Shalom Nashville - A Jewish History

JEAN ROSEMAN, ED.D.
1
Copyright 2010 Jean Roseman
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publisher assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content.
Book design by Jean Roseman
Cover design by Eveready Press
Printed in the USA
ISBN: 978-0-9820757-7-7
EVEREADY PRESS
1817 Broadway Nashville, Tennessee 37203
615-327-9106
2
PREFACE
Thumb through almost any of the considerable
histories of Nashville, whether it be of its beginnings or its
progress through more than two centuries. Look for
mention of a Jewish population or recognizable Jewish
names. You’ll barely find a reference.
How is it that a robust Jewish presence has been in
Nashville since the mid 1800s, yet one is hard pressed to
even find mention of Jews in Nashville? In the few histories
that do make reference, there is often only token information
about the synagogues, particularly the Vine Street Temple,
which had to have impressed every set of eyes that gazed
upon its Byzantine-like splendor in downtown Nashville.
There may be mention of the Werthan Bag Company or the
May Hosiery Mill or the Lebeck or Loveman Department
Stores, all businesses where many a Nashvillian made a
needed purchase and some, a needed living.
But, Jews as functionaries in Nashville history, hardly
a mention.
Why?
Perhaps Jews have been overlooked or even dismissed
because of numbers. Balanced against the composite
population of Nashville at any one time, Jews have
constituted a mere one or two percent of the people.
Maybe it is because Nashville Jews have traditionally
been regarded as a niche population...there, but somehow
below the radar? This concept may have been perpetuated
because Jews have been seen as living, working, socializing,
and praying together.
Even more surprising is the almost total lack of a
history of Jewish Nashville beyond 1901 despite a
magnificent archive sponsored by the Jewish Federation,
housed in the Gordon Jewish Community Center, and
maintained by archivist Annette Ratkin. I wanted to read a
history of Nashville Jews that went through to the present.
Beyond the two bedrock books of Fedora Frank surveying
that history through 1901, there was none offering any story
line to the present. Sister cities Memphis, Knoxville, and
Chattanooga have their Jewish history proudly recorded,
but not Nashville.
Nashville’s Jewish history deserves its place.
When examined, the tenure of Jews in Nashville
reveals remarkable examples of contributions this small
nook population has made in the evolution of the city’s
history since its first presence in the late 1840s. Like their
neighbors, Nashville Jews have lived and loved, labored
and lazed, prospered and failed, suffered and survived.
There is a story to tell.
Was I the one to tell that story? I didn’t grow up in
Nashville.
“People who write local histories tend to be outsiders,”
declared Vanderbilt professor Jack Sasson in an interview.
“Outsiders,” he opined, “tend to have a perspective
an insider does not.”
Yet, as Arnold Toynbee cautioned, the writer of
contemporary history is like the man with his nose pressed
against the mirror trying to see his whole body.
With the derring-do of an outsider and a contemporary
at that, I offer this, the story of Nashville Jews.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
So many people in the Jewish community of
Nashville have contributed in one way or the other to
this undertaking. Some gave interviews; some shared
pictures; some gave suggestions; and all gave
encouragement.
Several people were readers, devoting many hours
to proofing and sharing their knowledge. Special thanks
go to Annette Ratkin, Frank Schwartz, Gilbert Fox, Betty
Kirshner, and Joan Mehlman for their kind efforts and
extensive input.
The professional staffs at the Tennessee State Library
and Archives with special thanks to Charles Nelson, the
staff of the Nashville Room at the Public Library, the staff
at the Metro Archives, and Vicki Lipski at the American
Jewish Archives shared their expertise and helped with
searches.
I don’t believe this work would have been possible
without the unfailing support of the Pargh family, who
are a treasured presence in Nashville’s Jewish community.
I am especially indebted to the Pargh family for
its encouragement and assistance from the Madeline
and Eugene Pargh Philanthropic Fund as I am to the
Frank family for its support from the Fedora Small
Frank Fund. Their contributions made the difference.
Special thanks to my B’nai B’rith associates, particularly
Michael Gryll, for their support and help.
