The Southern Israelite. (Augusta, Ga.) 1925-1986, September 19, 1930, Image 38

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Page 38 The Southern Israelite Cgreetings for the Nezv Year from *♦* CARLT ON H. TORBETT JOSEPH L. Columbus, Ga. G & H Paint and Glass Company ♦ Paints, Brushes, Glass, Wall paper, Builders’ Supplies ♦ Two Phones 1516 1016 Broad Street COLUMBUS, GA. Philips Dry Cleaning Company Cleaners and Dyers 2314 Wynnton Drive COLUMBUS, GA. Meet The American Jew A Potpourri of Facts and Figures From Which You May Draw Your Own Concii 0lr By S. A. SCHREIBER According to the latest available sta tistics, there are in the United States of America 4,228,029 Jews scattered over 9,712 communities. At the time of the Revolutionary War there were less than 3,000 of them. Biblical Palestine at its best counted less than four million within its borders. Now the world’s Jewish population is set at 15,324,515. There are 150,000 Jews in the Holy Land, where they are confronted with 650,000 Arabs. Brooklyn, the City of Churches, now has the largest population of Jews in any section. There are 1,835,000 residents of the borough famed for its churches and Henry Ward Beecher. North Dakota has the fewest of any State, a meagre 305 of the chosen people. In the year that Columbus discovered America the Jews were expelled from Spain. Some of the exiles were with the Admiral when his ships sighted land on the fateful day of October 12. Nine Jews were among the Philadelphia merchants signing a protest against the stamp act (1765). Others fought in the war that wrestled a nation from England—on both sides of the conflict. There were Tory fighters at) well as Revolutionary heroes. The Jew had become an integral part of the life in the New World. Lest you forget, Haym Solomon, a pawnbroker of New York City advanced his personal fortune to the cause of the colonists. Historians credit him with be ing the financier of the Revolution. Alexander Hamilton, who established the financial independence of the new country, was the son, persistent rumor had it, of a Jewish mother. Three waves of Israelite immigrants came to these shores: Portuguese and Spanish Refugees, German Jews (after the fiasco of 1848) and the tremendous tidal wave of immigration from Eastern Europe after the savage progroms of the late nineties. Between 1881 and 1928, 2,302,378 arrived, mainly through Ellis Island. Before that time, in 1877, a United States Census counted 220,087. In colonial times Jewish pioneers set tled as tobacco planters in the South. Others trekked to the West as peddlers and merchants; some went to California in the gold rush. Of the six men of that race who sat in the Senate three were from the South, the rest were from the far West. In all 50 Jews were elected to Congress, although the religious quali fications were not removed from the States until many years after the Revo lution. Eight are members of the present lower House. Jews were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Judah P. Benjamin was the brains of the confederacy, first as Secretary of War and then as Secretary of State. A Jew, Simon Bamberger, was the only Jewish Governor of the State of Utah. Now the highest State official is Herbert II. Lehman, Lieutenant Governor of New York State. Louis 1). Brandeis is Asso ciate Justice of the Supreme Court; Benjamin N. Cardozo is Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, both rank high for their concepts of justice. The Kremlin on Red Square, Moscozv There was only one Jewish Calm her, but several ambassadors a ters, among the first of whom v decai Manual Noah, a unique character who was, in his day, America's editor, politician, writer and a of the Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon the Great. He once dedicated a upper New York State as a city for Jews the world over, prepar; leading them to Palestine. 11. believed, as did many others, that the Indians were the descendants of the ten lost tribes. There have been Jewish mayors here and there. Despite the myth of solidarity there are more factions among Jews than can be found in any other group of corres ponding size. There are the La-tern Western Jews, Reform, Conservative. Orthodox and Agnostics, Zionists. Zionists, Nationalists, Assimilationist-, Yiddish and Hebraists, a vast amalgan tion of opinions and parties. The fir-t synagogue in America was the Shearith Israel Congregation, established ii York in 1654. There is no central authority for or daining rabbis. But there are five national associations of rabbis with 1,090 members. There are five theological seminaries and one Jewish university, Dropsie College in Philadelphia. There are six Jewish libra ries in the United States containing 228,000 txioks and 8.5(H) Manuscript- of Judaica. This besides the Semitics lb vision in the Library of Congre-s and the Jewish Division in the Astor Library of New York. The current expenditures of tlu con gregations totaled $33,391,295 the year The value of synagogue building $155,744,668 in 1928, with more beiig added. Temple Emanu-El, of New Wk. is the biggest of the temples. 1 here are mergers taking place among synagogue- regularly. During the high holiday son, new temporary synagogues arc uti lized to care for those to whom religion comes just that one season in the > There is a movement known as Jew Science. The Jewish interest in the busim- activities of the community are main fold: The skyline of New Wrk i- tin creation of the Chanins. A. E. Let cm Louis Adler, Louis J. Horowitz. Frederic! Brown, Bejamin Winter, S. W the Tishmans, Henry Mandell. Nathanson, G. Richard Davis. 2 Brickner, Benjamin Benenson, I Uris and many others: Macy s. 11 Saks, Stewart. Arnold Constable, Brothers, Russeks, Franklin Altman, L. Bamberger & Co.. 1 Filenes, Abraham and Straus. I "> Loeser and others. I he clothing^ is preponderantly Jewish. >' are: Warner Brothers, Ad"h William Fox, Carl Laenunle an Many of the new banking e>t.* are backed by Jews. Among known capitalists are: Otto H Guggenheims, the Lewisohns, tin the Warburgs, the Schiffs, tin