 1912, he went into business for himself and created the Uncas Manufacturing Company." A one-room jewelry plant at the time of its establishment, Uncas had become the largest ring plant of its kind in the United States by 1929.'^ His rise from rags to riches, and the roughly 800jobs on the payroll of Uncas he managed to provide even in the hard times of the Depression of the 1930s, made Sorrentino a popular figure

'Italians Don't Hate Jews! " 517

among Italian Americans in Providence.'' When Republican Governor Wilham H. Vanderbilt appointed Sorrentino to the position of director of the state Department of Social Welfare in 1939, a crowd of about 1,500 people attended a banquet to celebrate his nomination.'*

Sorrentino was also a good fascist. In the winter of 1935-1936, during the Italo-Ethiopian War, he not only endorsed the fascist colonial venture, he even chaired a committee that raised funds among Italian Americans to finance Mussolini's military machinery in eastern Africa under the cover of humanitarian contributions for the Italian Red Cross." He personally made a donation of $500 to // Duce's war chest.'* Indeed, the numerous Italian-American ethnic organizations that congratulated Governor Vanderbilt on Sorrentino's appointment included the Benito Mussolini Society, a hotbed of Italian-American fascists in Providence."

Notwithstanding Sorrentino's sound fascist allegiance and his popularity with his fellow ethnics, however, his marriage to Katie Goldstein impaired his leadership and social standing in the Italian-American community in the wake of Mussolini's 1938 anti-Semitic decrees. As The Italo-American Tribune argued on February 1, 1940, resorting to a euphemism, "a vilifying campaign" concerning "the intimacy of his private affairs" had hurt his reputation.'* In particular, Luigi Scala—who had served with Sorrentino on the same committee that used the Italian Red Cross as a front to help the Fascist military campaign in Ethiopia—tried to make him a social outcast in the eyes of his fellow ethnics because Sorrentino had a Jewish wife."

Scala was the Grand Venerable (state leader) of the Rhode Island Grand Lodge of the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), the largest and most influential Italian-American ethnic organization in the United States.* At the 1938 state convention of the Rhode Island Grand Lodge, which was held in Bristol in early September, a few weeks after the issue of the "Manifesto degli scienziati razzisti," Scala made a token appeal for Italian Americans to respect Jews. As he put it in a brief passage of his keynote address to the delegates, "friendship between Americans of Italian extraction and Jews wil l continue to be the policy of the Order Sons of Italy." Yet Scala also declared that Italy had indeed "a Jewish problem."*'

The introduction of the subsequent speaker at the OSIA convention revealed the real meaning behind Scala's apparently conciliatory words. Acting Italian consul Vincenzo Venderosa, Segre's temporary replacement.


followed Scala to the lectern and, as the Evening Bulletin reported, "told of Mussolini's speech, broadcast from Trieste."*^ In this address, // Duce had defended the fascist racial policy on the grounds that "despite our course of action, the world Jewry has been an irreconcilable enemy of fascism for sixteen years."*' However, in order to placate anti-Italian feelings abroad, Mussolini had also stressed that the intent his government was only to keep the Jews and the Italians separated, not to persecute the former.** Scala's anti-Jewish attitude gained momentum in the following months, as he broadcast pro-fascist talks from Providence's WPRO radio station, and focused on an attack against Sorrentino.*' Specifically, in June 1939, Scala wrote a letter to the Rome-based weekly La Difesa della Razza (The Defense of the Race), the most viciously anti-Semitic periodical published in Italy, to question Sorrentino's right to be regarded as an authentic member of the Italian-American community. He contended that, by marrying a Jewess, Sorrentino had violated the recendy established fascist rule of separation and non-mingling of Jews and Italians. Referring to Sorrentino's appointment to the position of director of the Department of Public Welfare in Rhode Island's state administration, even i f he did not mention him by name, Scala wondered how it was possible "to congratulate and to praise publicly [such a person] as an exponent of true Italianness, in public ceremonies." He also suggested that "true Italianism cannot be stretched to fit this or that advantage." La Difesa della Razza quite naturally agreed with Scala and argued that "we have the same duty, the Italians of Italy and those abroad."** As a report of the Office of War Information would state a few years later, Scala was "a four-star fascist agent" and "belong[ed] in a concentration camp."*' In this view, his unqualified allegiance to Mussolini's regime would easily account for his strict adherence to fascist anti-Jewish policies.

But Scala's campaign against Sorrentino was also part of a fight for power within the Italian-American community. Scala resorted to anti-Semitism as a tool to retain his leadership among his fellow ethnics in the face of the challenge from a rising figure with greater financial means and wider political connections. The favorable response of Italian Americans to Scala's stand demonstrated the influence of his anti-Semitic arguments. Strengthened by the reply of La Difesa della Razza, Scala easily won a new term as head of the Rhode Island Grand Lodge of the OSIA at the state convention that this organization held in early August 1939.**

The subsequent development of the controversy over Sorrentino's

'Italians Don't Hate Jews!" 519

marriage further highlights the acceptance of anti-Semitism by Italian Americans. IlMondo, an Italian-language anti-fascist monthly published in New York City, repeatedly called on the members of Providence's Italian community to unseat Scala because his anti-Jewish attitude was at odds with his own statement at the 1938 convention in Bristol.*' Yet these appeals fell on deaf ears. Unopposed, Scala was reelected Grand Venerable of the Rhode Island Grand Lodge at the 1940 state convention of the OSIA.™ He was still the head of this organization as late as 1948 when he petitioned President Harry S. Truman for the restitution of pre-fascist colonies to Italy despite her, defeat in World War I I . "

This outcome is hardly surprising. It was not merely the attachment to fascism by Italian Americans that ignited anti-Semitic feelings in Providence's community. Such sentiments, with local economic roots, antedated Mussolini's 1938 racial turn. For instance, as early as December 1923, on the occasion of a Zionistic meeting that was held at Providence's Elks Hall, L 'Eco del Rhode Island — as The Italian Echo was then called — charged the Jews with being an un-American minority because they established self-segregated ethnic enclaves in their adoptive country and, unlike Italian immigrants, allegedly refused to get assimilated within the broader U.S. society.'^ Similarly, in 1934, anti-Jewish sentiments were so widespread in Providence's "Littie Italy" that the national leader of the Khaki Shirts, Art J. Smitii, thought of this Italian-American community as a fertile ground to recruit new members for his anti-Semitic organization and sent his lieutenant, Gaetano Astone, there to set up connections with local fascist groups.'" Smith's forecast was correct, since the Providence branch of the Khaki Shirts came to number about 1,500 affiliates before internal rivalries and continuous clashes with Communist militants caused its disbandment in April 1935.'"

Remarkably, the growth of this anti-Semitic movement among Italian Americans in Providence occurred while Mussolini himself — who had a Jewish mistress at that time — dismissed Nazi anti-Semitism as "nonsense" in a period of strained German-Italian relations that followed Adolf Hitier' s failed attempt to annex Austria in 1934.'' In those months. Pope's // Progresso Italo-Americano echoed Rabbi Stephen S. Wise in his appeal for an economic boycott of Nazi Germany at the 1934 World Jewish Congress.'* However, even then the poor conditions for Jews under Hitler's regime were of no interest to The Italian Echo. That Italian-language weekly mentioned


the problem only once and confined itself to maintaining that, unlike Germany, the United States had no "anti-Semitic fanatics."''

Furthermore, as Adam Harris Skolnick has suggested, anti-Semitic rhetoric was not absent from Providence in the 1930s,'* and The Italian Echo exploited that rhetoric for the Italian-American community in Providence. In the same issue of the newspaper that claimed the lack of "anti-Semitic fanatics," the editor himself, Vincenzo De Orchis, yielded to anti-Semitic language and decried a group of anti-fascists who had attempted to disrupt a rally of Mussolini's supporters by calling them a bunch of "Hebrew and Jewish wiseacres."" Rhode Island's Secretary of State Louis W. CappelH was the only Italian-American leader who was reported to have attended the mass ralHes against the Nazi racial poUcy that were held in Providence in 1933.*° But Cappelli's name disappeared from the newspaper reports of meetings in support of German Jews after his 1934 reelection.*'

In 1935, too. The Jewish Herald had to search outside Providence in order to find an example of Italian-American solidarity with European Jews by pointing to New York City's Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, who was a Jew on his mother's side. The Jewish Herald listed him among the American politicians who were not afraid to speak out against Hitier's racial policy. It also contrasted La Guardia's courageous stand with the ambiguity of Rhode Island's U.S. Senator Jesse Metcalf, who had declined to attend a rally that called for the boycott of the 1936 Berlin Olympics to protest Nazi anti-Semitism. In particular. The Jewish Herald criticized Metcalf because he had confined himself to sending a message that mentioned neither the Jews nor the Nazis and generically declared "it is certainly a sad thing that any country should not be fair and just to all people without regard to race or creed."*^ The attack on Metcalf reflected a period of intense anti-Nazi militancy on the part of The Jewish HeraldP However, its denunciation also triggered off a political controversy,** and The Italian Echo intervened in the debate. As a further demonstration of the lack of sympathy with Jews on the part of Italian Americans, the Italian-language weekly not only stood by Metcalf, but also maintained that "the Nazi policy, with reference to the Jewish or any other question, is something that concerns only Germany."*'

Scholarship has long contended that the Italian people boycotted Mussolini's anti-Semitic laws under the fascist regime between 1938 and 1943, and sabotaged the Holocaust — passively and actively — during the Nazi occupation of Italy from 1943 to 1945.** However, as R.J.B. Bosworth

"Italians Don't Hate Jews!" 521

and Anna Bravo have pointed out, this exculpatory interpretation is largely part of the myth of the "good-heartedness" of the Italians, vvho have supposedly revealed "an intrinsic tendency to evade laws in the name of higher human values" over the course of history.*' One can argue that the claim of Italian Americans to disavow fascist anti-Semitism is generally part of such a myth of innocence.

Contrary to the conclusions of previous scholarship that support this myth, recent studies have demonstrated that, notwithstanding remarkable exceptions of isolated individuals who actually helped Jews, the Italians, although not always so fanatic as to join Mussolini as Hitler's willing executioners, were far from being immune to anti-Semitism and in fact often participated in the persecution, deportation, and extermination of Jews in the prewar and war years.** This case study of the response to the fascist racial policy within Providence's community, as it was reflected in The Italian Echo and other sources, suggests that, like their fellow ethnics in their ancestral country, many Italian Americans too were prone to anti-Semitism. Instead of distancing themselves from fascism after the passing of Mussolini's 1938 legislation, they seized on // Duce's racial policy to strengthen and legitimize pre-existing anti-Jewish sentiments resulting from the ethnic tensions between these two minority groups.

Notes ' Aaron Gillette, "The Origins of the 'Manifesto of Racial Scientists,'" Journal of Modem

Italian Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 2001, pp. 305-323. ^ Michele Sarfatti, Gli ebrei nellTtaliafascista: Vicende, identita, persecuzione (Turin:

Einaudi, 2000). 3 Renzo De Felice, The Jews in Fascist Italy: A History (1993; New York: Enigma, 2001)

326-330. John P. Diggins, Mussolini and Fascism: The View from America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972) 77-110, 302-306; Philip V. Cannistraro, Blackshirts in Little Italy: Italian Americans and Fascism, 1921-1929 (West Lafayette, IN: Bordighera, 1999).

^ Philip V. Cannistraro, "Fascism and Italian Americans," in Silvano M. Tomasi, ed.. Perspectives in Italian Immigration and Ethnicity (New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1977) 51-66.

* "Italians Don't Hate Jews," handout, Leonard Covello Papers, Box 100, Folder 22, Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, Philadelphia.

' Benedicte Deschamps, "Italians Don't Hate Jews," unpublished paper presented at the 13th annual conference of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association, Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, Chicago, October 28-29, 2001.


Lawrence Frank Pisani, The Italian in America: A Social Study and History (New York: Exposition Press, 1957) 204-205; Diggins, pp. 342-343; Patrick J. Gallo, Old Bread, New Wine: A Portrait of the Italian-Americans (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1981) 230-231; Madehne Jane Goodman, "The Evolution of Ethnicity: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in the Italian-American Community" (Ph.D. dissertation, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1993) 306-309. "Victory Is Hailed by Italians Here," New York Times, June 14, 1936, p. 35. "Embargo Is Proposed on Aggressor Forces," New York Times, November 21,1938, p. 7. Henry H. Curan, "Jail Riot hiciters," Equality, Vol. 1, No. 7, November 1939, pp. 8-9, 24. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, Population, Vol. m (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1932) 301,303,765,769. Paul Buhle, "Italian-American Radicals and Labor in Rhode Island, 1905-1930," in Herbert G. Gutman and Donald H. Bell, eds.. The New England Working Class and the New Labor History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987) 270-294; Joseph W. Sullivan, Marxists, Militants & Macaroni: The I.W.W. in Providence's Little Italy (Kingston, RI: Rhode Island Labor History Society, 2000). Albert Peter Russo, Take My Hand (Hope, RI: Bower House, 1995) 132. Mary MeroUa Hansen, interview by Richard Tavis, December 7, 1989, World War II Interviews Collection, Box 3, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence. "La grande celebrazione dell'annuale dell'impero," The Italian Echo, May 12,1939, p. 1; "Molte associazioni present! alle celebrazioni patriottiche," The Italian Echo, November 17, 1939, p. 3. "We Are Americans!," The Rhode Island Echo, June 14, 1940, p. 1; "De Pasquale Pledges Loyalty of Italo-Americans," The Providence Journal, December 12,1941, p. 7. "Awarded Membership in ItaUan Society," The Jewish Herald, October 7, 1938, p. 4. "ItaUans Protest Anti-Jewish Policy," The Jewish Herald, October 28, 1938, p. 1. "La difesa della razza e concezione inconfodabile [sic] italiana e fascista," The Italian Echo, August 19, 1938, pp. 1, 8. Galeazzo Ciano to royal diplomatic and consular representatives, Rome, July 26,1938, Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, series Affari Politici, Italia, 1931 -1945, Box 57, Archivio Storico del Ministero degli Affari Esteri, Rome, Italy. "The Foreign Language Press," Fortune, Vol. 12, No. 5, November 1940, p. 102. "II Comm. Segre richiamato a Roma," The Italian Echo, September 9,1938, p. 1. For the recall of Jewish diplomats, see Ray Moseley, Mussolini's Shadow: The Double Life of Count Galeazzo Ciano (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999) 49. "La difesa della razza itaUana nei provvedimenti govemativi," The Italian Echo, December 9, 1938, pp. 1, 8. Carlo Del Ponte, "I discorsi di Padre Coughlin," The Italian Echo, December 16,1938, p. 2. For Coughlin's anti-Semitism, see Donald Warren, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, the Father of Hate Radio (New York: Free Press, 1996) 129-160. "Notizie a fasci," The Italian Echo, February 2, 1939, p. 3. For Farinacci, see Harry D. Fomari, "Farinacci, Roberto," in Philip V. Cannistraro, ed.. Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy (Westpon,CT. Greenwood Press, 1982) 194-198. Philip V. Cannistraro and Theodore P. Kovaleff, "Father Coughlin and Mussolini: Impossible Ames," Journal of Church andState, Vol. 13, No. 3, Fall 1971, pp. 427-443.

"Italians Don't Hate Jews! 523

Angelo Scioli, "Affiliamo le armi," The Italian Echo, February 24, 1939, p. 1. Carlo Del Ponte, "Fatti e chiacchiere," The Italian Echo, June 30, 1939, p. 2. William Phillips, Ventures in Diplomacy (Boston: Beacon Press, 1952) 317-318. Anna Maria Martellone, '"Blood against Gold': Anti-American Propaganda in Fascist Italy," Storia Nordamericana, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1986, p. 66 Mario Appelius, Parole dure e chiare (1942; Milan: M&B, 1999) 139-140, 158. David F. Schmitz, The United States and Fascist Italy, 1922-1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988) 204-211 "Sons of Italy Want Roosevelt to Avert War," The Italian Echo, May 5, 1939, p. 12. "Stop Neutrality Bill," The Italian Echo, July 14, 1939, p. 5. Carlo Del Ponte, "Fatti e chiacchiere," The Italian Echo, June 30, 1939, p. 2. Generoso Pope, "Nervi a posto," // Progresso Italo-Americano, September 11,1938, p. 1. Gina Formiggini, Stella d'Italia, Stella di David: Gli ebrei dal Risorgimento alia Resistenza (1970; Milan: Mursia, 1998) 56; Stefano Vaccara, '"Al Servizio di Due Padroni': Generoso Pope's // Progresso, Mussolini, Roosevelt, and the Coming of World War H," unpublished paper presented at the Seminar Series in Italian-American Studies, The John D. Calandra Italian-American Institute, New York City, March 7, 2002. "Italian Editor Denies Duce Wars on Jews," The Jewish Herald, August 12,1938, p. 2. Carlo Del Ponte, "Fatti e chiacchiere," The Italian Echo, June 30, 1939, p. 2. Judith E . Smith, Family Connections: A History of Italian and Jewish Immigrant Lives in Providence, Rhode Island, 1900-1940 (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985) 35-65. Geraldine S. Foster, The Jews in Rhode Island: A Brief History (Providence: The Rhode Island Heritage Commission, 1985) 12. Josephine DeCredico, as quoted in Jessan Dunn DeCredico, "Josephine DeCredico," Mirror, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1977, p. 32; Joseph A. Zannini, Louis Sammartino, and Katherine Marcello, as quoted in Naida S. Weisberg, ed., Diamonds Are Forever, but Rhinestones Are for Everyone: An Oral History of the Costume Jewelry Industry of Rhode Island (Providence: Providence Jewelry Museum, 1999) 168,114,134; Paul M. Buhle, "Jews in Rhode Island Labor: An Introductory Investigation," Rhode Islarui Jewish Historical Notes,Vol 10,No.2,1988, pp. 15 0-151. For the ethnic identification of the ownership of the companies mentioned, see Jeanne Weil and Judith W. Cohen, "Jews in the Jewelry Industry in Rhode Island," Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 10, No. 3, Part B, 1989, pp. 297-298, 307; Eleanor F. Horvitz, "The Outlet Company Story and the Samuels Brothers," Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 6, No. 4, 1974, pp. 489-531. Ronald H. Bayor, Neighbors in Conflict: The Irish, Germans, Jews, and Italians of New York City, I929-194I (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978) 84-85. "Boycott Overtones," r/ie 7eww/i//eraW, December 2, 1938, p. 1. "Razzismo in atto," The Italian Echo, July 14, 1939, p. 1. Vincent Sorrentino, "II mio saluto," The Rhode Island Echo, June 14, 1940, p. 4. "Mrs. Sorrentino Dies at Home," The Providence Journal, March 12, 1949, p. 8. Eleanor F. Horvitz, "Pushcarts, Surreys with Fringe on Top: The Story of the Jews of the North End," Rhode Island Historical Notes, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1979, pp. 27-28.


Ubaldo U.M. Pesaturo, The Italo-Americans in Rhode Island: Their Contribution and Achievements (Providence: privately printed, 1936) 138-139. "Uncas Co. Largest U.S. Ring Concern," Evening Bulletin, May 11, 1929, p. 24; The Book of Rhode Island (Providence: Rhode Island Association of Business Associations, 1930) 238. Ubaldo U.M. Pesaturo, Italo-Americans of Rhode Islarui: An Historical and Biographical Survey of the Origin, Rise and Progress of Rhode Islanders of Italian Birth or Descent (Providence: Visitor Printing Company, 1940) 156. "Imponente tributo di stima all'On. Vincenzo Sorrentino," The Italian Echo, March 17, 1939, pp. 1,5. "Per la sottoscrizione pro Croce Rossa Italiana," The Italian Echo, October 25, 1935, p. 3. For the real purpose of Italian Americans' donations to the Italian Red Cross, see Fiorello B. Ventresco, "Italian Americans and the Ethiopian Crisis," Italian Americana, Vol. 6, No. 1, Autumn-Winter 1980, pp. 18-19. "GU itaUani del Rhode Island per la Croce Rossa," The Italian Echo, November 8,1935, p . l . Costantino Maccarone to William H. Vanderbih, Providence, n.d. [but March 1939], William H. Vanderbilt Papers, Box 43, Folder 138, University of Rhode Island Library, Kingston, RI. An untitled EngUsh translation of this article is included in the Vanderbdt Papers, Box 43, Folder 141. "I legionari deUa Croce Rossa Ital.," The Italian Echo, November 22, 1935, p. 1. Joseph R. Muratore, Italian Americans in Rhode Island, Vol. 11 (Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2000) 88,122. For the Order Sons of Italy in America, see Ernest L . Biagi, The Purple Aster: A History of the Order Sons of Italy in America (New York: Veritas Press, 1961); John Andreozzi, "The Order Sons of Italy in America: Historical Summary," in John Andreozzi, ed.. Guide to the Records of the Order Sons of Italy in America (St. Paul, MN: Immigration History Research Center, 1989) 7-14. "Scala Proclaims Italo-Americans Friends of Jews," The Providence Journal, September 19, 1938, pp. 1, 9. "Sons of Italy Head Says Order Counts Jews as Friends," Evening Bulletin, September 19, 1938, p. 2. Benito Mussohni, "Discorso di Trieste," in Edoardo Susmel and Duilio Susmel, eds.. Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini, Vol. 29 (Florence: La Fenice, 1959) 146. Michele Sarfatti, Mussolini contro gli ebrei: Cronaca deU'elaborazione delle leggi del 1938 (Turin: Zamorani, 1994) 102. "Fascist Radio Propaganda Can Be Curbed," // Mondo, Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1939, p. 5; Gaetano Salvemini, Italian Fascist Activities in the United States (New York: Center for Migration Studies, 1977) 112-113. "Italiani ed ebrei in America," La Difesa della Razza, June 20, 1939, p. 46. Renzo Sereno to Eugene Katz, Washington, DC, August 4,1942, Philleo Nash Papers, Box 23, Folder "Italian-American memoranda," Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, MO. "La convenzione statale dei FigU d'ltaUa a Charles St.," The Italian Echo, August 11, 1939, p. 1. "The Italians of Providence Must Act against Scala," // Mondo, Vol. 2, No. 12, December 1939, pp. 4-5; "We Want to Hear from the Sons of Italy," // Mondo, Vol. 3, No. 1, January 1940, pp. 4-5.

Italians Don't Hate Jews! " 525

"La convenzione dei Figli d'ltalia a Paw't," The Rhode Island Echo, September 20, 1940, p. 2. "Sons of Italy Plead for the Restitution of Italian Colonies," The Italian Echo, August 6, 1948, p. 1. "II sionismo militante," L'Eco del Rhode Island, December 13, 1923, p. 1. Department of Justice, Record Group 60, Central Files, Straight Numerical Files, No. 202600, Box 3165, Folder 2831, National Archives II, College Park, MD; "II Generale E.G. Astone a Providence," The Italian Echo, 4 May 1934, p. 1; "U.S. Fascists Again Hold R.I. Charter," The Providence Journal, May 8, 1934, p. 7. "A Farewell to Fascism on Federal Hill," The Providence Journal, April 7, 1935, Section VI, p. 3. Luigi Preti, Impero, fascismo, africani ed ebrei (Milan: Mursia, 1968) 39-48; Meir Michaelis, Mussolini and the Jews: German-Italian Relations and the Jewish Question in Italy, 1922-1945 (London: Institute of Jewish Affairs, 1978) 57-59; Philip V. Cannistraro and Brian R. Sullivan, // Duce's Other Woman (New York: Morrow, 1993) 396; Richard Lamb, Mussolini as Diplomat: II Duce's Italy on the World Stage (London: John Murray, 1998) 100-107. "II rabbino Wise per la lotta senza tregua contro Hitler," // Progresso Italo-Americano, August 22, 1934, p. 8. "Fascisti, We Are in America," The Italian Echo, May 18, 1934, p. 1. Adam Harris Skolnick, "A Common Civil Purpose: The Jewish Role in the Providence Community Fund," Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 13, No. 2,2000, p. 230. Vincenzo De Orchis, "Calunniatori coloniali," The Italian Echo, May 18, 1934, p. 1. "Thousands to Attend Great Mass Meeting Protesting Nazi Outrages," The Jewish Herald, March 31, 1933, pp. 1, 8; "Leaders of Three Faiths in Rhode Island to Join Protest Over Hitler's Acts," The Jewish Herald, April 28, 1933, pp. 1, 8; "Providence Jews Condemn Hitler," The Jewish Herald, May 5, 1933, pp. 1, 8. "500 Gather Here to Assail Nazis," The Providence Journals, August 25, 1935, p. 10. "The Moderate Mr. Metcalf," The Jewish Herald, August 23, 1935, p. 1. Nicole Herschenhous, "The Response of the Providence Jewish Conmiunity to Events in Prewar Germany, 1935 to 1939," Rhode IslandJewishHistoricalNotes,'Vo\. 13,No. 1, 1999, pp. 40-41. "Metcalf Is Storm Center of R.I. Conti-oversy," The Jewish Herald, August 30, 1935, pp. 1, 3. "The Attack on Sen. Metcalf," The Italian Echo, September 6, 1935, p. 7. This argument still shapes Daniel Carpi, "Italy," in Walter Laqueur, ed., The Holocaust Encyclopedia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001) 334-339 and, though to a lesser extent, Robert S. Wistrich, Hitler and the Holocaust (New York: Modem Library, 2001) 177-183. R.J.B. Bosworth, The Italian Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of Mussolini and Fascism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 101-103; Anna Bravo, "Social Perception of the Shoah in Italy," in Bernard D. Cooperman and Barbara Garvin, eds.. The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity (Bethesda: University Press of Maryland, 2000) 381. Enzo CoUotti, "II razzismo negate," Italia Contemporanea, No. 212, September 1998, pp. 577-587.


Front doors, Community Mikveh of Rhode Island, Providence.

The Mikveh in Rhode Island by Eleanor F. Horvitz

After absorbing some harsh information about Italian-Jewish relations during the prewar period, we now turn to a more relaxing subject—one, in fact, that is downright purifying! The Mikveh, age-old source of spiritual and physical cleansing, has had its place in Rhode Island history too, as reviewed here by Eleanor Horvitz.

Mrs.Horvitz has devoted thirty years of service to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association as author, organizer, and librarian-archivist. As Geraldine Foster commented in her appreciation in Notes, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2001), "her articles deal in facts; she delves into sources with great abaruion; her tone is gracious, like Eleanor herself; and she brings a human dimension to our history by including the remembrances of those who lived that history."

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, in Waters of Eden: the Mystery of the Mikveh (New York: National Conference of Synagogue Youth, 1976), points out that the Mikveh, or ritual bath for purification, is the first religious facility that is built in a new Jewish community. A synagogue can be erected later, when the community is better organized and established. But the Mikveh ("a pool of water") is of central importance even though its use has diminished in modem times. The practice of immersion in water for the purpose of ritual cleansing is spelled out in great detail by the Bible. Only pure, uncontami-nated water may be used, as specified by Leviticus 11.36: it should be "collected" in a spring or cistern, and it must be spring water, rainwater, or melted snow or ice. Most Mikvehs are in buildings, but any body of natural water — a lake, river, or ocean — can serve.

Traditionally, immersion was not primarily a matter of hygiene, but rather a spiritual cleansing signifying a rededicated relationship with God. In fact, a person who used a Mikveh (or a pot or plate placed in a special Mikveh for utensils) had to be washed in advance. As Kathy Cohen writes in "The Ritual Bath of Providence," (The Rhode Island Jewish Herald, January 31, 1991), "the ritual immersion is a spiritual act. It represents for all Jews, men and women, a symboUc rebirth into another level of spirituality, a new begiiming."' A special prayer is recited: "Blessed are you, Etemal oiu" God, Ruler of the Universe, who makes us holy with your



commandments and commands us regarding immersion."

The Mikveh, as Ms. Cohen points out, is used by men as well as women, although women are associated with it in common practice. Men or boys immerse in the blessed waters in the process of conversion or before the Sabbath and holidays. A female visits the Mikveh before and after the wedding day, then seven days after each menstrual cycle before resuming a sexual relationship with her husband. In addition, women are required to visit the Mikveh after a miscarriage or after giving birth. The Bible also spells out the necessity of ritual cleansing for those with certain diseases, like leprosy, and those who have had contact with death. In ancient times, any unclean person was forbidden to enter the grounds of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem; violation was punishable by severe penalties. Christians later inherited the idea of ritual purification through immersion, an idea given special symbolic significance by John the Baptist.^

Rabbi Kaplan, in Waters of Eden, reports one of the most exciting recent archeological events in Israel. During the excavation of the mountain fortress of Masada, near the remains of the last defenders who gave their lives some eighteen hundred years ago, not one but two Mikvehs were uncovered, one for men and the other for women. Two prominent rabbis examined them and found that they had been built according to the strict requirements of the law. Customs changed in time, however, and at the turn of the last century there were few Mikvehs in the Providence area. Only one steam bath and Mikveh existed in the 1920s until the 1970s, as described by Noel Rubinton in "The Last Jewish Steam Bath in Providence" (Notes, Vol. 12, No. 4,1998). Built by the Vaad HaKashruth at 26 Candace Street, in the Jewish North End of Providence, and affiliated with the Congregation Shaare Zadek (Sons of Abraham), the baths served not only an important ritual purpose but also satisfied social and health needs. There was also an old building on Staniford Street in South Providence that was described by Esther Kaplan, who lived in that area as a child, as not much better than a "backyard shack."

The Shaare Zadek Mikveh was refurbished in 1970, but in time it was used too infrequently to permit decent maintenance, and a more favorable location was selected for a new Mikveh to be buiU adjacent to the Jewish Community Center on Elmgrove Avenue.' After discussion by the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis in 1979, the Jewish Federation created a committee, chaired by Sheldon Sollosy, to plan the new Mikveh. The committee

The Mikveh in Rhode Island 529

recommended the following: A new community Mikveh should be guided by the Jewish

Federation of Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis, and the Vaad HaKashruth of Rhode Island, the latter acting as the authoritative agency in the supervision and maintenance of the Mikveh.*

The committee further recommended that the new Mikveh should be "located in an area easily accessible to the majority of its users," and that it should be "a beautiful structure with all modern conveniences." Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on April 25, 1982, and the new facility was opened on February 6, 1983. Federation president Melvin Alpem noted that the new Mikveh represented the combined efforts of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and unaffiliated Jews in Rhode Island, as well as in the nearby Massachusetts communities of New Bedford, Fall River, and Taunton.

Some littie-known sidelights on the new Mikveh: The roof was pitched to a specific angle to ensure the collection of rain water for ritual use. Because of the private nature of immersion, an aura of secrecy was designed to surround the little building: it is minimally lit from outside, and there is no sign identifying it. It is never advertised, and women use it only at night, carefully scheduling their appointments so they see no one except the attendant, who has had that position for many years. Absolute privacy was ensured by an elaborate system of key access to the locked doors, non-overlapping schedules for its use, and careful selection of supervisory and maintenance personnel.

And according to notes made at the time by the architect, Henry Markoff, "the contractor chosen to build it had the ironic business name of the Bacon Constmction Company. Needless to say, the name was certainly inappropriate for the building of a Mikveh. Understanding the situation, the company agreed to change its name, for this project, to the Agostini Construction Company." Mr. Markoff goes on to say that "not every architect has the opportunity of working with a great Hebrew scholar, and when the Mikveh plans were approved and the project finished. Grand Rabbi Deutsch, the Helmitzer Rebbe who had written many volumes on the Mikveh and its construction, presented a written certification saying that the building followed Jewish law and offered his congratulations. I considered that moment a special achievement."'


Perhaps the importance of the Mikveh to the Jewish community was best expressed by Rabbi Jacob Rubenstein, liaison from the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis at the time. At the dedication ceremonies, he observed that

the call for sanctity and purity as a basis for Jewish life permeates all Jewish law and encompasses every aspect of human concern and experience. The sanctity of the person and the family receives great attention in the laws of purity and mikveh. Next to the school and the synagogue, the mikveh became one of the most important institutions in Jewish life, so much so that observant Jews were discouraged from residing in communities that did not have a Mikveh. It was necessary for legitimate conversions and for the continuity of purity within the family. Without it a vacuum existed in the very observance and expression of Judaism.*

Notes ' See also Linda A. Acciardo, "An Ancient Ritual for Modem Women." Rhode Island

Jewish Herald, January 29, 1981. ^ Joan E. Taylor, The Immerser: John the Baptist and Second Temple Judaism (NY:

Erdman, 1997). ^ "The Building of the Only Mikvah in the State of Rhode Island." Rhode Island Jewish

Herald, December 20, 1979. " Sheldon Sollosy and Rabbi Jacob S. Rubenstein, "Proposal for Community Mikva —

Providence." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association Archives. ^ Henry W. Markoff, "Notes and Designs for the Providence Mikveh." Rhode Island

Jewish Historical Association Archives. ^ Sollosy and Rubenstein, "Proposal."

The Mikveh in Rhode Island 531

Appendix An Early Schedule of Fees and Regulations, The Community Mikveh of Rhode Island

Vaad HaKashrutl i of Biiode Island ^3»W«K TDn-T rjlTCTDH np i

COMMUNITY MIKVEH OF RHODE ISLAND

Regulations, Schedule and Fees Structure . : .- .

HOURS OF USE • . ; - . .

Except f o r Erev Yom Tov, a l l v i s i t a t i o n s t o Mikvah are . . by appointment only w i t h a t l e a s t 48 hours n o t i f i c a t i o n . The f o l l o w i n g i s a schedule of v;hen appointments are a v a i l a b l e .

MORNINGS 5:15 AM - 6:45 AM, MEN EVENINGS Beginning one hour before sunset, WOMEN ONLY FRIDAY AFTERNOONS FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY _ EREV YOM TOVIM - 1 pm - 2 hours before sunset, MEN EREV YOM KIPPUR - 10 am - 11 am, WOMEN

\0 am - 11/2 hours before sunset, MEN CONVERSIONS - By s p e c i a l appointment. One week advance

n o t i f i c a t i o n r e q u i r e d . ' TOURS - By s p e c i a l appointment. Two weeks advance

n o t i f i c a t i o n r e q u i r e d . ''' ' For appointments: Women should c a l l : Mrs. Ruth Weiner - 751-0025

Men should c a l l : Rabbi Peretz Gold - 861-4042 NOTE: T o i l e t r i e s and towels are reserved e x c l u s i v e l y f o r women.

FEES STRUCTURE

Women's Annual Membership (50% payable October 1 and 50% payable A p r i l 1)

Single v i s i t a t i o n and non-members Men's D a i l y Use Toveling (immersion) of dishes ~

{minimum per appointment) . Honorary Membership Conversions Synagogue Membership V i s i t a t i o n s of b r i d e s are compliments of the Community Mikvah of Rhode I s l a n d .

NOTE: A l l payments are t o be made t o the Vaad HaKashruth of Rhode I s l a n d . • ' •

The Mikvah is one of the most sacred institutions in Jewish life. Please adhere to these regulations so that we may sustain the sanctity of the institution, uphold the propriety and security of visitations and maintain the physical plant properly.

Thank You

$60.00 $7 .50 $1.00 $2.50

$36.00 $36.00

$100.00

Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part 1 by Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz

Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz have for many years worked together as a team to create oral histories from interviews with individuals of all ages involved in all kinds of enterprises in Rhode Island communities. Their interviews and commentaries have provided down-to-earth information from people reporting and reflecting on family life, work, and other activities. Here is their most recent collaboration.

Throughout the ages education has played a paramount role within the Jewish community. Study of Torah and religious texts was considered the highest good and the educated person was accorded special regard. It was the dream (too often unfulfilled) of most parents to provide the means for their sons to receive an education, to become learned. Daughters needed to know more practical things related to housewifery.

When the first Jews arrived in Providence in the decades before the Civil War, they found a school system in place for their children to attend. As early as 1800, the Rhode Island General Assembly had enacted legislation authorizing the towns to develop public schools, although few took this as a mandate. Only Providence established a permanent system that included primary and secondary grades.' In 1849 the first evening elementary school was added to the system; the opening of an evening high school did not occur until 1894.- The schools beckoned to all immigrants, especially to the thousands who arrived as refugees from Czarist oppression. The zeal for learning was now vested in secular studies, which became stepping stones to assimilation and the realization of the American Dream.