More than anyone, however, I thank my husband
Phil for his patience and understanding of why this
project was important to me.
From the several people I know who have written
Jewish histories of localities, I know there are two
inevitable reproaches.
One is, “She didn’t get it right.” To that I can only
say, “I tried.” I researched and documented my sources.
Stories often have multiple perspectives, and they
change, a little like gossip, in the retelling.
The second reproach is the one of omission, “She
didn’t mention my grandfather.” Again I researched and
interviewed and tried to pull an integrated history
together. On several occasions I published letters in The
Observer and asked for readers to share stories and
pictures with me.
Pictures came from many sources. A large number
came from old newspapers and mircofilm. I apologize
for the quality of some of those photos, but, in most cases,
I thought it was better to use what I had.
To everyone who shared stories, photos, and
support with me, my sincere thanks.
Enjoy.
CONTENTS
PART ONE:
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
IN THE COMMUNITY 1795 – 1899
1
2
3
4
Establishing A Presence ........................................................................................................... 1
The Civil War Years ................................................................................................................ 11
The Post-Civil War Era .......................................................................................................... 17
Personalities and Notables ................................................................................................... 25
PART TWO:
IN THE COMMUNITY 1900 – 1949
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
The Twentieth Century Opens ............................................................................................. 35
Immigration ............................................................................................................................ 43
From a Child’s Perspective ................................................................................................... 53
New Town Established ........................................................................................................ 63
World War I ............................................................................................................................. 69
Dire Occurrences .................................................................................................................... 79
The Depression Years ............................................................................................................ 91
Diversions ............................................................................................................................... 95
Jewish Professionals 1900-1949 .......................................................................................... 105
Women of the Era .................................................................................................................. 111
Personalities and Notables ................................................................................................. 121
Zionism and the State of Israel .......................................................................................... 145
Émigrés .................................................................................................................................. 149
World War II .......................................................................................................................... 163
Post-War Changes ................................................................................................................ 183
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
PART THREE:
IN THE COMMUNITY 1950 – 1999
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Holocaust Survivors ............................................................................................................
Nashville in Transition ........................................................................................................
The Road to Integration ......................................................................................................
Proudly Have They Served ................................................................................................
Global Newcomers ..............................................................................................................
Personalities and Notables .................................................................................................
20
21
22
23
24
25
187
203
209
219
227
239
PART FOUR:
IN THE COMMUNITY 2000 – 2009
Chapter
Legacies, Circumstances, Prospects .................................................................................. 255
26
PART FIVE:
NASHVILLE’S JEWS: A PART YET APART
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Education ..............................................................................................................................
Community Relations .........................................................................................................
Community Awards and Services .....................................................................................
Law and Lawlessness ..........................................................................................................
Around Town ........................................................................................................................
27
28
29
30
31
269
289
299
307
323
PART SIX:
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
Chapter
IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
“Those Quarrelsome Hebrews” .........................................................................................
Congregation Ohabai Sholom, The Temple .....................................................................
The West End Synagogue ...................................................................................................
Sherith Israel .........................................................................................................................
Congregation Micah ............................................................................................................
Congregation Beit Tefilah ...................................................................................................
The Cemeteries .....................................................................................................................
345
357
371
381
393
397
399
PART SEVEN:
IN THEIR ORGANIZATIONS ......................................................................................... 411
PART EIGHT:
IN THEIR BUSINESSES, A TO Z ................................................................................... 467
Establishing A Presence
1
ESTABLISHING A PRESENCE
In the beginning, there were unbroken forests along a
bend in a scenic river.
The native Indian, the bold explorer, the occasional
long hunter, and the teeming wildlife knew the land, but not
yet the pioneers who would eventually come to take it for
their own. Settlers had yet to push in from the tidewater settlements along the coast.
Come, they did in 1748. A group of adventurous Virginia gentlemen crossed the Appalachians, explored the hinterland and found the land around the bend so bountiful
and inviting that they named it after the favorite son of
George II, the Duke of Cumberland.
