Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes Volume 13 November 2002 Number 4 Rhode Island Jewish Historical MOTES
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
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 Eleanor F. Horvitz Geraldine S. Foster Jay Orson, M.D. Harriet Frank James Reibman, Ph.D. Harold Gadon Lillian Schwartz George Goodwin, Ph.D. Jerome B. Spunt 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 / T echnical 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 (ISSN) 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), Founder 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 504 505 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 Airman’s Service in World War II..................... 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 surprised 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 experi enced 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 reserva tion, our place in the fascinating panorama of local history. 508 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes 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, if 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 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 interna tionally 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, o f 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 o f 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 Provi dence during the years preceding the outbreak o f the Second World