Many Jewish authors have described their experience in the public schools. Although the passage of time has idealized many of these memories, they still demonstrate the tremendous impact this education had on their lives. For the boys and young men particularly, public schools opened new vistas and wider ranges of possibilities as they sought to define their lives and find their place in the wider society. Their education at the secondary and college levels assumed priority status within families. But the female members did not enjoy the same expectation. The author Elizabeth Stem told how she had to defy her father in order to enter high school, although her brothers did not have the same problem. It was through the intervention


Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part I 533

of her mother that she was able to enroll.'

Immigrant parents did not encourage their daughters to pursue their own interests. I f there was a family business, girls and young women were expected to work within the web of the family enterprise, perhaps as a secretary or sales clerk." Few went to work in factories unless forced by financial hardships, and to attend a college, to leave home for higher education or to pursue a career, was beyond the pale. Dora Sherman had an interest in and a talent for using color that attracted the attention of her art teacher at Providence Technical High School. The teacher was instrumental in securing a scholarship to Pratt Institute for Miss Sherman, but her family would not allow her to accept i t . ' How could one permit an unmarried daughter to go away to college?

Another Jewish Rhode Island woman, who wished to remain anonymous, regretted that she had been unable to go to college. In point of fact, she had not even had the opportunity to attend a high school; typically, her parents insisted that she leave after grade eight. And Rebecca Katz (Goldman), a 1925 graduate of Hope Street High School, wanted to attend Rhode Island State College (now University of Rhode Island), but her parents would not consider her going away to school. Yet fourteen years later, her younger sister Sylvia (Factor) was permitted to study at the New England Conservatory of Music* Time and the process of Americanization helped to change traditional attitudes.

But earlier attitudes prevented most Jewish young women from obtaining a higher education. And i f attending college was prohibited, the goal of becoming trained as an elementary or high school teacher was, therefore, beyond their reach. Nevertheless, going against the traditions of that time, a small number did attend college and then became teachers, and their stories deserve to be told. The authors of this survey were fortunate to be able to interview some of the pioneer Jewish elementary school teachers in the Providence system; we shall leave the high school teachers for a later issue. These interviews show their problems, their rewards, and their courageous spirit. • -

Many of the first teachers received their first training at an evening school. The evening schools served a diverse population. An early history stated:

These schools have been found of great value in two respects: They withdraw from the streets five evenings a week a large class


of boys and girls who would otherwise be exposed to temptations, and afford opportunities for acquiring an education to many who by age and other causes are precluded from attending city school. To the immigrant population, every year increasing in the city, these schools have provided an invaluable blessing.' What prevented many young people from attending day classes (the

"other causes") was the fact that they worked up to eleven hours a day in the mills. The owners preferred the labor of children.* Furthermore, those youngsters considered "not well enough dressed to permit attendance in day schools"' were shunted into the evening classes.

But the immigrant young people and adults in the Jewish community found these schools a "blessing." The evening high school in particular found favor because "the requirements for admission and the course of study were," in the words of the superintendent's report, "identical to those of the Day High School, except for the time allowed for the completion of the course of study."'" Thus it was possible to earn a living during the day and earn a high school diploma at night, even when beginning in the elementary classes. Teachers were paid on a per diem basis, the salary of the men higher than that of the women. Class size was at least thirteen pupils, but i f attendance fell below ten, the teacher was discharged and the class consolidated with another. The superintendent was proud of this conservation of public monies.

The first Jewish teacher of record was Etta Cohen, assigned to the evening school in 1898. Save for her name and assignment for that year, her history and educational background remain unknown. Nor did the record indicate whether she taught at the elementary or secondary level. Of the twenty-two teachers with identifiable Jewish names listed between 1898 and 1920, sixteen were assigned to the evening schools, five to grammar and elementary school and one to the day high school. With rare exceptions, they did not return for a second year, and only one, Jeanette Cohen, was elevated to a day elementary school.

Why did few of the Jewish teachers listed remain on the rolls more that one year? Judith Foster has suggested one reason for this turnover: the teachers themselves, both male and female, may well have been students at nearby colleges and universities who used the stipend for their tuition and other expenses. Dr. Leo Cohen, a well-known physician in Providence for many years, was quoted in an article in the Providence Journal of February

Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Parti 535

19,1946, stating that after high school he attended Brown University for two years and financed his education by working part time as a bookkeeper and teaching in the evening school. Five others are also known to have been college students at the time of their employment: Bessie Bloom (Wessel), Pembroke College; Judah and Leon Semenoff, Brown University;" Julius Lasker, Brown University; and Jacob Gellman, Rhode Island College of Education (now RIC).'2

To Belle Boas goes the distinction of being the first of the teachers we found to receive a permanent appointment to one of the regular schools in the Providence system. A member of a family with a long connection to the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David (Temple Beth-El), she had taught in the religious school for many years before leaving in 1904, when she received her appointment to teach at the Point Street School. As recorded in the minutes of the congregation, President Simon Elias referred to her as "one of the most efficient lady teachers" and accepted her resignation with regret." Miss Boas continued teaching in the Providence system for sixteen years.

Belle Boas entered Rhode Island College of Education in 1898, shortly after it became a four year college. The college was, in the words of a former teacher, a "foot college." Students either walked or took a trolley to its location "on the hi l l" across from the State House. The school, a yellow brick edifice, had no dormitories; it attracted no foreign or out-of-state entrants. RICE had one purpose — to train teachers for the state's school systems. Nearby stood another yellow brick building housing the Henry Barnard School where the prospective teachers received their teaching experience in the classroom. With its minimal tuition fees, the college attracted young men and women, especially young women, who would otherwise be unable to obtain higher education or pursue a career.

RICE was not always the first choice, but often it was the only choice for a female high school student aspiring to higher education or a position other than sales clerk or secretary. .It was a compromise between their dreams and their reality. Although they were still reluctant to have their daughters go away for college, immigrant Jewish parents became more amenable to this local school. Estelle Goldin (Rosen) would have preferred a liberal arts college, but as it was the time of the Depression years, her choices were limited. She decided to go to RICE. Esther Millman (Rothberg) was accepted to Pembroke College (now merged with Brown University)


but was not able to attend because thefamily finances did not perniit it. Her only option, i f she wished to study beyond high school, was RICE. Dora Sherman was accepted to Pembroke College as well as Pratt Institute. She did attend Pembroke for a short time until her family realized that she could not qualify as a teacher on graduation. Since her earnings were vital to the family, she had to transfer to RICE, where she earned her degree in 1923.'* Despite their personal disappointment, all three expressed no regrets about their career in education; on the contrary, they enjoyed their teaching years.

In speaking of her aunt Sylvia Goldman (Faber) who graduated from RICE in 1921, Lynn Faber (Stepak) stated that "she always talked about her teaching days at Branch Avenue School and the people she worked with. She loved teaching." Mrs. Stepak might have been voicing her own sentiments as well as those expressed by the others interviewed. For her, it was a career she had wanted since her childhood. "When we were young," she related, "my cousin Pessy ("Pep") Goldstein (London) and I used to play school with my younger brothers and cousins. They were always the pupils and we were the teachers. We had books and papers. We took attendance and tried to imitate a real class."

Laura Leichter (Katzman), who began teaching in 1930, stated that i f she could live her life over she would follow the same path. " I always advise young people to get some education courses under their belt. You always have a satisfying job teaching. Have those courses on your record and you won't be sorry." " I loved children, and a teacher was the right thing for me to be," Dora Bazar (Dimond) added. " I always wanted to be a teacher and I always wanted to go to college. People around me thought I was silly because I could get a job as a secretary right away. But I waited until I could teach."

Zara Brody (Matzner) taught in the kindergartens at the Summit Avenue and Sackett Street schools. "She loved teaching," her daughter Deborah Tumey stated." She taught for seven years until her marriage. Even after she no longer taught, she continued to take an interest in education and taught in the Sunday School of her temple (Beth El)." As a kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Matzner had to know how to play the piano. It was one of the prerequisites. Mrs. Tumey recalled that when she was doing her own practicum, her mother came to visit. She brought flowers and played the piano for the students, which delighted them.

Mrs. Rothberg described the program for preparing teachers. Students


Esther Millman Rothberg, Pontiac School, Warwick, RI, 1976.

did practice teaciiing at Henry Barnard School. During their senior year, they 'student taught' for one semester as 'pupil teachers', then returned to the college for the remainder of the term. After graduation came 'city training' for which they received a stipend of $60 each month. When hired, a teacher served a three-year probationary period. Mrs. Dimond recalled that she received $1000 in annual salary. However, Mrs. Rothberg recalled that when she began teaching five years later (1935) the country was deep in the Depression. Police, firemen and teachers all had to take pay cuts, and she received only $900 for the year. "Another teacher and I both did our student teaching at the Vineyard Street School. We had rooms across from each other. Our supervisor haunted us," Mrs. Rothberg recalled. She was later assigned to the Broad Street School for her city training.

"1 did my student teaching at Sackett Street School," Mrs. Stepak said. "It was very unusual in a way because I had my brother in my class. We lived on Gallatin Street and I could go home for lunch. I taught fourth grade. My supervisor was wonderful. We had to make up lesson plans, which was right in my line. I always like to make plans to know what I am going to do. It was not a difficult chore. We used to have auditorium programs on Friday


afternoons. The classes alternated putting them on, so I was involved a couple of times. The students really looked forward to them."

Mrs. Dimond remembered the only time her supervisor offered a criticism. She was teaching fifth and sixth-grade students. "You remember the knitted suits women wore," she said. One day I was wearing a knitted suit and it was clingy. My supervisor said to me that these children are almost adolescents, so you better not wear clingy things. So I stopped wearing anything that might be considered clingy."

Frieda Feldman (Goodman) did her student teaching in Somerville, Massachusetts, and then returned home to Providence to seek employment. Contrary to prevailing attitudes, Mrs. Goodman's parents had permitted her to attend die New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. A student of violin, she had no plans to become a teacher until she went to a concert. Yehudi Menuhin, then a youngster in knee pants, was the soloist. His performance, she said, so impressed her that she changed her whole course of study. In comparing her ability as a violinist to that of Menuhin, she knew she could never hope to equal his expertise. After that conclusion, she decided to become a public school teacher.

Mrs. Goodman was sent by the head of the music department for the Providence schools. Dr. Butterfield, to Marion (Mrs. Caesar) Misch. Marion Simon Misch, a patron of music and member of the Providence School Committee from 1925 to 1939 (the first Jewish member of the committee had been Abe V. FUnt, appointed in 1921-22), interviewed Mrs. Goodman, but because of financial constraints in the school system, she could not offer her a permanent placement. Instead, Mrs. Goodman filled in wherever there was a temporary need for a music teacher. Although she said that she enj oyed the children and the work, she found that her inexperience and youth led to difficulty in adjusting to overcrowded classes and coping with apathetic students. Music was not a priority for them.

As a teacher, Mrs. Tumey reported, her mother felt strongly that she had to offer a positive role model for her students. She taught them respect and courtesy by her own example. When a principal or a guest entered her classroom, Mrs. Matzner always rose and had the children stand as a mark of respect. She herself always acted courteously toward her students and expected that they act the same way toward each other. "She believed," Mrs. Tumey said, "in a stmcture in which a child could adapt and grow and allow his/her creativity to come forth."

Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Parti 539

Al l who spoke with us felt that as teachers they were held in high esteem by the parents. Three taught in schools where most of the students were Itahan, usually immigrants whose parents very much wanted their children to succeed. Mrs. Faber spoke glowingly to her niece about how she was received at the Branch Avenue School, while Mrs. Rothberg spoke of a parent-teacher conference where one parent among those assembled arose and said "First God, then the teacher." Mrs. Dimond told the story of Armando, who liked to tap his foot in class. The others would soon join in, making for a noisy, disruptive classroom. Finally she wrote to the parents. Armando and his father came to school, his father said something in Italian, and the boy took her hand and kissed it. It was his apology, and from that time forth, he not only behaved but came to school early to dust and wash her blackboards. She had the cleanest classroom in the building. In later years, Mrs. Dimond patronized his fruit store. He always stopped whatever he was doing to wait on "Miss Bazar."

Mrs. Katzman had thirty-eight students in her classroom, six rows across and up plus two more. "The room was small. They were practically hanging from the chandeliers, or would i f there were chandeliers. I always tried to get the children out of the confines of the classroom by organizing projects like teaching them about the Fourth Estate. They had to choose someone to interview, make an appointment, and then report on it. There were also thank you letters and an invitation to visit the class. I tried to interest them in the world outside. They were part of something larger than a classroom. I taught grades five and six at Thayer Street School. Those were hard times. Many of my students went to the Salvation Army nearby for lunch."

Despite the fact that class sizes were large, discipline was not a problem, owing in large part to the respectful attitude of the parents. "There were forty-eight students in my classes, six rows, eight across, and every seat was filled," Mrs. Rothberg stated. "My first job was at Veazie Street School. Julia Berlin also taught there. It was a platoon school, organized like a junior high school in some respects, except that the teachers went from room to room. We had specialty teachers. I taught reading and penmanship to fifth and sixth-grade students, and I had a sixth-grade home room. One day the librarian told me she was going to leave and did I want to take over her job. I did, so I went to the Providence Public Library two mornings a week for tutoring and later to Columbia University for Library Science. I had charge


of the Ubrary from 1940-1943.1 really had charge of two libraries— one at Veazie and one at the Candace Street School. We had an hour and half for lunch then. When I finished at Veazie Street in the morning, I would take the street car downtown to meet my sister Bea at Shepherd's Tea Room, or meet a friend for lunch. Then I would take another street car to Candace Street School for the afternoon."

Mrs. Dimond remembered her teaching experience as wonderful. "Windmill Street School had just opened. I taught there for five years. Our principal was Mr. Dunleavy, a wonderful man. Windmill was a new departure in schools. It was beautiful. There was a little pond in the basement where the kindergarten children learned about fish and the eggs they lay. Upstairs there was a solarium for the children who were not well. There was a lot of sun and light for them.

" I had fifty children in my class but discipline was not a problem. I was able to divide the class and give more attention to the children who needed it more. I taught everything from music to art to arithmetic. Because of music I almost did not get to be a teacher. In order to teach songs, you had to be able to sing and I was a little off key, which means that the children would be singing off key because they listen to you and sing what you sing. But I made it." - ' - ^ • ' • -

Stella Simons (Glassman) also trained as an elementary school teacher. When she applied for a position at the time of her graduation, she found that there were few openings. The Depression had grown deeper and funds for school were not forthcoming. Mrs. Glassman did substitute teaching until 1939, when she obtained an appointment as a gym teacher. " I am a very unathletic person, but there was this opening, and I took it. The men teachers were being called up to the National Guard and the armed forces, and the school department was in need of gym teachers. I lasted one year, and then found a classroom position where I taught fifth and sixth grades. Esther Lecht followed the same path, from gym teacher to classroom because accepting this position was a point of entry for an aspiring teacher. 1 took the civil service exam for social workers in 1942 and did not return to teaching until 1961."

Although they did not wish to retire, it was mandatory for women teachers to leave the profession as soon as they married. The one exception to the rule was the case of a widow. Dora Dimond was sorely disappointed that she could not continue doing the work she loved. She had to retire in


1937. "1 thought I could get married and continue to teach afterwards, but I was told 'No, you couldn't.' I f you were a man, you could because you would be the head of a family. But a married woman had a husband to support her. I did not even have the opportunity to sub. They just took me off the list."

Esther Rothberg was able to do substitute teaching because World War I I brought on a shortage of teachers. She was asked to return to Veazie Street to sub. When one of the teachers fell i l l , she took over her class. It was a long-term situation, but she was paid only the $5 per diem that substitutes earned.

Eva Greenblatt (Warner) taught at Oxford Street School, but her teaching career was cut short when she married.'' Esther Goldsmith (Press) was teaching at Point Street School, when she and Israel Press decided to become engaged. Unwilling to leave the career she liked so well, she and her fiance hit upon a novel plan. They eloped to Poughkeepsie, New York, where a rabbi married them. Instead of setting up their own home, they lived with the Goldsmith family to preserve their secret. Since diere was no public knowledge of their marriage, Mrs. Press was able to continue teaching until 1941. At that time, Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith sent out announcements to family and friends of the marriage of their daughter Esther to Israel Press.'*

The teachers interviewed all had to leave the profession when they married. Mrs. Rothberg, Mrs. Press, Mrs. Rosen, and Mrs. Glassman all returned to teaching at a later date, but not in the Providence system. After the Second World War, the rule against married female teachers was eventually relaxed, opening the way for women to make teaching a lifelong career. Also, as the immigrant generation became more 'Americanized,' the prejudice against girls getting an education beyond grade eight and beyond high school began to dissipate. The opportunities for teaching at pubhc schools, and the working conditions, are now far better than they were during the early years of the twentieth century. Now we look back with admiration at the persistence, love of learning, and ingenuity that typified these intrepid Jewish ladies who taught school in Providence.


Interviews Lynn Faber Stepak April 10, 2002 Zelda Bank Feldman April 23, 2002 Deborah Matzner Tumey April 23, 2002 (telephone) Grace Alpert May 21, 2002 Hinda Semenoff June 12, 2002 (telephone) Esther Millman Rothberg June 19, 2002 (telephone) Stella Simons Glassman June 19, 2002 (telephone) Frieda Feldman Goodman June 22, 2002 (telephone) Dora Bazar Dimond June 28, 2002 Laura Leichter Katzman July 1, 2002 (telephone) Barbara Haroian July 3, 2002 (telephone) Estelle Goldin July 11, 2002 (letter)

Notes ' Peter J. Coleman, The Transformation of Rhode Island, 7790-7860 (Providence: Brown

University Press, 1969), p. 238. ^ Report of the School Committee, 1899-1900 (Providence: Snow, Famham, City

Printers, 1901). See also Manuals of the Providence Schools, 1925-1940; and Reports of the Meetings of the School Committee of Providence, 1898-1925.

' Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1976), pp. 267-68.

^ Howe, p. 58. ' From the interview with Grace Alpert. * Providence Sunday Journal, Sept. 21, 1986, p. 218. ' Report of the School Committee, 1899-1900, p. 88. ' Coleman, p. 233. ' Report of the School Committee, 1899-1900, p. 88.

Report, p. 90. " Eleanor F. Horvitz, "Old Bottles, Rags, Junk! The Story of the Jews of Soudi

Providence," RIJHA Notes, Vol. 7 (1976), p. 232. '2 RICE Yearbook, 1923. " Seebert J. Goldowsky, A Century and a Quarter of Spiritual Leadership (Providence:

Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David, 1989), p. 177. " From the interview with Grace Alpert. " From the interview with Barbara Haroian.

Eleanor F. Horvitz and Geraldine S. Foster, "Women Ahead of Their Time," Part 2, RIJHA Notes, Vol. 12 (1996), pp. 242-43.


Appendix From the Records of the Providence School Committee

Year Name Assignment

1898 Etta Cohen Evening School 1904 Belle Boas Grammar and Elementary (Point St. School) 1906 Bessie E . Bloom (Wessel) Evening School 1907 Eva R. Greenblatt Grammar & Elementary (Oxford St. School) 1908 Sarah Shapiro Grammar School

Julius H. Lasker Evening School 1909 Matilda Cohen Evening School

May Elovitz Evening School 1910 Leo Cohen Evening School

Leon H. Semonoff Evening School Judah Semonoff Evening School

1912 Selma Pick Evening School Ismar Baruch Evening School

1913 Esther Bloom Evening School 1915 May Guny Grammar School

Sarah Cohen Common Evening School Ada Cohen Common Evening School Jeanette Cohen Common Evening School (1917, appointed to

Grammar School and Primary School) 1917 Elsie Tatz Grammar and Primary School

Edna B. Weinstein High School 1919 Selma Marcus Evening Technical School 1920 Jacob Gellman Evening School 1921 Sylvia M. Goldman Unassigned (appointed to Elementary School)

Sarah Fradin Grammar and Elementary School Rose Presel High School Gaston Weinstein High School

1922 Gertrude Grossman Unassigned Jacob Gellman Common Evening School Molly N. Rubinstein High School

1924 Fannie Brodsky Unassigned (appointed to Elementary School) Grace D. Shein High School

1925 Lillian Blumenthal Student Teacher Manuel Bloom Commercial High School Fannie Brodsky Knight St. School Stella Cohen Common Evening School Sarah Fradin Webster Ave. School Mollie N. Gershman Student teacher Sylvia M. Goldman Branch Ave. School


Beatrice Posner Rose Presel Bella Rubinstein Allen J. Strauss Ruth Zellermayer

1930 Dora A. Bazar Julia Y. Berlin Manuel Bloom Lillian Blumenthal Fannie Brodsky Marion N. Brooks Anne Chemick Anna E . Cohen Katherine Cohen (Mrs.) Martha Colitz Ethel M. Fish Sarah Fradin Sarah L . Goldman Pearl E . Grossman Sarah 1. Grossman Laura Leichter Rose Levinson Rose Presel Bella Rubinstein Ann Schwartz Dora Sherman Bertha Snell Elsie Tatz Leo Weiss

1935 Victor Abrams Sarah Baker Dora Bazar Hannah Bergel Julia Berlin Florence Blacher Manuel Bloom Lillian Blumenthal Zara Brody Edward Charon Benjamin Clamon Evelyn Cohen Martha Colitz 1. Stanley Corb Sarah Deluty

Thayer St. School Hope St. High School Temporary: Technical High School Evening High School Laurel Hill School Unassigned Veazie St. School Commercial High School Kelly St. School Temple St. School Hope St. High School Greeley St. School Evening School Helper: Commercial High School Physical Education Commercial High School Academy Ave. School Unassigned: Teacher of Shorthand/Typing Candace St. School Technical High School Sackett St. School Bridgham St. School Hope St. High School Technical High School Bridgham Jr. High School West Jr. High School Student Teacher

Point St. School Technical High School

Central High School Windmill St. School Unassigned Veazie St. School Student Teacher Central High School Smith St. School Kenyon St. School Bridgham Jr. High School Classical High School Clerk: Elementary School Physical Education Greene Jr. High School Unassigned


Year Name Assignment

1935 Ethel Fish (cont.) Helen Ginsburg

Esther Grossman Sarah Grossman Selma Katz Irving Katznelson Lillian Kelman Louis I. Kramer Rosalie Krickstein Florence Kwasha Laura E . Leichter Pearl I. Miller Esther Millman Matthew Millman Max I. Millman Bernard Oster Rose Presel Bella Rubinstein Joseph Shein Grace D. Shein Dora Sherman Sara Sohn Anne Troberman Leo Weiss Laura Winograd

1940 Florence Blacher Abraham Bloom Lillian Blumenthal Edward Charon Walter Chucnin Benjamin Clamon Rose Cleinman Martha Colitz I. Stanley Corb Max Flaxman Bertha Friedman Helen Ginsburg Esther Goldsmith Pessy I. Goldstein Esther Grossman Sarah Grossman Sadie Kasper

Central High School Student Teacher Harris Ave. School Central High School Williams Jr. High School Hope St. High School Annex Central High School Classical High School Student Teacher

Student Teacher Oxford St. School Student Teacher Veazie St. School Hope St. High School Annex Wilhams Jr. High School Student Teacher Hope St. High School

Central High School Hope St. High School Central High School West Jr. High School Perry Jr. High School Bridgham Jr. High School Hope St High School Annex Student Teacher Williams Jr. High School Williams Jr. High School Smith Street School Bishop Jr. High School Bishop Jr. High School Classical High School Ralph St. School Central High School Greene Jr. High School Hopkins Jr. High School Clerk: Jr. Placement (Federal Funding) Hammond St. School Lexington Ave. School Student teacher Harris Ave School

Mount Pleasant High School Unassigned


Selma Katz Irving Katznelson Lillian Kelman Eva Korenbaum Louis 1. Kramer Florence Kwasha Herman Lantner Esther G. Lecht Irene Margolis Harry Markowitz Esther Millman Matthew Millman Max I. Millman Sophie Naimark Bernard Oster Rose Presel Lillian Reich Bella Rubinstein Joseph Schein Dora Sherman Stella Simons Sara Sohn Harold Stanzler William Stepak Sophie Tarsky Elsie Tatz hving Wallick Leo Weiss

Stuart Jr. High School Central High School Central High School Kenyan St. School Classical High School Kenyon St. School Student Teacher Physical Education Clerk: Bishop Jr. High School Music teacher Candace and Veazie St. Schools Hope St. High School Greene Jr. High School Unassigned Bridgham Jr. High School Hope St. School Unassigned Central High School Hope St. High School Mt. Pleasant High School Physical Education/ Elementary Perry Jr. High School Central High School Hope High School Clerk: Hope St. High School Windmill St. School Unassigned Hope St. High School

Rhode Island Jewish and Catholic Press Coverage of Civil Rights, 1954-1965

by Lauren Antler

According to Nicole Herschenhous, in her article entitled "The Response of the Providence Jewish Community to Events in Prewar Germany, 1935 to 1939" (Notes, Vol. 13, No. 1, 1999), the Jewish community of Providence, as reflected in The Jewish Herald, did not respond aggressively to Hitler's prewar anti-Semitism. Her essay indicates that Jews have not always been leaders in the fight for social justice, despite their reputation to the contrary. Lauren Antler makes a similar point in regard to the civil right events in the American South, 1954-1965. Ms. Antler argues that the Catholic press of Providence gave more evidence of an active liberal conscience than did the Jewish press. Her essay, like Professor Luconi's, calls extensively upon local newspaper accounts to contradict common scholarly beliefs regarding views supposedly held by segments of the Rhode Island population. Another historical myth deflated!

Ms. Antler, a recent graduate of Brown University (Magna Cum Laude) with a major in history, teaches elementary school in the Mississippi Delta in the Teach for America program. She is is one of two authors to share this year's award for excellent writing. In order to promote research on Jewish subjects among local college students, the RIJHA sponsors, with significant funding, an annual essay competition, the Horvitz Prize. Our Association and its journal have benefited immensely from the scholarly efforts of these talented and thoughtful young people.

Introduction This study wil l take a comparative look at civil rights coverage between

1954 and 1965 by the Jewish and Catholic newspapers of Rhode Island, The Rhode Island Jewish Herald and The Providence Visitor (official newspaper of the Diocese of Providence). Attention wil l also be paid to changes in such coverage over the course of these eleven years. The study wil l focus on coverage of three turning points in the modem struggle for African-American civil rights: 1) the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision of 1954; 2) the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the death of Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwemer in the summer of 1964; and 3) the march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965.


Jewish and Catholic Press Coverage of Civil Rights 549

To examine Jewish civil rights activity in a vacuum does not tell us very much. For example, to argue that "Jews were motivated by religious persuasion to fight for civil rights" is praiseworthy, but it does not point to a uniquely Jewish motivation. In fact, civil rights workers of numerous denominations were motivated by the morality of their respective religions to engage in this struggle. A comparative analysis allows us to understand what was particular to the Jewish fight for civil rights. It allows us to gain some perspective on this activity by comparing Jews to another minority group.

Catholics provide an interesting point of comparison for Jews on a number of levels. Both are religious minorities who have suffered from discrimination at particular points in their history in this country. Both Jews and Roman Catholics share similar immigration histories in Rhode Island. Therefore, a comparative analysis of the local press coverage in these two communities can provide insight into the contributions made by each group to the discussion on civil rights, and place each group's activity in a larger context.

I embarked on my research with the assumption that the Jewish press would have more extensive coverage of civil rights, as Jews are believed to have been at the forefront of this struggle. On the other hand, I expected the Catholic press to have relatively less coverage of civil rights and a particularly conservative stance on issues of race. To my surprise, I found the Visitor to have much more extensive coverage of civil rights events and legislation between 1954 and 1965, and a more liberal discourse on race than the Rhode Islarui Jewish Herald. How can we explain these surprising discoveries?

Jews and Liberalism The Jewish-American community's fascination with liberalism has

been long celebrated by historians and other scholars. Tom Wolfe, a prominent writer and commentator on contemporary America, paints a caricature of American Jews in his story, "Radical Chic," which encompasses many of the stereotypes of the northern Jewish experience:

Politically, Jews have been unique among the groups that came to New York in the great migrations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many such groups, of course, were left or


liberal during the first generation, but as families began to achieve wealth, success, or simply security, they tended to grow more and more conservative in philosophy. The Irish are a case in point. But forced by twentieth- as well as nineteenth-century history to remain on guard against right-wing movements, even wealthy and successful Jewish families have tended to remain faithful to their original Hberal-left world view.'

Despite their skyrocketing up the American social ladder between 1932 and 1975, and the virtual disappearance of anti-Semitism as a dominant force in American life, American Jews have, according to Wolfe, remained committed to a strategy of political liberalism.^

Repeating this point. Marc Dollinger, in his book. Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modem America, notes that beginning with the 1932 presidential election "that launched the modem liberal state," American Jews have voted Democratic more than any other white ethnic group.^ In 1932, 82% of the Jewish vote was in favor of Roosevelt, and in 1940 a striking 90% of the Jewish vote was in favor of this New Deal candidate. In the 1950s and early '60s, when the nation "turned to the right," Jews remained firm in their liberal stance as they v/araed about the evils of McCarthyism and delivered unprecedented financial and physical support for African-American civil rights workers. In 1961, roughly two-thirds of all white freedom riders were Jewish, and in 1964, over one third of the volunteers in the Mississippi Freedom Summer voter registration campaign were Jewish." So in proportion to their numbers in the American population, Jews have, seemingly, been overly represented in liberal causes throughout the twentieth century.

Jewish commitment to liberalism has also been explored in a large body of literature that celebrates the special bond between the Jewish and black communities in the years preceding 1965. A historical sympathy with the oppressed, optimism that the Jewish experience could be replicated for other minorities, the centrality of tzedakah (charity), and a morality based on the defense of racial equality are some of the factors that have been provided to explain the unique sense of Jewish connection with blacks.' For northem Jews, a commitment to the civil rights movement had personal benefits as well; a nation that was committed to securing the rights of African-Americans would certainly guarantee the civil rights and social inclusion of Jews.

i


The widespread conception of Jews as a radical minority partially stems from the traditions of its communal press. As Silverman notes in The Religious Press in America, "no sector of American Jewish joumahsm calls up as many nostalgic associations or summarizes an era as neatly as does the Yiddish Press."* Following the massive immigration of Eastern European Jews to the United States between 1880-1920, nearly all the newly-founded Yiddish weeklies or dailies had a "radical political intent." However, as Jews became acculturated into American society, and as second- and third-generations began to outnumber first-generation immigrants, the radical Yiddish press lost its rationale for existence. Denominational papers and synagogue bulletins became the primary instruments of the Jewish press in the postwar years. According to Silverman, "the fundamental weakness of the congregational bulletin is its evident parochialism."' The Jewish press that emerged in Yiddish in the 1880s was a liberal medium through which vexing problems of society could be explored; then in the postwar years, the Jewish press became dominated by parochial publications, signifying a shift in the purpose of communal pubhcation as well as a marked decline in liberal public discourse.

As Dollinger notes, it is important to "challenge the popular belief that equates Judaism with liberaUsm ... American Jewish politics cannot be viewed as absolute: liberalism was not always the answer."* Class issues, national origin, and regionalism all had impact on Jewish political opinions. Following Dollinger's argument, this study intends to question the assumption of liberalism that is so often applied to northeastern American Jews.

Catholics and Conservatism Just as the historiographic picture of the American Jewish community

has been intimately linked with liberalism, the historiographic picture of American Catholics is traditionally linked withconservatism. David O' Brian concluded in his study of Church social policy during the New Deal by describing the Church leadership as "still quite narrow in social outiook, and the efforts by some Catholics to change this as 'novelties.'"' In the years of the New Deal, just as the Jewish community was securing its reputation in the liberal camp, Catholics were cementing an identity associated with conservatism. In the postwar world, American Catholics found the expansion of Soviet power alarming. They saw communism not merely as a political philosophy hostile to religion in general, but as a "veritable Antichrist movement, dedicated to the destruction of Christianity."'" For


much of the twentieth century, then. Catholic leaders at all levels warned parishioners and clergy of the dangers in encounters with other faiths or political systems." A small but significant proportion of the Catholic population was only an exception to this rule.

Then, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a wave of liberalizing activity took place in the Catholic community. Catholic liberals, who knew well that their behavior often contradicted formal Church positions, became less hesitant to organize and involve themselves in disputes. The conjunction of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the civil rights movement marked fundamental changes in American Catholic culture in the sixties. The primary changes at least introduced by Vatican 11 included a shift of the Church from 1) a hierarchical to a servant church, 2) an institution apart from the world to one intimately concerned with modem life, particularly issues of civil rights, and 3) a Westem to a more global Church.'^

Despite the widespread liberalizing activity of the Catholic community in these years, however. Catholics were significantly underrepresented on the front lines of the civil rights stmggle. Compared to mainstream Protestant or Jewish groups. Catholic liberals by the summer of 1962 viewed their contributions to the civil rights struggle as minimal. Large segments of the Catholic population repudiated the freedom rides, sit-ins, and picketing of the Southem civil rights stmggle. In 1962, one of nine Catholics who traveled to Alabama in support of a local civil rights campaign declared embarrassingly that "Catholics have been conspicuously absent from the front lines of the struggle in the South."'^ In spite of the changing ideologies of the Vatican and some community leaders and members. Catholic lay citizens remained significantly underrepresented in civil rights activity in the south, prior to the Selma campaign. This served to solidify the classical conception of Catholics as conservative.

In fact, the conservative ideological position of Catholics seemed to be written in stone, just as the contrary position seemed to characterize the Jewish population. But just as this study intends to qualify one assumption, so will it qualify the other, avoiding a simple historical identification of Catholics with conservatism or Jews with liberalism. This study wil l reveal that Catholic communities throughout the 1950s and '60s had the potential to become radicalized on race issues, even before the Vatican I I decisions were made. It also illustrates that, at least in the case of Providence,


Catholics were more successful than their Jewish counterparts in putting forward community publications that were extremely liberal on the issues of race and civil rights.

1954: Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision is often

hailed as the beginning of the modem civil rights movement. The Brown decision reversed the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson doctrine of "separate but equal" on the grounds that "separate education facilities are inherently unequal," concluding that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place."'* The landmark Brown decision served as the precedent not only for declaring any state-imposed segregation unconstitutional, but served to raise African-American aspirations and expectations. Brown promised the true beginnings of an inteiTacial society with equal educational opportunities for black children throughout the nation. With structural changes in place made by the courts, great hope for progress in civil rights was bom in the African-American community.

Despite the tremendous significance of this event in our nation's history, on May 17th, 1954, the morning newspapers gave no hint that a groundbreaking decision would be announced. Most joumalists in Washington focused on the consequences of a French loss of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, on the outcome of the Army-McCarthy hearings, and on the chances for more rain. By this point, the Court mling on segregation was so overdue that many forgot its imminence. The Supreme Court originally heard the oral arguments of five black elementary and high school students, combined and docked under the name of Oliver Brown, the first plaintiff on the Hst, on December 9,1952. For years, the Court remained relatively silent on the issue. On the moming of May 17th, 1954, even those joumalists seated in the chamber of the Supreme Court did not anticipate that the segregation decision would be announced when the court convened at noon.'*

Perhaps this initial dearth of national media coverage can explain the Herald's lack of immediate attention to the Brown decision. On May 21, the leading headUne in the Herald advertised Mrs. Roosevelt's scheduled appearance to speak at an upcoming community dinner." No attention was paid to civil rights in this edition. In fact, in the remaining days and months of 1954, only one article in the Herald explicitiy addressed civil rights. On October 29, 1954, a headline on the bottom of page one read "Panel to


Discuss Racial Segregation." The highlight of the upcoming JCC monthly meeting was to be "a discussion on the timely subject o f segregation in schools.' * James Rhea, an African-American staff writer for the Providence Journal-Bulletin, was to be the featured speaker at the event. Speakers from the local Anti-Defamation League, as well as the regional director for the National Conference of Christians and Jews, were scheduled to appear. It is evident from this panel discussion that the Rhode Island Jewish community was interested in issues of civil rights, so the Herald's alarming lack of civil rights coverage in 1954, following the Brown decision, was surprising.

