Sunday, June 19, 2011
Why Lithuanian Jews Went to Dublin
Nadene Goldfoot
I have found quite a few Goldfoots in Ireland including my own grandfather who came from Lithuania. I've often wondered why Jews went to Ireland. What did it have to offer?
Professor Keogh, 53 year old Catholic from University College in Cork, became interested in Irish Jews as he was researching Irish history during WWII. He has found that the Irish Jewish community came about between 1880 and 1901 with the arrival of Ashkenazim from one Lithuanian village, Akmene. They were fleeing from Tsarist pogroms. Dublin legend says that many of them had booked passage to America, but were landed in Dublin instead. Unscrupulous ship captains had assured them they had reached New York.
There were smaller communities with Jews in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Belfast and Derry which were found in prof. Diner's paper that investigated the origins and early years of the Jewish Community of Dublin. First, there were Sephardic Jews who arrived in the 17th Century from Spain and Portugal who went to the Netherlands and on to Ireland. He found that there was a great migration of eastern European Jews who left the continent between 1820 and 1920. Most Jews in Ireland arrived from the 1880's on, though there was already a small group of about 600 in the country, mostly the children of an earlier immigration in the 1820's and 1830's.
Later, the Irish carried the British Aliens Act of 1906 in their own laws, so only a few European Jewish families were allowed in Ireland. In 2005 there were under 1,000 Jews in Ireland from having 6,000 in 1940's. In the past 2 years 200 more have "appeared".
There were lots of Jewish peddlers in the 1860's to the 1880's in Britain, and there were still many in Wales at the same time as in Ireland. Many Jews in Ireland had worked in factories in England and wanted to go into business for themselves.
Peddlers stayed with families where they were welcomed. Many cooked for themselves, some stayed in barns or out in the open. Intermarriage was relatively limited. Some who were well integrated married into the upper classes, like the painter, Estella Solomons.
Anti-Semitism was mostly non-physical. It began when a priest used the pulpit to attack Jews. He called Jewish peddlers and merchants "leeches" who were sucking the blood of the Irish by overcharging or tricking the poor. He called for a boycott of Jewish merchants, and the town obeyed. Within a few years, virtually all of Limerick's 25 Jewish families and the rabbi had left. The Limerick pogrom was physical to an extent, as the Blueshirts threatened physical action, and there a few incidents before Limerick. One person was beaten up, and a brick was thrown at a Rabbi's window.
Gerald Yael Goldberg, b: 12 April 1912 in Cork d: 31 Dec 2003 was the Jewish Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977. He was a lawyer and a member of the Fianna Fail Party. He was the son of Lithuanian Jewish Louis Goldberg from the village of Akmian/Akmene, Lithuania. They were told that Cork was the Gateway to America. Akmene is 238 km NW of Vilna., Lithuania. His family was one who left Limerick in the pogrom for Cork. Louis's father was Simon and Elka Goldberg b: abt 1836 in Akmene.
I note that in Dublin on February 21, 1893, Lena Goldberg of 38 Warren Street, Dublin, daughter of Naftolee Goldberg, already deceased, married Nathan Abraham Goldfoot of 13 Arbutus Place S.C.R, a Com Traveller, son of Morris Goldfoot, who had been a Distiller but was already deceased. One of the witnesses was Leah Goldberg. Certain members could have intermarried or converted.
Both immigrations were Jews who arrived rather poor, found a niche for themselves in commerce, lived in cities, and were religiously traditional. They improved both economically and educationally. Prof. Diner refutes Keogh's theory of being tricked to come here. He says there were never any pogroms in Lithuania, where they had come from. Besides that, many had already lived in Britain before coming to Ireland. He feels they came to Ireland deliberately. They saw the prospects for economic success-they went into small business, started with itinerant peddling which most arrivals did.
No other migrants arrived in Ireland in the 19th century, which was marked by mass emigration to Britain, USA and beyond. Jews saw a demand for consumer goods, which itinerant peddlers could satisfy. In Ireland land mattered, and the Jews being in cities alienated themselves from the marker of Irishness. Also the cultural nationalist movement excluded Jews from the nation as they could not be associated with a pure, "Celtic" past, and Catholic domination in Irish religioius, political and social circles led to the exclusion of Jews. Only a small group of Irish intellecftuals, like Michael Davitt, welcomed Jewish particiipation in Irish life.
