RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL NOTES VOLUME 4 NOVEMBER, 1966 NUMBER 4 FRONT COVER SARAH GREEN FRANK. 1860-1912 The attractive young lady pictured here was among the earlier native-born Jewish residents of Providence. The federal census of 1850 indicated that the first child of Jewish parentage born in the city (1838) was Isaac, son of Solomon and Miriam Pareira, both of German origin. Their second child, a daughter Mary, was born in 1840. A son was born to another early resident, John Nathan, in 1843. These children would have been quite grown when Sarah Green entered the scene. Sarah was the daughter of Henry and Mary (Miriam) Green. While there is no record of her 'birth in the Providence registry, the census of 1865 records her age as five and her birthplace as Providence. She was the fourth of eleven children, all but the first two of whom were born in Providence. Ah elder sister Adeline's birth was registered in Providence in 1858; two older children were born in Virginia in 1855 and 1857. A twelfth and last child, a son, was stillborn in 1875. Henry Green, the son of Herman and Addie Green, was born in Gnesen, Prussia (now Gniezno, Poland) in 1830. Mary Green, the daughter of Michael and Sarah Gomperts, was born in England in 1835. The national origin of her parents was given in Mary's death return as Danish. Henry Green, Sarah's father, opened a tailor shop at 118 North Main Street in a store under the John Russell House and first lived on Arsenal Lane, where Adeline was born. He later moved to 191 North Main Street, the birthplace of Sarah. He re- sided and did business (clothing) at a number of different addresses over the years and was prominent in religious and fraternal affairs. He was President of the Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David for many years until 1878. Mary Green died in 1890 and Henry in 1892. Sarah attended the public schools of Providence. On January 8, 1879 at the age of 19, she married Louis Frank. He, a native of Bavaria and the son of Kappel and Amelia Frank, was 34. Marx Moses, "Hebrew Priest", officiated. Louis Frank at first conducted a retail business in hats and caps at 136 North Main Street, but later Continued on Page 516 RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL NOTE VOLUME 4, NUMBER 4 NOVEMBER, 1966 Copyright November, 1966 by the RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 209 ANGELL STREET, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND 02906 RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 209 ANGELL STREET, PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND TABLE OF CONTENTS SARAH GREEN FRANK 1860-1912 . Inside Front Cover WESTMINSTER STREET 1869 Back Cover BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATERIALS RELATING TO RHODE ISLAND JEWS IN RHODE ISLAND DEPOSITORIES 1678-1966 . 305 Compiled, and Edited by Freda Egnal UNITED ASSOCIATION OF SPERMACETI CHANDLERS .... 507 TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION .... 512 NECROLOGY 514 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION DAVID C. ADELMAN . Honorary President BERNARD SEGAL . President JEROME B. SPUNT Vice President MRS. SEEBERT J. GOLDOWSKY Secretary MRS. LOUIS I. SWEET . Treasurer MEMBERS-AT-LARGE OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE RABBI WILLIAM G. BRAUDE WILLIAM L. ROBIN SEEBERT J. GOLDOWSKY, M.D. ERWIN STRASMICH SIDNEY GOLDSTEIN LOUIS I. SWEET MRS. CHARLES POTTER MELVIN L. ZURIER SEEBERT JAY GOLDOWSKY, M.D., Editor Printed in the U. S. A. by the Oxford Press, Inc., Providence, Rhode Island AN ANNOTATED CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MATERIALS RELATING TO THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS IN RHODE ISLAND LOCATED IN RHODE ISLAND DEPOSITORIES (1678-1966) Compiled and edited by FREDA EGNAL INTRODUCTION This bibliography was undertaken for, and under the sponsor- ship of, the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. It began in the spring of 1962 when Dr. Seebert J. Goldowsky and Mr. David C. Adelman of the Historical Association consulted with Professor Wil- liam G. McLoughlin of Brown University concerning the most useful method of stimulating historical research in the history of the Jews in Rhode Island. Miss Freda Egnal, at that time a graduate student in the Department of History at Brown, agreed to gather and arrange the bibliography under Professor McLoughlin's direction. Funds for the project were contributed by the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association. The project was undertaken in five steps. The first of these was the compilation of the basic primary and secondary sources from the libraries of Brown University (i.e., The John Hay Library, The John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library and the John Carter Brown Library). At these libraries, and the others cited below, an exhaustive search was made for references to Rhode Island Jewish history in encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, historical journals and bibliographies de- voted to American Jews as well as in all histories, historical jour- nals and bibliographies devoted to Rhode Island. This preliminary but basic portion of the