The absence of discourse on the Brown decision in the Herald complicates the commonly celebrated depiction of northem Jews as advocates of civil rights. Marc Dollinger notes that "northem Jews rejoiced after the Brown hearing":

At its convention only days after the historic mling, the Conservative Movement's Rabbinical Assembly congratulated "the Supreme Court of the United States on its historic decision. . . ." The Reform movement's rabbinic organization announced that it "views with satisfaction the historic decision of the United States Supreme Court. . . ." It hailed the mling "as a profound victory of our prophetic tradition and as eloquent expression of the faith of all Americans in the basic justice of our democratic system."''̂

It is evident that at least the leadership of the Reform and Conservative rabbinical associations was vocal in its positive reinforcement and support of the Brown decision. The Rhode Island Jewish community, on the other hand, as reflected in its primary community publication, did not appear to be "rejoicing" in light of this decision, or i f it was, its local press did not reflect this excitement. This subdued coverage of Brown complicates the monohthic liberahsm often applied to all northeastern Jews.

The Herald's, marked lack of coverage of the Brown decision is particularly surprising when juxtaposed with the local Catholic community newspaper. The Providence Visitor, whose editors paid significant attention to this event. While the Herald contained no reference to the Brown decision until October 29th, the leading headline of the May 20th Visitor, three days after the Court mling, read "Catholics Hail Racial Verdict."^" Wired from the National Cathohc Welfare Council News Service (abbreviated as NCWC or NC) in Washington, this article took a positive look at the Supreme Court decision, and celebrated the leading role of the Catholic


community in the integration of American schools. The author noted that "heretofore parochial schools have set the lead in breaking down traditional race barriers, and the consensus amongst students ... is that they wil l continue to do so... A number of Bishops and Archbishops have set the example for the integration of the public schools" in the District of Columbia and San Antonio.^'

This article cites a number of priests and Catholic community leaders who framed their struggle for civil rights in religious terms. Father Maurice V. Sheen commented that "we feel that these efforts wil l speed the day when justice and charity prevail in all phases of our life, and feel sure that these programs wil l be developed in the light of our Faith and the democratic principles of our country." And George K. Hunton, secretary of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York, noted that "as Catholics, we feel extremely proud of the fact that among the original pioneers in integration in education have been many of our Catholic colleges and universities in the South."^^ Statements made by the Catholic Committee of the South, welcoming the Brown decision in "speeding the day when justice and charity wi l l be developed in light of our faith and the democratic principles of our country," are strikingly similar to statements made by the American rabbinic associations. Although the parochial press coverage differed markedly, a sense of religious duty in driving civil rights support was a crucial factor in both the Jewish and Catholic clerical responses to the struggle.

Throughout the spring and fall of 1954, the Visitor frequentiy featured stories on issues of race and civil rights. One of the leading stories on June 10* was entitied "Race Council 20 Years Old. New York Organization Holds Anniversary Program." The story celebrated the founding of the Catholic Interracial Council of New York and twenty-four similar organizations throughout the country: throughout its twenty-year existence, the Catholic Interracial Council "endeavored to inform non-Catholic Negroes on Catholic doctrines relating to interracial justice and to stimulate a wider interest in racial problems among both white and Negro Catholics."^^ On June 24, a headUne reading "Negroes Laud Racial Stand" celebrated the role of the Catholic Interracial Council in advancing race issues as a "moral, ethical, and spiritual" problem.̂ "* On October 7th, page 16 of the Visitor contained the story "Church Schools Complete Removal of Race Barriers." Presented in this article was a summary of the resuks of NCWC survey on what action Cadiolic schools had taken in areas where segregation was


enforced by the law. The editor of the Vw/tor noted, as a preface to this story, that "in virtually every case the CathoUc school systems were well ahead of the civil educators in the integration picture; that in many instances where the public schools were just beginning to move toward desegregation ... the parochial schools had been successfully integrated for years."

On October 31, a story on page 3, wired via NC from Pittsburgh, cited the Courier, the largest African-American publication in the nation, in its praise of Catholic schools for their leadership in spearheading integration in their communities.^^ An NC wire on November 18th praised a Black Catholic convert for his attainment of a government award for "outstanding benefactors to humanity."^* The December 7th edition of the Visitor cited, along with other entertainment news of the week, the local Interracial Council's sponsorship of the "Blackfriar play, 'City of Kings."'^'

The Providence Visitor's coverage of race issues, civil rights, and school integration was remarkable. It obscured the common depiction of Catholics as conservative and "generally less liberal racially than [their] Protestant" and Jewish counterparts.** To find that the Catholic paper was filled with articles on the struggle for racial equality, while the Jewish paper had virtually nothing on this issue, may come as a surprise to some observers. The timing of these articles was particularly interesting. While changes in church behavior after the Second Vatican Council, which occurred between 1962 and 1965, encouraged the Catholic community to take a more activist stance on civil rights, clearly this dialogue on civil rights was already widespread, at least among Providence Catholics as reflected in their publications several years before. It becomes clear that the changes in church behavior, as articulated at Vatican I I , had roots at the conununity level which long preceded these decrees. • o r . , '

The Summer of 1964: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Death of Jewish Freedom Fighters Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed by Congress on July 2, 1964, induced by the cajoling, intimidation, and persistence of President Lyndon B. Johnson. This act was the most comprehensive civil rights bill in the nation's history, and the first effective civil rights bill since Reconstruction.^' The bill created a Fair Employment Practices Committee and banned discrimination in public accommodations, as well as employment, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.^° It authorized the government to withhold funds from public authorities practicing racial


discrimination, and gave the Attorney General injunctive powers in cases involving school segregation as well as voting rights.'' This groundbreaking bill was the first in a wave of legislation which collectively became known as Johnson's Great Society, a package of legal texts promising to create a more democratic nation.

In the summer of 1964, nearly nine hundred volunteers organized for the Mississippi Freedom Summer. Most of the volunteers — one third women, average age twenty-one — hailed from the northeast, especially New York State.'̂ Primarily from prestigious universities, these highly idealistic and liberal young whites joined Bob Moses of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in a massive campaign to register disenfranchised African-Americans in the Deep South. On June 15, the first three hundred of these volunteers headed to Mississippi. Nearly a week later, the news was announced that three freedom fighters had disappeared after leaving Meridian, Mississippi to investigate a church burning in Neshoba County. President Johnson ordered a massive search for these civil rights workers, and six weeks later federal agents uncovered their bodies. Two of these volunteers — Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwemer — were Jewish. Both hailed from New York, and were killed by single bullets shot through their hearts. Chancy, the third freedom fighter to disappear and the sole African-American, had been beaten with a chain and shot three times. Al l three bodies were buried with a bulldozer.'^ The shock and horrific nature of these murders changed the temper of the southem freedom stmggle, unleashing despair, fmstration and rage that had been slowly building among southem blacks for years. In addition, the loss of two northem youths resonated particularly strongly with the northem establishment. . - , . r

Also shocking, however, was the Herald's lack of coverage of the civil rights stmggle in 1964; it did not report on the disappearance of Goodman and Schwemer. No articles in the June or July editions convey the impact of this loss. There was also a notable lack of discussion on the Civil Rights Bil l in the 1964 summer editions of the Herald. Perhaps this omission should not be surprising, in light of the largely apolitical nature of the paper as a whole. Generally speaking, when political events were reported, the articles tended to focus on intemarional issues related to Israel or anti-Semitism abroad.

Yet while discussion of civil rights policy was minimal, there was a significant increase, as compared to the Herald of late 1954, in the discus-


sion of race. This increased coverage of racial issues was still sparse, however, and it was divided between conflicting depictions of African-Americans. On one hand, this dialogue painted a negative picture of African-Americans. The increasing popularity of black Nationalist and militant organizations in the mid-1960s signaled the disintegration of a supposed black-Jewish alliance. On June 5th, the Herald ran a story from New York entitled "Experience of Jews can provide Lessons to Negroes, Says Malcolm X." This article reports on Malcolm X's admiration "tiie great Jewish historical tradition," which, he argued, served as an important lesson for African-Americans who "have no sense of cultural or historical identity because ... their historic connections with Africa were destroyed by the slave owners."

Such comments aside, throughout the article a hostility to Malcolm X is obvious. "It is widely believed by members of the Jewish community," it noted, "that Malcolm is not only an anti-Semite but is to a large extent responsible for the reputed anti-Semitism that is said to flourish in Harlem."'"* In the same vein, an article in the July 31 Herald reported "Hundreds of Jewish Stores Looted in Brooklyn Riots."'^ This negative depiction of African-Americans as dangerous is noteworthy, particularly in a state with a relatively low African-American population—Rhode Island had an African-American population of only 2.1 percent while New York state had a black population of 8.4 percent."^ It seems likely that the "picture" that the Jewish media painted of African-Americans would have a significant impact on this population.

On the other hand, an article on July 17th paints a very different picture of black-Jewish relations. Entitled "So much in common: Jews and Negroes," this article was reprinted from the Workmen's Circle Call in July 1964. Contrary to the article on Malcolm X in the preceding week and the story on looting in Brooklyn the following week, this piece articulates a relationship of cooperation and harmony between Jews and blacks. Written by James Farmer, the national director of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE), the article comments on the shared identification of Jews and blacks:

It is this concept [of oppression] that makes us brothers . . . . Everywhere the battlelines are drawn against oppression in any form The Jews, with their ancient, ethical traditions, understand this truth better than most peoples, and this explains ... why in our


country they have been so prominent in the struggle for civil rights. We have developed out of different backgrounds, but we have in common a heritage of oppression and pain that has made us peculiarly sensitive to injustice in any form.

Farmer certainly does not fail to acknowledge the growing militancy of the black community, the anti-Semitism of the African-American community, or racist sentiments in the Jewish community. "But," he concludes, "these expressions of bigotry are not in the least representative of our respective communities."

Yet the Visitor, repeating its extensive coverage of the Brown v. Board of Education verdict, again proved to be much more comprehensive than the Herald in its coverage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Promptly responding to the passage of this bill, the lead story of the July 10th Visitor, by Russell Baker, was headUned "Churches Had Big Part In Rights Bil l Passage." Accompanying this headline was a large picture of President Johnson turning to Martin Luther King, Jr. "to give him one of the pens he used to affix his signature" to the Civil Rights Bi l l . Shaw reported that "among the most striking features [of the effort to pass this bill] was the virtually unprecedented involvement of the churches, singly and in collaboration." He credited, as factors compelling the passage of the Civil Rights bill , interfaith activity making "civil rights a moral issue," growing Catholic grassroots awareness of the need to fight for civil rights, and a desire to honor the legacy of slain Catholic President Kennedy.'^

Editorials written in support of this bill appeared in the Visitor prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. On June 19th, in an editorial entitled "Future of Civil Rights," the author stated that "the passage of the civil rights bill must, of course, be viewed as an essential step in the progress of democracy in America." This adamant support of the Civil Rights Bi l l is tempered by a realistic understanding that

the threat upon racial relations wi l l not be wasted the day after the civil rights bill becomes law. ... A legislative victory for civil rights is no cause for relaxation but a challenge for greater work to turn that victory on the statute book into a social reality by legal and non-violent methods.'*

The next week, a follow-up editorial entitled "The Next Step in Civil Rights" celebrated the Senate's passage of the Civil Rights bill by an overwhelming majority, and particularly praised Rhode Island Senator


Pastore for the role he played in struggling against the Senate opponents of this bill. However, this editor also takes a strikingly critical stance on the status of race relations in Rhode Island. He comments that most of the provisions of the Civil Rights Bill do not apply to Rhode Island, for "we have a discrimination problem of another kind here: a milder but almost universal discrimination against Negroes in all areas." He notes that, in many ways, the South is ahead of the North in its progress on civil rights, that Rhode Island has progressed at a "snail's pace in this direction" while the pace of the South "has been much more rapid.'"'

Such critical discussion of the status of civil rights in Rhode Island and black equality under the law began before 1964. Indeed, an examination of the Visitorivom the spring of 1963 reveals that Rhode Island Catholics were extremely preoccupied with the issue of equal access to housing. A letter to the editor on April 7th lauds the benefits of integrated communities, and cites Landsdown, Pennsylvania as an example of a happily integrated community. In Landsdown, African-American families were "a good influence, being intelligent, devoted to their families, and proud of their property." The author, too, reaffirmed the importance of the leadership of the church in the call for civil rights. "The church all over America and all educational institutions must take the lead. The morality belongs there.'""' Another letter to the editor on April 19th defended the Visitor against an accusation that the newspaper tried to foist "upon R.I. a Fair Housing Bi l l . ' ""

A May editorial in 1963, entitled "Racism and Violence," called for the President to take a strong stand on civil rights. The editor commented on the disturbing "emergence and talk of violence" in the black struggle for civil rights. However, unlike the sharply critical stance of numerous Herald articles in the spring of 1964 that attacked the black Muslims and the growing role of violence in the black community, this editor sympathized with the use of violence. "The desire of many Negroes to seize by violence what they have thus far attained by reason and law is understandable. ... I f anything is going to precipitate violence, it is the use of senseless violence on the part of whites which is now the case in Birmingham.'"*^ Indeed, vivid daily accounts of blacks being brutally attacked by police and white mobs, by dogs and powerful fire hoses, became the number one feature of the news media in mid-1963.'*' The editor's sympathy with the plight of African-Americans, and disgust with white violence, were very much in tune with the national mood in the spring of 1963.


The Visitor not only had more comprehensive coverage of political civil rights developments in 1954, 1963, and 1964, but ironically, often covered Jewish participation in civil rights activity more fully than the Herald. This was true in the summer of 1964, when the Visitor carried an editorial expressing grief over the disappearance of Goodman and Schwemer, while the Herald carried no reactions to this event. In an article entitled "It is Time to Investigate The Ku Klux Klan," the editor asserted that "the disappearance and the possible murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi two weeks ago poses more than the problem of cold-blooded murder. ... This disturbing possibility brings up the problem of the Klan." This sympathetic editorial was prefaced by a leading picture, on the front page of this "Fourth of July Special," of a singing civil rights marcher carrying a flag, with a caption that read "CIVIL RIGHTS — 1964: deep in my heart, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day.""**

How can we explain this significant difference in the local Catholic and Jewish coverage of civil rights activity in the summer of 1964? Catholic dialogue on issues of civil rights and interfaith discussion should not come as a surprise to us, in light of the developments occurring at the Second Vatican Council. John McGreevy notes that "following the first session of the Vatican Council and the National Conference on Religion and Race," an interfaith conference in Chicago, "Catholic interracialists could finally claim membership in the mainstream of the national c ivi l rights movement."'*^ In April of 1963, John X X I I condemned racial discrimination in Pacem in Terris, and the most important change that emerged from both the preparation and initial session of Second Vatican Council was a "new interfaith spirit.""*^ But it is evident from the Visitor's coverage in 1954 that discussion of civil rights and interfaith activity began a decade before the Second Vatican Council, a fact that most historians commonly overlook. As early as the mid-fifties, Catholics appeared to be politically engaged in liberal causes, while the Jewish press seemed notably uninterested in such issues.

1965: Selma The March from Selma to Montgomery in the spring of 1965 is often

hailed as the last display of peaceful interracial cooperation in the modem stmggle for civil rights. Southem Christian Leadership Coalition (SCLC) leader Diane Nash, and her husband James Bevel, asked Martin Luther King to conduct an African-American voter registration campaign in Selma.


While African-Americans composed a majority of Selma's population, they comprised only three percent of those on the voting rolls.'*'' Selma was already infamous within the movement for the vicious and violent treatment of the county sheriff, James G. Clark, towards civil rights workers. Leaders were sure that Clark's inability to control his rage would produce the notoriety necessary to attract national media attention.

King had applied this tactic — using white supremacist brutality against blacks and civil rights demonstrators to capture the media's attention — in the Birmingham demonstrations of 1963 to arouse the guilt and sympathy of millions of previously indifferent whites. King recognized the power of the media, and commented prior to the Selma marches that "we wil l dramatize the situation to arouse the federal government by marching by the thousands to the places of registration." A series of marches took place between February and March of 1965. The extensive media coverage of the first march in February allowed the nation to see "it all" and understand the "reign of terror by which Southern bigots kept African-Americans from voting."** The white racist violence that struck the marchers ended all doubt that Congress would enact a vodng rights bill. On August 4,1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which outlawed literacy and other qualification tests that for decades had barred African-Americans from voting, and authorized federal examiners to register qualified voters.

The media certainly helped to awaken the political conscience of the government and the nation to the importance of addressing the issue of voting rights immediately. Religious clergy, as well, were a powerful force in the Selma struggle. Pictures on television of irrational police violence following the first march in February, motivated some four hundred rabbis, pastors, and nuns to rush to Selma, and at least ten times that number of clergymen to gather in Washington, to press Congress to pass voting rights legislation.*' Indeed, both the northem Jewish and Catholic communities celebrated their involvement in this event. McGreevy notes that "Catholic participation culminated at Selma in March 1965."^° The American Jewish Committee was deeply involved in the planning and publicity of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Notable figures in the Jewish community, such as Abraham Joshua Heschel, were photographed marching arm-in-arm with King in Selma. The many Jews and Catholics who participated understood their involvement as part of their religious duties to perform God's work.

Jewish and Catliolic Press Coverage of Civil Rights 563

Three Rhode Island rabbis — Rabbi William Braude of Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Saul Leeman of the Cranston Jewish Center, and Rabbi Nathan N . Rosen, Director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation at Brown University — traveled to Selma in March of 1965 to participate in the civil rights march.'' Contrary to its previous coverage of civil rights, the Herald contained a significant number of articles on this topic. The April 2nd edition of the 1965 Herald contained a front-page story reporting the participation of these three rabbis in Alabama and discussed the significance of this event in terms of national politics. The pride that these rabbis felt in their participation is reflected in the following comment by one of them: "We were more truly rabbis during that period than during most of our rabbinical activities around here." Rabbi Rosen explained that he was motivated to participate as a result of his experiences as a rabbi in Savannah, Georgia, where for three years he "'witnessed the indignities and injustices visited on the Negro population.'" Rabbi Rosen commented on the impact of the photos he saw of Selma, and when "he heard Dr. Martin Luther King calling his brother clergy to stand by him in the fight" he felt compelled to go South. Rabbi Braude commented on the sense of sympathy and identification he felt for African-American plight in the South:

When I was a little boy and first came to the United States, for the first time I saw policemen who not only didn't harm me but would help me. Little Jewish boys in Russia were afraid of police-

Rabbi Nathan N. Rosen.


men, as are little Negro boys in the South. I wanted to change a situation where boys in America are afraid of policemen. ... I felt a sense of sympathy with these people who so needed the sympathy of others.̂ ^

Al l of these rabbis also commented on the fear they felt of southem whites, and of the warmth and hospitality extended by the African-American community. As Rabbi Leeman mentioned, "we felt a certain security in the Negro community," and Rabbi Rosen noted how he was "impressed by the warmth of the Negroes." Rabbi Leeman further commented on the significance of the event on national politics. "The march itself was very important symbolically. ... Here was the governor of a state saying segregation now and forever, here were white citizens who wouldn't permit integration, but the Federal govemment insisted the segregationists had to swallow it. No, the Negroes [did not present] a hostile camp. The Negroes were brainwashed into love." This positive depiction of the Southem black community can be contrasted to the nationalistic, violent picture of Northem blacks as communicated in several numbers of the Herald in the spring of 1964.

That picture continued to change. The death of Reverend James J. Reeb of Boston in Selma in March 1965, after being beaten by a gang of white hoodlums, sparked the conscience of the nation. It inspired many clergymen, college students, school teachers, and union members to make the pilgrimage to Selma.^' The Herald carried the announcement of the Rabbinical Association of Rhode Island that "profound shock and grief at the senseless murder" on March 19,1965. Rabbi Pesach Krauss, the Association's president, further declared that "the Rabbis of Rhode Island are urged to deliver sermons on Civil Rights and to offer prayers for those whose hearts are fdled with bigotry and hatred."^* This strong, official stance in support of civil rights, and its representation in the local newspaper, was more consistent with the familiar depiction of Jews as liberal supporters of civil rights activity than earlier accounts in the Herald. The spirited coverage of civil rights issues by the Herald in the spring of 1965 signified a shift in the paper's reporting policy, and perhaps in the attitudes of the ordinary readers it served.

An advertisement for "the Passover Festival of Freedom" on April 16th, 1965 featured a picture of Cantor Ivan Pearlman of Temple Emanu-El and the African-American Rev. Arthur L. Hardge of the A.M.E. Zion Church,


on the front page. Both of these leaders were "to be featured at the Cranston Jewish Center Passover Festival ... Once an annual event, the last such festival was held in 1952."" The fact that interracial celebrations, once annual events prior to 1952, were revived in 1965, may reflect the community's heightened interest in interracial discussion following the events in Selma. This may also reflect the lasting legacy of the Selma March on the community at large. On April 19th, the Jewish community was clearly aimouncing its participation in Selma, for example, in a section on page 18 of the paper that advertised "Staples for Selma Now Being Collected." "Staples for Selma" was a fund that collected supplies for people who had lost their jobs or who were intimidated because they took part in the march to Montgomery. A member of the NAACP of East Providence was chairman of this campaign, and Mrs. Ethel Goodman of Warwick was treasurer of the campaign. And the legacy of the Selma march persisted for years: the celebration of this event in 1995 by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association and the Black Heritage Society in commemoration of the thirtieth anniversary of the march signified its long-lasting impact on the Jewish community of Providence. ,

The coverage of the Selma march by the Herald was strong, then, but the Visitor once again surpassed it, consistent with its more extensive coverage of civil rights in previous years. In the March 26, 1965 edition of the Visitor, almost every other page of the paper contained a story that was connected to the happenings in Selma. The story on the front page focused on the Providence march; entitled "An Expression of Concern," its timing coincided with the end of the Selma-Montgomery march. The article commented on the interfaith cooperation of the day, perhaps a reflection of the Vatican I I edict on interfaith communication. Noted was the fact that "representatives of faiths were in the line of march which was orderly, dignified and impressive."'* Rev. Hardge of the Zion Church applauded the leadership of the church in this movement: "The Church led the march in Selma — the Church, thank God, led the march here today in Providence." A focus on community and interfaith civil rights activity associated with the Selma march contrasts here with the Herald's focus on the activity of a select number of rabbis during the march.

In addition, page 9 of this edition of the Visitor contained a political cartoon entitied "The Modem Emerging Nun," which featured small pictures of a nun engaging in "secular education," becoming a "participant in


democratic causes," and engaging in sports. This cartoon is a significant reflection of the ways in which the Providence Catholic community, and indeed the greater American Catholic community, grappled with definitions of modem Catholicism following Vatican I I — the idea, for example, that modem nuns should participate in democratic causes. The significant discourse on Selma in this edition of the paper is a reflection of those democratic causes that the editors believed modem nuns and lay people should be conceming themselves with. McGreevy notes that "understandings of the church were rapidly changing" at this time."

Similar to its criticism of the slow pace of Rhode Island advancement of civil rights in 1964, a Visitor editorial on March 26th, 1965 commented that "the march for racial justice yesterday ... attempted to call the attention of Rhode Island citizens and legislators to the painful tmth that racial prejudice exists not only in our Southland but also in our State ..."'* The editor warns that "racial justice caimot wait ... This in itself is a sinful situation that lays heavily on our souls." Barbara Jencks, in her column entitied "A Time for Self-Examination," declared that "Selma, Alabama is not horrifying alone to the Negroes. It should be a cmcifixion for every human being."'' The sense of religious duty as being tied in with a straggle for black civil rights, as well as a critical look at the racial inequality existing in Rhode Island, are two consistent themes in the 1954,1963,1964, and 1965 civil rights coverage of the Visitor.

Additional headlines with references to the events in Selma in the March 26th edition of the Visitor included a story on page 5 entitied " 'Closed Door' Policy of Selma Churches Scomed," and a story on page 13 entitled "Atlanta Editor Lauds Nuns, Priests in Selma Protest." The following week, a headline on the front page of the Visitor ran "Warwick Woman Was Eyewitness to Violence in Selma." This article chronicles the experiences of Ethel Goodman, a Jew from Warwick, who felt compelled to travel to Selma because "as a Jewess, Mrs. Goodman [knew] firsthand the ugliness of prejudice. ... Being taunted as a Jew yesterday makes her fight for the prejudices shown against Negroes today."^ What is significant about this story is not only the sympathetic manner in which this Catholic paper reports on the plight that Goodman faced as a Jew, but the very fact that the Visitor was reporting on Rhode Island Jewish activity that the Herald failed to include! Again, an emphasis on interfaith communication, encouraged by the Vatican I I Council, may have contributed to the nature of the Visitor's


reporting. When the local Catholic newspaper's coverage of Jewish activity is more comprehensive than that of the Jewish paper, one has to question how much the Herald truly reflected Jewish communal civil rights activity and dialogue.

Conclusions: Jewish Conservatism and Catholic Liberalism How can we explain the findings of this study that challenge the

common depiction of northem Jews as liberal and Catholics as conservative? It is clear that the Catholic press carried consistently more civil rights coverage than the Herald, which contained very little significant coverage of civil rights between the years of 1954 and 1964. African-American civil rights clearly did not dominate the public agenda of the Rhode Island Jewish community, as reflected by their local newspaper. This is not to say, of course, that Jewish individuals in Rhode Island were uninterested in civil rights issues. However, as items on the communal agenda, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and events in Israel were clearly more dominant than the stmggle for African-American equality.

To explain this difference in the press coverage of civil rights, we must begin by recognizing the difference in purpose of both publications. While the Visitor claimed as its motto "Tmth is our Business," advertisements for subscriptions to the Herald in 1963 read "For Informative News of the Jewish Community ... Read the Rhode Island Jewish Herald." While the Herald editors used their publication essentially as a community bulletin, the Visitor clearly had a more political national agenda. This is not surprising in view of the population size of each community. In 1960, the Jewish population of Rhode Island was only 24,700 out of a total of 859,488 people; Jews comprised 2.87% of the Rhode Island population, and 2.3% of the Providence population in 1960.''' Catholics, on the other hand, comprised 60.4% of the Providence population in 1961 .̂ ^ The existence of an extremely large Catholic community may have encouraged these Rhode Islanders to take greater risks in their public discourse. Jews, in contrast, may have been hesitant to challenge widespread middle-class values, given their small proportions, particularly in comparison to Catholics. Rhode Island Jews, as represented by their press, appear to have been more timid and self-conscious than their Catholic counterparts.

In addition, assumptions of Jewish liberalism tend to underestimate the degree to which Jews wanted to "fit in" in their greater communities. For many northem Jews in an earlier generation, liberalism had been a channel


that allowed them to "fit in"; liberalism secured their move from "the margin to the mainstream of American life."*"' But later, as second-generation Jews became "at home in America," they adopted values that were consistent with those of a more conservative American middle class.*^ When middle-class values dictated a non-activist stance on integration, many Jews chose their own acculturation over that of their African-American counterparts. Perhaps the Jews of Rhode Island — or more generally, Jews in small to medium-sized communities—were more concerned with assimilation in an environment where they were a minority than they were with standing out through radical politics.

Finally, it is important to acknowledge the limits of using a communal newspaper as a reflection of the individuals in the community that it served. It seems safe to assume that readers of the Herald were reading other newspapers or publications, such as The Providence Journal, Life, or Time as their primary news source. Nonetheless, community newspapers do reflect community issues, and sometimes they reflect issues that the editors believe community members should be interested in. The religious press is a significant conduit of information widely shared within one religious group. These publications certainly play a role in shaping, and in turn being shaped by, the worldview of their readers. Challenging the common understanding that northeastern Jews were automatically liberal in the '50s and '60s, Catholics automatically conservative, this study finds a more complicated reality, as indicated by the press coverage within each community. Attitudes towards race and civil rights in both the Jewish and Catholic communities of Rhode Island were complex, not one-sided.

Notes ' Wolfe, Tom. Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. New York: Bantam

Books, 1970, p. 32. - Dollinger, Marc. Quest for Inclusion. Jews and Liberalism in Modern America.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 4. ' Ibid, p. 3. " Ibid p.m. 5 Dollinger, pp. 7, 176, 177. *• Silverman, David Wolf, The Religious Press in America. Westport: Greenwood, 1972,

p. 132. ' Ibid pp. 138, 149, 151. " Dollinger, p. 6. ' Hanna, Mary T. Catholics and American Politics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard


University Press, 1979, p. 13. Feldblum, Esther YoUes. The American Catholic Press and the American Jewish State, 1917-1959. New York: Ktav, 1977, p. 91.

" McGreevy, John T. Parish Boundaries. The Catholic Encounter With Race in the Twentieth-Century Urban North. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Ibid pp. 133-34.

" Ibid, pp. 141, 149. "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka et al." in Griffith, Robert and Paula Baker, ed. Major Problems in American History Since 1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001, p. 254.

" Sitkoff, Harvard. The Struggle for Black Equality, 1954-1992. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993, p. 22. Ibid, p. 21.

" "Mrs. Roosevelt to Speak at Shamrim Dinner Sunday." The Jewish Herald, 21 May 1954, p. 1. "Panel to Discuss Racial Segregation." The Jewish Herald, 29 October 1954, pp. 1, 3.

" Dollinger, p. 182. 2" "Catholics Hail Racial Verdict. Segregation Ban WUl Probably Affect All Schools."

The Providence Visitor, 20 May 1954, p. 1. '̂ 7Wrf,pp. 1,15. 22 Ibid p. 15. 2' "Race Council 20 Years Old. New York Organization Holds Anniversary Program."

Visitor, 10 June 1954, pp. 1-2. 2" "Negroes Laud Racial Stand." Visitor, 24 June 1954. 2' "Leading Paper for Negroes Lauds Catholic Schools' Racial Position." Visitor, 31

October 1954, p. 3. 2' "Negro Convert Attains Honor." Visitor, 18 November 1954, p. 3. 2' "Interracial Council to Sponsor Blackfriar Play, 'City of Kings.'" Visitor, 2 December

1954, p. 13. 2« Hanna, p. 159. 2' Unger, Irwin and Debi. The times were a changin'. The Sixties Reader. New York: Three

Rivers Press, 1998, p. 135.; Patterson, James T. America in the Twentieth Century: a History. Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2000, p. 394. Norton, Mary Beth et al. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. Volume II: Since 1865. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, p. 932.

" Patterson, p. 395. '2 Sitkoff, p. 160. '3 Ibid, pp. 161, 163. ^ "Experience of Jews Can Provide Lessons to Negroes, Says Malcolm X." The Rhode

Island Jewish Herald, 5 June 1964, p. 14. "Hundreds of Jewish Stores Looted in Brooklyn Riots." Herald, 31 July 1964, p. 2.

^ US Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1965 (86'̂ edition). Washington D . C , 1965, Table No. 23.

" Shaw, Russell. "Churches Had Big Part In Rights Bill Passage." Visitor, 10 July 1964, p . l .

3« "Future of Civil Rights." Visitor, 19 June 1964, p. 9.


" "The Next Step in Civil Rights." Visitor, 26 June 1964. Routhier, Mrs. Thomas F. "Negro Families at Home in Landsdown." Visitor, Letters to the Editor, 7 April 1965, p. 7. Marcoux, Mathias. "Clarifies a Point on Fair Housing." Vwitor, Letters to the Editor, 19 April 1963, p. 7.

"•2 "Racism and Violence." Visitor, 10 May 1963, p. 7. « Sitkoff, p. 138.

"It is Time to Investigate the Ku Klux Klan." Visitor, Letters to the Editor, 3 July 1964, p. 9. McGreevy, p. 148. IbidvV- 145,152.

" Siflcoff, p. 174. ' Ibidv- 176. Ibid p. 176.

"> McGreevy, p. 151. " Goldowsky, Seebert J. A century and a quarter of spiritual leadership: the story of the

congregation of the Sons of Israel and David, Temple Beth-El, Providence, Rhode Island. Providence, RI: Sons of Israel and David, 1989, p. 438.

" All quotations from "Southem Hospitality Not Extended, Say R.I. Rabbis Who Marched in Alabama." Herald, 2 April 1965, p. 1.

" Sitkoff, p. 179. ^ "Rabbinical Association Expresses Deep Shock At Bmtality In Selma." The Rhode

Island Herald 19 March 1965. " "Passover Festival of Freedom."//eraW, 16 April 1965, p. 1.

"Large Catholic Turnout: Cathohc Leaders Unite In Civil Rights March." Visitor, 26 March 1956, pp. 1, 15.

" McGreevy, p. 145. "R.I.'s March to Racial Justice." Visitor, 26 March 1965, p. 9.

" Jencks, Barbara C. "Jottings: A Time for Self-Examination." Visitor, 26 March 1965, p. 10.

" Jencks, Barbara C. "Warwick Woman Was Witness to Violence in Selma." 2 April 1965, pp. 1, 15.

" American Jewish Committee. American Jewish Yearbook, Volume 62,1961. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1961.

*2 The Official Catholic Directory, 1961. New York: P. J. Kennedy & Sons, 1964. " Dollinger, p. 5. " Moore, Deborah Dash. At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews. New

York: Columbia University Press, 1981, p. 4.

Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport by Rebecca Warren

In another example of looking beyond the cliches of historical research, Ms. Warren follows up the article by Benjamin Brown in the 2001 Notes (Vol. 13, No. 3) on the resurgence of the Jewish community in mid-nineteenth-century Newport. Her point is that the renaissance discussed by Mr. Brown was a necessary preliminary, but not until 1902 did that community define itself during an extraordinary but little-known struggle among competing religious factions. Factional disharmony can sometimes have a constructive outcome, as in this instance.

With this essay Ms. Warren shared the Horvitz Prize for student research papers in 2002. She received her B. A. in history from Wellesley College in 2000, is currently a candidate for the Master of Arts in Teaching at Tufts University, and plans to be a middle-school history teacher after graduating.

One of America's first sit-ins occurred in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1902. It took place in the oldest synagogue in the nation. The participants represented two distinct groups of Jews who were wrestiing to control the future of the growing Newport Jewish community. One group included predominantiy Americanized, affluent Jews who Uved in cities other than Newport before settling in the Rhode Island city. This faction aligned itself closely with the attitudes of the colonial-era Jews who had dedicated the synagogue and whose descendents were represented by a like-minded congregation in New York. The other group consisted largely of more recent immigrants, many of whom struggled financially. These Jews had a vision of a more closely-knit community controlled from within Newport rather than by a distant New York congregation. This was the kind of event that creates exciting history, filled with late-night intrigue, legal disputes and loopholes, and a remarkable demonstration that lasted nearly nine months. It revealed how a Jewish community developed under unique conditions in a city with a proud and well-known history and place of worship but without a permanent core of resident Jews.

Newport in 1902 was a city without a permanently open synagogue, a city that, not long before, had few Jewish families residing in it. While a



tremendous wave of Jewish immigration was arriving at American ports in the last decades of the 1800s, most of those immigrants setded in cities with existing Jewish populations and formed small enclaves within larger metropolitan areas. Jews arriving in Newport, however, joined a tiny group that had no open synagogue or neighborhood in which to get organized. In this respect, they resembled communities of immigrants who moved west to the frontier and established communities where no Jews had lived before. Unlike the frontier, however, Newport boasted a proud Jewish past in Touro Synagogue, which had been dedicated in 1763, making it the oldest synagogue still standing in America and one of the first built in the Americas.' Because of these unusual circumstances, the Jewish community in Newport was quite different from those in most other American cities and towns. It therefore raised a number of questions: What sort of Jew would choose to settle in a city with these unique characteristics? How does such a community thrive again after a period of stagnation? The answers to these questions can tell us a great deal about the Newport Jewish community specifically and the development of ethnic and religious communities in general.

