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Rhode Island Jewish Historical November, 2000 Volume 13, Number 2 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association 130 Sessions Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906-3444 Publications Committee Stanley Abrams, Chairman Judy Aaron Sidney Goldstein Kenneth Abrams Eleanor F. Horvitz Aaron Cohen Lillian Schwartz Geraldine S. Foster Jerome B. Spunt Bonnie N. Goldowsky Leonard Moss, Editor Eleanor F. Horvitz, Librarian-Archivist Copyright © 2000 by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association Printed in the U.S.A. Published for the Association by Richard Alan Dow / T echnical Communications, Gilford, 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 Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island. Photo by John Hopf Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association 130 Sessions Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906 E-mail: [email protected] Web Site: http://www.dowtech.com/RIJHA David Charak Adelman (1892-1967), Founder Executive Committee Robert Berkelhammer..........................................................................President Dr. Mel Topf........................................................................First Vice President Kenneth Abrams...............................................................Second Vice President Sylvia Factor........................................................................................ Secretary Charlotte Penn......................................................................................Assistant Secretary Jack Fradin...........................................................................................Treasurer Herbert L. Rosen.................................................................................. Assistant Treasurer Honorary Members of the Executive Committee Bonnie N. Goldowsky Lynn Stepak Melvin Zurier Past Presidents Stanley Abrams Marvin Pitterman Aaron Cohen Benton H. Rosen Geraldine S. Foster Beryl Segal (1898-1980) Seebert J. Goldowsky, M.D. (1907-1997) Jerome B. Spunt Robert A. Kotlen Erwin Strasmich Eugene Weinberg Members-at-Iarge of the Executive Committee Zita Brier Herbert Iventash, O.D. Herbert Brown Julius Michaelson Anita Fine Jay Orson, M.D. Calvin Goldscheider Lillian Schwartz Sidney Goldstein Alene Silver, Ph.D. George Goodwin Milton Stanzler 160 Table of Contents Notes from the Editor................................................................................ 161 Settlement of Jews in Rhode Island.......................................................... 163 by the Honorable Max Levy The Designation of the Touro Synagogue as a National Historic S ite............................................................................ 177 by George M. Goodwin Wartime Experiences of Russian Immigrants, Part I ............................208 by Merrill Percelay A Common Civil Purpose: The Jewish Role in the Providence Community Fund............................................................... 220 by Adam Harris Skolnick The Jewelry Industry, Industrial Development, and Immigration in Providence, 1790-1993............................................... 244 by Richard A. Meckel An Interview with Frederick Lee (“Skip”) W eingeroff.........................259 by Naida D. Weisberg Ida Camelhor Silverman: The Early Years .............................................272 by Alene Silver “In the Sufferer, Let Me See Only the Human”: A Brief Look at Some Jewish and Non-Jewish Medical O aths.......285 by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D., and Betty E. Aronson, M.D. We Settled in the Suburbs: Founding Four Synagogues........................297 by Geraldine Foster and Eleanor Horvitz Bibliographical Notes................................................................................ 318 Forty-sixth Annual Meeting of the Association......................................320 Necrology................................................................................................... 322 Errata.......................................................................................................... 329 Funds and Bequests................................................................................... 330 Life Members of the Association.............................................................331 161 Notes from the Editor Jewish life in Rhode Island has always been marked by diversity, as a glance at the table of contents will illustrate. Costume jewelry and non­ sectarian philanthropy, suburban synagogues and the Touro Synagogue, wartime experiences of Russian immigrants and the childhood experiences of a prominent Zionist, the oaths taken by doctors and the achievement of colonial settlers in Newport — this amazing range of subjects attests to the vitality and diverse nature of the Rhode Island Jewish community, past and present. The Notes celebrates that vitality and that rich variety of people, interests, and activities. As always, publication of this journal is made possible by the rich variety of vital people who are willing not only to write articles but also to assist with prepublication chores. Thanks once again to Stan Abrams, Aaron Cohen, Eleanor Horvitz, Alene Silver, and Ann Sherman, among others, who cared enough to help. 162 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes Settlement of Jews in Rhode Island by the Honorable Max Levy The Notes, first published in 1954, will soon be celebrating its golden anniversary. But it was not the first journal of Rhode Island Jewish history: several short-lived magazines and newsletters appeared earlier. They have since disappeared, but they should be recognized for their efforts to record local history. One such journal was entitled the Rhode Island Jewish Chronicle, edited by Maurice W. Hendel. Only a single issue survives in our archives, dated September 28-29,1935. We commemorate our predecessor by reprinting an account by Max Levy of notable Jewish settlers in Newport. I present the essay unedited so our readers can get a sense o f the style and historical approach common at that time. How things have changed since then! Max Levy, who died in 1941 at the age of 71, was a judge in the First District Court of Rhode Island; before that, he served terms as state senator and representative. Maurice Hendel, the journal’s editor, died recently (1999) at the age of 90. He had been an assistant secretary o f state in Rhode Island for twenty-five years; during that period he was reappointed in his office by seven governors. Both Levy and Hendel had been active in Jewish, fraternal, and civic organizations. Judge Levy served as president of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, while Mr. Hendel served as president of Temple Beth-El in Providence. Those of the Hebrew faith are about to observe the coming of the New Year, and that most solemn day of days, the day of Atonement. May it not be proper at this time to stop and note what has been termed “the most remarkable phenomena of the ages — the indestructibility and preservation of the Jewish race?” It is properly said that the world is but after all a stage upon which not individuals alone but the several nations and races are players: that every nation has played a part, great or small: that each has endeavored to deliver its message for the centuries in which it lived. To Rome, we attribute government: Greece, culture: Phoenicia, commerce. The Jew throughout the ages we accredit with Monotheism or worship of a single God. During these ages, whenever and wherever he blundered or faltered, he paid a Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 13, No. 2, November, 2000 164 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes fearful price and penalty. No other group or nation of people has suffered so much, and survived. Upon the destruction of the Temple, the Jew became a wanderer upon the earth — a man without a country. There is not a continent or nation upon the face of the earth of which he is not an inhabitant or a part. Innumerable forces of history during the ages have contributed to his destiny. The story of the Jews is at once admirable and a romance of human history. Behind him stand the Babylonian captivity, Roman domination, Gre­ cian absorption, medieval and later day persecution, so called modernistic massacre, but all have failed to wipe him out. He had outlived ancient Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Chaldia, and the dynasties of the past. Removed from his Asiatic origin centuries and centuries ago, there is, however, a so termed “queer dualism” which makes him a creature old and new — “one foot resting on the soil of antiquity and the other on the foreground of today.” The Jew has always been a patriot of the land of his birth or adoption. He quickly attaches himself to the country wherein he may provide food and shelter and in which an opportunity for betterment of life is extended to him. A lover of freedom of conscience, and never failing recognition of the right of his fellow man to worship God in his own way, it is no wonder that, with this background, we find him upon the shores of America in the earliest days of its settlement. With unbounded interest and pride we read of the coming of the Pilgrim and Puritan: of their trials, tribulations, sacrifices and of the suffering endured by them that they might worship God according to the dictations of their conscience. Thousands upon thousands make pilgrimage

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