Over the next three decades word of the desirability of
that land spread through the eastern settlements of the Virginia valley. Coastal settlers were already looking to the
west for opportunity. Under the leadership of James Robertson and John Donelson, renowned as scouts, woodsmen,
and diplomats, a scouting party set out in 1779. Their arduous trek vindicated the good word about the land lying in
the folds of the Cumberland.
When the scouting party returned, approximately five
hundred men, women and children and a cadre of slaves set
out that fall for the promising land. Lured by the tales of
rolling hills, fine bottomland, limestone soils, fish-filled
streams, bubbling springs of salt and sulfur, plentiful
wildlife, seemingly endless timber, and a navigable river,
they embarked on the inland journey. Winter that it was, the
leaders soon decided the men should go on alone on foot
while the women and children would go by boat and safeguard the possessions and supplies.
The party separated. After a rough trek, the men
arrived and established the first permanent settlement as a
log stockade on the banks of the Cumberland River on
Christmas Day in 1779.
In April of the new year 1780, the good ship Adventure and a flotilla of ships carrying the women, children and
materiel finally nosed around the bend. In an irony of history, the women’s voyage had been far more dangerous,
made so by inexperienced navigators, fierce shoals, raging
rapids, hostile Indians, and dreaded disease. There was
great happiness by all the survivors both of the land and the
water.
Physically reunited, the sturdy pioneer group then
dedicated itself in spirit to founding a settlement based on
justice and rights. The men drafted “The Cumberland Compact” in May as a document of their rights and, at the same
time, their restraints. Some order there had to be in the
wilderness. Problems enough there were with Indians,
weather, and epidemics.
At first the settlement was simply called the Bluffs
which were essentially where the courthouse stands today.
The site provided a definite vantage point where one could
look considerable distances both upriver and downriver
from elevated safety.
Then the name became Nashborough after a hero of
the Revolutionary War but that too soon changed. Enmity
toward the British engendered by the Revolutionary War
and respect for the French allies led to the preferred use of
the Gallic ville. That name change was made final in 1784 by
the legislature of North Carolina, under whose hegemony
this western outpost fell.
So began in 1780 the outpost on the Cumberland. The
pioneers themselves were mainly of Scotch-Irish heritage.
They were industrious, they were thrifty, and they seemed to
have an uncanny sense to make good choices for survival.
The colony along the Cumberland flourished, its reputation
grew, and more and more settlers found their way to outpost on the bend.
THE FIRST JEWS
Despite the attractiveness of the land along the Cumberland and its incipient prosperity, the frontier outpost of
Nashville was an unlikely place to find Jews at the end of
the eighteenth century, or so it would seem.
Yet on December 2, 1795, a reliable genealogical record
posts the birth of a child named Sarah. Sally, as she was
called, was the oldest child of Benjamin Myers and his first
wife Hannah Hays. Sally’s father, himself a child of emigrants from Hungary and Austria, had been born in New
York. He seems to have continued the legacy of the itinerant Jew in the new world as he found his way to the territory
that included Nashville.1
While it is fascinating to speculate as to what brought
the Myers family to Nashville, their stay was indeed short.
Another child was born the next year in New York.
In later years Nashville remained a destination city for
descendants of this very same Myers family. Ben Myers, son
of Benjamin Myers, was in the clothing sales business on the
Public Square in the 1850s. Myer B. Myers, also a son, lived
in Goodlettsville, Tennessee and was engaged in the manufacture of carriages and coaches. Michael Powers, an early
Nashville settler who came in the 1840s, married Henrietta
Myers, also a descendent.
From all accounts, the Myers family was the first Jewish family in Nashville.
NASHVILLE BECOMES A TOWN
AND TENNESSEE, A STATE
In 1795 when the Myers family found itself literally at
the perimeter of American civilization, Nashville was
becoming a town. With the Revolutionary War at an end in
1783, the North Carolina legislature created Davidson
County, so named for a distinguished officer of the recent
war of independence. The land was surveyed, divided into
acre lots, and made available for settlement.