The 1902 Sit-in Though some historians have argued for earlier dates marking the

rebirth of the Jewish community in Newport, 1902 is an important indicator because before that year Touro Synagogue was not reopened on a permanent basis. The community of colonial-era Sephardic Jews who dedicated the synagogue left the city with most other Newporters after the city was devastated during the Revolutionary War and as it became clear that Providence was quickly eclipsing Newport as a shipping center.̂ By 1791, Newport had no permanent rabbi, cantor, or kosher butcher, and even die synagogue's Torah scrolls were removed and taken to New York City.'According to Morris Gutstein, Touro Synagogue's mid-twentieth-century rabbi, only two Jewish families remained in Newport by the turn of the nineteenth century.* v - • - r- i .

When Jews and other residents began to return to Newport in response to its growth as a resort community, Touro Synagogue was owned by Congregation Shearith Israel, a Sephardic synagogue in New York City that had absorbed many former members of the Newport congregation. At the end of 1882, the board of Shearith Israel decided tiiat the permanent Jewish population was large enough to sustain a congregation. They gave their

Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport

permission to reopen the synagogue and the Newport Town Council voted to hire a rabbi with the money left them by the Touros. The father of Shearith Israel's rabbi was hired to be Newport's rabbi and the temple reopened May 25, 1883.' ^ - : .V .

Though the reconsecration of the synagogue was an important symbolic step for these pioneering Jews of Newport, it did not mean an easy transition back to regular Jewish religious life in Newport. The early Jews of Newport and the Jews in the New York congregation that retained ownership of Touro Synagogue were Sephardic, while many in the new Jewish community of Newport were Ashkenazi. The New York Jews worried that the Newport Jews wanted to worship according to Ashkenazi ritual or, worse, that they might be open to the Reform movement that was sweeping the American Jewish population at the end of the nineteenth century.* As a result of the New York-Newport tensions, similar tensions arose within the Newport community, and because the Newport Jewish population was still not very large, Touro Synagogue was not opened continuously at any point during the nineteenth century.

Eventually, these tensions came to a head when the synagogue reopened permanendy. The manner in which this happened is described excellenUy and in great detail in Bernard Kusinitz's 1975 article, "The 1902 Sit-in at Touro Synagogue."^ As a preface to my own research and conclusions, I wi l l relate the essence of his findings quickly and refer interested readers to his article for further details. As Kusinitz describes it, beginning in the 1890s a serious rift emerged among members of the newly re-established congregation of the Newport synagogue. Though the reasons for the split are somewhat unclear, they were significant enough that a large number of Jews formed their own congregation, received a separate charter from Newport City Council, and began occasionally worshipping in private homes or city buildings. When the rabbi of Touro Synagogue died in March of 1899, the "official" congregation and the splinter group offered up two different choices as successor. Because of the unusual nature of the Touros' bequests to die town of Newport, the city council was left to determine which rabbi should be awarded the Touro bequest as a salary. Since the splinter group by this time included a larger number of Jews, the city council awarded the salary to its rabbi, a move that historians have since criticized as an unlawful blending of church and state. --^ • , , ^ m : ^ : - - -'^w

The decision to fund the splinter group's rabbi angered and worried the


New York congregation, which backed the other group of Jews as the official successors to the colonial congregation. Shearith Israel sued members of the splinter group for unlawfully entering their property and the matter remained in court as tensions escalated. During this time, both groups worshipped in the synagogue and members of the splinter group were even elected as officers of the congregation.

The representative of the New York congregation in Newport was a man named Eugene Schreier, a wealthy German Jew who had Uved in Newport since the 1890s. Whether by misfortune of circumstances or his own unpleasant personahty, Schreier aroused the bad feelings of many Newport Jews and became a lightning rod for the disagreements between the Jews of Newport and those of the New York synagogue. Anonymous correspondents levied insults at him in the Newport Daily News. Schreier eventually withdrew in spirit from the Jewish majority in his town and associated himself ever more strongly with Shearith Israel. He asserted himself as the only official trustee and agent of the legal owners of the temple and frequentiy used this status to make unpopular decisions.

After one such decision regarding the ownership of the temple's Torah scrolls, tension became such that Schreier and the New York owners decided the synagogue should be closed. Suddenly, because Jews from both sides were prevented from holding services in the synagogue, most members of each faction began to feel that their common interests outweighed their factional concerns. Frustrated by the situation, an Austrian-bom Jew named Fischel David decided to hire a lawyer to assist the Newport community in reaching a solution that would allow services to reconvene. John Burke, the Irish-American lawyer David hired, searched Rhode Island law and told David that the New York congregation was within its rights in closing the temple, but suggested a possible course of action. A state statute made interfering with a religious ceremony a misdemeanor. Burke interpreted this to mean that, should either faction (or both) break into the synagogue and engage in a continuous reUgious ceremony, it would be against the law to remove them. i : v

Securing assurances from local law enforcement and the Assistant Attorney General, Burke directed Newport's Jews to put the plan into action during Passover of 1902. After a false start, a group composed of both parties managed to break in and begin a religious "sit-in" which lasted until January of 1903, nearly nine mondis. During this time, the New York congregation

Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport 575

began more legal action, but this time levied its complaints against members of both the "official" and splinter groups, both of which had representatives at the sit-in.

At the conclusion of the sit-in, the Newport congregation agreed to worship according to orthodox Sephardic ritual — "the ritual, rites, and customs of the Orthodox, Spanish, and Portuguese Jews at this time practiced in the Synagogue of the Congregation Shearith Israel in the city of New York."* In return, the New York congregation agreed to lease the synagogue to the Jews of Newport for one dollar a year. This marked the permanent reopening of the synagogue, which continues to hold services according to this tradition.

In many ways, this dramatic event marks the true revival of the Jewish community in Newport. After nearly a century of dwindling numbers, Jews had returned to Newport in numbers large enough to experience tensions and friction, but what may have been a traumatic event for the community was, in retrospect, an indication of the health of the Jewish population and a graphic signal that the fate of the community was once again in the hands of Newporters rather than New Yorkers. Because of this, 1902 is an important reference point for examining the nature of this group of Jews and how they came to settie in and rebuild their unique community. What follows is an analysis of a relatively small Jewish community — around one hundred famihes — and the factors that led to its powerful eruption in 1902.1 have sought clues to explain how the factions interacted and what catalyst triggered their remarkable action.

Compiling a Sample I concentrated my research on the Jews who appeared in the 1902

Newport City Durectory in order to compile a sample of those who had been on one side or the other of the sit-in or who watched it happen without taking part. I used a list of Jewish family names from an issue of Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes to determine which names in the directory were Jewish.' To the journal's hst, I added nine names, those of people who had been named in one of the lawsuits. Even though these people were not listed in RIJHN, I assumed that, because they were involved in the sit-in, they were likely Jews as well. Appendix A lists the 96 names that resulted from this process.

During die course of my research, I eventually excluded some of diese


96 names. Several were names of businessmen whose businesses were in Newport but who apparently lived elsewhere. The Directory listed two men twice under slightly different name variations. 1 excluded one person whom I determined to be a non-Jew.Others 1 eventually dropped from my sample when 1 did not find them in any issue of the Newport City Directory or the census; several of these were names 1 had at first added because they were given in one of the lawsuits. Most likely, these names were given in the lawsuits in error or they were the names of Jews who were sympathetic to the Jews in Newport but lived elsewhere. After deletions, my sample consists of 85 names. 1 believe that this sample includes at least one name from nearly every Jewish family in Newport in 1902.''

Only five members of my sample were women. Of these women, four operated their own businesses, all related to women's clothing. The fifth woman appeared in the 1902 City Directory only because she was widowed that year. Only one of the women was married. In general, women were not likely to appear in the City Directory unless they were unmarried and working. It is unclear whether this is because women often stopped working once married or i f the City Directory compders simply saw no reason to hst a married woman.

While it was impossible to find the date of birth, nation of origin, job, naturalization, address, and marriage information for all individuals in my sample, I was successful in finding most of this information, and a picture of the average Jewish head-of-household began to emerge. He was, on average, 35 years old. I f he was an immigrant (and most were), he had been in this country a lengthy 21 years, having emigrated at a relatively young age. In 1902, most of these immigrants had become citizens, naturalizing, on average, ten years after arriving in America. The majority had not come from Russia or Poland like many Jews emigrating to America at this time, but from nations with more affluent Jewish communities. Most emigrated to another American city and ended up in Newport after several years in the United States.

Most worked as their own bosses, peddling junk, for example, or making shoes or operating businesses such as boarding houses and billiard rooms. Most had wives and children, nearly all of whom could read and write. They rented their homes instead of buying them and most worked out of their apartments or nearby. The average Newport Jew lived near only one other Jewish family on his block.


While most of the Jews in my sample shared these characteristics, there were certain differences between those who aligned themselves with the "official" Touro Synagogue group and those who joined the more rebellious splinter group. Members of the "official" faction tended to be wealthier, more established, and more Americanized. Members of the latter were generally more recent immigrants who were more transient and less affluent. Though the differences were often shght, they were enough to create the tensions which led to the sit-in.

This picture of the average Jewish immigrant in Newport is quite different from other Jewish immigrant communities of the time. Most notably, most Jews arriving in America around the tum-of-the-century were from Eastem Europe, particularly the Pale of Settlement in formerly Polish Russia. In contrast, most Jewish immigrants living in Newport in 1902 were from outside the Pale (see Figure 1). For my sample of 85,1 was able to find nation-of-birth information for 56 (67% of the sample). This information came from several different sources: the census, naturalization records, gravestones, and the previously cited articles from the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Only four of the 56 Jews were bom in America. The other 52 were immigrants. While a large number of these immigrants were from Russia, even more were from Austria. The next largest group was from Germany. Relatively few Jews arrived in Newport from Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

Figure 1: Nation of Birth, Newport Jews in 1902 Nation Number Percentage Austria 16 28.1

Germany 10 17.5

Hungary 2 3.5 Palestine 1 1.8 Poland 4 7.0 Romania 3 5.3 Russia 15 26.3 Sweden 1 1.8

USA 4 7.0


Since Jews from Westem Europe were generally wealthier and more educated than their Pale of Settlement counterparts, it is not surprising that several other differences existed between Jewish immigrants in Newport and most other American cities of the time. With fewer than five exceptions, the Jews in my sample and the members of their families indicated on the 1900 census that they could read, write, and speak English. While a large number (14 in 1902) were peddlers or junk dealers, a far greater number owned provision stores or other small businesses. Even many of the junk dealers appeared to have thriving businesses, placing mid-sized advertisements in the Newport City Directory. Three German Jewish families employed live-in Irish maids. In general, the 1902 Jewish community in Newport appears to have been relatively prosperous.

Jews Arrive in Newport The Jews who arrived in Newport in the months and years before April

1902 settled in a city with a synagogue that was only sporadically open for services. Moreover, when Touro Synagogue did open its doors for worship, the services followed the Sephardic ritual, a foreign tradition to the mostly Ashkenazi Jewish population of tum-of-the century Newport. Accustomed to the Diaspora, Jews have traditionally looked to the local temple to create a sense of community and continuity in far-flung places. These Jews, however, could not rely on the synagogue as their cultural center. The earliest arrivals could not even rely on the company of fellow Jews; there were almost none left in Newport.

They were a hardy group of Jewish immigrants, willing to travel to a small city in Rhode Island that was just beginning to recover after nearly a century of decline. They put down stakes in a city with a proud Jewish past but an uncertain future. As Irish immigrants flooded Newport to claim jobs in the shipping and tourism industries (in 1895, over half of the nearly 30% of Newporters with at least one immigrant parent was Irish).Jewish pioneers moved in next door to them, becoming their co-workers and neighbors.

These unique conditions created living pattems that were quite different from those in other cities. While Jews in most cities settied close to a synagogue or Jewish community center, Newport Jews had no such geographical hub around which to organize their community. Instead, the 1902 Newport City Directory reveals a Jewish population spread through every area of the city, barring only the ultra-wealthy Bellevue Avenue area with


its accumulation of massive summer "cottages." I f one attempted to identify the epicenter of this community, it would likely be on Thames Street, Newport's historic and current center of commerce. Forty percent of Newport Jews lived or worked on this street in 1902.'' Lower Thames Street, where most of the Thames Street Jews were located, was a predominately working-class Irish neighborhood. The population of the bustiing commercial area ballooned quickly in the decades just before 1900 and a large number of boarding houses were hurriedly erected to meet the housing demands. Shop owners on Thames Street rushed to convert the space above their stores into apartments. The seventy acres of land lying one block east of lower Thames Street contained over six hundred homes.'*

Living and Working Patterns The one-block long Green Street, one of those in this seventy-acre zone,

was home to eight Jews, five of them living together at 29 Green Street. Of the group of five at 29 Green, at least two were relatively recent arrivals to America who appear to have made their way to Newport shortly after emigrating." Two of the others were relatives, naturalized Americans who arrived in the city in 1897 and 1899, each moving to Newport four years after coming from Austria. The eldest of these relatives was the head of the household; he had a wife and two young children. Four of the men were junk dealers, though each had different business partners.

The residents of 29 Green Street represent a typical pattern in tum-of-century Newport. Often, new arrivals lived with more established relatives or friends for several years after arriving. As new immigrants got on their feet and began to make a living, they often moved. In the case of 29 Green Street, one of the pair of new immigrants. Max Wasserman, had moved into his own apartment several blocks away by 1903. Like many other new immigrants, however, Wasserman's 1903 address was not to be his last. Perhaps in an effort to find lower rent or more pleasant lodging, Wasserman tried out five different home addresses between 1900 and 1904. Wasserman's frequent moves were a common phenomenon. Among all 68 Jews whose home addresses appeared in more than one City Directory between 1900 and 1904,43 had at least two different home addresses during the period. Nearly a third of these 68 Jews had three or more home addresses in those five years.

As exemplified by Wasserman, who was 21 years old in 1902 and had been in America only four years, frequent moves were particularly common among the newly arrived and the young. Jews with only one home address


between 1900 and 1904 had been in America for an average of twenty years in 1902, while those who moved more frequently averaged only fourteen years of American residency. The frequent movers were, on average, just over eight years younger than those who did not move. A greater percentage of the non-movers owned their own businesses. In short, young newly arrived Jews often lived with and worked for friends and relatives as they moved about the city in search of the most favorable living conditions.

In other ways, however, Wasserman's living situation was atypical. Rarely did Newport's Jews live with or near so many other Jews in 1902. While the city of Newport is small enough that most Jews lived within a mile of nearly all other Jews, a minority lived on the same block with others. Samuel Horowitz, a cousin of the large Dannin family,'* is one example of the sprawling nature of the Jewish community at this time. Horowitz rented a house at 51 Spruce Street (now Kingston Avenue) in 1902, about a block away from four Jews living together at 15 Johnson Court, but otherwise without any Jewish households for several blocks. Of the 26 other families who lived on the same block of Spruce Street, over half had at least one member bom in Ireland, according to the 1900 census.

Jews who lived in boarding houses also did not seek houses with other Jewish residents, though several Jews owned boarding houses. In the boarding house at 413 Thames Street for example, Harry Aaron lived with four other single men in 1900. Though all five boarders and the owner were immigrants according to the census, Aaron was the only Jew. A Swedish immigrant, Louisa Kalin, owned the boarding house and lived there with her Finnish immigrant husband and adult daughter. Aaron worked as a weaver after emigrating from Russia in 1889, but by 1900 he had opened his own billiard room on Thames Street a few blocks from the boarding house. When Aaron became a naturahzed citizen in 1895, Louisa Kalin's husband acted as one of his witnesses.

Another Jewish billiard room owner lived nearly half a mile away from Aaron at 26 Gould Street. Jacob Aronson managed a pool hall on Broadway, not too far from Aaron's. Like his fellow billiard room operator, Jacob Aronson did not live among other Jews. Though he emigrated from Russia in 1885, both of his parents were Scottish, and perhaps he felt more allegiance to this national heritage than his religious one. He lived with his wife and two daughters and a family of eight non-Jews from Scodand. No other Jews lived on his street or even within several blocks of his home.


These two bilUard room owners both arrived in Newport in the nineteenth century, when scarcely any Jews lived in the city. They were no doubt prepared to live far from a substantial Jewish community. Thus, it is unsurprising that they did so even when the Newport Jewish community began to grow. Later arrivals, those who appeared in Newport after 1899, were less inclined to live in areas without Jewish companionship and they were more likely to have Jewish friends or relatives living in the city with whom they could live. They formed small pockets of Jewish settlement in the Lower Thames and West Broadway neighborhoods.

Even so, the Newport Jewish community of 1902 or even 1910 was unlike the communities in many large cities like New York or Chicago, where established "Jewish" sections of town existed. In those cities, Jews often moved into a particular neighborhood as a group, living and working diere and interacting primarily with other Jews. In Newport, many Jews could easily go from home to work and back without speaking to another Jew. With no permanently opened synagogue in the city, many Jews needed only to be able to get from their houses to their workplaces easily. Since the temple was open only sporadically, they felt no need to live near it. So while a desire to be able to walk to services helped create Jewish neighborhoods in other cities, it was much less of a factor in Newport. Without this geographical center, and with no estabhshed Jewish community pulling them to any particular neighborhood, they spread throughout the city.

As with Aaron and Aronson's billiard rooms, many other Jews clustered in particular jobs. While the 85 Jews in the 1902 City Directory made less than one percent of the book's 10,234 listings, Jews operated two of the three billiard halls hsted in the directory. Another popular business was clothing sales; eight of thirteen clothes dealers were Jews. Over a quarter of the 14 dry goods salesmen were Jewish. A fifth of the 26 boot and shoe makers were Jewish. In contrast, no Jews were physicians or teachers. None were listed as cooks or groundskeepers for the millionaires who were rebuilding the Newport economy by ordering the construction of huge homes on Bellevue Avenue. None appeared to work directly in the shipping industry.

Additionally, once a Jewish resident of Newport entered a profession, he was unlikely to change jobs. The typical American ideal of social mobility — immigrants who arrived as peddlers and worked their way up to become wealthy store owners — did not occur in Newport at this time among the Jewish population. Jews who arrived in Newport as peddlers


were still peddlers years later, though many formed partnerships with other peddlers. On average, Jews held only 1.3 different jobs between 1890 and 1905. Many of the job changes happened when one business owner started a different type of business, eventually giving up the first business entirely. Rarely did workers in unskilled professions take jobs involving skilled labor.

H . Weiner and Son Cigars

By far, the industry that employed the largest number of Jews was the cigar-making trade. Only one cigar factory existed in Newport at this time, and two Jews owned it — Herman Weiner and his son, William. Herman Weiner was an Austrian who immigrated to New York in 1864 and moved to Newport in 1897. The factory, which he opened at 88 John Street just after arriving in Newport, employed at least 18 people in 1902 (see Appendix B). About ten of them, including the owners, were Jews.'' Cigar making was a booming industry in America at the turn of the century, and Newport was a particularly good location for a factory, as cigars were especially popular among the wealthy. Cigar-making involved a great deal of skill and precision and many workers considered themselves artists. The Weiner and Son factory was a mid-sized one, much smaller than the warehouse-size shops in New York City or Tampa, Florida, but larger than many factories employing only three or four people.'*

It is difficult to find information on the cigar factory at 88 John. Issues of the Cigar Makers' Official Journal (CMOJ) from the years 1900-04 indicate that the city did not have a local chapter of the cigar makers' union during that period. Nearby cities — Providence, Fall River, and Pawtucket — all had locals, but union organizers who visited Rhode Island in the early twentieth century did not report stopping in Newport in their monthly columns in CMOJ. '"^ Because of this, little evidence remains of the factory' s day-to-day workings. However, it is possible to speculate based on the information that does exist.

As was true in the wider Newport Jewish community, Jews in the Weiner cigar factory worked closely with non-Jews. In her book on the work culture of cigar makers, Patricia A. Cooper describes most shops as closely knit, with workers joining each other for recreational activities at the close of the workday. Whether or not this was the case at 88 John Street is uncertain, but one can tell from the present-day layout of John Street that the shop was physically small and the workers must have rolled their tobacco

Jewish Pioneers and Civil'Disobedience in 1902 Newport 583

in close proximity to one another. Since many of the workers were non-Jews, Jews and Gentiles would have interacted a great deal in the shop by necessity i f not by choice.

North American cigar makers had a distinct culture that the workers at Weiner and Son appeared to share. Cigar makers considered travel their right and those who experienced wanderlust often left one shop and arrived at one in another city, looking for work. Paid according to the number of cigars they rolled, the makers would stay in a city long enough to save the money needed to move on again.^" In the Weiner and Son factory, half of the Jewish cigar makers listed in the 1902 Newport City Directory no longer appeared in the 1903 Newport City Directory. One moved to New York City. The fate of the others is uncertain, but it is Ukely that they moved on to other cities and other cigar shops.

For many cigar makers, however, the factory at 88 John was more than a stopping-off point on a cross-country journey. The Weiners were magnanimous owners and Herman Weiner, perhaps remembering his own immigration experience, helped other immigrants settle in Newport. Several cigar makers lived in Herman Weiner's home at 91 Annandale Road during their first year in Newport, and others lived at the home of his son, William. In 1902, for instance, one worker lived with William Weiner and another may have lived with Herman Weiner.^' Another cigar maker lived with David Weiner, the shop foreman, who was likely related to the other Weiners. Even workers who did not hve with the owners teamed up to make housing more affordable or convenient; in 1902, two other pairs of men lived together.

The Weiners also helped their workers attain American citizenship. At least two of the men working in the factory became naturalized citizens in Newport in 1902.̂ ^ Martin Weiner acted as a witness fpr both of these men. In each case, the second witness was another man from the cigar shop who was already a citizen. Sometimes, one member of a family would immigrate to Newport and work for the Weiner cigar factory, with other family members following a year or two later. Presumably, the later family members had heard from the first that conditions in the city and the factory were favorable.

Jewish Migrants

While these later Jewish immigrants moved directly to Newport, those


who arrived eariier, hke Herman Weiner, often settled in other American cities first. Weiner lived in New York for over thirty years before moving to Newport. Like him, the first Jews to arrive in Newport in the late nineteenth century were migrants as well as immigrants and often shared more in common with the former than the latter. Although the early arrivals were bom in Europe, most lived in America for many years before setding in Newport. They were part of the larger wave of migration to Newport in response to the burgeoning tourism industry — migrants who happened to be Jewish immigrants. Jews did not begin coming straight to Newport until after the first Jewish residents had established themselves there.

One Jewish Newporter, Julius Engel, exemplifies this pattern. Engel emigrated from Austria in 1880, but he lived in Pennsylvania, where all four of his children were bom, for thirteen years before moving to Newport in 1893. By the time he arrived in Newport, Engel was likely an American citizen. Certainly, he had been in the country long enough to feel "Americanized" to some degree, and he had four American children. Perhaps it was this sense of familiarity with the nation that prompted him to move to a growing city in Rhode Island with scarcely any Jewish population. Most of the other Jews who arrived in Newport at this time had lived in other American cides, especially New York and Providence, for several years before they traveled to Newport.

Like a large portion of the Jewish community, Engel started his own business, which prospered over the years. In 1897, he began selling and repairing bicycles and eventually added what appears to have been a very successful spring water business. His partner in the water business, Charles Sebiri, was also his roommate in 1902. As Sebiri was not included in the RIJHN lisU he was likely not a Jew; thus Engel, like many other members of Newport's Jewish community, found himself most closely connected, not with other Jews, but with non-Jewish Newporters.

Another man exemplifying this trend, but arriving in Newport somewhat later, is Bemard Kohm. Kohm and his wife, Jannie, were both bom in Germany or Austria,^' where Jannie also gave birth to their eldest son, Lewis. In 1882, when Kohm was 33, the small family moved to the United States, where they settled in New York. Some rime before 1895, when the Kohm's second son was bom, the family moved to Rhode Island, though they may have lived in Providence for several years since Kohm does not appear in the Newport City Directory until 1898. Kohm worked as a


Newport shoemaker for three years, became a citizen, and then, according to the City Directory, tried his luck in Fall River, Massachusetts for a year before returning to Newport permanently.

With very few exceptions, then, late nineteenth century Newport was not the sort of city a European Jew would immigrate to directly. Instead, most Jews who settled in the city at this time were already comfortable Americans who had lived in big cities with large Jewish populations. They moved to Newport seeking jobs, healthful climate, or a change of scenery, but they did not always stay permanently. Because they were the sort of pioneers willing to move to a city without a large Jewish community, they often formed close relationships with non-Jews, unlike their counterparts in larger cities who generally lived and worked in Jewish districts. Then, as this community grew, some European Jews began immigrating directly to Newport, forming a group of more recent immigrants with different characteristics.

Tensions

Great differences existed between the Jews who arrived in Newport in the nineteenth century and those who arrived in the early twentieth. Because the post-1900 arrivals often immigrated straight to Newport, they were much "newer" Americans than the older Newporters. Many later arrivals had connections to Jews already living in Newport, so they were more likely to live and work among other Jews. In general, later arrivals were less wealthy than earlier arrivals, though there were certainly exceptions. Because the earliest arrivals settled in a town with virtually no Jewish population, they were less likely to expect a sense of Jewish community than later arrivals, most of whom must have known that the Jewish population was growing in Newport.

Eugene Schreier and Fischel David typify the differences between these two groups of Jewish immigrants. Eugene Schreier emigrated from Germany to New York in 1861, where he lived for about twenty-five years. While in New York, he met and married an American-bom woman. Around 1886, he moved to Newport with his family, becoming one of the earliest Jews to settle in the city after the early Federalist period. Schreier lived and worked as a hat maker in the same house on lower Thames Street for more than a dozen years. He was wealthy, employing a live-in Irish servant, according to the 1900 census.


Fischel David arrived in Newport fourteen years after Eugene Schreier, in 1900. He emigrated from Austria in 1888 and was living in Providence, Rhode Island by 1893. He married a Russian immigrant in 1896. David arrived in Newport at around the same time as his two brothers, and the three operated a grocery store out of their house. In 1901, the David Brothers spht up dieir partnership and the brothers moved out of Fischel's house. Fischel got ambitious, taking an advertisement for his store in the 1901 City Durectory and then expanding the store in an additional location. By 1902, he had scaled back to one location, and he spent the next several years moving the store and his own home, occasionally rejoining his brothers, and in other years, operating the store alone. The instability of his work and housing arrangement stands in stark contrast to Schreier, whose hsting was the same in each year's City Directory.

The differences between Schreier and David are representative of many of those that existed in the Jewish community. Schreier is representative of the early arrivals; he had lived in Newport nearly 20 years by 1902. Like most other early arrivals, he was well off financially. He was probably fully Americanized by 1902 as well, having lived in the country for 40 years, many of them with an American wife. He lived in New York for many years before moving to Newport, where he did not move and he did not change jobs. David reflects the later arrivals; he had only been in Newport two years when the sit-in at die synagogue occurred. Though David had lived in America longer dian many late arrivals before he moved to Newport, he nonetheless mirrors their other characteristics. He made frequent adjustments to his business, both in size and in location. He lived with other Jews, his relatives. He was less affluent than Schreier.

It is unsurprising that the two groups of Jews these men represent would become involved in some sort of conflict, coming as they did from very different backgrounds. The 1902 sit-in at Touro Synagogue was the culmination of this conflict. In fact, Schreier and David were at the very heart of this clash. When tensions arose among the Jewish community in Newport over die fate of the synagogue, Schreier acted as the agent for the New York congregation that officially owned the temple. He represented tradition and order, and most of the early arrivals fell in his camp. They wanted to preserve the status quo, and many were suspicious of the new arrivals. Schreier was certainly at the extreme end of this group; his decision to close the synagogue entkely in 1902 lost him so much support that early arrivals joined the late


arrivals at the sit-in. Fischel David became the instigator of much of the most dramatic

tension between the two groups of Jews. A leader in the "Touro Congregation," the splinter group which had been holding services in private homes for many months, David was one of a number of recently arrived Newporters who wanted changes made at the synagogue. When Schreier closed the synagogue, David hked an attorney to help reopen Touro for worship. When Schreier called the police to remove Jews from the synagogue on the first night of the sit-in, David bit an officer on the thumb, acting on his lawyer's instructions to use any means necessary to resist being removed from the temple. Thus, David became one of the few sit-in participants who was arrested in the incident (Schreier was also arrested, for assaulting one of the other participants).̂ "

Conclusions

The sit-in and the events surrounding it are a striking illustration of the seemingly small differences that existed among the Jews in Newport at the turn of the century. The events of 1902 illustrate how a growing Jewish population dealt with these differences and estabhshed a healthy, thriving conununity with full use of Touro Synagogue and control of its own future. While the Jews who first repopulated Newport may have been satisfied with the state of religious life in the city, later arrivals were more reliant on Jewish community and spiured the conflict that created a more stable religious life for the city.

Even without this dramatic climax to the story of this Jewish community, Newport would still be an important case study in the growth of religious and ethnic communities. Because of its unique position as a city with both an important Jewish past and a vutually non-existent Jewish present, tum-of-the-century Newport has a great deal to teach us about the rebirth of populations which once dwindled in size. In this case, the first Jews who moved to Newport after the colonial period appeared to rely littie on help from their fellow Jews. They were satisfied to live in a city with a tiny Jewish community and comfortable living and working with non-Jews. These Jews were simply members of a larger wave of migration to a growing city — members who happened to belong to a minority rehgious group. Though these first Jews were not motivated by a desire to rebuild the Newport Jewish community, their presence created the numbers that made the city more welcoming for later arrivals who desired a more active Jewish


community. It took the efforts of those Jews working towards these ends to truly re-establish a thriving Jewish community in Newport.

The Newport Jewish community of 1902 revealed many characteristics that made the city's Jewish population different from the average American Jewish population, including nation of birth, literacy, and time of residency in the United States. In spite of these common characteristics, the small differences within the Jewish population were the catalyst for the true revitalization of the community. The 1902 sit-in was the indication that this change was taking place. Like Fischel David, whose grave can be seen today in the Newport Common Burial Ground, many of the 1902 Jews became well-established members of the Newport community. They took control of their religious destiny and remained to watch their legacy take shape in the form of the growing Jewish conununity in Newport.

Notes ' National Park Service, Touro Synagogue, National Historic Site (Department of the

Interior, 2000). 2 Eidelman, Jay M., "Economic and Social Aspects of the Decline of Newport Jewry,

m6-lS22," Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, vol. 12, no. 1-B (1995), pp. 84-92. ' De Sola Pool, D., "Some Notes on the Touro Synagogue," in Touro Synagogue of

Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Newport: The Society of Friends of Touro Synagogoue, 1948), p. 10.

" Morris A Gutstein, To Bigotry No Sanction: A Jewish Shrine in America, 1658-1958 (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1958).

' Gutstein, The Story of the Jews in Newport: Two and a Half Centuries of Judaism, 1658-1908 (New York: Block Publishing, 1936) p. 260.

^ Gutstein, To Bigotry No Sanction, p. 106. ' Bemard Kusinitz, "The 1902 Sit-in at Touro Synagogue" in Rhode Island Historical

Notes, vol. 7, no. 1 (1975), pp. 42-72. ' From the February 1, 1903 agreement between Congregation Shearith Israel and

Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Touro Synagogue) quoted in Kusitinz, p. 70. ' "Jewish Family Names: Newport," Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, vol. 2, no. 4

(April 1958), pp. 238-240. '° Kusinitz describes him as a sympathetic Christian from Providence in his article about

the sit-in. " Nearly all information contained in the remainder of this paper comes from one of four

sources: The Newport City Directories for years 1890-1915, the gravestones in the Jewish section of the Newport Common Burial ground, the 1900 U.S. census, and Rhode Island naturalization records. Information about jobs, housing, and changes in the community over time comes primarily from the City Directory. Other information, including immigration data, age, etc., comes from a combination of the other three sources. When practical, I have indicated specific sources of information.


Warburten, Eileen, In Living Memory: A Chronicle of Newport, Rhode Island, 1888 -7988 (Newport: Newport Savings and Loan Association, 1988). _, , ^

" Based on addresses given the 1902 Newport City Directory. " Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. The Southem Thames Street Neigh

borhood in Newport. Statewide Historical Preservation Report N-N-3, February 1980. I was not able to find immigration information on one of the residents of 29 Green Street.

" According to Kusinitz, "The 1902 Sit-in at Touro Synagogue." " Eighteen people list 88 John Street as their work address in the 1902 Newport City

Directory. Additional workers, particularly women, may have been left out of the City Directory. Ten of the workers are on the hst of Jews in Appendix A. Several other workers have names which could be Jewish, but since they were not identified as such in the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, I am unwilling to speculate about their religious heritage.

" Cooper, Patricia A., Once A Cigar Maker: Men, Women, and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, 1900-1919 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987).

" Cigar Makers' Official Journal, a publication of the Cigar Maker's International Union, all issues 1900-1904. -

2° Ibid. 2' Since both Herman 'Weiner and Julius Solomon give merely "Annandale Road" as their

1902 address, it is uncertain whether they lived together or simply near one another. 22 I was only able to find records for two of the workers in the Rhode Island naturalization

records. 2' The 1900 census and the Rhode Island naturalization records give different nations of

origin and slighUy different birth and immigration dates for Bemard Kohm of Newport. 2̂ All information on what happened during the sit-in comes from Kusinitz.


Appendix A 1. Mrs. A.H. Aaron 2. Harry Aaron 3. Jacob Abrahams 4. Morris Adler 5: Louis Alman and Co., photographerg * 6. Samuel Arken 7. Arnold Aronovitz 8. Jacob Aronson 9. Jacob Baker

W: David Ball* « T Moses Ball* ^ ' 12. Nathan Ball* ' " •B: Elaez Daneowitz (same as Elias Dankowitz) 14. Sigmund Barber 15. Michael Bassin' 16. Jacob Bellman 17. I.B.Bergman 18. Louis Cohen

Baruch Coren* (same as Bemard Kohm) 29: Crown Clotlnng Company * 21. Elias Dankowitz 22. Chone H. Dannin , , ' ^ 23. John L . Dannin 24. Joseph Dannin' 25. Louis Dannin * 26. Mollie Dannin 27. Moritz Dannin 28. Nathan Dannin 29. Bertram David 30. Fischel David

Israel David * ^ 32. Louis David 33. Max David 34. Moses David 35. Nathan David 36. Edward Davidson* 37. Joseph Davidson* 38. Herman Edleman 39. Julius Engel 40. Stewart Engel 41. David Frant 42. Herman Fried

Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport

43. Jacob Friedlander 44: Dai-uch Green* 45. David Greenberg Mr. Charles Heller' * 47. Jacob Heller' 48. EsyHerzman 49. Henry Hess 50. Louis Hess 51. Samuel Horowitz 52. Israel J. Josephson 53: Kahn-Feinberg Co., tailors * 54. Morris Kalb 55. Bemard Kohm 56. Lewis Kohm 57. MyerKravetz 58. Rebecca Kravetz 59. Harry Kravitz 60. Morris Krawetz 61. Aaron Levitch 62. Isaac Levy 63. Max Levy 64. Elias Nahas 65: Hugo Riddell (Kusinitz describes him as a Christian from Providence) 66. Daniel Rosen 67. Eleonora Rosen 68. Noah H. Rosen 69. Simon Rosen 70. Louis B. Rubenstein 71. Louis Schaeffer 72. Alfred Schreier 73. Eugene Schreier 74. Isaac Schuster 75. Elias Schwartz 76. Israel Schwartz 77. William Schwartz 78. Max Schwarz 79. Sigmund Shwarz 80. Abraham Siegal' 81. Harry Silverman 82. Rebecca Sincoff 83. Albert Solomon 84. Michael Vasseman 85. Charles Wagner* 86. Moses Wagner'


87. Max Wasserman 88. David Weiner 89. Herman Weiner 90. William Weiner 91. Alexander S. Weiss 92. Martin Weiss 93. Samuel Weiss 94. Sigmund Weiss 95. Barney Wilsker 96. Abraham Zoorar [or Zurrier]

These names were omitted from the list in vol. 2, no. 4 of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes and added in the next issue by correction.