Israeli President Chaim Herzog came from Ireland, and Dublin had a Jewish lord mayor, Robert Briscoe in the 1950's and 60's. The entire island's Jewish population has been tiny-ranging from about 400 in the 1880's to 5,400 in the mid-1940's to less than 20,000 in 2007.
There is the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin founded in 1985 and opened by Chaim Herzog, then president of Israel. It is in the former Walworth Road synagogue at 3 and 4 Walworth Road which opened in 1916. It is noted that in the 1940's young Jews became assimilated and there was a great deal of intermarriage. At that time the Church insisted that the non Catholic had to convert.
Dublin had an enormous main synagogue, the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, located at 37 Adelaide Road. It was erected in 1982 and can hold up to 1,000 people. It was almost sold a a mosque, but is now the headquarters of a high technology company. Stars of David are visible on its windows. Dublin's kosher bakery, The Bretzel, has been owned by non-Jews for two generations, but a mashgiach comes in daily to oversee kashruth. Until the 1950's there were enough Jews in Dublin to support 8 kosher butcher shops and a dozen synagogues.
Still and all, in 2007 there were 3 Jewish members of the Irish Parliament, and both Dublin and Cork have had Jewish mayors. the most famous Irish Jew of all is fictional: Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses. A plaque marks his house at 52 Clanbrassil Street in Dublin.
We do know that many Irish Jews migrated to South Africa where we find some of our relatives today.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m04111/is_is_3_48_ai_64507455/pg_3 2/21/2007
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/seminars/IrishStudies/Sep_2003_minutes.htm
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/8878/format/print/dis
http://www.isjm.org/jhr/IInos1-2/ireland.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Goldberg
I have found quite a few Goldfoots in Ireland including my own grandfather who came from Lithuania. I've often wondered why Jews went to Ireland. What did it have to offer?
Professor Keogh, 53 year old Catholic from University College in Cork, became interested in Irish Jews as he was researching Irish history during WWII. He has found that the Irish Jewish community came about between 1880 and 1901 with the arrival of Ashkenazim from one Lithuanian village, Akmene. They were fleeing from Tsarist pogroms. Dublin legend says that many of them had booked passage to America, but were landed in Dublin instead. Unscrupulous ship captains had assured them they had reached New York.
There were smaller communities with Jews in Cork, Limerick, Galway, Belfast and Derry which were found in prof. Diner's paper that investigated the origins and early years of the Jewish Community of Dublin. First, there were Sephardic Jews who arrived in the 17th Century from Spain and Portugal who went to the Netherlands and on to Ireland. He found that there was a great migration of eastern European Jews who left the continent between 1820 and 1920. Most Jews in Ireland arrived from the 1880's on, though there was already a small group of about 600 in the country, mostly the children of an earlier immigration in the 1820's and 1830's.
Later, the Irish carried the British Aliens Act of 1906 in their own laws, so only a few European Jewish families were allowed in Ireland. In 2005 there were under 1,000 Jews in Ireland from having 6,000 in 1940's. In the past 2 years 200 more have "appeared".
There were lots of Jewish peddlers in the 1860's to the 1880's in Britain, and there were still many in Wales at the same time as in Ireland. Many Jews in Ireland had worked in factories in England and wanted to go into business for themselves.
Peddlers stayed with families where they were welcomed. Many cooked for themselves, some stayed in barns or out in the open. Intermarriage was relatively limited. Some who were well integrated married into the upper classes, like the painter, Estella Solomons.
Anti-Semitism was mostly non-physical. It began when a priest used the pulpit to attack Jews. He called Jewish peddlers and merchants "leeches" who were sucking the blood of the Irish by overcharging or tricking the poor. He called for a boycott of Jewish merchants, and the town obeyed. Within a few years, virtually all of Limerick's 25 Jewish families and the rabbi had left. The Limerick pogrom was physical to an extent, as the Blueshirts threatened physical action, and there a few incidents before Limerick. One person was beaten up, and a brick was thrown at a Rabbi's window.