Houses were built then subsequently assessed and
taxed. Roads were carved out of the wilderness. Under the
stewardship of James Robertson a twenty-foot square stone
church was built on the four acres that were allocated in the
town center for the public square. The first school, Davidson
Academy, was chartered in 1785. An enterprising Philadelphia merchant made his way to Nashville with ten horses
teeming with goods to open the first dry goods store. This
first dry goods merchant was not Jewish. That time was yet
1
researcher, Lusk was supplied both from the East and
through New Orleans. New Orleans was a particularly
viable port source since the trip upstream to Nashville had
been reduced in the 1820s from three months to ten days.5
A little less than two years after this ad, one appeared
indicating Lusk had a “new and splendid assortment of
FASHIONABLE CLOTHING” which could be had on
“accommodating terms either at wholesale or retail at their
old stand on the public square.” No further information is
available on R. Lusk indicating he may have eventually liquidated his stock and moved on.6
Clothing renovator E. J. Lyons referred to himself
forthrightly as a “wandering Jew” who did no work on Saturdays. Any other day of the week he could remove spots
and stains and whiten Panama hats and leghorns ( a broad
brimmed hat made of Italian wheat straw). Lyons ad of
November 1, 1849 in the Nashville Gazette appears on page
four.
Dr. H. Fischel, a dentist, advertised in local newspapers that he was “prepared at all times to perform every
branch of his profession in the best manner” which included
the use of a pain destroying agent called chloroform and
could warrant “all purposes of articulation and mastication
the same as nature itself.” 7
to come. Several years later a drug store opened. Nashville
began to flourish as a settlement.
President George Washington signed in 1796 an act of
Congress that made Tennessee the sixteenth state of the
Union. Nashville, however, was not its first capital. It was
some years and some moves before that honor came to
Nashville. Nonetheless, Nashville, with its advantageous
riverfront location as a port of entry to Tennessee, was
becoming a known and a winsome concept.
A TOWN OF TRANSIENTS
Between 1780 and 1850 Nashville hosted many transients, most just passing through. Some were true travelers
merely stopping for sustenance on their journey elsewhere.
Others stayed for a longer time, often found work on the
riverfront, probably imbibed in the growing number of taverns, may have fought the occasional duel, and then moved
on, many eventually to look for fabled gold in the West. The
transients were often a ragtag group running a full range of
eccentric personalities, religious zealots, cohabitating couples, slave mistresses, runaways, and fortune seekers.
Amid this carnival of life was the occasional Jewish
migrant, often substantially educated and sometimes of professional standing, who came through Nashville. This Jewish traveler often advertised a professional skill. Early
newspapers record ads for what might have been
Nashville’s first oral surgeon, an A. Shymanski, presumably
Jewish.2
H. W. Abrams, a pedagogue, advertised in the
Nashville Banner in 1828 that he would instruct both sexes
“in the elements of the English Language, Geography, Arithmetic, Penmanship, etc. and respectfully solicits the attention of the worthy citizens of Nashville who have children
for school not already engaged and promises to give general
satisfaction.”3
Several records of citizenship in Davidson County also
confirm a Jewish presence for unspecific times. Austrian
born Simon Pollack received his final papers for citizenship
in Davidson County in 1843. A doctor, he advertised his
services in the local papers for medicine, surgery, and obstetrics.4
THE BEGINNINGS OF A JEWISH COMMUNITY
Despite the transitory population that came through
Nashville, many stayed and the town began to mature. Personalities and events coalesced in the 1830s and 1840s to
make the city prominent and even more of a destination city,
not just a point of passage.
Probably one of the most important, and at the same
time, polarizing figures to call attention to Nashville was
Andrew Jackson, American President from 1829 to 1837.
Add to the mix Sam Houston and David Crockett, also
known for their Nashville connection. Factor in Nashville
being named the permanent capital of Tennessee in 1843, the
establishment of local newspapers, the beginning of a public school system, and burgeoning commercial opportunity.
As the population grew, so too did the tax base from which
wisely was placed an emphasis on services that enhanced
the commercial possibilities of the city. It was not surprising
that a growing young city would attract those seeking the
promise of a new life.