* These names were listed as defendants in one or both Actions of Forcible Entry and Detainer brought by the trustees of Congregation Shearith Israel on June 9, 1899 and April 28, 1902.

' I eventually dropped these names from my list because the business owners did not appear to live in Newport.

® I eventually dropped these names from my list because the individuals were not listed in any issues of the Newport City Directory, nor were they in the Newport census.

Appendix B Newport residents giving 88 John Street (the H. Weiner and Son Cigar Factory) as their business address in the 1902 City Directory, listed along with their position in the factory (as noted in the city directory).

1. Samuel Arken*, cigarmaker 2. Heilding Berghman, cigarmaker 3. Samuel N. Booth, Jr., cigarmaker 4. Joseph Boutelje, cigarmaker 5. EUas Dankowitz*, cigarmaker 6. Herman Fried*, cigarmaker 7. Isidore Hirschovitz, cigarmaker 8. Theodore Neis, cigarmaker 9. Julius Solomon, bookkeeper

10. Israel Schwartz*, cigarmaker 11. William Schwartz*, cigarmaker 12. George Vollenhover, cigarmaker 13. David J. Wahnon, cigarmaker 14. Herman Weiner*, cigarmaker [also owner] 15. David Weiner*, foreman 16. William Weiner*, cigarmaker [also owner] 17. Martin Weiss*, cigarmaker 18. Samuel Weiss*, cigarmaker * These workers were identified as Jews in the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes and are in the sample used for this paper.


Sources Abbott, Edith. "Employment of Women in Industries: Cigar-Making: Its History and Present Tendencies." The Journal of Political Economy. Vol. 15, no. 1., January 1907, pp. 1-25. Adelman, David C. "They Broke In — To Pray." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 2, no. 4, April 1958, pp. 226-235. Brown, Benjamin. "The Rebirth of the Jewish Community in Newport, 1850-1854." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 13, no. 3, November 2001, pp. 421-438. Burke, John. "The Break In." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 6, no. 4, November 1974, pp. 532-41.

"Chartered Organizations" Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 2, no. 1, June 1958, pp. 21-85. Cooper, Patricia A. Once a Cigar Maker: Men, Women, and Work Culture in American Cigar Factories, 1900-1919. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987. De Sola Pool, D., "The Touro Synagogue: Aspects of the Missing Half-Century of Its History (1850 - 1900)." Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society. No. 38, part 1, September 1948, pp. 57-76. De Sola Pool, D., "Some Notes on the Touro Synagogue." Touro Synagogue of Congregation Jeshuat Israel. Newport: The Society of Friends of Touro Synagogue, 1948. Eidelman, Jay M. , "Economic and Social Aspects of the Decline of Newport Jewiy, 1776-1822." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 12, no. 1 -B, November 1995, pp. 84-92. Gutstein, Morris A, To Bigotry No Sanction: A Jewish Shrine in America, 1658-1958. New York: Bloch Pubhshing, 1958 Gutstein, Morris A. "The Jews of Newport, Rhode Island in Pre-Revolutionary Days" in Touro Synagogue of Congregation Jeshuat Israel. Newport: The Society of Friends of Touro Synagogue, 1948.

Gutstein, Morris A. The Story of the Jews of Newport: Two and a Half Centuries of Judaism, 1658-1908. New York: Bloch Publishing, 1936. Jefferys, C.P.B. Newport: A Short History. Newport: Newport Historical Society, 1992. "Jewish Family Names." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 2, no. 1, June 1958, pp. 238-40. Kusinitz, Bemard. "The 1902 Sit-in at Touro Synagogue." Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes. Vol. 7, no. 1, November 1975, pp. 42-72. National Park Service, Touro Synagogue, National Historic Site. Department of the Interior, 2000. "NatmalizationRccords." Rhode Island JewishHistoricalNotes. Vol. 1,no.I.June 1954, pp. 11-71. Petro Pamela. The Newport and Narragansett Bay Book. Lee, Massachusetts: Berkshire House Publishers, 1994. Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. The Southern Thames Street Neighborhood in Newport. Statewide Historical Preservation Report N-N-3, February 1980. Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission. The West Broadway Neighborhood in Newport. Statewide Historical Preservation Report N-N-2, March 1977. Warburten, Eileen. In Living Memory: A Chronicle of Newport, Rhode Island, 1888 -1988. Newport: Newport Savings and Loan Association, 1988.

Guardians of Health: The Jewish Health Professionals of Rhode Island

Stanley M. Aronson, M.D.

Dr. Aronson, the founding dean of the Brown University School of Medicine and co-founder of Hospice Care of Rhode Island, now serves as consultant for the overseas programs of the Rockefeller Foundation. He writes a weekly column for The Providence Journal and has contributed many articles to the Notes.

There is one source of retrospective information that can provide us with some reasonably reliable quantitative information conceming the professions that Jews have entered in the past hundred years, namely, the collective data found within the death certificates on file with the two funeral homes in Rhode Island that have, by tradition, attended to the burial needs of most Jewish families in this community. There are obvious deficits in relying solely on this source. There are, for example, those Rhode Island Jews who died in other states or who were attended to by local non-sectarian funeral parlors, and there may also be misinformation on the certificates or questions left unanswered. It is estimated, nonetheless, that the funeral needs of close to 90% of Rhode Island Jews dying during the last 70 years have been fulfilled by these two establishments.

Through the courtesy of these funeral parlors, copies of 9,319 death certificates of Jews who died between 1953 and 1988, a span of 35 consecutive years, were made available. These documents are now on file with the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association and are available to scholars seeking further relevant information, including names, regarding the 189 Jewish health professionals summarized in this report.

Each death certificate provides the decedent's name, gender, address, date and place of birth, date and place of death, marital status, occupation, mihtary duty i f any, and sometimes some marginal notes about the decedent's memberships in societies and philanthropies, colleges attended, and honors received. In addition, the certificates provide the name, dates, and places of birth of the decedent's parents.

Reviewing the occupations listed on these 9,319 certificates yielded 189 certificates of individuals in the health care professions (2.0%) as specified in Table 1. These are probably underestimates, since the occupations of


Guardians ofHealth:The Jewish Health Professionals of Rhode Island 595

some of the decedents may have been unMsted. A previous study of these collected certificates reveals that 16.1% of Jewish males bom after the year 1900, over the age of 21, were in one or another of the professions, for example, law, engineering, medicine, dentistry, teaching, etc'

There were 57 registered physicians, all male, identified in these 9,310 certificates — 24 bom prior to the year 1900, and the remainder on or after 1900. The older physicians were generally educated overseas, typically in Austrian, Swiss, or German medical schools. Those bom after 1900 typically attended American medical schools such as Tufts, Harvard, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Most of those bom before the year 1900 declared Russia and Poland as their geographic sites of origin. Of those American-bom physicians whose birth preceded the year 1900, most came from Rhode Island (see table 1).

The great majority (84.2%) of these physicians were married at the time of their death. Only 7% had never been married and 8.8% were widowers. A substantial number of these physicians served in the military during World War I I . Of the 23 physicians who were younger than age 38 in 1941 (the time of the Pearl Harbor attack), 15 (65.2%) had served as medical officers in one of the three mihtary services (army, air force, navy). One physician had served in the infantry during World War I .

The medical specialties practiced by these 57 physicians covered every major clinical, public health, and research discipline, as well as general practice, and one had been commissioner of health for the state of Califomia. Only five were described as general practitioners, the remainder having undergone specialty training. The great majority were affiliated with the Miriam Hospital. And many who had survived beyond 1972, the time that the Brown Medical School was officially sanctioned, were important members of its clinical faculty. ,

Where did death take place? Mainly in the local hospitals, particularly the Miriam, Rhode Island, and VA hospitals (46.9%), home (17.9%), or while on vacation (8.9%). One physician, a well-respected obstetrician, was murdered during an attempted robbery.

The records indicate that there were 29 registered dentists in this group of 189 health professionals, with nine bom overseas (Russia, Germany, Romania, Poland and Iran) and the remainder bom in the states of Rhode Island, New York, or Massachusetts. The dental colleges attended by these


29 dentists were virtually all in the United States and included the University of Maryland, Harvard, Tufts, Columbia, NYU, and Temple. Some of the foreign sites of dental education included Dalhousie in Nova Scotia and Teheran in Iran. Over half of the dentists within the ages of service-ehgibility served honorably in the mihtary during World War 11.

There were 50 registered pharmacists among these 189 Jewish health care professionals, about one-third bom in Rhode Island. Virtually all of these registered pharmacists were graduates of the Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, the precursor institution of the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy.

Twelve of the death certificates identified the person as a registered nurse, without specifying the location of the school of nursing. Over half of these nurses had been bom in Rhode Island, predominantly in Providence. The great majority were either never married or were widowed.

Table 1 enumerates the number, gender, and place of birth of other health professionals, including those practicing optometry, social work, podiatry, veterinary medicine, laboratory technology, clinical psychology, and hospital administration.

It is said that human statistics are numbers with the anguish and tears wiped away. Certainly the distilled numbers oudined above do not begin to tell of the many sacrifices made, of the pleasures foregone, and of the inevitable stmggles experienced by diese people as they strove to obtain professional status and to contribute to the health of the Rhode Island community. Almost a third had been bom overseas, had emigrated to Rhode Island at an early age, leamed English as a second language while simultaneously striving to excel in the local public school system, and then had to overcome such obstacles as religious quotas before achieving admission to some professional college. And then followed years of intensely rigorous education in dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, medicine, or any of the other important health fields. Many were forced to borrow funds to pay for then-education.

The difficulties for the 29 women professionals must have been even greater, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. They faced the societal perception that a woman's role was to be centered in the home, providing the husband with meals, loving care, and children. A woman voluntarily involving herself in the professional arena was therefore consid-

Guardians of Health.The Jewisfi Health Professionals of Rhode Island 597

ered unwomanly. Some of this hostility toward the entrance of women into the health professions is reflected in the fact that about one-third of these resolute women never married; in contrast, the non-marriage rate for males in this study was only about 10% (table 2).

The data, then, do not tell us much about the intense motivation of these individuals, both male and female, their capabilities, and the obstacles they had to overcome; for that, an oral history — memoirs and interviews, for example — would need to be compiled. The data do, however, give us an idea of the relative proportion of health care workers in the Rhode Island Jewish population during the last century, their places of origin, gender ratio, marital status, longevity, and other pertinent information.

Notes Aronson, S. M. and Aronson, B. E . "A Population in Transition: The Role of Demographic Data". Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 13, No. 3 (2001), 408-19.


Table 1 Rhode Island Jewish Health Professionals

Dying During the Interval 1953-1988

Bom (%) Profession Male Female Age* R I U.S., other Overseas

Medicine 57 0 68.6 35.1 38.6 26.3% Dentistry 28 1 64.1 27.6 41.4 31.0 Pharmacy 47 3 67.3 38.0 24.0 38.0 Nursing 0 12 69.6 58.3 8.3 33.3 Podiatry 8 0 64.3 50.0 25.0 25.0 Optometry 9 0 64.3 44.4 33.3 22.2 • Social Work 4 8 54.0 58.3 33.3 8.3 Lab. Technol 2 3 ** 40.0 60.0 0 Veterinary 3 0 ** 66.7 33.3 0 Psychology 0 2 ** 100.0 0 0 Hosp. Admin. 2 0 ** 50.0 50.0 0

Average age at death Inadequate numbers

Table 2 Marital Status (in %) of the

189 Jewish Health Professionals

Profession Married

Physicians, male 84.2 Dentists, male 82.8 Pharmacists, male 69.2 Women professionals 20.7

Single

7.0 6.9

15.4 34.5

Widowed/Divorced

8.8 10.3 15.4 44.8

"I Did My Duty": An Airman's Service in World War II

by Stanley Abrams

Mr. Abrams, past president of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, currently serves as chairman of the Association's Publication Committee. He spent most of his business career in the food service industry and was a vice president/owner of the What Cheer Foods Company.

In his last World War I I book, The Wild Blue, historian Stephen E. Ambrose writes about the celebrated B-24 Liberator bomber. Subtitled The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over Germany, 1944-1945, Ambrose focuses on what he calls a band of brothers whose skill, courage, daring, and comradeship was exceptional. He writes:

The pilots and crews of the B-24s came from every state and territory in America. They were sons of workers, doctors, lawyers, farmers, businessmen. Some had an excellent education, including college. Others were barely, i f at all, out of high school. They were astonishingly young. Some never got to be twenty years old before the war ended. Most wanted to be fighter pilots, but only a relative few attained that goal. The majority became crew members.'

This description recalls the story of Rhode Island resident Milton Levin, who meets die model described by Stephen Ambrose.^ Milton was bom in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1926. His father was a businessman who moved to Providence in 1929 and established a plumbing supply business. Milton graduated from Hope High School in January 1944, just over two years after the United States entered the war. Aware that he would be drafted into the Army, Milton enlisted in the aviation cadet program of the Army Air Force in December 1943. In late January 1944, less that one month after his eighteenth birthday, he was activated and sent to basic training in North Carolina.'

Although Milton was a candidate for aviation cadet school, he had to undergo the rigors of infantry style basic training. He recalls that toward the end of basic, parents were permitted a weekend visit. His parents, Michael and Bess, traveled eighteen hours by train to North Carolina. When they arrived at the base, Milton was retuming from a two-night bivouac. His father ran up to greet his bedraggled rifle-bearing son only to be admonished



by the marching officer. With a handful of cigars for the officer, Michael Levin announced "that's my boychik." Milton survived basic training only to learn that, along with most of those in the cadet program, he was not eligible for that school. In mid-1944 the Air Force needed gunners for their bombing crews in Europe and the Pacific. Plane losses were extremely heavy, especially in the European theater. So in early May 1944, Milton was sent to gunnery school in Laredo, Texas. This training involved firing a 50-caliber machine gun on a range and on board an old Air Force bomber. As a result of a lottery-style drawing, Milton was assigned to the tail gunner's turret.

One training test that Milton experienced is vividly described in a long letter to his parents dated May 9, 1944. The test involved being placed in a pressure chamber to determine i f he could handle simulated flying altitudes of up to 30,000 feet (six miles):

We're in our second week of processing. Today we went in the Pressure Chamber. ... Two of the fellows are chosen as "guinea pigs," and they go up without an oxygen mask. The rest of us put on our oxygen masks at 10,000 feet. At 18,000 feet we took them off for twelve minutes, then put them on again and kept them on for the rest of the [simulated] flight. ... The two fellows that went up without the masks were given easy arithmetic problems to work out. We were all told to watch them closely. Until they reached 20,000 feet they were okay. After 20,000 we could see that they were starting to feel the effects of the lack of oxygen. Then they took samples of their handwriting. You see, the human body can only stand so much time in high altitudes without oxygen. Finally, they became so weak and mentally deficient without oxygen that they had to put their masks back on at 27,000 feet At 25,000 feet they couldn' t even write their own names or subtract five from ten. Their fingernails turned purple. After they had their masks on for about five minutes they were okay. ... The day after tomorrow, we are going into the Pressure Chamber again, this time for a flight up to 38,000 feet.

After completing gunnery school. Private Levin was sent to an air base in Pueblo, Colorado,which served as a training center for overseas action. Shortly after arriving, permanent crews were assembled. Milton describes his crew as a cross section of America. The radio operator was from the Ozarks, the top turret gunner was a Mormon from Utah, the flight engineer a part Cherokee Indian from Oklahoma, and the nose guimer was raised in

'I Did My Duty": An Airman's Service in World War II 601

B-24 combat crew, 1944-45. Middle row right: Milton Levin.

a small Alabama town. Not one of these crewmates had ever knowingly interacted with a Jew before meeting Milton. The lad from Alabama let it be known that his father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Milton was relieved when this individual took i l l and left the crew just before departing for overseas. He thinks that "it was just an act on his part because he didn't like what we were doing."

The pilot, navigator, and bombardier, all from the midwest, were college-educated officers in their twenties. After the crew was formed, training missions on a B-24 Liberator bomber began in earnest. Flying at high altitudes and for long distances in a variety of weather conditions were just a hint of what was in store.

In the middle of October 1944, the crew went by train from Colorado to Newport News, Virginia, where they boarded a troop ship to Europe. The ship was part of a major convoy. After two wild weeks on the Atlantic, it anchored in the outer harbor of Naples, Italy. To disembark, the men climbed down landing nets in full gear onto flat barges which transported


them to land. After a midnight march through Naples, they boarded old Italian railcars for a slow, two-day trip to the south of Italy. Then anodier troop ship transported them around the boot and up the Adriatic Sea to a major assembly area on the east coast of Italy. Here the crew was assigned to Squadron 717, Bomber Group 449, of the 15* Air Force command. The final leg of the journey was by truck to an airfield in Grottaglie, Italy, where the Bomber Group was headquartered.

Living conditions on the base came as a surprise to Milton. Military barracks were reserved for officers. The enlisted airmen were assigned a space in an open field and given a tent that they had to erect. The only equipment was a small potbelly stove that did not produce enough heat for the tent enclosure. However, it provided hot water for shaving, which was very important for a secure and tight-fitting oxygen mask. The December wind and frigid weather made for uncomfortable days and nights. Milton slept in his uniform and used his flight gear at night as additional cover.

Tail gunner Levin's first two combat missions were with a veteran crew rather than his own. The first mission was to bomb a railroad tunnel at the Brenner Pass linking Italy and Austria. Milton describes how the first bomb released at 18,000 feet missed the target point. "We had to go around again to form up for another bomb run. The ground fire was extremely heavy. In the new formation, we were positioned on the right and another B-24 took our original position. Unfortunately that plane took two serious flak hits and spun out of control through the clouds. I realized right then how lucky we were to have changed slots. I also recall that for the first time in my brief military career I had wet my pants."

In total, Milton flew thirty-one combat missions. After the first two with a "bastard" crew, he joined his own group. Targets included the Moosbierbaum oil refineries on the outskirts of Vienna, the industrial plants in Regensberg, Germany, airfields in Hungary, and, in the late stages of the war, sites in northem Italy where the German Army was in full retreat. Missions averaged eight hours, preceded by a two-hour briefing and followed by a two-hour debriefing.

After the cmde living conditions in his tent, Milton had to endure the confined, cold, and inhospitable environs of the B-24 bomber. Stephen Ambrose writes that "the B-24 was built like a 1930s Mack tmck."* Once he reached a sitting position in his turret. Private Levin stmggled to put on the cumbersome two-piece flak jacket over his flying gear. He never accom-


plished this completely, and instead used one part that looked like an umphe's chest-protector as a seat cushion. He controlled the turret movement thirty degrees left or right. It was possible to close the doors of die turret, but he never did for fear of being trapped i f the doors froze. On the missions it was his responsibility to throw out strips of silver foil at intervals to jam enemy radar. Now, some fifty-eight years later, Milton admits that he dumped the whole bundle of foil at one time to reduce his exposure to antiaircraft explosions.

Normal bodily relief functions were a major problem. From his turret position diere was a tube to urinate in, but with all of the bulky clothing it was not user friendly. And at an altitude of over 25,000 feet the relief tube often froze. Lined bags were available for defecating but the same logistical problems almost precluded this function. Another high- altitude concern involved maintenance of one's oxygen mask. Every fifteen or twenty minutes the pilot would call for an oxygen check; each crew member would remove his mask to squeeze out ice crystals, thus ensuring a proper flow of oxygen. Finally, there was the problem of enduring severe intestinal pain caused by flying at heights of over five miles in the non-pressurized B-24.

Before each mission, the crew members were given an escape kit that included a compass, a map of the target area, recommended escape routes, $200 bribe money, and a multilingual card for identification. The airmen also carried a 45-caliber pistol. Milton never had to resort to using the escape kit or the pistol. But he tells die story of airman Cohen, an acquaintance who was the only other Jew in his squadron. To refuel his gambling habit, Cohen found it convenient to remove one item from the escape kit. Two thousand dollars later, Cohen's scheme was uncovered. In short order he was arrested, court martialed, and sent to military prison in Bari, Italy. Milton made one trip to the prison and almost cried when he saw the conditions in the camp and the state of his Brooklyn-bom friend.

Milton's combat missions ranged in time from mid-November 1944 to the beginning of April 1945, one month before the surrender of Nazi Germany. He sat in the tailgun turret for almost 300 hours, but luckily was never attacked by enemy aircraft. He explains that by early 1945, the remnants of the German Luftwaffe were committed to defending the German mainland. During each mission he test-fired his gun. On one occasion, when he did not keep the barrels of his guns in an upright position, which was essential when flying in formation, die pilot of a nearby plane

"/ Did My Duty ": An Airman's Service in World War II 605

radioed, "tell that stupid tail gunner to raise his guns and keep them raised." Although enemy attacks on bomber formations were virtually non-existent, anti-aircraft fire was usually very heavy, causing constant anxiety in the planes. Those aircraft that were disabled by flak faced the only threat from the few German fighter planes waiting in the distance to strike at any stragglers. Milton adds that i f a disabled bomber or one that ran out of fuel had to ditch in the Adriatic Sea, the chances of survival were poor to nil: "Nobody wanted to bail out over the Adriatic." , .

Shortly after V-E Day, Milton and his crew made the return trip to Naples and from there back to the States. He remembers that when the troopship was pulling out of Naples, everyone tossed their oxygen masks, steel helmets, overcoats, and other gear into the bay — a good riddance gesture! When the ship approached the United States, Milton realized it was anchoring in Boston Harbor. He wired his parents on May 15,1945, that he had arrived safely and expected to see diem soon. At the end of May, he was given a three-week furlough, during which time he visited family and friends, spent long periods with his parents, and went to the beach at Narragansett Pier, "which was something I had looked forward to."

Since the war with Japan was still in progress. Levin — now a Staff Sergeant — was assigned to an air base in Texas for training on the B-29 bomber. The Japanese surrender came shortly thereafter, and for the next four months he shuttled around the country from one base to another. He still shakes his head in disbelief over the waste and inefficiency of the military during this period but realizes that it was dealing with millions of personnel who only wanted to return to civilian life. Milton's final stop was at Westover Air Field, where he was honorably discharged on December 18, 1945.

Reflecting on his twenty-tiiree months of active duty, civihan Milton Levin now has some very interesting and perceptive observations. The mihtary miheu at bases in the United States, or in a tent in Italy, or in the rear turret of a B-24, was not intolerable to a Jewish teenager from Rhode Island. He was never confronted with overt anti-Semitism, although he detected an underlying current of enmity toward Jews. Most of the young men he came in contact with had never met a Jew but came with preconceived ideas about the "non-believers." Jewish religious observance for MUton was not in die offing during his tour of duty.


The relationship between Milton and his crewmates was double-edged: concern for one another during combat missions was replaced by a range of attitudes from mild geniality to indifference during their everyday activities and social encounters. When his crew broke up in Italy, there were no handshakes or goodbyes, not even from the officers. They had been brought together to help win a war and that was their only commitment to one another. Not surprisingly, in the fifty-seven years since that time Milton has never heard from any of the crew or officers. He believes that cultural and social differences inhibited any chance for establishing long-term friendships.

Milton was very conscientious about writing home. He often wrote separate letters to his mother and father. From his tent in Grottaglie, he wrote to his father, " I 'm fine and in good health so there's not need to worry. I also received a letter from mother, and it's really swell the way she's taking it. I ' l l try to write her as often as I can."'

What are Milton's final thoughts about his wartime experience? Looking back, he is amazed that an overly-protected only child from a solid middle class Jewish family, less than five years after his Bar Mitzvah and one year out of high school, would be sitting in the tail gunner's turret on a B-24. Everything happened so fast. But he endured. " I feel I was patriotic. My father, a World War I Navy veteran, was very patriotic. I take pride in myself that I didn't ask for special favors nor did I feign illness, as many serviceman did to avoid an unpleasant assignment. My country awarded me with the Air Force medal and two clusters. I went into the Air Force as a boy and came out as a man. I did my duty — I served my country honorably."

What better conclusion could a veteran arrive at?

Notes ' Ambrose, Stephen E . The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s Over

Germany, 1944-45. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001, pp. 27-28. 2 This article is based on three taped interviews with Milton Levin on June 19, July 10,

and July 24, 2002. The tapes were transcribed by Lillian Schwartz. Both the tapes and transcriptions are on file in the archives of RIJHA.

^ Before 1947, each military branch had its own air force, the largest being the U. S. Army Air Force. In 1947, the Air Force was established as a separate branch.

" Ambrose, r/je WiWB/we, p. 21. ' LetterfromMiltonLevintohisfather, dated December 10, 1944.

Bibliographical Notes

Recent acquisitions of tiie RIJHA library written by local authors or relevant to Rhode Island Jewish history.

America: History and Life, Annual Index with List of Periodicals. Vol. 38, No. 35. Santa Barbara, CA and Oxford: ABC/CLIO, 2001

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, page 382

American Jewish History. Vol. 89, No.3, September 2001. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press

Lynn Davidman, associate professor of Judaic Studies at Brown University, reviewed book. When a Jew Dies: The Ethnography of a Bereaved Son, by Samuel C. Heilman, page 220

Her Works Praise Her. A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to Present. Hasia R. Riner and Beryl Lieff Benderly. New York: Basic Books, 2002, 448 pages

Colonial Jewish Women of Newport, pages 23, 29, 54-55, 98 Touro Synagogue, pages 34, 55

History and Roster of Rhode Island Masonry in World War Two. Compiled and edited by Winfield Scott Solomon, Past Grand Master, no date. 166 pages

Listed by lodges, with many Jewish references. From the estate of A. Archie Finkelstein, donated by his daughter, Mitzi Berkelhammer.

Rhode Island A to Z: Coloring/Learning Book. Adam G. Gertsacov. Donna Atwood Design, 2002, 64 pages

Providence native and grandson of Agnes Gertsacov Touro Synagogue mentioned in "time line," page 8


Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association 48th Annual Meeting Sunday, May 5, 2002

The 48* annual meeting of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association was held on Sunday, May 5, 2002, at the Jewish Community Center, Providence, Rhode Island. Dr. Jay Orson, Chairman of the Day, called the meeting to order at 2:00 PM. before an audience of over 170 people.

President Robert Berkelhammer asked that the minutes be waived. It was so voted. He then described the state of the organization as he leaves his term as president. He asked for a vote on the following proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Association, as follows:

1. To change the name of the governing board of the Association from "Executive Committee" to "Board of Directors."

2. To create a new Executive Committee, consisting of no more than seven directors, including at least three officers, which wil l administer and control the activities of the Association between meetings of the Board of Directors.

The amendments were passed unanimously by those present.

Librarian/Archivist Eleanor Horvitz presented her annual report on the activities of the organization during the past year. The annual financial report was given by Treasurer Jack Fradin and accepted as read. President Berkelhammer then presented a gift of books and a bouquet of flowers to Anne Sherman in recognition and appreciation of her ten years of service as manager of the Association office. Anne accepted the acknowledgment with pleasure.

Eugene Weinberg, chairman of the Nominating Committee, gave the report on behalf of committee members Harold Gadon, Julius Michaelson, Anita Fine, and Carl Feldman. There being no further nominations from the floor, the proposed slate was unanimously accepted. The new officers and board members were duly installed by Melvin Zurier, Installing Officer. After incoming President George Goodwin outiined his aspirations and expectations for the coming year, he announced that Dr. Stuart W. Levine and James W. Toback were his presidential appointees to the board. He then presented a gift from the board to retiring President Robert Berkelhammer.

Chairman of the Day, Dr. Jay Orson introduced Professor David Kertzer as the featured speaker who would discuss the outpouring of reactions to his


609

recent book, The Popes Against the Jews. In light of the recent rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, Dr. Kertzer explained his theory regarding the role played by the Vatican. He described his access to research materials and documents in the Vatican archives. His talk was followed by a period of questions and answers.

President George Goodwin adjourned the meeting at 3:30 PM. It was followed by refreshments and a social period chaired by Anita Fine, with assistance from Lillian Schwartz, Lyim Stepak, and Dorothy Fishbein.

Respectfully submitted,

Charlotte I . Penn, Secretary

610

Necrology — RIJHA Members October 16, 2001 - October 15, 2002

Alpert, L . Saul, bom in Fall River, Massachusetts, the son of the late Nathan and Rose (Berick) Alpert. He graduated from the Moses Brown School and attended Brown University and Bendey College. He served in the U.S. Army reserves.

Mr. Alpert was an executive vice president of the former Ann & Hope Company. He was a member of the Ledgemont Country Club, the Frenchmen's Creek Club in Florida, and Temple Beth-El.

He leaves his wife Marjorie (Chase) Alpert; a son, Daniel Alpert; and two daughters, Jaime Alpert and Stacey Parks.

Died in Boston, Massachusetts on January 30, 2002 at age 64.

Aronson, Betty M.D., bom in Brooklyn, N. Y., the daughter of the late Fred and Edna-Louise (Shurtloff) Ellis. Dr. Aronson received undergraduate degrees from the City College of New York and New York University. She received her medical degree from New York University.

In 1970 Dr. Aronson joined the medical faculty at Brown University as a professor of pediatrics. She worked full time at Miriam Hospital and was on the staff of Rhode Island Hospital. She established the first vims-disease laboratory in Rhode Island.

Dr. Aronson was a volunteer for Hospice Care of Rhode Island and the Interfaith Healdicare Ministries. She was a member of Temple Bedi-El.

Dr. Aronson is survived by her husband of 58 years. Dr. Stanley M. Aronson; and three daughters, Susan Symons, Lisa Aronson, and Dr. Sarah Aronson.

Died in Rehoboth, Massachusetts on May 17, at the age of 82.

Barwood-Daniels, Anita, bom in Providence, a daughter of the late Abraham and Lucille (Turcot) Goldblatt. She was the widow of the late Edgar A. Barwood, and the late David C. Daniels.

Mrs. Daniels was a graduate of the University of Rhode Island. She was an avid golfer. She was a member of Temple Beth-El and its sisterhood, and a life member of Hadassah.


611

She leaves a daughter, Jody B. Barwood. ^

Died in Lincoln on February 22, 2002.

Cohen, Ann Dunn, bom in Woonsocket, the daughter of the late David and Rachel (Morgenstem) Dunn.

Miss Cohen was valedictorian of Woonsocket High School's class of 1923. For 42 years she worked at the former Riverside Worsted Company from which she retired as executive secretary in 1974.

She was a member of Congregation B'Nai Israel, a life member of its sisterhood and its Chevrah Kaddisha, which she had served as financial secretary. She was a member of Hadassah.

Miss Cohen leaves several nieces and nephews. A

Died in Boston, Massachusetts on March 3, 2002 at age 95.

Finkelstein, A. Archie, bom in Providence, the son of the late Joseph M . and Rose (Levy) Finkelstein and husband of the late Sylvia (Cardon) Finkelstein. He attended the University of Rhode Island and the Philadelphia College of Textiles. He served in the Army as a lieutenant colonel in Europe during World War I I .

Mr. Finkelstein was the proprietor of the former Adantic Knitting Company. He was a life member of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, a member and hfe tmstee of Temple Beth-El, and past president of its Brotherhood.

He leaves three daughters: Dr. Judith Finkelstein, Mitzi Berkelhammer and Marcia Goodman.

Died in Providence on July 30, 2002 at the age of 87.

Goldstein, Diana, bom in Central Falls, a daughter of the late Piney and Anna (Yablonsky) Feital. She was the wife of the late Sidney Goldstein.

Mrs. Goldstein was a life member and past board member of the Women's Association of the Miriam Hospital, a life member of the Jewish Home for die Aged, and a member of the Women's Division of the Jewish Federation. She was a member of Temple Emanu-El, a life member of its sisterhood and the Leisure Club.

Mrs. Goldstein leaves a daughter, Harmah Kessler.

Died in Providence on November 18, 2001.


Heilman, Voilet G., bom in New York City, a daughter of the late Abraham and Anna (Poss) Zeitlan.

She was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Hunter College and in 1982 was made a member of the Spanish Honor Society, Sigma Delta Pi.

Mrs. Heilman was a founding member of the Washington Modem Dance Society. In 1998, the South County branch of Hadassah named her Woman of the Year.

Mrs. Heilman is survived by her husband Richard Heilman; a son, Peter Heilman; and two daughters, Elizabeth Cooper and Caroline Heilman.

Died in Wakefield on May 18, 2002 at age 87.

Hochberg, Gertrude M, bom in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a daughter of die late Louis and Rose (Lieberman) Meth. She was the widow of the late Robert Hochberg. She was a 1930 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mrs. Hochberg was the fhst female vice president of Bryant College. Prior to this she served as director of pubhc relations at Bryant for which she gained national recognition. In a tribute her, Bryant established a scholarship fund in her name.

Mrs. Hochberg was very active in women's causes. In 1977 she was the first woman inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. In 1999, she became the first recipient of the Rhode Island Historical Society's Goff Women's Achievement Award. She was a member and past officer of Temple Beth-El.

Her immediate survivors are a son. Dr. Mark S. Hochberg; and a daughter. Erica H. Stem.

Died in Bradenton, Florida on March 20, 2002 at the age of 90.

Kenner, Frederick, bom in Providence, a son of the late Jacob and Lena Kenner. He was a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and a Navy Veteran of World War I I .

Mr. Kenner was the president of the former Rhode Island Insulated Wire Company, retiring in the early 1960s. He then became chairman of the board of the former M.W. Dunton Company. He was an active patron of the arts.

Mr. Kenner was a life member of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. He was a member of the Rhode Island School of Design

Necrology 613

Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Smithsonian Institution. He served on the boards of the former Jewish Home for the Aged, the Miriam Hospital, and was active in the Jewish Federation. Mr. Kenner was a member of Temple Beth-El and its brotherhood.

He leaves his wife Sylvia (Cor) Kenner; a son, Harris Kenner; and a daughter Kathy Kenner.

Died in West Palm Beach, Florida on August 27,2002 at the age of 89.

Lindenbaum, Charles, bom in New York City, the son of the late Meyer and Sophia (Chester) Lindenbaum.

Mr. Lindenbaum had been a real estate investor and owner for over 30 years. He was an amateur artist.

He was a life member of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, the Chautauqua Society, B ' nai B ' rith, the National Holocaust Museum and the Weisenthal Center. Mr. Lindenbaum was a member of Temple Beth-El and its brotherhood.

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Bessie (Rosenberg) Lindenbaum; a son, Kenneth Lindenbaum; and a daughter, Roberta Fox.

Died in Lake Worth, Florida in September 29, 2002 at age 96.

Markoff, Burton, bom in Providence, a son of the late Allen and Lillian (Bachman) Markoff. He was a 1952 graduate of Northwestem University. He served in the United States Navy during the Korean conflict.

Mr. Markoff had been the sales manager in the lamp and Hghting division of the Carol Cable Company. He was the owner of the former Super Products Company and of a retail jewelry company, retiring in 2000. Mr. Markoff was a member of Temple Beth-El, serving as a past board member and past president of its brotherhood.

He leaves his wife, Roslyn (Falcofsky) Markoff; and three daughters, Caryl O'Connor, Susan Markoff, and Nancy Chodak.

Died in Providence on October 4, 2002 at the age of 73.

Salmanson, Hannah, bom in Providence, a daughter of the late Jacob and Dora (Alpert) Kushner.

Mrs. Salmanson was a life member of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association, Hadassah, and the Women's Association of the Miriam Hospital. She was a member of the Jewish Community Center, the Women's


Association of the former Jewish Home for the Aged, and the Jewish Federation. Mrs. Salmanson was a member of Temple Emanu-El.

She leaves her husband Charles Salmanson; a son, Jerrold A. Salmanson; and a daughter, Deborah Salmanson Roberts. • ,

Died in Providence on December 4, 2001 at the age of 87. '

Sapolsky, Asher, bom in the Ukraine, a son of the late Harry and Hannah (Tuninsky) Sapolsky. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and received a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Miami at age 58.