Gerald Yael Goldberg, b: 12 April 1912 in Cork d: 31 Dec 2003 was the Jewish Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977. He was a lawyer and a member of the Fianna Fail Party. He was the son of Lithuanian Jewish Louis Goldberg from the village of Akmian/Akmene, Lithuania. They were told that Cork was the Gateway to America. Akmene is 238 km NW of Vilna., Lithuania. His family was one who left Limerick in the pogrom for Cork. Louis's father was Simon and Elka Goldberg b: abt 1836 in Akmene.
I note that in Dublin on February 21, 1893, Lena Goldberg of 38 Warren Street, Dublin, daughter of Naftolee Goldberg, already deceased, married Nathan Abraham Goldfoot of 13 Arbutus Place S.C.R, a Com Traveller, son of Morris Goldfoot, who had been a Distiller but was already deceased. One of the witnesses was Leah Goldberg. Certain members could have intermarried or converted.
Both immigrations were Jews who arrived rather poor, found a niche for themselves in commerce, lived in cities, and were religiously traditional. They improved both economically and educationally. Prof. Diner refutes Keogh's theory of being tricked to come here. He says there were never any pogroms in Lithuania, where they had come from. Besides that, many had already lived in Britain before coming to Ireland. He feels they came to Ireland deliberately. They saw the prospects for economic success-they went into small business, started with itinerant peddling which most arrivals did.
No other migrants arrived in Ireland in the 19th century, which was marked by mass emigration to Britain, USA and beyond. Jews saw a demand for consumer goods, which itinerant peddlers could satisfy. In Ireland land mattered, and the Jews being in cities alienated themselves from the marker of Irishness. Also the cultural nationalist movement excluded Jews from the nation as they could not be associated with a pure, "Celtic" past, and Catholic domination in Irish religioius, political and social circles led to the exclusion of Jews. Only a small group of Irish intellecftuals, like Michael Davitt, welcomed Jewish particiipation in Irish life.
Israeli President Chaim Herzog came from Ireland, and Dublin had a Jewish lord mayor, Robert Briscoe in the 1950's and 60's. The entire island's Jewish population has been tiny-ranging from about 400 in the 1880's to 5,400 in the mid-1940's to less than 20,000 in 2007.
There is the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin founded in 1985 and opened by Chaim Herzog, then president of Israel. It is in the former Walworth Road synagogue at 3 and 4 Walworth Road which opened in 1916. It is noted that in the 1940's young Jews became assimilated and there was a great deal of intermarriage. At that time the Church insisted that the non Catholic had to convert.
Dublin had an enormous main synagogue, the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, located at 37 Adelaide Road. It was erected in 1982 and can hold up to 1,000 people. It was almost sold a a mosque, but is now the headquarters of a high technology company. Stars of David are visible on its windows. Dublin's kosher bakery, The Bretzel, has been owned by non-Jews for two generations, but a mashgiach comes in daily to oversee kashruth. Until the 1950's there were enough Jews in Dublin to support 8 kosher butcher shops and a dozen synagogues.
Still and all, in 2007 there were 3 Jewish members of the Irish Parliament, and both Dublin and Cork have had Jewish mayors. the most famous Irish Jew of all is fictional: Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses. A plaque marks his house at 52 Clanbrassil Street in Dublin.
We do know that many Irish Jews migrated to South Africa where we find some of our relatives today.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m04111/is_is_3_48_ai_64507455/pg_3 2/21/2007
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/seminars/IrishStudies/Sep_2003_minutes.htm
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/8878/format/print/dis
http://www.isjm.org/jhr/IInos1-2/ireland.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Goldberg
Labels: history, Jews in Ireland
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Thank you Nadene for you insightful and well written genealogical account. Being married to a Lithuanian Jew for 30 years and having ancestry from County Cork, it was with wonderment that I came across by accident a few years back the relationship between the two. My wife's parents where from Vilna, having survived the holocaust. The story, with a laugh, that I read was that the Captain called out from the ship that landed in Cork, 1820's with Lithuanian Jews, "Cork, Cork!" and the Jews mistook him for saying "New York, New York!" and disembarked.
That is a great explanation of why the Jews got off the ship at Cork in the 1820's. True, no one could understand their Yiddish and they couldn't understand English! The accents did get in the way! You should have seen the marriage certificate I found for my grandparents marrying in Idaho, USA. I don't think the clerk was able to spell, either.
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