RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL NOTES VOLUME 12 NOVEMBER 1997 NUMBER 3 PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE Seebert J
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RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL NOTES VOLUME 12 NOVEMBER 1997 NUMBER 3 PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE Seebert J. G oldowsky, M.D., Chairman Stanley Abrams Sidney G oldstein, Ph.D. Geraldine S. F oster E leanor F. H orvitz Bonnie N. Goldowsky Terry Kantorowitz Shaffer Jerome B. Spunt 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. F ront C over Seebert J. Goldowsky, M.D. (1907-1997) and Judith Weiss Cohen (1923-1997) RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL NOVEMBER, 1997 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 3 Copyright © 1997 by the RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 130 SESSIONS STREET, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND 02906-3444 RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 130 Sessions Street, Providence, Rhode Island 02906 D avid C harak Adelman (1892-1967), Founder EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE A aron Cohen ................. ......................President E ugene W einberg........ ... First Vice President Robert Berkelhammer Second Vice President Sylvia Factor.............. ......................Secretary L illian Schwartz........ .... Assistant Secretary Jack F radin.................... ..................... Treasurer H erbert L. R o sen........ .... Assistant Treasurer Honorary M embers of the E xecutive Committee Bonnie N. Goldowsky L ynn Stepak M elvin Z urier P ast Presidents Stanley Abrams Benton H. R osen Geraldine S. Foster B eryl Segal (1898-1980) Seebert J. Goldowsky, M.D. (1907-1997) Jerome B. Spunt Robert A. Kotlen E rwin Strasmich M arvin Ptiterman, Ph.D. M embers-at-large of the Executive Committee Kenneth A brams R ita M ichaelson Herbert Brown Herbert Iventash, O.D. Anita Fine Jay O rson, M.D. Calvin G oldscheider, Ph.D. Charlotte Penn Sidney Goldstein, Ph.D. Alene Silver, Ph.D. George Goodwin, Ph.D. M ilton Stanzler Alfred Jaffe, D.D.S. M elvin T opf Judith W eiss C ohen, Editor Seebert J. G oldowsky, M.D., Editor Emeritus Eleanor F. H orvitz, Librarian-Archivist Printed in the U.S.A. Published for the Association by R ichard Alan Dow Technical Communications, Titusville, Florida T his issue of the R hode Island Jewish H istorical N otes IS DEDICATED TO THE BLESSED MEMORY OF Seebert J. G oldowsky, M .D . and Judith W eiss C ohen IN HONOR OF THEIR VAST CONTRIBUTIONS TO THIS PUBLICATION AND TO R hode Island Jewish H istory TABLE OF CONTENTS A W hite, Black, Jewish F amily...................................................................................324 by Jane S. Sprague A B rief Historic N ote on Some “Jewish” Diseases of the N ervous System ............................................................................................. 333 by Stanley M. Aronson, M.D. and Betty E. Aronson, M.D. Jews in C ape Verde — T he Rhode Island Connection.........................................340 by Richard A. Lobban, Jr., Ph.D. Jewish V eterans of W orld W ar II — O ral H istories, Part I by Pearl F. Braude M ax Simmons..................................................................................................................349 L eonard H olland............................................................. 356 The “Other” C ongregation on A quidneck Island.................................................. 366 by Rabbi Marc S. Jagolinzer Jewish Studies at B rown University a C entury A g o ...........................................373 by Martha Mitchell History of the Rhode Island Jewish Historical A ssociation.............................376 by Seebert J. Goldowsky, M.D. and Judith Weiss Cohen Early Jewish Accountants in Rhode Island.............................................................382 by Zita G. Brier Jews of E ast G reenwich...................................................................................................388 by Eleanor F. Horvitz and Geraldine S. Foster A Yiddish Broadside, Providence 1910...................................................................... 406 Jewish L eadership of the M useum of A rt, Rhode Island School of Desig n ...............................................................................408 by George M. Goodwin, Ph.D. T ributes Seebert J. G oldowsky, M .D ....................................................................................... 422 Judith W eiss Cohen...................................................................................................... 423 Seebert J. Goldowsky H onored................................................................................... 