Mr. Sapolsky was on the adjunct staff of the Miriam Hospital, conducting research on arthritis. He was a member of the American College of Rheumatology and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He had a lifelong passion for gardening. Mr. Sapolsky was a member of Temple Emanu-El.

He is survived by his wife Eva (Rosenthal) Sapolsky; a son, Walter Sapolsky; and a daughter, Wanda Needleman.

Died in Providence on January 10, 2002 at age 92.

Steingold, Anne R., bom in Providence, a daughter of the late Samuel and Edith (Silberman) Resnick and wife of the late Charles J. Steingold. She was a graduate of Bryant College. ;

Mrs. Steingold was a life master in the American Contract Bridge League. She was a bridge teacher for many years and ran bridge games at Hamilton House and the Jewish Community Center. She was a member of Temple Beth-El and a life member of Hadassah.

She leaves a son, Larry S. Steingold.

Died in Providence on November 27, 2001 at the age of 78.

Weil, Manfred, bom in Germany, a son of the late Simon and Else (Rosenbaum) Weil. He escaped with his family from Germany in 1938 and setded in Providence. He was an executive for the Miller electronic division of the former Carol Cable Company for 31 years.

Mr. Weil was an Army veteran of World War I I , serving in the Pacific. He was a past commander of the Fineman-Trinkle Post 439 of the Jewish War Veterans.

He was active in many Jewish organizations. He was instmmental in the

Necrology 615

settlement of Russian immigrants in Rhode Island. He received the Amudin Award from the Providence Hebrew Day School as an outstanding member of the community. He established endowments at a number of educational institutions. Mr. Weil was a member and past president of Temple Emanu-El.

He is survived by his wife, Jeanne (Fish) Weil; a son, Simon Weil; and two daughters, Cory Fink and Judith Weir.

Died in Boca Raton, Florida on January 23, 2002 at the age of 80.

White, Sol M . , bom in Springfield, Massachusetts, a son of the late Raymond and Eva (Gmbman) White.

He had been in the textile and real-estate business, from which he retired 23 years ago.

Mr. White was chairman of the 25* anniversary celebration of Israel for the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island and the Jewish Community Center. He was active in many other Jewish causes. Mr. White was a member of Temple Emanu-El, where he was named Man of the Year in 1972.

He is survived by his wife Claire (Samdperil) White; a son, Richard T. White; and a daughter, Patricia R. Cohen.

Died in West Boynton Beach, Florida on January 1, 2002 at the age of 83.

Errata

Volume 13, Number 3

Table of Contents

page 341, line 8: "Goodman" should read "Goodwin."

all page numbers in the Table of Contents should be advanced by two numbers; e.g., 341 should read 343, etc.


617

Funds and Bequests of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

Funds

Arnold T. and Alice Axelrod GaUdn Ira S. and Anna Galkin Seebert J. and Gertrude N. Goldowsky Benton H. and Beverly Rosen Erwin E. and Pauline E. Strasmich Sylvia and Frederick Kenner Judith Weiss Cohen

General Fund General Fund

Research Scholarship Fund Book Fund

General Fund General Fund

Memorial Fund

Bequests Jeannette S. Nathans B. Ruby Winnerman

^ ̂ ̂ Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes

619

Life Members of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

Stanley and Sandra Abrams Mr. and Mrs. Carl Adler Irving H. and Eleanor Adler Mrs. Max Alperin Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Alperin Linda and Nathaniel Baker Banice C. and Beverly Bazar Dr. Leonard and Shirley Bellin Rosalie Adelman Beloff Robert and Miriam Berkelhammer Mr. Bertram Bernhardt Mrs. Alice Bernstein Mr. and Mrs. Stanley P. Blacher Mr. William Bojar Lynn and Elliott Brodsky Mrs. Jesse Bromley Mr. Aaron Cohen Mrs. Earle F. Cohen Mr. and Mrs. Newton B. Cohn Mr. and Mrs. Donald H. Dwares Engle Tire Company Barry and Elaine Fain Burton and Lois Fain Mr. and Mrs. Carl H. Feldman Judith Foster and Mark Andres Warren and Geraldine Foster Mr. Charles Fradin Mrs. Beatrice Frank Mr. and Mrs. H. Alan Frank Mr. Arnold T. Galkin Mr. and Mrs. James Gershman Mrs. Seebert J. Goldowsky Dr. George and Betsey Goodwin Jeremiah and Rosalind Gorin Mrs. Harry A. Course Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Grossman Rabbi Leslie Y . Gutterman Dr. and Mrs. James Herstoff Robert and Marcia Woolf Hicks Mr. and Mrs. David Hirsch Jack and Annette Segal Hockman

Dr. and Mrs. Abraham Horvitz Dr. Alfred and Betty Jaffe Marilyn Kagan Patti Kaplan Mr. Sherwin Kapstein Howard and Rachel Kaufman Arnold and Sheila Kaufman Mrs. Sylvia Kenner Estelle R. Klemer Robert A. and Betty Koden Mrs. Anne Krause ' Mrs. Sanford Kroll Dorothy Frank Fox Levenson George and B arbara Levine Mrs. Frank Licht Mrs. Charles Lindenbaum Judith Holzman Litt Dr. and Mrs. Stephen J. Losben Mr. Ronald Markoff Darielle and Gabrielle Zarakov Mason Dr. and Mrs. Edwin Mehlman Mathew L . Millen Mr. Jack Miller Mr. and Mrs. Milton Nachbar Mrs. Dorothy M. Nelson Mrs. Eugene Nelson Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Nulman Dr. Lawrence and Ruth Page Mr. Thomas Pearlman Dr. Marvin Pitterman Warren and Susette Rabinowitz Mr. Hye Rapaporte Dr. James E . Reibman Kenneth and Chaya Resnick Mr. and Mrs. Robert Riesman Arthur and Judy Robbins Mr. and Mrs. S. David Roberts Mr. and Mrs. William L . Robin Mrs. Beverly Rosen Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L . Rosen Judy and Jay Rosenstein


Life Members of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association

(continued) Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Rumpler Mr. and Mrs. Harold Sadler Mr. Charles Salmanson Mr. Donald Salmanson Mr. Jerrold Salmanson John and Lila Sapmsley Edith and Jerome Sapolsky Mr. Harold Schem P. Susan Shindler Irving and Phyllis Sigal Mrs. Joseph S. Sinclair Mr. Harold B. Soloveitzik Mrs. Esther Spear Sonia Sprung, M.D. Milton and Selma Stanzler Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Stepak ;

Mr. and Mrs. Erwin E . Strasmich Richard and Silvia Strauss Mrs. Eleanor Tanner Mr. Joshua Teverow Dr. MelTopf Mr. and Mrs. Arnold B. Wasserman Bemard and Ina Wasserman Francis and Irving Wattman Mr. and Mrs. Jack Waxman Eugene and Arline Weinberg Mr. and Mrs. Howard S. Weiss Mr. and Mrs. James R. Winoker Mrs. Gloria Winston Mr. and Mrs. Irving Wiseman Mr. and Mrs. Melvin L . Zurier Mrs. Sydney Zurier

1 621

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes Index to Volume 13

100 Club 141 24 Karat Club 327 243"" Coast Artillery (National Guard)

364 42"" "Rainbow" Infantry Division 348-

355 —A—

"A Common Civil Purpose: The Jewish Role in the Providence Community Fund" by Adam Harris Skolnik 220-243

"A Population in Transition: The Role of Demographic Data" by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D. and Betty E. Aronson, M.D. 408-420

"A Rhode Island Historian Lx)oks at the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes by Albert T. Klyberg 9-16, 138

A.M.E. Zion Church 564, 565 Aaron, Harry 580, 581, 590 Aaron, Judy 2, 158, 343, 508 Aaron, Mrs. A. H. 590 Abbott, Tony Band 86 , Aboaf, Jacob 165 Abrahams, Edmund H. 193 ' Abrahams, Jacob, 590 Abrams, Kenneth 2, 4, 158, 159, 339,

479,480 Abrams, Lillian (Grodsky) obit 481 Abrams, Mrs. Saul 152, 331 Abrams, Saul 481 Abrams, Stanley 2,4,10,158,159,161,

320,338,339,343,502,503,508, and Sandra 152,331,491,619,"'IDidMy Duty': An Airman's Service in World War 11" 599-606

Acadia National Park 183 ' ACIDA486 ' y'/••'• •

Ackerman, Arthur A. 481 Ackerman, Doris (Rubin) 481 Ackerman, Eva (Nachbar) 481 Ackerman, Irving A. obit. 481 Ackerman, Isaac 481 Actor's Equity 92 Adelman, Annie 75 Adelman, David Charak 4, 11, 12, 13,

16,159,180,339,345,503, Lecture 9, 345, 509

Adelson, Ruth Woolf 73, 75, 77 Adler, Carl 305 Adler, Mr. And Mrs. Carl 152,331,491,

619 Adler, Irving H. and Eleanor 152, 331,

491,619 Adler, Morris 590 ' Agostini Construction Company (see

Bacon Constmction Company) AJC 48 Alberts, Ben 262 Aldrich High School 464 / Aldrich, Abby Greene 184 ^ Alexander I I , Russian Tsar 394 Allen, Ebenezer 170 ' Allen, Woody 85 Almac's supermarket 327 Alman, Louis and Co., photographers

590 Alper, Alma F. 303 Alperin, Mrs. Max 152, 331, 491, 619 Alpem, Melvin 529 Alperin, Mr. And Mrs. Melvin 152,331,

491,619 Alpert, Daniel 610 Alpert, Jaime 610 Alpert, L. Saul obit. 610 Alpert, Marjorie (Chase) 610



Alpert, Nathan 610 >; v J <• Alpert, Rose (Berick) 610 Alypius 133 Ambrose, Stephen E. 599, 602 American Academy of Pediatrics, RI

Chapter 140 American Association of Industrial

Management 484 American Association of State and Lo

cal History 13, American Chemical Society 143 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

121, 148,452 American College of Rheumatology 614 American Contract Bridge League 147,

614 American Council for Judaism 199 American Hebrew, The 228 American Institute of Architects 186 American International College 109 American Jewish Archives, Jacob Rader

Marcus Center of 179, 509 American Jewish Historical Society 179,

180, 195, 346,480, Academic Council of 345

American Jewish Relief Committee 33 American Jewish Tercentenary 180 American Joint Distribution Committee

60 American Legal CUnic Association 146 American Legion Hall (Cranston) 298,

305, 306 American Occupation Forces 350 American Red Cross 61,188,237,327,

362 American Repertory Theater 92 American Savoyards 90 American Screw Company 244, 251,

256 American Silk Spuming Company 234-

235 ,

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 614

American Society of Architectural Historians 194

American Tumbund 368 American Watch Distributors 327 Amitim Program 391 Ammianus 133 "An Altraistic Jewish Family in Provi

dence" by Eleanor Horvitz 68-78,329 Andres, Mark and Judith 331,491,619 "An Interview With Frederick Lee

("Skip") Weingeroff by Naida D. Weisberg 259-271,487

Anderson, Marian 196, 197 Ann & Hope Company 14, 610 • Anschluss 79 Anti-Defamation League 554 Antiquities Act of 1906 185 Anti-Semitism 21,22,24,26,33,40,44,

45-46, 63, 201, 210, 215, 224-225, 230, 239-240, 277, 375, 379, 380, 382, 386, 387, 389, 390, 393, 473, 507,509-526,548,550,558,605,609

Antier, Lauren "Rhode Island Jewish and Catholic Press Coverage of Civil Rights, 954-1965" 548-570

Apex (department store) 116 Aplrin-Schecter Day School 326 Appelius, Mario 514 Appleton, Sumner 184 "Appreciation of Eleanor, An" by

Geraldine Foster 345-347 Arab Higher Committee 79 Arcade (Providence) 184 Arena Motors (Providence) 147 Aristocrat Metal Boxes company 261 Arizona State University, Department

of Religious Smdies 189 Arken, Samuel 590, 592 Arhngton National Cemetery 101, 177 Armstrong, Louis 86


Amoff, Lawrence R. 304 Aron, Abraham 307 Aron, Bella 314 Aron, Richard 314 Aronovitz, Arnold 590 Aronson, Betty E., M.D. obit 610, and

Stanley M. Aronson, M.D., "A Population in Transition: The Role of Demographic Data"408-420, "'In the Sufferer, Let Me See Only the Human': A Brief Look at Some Jewish and non-Jewish Medical Oaths"285-296

Aronson, Dr. Sarah 610 Aronson, Jacob 580, 581, 590 Aronson, Lisa 610 Aronson, Stanley M., M.D. 610, "Guard

ians of Health: The Jewish Health Professionals of Rhode Island" 594-598, and Betty E. Aronson, M.D., "A Population in Transition: The Role of Demographic Data" 408-420, '"In the Sufferer, Let Me See Only the Human' : A Brief Look at Some Jewish and non-Jewish Medical Oaths" 285-296

Asclepiad Guild 287 Ashkenazi 573 Assimilation 26, 230, 395, 399, 400,

401 Astone, Gaetano 519 Atlantic Knitting Company 611 Atlantic Mill 250 Atwood, Lois, "Bibliographical Notes"

135-136,318-319,478 Avameon, Harris 433

—B— B.B. Clothing 322 B'nai B'rith 18, 141, 177, 232, 613, of

America 82, of Greater Woonsocket 140

Babcock, John 247, 250

Bacon Constmction Company 529 Bagnario, Mike {see Labagnara,

Michael) Bagnary, Michael 360 Baker, Jacob 590 Baker, Linda and Nathaniel 619 Baker, Russell 559 Ball, David 590 Ball, Hugh 422 Ball, Moses 590 Ball, Nathan 590 Bancowitz, Elaez {see Dankowitz, Elias) Banigan building (Providence) 71 Bank of the United States 223 Barber, Betty illust 452, 456 Barber, Frances illust 452 Barber, Ida j/Zai/. 452 Barber, Mrs. Saul 452,474 Barber, Nathan illust 452, 456, 457,

459,460,464, 475 Barber, Saul 451-477, illust 452, illust.

474, "My Life at the Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island" 451-477

Barber, Schlayme 456, 457 Barber, Sigmund 590 Barbett Photo Engraving Company 140 Barker Players 146 Bamard College 121, 191 Barney, Jacob 170 Baron de Hirsch Fund 188 Barrington Balptist Church, Cedar Hall

310 Barrington College 310 Barrington Congregational Church 309,

310,312 Barrington Jewish Center, Sisterhood of

315 Barrington Symphony Orchestra 483 Barsimson, Jacob 165 Barwood, Edgar A. 610 Barwood, Jody B. 611 Barwood-Daniels, Anita obit 610-611


Bassin, Michael 590 Bassing, Bertha (Ring) 81 Bassing, Betty {see Woolf, Betty) Bay State (steamboat) 429 Bazar, Banice C. and Beverly 152,331,

491,619 Bazar's Hall 402 Bazarsky, Rose (Vediborsky) 324 Bazarsky, Rubin 324 Beck, Barbara 322 Beck, Edith obit 322 Beck, Dr. Irving A. 322 Beck, Louise 322 Beck, Ruth 322 Beck, Stephen 322 Bell, Raymond Everett 360, 363-364,

368, 369, 370 Bellin, Dr. Leonard and Shirley 152,

331,491,619 Bellman, Jacob 590 Beloff, Rosalie Adelman 152,331,491,

619 ben Berakyhu, Asaph {see haRophe,

Asaph) Ben Gurion, David 273, letter to Ida

Silverman 282, letter illust 283 Ben Israel, Manessah 166 ben Maimon, Moses (see Maimonides,

Moses) Beninson, Eva 215-217 Benny, Jack 85,458 Benny's 325 Bentley College 610 Berch, Victor A. 359, 360, 361, 364,

365, 366, 367 Berditch, Samuel 300, 307 Bergen, Edgar & Charlie McCarthy 458 Berger, David illust 624 Berger, Elizabeth 309 Berger, Mrs. 314 Berghman, Heilding 592 Bergman, I . B. 590

Beria 381-382 Berkelhammer, Miriam ("Mitzi") 482,

607,611 Berkelhammer, Robert 4,159,320,321,

339, 479, 480, 503, 608, and Miriam 491,619

Berle, Milton 85 Berlin, Julia 539 Bernhardt, Mr. Bertram 491, 619 Bernhardt, Helene 138 Bemstein, Mrs. Alice 152, 331, 491,

619 Berry, Janet 303, 304 Berry, Melvin 304 Berry, Phyllis 139, 320, 321 Beth Hachalutza {see Pioneer House) Beth Israel Ansche Austria 361 Beth Israel Hospital (Boston) 225 Bevel, James 561 "Bibliographical Notes" 607, by Lois

Atwood 135-136, 318-319, 478 BIC 262 Biener, Edith (Oelbaum) 361-362 Bigney, Benjamin 322 Bigney, Etta (Slutsky) 322 Bigney, Marcia (Kuperschmid) 322 Bigney, Michael 322 Bigney, Paul Earl obit 322 Birth Defect Center 481 Blacher, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley P. 152,

331,491,619 Blacher, Stanley P. illust 624 Blair House 186 Blank, Sheldon 110 Blazar, Abraham 361 Blazar, Dr. Andrew 322, 362 Blazer, Evelyn obit 322 Blazar, Mr. and Mrs. Melvin 307 Blazar, Milton 322, 361 Blenheim Castle 170 Block, Betsy 327,485 Blue Cross 25, 447, 449


Boas, Belle 535 Bodek, Rabbi 311 Bodsky's Toy Store 324 Bohnen, Rabbi Eli A. 343, 348-355,

356, illust 348, 353 Bojar Manufacturing Company 515 Bojar, Beatrice T. obit 322-323 Bojar, David 323 Bojar, Richard 323 Bojar, William 323,491, 619 Booth, Samuel N., Jr. 592 Booz, Allen, and Hamilton 145 Boston Business School 481 Boston College Law School 108, 111,

116 Boston Hebrew College 312 Boston Jewelers Club 327 Boston University 114, 140, 144, 323,

School of Law 105, 106, 117, 140, 146

Bosworth, R. J. B. 520 Bottorff, William K. 86 Boutelje, Joseph 592 Boy Scouts of America, Narragansett

Council 143 Bradley, Carl 365 Braley 369 Braley, Roger Lancaster 360, 364-365 Braley, Roger, Jr. 365 Branch Avenue School 536, 539 Brandeis University 421,479, Goldfarb

Library at 359, 360, Women's Association 145, 486, Women's Committee of 481

Brandeis, Louis 224, 273 Braude, Rabbi William 9,302,316,502,

563-564, illust 499 Bravo, Anna 521 Breakers, The 185 Brecht, Berthold 90 Brick Market (Newport) 184, 188,194,

Museum of Newport History in 202

Bridenbaugh, Carl 194 Brier Manufacturing Company 515 Brier, Benjamin illust.335 Brier, Zita 159,339,480, "Rhode Island

Jews in the Performing Arts" 85-92 Broad Street School 537 Brodsky, Lynn and Elliott 491, 619 Brokaw, Tom 356 Bromley, Mrs. Jesse 152,331,491,619 Brooklyn College 325 Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum 369 Brooks, Reverend A. T. 277-278 "Brotherhood Day" 230 Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Com

pany 244, 251,256 Brown Club 146 Brown family (of Providence) 246 Brown University 15,20,26,71,85,93,

105,107, 111, 118, 137, 141, 142, 146, 147, 184, 194, 244, 273, 326, 328, 380, 391, 399, 439, 447, 448, 509, 534, 535, 548, 607, 610, B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation at 563, Gift Fund 141, Judaic Smdies Program at 17, 221, protest at 117, School of Medicine 221,285,286,295-296,325, 408, 594, 595, Oath of 295-296

Brown, Benjamin 479, 571, "The Rebirth of the Jewish Community in Newport, 1850-1854" 421-438

Brown, David 168 Brown, Herbert 4, 159,339 Brown, John Nicholas 184 Brown, John Nicholas, Center for the

Study of American Civilization 509 Brown, John, Battalion 357, 364 Brown, Joseph 188 Brown, Mrs. 465, 466 Brown, Oliver 553 Brown, Stephen 503 Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Com

pany 327


Bryant and Sttatton Business College {see Bryant College)

Bryant College 15, 71, 85, 144, 145, 260, 328, 361,482,612,614

Bunker Hill monument 174 Burke, John 574 Burkow,Elihu310 Burkow, Rabbi 312 Butler (poet) 296 Butler Hospital 149 Butt Company 247 Butterfield, Dr. 538 Byelorussian Academy of Science 379

—C— C&G Manufacturing Company 260 C.I.O. 443, 446 Cabinet of Israel Bonds of RI 484 Camelhor, Abraham 279-280 Camelhor, Hyman Louis 280 Camelhor, Ida Marcia {see Silverman,

Ida Camelhor) Camelhor, Mary 280-281 Cameo Jewelry 324 Camp JORI149, illust 334 Campenell, Mordecai 167 Candace Street School 279, 399, 540,

llust 541 Cantor, Eddie 458,469 Capa, Robert 358 Cappelh, Louis W. 520 Cardon, Marsha (Mirkin) 482 Cardon, Max 482 Cardozzo, Benjamin 190 Carnegie Hall 229 Carol Cable Company 325, 369, 613,

614 Carroll, Nancy 86 Carroll, Peter N. 357, 358, 360 Carter, President Jimmie 122 Case-Westem University 484 CathoUc Committee of the South 555

Cathohc Interracial Council of New York 555

Centennial Exposition of 1876 251 Center for Newport History 202 Central Connecticut State Teachers Col

lege 323 Central High School 279 ''• Chafee, John 113, 140, illust 115 Chalkstone Avenue School 399 Champlin Foundation 89 Chaney (murdered civil rights worker)

557 Chapman, Oscar 197 Chautauqua Society 613 Chen, Joyce 62 • . Chertok, Pearl 88 Chester Avenue School 399 Children's Bureau 254 Chodak, Nancy 613 Christ Church (Cambridge) 194 Christian Committee for Palestine 197 Christian Spectator 425-426 Church House 237 Chusmir brothers 260 Chyet, Stanley 180 Ciano, Count Galeazzo 512-513, 514 Ciba-Geigy Chemical Corporation 143,

144 Cigar Makers' Official Journal 582 City College of New York 63, 610 City of Savannah, Joint Committee of

Memorials 193 Civil rights movement, Jewish partici

pation in 15, 548-570 Civilian Conservation Corps 185, 363,

369 Clamon, Benjamin 311 Clark, James G. 562 Clarke, John 167 Classical High School (Providence)

101,107,110,111,118,119,120,121, 311,323, 362, 399


Clement, Pope 132 Clinton, William 113 Coastal Carolina University 86 Cobb, Sheryl 360 Coen, Gary 503 Cohen, Aaron 2, 4, 138, 152, 158, 159,

161, 331, 338, 339, 344, 491, 502, 503,479,508,619

Cohen, Albert 298, 305 Cohen, Ann Dunn obit. 611 Cohen, Mrs. Earle F. 152,331,491,619 Cohen, Etta 534 Cohen, Irving 361 Cohen, Jeanette 534 Cohen, Judith Weiss 10, Fund 151,330,

489, 617 Cohen, Kathy 527, 528 Cohen, Dr. Leo 534 Cohen, Louis 590 Cohen, Maurice 479 Cohen, Mif 433 Cohen, Octavius 433 Cohen, Patricia R. 615 Cohen, Samuel 424, 433 Cohen, Shaye 19, Cohn, Mr. And Mrs. Newton B. 152,

331,491,619 Coken, Gary 324,483 Colgate University 120 College of New Jersey 148 Collins, Harry J. 349-55 Colonial Line 87 Colonial National Monument 185 Colonial Williamsburg 184 Colony House (Newport) 173 Columbia University 110, 191, 539,

College of Physicians and Surgeons 595,596, School of Social Work 141

Columbus, Christopher 165 Commercial High School 327, 443 Committee on Goodwill Between Chris

tians and Jews 222

Communication University 384 Community College of Rhode Island

86-86 Community Fund Drive 48 Community Mikveh of Rhode Island

527-531, Rules of «7ta. 531 Community Series Award 92 Concord Hotel 90 Congregation B'Nai Israel 140, 611,

Sisterhood of 611, Chevrah Kaddisha of611

Congregation Beth Shalom 323 Congregation Jeshuat Israel 178, 196,

197, 198, 199, cemetery of 195 Congregation Mickve Israel 193 Congregation Shaare Zadek (also

Tzedeck) (see Congregation Sons of Abraham)

Congregation Shearith Israel (New York) 173, 179, 191, 192, 196, 197, 572-573, 574, 575

Congregation Sons of Abraham 307, 528

Congregation Sons of Israel and David 188,535

Congregation Sons of Jacob 400 Congregation Sons of Zion 77, 400 Congress on Racial Equality (CORE)

558 Congressional Record 199 Constantine (Roman emperor) 129,132 Constantius (Roman emperor) 129-130,

133 Constimtion Hall (Boston) 196 Conte de Savoia (steam ship) 79 -Coolidge, Arlan 85 Cooper, Elizabeth 612 Cooper, Patricia A. 582 Corliss Steam Engine Company 247,

251 Corliss, George 251 -Core company 271


Coron, Baruch {see Kohm, Bemard) Coughlin, Father Charles E. 513 Council for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Children 327 Council on Economic Education 484 Courier 556 Cozzens, Matthew 170 Cozzens, William C. 429 Cranston Chamber of Commerce 298 Cranston Jewish Center (later Temple

Torat Ysrael) 299,300,305-307,563, illus. 306, Passover Festival of 565, Sisterhood of 313, Sunday school of 311

Cranston Jewish Community Club (later Temple Torat Yisrael, ^.v.) 298-300

Cranston Jewish Community Club 313 Cranston West High School 106 "Creating a Civil Judaism: Max L. Grant

and Jewish Communal Philanthropy" by Adam Harris Skolnick, 17-37,221

Crestwood CounUy Club 481, 483 Cromwell, Oliver 166 Crown Clothing Company 590 Custis-Lee Mansion 185 Custom House (Salem) 183 Cutler, Colonel Harry 14

—D— Dachau, liberation of 350, 352 Daily Worker 364, 368 Daly, Hugh C. 353 Daniels, David C. 610 Dankowitz, Elias 590, 592 Dannin family 580 Dannin, Chone H. 590 Dannin, John L. 590 Dannin, Joseph 590 Dannin, Louis 590 Dannin, MoUie 590 Dannin, Moritz 590 Dannin, Nathan 590 Dashef, Dr. Oscar Z. obit 140

Dashef, Samuel 140 Dashef, Tillie (Lasovick) 140 Dauer, Emest 484 Dauer, Sophie (Losch) 484 Daughters of 1812 49 Daughters of the American Revolution

191,195-196 David, Bertram 590 David, Fischel 574, 585-588, 590 David, Israel 590 David, Louis 590 . David, Max 590 David, Moses 590 David, Nathan 590 Davidman, Anita 339 Davidman, Lynn 607 Davidson, Edward 590 Davidson, Eva (Feiiunan) 140 Davidson, Joseph 590 Davidson, Morris 140 Davidson, Oscar 309, 140 Davis, Rabbi Daniel 309 Day (Yiddish newspaper) 223 Day High School 534 de la Renta, Oscar 267 De Orchis, Vincenzo 520 DeBlasio, Susan Leach 485 DelPonte,Cario513,514,515 DeUa Consultants 142 Deltah Inc. 327 DeMolay, Order of 368 Dempsey, Jack 465 Depression {see Great Depression) Der Tag 398 Derby Wharf National Historic Site {see

Salem Maritime National Historic Site)

Deschamps, Benedicte 510 Desurmont, Jules mill 440 Deutsch, Grand Rabbi 529 Dick, Harold 260 Dickens, Bemice 304


Dickens, Nathaniel 167 Dies Bill 45 Dillon, Father 229 Dimond, Dora (Bazar) 536, 537, 538,

539, 540, 542 Dimond's Hall (Providence) 76 DiOrio, Russ 263, 264 Disney, Walt company 268 District Nurses 237 • t Docherty, Edgar M. 254 "Doctors of Dixie" (band) 86 Dodge Brothers 246-247 Dodge, Nehemiah 246-247 Dodge, Seril 246-247 Dollinger, Marc 550, 551, 554 Dorcas Place Parent Literacy Center 149 Dorsey, Lori 486 Dow, Richard Alan ("Dick") 4, 158,

338, 343, 502 Downing, Antoinette 194 Dravetz, Rebecca 591 Dreiser 46 Dressier Award for Jewish Man of the

Year 28 Duke, Doris 185 Dunleavy, Mr. 540 Dunn, David 611 Dunn, Rachel (Morgenstem) 611 Dunton, M.W. Company 612 Dura Europus, excavation of 93, 94 Dutch West India Company 166 Dwares, Mr. And Mrs. Donald H. 152,

331,491,619 —E—

East Bay Mental Health 142 Eastem European Jews 11, 18, 22, 23,

26, 27, 29 East Providence High School 366 Eastward Jewish Center, Sunday school

of 311-312, Women in 315 Eastward Jewish Center/B arrington Jew

ish Center 298, 303-305, 309ff, 316

Edinburgh Festival 92 Edleman, Herman 590 Efes, Boris illus. 208, 209-213 Efes, Feona 213 Einstein, Arthur and Essie 320, 321 Einstein, Mrs. Moses 75 Eisenhower, Dwight David 201 ; ! Elazar, Daniel 222, 226 s Elias, Simon 535 Elks Hall (Providence) 519 Ellis, Edna-Louise (Shurtloff) 610 Ellis, Fred 610 Elm Street Synagogue (New York) 424,

425 Elman, Mischa 47 Emanuel, Abraham 433 Emergency Committee to Save the Jew

ish People, Washington branch 197 Emerson College 89 Emir Abdullah 79 "Emperor Julian the Apostate and the

'Community of Jews'" by Alene F. Silver 129-134, 329

Engel, Julius 584, 590 Engel, Stewart 590 Engle Tire Company 152,331,491,619 English High School 399 Erikson, Professor G. E. 296 Evans, Walker 186 "Excerpts from the Palestine Joumal of

Betty Woolf, 1938" by Geraldine Foster 79-84

—F— Faber, Sylvia (Goldman) 536, 539 Fabre Line 252 Factor, Sylvia (Katz) 4, 139, 159, 533 Fain, Bamet 305 Fain, Barry and Elaine 152, 331, 491,

619 Fain, Burton and Lois 152, 331, 491,

619 Fain, David 482


Fain, Doric 482 Fain, Jean 312 Fain, Robert 482 Fain, Toby Ruth obit 481-482 Fair Employment Practices Committee

556 Farber,Eli 180 Farinacci, Roberto 513 Farm Security Administration 186 Farmer, James 558-559 Path, Edith 310 Path, Muriel 315 Fay Theater (Providence) 465 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

122, 358 Federal Emergency Relief Administra

tion 440 Federal Writers' Project of Works

Progress Administration 186 Federation Employment Service (F.E.S.)

225 Federation of Jewish Charities 232 Feinberg, Ida Zelda 76 Feiner, Jack 324 Feiner, Mitzi (Villar) 324 Feinglass, Joseph and Chassa 148 Feingold, Henry 229, 230 Feital, Anna (Yablonsky) 611 Feital, Piney 611 Feld, Ben 301 Feldman, Carl H. 339, 503, 608, and

Mrs. 152, 331,491,619 Feldman, Walter 2, "The Temple Beth-

El Mosaic" 93-97, illust 95 Fellman, Arnold 309, 310 Fellman, Jean 309 Filene brothers 441 "Final Solution" 189 Finberg, Bessie (Rifkin) 140 Finberg, Burton A. and Associations

140 Finberg, Burton A. obit 140-141

Finberg, Edward 140 Findel, Sybil Moses 300, 301, 307 Fine, Anita 4, 138, 159, 321, 339, 608,

609 "Finian's Rainbow" 87 Fink, Cory 615 Finkelstein, A. Archie 482, 491, 607,

obit 611, and Mrs. 331 Finkelstein, Joseph M. 611 Finkelstein, Dr. Judith 482, 611 Finkelstein, Rose (Levy) 611 Finkelstein, Sylvia (Cardon) 611, obit.

482 Finklestein, Bill 368 Finley, John 189 Fire Protection Company Number Five

430 First Baptist Meetinghouse (Providence)

184, 188, 194 Fust District Court of Rhode Island 163 "First Russian Jews in Rhode Island,

The" by Stephanie Miller 391-407 Fishbein, Dorothy 609 Fishbein, Helen (Bennett) 323 Fishbein, Dr. Joseph J. obit 323 Fishbein, Keith 323 Fishbein, Morris I . 323 Fishbein, Selma (Gold) 323 Fishbein-Slotkis, Janni 323 Fisher, Harry 326 Fisher, Ida (Zurier) 326 Fitzpatrick, Congressman James 192 Hannery, Father Edward H. 149 Hint, Abe V. 538 Folco, John 270 ' ' Forand, Aime J. 199 Ford, Gerald 122 Ford, Henry 184 Forman, Sylvia 326 Fortune magazine 49, 513 ^ 0 ^ ^ 3 9 8 :


Foster, Geraldine S. 2,4,10,14,78,158, 159, 338, 339, 345, 479, 502, 503, 527, "An Appreciation of Eleanor" 345-347, "Excerpts from the Palestine Joumal of Betty Woolf, 1938" 79-84, and Eleanor Horvitz, "Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part 1" 532-547, "We Settled in the Suburbs: Founding Four Synagogues" 297-317, and Warren 152, 331, 491, 619

Foster, Judith 534, and Mark Andres 331,491,619

Foundation for Repertory Theater of Rhode Island 92

"Four Freedoms" (see Roosevelt, Franklin Delano)

Fox, Roberta 613 Fradin, Charles 331,491, 619 Fradin, Jack 4,138,159,320, 339,479,

503, 608 Franco, Francisco 356, 364 Frank, Mrs. Beatrice 491, 619 Frank, Mr. and Mrs. H. Alan 331, 491,

619 Frank, Harriet 502, 503 Frank, Ida (Levine) 141 Frank, Isador 141 Frank, Maurice obit. 141 Frankfurter, Felix 190, 224 Franklin Mint, Touro Synagogue com

memorative medal 202 Frant, David 590 Frederick Lee company 260-261 Frenchmen's Creek Club (Florida) 619 Fried, Herman 590, 592 Fried, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer 305 Friedlander, Jacob 591 Friedman, Bemard C. Friedman, Lee 195 Friends of Madera Canyon 145

Friends' Meetinghouse (Little Compton) 185

Friends' Meetinghouse (Newport) 188, 202

Frisch, Ephraim 18 Frost, Carol 15

—G— Gadon, Harold 320,338,339,479,502,

503, 608 Gale, Levi H. House (Newport) 183 Galkin, Arnold T. 152, 331, 491, 619,

and Alice Axelrod Fund 151, 330, 489, 617

Galkin, Ira S. and Anna Fund 151, 330, 489, 617

Galkin, Joseph obit. 141-142, Scholarship 141

Galkin, Pauline (Schendel) 141 Galkin, Samuel 141 Ganzer, Jennie (Goldberg) 149 Ganzer, Samuel 149 Garden City Elementary School

(Cranston) 311 Garrahy, J. Joseph 485 Gateway Arch (St. Louis) 187 Gehry, Frank 358 Geiser, Carl 360, 364 Gelfand, Edward 144 Gelfand, Lottie (Braunstein) 144 Gellman, Jacob 535 Gem Case Company 268, 269 Gemilath Chesed Association (see He

brew Free Loan Association) General Jewish Committee (see Jewish

Federation of Rhode Island) George I I (King of England) 170 Georgetown University 108 Gereboff, Prof. Joel 189 Gerey, Iraida 269 German Jews 11, 22, 23, 27, 29, 64 Gershman, Mr. And Mrs. James 152,

331,491,619


Gerstenblatt, Victor 309 Gerstle, Gary 440, 446, 448-449 Gertsacov, Agnes 607 Gilbert and Sullivan 90 Gilstein, Mr. (Providence tailor) 468 Girl Scouts of America 482 Cladding's (Providence) 103 Glaser, Nathan 363 Glassman, Stella (Simons) 540, 542 Gleason, Jackie 88 GUck, George 259, 260 Gloria Dei church (Philadelphia) 196 Glueck, Nelson 190 Gold, Marjorie 325 Goldberg, Harvey 144 Goldberg, Ida (Goldstein) 144 Goldberg, Jean obit 323 Goldberg, Jesse 323 Goldberg, Lawrence Y. 323 Goldberg, Rabbi Julius 307 Goldblatt, Abraham 610 Goldblatt, Lucille (Turcot) 610 Golden Book 82 Goldin, Maxine 503 Goldman, Rabbi illust 474 Goldman, Rebecca (Katz) 533 Goldowsky, Gertrude ("Bonnie") N.