bibliography was completed in 1963 and was published as "A Guide To The More Important Printed Sources Concerning the History of the Jews in Rhode Island Based on Ma- terials in the Brown University Library," in the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes, IV (May, 1963), 79-99. The second step was to examine the materials in the other major libraries and historical repositories in the State in order to supple- ment the basic list. The libraries visited were the Providence 305 S 306 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes Athenaeum, the Providence Public Library, the Library of the Provi- dence Journal-Bulletin Publishing Company, the Rhode Island His- torical Society Library, the Rhode Island State Archives, the New- port Historical Society Library, the Redwood Library, Newport City Hall, Newport Court House and the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association Library. The third step was to visit all of the Jewish institutions and or- ganizations in Rhode Island where historical materials might be found. These included B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation at Brown University, the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Providence, Congregation Jeshuat Israel Religious School, the General Jewish Committee of Providence, the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Home for the Aged of Rhode Island, Jewish Family and Children's Service, Miriam Hospital, Miriam Hospital Women's Association, the Providence Branch of Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, the Providence chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women, Rhode Island Founders for Tubercular Patients, the Rhode Island Herald office, South Providence Hebrew Free Loan Associa- tion and Workmen's Circle. In this connection letters were sent to 45 Jewish organizations requesting permission to record any mate- rials in the possession of the group. Fourth came visits to the major synagogues to examine their rec- ords. The following congregations were visited for this purpose: Bristol — Congregation Chevra Agudas Achim; Cranston — Temple Sinai; Newport—Congregation Jeshuat Israel (Touro Synagogue); Providence — Congregation Anshe Kovno, Congregation Mishkon Tfiloh, Congregation Sons of Abraham, Congregation of the Sons of Israel and David (Temple Beth El), Congregation Sons of Zion, Temple Beth Israel and Temple Emanu-El. And finally to make certain that important private sources had not been overlooked, a form letter was sent out in November, 1964 to a list of 40 prominent Jewish families residing in Rhode Island. This letter asked for information regarding family papers and col- lections of other materials regarding the history of the Jews in Rihode Island. A request was also made for permission to see and make a record of such materials for inclusion in this bibliography. As a result of this letter visits were made to 4 families and information Bibliography 307. concerning collections relevant to this bibliography in private hands has been included where pertinent. The cooperation of these indi- viduals and families is hereby gratefully acknowledged. Almost a thousand bibliographic items have been collected by means of these procedures. The major problem was to arrange them in the most usable form for publication (the original cards have been placed in files at the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association). After considerable thought the decision was made to present the bibliography in the following five categories: PART A A bibliography of items devoted wholly to Rhode Island Jewry: This includes books, pamphlets, tracts, articles, institutional publi- cations, scrapbooks and manuscripts and is arranged alphabetically by author. Where the author is unknown, the item is listed under its title. Also included here are all works written by Jews who are known to have been born in Rhode Island or to have lived in Rhode Island and all works published in the State which are wholly about Jews. While there are many articles listed from a great variety of magazines and journals the only journals which were searched ex- haustively for this part of the bibliography were American Jewish historical magazines and journals of Rhode Island history. No at- tempt was made to list reviews of books about Jews in Rhode Island or reviews of books written by Rhode Island Jews. PART B A bibliography of all items which contain material relevant to Rhode Island Jewry but which are not devoted wholly to it: This includes secondary works such as histories of Rhode Island, of the Jews in America, articles in historical journals in which some aspect of Rhode Island Jewish history is mentioned, and archival materials in Rhode Island in which the names of Jews or Jewish activities are mentioned. Reference works which deal with American Jewry in general are also listed here. These items are listed alphabetically by author or, where no author is given, by title. S 308 Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes PART C A bibliography under important subject headings regarding the history of the Jews in Rhode Island-. This contains all of the items in Parts A and B arranged toy subject.