A merchant known as R. Lusk may well have been the
first known Jewish clothing merchant. There is no substantiation that he was Jewish other than the suggestion of his
name and the circumstances of that times that may well have
brought a Jewish merchant to a promising market. He ran
an “Emporium of Fashion” on the south side of the Public
Square in 1828 and advertised on the front page of the
Nashville Republican and State Gazette. He seemingly had an
excellent connection with a Pittsburgh supplier to regularly
receive fashionable, ready-made clothing. According to one
2
ESTABLISHING A PRESENCE
Tucked away in a file in the Jewish Federation Archives is this handwritten copy of the services offered by A. Shymanski
as advertised in the Nashville Whig and Tennessee Advertiser in 1820. Of particular interest is the range of services he
offered. They are the same basic services offered today but rendered in the most direct of terms: “extract, clean, separate,
plug and insert....”
3
4
ESTABLISHING A PRESENCE
established a pattern. They came so
mainly
through
New York as their
port of entry. Seeking opportunity,
they
migrated
westward,
frequently to Cincinnati, which was at
that time the economic center of the
west. There they
found a resourceful mercantile population of Jewish
businessmen and
distributors who
were already well
established
and
willing to help
those new immiA Peddler of the Times 10
grants get credit and
goods. The newly arrived then carved out their peddling
spheres in the region.10
The peddlers formed a legion of migrant marketers.
They usually purchased their goods on credit and then
transported them to far-flung consumers. Peddling was difficult and tiring but it required very little capital.
By dint of hard work, the diligent peddler was often
rewarded with enough money to buy a wagon in which to
haul his goods. It both literally and metaphorically propelled him forward. He could increase his inventory, expe-
The 1850s, a decade of impressive prosperity, brought
mass immigration to Nashville. The overall population
increased sixty percent in that one decade alone. A population study shows the foreign born comprised ten percent of
Nashville inhabitants in 1850. A decade later, the foreign
born element was 20 percent. Among that element were
many hardy Old World immigrants variously known as
Israelites or Hebrews. To Nashville, the frontier town on the
Cumberland they came to forge a new life.8
In analyzing the immigration of Jews to Nashville, historian Fedora Frank found the largest number emigrated
from the German states. From extant records in 1853, Frank
tabulated that approximately fifty percent were from Germany, forty percent from areas considered to be Polish and
the remainder from England, France, Holland, Austria and
Russia.9 These numbers can only be considered approximate as Germany was not yet unified and Poland was variously under Prussian, Austrian, and Russian control.
No matter how the numbers are assigned, the majority
was initially of German background. The German Jews, in
particular, brought with them a new and developing concept of Judaism influenced by Western ideals and thought
called the Reform movement. The first Reform congregation had been established in Hamburg in 1818 and then
spread. Mixing traditional essentials with elements of
Protestant religion, the Reform service introduced a rewritten prayer book, use of the vernacular, an accompanying
organ, and the substitution of the term temple for synagogue. These concepts were to have both an initial and a
lasting impression on Judaism in Nashville.
PEDDLERS
How Jewish immigrants got to Nashville quickly
Photo of Uncle Dave Cohen courtesy of Mortimer Cohen
5
Nashville City Directory in 1865. Although he is miles
removed, Mode seems to be the lead partner.
Yet another example of the Cincinnati connection is
seen in this ad for Mihalovitch’s Hungarian Blackberry Juice
which was imported and bottled in Cincinnati for the
Loventhal Brothers in Nashville.12
Based on their commercial relations with fellow Jews
in Cincinnati, the assumption seems valid that the peddlers
and merchants who prospered and settled in Nashville
maintained religious and social ties with their brethren in
Cincinnati. Of strong significance is the fact that most of
these early immigrants in both Cincinnati and Nashville
shared a common origin from German-speaking lands. That
further presumes that they well knew of the Reform movement in Germany. Its provenance in Nashville was a natural outgrowth of the early settlers. Despite the influx of
more conservative and orthodox practices through succeeding decades, the Reform element remained dominant as it
does today in numbers. According to Tennessee historian
Carole Bucy, the origin of Jews
from a common Reform background and the influence of
the Jewish businessmen and
Reform Judaism in Cincinnati
account for the marked difference between the Jewish community of Nashville and the
more
Orthodox-oriented
Memphis community that
continues to this day.13
dite the transport, and reach more customers.