(Mrs. Seebert J.) 2, 4, 137, 152, 158, 159, 331, 339, 345,491, 503, 619

Goldowsky, Seebert J., M.D. 4, 9-10, 159, 339, 345, 503, and Germide N. Fund 151, 330, 489,617

Goldscheider, Calvin 4, 20, 159, 410 Goldsmith, Adele (Schlossberg) 482 Goldsmith, Barbara J. 482 Goldsmith, David 482 Goldsmith, James obit 482 Goldsmith, Marion (Jagolinzer) 482 Goldsmith, Philip 482 Goldsmith, Samuel 232-233 Goldstein, Abraham 361 Goldstein, Beatrice 397, 398

Goldstein, Bemice 401 Goldstein, Diana oM. 611 Goldstein, Evelyn Block 307 Goldstein, Gertmde (Epstein) 324 Goldstein, Katie 516, 517 Goldstein, Louis 324 Goldstein, Mrs. M. 75 Goldstein, Dr. Sidney 2,4, 10, 14, 101,

158,159,300,301,307,308,410,611 Goodheim, Rabbi J. K. 175 Goodman, Dr. Albert 302, 303 Goodman, Andrew 548, 556, 557, 561 Goodman, Ethel 565, 566 Goodman, Frieda (Feldman) 538 Goodman, Marcia 482, 611 Goodwin, Dr. George M. 4, 10, 137,

159, 320, 338, 339, 479, 502, 503, 608,609, "Lester Jacobs: Jewish Volunteer in the Spanish Civil War" 356-374, "The Politics of Preservation: How Touro Synagogue Became a National Historic Site" 177-207, "Reluctant Warriors: Jews, Vietnam, and the Draft" 99-127, and Betsey 619

Gorbachevsky, Boris 381-384 Gorham Silverware Company 244,251,

253, 256 Gorin, Jeremiah 138, and Rosalind 152,

331,491,619 Gorky Agricultural Institute 375 Gould, Stephen 423 Course, Mrs. Harry A. 152, 331, 491,

619 Course, Zelda 326 Governor's Committee on Mental Health

446 Graboys, Lois 312 Grange Hall (East Providence) 304 Granowsky, Louis 26, 27-28 Grant, Dave 363 Grant, Louis (see Granowsky, Louis) Grant, Mary {see Nemerovsky, Mary)


Grant, Max L. 17-37, 137, 220-243, illust 220, 335

Grant, Mrs. (Temple Beth-Am) 309 Gratz, Rebecca 425 Great Depression 20,221223,224,225,

227, 255, 356, 369, 439, 443, 515, 516,535, 537,540

Great Hall, Ellis Island 177 Green, Baruch 591 Greenberg, B.B. company 271 Greenberg, David 591 Greenberg, Marcia 322 Greenberg, Simon 361 Greene, Theodore Francis 199 Greenfeld, Hope 315, 316 Greenfield Village 184 Greenwood Community Hall (Warwick)

309,314 Griffin, Lorie 325 Grodsky, Annie (Mazofsky) 481 Grodsky, David 481 Grodsky, Samuel 481 Grossinger's 90 Grossman, Mr. And Mrs. Stanley 152,

331,491,619 Grownups 92 Graen Watch Company 327 "Guardians of Health: The Jewish Health

Professionals of Rhode Island" by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D. 594-598

Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Portugal) 358

Guny, Elizabeth 451, 452 Gutheim, Rabbi Rev. J. K. 430 Guthrie, William D. 228 Gutstein, Morris 179, 572 Gutterman, Julie Clake obit 142 Gutterman, Rabbi Leslie Y. 331, 491,

619

— H — Hadassah 81, 144, 145, 322, 323, 324,

326, 482, 486, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, Brookline, MA, chapter of 55, Providence Chapter of 323,484, New England Region board of 484, Wills and Bequests committee of 484, Women's Organization of 83

Hadassah University Hospital 83 Hahn, Isaac 188 Hahn, Jerome 188 "Hair" (musical) 119 Haley, John 195 Haley, Linda 268, 269 Hall, Adrian 92 Halsband,Mrs. 314 Halsband, Shirley 309,316 Halsband, Sumner 316 Hamilton House 614 Hand, B. W. 433 Hand, Betsy 433 Hand, Samuel 433 Hansen, Mary Merolla 511 Hanzel, Beatrice (Goldstein) 482 Hanzel, Florence G. (Coken) obit 324,

482 Hanzel, Dr. Harold ("Archie") 324, obit

482-483 Hanzel, Dr. Jeffrey 324, 483 Hanzel, Katherine (Kushner) 482 Hanzel, Dr. Melvin 324, 483 Hanzel, William 482 Hardge, Rev. Arthur L. 564, 565 Harkov Medical College 213, 214 haRophe, Asaph 286, Oath of 288-290,

294 Harper's New Monthly Magazine 178 Harriett Street School (Providence) 366 Harrington, Marjorie 486 Harrison, Peter (architect) 170,188,194,

197, 199 Hart, Caroline 433


Hart, Isaac 170 Hartford Seminary 110 Harvard College 169, 194 Harvard University 113,121,122,193,

595,596, Law School 114,142, School of Education 121

Harvey, George Miller 360, 365, 369 Harvey, N.D. M.D. 365 Hasbro 325 Hasbro Children's Hospital 324 Hassenfeld, Irving 361 Hays, Arthur 192 Hays, Benjamin 191 Hays, Catherine 428 • Hays, Jacob 191 Hays, Michael 191 Hays, Moses Michael 168, 428 Hays, Rachel Peixotto 191 Hebrew Day School 311 Hebrew Educational Institute 77 Hebrew Free Loan Association

(Gemilath Chesed Association) 402, 403, Providence 483, South Providence 483

Hebrew Orphans Home and Day Nursary 75

Hebrew Union College 110, 179, 190 Heimberg, Eli 348, 353, illust 348 Heller, Charles 591 Heller, Jacob 591 Heilman, Caroline 612 Heilman, Peter 612 Heilman, Robert 612 Heilman, Violet G. obit. 612 Hemingway, Emest 358 Hendel, Maurice W. 163, oWf. 142-143 Hendel, Richard and Helen 142 Henie, Sonja 88 Henry Bamard School 535, 537 Herberg, Will 229 Heritage Harbor Museum 9,13,15,16,

137, 138, 202, 244, 320,479

Herman, Rosalind 313 Herschenhous, Nicole 17,137,509,548,

"The Response of the Providence Jewish Community to Events in Prewar Germany, 1935 to 1939" 39-54

Herstoff, Dr. and Mrs. James 152, 331, 491,619

Herzl 82 Herzman, Esy 591 Heschel, Abraham Joshua 562 Hess, Henry 591 Hess, Louis 591 Hesse, Herman 119 : Hexter, Maurice 232-233 mAS 45, 50 Hicks, Robert and Marcia Woolf 131,

491,619 Hieker, Donna 88 "High Button Shoes" 87 Hillel, Rabbi 276, 281 Hippocrates 286,289,294, Oath of287-

288, 290, 293, 294, 295-296 Hirsch, Mr. and Mrs. David 152, 331,

491,619 Hirschovitz, Isidore 592 Historic American Buildings Survey 186 Historic Church Advisory Board 189,

196 Historic Deerfield 183 HistoricSites Actof 1935 186-187,192,

196 Hitchcock, Alice Davis, Book Award

194 Hitchcock, Henry-Russell 194 Hitler, Adolf 39, 40,43, 47, 57, 79, 80,

210, 278, 359, 370, 381, 512, 519, 520, 521, 548

Hochberg, Gertrude M. obit 612 Hochberg, Dr. Mark S. 612 Hochberg, Robert 402, 612 Hockman, Jack and Annette Segal 131,

491,619


Hoffman, Charles 30-31, 32-33 Holbrook, Edward 251 Holland, Charles 143 Holland, Ida (Levine) 143 Holland, Leonard 114-115, illust 115,

116, 117,0^(7. 143 Holocaust 50, 55, 56, 61, 63, 65, 177,

189, 190, 195, 239-240, 278, 510 Home for Aged Colored Women 237 Home Shopping Network 266, 267 Homestead building (Providence) 71 Hope Club 149 Hope High School (Providence) 72,89,

101, 104, 105, 108, 110, 399, 464, 533,599

Hopf, John 158 Hore-Belisha, Leslie 278 Horowitz, Samuel 580, 591 Horvitz, Dr. and Mrs. Abraham 152,

331,491,619 Horvitz, Eleanor F. 2, 4, 10, 14, 138,

158, 320, 338, 344, 345-347, 391, 479, 502, 503, 608, illust 347, "An Altraistic Jewish Family in Providence" 68-78, and Geraldine Foster "JewishTeachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part 1" 532-547, "The Mikveh in Rhode Island" 527-531, "We Settled in the Suburbs: Founding Four Synagogues" 297-317

Horvitz, Fannie Krasnow 393, 399 Horowitz, Vladimir 85 Hosmer, Charles 188 Hospice Care of Rhode Island 408,594,

610 Hot Five 86 Hoxie Community Hall 307 Hughes, Langston 358 Huhner, Leon 195 Hunter College 326, 612 i Hunter House 185 Hunton, George K. 555

Hurricane Bob 448 Hyman, Hattie (Krasow) 323 Hyman, Heskell 323 Hymes, Nancy Krause 484

— I — " ' I Did My Duty': An Airman's Service

in World War 11" by Staley Abrams 599-606

Ice Follies" 88 Ickes, Harold 187, 189, 192, 195, 196,

197 "Ida Camelhor Silverman: The Early

Years" by Alene F. Silver 272-284 II Duce {see Mussolini, Benito) II Mondo 5\9 II Progresso Italo-Americano 515, 519 Imber, Shirley 17 Impact Rhode Island 446 Imperial Pearl 268 "'In the Sufferer, Let Me See Only the

Human': A Brief Look at Some Jewish and non-Jewish Medical Oaths" by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D. and Betty E. Aronson, M.D. 285-296

Independence Hall 193 Independent Insurance Agents of Rhode

Island 482 Independent Textile Union (I.T.U.) 440-

446 Interfaith Healthcare Ministries 610 Intemational Jewelry Workers Union

254 Interstate Home Equipment 259 Inwear company 268 Isaacs, Gustavus I . 424, 425, 433 Isaacs, Joshua 425,433 Isaacs, Rabbi S. M. 430 Isaacs, Virginia G. 433 Isabella, Queen of Spain 165 Isham, Norman 194 Israel Bonds, Women's Division of RI

484


Israel, State of, formation of 272-284 Isserman, Maurice 357 Italian Echo 511, 512, 513, 514, 515,

516,519, 520, 521 Italian Red Cross 517 '"Italians Don't Hate Jews!' Some Evi

dence to the Contrary from Prewar Providence" by Stefano Luconi 509-526

Italo-American Tribune 511 Ivanova, Nina 209 Iventash, Herbert, O.D. 4,159,339,503 Ives family (of Providence) 246 Izard, Ralph 422

— J — Jacobs, Henry Loeb 361 Jacobs, Judah 171 Jacobs, Lester 356-374 Jaffe, Dr. Alfred 4, and Betty 152, 331,

491,619 Jagolinzer, Joseph 402 Jampolsky, Israel 361 Jefferson Memorial 186, Foundation 188 Jefferson National Expansion Memo

rial (St. Louis) 187 Jefferson, Thomas 193 Jencks, Barbara 566 "Jew's Hospital" (see Mount Sinai Hos

pital) "Jewelry Industry, The, Industrial De

velopment, and Immigration in Providence, 1790-1993" by Richard A. Meckel 244-258

Jewish Children's Home of Rhode Island 26

lewish Community Center (Newport) 183

Jewish Community Center of Rhode Island 17, 25, 77, 89, 148, 226, 320, 323,463,465,528,554,613,614,615

Jewish Community Club (Cranston) 316 Jewish community in Newport 421 -438

Jewish Consumption Relief Association (JCRA) of Cranston 138

Jewish Council 82 Jewish demographics (in Rhode Island)

408-420 Jewish Emigration Association 80 Jewish Family and Children's Service

75 Jewish Family Services 142, 144, 149,

231, Gutterman, Julie Claire Memorial Library of 142

Jewish Federation of Rhode Island 11, 138, 141, 143, 145, 149, 323, 325, 345,528,529,613,614,615, Endow-mentFundof 141, Women's Division 146, 147, 326, 482,611

Jewish Federation of Social Service 25, 226

Jewish Herald 39ff, 137,230,236,237, 512, 520, 548-570

Jewish Home for the Aged 11, 26, 76, 116, 144, 145, 147, 148, 323, 326, 328, 484, 611, 613, Women's Association of 75,144, 322,324,484,614

Jewish immigration 571-593, 615 Jewish labor leaders 439-450 Jewish Messenger 20 Jewish Museum, The (New York) 177 Jewish National Fund 82 Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island 74-

75,227,343,451-477, 507 Jewish persecution in Germany 39-54 Jewish philanthropy 68-78, 220-243,

402-403 "Jewish Pioneers and Civil Disobedi

ence in 1902 Newport" by Rebecca Warren 571-593

"Jewish problem" 512 Jewish Recreation Club 66 Jewish Senior Agency 325 Jewish Societies of Providence 226

Index to Volume 13

Jewish teachers 532-547, listing of in Providence 544-547

"Jewish Teachers in Providence, 1898-1940, Part 1" by Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz 532-547

Jewish Theological Seminary 110,188, 300, 308, 326, 350, 352

"Jewish Tories" 41,44 ' . Jewish Voice of Rhode Island 347 Jewish War Veterans 99, 177, 352,

Fineman-Trinkle Post439 of 147,614, Rhode Island chapter of 101, 102

Jewish War Veterans Auxiliary, Host 284 144

Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) 351 Jewish Welfare Funds 33 "Jews in Ancient Africa" 150 Joachim, Mrs. 82 John Brown Francis Elementary School

(Warwick) 311 John Brown House 12, 16, 184 John F. Kennedy Library 89 John Howland School (Providence) 365 John the Baptist 528 John XXII, Pope 561 Johnson and Wales University 482 Johnson Hummocks Restaurant (Provi

dence) 92 Johnson, Deborah 339 Johnson, Lyndon B. 556,557,559, Great

Society of 557 Johnson, Nils 301 Johnson, Richard 365 Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) 33,

51 Jolsen, Al 85 Jones, George Noble 422 Joselovitz, Joseph 70 ^; Josephson, Israel J. 591 Joslin, Judge Philip 70, and Dorothy 76 Judaeus, Asaph (see haRophe, Asaph) Judge Advocate General Corps 106,108

en Julian (Roman emperor) 129-134 Junior Achievement Organization 484

—K— Kagan, Marilyn 152,331,362,491,619 Kahn Feinberg Co., tailors 591 Kalb, Morris 591 Kalin, Louisa 580 Kallen, Horace 229 Kaplan, Ben 87 Kaplan, Esther 528 Kaplan, Lloyd 85-86, illust 86 Kaplan, Mildred obit. 324 Kaplan, Mordecai 239 Kaplan, Mrs. Mildred Feiner 152 Kaplan, Patti 324 Kaplan, Patti 331, 491, 619 Kaplan, Rabbi Aryeh 527, 528 Kaplan, Robert M. 87-88 Kaplan, Susan 88 Kapstein, Mr. Sherwin 152, 331, 491,

619 Karpeles, Maurice J. 75 Karten, Israel 307 v; : Kasper, Bentzil 324 Kasper, Bertha ote. 324 Kasper, Hershel 324 Kasper, Samuel 324 Katinka, Mrs. 82 Katz, George 463, illust. 474 Katz, Sarah 389 Katzman, Laura (Leichter) 536, 539 Kaufman, Brian 338, 339 Kaufman, Howard and Rachel 152,331,

491,619 Kaufman, Shiela and Arnold 152, 331,

491,619 Kayserling (historian) 165 Kennedy, Robert 103 Kenner, Frederick obit. 612-613, and

Mrs. Fredrick 152, 331,491 Kenner, Harris 613, and Esther 362 Kenner, Jacob 612


Kenner, Kathy 613 Kenner, Lena (612 Kenner, Samuel 362 Kenner, Sylvia (Cor) 613, 619 Kenner, Sylvia and Frederick Fund 151,

330,489, 617 Kent County Hospital (Warwick) 111 Kent Heights School (East Providence)

312 Kent State University, shootings at 103,

116 Kerdman, Raisa 213-215 Keren Hayesod {see Jewish National

Fund) Keren Kayemeth {see Jewish National

Fund) Kertzer, David 509, 608 Kessler, Hannah 611 Kessler's bakery 396 Khaki Shuts 519 ; Kimball, Fiske 193-195 King Chapel (Boston) 170 King, Martin Luther, Jr. 559, 561, 562,

563 King's Chapel (Boston) 194 Kiwanis Club 140 Klemer, Mrs. Abraham (Laura) 73, 74 Klemer, Bemard H. ("Bob") obit 324-

325, and Estelle R. 152 Klemer, Estelle (Liberman) Robinson

325,331,491,619 Klemer, Gertrude (Kofsky) 324 Klemer, Harvey 325 Klemer, Oscar 324 Klepper, Mr. and Mrs. AUan 310 Klyberg, Albert T. 138, "A Rhode Is

land Historian Looks at the Riiode Island Jewish Historical Notes" 9-16,

K-Mart264 Knell, Arthur 143 Knell, Dr. Martin obit 143-144 Knell, Rose (Parks) 143

Knight Brothers 250 Knox College 189 Kohler, Max 179 Kohm, Bemard 584-585, 591 Kohm, Jannie 584 Kohm, Lewis 584, 591 Kolodoff, David obit 483 Kolodoff, Jacob 483 Kolodoff, Joel M. 483 ; , Kolodoff, Libby (Soorkis) 483 Kolodoff, Sarah (Uditsky) 483 Kominsky, Fanny 363 Kominsky, Harry 363 Kominsky, Morris 363 Korean War 102, 120 Kortick, Louis 322 Kortick, Rose (Silver) 322 Kotlen, Robert A. 4,159, 339, 503, and

Betty 152,331,491,619 Kouffman family 306-307 Kouffman, Dr. Daniel 298, 307 Kouffman, Zelda 298, 313, 316 -Krasnow, Ettie 403 Krasnow, Harry 392-394 Krasnow, Rose 403 Krasnow, Ruth 393 Krause, Anne Berkelhammer 484, 619 Krause, Clara 483 Krause, David 483 Krause, Edwin obit. 483-484, and Mrs.

Edwin 152, 331,491 Krause, Eunice (Fuldauer) 483 Krause, Judge Robert D. 484 Krauss, Rabbi Pesach 564 Kravetz, Morris 591 Kravetz, Myer : Kravitz, Harry 591 BCristallnacht 47 Kroll, Mrs. Sanford 152, 331,491,619 Krug, Julius 197 Ku Klux Klan 561, 601 Kursheedt, Alexander 424, 433


Kursheedt, Alexander E. 424,433 Kursheedt, Asher 424, 425,429, 433 Kursheedt, Israel B. 424, 433 Kursheedt, Manuel 424, 433 Kushner, Dora (Alpert) 613 Kushner, Ellen 320-321 Kushner, Jacob 613 Kusinitz, Bemard 9, 13, 573, 591 Kutzik, Alfred 231

— L — L'Eco del Rhode Island {see Italian

Echo) Labagnara, Josephine 365 Labagnara, Michael 365-366, 369 LaBagnaro, Micheleno {see Labagnara,

Michael) Ladies Union Aid Association, 76 LaGuardia, Fiorello H. 520 Lake County Community Mental Health

145 Lakewood Fire Station 307 Landau, Rabbi Saul 307 Landis, Arthur H. 357, 367 Landman, Rabbi Isaac 229 Lane, Kenneth 267 Lasker, Julius 535 "Last Jewish Steam Bath in Providence,

The" 150 "Lawrence Spitz, Champion of the Com

mon Man" by Alene F. Silver 439-450

Lazams, Barry 22, Lazams, Charles 433 Leach Machinery Building (Providence)

260 Leach, Brace 485 Leach, David H. 485 Leach, Max 484 Leach, Muriel obit. 484-485 Lecht, Esther 540 Ledgemont Country Club 141,146,610

Leeman, Rabbi Saul 502,563,564, illust 499

Leeser, Rabbi Isaac 421,428,430,431, 432

Legal Aid Society, 25 Legbensraum 79 Lehigh University 110, 118,451 Lehman, Governor 40 Leibling, Estelle 87 Lemelman, Hazel (Pinsker) 481 Lemelman, Max 481 Lenin, Vladimir 382 Leningrad, Siege of 215-219 Lenz, Morris 307 Leo, Rabbi Ansel 430 Lemer, Evelyn 313-314 Lemer, Gerda 16 Lesser, Reverend 175 "Lester Jacobs: Jewish Volunteer in the

Spanish Civil War" by George M. Goodwin 356-374

Letterman Hospital (San Francisco) 105 Levenson, Dorothy Frank Fox 331,491,

619 Levi, Benjamin 168 Levi, George 433 Levi, Moses 168 Levin Agency 144 Levin, Ann oto. 144 Levin, Bess 599 Levin, Etta 281 Levin, Michael 599-600 Levin, Milton 599-606, illust 601,603,

624 Levin, Simon 280-281 Levine, George and Barbara 491, 619 Levine, Stuart W., D.D.S. 503, 608 Levinger, Paul illust. 335 Levitan, Ury 385 Levitch, Aaron 591 Levovsky, Deborah Smira 486 Levy, Arthur 231, 232


Levy, Asser 12 Levy, Isaac 173, 591 Levy, Max 177, 591, "Settlement of

Jews in Rhode Island" 163-176 Levy, Moses 170 Levy, Uriah Phillips 181 Lewando, Mrs. Saul 75 Lewisson, Louis 14 Lexington Avenue School (Providence)

366 Library of Congress 177, 186 Licht, Frank 113, 114, 140, Mrs. Frank

152, 331,491,619 Licht, Richard 113-114 Lichtman, Dr. Andrew 325 Lichtman, Dr. Herbert C. obit 325 Lichtman, Ida (Bloom) 325 Lichtman, Dr. Isadore Gary 325 Lichtman, Dr. Jeff 325 Lichtman, Ruth (Barron) 325 Lichtman, Shirley (Norman) 325 Lichtman, Susan 325 Life magazine 262, 568 Lincoln Countty Club 143 Lincoln Memorial 196 Lincoln, Abraham Brigade {see also

X Vth Intemational Brigade) 356-374, Friends of 366, 368

Lincoln, Abraham 191, birthplace 185, Lincoln-Douglas debates 189

Linden, Henning 352 Lindenbaum, Bessie (Rosenberg) 613 Lindenbaum, Charles obit. 613, Mrs.

Charles 619 Lindenbaum, Kenneth 613 Lindenbaum, Meyer 613 Lindenbaum, Sophia (Chester) 613 Lindy's Diner, Dugout function room

298 Lippman family (of Ohio) 202 Lippman, Ida (Guny) 147 Lippman, Martin 147

Lipstadt, Deborah 189, 190 Lititsche Shul {see Congregation Sons

of Zion) Litt, Judith Holzman 491, 619 Little Compton Historical Society 185 Little Fur Shop (Providence) 361 "Little Russian Shul" (Chalkstone Av

enue, Providence) 401 Lloyd Kaplan's Aristocrats (band) 86 London, Pessy ("Pep") (Goldstein) 536 Long Island College of Medicine 325 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 167,179,

423, poem "The Jewish Cemetery at Newport" 179

Lopez, Aaron 168, 171 Lopez, Moses 168 Lopez, Rebecca 168, 428 Losben, Dr. and Mrs. Stephen J. 152,

331,491,619 Louisville Corrier-Joumal, The 191 Lowe, Thomas 247 LSK and the Encores (band) 86 Lucky Strike Singers 87 Luconi, Stefano 548, "'Italians Don't

Hate Jews!' Some Evidence to the Contrary from Prewar Providence" 509-526

Lundin, Oscar 71 Lying-in Hospital (Providence) 227,237 Lyn Murray Singers 87 Lyon, Enoch 171 Lyons, Rabbi J. J. 430, 431 Lyons, Reverend Eleazar 425

— M — MacArthur, Douglas 349 MacDonald, Wilham 21 Machzeka Hadas Orphans 75 Machzeka Hadas Synagogue 75 Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion 357 Madison Industries 484 Madison Square Garden (New York)

88,510


Maimonides, Moses 286,294, Prayer of 290-293, 296

Main, Beverly 316 Malcolm X 558 Malin, Beverly 304, 312, 315 Mandel, Shari Fishbein 323 Mandell, Leonard 304 Manhattan Opera House 510 Manville Jenckes Corporation 444-445 Maparalian, John 360, 366-367, 368,

369, 370 Maphralian, Blackie 360, 366-367 Marcello, Keith 268 Marcus, Dr. Jacob Rader 179,180,190-

191 Marcus, Joseph 223 Margolis, Mrs. 83 Markoff, Allen 613 Markoff, Burton oM. 613 Markoff, Florence (Shapiro) 10, 89-90,

326 Markoff, Gary 326 Markoff, Henry W. 529, obit 325-326 Markoff, Joseph 326 Markoff, Lillian (Bachman) 613 Markoff, Lynn obit. 144 Markoff, Rebecca (Gelula) 325 Markoff, Ronald 331, 326, 491, 619 Markoff, Roslyn (Falcofsky) 613 Markoff, Sidney 300 Markoff, Susan 613 Markoff, Walter 325 Marks, Lynn 486 Marks, Richard E. 101 Maron, Ida 326 Maron, Samuel 326 Marranos (secret Jews) 165 Marshall, Louis 33 Martin, Bob (see Kaplan, Robert M.) Martin, Joseph W., Jr. 199 Martin, Mary 88 Marx Brothers 85

MasCo 262 Mask and Lyre Opera Company (see

American Savoyards) Mason, Darielle and Gabrielle Zarakov

152, 331,491,619 Masonic Order, F&AM, King David's

Lodge 200, Orpheus Lodge 141, Palestine Temple 323, Providence Royal Arch Chapter 143, Redwood Lodge 140,141,143, Roosevelt Lodge 146, Scottish Rite 323, Valley of Providence 146, Shrine 481

Massachusetts Bar Association 146 Massachusetts Division of Industrial

Safety 481 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

325 Matzner, Zara (Brody) 536, 538 Maverick, Fontaine "Maury" 196 Mayberg, Beatrice 361 Mayberg, Louis 361 McCarthy, Gene 103, 113 McCarthy, Joseph 445 McCarthyism (McCarthy era) 358,550,

553 McGreevy, John 561, 562, 566 McSoley, Henry Carter 360, 366, 369,

370 McSoley, William and Ellen J. 366 McSorley, Harry (see McSoley, Henry

Carter) Meckel, Richard A., "The Jewelry In

dustry, Industrial Development, and Immigration in Providence, 1790-1993" 244-258

Medical-Dental-Hospital Bureaus of America 486

Medoff, Abraham 486 Medoff, Rose (Guzner) 486 Medus, Simon 168 Mehlman, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin 491,619 Mellion, Evelyn oixV. 144-145


Mellon Instinite of Industrial Research 143

Memory and Cognitive Disorder Clinic 325

Mendes, Rabbi Abraham Pereira 173, 182

Mental Health Association of Rhode Island 55

Menuhin, Yehudi 538 Metacomet Country Club 144 Metcalf, Jesse 520 Meth, Louis 612 Meth, Rose (Lieberman) 612 Metropolitan Museum of Art (New

York) 177,188,194,, American Wing 185

Metropolitan Opera 19 Metropolitan Theater (Providence) 87 Michael Reese Hospital 31 Michaelson, Julius 4,137,138,159,608 Michel, Sonya "Children, Institutions,

and Community: The Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island 1909-1942" 451

Middleton, Henry 422 "Mikveh in Rhode Island, The" by

Eleanor F. Horvitz 527-531 Millen, Mathew L. 619 Miller, Mrs. 314 Miller, Dorothy Waxman obit 145 Miller, Jack 152, 331, 491, 619 Miller, Dr. Murray 302 Miller, Nolan 267 Miller, Stephanie "The First Russian

Jews in Rhode Island" 391-407 Millman, Bea 540 Minsk University 380 Mkiam Hospital, The 11,23,24,25,26,

29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 74, 77, 137, 145, 149, 221, 226, 227, 228, 233, 234-235, 239, 325, 338, 467, 470, 483, 484,595,610,613,614, Gift Shop of 326, Women's Association of 26,29,

73, 74, 148, 326, 482, 486, 611, 613 Miriam Society 22 Miro (painter) 358 Mirsky, Norman 110 Misch, Marion Simon (Mrs. Caesar) 538 Mishkan Tefilah 145 Mittleman, Irving 394, 397, 398,403 Mittleman, Marcia 312 Moe, Elayne A. 481 Monahon, Chfford 12, Monet company 271 Monmouth Theater (Maine) 90 Montefiore Hospital 31 Montefiore Lodge Ladies Hebrew Be

nevolent Association 75, 226 Monticello 181 Morgenthau, Henry, Jr. 190 Morris, Helen 274 Morristown National Historic Park 185,

192 Moses Brown farm 72 Moses Brown School (Providence) 112,

113, 117,610, Junior Board of Overseers of 484

Moses, Bob 557 Moses, Israel 300, 301 Moses, Jacob I . 429,433 Moss, Leonard 4, 158, 338, 502, 503,

"Notes from the Editor" 7-8, 161, 343-344, 507-508

Mossberg, Jacob (Jack) 300, 307 Mossberg, Rhoda 300, 301 Mount Sinai Hospital (Milwaukee) 32 Mount Sinai Hospital (New York) 31 Mount Vemon 183,184, Ladies' Asso

ciation 184 Mozart, Woolfgang Amedeus 349 Mt. Sinai Hospital (New York) 88, 322 Munday, Richard 188 Munsel, Patrice 199 Murray, Lyn 87 Museum of Fine Arts (Boston) 613


Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York) 177

Museum of Modem Art (New York) 184

Museum of Newport History 202 Mussohni, Benito 370, 509, 510, 511,

512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 521

"My Life at the Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island" by Saul Barber 451-477

Myer, Napthah Hart 171 Mystic Seaport 183

—N— NAACP 565 Nachbar, Mr. and Mrs. Milton 152,331,

491,619 / Nagler, Gene 142 Nagler, Virginia (Harman) 142 Nahas, Elias 591 Napier company 271 Nash, Diane 561 Nathans, Jeannette S. 151,330,489,617 Nathans, Yvette 314 Nation 229 National Archives 177 National Association of Greeting Card

Publishers 148 National Association of Social Workers

142 National Cathohc Welfare Council News

Service (NCWC) 554, 555, 556 National Committee for Labor Israel

142 National Conference of Christians and

Jews 147, 228, 230, 482, 554 National Conference of Jewish Social

Service 232 National Council of Jewish Women 148,

347, Rhode Island chapter of 484, 485, Russian Resettlement Conunit-tee of 484

National Defense Education Act 108 National Dental Association 483 National Holocaust Museum 613 National Industrial Recovery Act

(N.I.R.A.) 440-441 National Institues of Health 451 National Labor Relations Board 445 National Office Products Association

481 National Park Service 186, 187, 189,

192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200 National Society of Colonial Dames,

Rhode Island Chapter 185 National Society of Public Accountants

322 National Tmst for Historic Preservation

183 National Worsted 250 NCR 264, 265 Needleman, Wanda 614 Neis, Theodore 592 Nelson Aldrich Junior High School

(Warwick) 302 Nelson, Mrs. Dorothy M.152,331,491,

619 Nelson, Mrs. Eugene 152,331,491,619 Nemerovsky, Mary 26, 27, 29 Nephutsay Israel 178 Neutra, Richard 184 New Deal 221,224,232,440,443,445,

550, 551 New England Bridge Bulletin 147 New England Conservatory of Music

533, 538 New England Music Camp 88 New Masses 364 New School, Drama Workshop of (New

York) 90 New York Jewelers Benevolent Asso

ciation 327 New York Lace Stores 323


New York Times, The 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 195, 198, 224, 352, 357, 360, 366, 368, magazine section 198

New York University 108, 116, 596, 610, Tamiment Library at 359

Newport Daily News 574 Newport Historical Society 198, 202 Newport Mercury 424, 425, 426, 427 Newport Restoration Foundation 185 Niagara School (Providence) 366 Nicholas I , Russian Tsar 394 Nicholson File Company 244,251,256 Ninfo, Ralph 510 Ninfo, Salvatore 510 North End (Jewish community) 14, 20,

21,22 North End Dispensary 225, 227, 234-

235 Northwestem University 142,143, 613 Norwich, John Juhus 132 "Notes from the Editor" by Leonard

Moss 7-8, 161,507-508 Noyes, Mr. 276-277, 278 Nulman, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney 152,331,

619 NuLook company 268 Nuremberg Laws 39 Nuremberg trials 190 Nutman, Jennie (Spack) 147 Nutman, Joseph 147

O'Brian, David 551 O'Connor, Caryl 613 O'Neil, James 362 Oaklawn Library 148 Occident The 421, 428,432 Ochs, Adolph 190 Oelbaum, Charles 361 Oelbaum, Sruel 361 Old Colony House (Newport) 188 Old Main (Illinois) 189 Old Stone Bank (Providence) 89

Old Stone Mill (Newport) 182, 428, 429, 431

Old Swedes' church (see Gloria Dei) Olneyville Congregation 306 Olympic Games, Berlin (1936) 41, 520 Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA),

Rhode Island Grand Lodge 517,518, 519

Oriental Institute (Chicago) 94 -Onus Street Synagogue 77 Orpheus Descending 92 Orson, Barbara 90-92, illust. 91 Orson, Jay, M.D. 4, 90, 91, 159, 339,

502, 503, 608 Orsoni factory (Italy) 94 Ortiz, Anne 326 Otsby and Barton 245, 250 Outlet Company 14, 346, 468, 515 Oxford Street School 542 Oxford University 451

—P— Pabian, Audrey 322 Pachekoe, Moses 167 Page, Dr. Lawrence and Ruth 331,491,

619 Paisner, Isadore///wi?. 335 Palestine Temple Shriner Band 483 Paramount Line Cards (Pawtucket) 148 Paramount Office Supply 481 Parks, Stacey 610 Pass, Rayne 481 Paster, Donald L. 304, illust 624 Paster, Herman 75 Pastore, John O. 104, 199, 559-560 Patriots' Park (Newport) 99, 202 Paul (Apostle) 228 Paulus (German general) 212 Pawtucket West High School 116 Paxson, Bud 266-267 Peace Street School 366, 399 Pear Tree (ship) 165 Pearlman, Ivan 564


Pearlman, Mr. Thomas 152, 331, 491, 619

Peckham, Howard 13 Peel Commission 79, Peixotto, Benjamin Frankhn 191-192 Peixotto, Daniel 191 Peixotto, Moses Levi 191 Pell, Claiborne 188,202 Pell, Herbert C. 202 Pembroke College 147, 326, 399, 535,

536 Penn, Charlotte 1.4,159, 339, 503, 609 Penny, J.C. Award 328 Percelay, Abraham M. 326, Mrs.

Abraham 152 Percelay, Merrill 391, "Wartime Expe

riences of Russian Immigrants, Part I " 208-219, "Wartime Experiences of Russian Immigrants, Part 11" 375-390