424 Bibliographical N o tes.....................................................................................................426 by Lois Atwood Fortiy-Third A nnual M eeting of the A ssociation.................................................427 N ecrology........................................................................................................................... 429 From the E ditor — N otes on the N o t e s ...................... 433 E rrata and A ddenda....................................................................................................... 435 Funds and B equests..........................................................................................................437 L ife M embers of the A ssociation.................................................................................439 324 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes Keith Stokes, Executive Director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce. (From The Jewish Voice ofRI, July 1996.) A WHITE, BLACK, JEWISH FAMILY by Jane S. Sprague When people become institutions, and centuries go by with their names more attached to streets and buildings than to relationships and actions, we often are startled to learn of their human qualities: passion, humor, stubbornness, shyness, tears and fears hidden behind the deeds that have given them immortality. Even our own ancestors often are just names on a family tree with little known of who they were and how they lived their intimate lives. That makes the ancestral stories uncovered by Keith and Theresa Stokes of Newport especially engaging. Stimulated by Stokes family oral history and inherited memorabilia, they have searched census records, discovered wills, read personal correspondence, scoured books and historical documents to discover the passion and pathos of Keith’s ancestors. These stories unmask the institutionalized image and humanize the most well known of the Jews of Colonial Newport, Rhode Island, and Antebellum Richmond, Virginia. It should make a book, and Theresa Stokes may take that challenge. For now, let’s look at an abbreviated account of a fascinating phase of American Jewish history. The Players: Moses Michael Hays, a Sephardic merchant trader from New York City who moved to Newport in the mid-1700s, and his family. Especially important are his sister, Reyna, and two of his daughters, Catherine and Sloe. The Myer Myers (Hays’s brother-in-law) family from New York City. A son, Samuel, married an older Hays daughter, Judith. Isaac Touro, religious leader of the synagogue in Newport, married Reyna Hays. They had three children, one a boy named Judah. Richard Gustavus Forrester, son of Gustavus Myers, who was the so.i of Judith and Samuel Myers. Keith Stokes, executive director of the Newport County Chamber of Commerce, former member of the Newport City Council. The Locations: Newport, Jamaica, Boston, New Orleans, Richmond, Va„ and Harlem. The Time: About 1760 to today. T he E arly N ewport Y ears Keith Stokes describes the Sephardic Jews who immigrated to Colonial America from Holland and the Caribbean as “already well assimilated, successful business- This article is adapted from The Jewish Voice o f Rhode Island, Jane S. Sprague, Editor, with amplification from Theresa Stokes. Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, Vol. 12, No. 3, November, 1997 326 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes men, particularly as merchant/traders.” Records bear that out. They built elegant houses in Newport along what is now Washington Square and the streets around Touro Synagogue, and they adorned them with fine furnishings. They had extensive libraries, were well read and well spoken — both the men and the women. While influential in the general community, they lived Jewish lives, conducting services in private homes. Moses Michael Hays was one of the leaders, working intimately with Aaron Lopez, Jacob Rivera, Moses Seixas, and others in tight, interlinking circles of business, family and community. By the late 1750s, seventy-five Jewish families, representing a population of 250 to 300 people, lived among Newport’s 8,000 residents. It was time to build a synagogue. Among the supporters of the project were New Y ork Jewish community leader Judah Hays and his son Moses Michael Hays. It was at this time that the community sought a trained spiritual leader to help lead them in the project. “The romantic story,” Stokes says, “was that Isaac Touro was shipping out for America from Holland, indentured, when one of the Newport Jewish merchants came upon him aboard ship and rescued him. The truth is that he was a rabbinical student, recruited to lead the Newport congregation and oversee the construction of the synagogue.” The community hired Peter Harrison, who had just done Redwood Library, as the architect. Harrison was reluctant to do the job since he knew nothing of synagogues. But Touro told him in minute detail about