Nashvillian Edwin Litton Hickman, grandson of Isaac
Litton, captured in his memoirs the essence of the pack peddler. Hickman was born in 1875 and lived most of his life on
Gallatin Road near the site of the present East Nashville
YMCA. As a boy he was memorably impressed by peddlers
and one in particular who carried a hand organ and traveled with a trained bear. The peddler might well have been
Jewish. To the young boy the peddler looked like the other
mostly ethnic peddlers who plied the dusty roads with great
bundles of merchandise strapped to their backs. This particular peddler was quite remarkable, at least to the young boy,
for his hand organ and for the burly but tame bear who
accompanied him.
One summer day the Hickman lad was on the front
porch with his faithful dog asleep beside him. When the
peddler approached and began to play a lively tune on the
hand organ, the dog awoke. Looming in front of him was
the bear upright on his hind legs. Terror-stricken, the dog
howled then lunged through a
screen door into the house, ran
the course of the house and
jumped through the back
screen door. It was hours
before the dog returned. No
doubt the peddler had marketed his wares in that time
and he and the bear might
have secured a place to sleep
that night.11
While the business of
peddling covered more than
four decades in the nineteenth
century, it persisted as well
into the early decades of the
twentieth.
“Uncle Dave”
Cohen, a Murfreesboro peddler, started the Home Furniture Company from his
wagon. He plied routes into
the surrounding counties selling myriad wares such as
sewing supplies, piece goods,
clothing, blankets, fur hides
from his wagon. Eventually
he opened a store on the Public Square in Murfreesboro.
A JEWISH COMMUNITY
COMES TOGETHER
As a result of the peddlers and merchants who
found their way to Nashville
and stayed, a small Jewish
colony took root around midcentury. Even though the individuals
had
varying
backgrounds, their religion
was a common denominator.
Whatever religious preferences may have divided them,
they organized themselves
religiously, banded together in
fraternal and benevolent societies, formed cultural and
social organizations, worked
hard in their businesses, and
became a core mercantile presence in the Nashville community.
The early Jewish residents did not, however, keep
many records of those years.
Sadly there is a dearth of firsthand information such as
journals and pictures. On the
other hand, there is the prodigious research done by historian Fedora Frank that
provides an invaluable and
THE CINCINNATI CONNECTION
The Jewish businessmen
of Cincinnati were the critical
mass for Jewish peddlers and
for retailers as they came in
increasing
numbers
to
Nashville in the mid-nineteenth century: they provided
the inventory which they
extended on credit. Such a
relationship between S. L.
Mode of Cincinnati and L. S.
Loventhal is suggested in the
advertisement found in the
6
ESTABLISHING A PRESENCE
Above: Nashville Gazette, November 13, 1849
Left: Nashville Gazette, November 3, 1849
Below: Nashville City Directory, 1853
embracive history of the early merchants and their families.
The antebellum years in Nashville were very good
years for most Jewish merchants. While they eschewed the
prevalent industries of foundries and sawmills, they did
gravitate to the clothing and dry goods spheres, where they
most definitely filled an essential niche. 14
An indication of the increasingly prospering presence
of Jewish merchants in Nashville is seen in this 1849
announcement that Morris Cohn was taking over a store on
Market Street formerly that of the presumably non-Jewish
merchant J. B. Nichol. 15
mode of worship they followed was that of the “Polish
Israelites.”16 While these antebellum Jews apparently
achieved a harmonious mode of worship in this initial service, their differences were to play out dramatically in subsequent years.
BELLWETHER FIGURES
From all extant records, Isaac Garretson can be considered the de facto patriarch of the Nashville Jewish community. There is, however, little information about him other
than his Dutch origin, his struggle to have his second wife,
a convert, buried in the Nashville Jewish cemetery, his representation of a fellow Jew in a court suit, and property
records indicating savvy investments in the growing town.
Other records were variously kept and photographs, hardly
at all. Adding to the dearth is the fact that there are at least
four different spellings of his name. An advertisement in
the first Nashville City Directory published in 1853 spells it
as in the advertisement.17 His name also appears as Garritson, Garrison, and Gershon. In extant legal records and the
research of Fedora Frank, the prevailing spelling is Garretson with an “e.”