Percelay, Natalie 403-404, obit 326 Performing Arts, Jews in 85-92 Permanent Commission on Better Un

derstanding Between Christians and Jews 229

Perry, Ohver Hazard, funeral of 1826 432

Perry, Shaw & Hepburn 184 Petersen House 185 Petterati, Robert 86 Pfeiffer, Jules 92 Phenix hon Works 248 Philadelphia Childrens' Hospital 91 Philadelphia College of Pharmacy 614 Philadelphia College of Textiles 611 Philadelphia Museum of Art 193 Philanthropy, Jewish 17-37 Phillips, David 429 Phillips, Taylor 179 Physiological Institute 379 Picasso, Pablo 358 Pilgrim High School (Warwick) 109 Pinkerson store 323

Pinza, Ezio88 Pioneer House (Palestine) 81 Pioneer Women 145 Piscator, Erwin 90 Pitterman, Dr. Marvin 4,159,339,503,

and Mrs. Marvin 152, 331,491,619 Planned Parenthood 322, 484 Players, The (Brown University) 88 Plimouth Plantation 183 Plymouth Rock 202 Pogroms 393-394, 397 Point Street School 399, 535, 542 Polan, Benjamin 148 Polan, Pauline (Reiter) 148 "Politics of Preservation, The: How

Touro Synagogue Became a National Historic Site" by George M. Goodwin 177-207

Pollock, Isaac 168, 171 Pontiac School (Warwick) illust 537 Pool, Dr. David De Sola 192, 199 Pope, Generoso 515, 519 Portuguese community in Bristol, RI 16 Postmaster General's Technical Advi

sory Committee 149 Potter, Bessie 361 Potter, Max 361 Povar, Lotte 303, 304, 312 Povar, Morris 304 Povar, Ralph 304 Pratt and Whitney 107 Pratt Institute 533, 536 Preservation Society of Newport County

185, 194 President Theater (New York) 90 Presley, Elvis jewelry 263 Press, Esther (Goldsmith) 542 Press, Israel 542 Princeton University 117 Progressive Party 121 Providence College 9,87,108,229,483 Providence Community Chest 77


Providence Community Fund 220-243 Providence Cornice Co. 70, 71 Providence Evening Bulletin 21 A, 275,

518 Providence Evening News 25 Providence Hebrew Day School 323,

Amudin Award of 615 Providence Hebrew Free Loan Associa

tion 77 Providence Jewehy Museum 244, 259 Providence Journal, The 254, 277, 363,

366,367,408,448,512,534,568,594 Providence Journal-Bulletin 441, 554 Providence Machine Company 247 Providence Mill 250 • Providence Opera Theater 88 Providence Preservation Society 72,184 Providence Public Library 89, 539 Providence Sunday Journal 448 Providence Technical High School 367,

533 Providence Tool Company 247 Providence Visitor, The 548-570 Pulitzer Prize 191 Pulner, Pearl 315 Putnam's Monthly Magazine 179

- Q -QVC267, 268

—R— "Rabbi Bohnen and the Rainbow

Haggadah" by Barry M. Sax 348-355 Rabbinical Association of Rhode Island

564 Rabinowitz, Warren and Susette 331,

491,619 Radosh, Ronald 370 Rakatansky, Dr. Herbert 326 Rakatansky, fra 301 Rakatansky, Dr. Nathan 326 Rakatansky, Rachel obit 326-327 Ramm,h-ena 216, 217-219 Ramm, Naum 216

Rapaporte, Mr. Hye 152, 331,491,619 Raphall, Bella 433 Raphall, Charles 433 Raphall, Esther 433 Raphall, James 433 Raphall, Reverend Doctor Morris Jacob

424, 425-427, 429, 430, 432, 433, lecture syllabus cover illust 434

Raytheon 107 "Rebirth of the Jewish Conununity in

Newport, The, 1850-1854" by Benjamin Brown 421-438

Recession of 1884-1885 18 Red Church (see St. John's Episcopal

Church, Barrington) Redwood Library (Newport) 174, 175,

182, 188,428,429, 430 Reeb, Reverend James J. 564 Reibman, Dr. James E. 339, 491, 619,

502, 503 Reid, James P. 363 "Reluctant Warriors: Jews, Vietnam, and

the Draft" by George Goodwin 99-127

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 107 Repertory Theatre of Rhode Island 447 Research and Development Center of

Rhode Island 484 Residential Properties 149 Resnick, Edith (Silberman) 614 Resnick, Kenneth and Chaya 619 Resnick, Samuel 614 Resnik, Jeannette Esther obit 145 "Response of the Providence Jewish

Community to Events in Prewar Germany, The 1935 to 1939" by Nicole Herschenhous 39-54

Ress, J o s e p h 3 3 5 Re vena, Jacob Rodrigues 168,170,171 Rhea, James 554 Rhinus, Rabbi 395 Rhode Island AFL/CIO 447


Rhode Island Air National Guard 113 Rhode Island Association for the Blind

184 Rhode Island Association of Pubhc Ac

countants 322 Rhode Island Audubon Society 148 Rhode Island Bank 174 Rhode Island Bar Association 141,146 Rhode Island Board of Medical Exam

iners 140 Rhode Island Board of Rabbis 528,529,

530 Rhode island Bridge Club 147 Rhode Island Bureau of Industrial Sta

tistics 223 Rhode Island Business Men's Associa

tion 71 Rhode Island Civic Chorale 88, 92 Rhode Island College 116, 129, 142,

273,439, 535, 536 Rhode Island College of Education (see

Rhode Island College) Rhode Island College of Pharmacy (see

University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy)

Rhode Island Committee on Children and Youth 141

Rhode Island Communist Party 363 Rhode Island Communist Political As

sociation 363 Rhode Island Conference of Social Work

141 Rhode Island Council of Community

Services 446 Rhode Island Dental Association 483 Rhode Island Department of Health 280 Rhode Island Department of Human

Services 148 Rhode Island Department of Social

Welfare 146, 147 Rhode Island Echo (renamed from Ital

ian Echo) 516

Rhode Island Engineering Society 71 Rhode Island Federation of Musicians

483 Rhode Island Foreign Relations Com

mittee 484 Rhode Island Heart Association 446 Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame 612 Rhode Island Historical Association 184 Rhode Island Historical Society 9, 12,

15,138,202,448,483,GoffWomen's Achievement Award of 612, Museum of Work and Culture of 9,

Rhode Island Holocaust Memorial Museum 143

Rhode Island Hospital 21-22, 29, 30, 226, 396, 595, 610

Rhode Island Hospital Service Corporation and Physicians' Service 447

Rhode Island Insulated Wire Company 612

"Rhode Island Jewish and Catholic Press Coverage of Civil Rights, 954-1965" by Lauren Antler 548-570

Rhode Island Jewish Bowling Congress 142

Rhode Island Jewish Children's Home (see Jewish Orphanage of Rhode Island)

Rhode Island Jewish Chronicle 163 Rhode Island Jewish Herald 305, 347,

527 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Asso

ciation 9, 12, 13, 16, 17, 145, 146, 149, 180, 244, 273, 274, 280, 297, 324, 325, 326, 345, 481, 482, 484, 527,611,612,613,45* Annual Meeting of 137-139, 46* Annual Meeting of 320-321, 47* Annual Meeting of 479-480,48* Annual Meeting of 509, 608-609, Horvitz Prize 548, 571

Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes 9-16, 73,75


"Rhode Island Jews in the Performing Arts" by Zita Brier, 85-92

Rhode Island Junior College {see Community College of Rhode Island)

Rhode Island Labor History Society 448 Rhode Island Liquor Stores Association

483 Rhode Island Manpower Development

Committee 446 Rhode Island National Guard 105,113-

117 Rhode Island Parole Board 141 Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra

88, 149, 484 "Rhode Island Portraits" 89 Rhode Island Registry of Motor Ve

hicles 324 Rhode Island School of Design 149,

194,358,399, Museum 612-613,485 Rhode Island Seminar on Human Rela

tionships 230 Rhode Island Seniors Golf Association

486 Rhode Island State College {see Univer

sity of Rhode Island) Rhode Island State Heritage Hall of Fame

449 Rhode Island State House 71 Rhode Island VA Hospital 595 Rhode Island Youth Employment Com

mittee 446 Rhodes on the Pawtuxet 401 Ribicoff, Senator Abraham 122 Richmond and Goldberg (architects) 302 Riddell, Hugo 591 Riesman, Mr. and Mrs. Robert 152,331,

491,619 Rivera, Abraham 171 Rivers, Joan 267 Riverside Mill 250 Riverside Worsted Company 611 Roach, Douglas 366

Robbins, Arthur and Judy 331,491,619 Roberto Manufacturing Co. 324 Roberts, Deborah Salmonson 614 Roberts, Mr. and Mrs. S. David 152,

331,491,619 Robeson, Paul 87 Robin, Mr. and Mrs. Wilham L. 152,

331,491,619 Rockefeller Foundation 285, 408, 594 Rockefeller, John D. Jr. 183, 184 Rockefeller, Nelson 14, Rockwell, Norman 198, "Four Free

doms" cover illustration 198 Rodrigrigues de Triana 165 Roelker, Wilham 12, Roger Williams College {see Roger

Williams University) Roger Williams National Memorial

(Providence) 188 Roger Williams Park illust 68, 72 Roger Wilhams Spring 188 Roger Williams University 104, 483 Rogowski, Bemhard 199 ^ Ronalds, Francis 199 Roosevelt, Eleanor 553 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano 46, 50, 57,

183, 185, 186, 190, 195, 198, 224, 230, 256, 440, 442, 443, 513-514, "Four Freedoms" address to Congress, 198

Roseman, Hy 365 Rosen, Benton H. 4, 10, 159, 339, 503,

and Mrs. Benton H. 152, 331, 491, and Beverly Fund 151, 330,489,617

Rosen, Mrs. Beverly 619 Rosen, Daniel 591 Rosen, Eleanora 591 Rosen, Estelle (Goldin) 535, 542 Rosen, Herbert L. 4,138,159,339,503,

and Mrs. Herbert L. 152, 331, 491, 619

Rosen, Rabbi Nathan 563, illust 563


Rosen, Noah H. 591 Rosen, Simon 591 Rosenstein, Judy and Jay 491, 619 Rosenstone, Robert A. 358-359, 360,

363, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369 Rosenthal, Sarah 305 Rosner, Mildred 315 Ross, Reverend Arthur 423 Ross, Louis 144 Ross, Sarah (Bemstein) 144 Rossner, Toby 345, 479 Rothberg, Esther (Millman) 535, 536-

537, illust 537, 539-540, 542 Royal Canadian Mounted Police 122 Royal Ridge Condo Association 483 RSVP Band 483 Rubenstein, Anton 85 Rubenstein, Louis B. 395,397,398,591 Rubenstein, Rabbi Israel S. 397 Rubenstein, Rabbi Jacob 530 Rubinow, I . M. 232 Rubinton, Noel 528 Rudnick, Myer 361 Rumpler, Alexander illust.335,

Alexander Rumpler Award 484 Rumpler, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard 152,

331,491,620 Russian Center for the Preservation and

Study of Historical Documents (Moscow) 360

Russian Jewish immigrants 208-219, 375-390, 391-407, 453

Russische Shul (see Congregation Sons of Jacob)

Russo, Albert Peter 511 Russo-Japanese War 394

S.S.Aquitania 361, 364 S.S. President Harding 367 S.S. Queen Mary 364-365, 367 S.S. Roosevelt 364 Saar Temple (Germany) 45

Saarinen, Eero 187 Sachs, Bessie (Feinberg) 327 Sachs, Coleman Ray 327, 485 Sachs, Gilbert 485, obit 327 Sachs, Rabbi Joseph 430 Sachs, Kolman 327 Sachs, Phyllis (Savlick) 327, obit 485 Sackett Street School 537 Sacredote, Carol 325 Sadler, Mr. and Mrs. Harold 152, 331,

491, 620 Safety Flag Company 148 SAH (see American Society of Archi

tectural Historians) Saks Fifth Avenue 267 Saladin291 Salem Maritime National Historic Site

183, 187, 198 Salmanson, Charles 614. 620, and Mrs.

Charles 491 Salmanson, Dianne M. obit 146 Salmanson, Donald 152, 331,491, 620 Salmanson, Hannah oWr.613-614 Salmanson, Jerrold 152, 331,492, 614.

620 Salomon, Martin 146 Salomon, Toby (Wolf) 146 Saltzman, Abe 88 Saltzman, Ruth 88-89 Salvation Army 539 Salve Regina (college) 14 San Antonio Conservation Society 196 San Jose Mission (San Antonio) 196 Sandler, Mr. illust 474 Sapinsley, John and Lila 131, 492, 620 Sapinsley, Milton illust. 335 Sapolsky, Ashei obit. 614 Sapolsky, Edith and Jerome 492, 620 Sapolsky, Eva (Rosenthal) 614 Sapolsky, Hannah (Tuninsky) 614 Sapolsky, Harry 614 Sapolsky, Jerome illust.335


Sapolsky, Walter 614 Saturday Evening Post The 262, "Four

Freedoms cover by Norman Rockwell 198

Savannah Commission for the Preservation of Landmarks 193

Savhck, Samuel 485 Savhck, Tillie (Luftman) 485 Sax, Barry M., "Rabbi Bohnen and the

Rainbow Haggadah" 348-355 Scala, Luigi 517, 518,519 Schacter, Howard 503 Schaeffer, Louis 591 Schein, Harold 152, 331, 492, 620 Schenkerman, Rabbi Robert 309 Schlesinger, Herbert 366 Schmetz, Joseph 440-446 Schmuger, Irving 307 Schoeller, Lisa 325 Schreiber and Schreiber (law frnn) 146 Schreiber, Ethel (Lippman) 146 Schreiber, Ira L. obit 146 Schreiber, Jack G. 146 Schreiber, Mrs. Joyce 152 Schreier, Alfred 591 Schreier, Eugene 574, 585-587, 591 Schulman, Loraine 324, 483 Schuster, Isaac 591 Schwartz, Elias 591 Schwartz, Grace F. 304 Schwartz, Israel 592 Schwartz, Lilhan 2, 4, 158, 159, 321,

338, 339, 502, 503, 609 Schwartz, Wilham 591, 592 Schwarz, Max 591 Schwarz, Sigmund 591 Schwemer, Michael 548,556,557,561 Scioh, Angelo 513 Scituate High School 85 Scribner, Dorothy obit 147 Scully, Vincent 194 Seacord, Douglas Earl 366

Sebiri, Charles 584 Second Bank of the United States ("Old

Custom House") 193 Second Vatican Council (Vatican II)

552, 556, 561, 566 SED Dental Fratemity 483 Segal, Mrs. 316 Segal, Barbara 303, 311 Segal, Beryl 4,9,11,159,339,345,503 Segal, Philip A., Jr. 303,311 Segre, Guido 513, 517 Seixas, Isaac Mendes 168, 424 Seixas, Moses 168, 172, 174, 201,423,

424 Seixas, Theodore I . 424, 433 Selective Service 101 Selekman, Rabbi Meyer 309 Semenoff, Judah 535 Semenoff, Leon 535 Sephardic Jews 60, 573, 575, 578, im

migration of 11, "Settlement of Jews in Rhode Island" by

Max Levy 163-176 Shaare Zadek Mikveh 528 Shanghai Jewish School 60, 64 Shapiro, Abe 263 Shaposhnik, Anna 384-387, 389 Shaposhnik, Izya 388-390 Shaw, Russell 559 Shearith Israel 181, 182 Sheen, Father Maurice V. 555 Sheffield, Honorable Wilham Paine 175 Shelbume Museum 183 Shepard Company (Providence) 89, Tea

Room 540 Sheridan, Juha 270 Sherman, Anne 137,161,321,343,508,

608, illust 347 Sherman, Dora 533, 536 Sherman, Gerald 99 Shindler, P. Susan 152, 331, 492, 620 Shoham, Mr. 473,475, 476


Shriner Band 483 Shriners 141 Siegal, Abraham 591 Siegried Line 349 Sigal, Phyllis and Irving 152, 331,492,

620 Sikorsky Aircraft 107 Sills, Sam 357 Silver, Rabbi Abba Hillel 199 Silver, Alene P., Ph.D. 4, 159, 161,

"Elizabeth Guny and Other People's Children" 451, "Emperor Julian the Apostate and the 'Community of Jews'" 129-134, "Ida Camelhor Silverman: The Early Years" 272-284, "Lawrence Spitz, Champion of the Common Man" 439-450

Silver, Bemard 301, and Mrs. Bemard 307

Silverman Brothers (jewelers) 399 Silverman, Archibald 275 Silverman, Charles 327 Silverman, David Wolf 551 Silverman, Harold obit 327 Silverman, Harry 591 Silverman, Ida Camelhor (Mrs.

Archibald) 75, 272-284, illus. 212 Silverman, Lena (Rosenblatt) 327 Silverman, Margaret (Wilcox) 327 Silverstein, Barney 486 Silverstein, Honey 486 Silverstein, Myron obit 486 Silverstein, Pearl (Israel) 486 Silverstone, Harry 227 Sinclair, Mrs. Joseph S. 152, 331, 492,

620 Sincoff, Rebecca 591 Six Day War 108, 114 Sklut, Molly Fried 306 Sklut, William 305 Skolnick, Adam Harris 137, 520, "A

Common Civil Purpose: The Jewish

Role in the Providence Community Fund" 220-243, "Creating a Civil Judaism: Max L. Grant and Jewish Communal Philanthropy" 17-37

Slater, Samuel, mill 247 Slepkow, Mr. and Mrs. Frank 304 Small, Edwin 198 Smira, Brenda obit 486 Smira, M. William 486 Smith, Art J. 519 Smitii, Clara 83, 84, and Joseph 79 Smith, Dr. Joseph 80 Smithsonian Institution 177, 613 Soares, Mario (President of Portugal) 14 Sobel, Rabbi Pesach 308 Society for the Preservation of New

England Antiquities 184, 194 Society of the Friends of Touro Syna

gogue National Historic Shrine 198, 199, 200, 201

Sokoloff, Barbara 339 Sollosy, Sheldon 528 Solomon, Rabbi 308 Solomon, Albert 591 Solomon, Haym 222 Solomon, Julius 592 Soloveitzik, Harold B. 152, 331, 492,

620 Sons of the American Revolution 191,

193 Sorrentino, Vincent245,516-517,518-

519 "Sound and Spirit" radio program 320-

321 "South Pacific" 88 South Providence Hebrew Congrega

tion 361 South Providence Ladies Aid Society

26, 27, 75, 226 Southem Christian Leadership Coali

tion (SCLC) 561


Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue (London)182

Spanish Civil War, Jewish participation in 356-374

Spear, Mrs. Esther 620 Spear, Roy 266-267 _ - ' Spender, Stephen 358 Spitz, Lawrence 343, 439-450 , -SPNEA {see Society for the Preserva

tion of New England Antiquities) Sports Illustrated 484 Sprung, Sonia, M.D. 152,331,492,620 Spunt, Jerome B. 2, 4, 158, 159, 338,

339, 502, 503 St Caterina (ship) 166 St. Francis Xavier church (Maryland)

196 St. John's Episcopal Church (Barrington)

310 St. Joseph's Hospital 21, 27, 30 St Louis (steam ship) 50-51 St. Paul's Church (Eastchester) 198 St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Mount

Vemon, New York) 192 St. Peter's Church (Salzburg) 349 Stalin, Josef 210, 370, 381, 383, 390 Stalingrad, Siege of 212 . Stanford Law School 118 Stanzler, Milton 4, 159, 339, 503, and

Selma 152,331,492, 620 Star Tribune 87 Star Wars jewelry 263 State Ballet of Rhode Island 85 State Street School (Providence) 399 State University of New York, Buffalo

144 Statue of Liberty 177 Stayman, Samuel 307 Steingold, Ana (Schaffer) 147 Steingold, Anne R. obit 614 Steingold, Charles J. 614, obit 147 Steingold, Larry S. 614

Steingold, Max 147 Stepak, Lynn (Faber) 4, 159, 339, 536,

537, 609 Stepak, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel 152, 332,

492, 620 Stem, Elizabeth 532 Stem, Erica H. 612 Stevens, Annie (Cohen) 328 >>•:: Stevens, David 328 ., • Stevens, Muriel (Port) 328 4 / Stevens, Peter 328 r!;̂ Stevens, Ruth 328 Stevens, Sanford S. obit. 328 Stiles, Ezra 171, 178,200 StoUerman, Maurice 452,466,468-470,

illust 474, 476 Stone, Colonel Walter 141 ' • . Stone, Ezra 87 ;r ,iv -Strand, Paul 186 Strasmich, Erwin E. 4, 159, 339, 503,

and Mrs. Erwin E. 152,332,492,620, and Pauline E. Fund 151, 330, 489, 617

Strauss, Adolph 368 Su-auss, Silvia and Richard 152, 332,

492, 620 Su-auss, Walter 360,363,364,367-368,

369, 370 Strawbery Banke 183 -Streisand, Barbara 85 Strick, Eva Bella (Zawatsky) 145 Strick, Tobias 145 Strickland, William 193 Strongwater, Jay 267 Stuart, Charles, Motor Company (Mi

ami, Florida) 147 Stuart, Gilbert, Memorial Association

184 Student Nonviolent Coordinating Com

mittee (SNCC) 557 Smrbridge Village 183 i . ' '


Stuyvesant, Governor Peter 19,23,166, 231,232

Suburban Reform Temple (see Temple Sinai)

Sugar, Francis 326 Sukihara (Japanese Consul in Lithuania)

56, 57 Sulzberger, Arthur Hays 188, 189-191,

195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 224

Sulzberger, Arthur Ochs 192 Sulzberger, Cyras 191 Sulzberger, Iphigene 190, 191 Sulzberger, Judith Peixotto 192 Sulzberger, Marian Effie 192 Sulzberger, Rachel 191 Sulzberger, Ruth Rachel 192 Summit Avenue Grammar School 457 Super Products Company 613 Sutton, Alice L. obit. 147-148 Sweet, Louis 345 Symons, Susan 610 • Synagogue Yeshuran 82

—T— Taft, Robert 445 v . v Tageblatt 39S Taj Mahal 300 Tanennbaum, Jordan 309 Tanner, Eleanor (Geffner) 138, 486 Tanner, Lewis obit 486, and Mrs. Lewis

152, 332,492, 620 Tanner, Ronald H. 486 "Tante Ghana" (sister of Isaac Woolf,

q.v.) 72 Target store 268 : y • Tamapol, Freda (Halpert) 486 •• v Tamapol, Max 486 Teach for America program 548 Teknor-Apex 325 Temple Beth Am 298, 300-302, 307-

308, Children's Fashion Show fundraiser at illus. 308, Sisterhood of

314, Sunday school of 311 Temple Beth Israel 297, 361, 481,483 Temple Beth Shalom 325 < . Temple Beth Torah 302 Temple Beth El 28, 55, 88, 141, 142,

143, 147, 148, 149, 163, 279, 297, 302, 309, 322, 323, 326, 261, 479, 482, 484, 486, 535, 536, 563, 610, 611,612,613,614, mosaic in 1,2,93-97, illust 1, 95, Brotherhood of 611, 613, Sisterhood of 323, 482, 610

"Temple Beth-El Mosaic, The" by Walter Feldman 93-97

Temple Emanuel (Buffalo, NY) 355 Temple Emanu-El 47, 72, 76-77, 89,

141, 143, 144, 146, 147, 148, 188, 297, 302, 322, 324, 325, 326, 327, 349, 353, 473, 481, 482, 485, 486, 564, 611, 614, 615, Ben/Bat Torah Program of 485, Board of Trastees 76-77, Building Conunittee 76, choir of 92, Leisure Club of 322, 611, l i brary of 485, Percelay, Abraham and Natalie Museum in 326, school 221, Sisterhood of 144,146,147,324,326, 486,611, Teenah Garden Club of 148

Temple Sinai (Cranston) 55, 140, 144, 298,302-303,309,315-316,481, illus. 303, 308-309, Brotherhood of 140, Sisterhood of 144,314, Sunday school of 311

Temple Sinai (North Miami, Florida) 147

Temple Tax 19 Temple Torat Ysrael (Cranston) 298-

300, 324, 481, 483, Men's Club of 483

Temple University 596, School of Dentistry 323, 483

Teverow, Mr. Joshua 152,332,492,620 Textron 256 Thayer Street School 539


The Jews of Rhode Island 1658-1958, sales of 138

Theodore Francis Green State Airport 114,300

'This is the Army" 87 Thompson Box company 268 Thurston, Robert 247, 250 Tifereth Israel 361 Tiffany 251 Time magazine 568 Tobak, James W. 502, 503, 608 Tobin, Abraham 307 Toochin, Josie and Ada Winston, "Two

Jewish Girls in Wartime Shanghai" 55-67

Topf, Dr. Mel 4,159,332,339,492,620 Topp, Dora (Torg) 322 Topp, Joseph 322 Torgan, Bill 400-401,402 Touro Congregation 182 Touro Fraternal Association 481,483 Touro Fraternal Organization 143 Touro Guards, The 492, illust 498 Touro House (Newport Hotel) 429,431 Touro Park 174 Touro Synagogue 11,13,161,163,177-

207,401,421-434,577,586,1902 sit-in at 572, 575, 586-587, 588, illust 155, 158, Visitors' Center 202

Touro, Abraham 168, 174, 181, 182, 200,428

Touro, Rabbi Isaac 181, 422, 168, 171, 173, 174

Touro, Rabbi Judah 168,174-175,181, 182, 200, 422, funeral of 421-422, 428-433

Touro, Reyna 168 Town Hall (Newport) 170 Tregar, Betsy 299 Tregar, Eunice 298 Tregar, Harold 298-300, 307, 316 Trifari company 271

Trinity Church (Boston) 89 Trinity Church (Newport) 173,188,194 Trinity Methodist Church 92 Trinity Square Repertory Theater 88,

90, 92, 482 Troop 41, Boy Scouts of America 77 Trow, Carol Smira 486 Traman, Harry S. 186, 195, 197, 199,

519 Tucker, Sophie 85 Tufts University 571, 595, 596 Turks Head Club 146 Tumey, Deborah 536, 538 Turo Synagogue 99 "Two for the Seesaw" 92 "Two Jewish Girls in Wartime Shang

hai" by Ada Winston and Josie Toochin 55-67

— U — U.S. Forest Service 145 U.S. Merchant Marine Academy 375 U.S. Naval Academy 149, President's

Circle of 149 U.S. Postal Service, Touro Synagogue

commemorative stamp 202 UAHC 309 Uncas Manufacturing Company 245,

516 Union Club (Arizona) 448 Union of American Hebrew Congrega

tions 302 United Arts Fund of Rhode Island 149 United Brothers Synagogue (Bristol) 310 United Fund (see United Way) United Jewish Appeal (see also Jewish

Federation of Rhode Island) 17, 89 United Nations 111 United States Holocaust Memorial Mu

seum 177 United Steel Workers of America

(U.S.W.A.) 446


United Textile Workers (UTW.) 440-443

United Way of Southeastern New England 25, 143, 149,484

University Club 149 University Hall 184 University of Buffalo 259 University of Florence 509 University of Bhnois 143, 486 University of Maryland 596 University of Massachusetts, Amherst

146 University of Miami 614 University of Michigan 108, 142, 149,

193, Clements Library of 13 University of North Carohna, Chapel

Hill 481 University of Pennsylvania 612, 614 University of Pittsburgh, DT. Watson

School of Physical Therapy at 481 University of Rhode Island 9, 14, 85,

104, 105, 106, 113, 116, 118, 140, 324, 325, 451, 469, 486, 533, 610, 611,612, College of Pharmacy 596

University of Virginia 193 University Settlement House (New

York) 90 Urban League 482

—V— Vaad HaKashruth 528, 529, 531 Vaad Haleumi (see Jewish Council) Vanderbilt Mansion (Hyde Park, NY)

186 Vanderbilt, William H.517 Vasseman, Michael 591 Veazie Street School 539, 540, 542 Venderosa, Vincenzo 517 Vietnam Veteran's Memorial (the

"Wall") 101, 106, 124 Vietnam Veterans Against the War 114 Vietnam War, Jewish participation in

99-127

Vilner, Bertold 375-380 Vineyard Stteet School 537 Virology Laboratories 285, 408 Voge Textiles 148 Vogue Antiques (Pawtucket) 148 Vollenhover, George 592 Volunteer Services for Animals 149

—W— Wagner, Moses 591 Wagner, Charles 591 Wagner-Rogers Bill 49, 50 Wahnon, David J. 592 Waisel, Amy Fishbein 323 "Wakefield" (Virginia) 185 Walker, Nancy 88 Wallenberg, Raoul 202 Wallick, Haskell 301, and Mrs. Haskell

307 . Wal-Mart 268 Walter Reed Hospital (Washington, DC)

112 Wanskuck Mill 250 Warburg, Felix 33 Warner, Eva (Greenblatt) 542 Warner, Jane 433 Warren School (Providence) 366 Warren, Rebecca "Jewish Pioneers and

Civil Disobedience in 1902 Newport" 571-593

Warshaw, Diana 310 "Wartime Experiences of Russian Emi

grants, Part I " by Merrill Percelay 208-219

"Wartime Experiences of Russian Emigrants, Part 11" by Merrill Percelay 375-390

Warwick Historical Society 347 Warwick Jewish Community Associa

tion (later Temple Beth-Am, q. v.) 300-302, 305, 307-


Warwick Jewish Community Organization 314, Women's Auxiliary of 314, 315

Warwick Symphony Orchestra 483 Washington Modem Dance Society 612 Washington University (St. Louis) 112-

113 Washington, George 172,180,514-515,

letter to Touro Synagogue 13-14,200-201, 202, 421, 423, visit to Newport 421,423

Washington, George, Battalion 357,364 Wasserman, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold B.

152, 332, 492, 620 Wasserman, Bemard and Ina 332, 492,

620 Wasserman, Max 579, 580, 592 Waterman Pen and Pencil Company 262-

263 Wattman, Francis and Irving 620 Wax, Bemard 345, 480 Waxman, Harry 145 Waxman, Mr. and Mrs. Jack 152, 332,

492, 620 Waxman, Rebecca (Lightman) 145 Wayside Inn 184 "We Settled in the Suburbs: Founding

Four Synagogues" by Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz 297-317

Webber, Sherry obit 148 Weil, Else (Rosenbaum) 614 Weil, Jeanne (Fish) 615 Weil, Manfred obit 614-615 Weil, Simon 614, 615 Weinberg, Eugene 4, 137, 138, 320,

339, 503, 479, 608, and Arline 152, 332,492, 620

Weiner, David 583, 592 Weiner, H. and Son Cigars 582-583 Weiner, Herman 582-583, 584, 592 Weiner, Martin 583 Weiner, Wilham 582-583, 592

Weingeroff Enterprises 259 Weingeroff, Frederick Lee 259-271,

illus. 261 Weingeroff, Greg 268, 269, 270 Weingeroff, Lisa 267 Weingeroff, Louis 259-262, 271 Weinstein, Abraham 148 Weinstein, Anna (Diamond) 148 Weir, Judith 615 Weisberg, Alfred 259 Weisberg, Naida D. 244, "An Interview

With Frederick Lee ("Skip") Weingeroff 259-271

Weisenthal Center 613 Weiss, Alexander S. 592 Weiss, Mr. and Mrs. Howard S. 152,

332, 492, 620 Weiss, Ignatz 71 Weiss, Jakie 463 Weiss, Martin 592 Weiss, Rose obit 148 Weiss, Samuel 592 Weiss, Sigmund 592 Weizmann, Chaim 273, 277, 278 Wellesley College 571 Wenger, Beth 236 Wessel, Bessie (Bloom) 535 West India Company 165 Weybosset Mill 250 What Cheer Foods Company 599 Wheeler, Mary C. School (Providence)

146 Wheelock College 149 White Church {see Barrington Congre

gational Church) White House Conference on Families

485 White, Allen 302 White, Claire (Samdperil) 615 White, Eva (Gmbman) 615 White, Jan 309 White, Raymond 615


White, Richard T. 615 White, SolM. oto. 615 Wiatrak, Bemard 301 Wiatrak, Lillian 314, 315 Wiessner, Edward 71 Wilcox, Anne (Cotter) 327 Wilcox, h-ving 327 Wilensky, Dr. 225 Willard Avenue (Jewish community)

14 Willard Avenue School 399, illust 541 Williams, Roger 166, 167, 188 Williams, Tennessee 92 Wilsker, Barney 502 Windmill Street School 540 Winnerman, B. Ruby 151,330,489,617 Winoker, James (Jimmie) 271, Mr. and

Mrs. James 152, 332, 492, 620 Winston, Ada Tannenbaum 315, and

Josie Toochin, "Two Jewish Girls in Wartime Shanghai" 55-67

Winston, Mrs. Gloria 152,332,492,620 Winston, James W. oto. 148-149 Wise, Rabbi Isaac Mayer 190 Wise, Mhiam "Effie" 190 Wise, Rabbi Stephen S. 229, 519 Wiseman, Mr. 460 Wiseman, Mr. and Mrs. Irving 152,332,

492, 620 Wolcott, Marion 186 Wolfe, Tom 549-550 Women's Intemational Zionist Organi

zation 81 Woocher, Jonathan 17, 19, 236, 239 Woodhead, Ann (Gee) 322 Woodhead, Samuel 322 Woodlawn Plantation 183 Woolf, Betty 69-78, illust 68 Woolf, Betty 79-84 Woolf, Edythe 78, illust 68 Woolf, Gertrade 71, 78, illust 68 Woolf, Herbert 78

Woolf, Isaac 69-78, illust 68 Woolf, Mildred (Molly) 71, 78, illust

68 Woolf, Peter 70, 71, 78, illust 68 Woolf, Ruth 69-78, illust 68 Woonsocket High School 483, 611 Woonsocket Hospital 140 Woonsocket Medical Society 140 Woonsocket News Company 486 Woonsocket Rayon Mill 444,445 Worcester Gazette 87 Worcester Polytechnic Institute 324 Worcester Telegram 87 Worlimen's Circle Call 558 Works Project Administration (W.P. A.)

444 World Conference of Jewish Commu

nal Service 17 World Fellowship of Faiths 229 World Jewish Congress of 1934 519 World War 1 102, 394 World War I I 102, 103, 356, Jewish

participation in 348-353, 599-606, Russian Jews in 208-219, 375-390

Worsley, John 86 WPRO Radio 518

—X— XVth Intemational Brigade 356-374

—Y— Y.M.C.A. 237, 363, 463 Y.M.H.A. 11, 138 Y.W.H.A. 138 Yaffe, Sybil G. obit 149 Yale University 71,107,178,451,Child

Guidance Center 121, School of Fine Arts 93

Yarlas, Stephen 503 Yelizavetgrad Organization 402 Yeshiva University 111 Yeshuat Israel 178, 181, 182 Yilek, Frank 360, 368, 369, 370 Yilek, Louisa 368


Young Communist League 363, 368 —Z—

Zahalon, Jacob 286, Prayer of 293-295 Zanger, John Peter 192 Zeitlan, Abraham 612 Zeitlan, Anna (Poss) 612 Zenger Memorial Fund Press Commit

tee 192 Zionest District of Providence 25, Zionism 33, 272-284, 473 Zionist District of Rhode Island 143 Zionist Organization of America 145 Zoorar, Abraham 592

Zucker, Julius illust 154 Zucker, Martin illust 154 Zucker, Mary illust. 154 Zucker, Samuel illust 154 Zuckerman, Ira 92 Zurier, Melvin 4,10,159,320,339,479,

608, and Mrs. Melvin 152, 332, 492, 620

Zurier, Mrs. Sydney 152,332,492,620 Zurrier, Abraham (see Zoorar, Abraham) Zusy, Jonathan 326 Zusy, Maureen 326

Four Jewish servicemen on leave during World War II, Summer 1944. From left: David Berger, Donald Paster, Milton Levin, Stanley Blacher.

RIJH Notes Volume 13.4 (Nov. 2002)

Documents

Transcript of RIJH Notes Volume 13.4 (Nov. 2002)