If Isaac Garretson can be considered the patriarch of
the Nashville Jewish community, then the matriarchal counterpart has to be Bertha Lusky. Bertha Lusky, also known as
Betty, was born in Poland in 1820. When she was about
thirty, she came with her husband Meyer to America. After
a stay in New York, the couple came to Nashville making
THE FIRST MINYAN
Not all energies were directed to the mercantile sphere.
Be it the peddler or the merchant in the new world, he had
to have savored his old world heritage and the fundaments
of his religion. Even in the unfamiliar context of place, these
early settlers were motivated to add a viable religious
dimension to their lives.
The first religious gathering of record was a minyan
held at the home of Isaac Garretson in 1848. This group of
co-religionists came together at his home on south Summer
Street, now Fifth Avenue. While there is no reliably detailed
or timely record of the meeting, one presumption seems
obvious: it was a hybrid group of diverse ages, diverse
nationalities, and diverse religious upbringings. They seem,
however, to have overcome these diversities for the important task of enabling a religious service. It is presumed the
7
Nashville about 1847, JFA
the arduous trip overland and by boat.
Once in Nashville, the couple found only a few stores,
some cotton and tobacco warehouses, a number of log cabins, and four Jewish families. As Nashville grew to be more
of a traffic center for goods and slaves, Betty Lusky was to
remember her entire life the pain of the slave markets where
she witnessed children wrenched from their wailing and
powerless mothers.
Myer Lusky was a fur trader. Slaves would trap the
animals and their masters would sell them to Lusky who
would then market them in Europe every year. In 1860
Lusky opened a kosher boarding house on the corner of
Cherry (Fourth) and Broad. Many Jewish peddlers boarded
there when in town. Lusky also ran a large hall, called a
“tippling house,” for balls and dances. When the Civil War
came, he enlisted as a Confederate soldier. Betty helped care
for the wounded soldiers in Nashville.
After the war, Mrs. Lusky became a charter member of
the Nashville Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society ministering to the needy, the distressed, and the sick. As a lasting
gift to her co-religionists, she had a Hebrew scribe come to
Nashville to write a Torah for the nascent Jewish community. That Torah was given to the Vine Street Temple.
Although she was said to be strictly Orthodox in her belief,
she was also said to be liberal in her views. Some accounts
from that period indicate she belonged to all three synagogues. She may well have set the example of belonging to
all three synagogues, a trend that was very prevalent
throughout the twentieth century.
Husband Myer Lusky died in 1872. After his death,
Betty supported herself as a milliner and saleslady in the
store of her nephews whom she had brought to Nashville.
The Rosenheim store was very successful until a fire
destroyed the building and inventory.
Betty Lusky, a most remarkable lady, made a trip to
New York at 95 years of age. Until her death at 107, her mental condition and intellect remained sharp. Six months
before she died, she was asked to weigh in on a matter that
the medical profession
was publicly considering:
can
kissing
shorten one’s life? At
her age of 107, Mrs.
Lusky’s response was
that she had kissed all
her life and she was
certain that it did not
shorten her life.
When
Betty
Lusky died in 1927, a
tribute to her in the
YMHA News claimed
her the “oldest citizen
of Nashville, and perhaps one of the oldest
citizens of the United
States.”18
Bertha Lusky, JFA
A PROSPERING PRESENCE
The 1850s were a prosperous decade. Historian Fedora
Frank wrote an entire book of Jewish beginnings in
Nashville for that decade alone. She rightly perceived that
one decade to be the absolute bedrock of Jewish settlement
in Nashville and the underpinning which gave it staying
power.
By the end of the decade in 1860, Tennessee was one
of the wealthiest states in the country with an attraction for
many immigrants. Nashville, because of its advantageous
position as a port, had became a shipping center and thereafter evolved into a railway hub, both of which advantageously enhanced it as a thriving trade center. Nashville
was unquestionably the most important dry goods market
south of Cincinnati. It also was an agricultural market. In
short, it was an attraction to many settlers. Jews were no
exception.
8
ESTABLISHING A PRESENCE
tion of the antebellum period by census records, the business directory, and newspaper and court records. She
pegged the approximate total as 325 in 1861. 19
The Jews who came to Nashville in the decade of the
1850s settled into the community. They lived in the downtown area usually above their businesses. Commercial life,
especially in the wholesale trade, was largely centered on
the Public Square with streets gridded therefrom. Market
Street, or Second Avenue, also had many Jewish businesses.
The clothing and dry goods business attracted most
Jews. During this period, there occurred two related circumstances that affected the clothing trade and hence the many
Jews involved in it. The first was the sewing machine
invented by Elias Howe in 1845 and improved by Isaac
Singer in 1851. The second was the change to ready-to-wear
clothing, which allowed for stocked inventory. Both circumstances were fortuitous for Jews in Nashville which in turn
led to encouraging more Jewish immigration to Nashville.
Those already in residence in Nashville sent word home of
their good fortune in the Promised Land, thus embolding
more relatives and friends to come to Nashville.
Fedora Frank tabulated the Nashville Jewish popula-
A DISCORDANT PRESENCE
Because of their varied backgrounds, the Jews of
Nashville were from early on experiencing some discord
over which form of service should prevail. Whatever their
personal convictions were, they were bound together, however tenuously, by their common religion. By the end of the
prosperous decade of the 1850s, they most likely did not
comprehend what greater conflict they would soon be
caught up in: a devastating national war of fratricide. Some
as residents of the besieged town, some as conscripts and
soldiers of the beleaguered Confederacy, and some as supporters of the Union forces, every Jew in Nashville would
be a part of a drama which took dissension to the ultimate
national level.
1860 CENSUS
Aaron, David
Abraham, Morris
Abraham, Harris
Abraham, Samuel
Adler, B.
Adyson, Morris
Attelson, Marks
Bernstein, Moses
Bloomstein, Jacob
Bloomstein, Louis
Blum, R. D.
Blumenthal, David
Brodie, Simon
Bumwald, Mire
Cline, Nathan
Cohen, Henry
Cohen, Joseph
Cohen, Samuel
Cohen, Samuel
Cohen, Simon
Coleman, Rosa
Ellis, Jacob
Elsbach, David
Elsbach, Max
Emanuel, J.
Fisher, Isadore
Flashman, Nathan
Flashman, Fred
Flashman, Philip
Frankland, Judah
Franklin, E.
Fry, Jos.
Fry, Lewis
Fry, Solomon
Garretson, Isaac
Glashauer, David
Goldberg, H. H.
Green, lsaac
Harris, Hal
Harris, Henry
Heilbron, Jonas
Heims, Simeon
Hyman, Jacob
Isaacs, J.
Iser, Alex
Jacobs, H.
Jacobsen, Rachel
Joseph, Myer
Kirschbaum, Sam
Klein, A.
Klein, Bernard
Lande, A.
Laufer, S.
Levi, Caroline
Levi, Marcus
Levick, S.
Levinski, Louis
Levy, Jos.
Levy, S.
Levy, Z.
Lewis, Solomon
Lieberman, Simon
Lindheim, A.
Lipschar, Myer
Livingston, A.
Livingston, H.
Losminski, Julius
Luski, Morris
Luski, Myer
Lyons, Ben
9
Marcus, S.
Margolius, Louis
Mehrenstein, L.
Myers, B.
Nathan, Sinai
Newman, Jacob
Peixadi, A.
Powers, Louis
Powers, Michael
Powers, Sam
Rosen, Theresa
Rosenberg, M.
Rosenthal, Nathan
Schiff, Gustavus
Schlessinger, Henry
Schwartz Michael
Shyer, Michael
Shyer, S.
Sigman, Simon
Sobel, D. L.
Sobel, I. N.
Solomon, Joseph
Solomon, Joseph
Solomon, Louis
Spitz, Henry
Stein, Isaac
Stein, Moses
Steinfeld, Caroline
Steinfeld, Nathan
Sulzbacher, Martin
Swartzenberg, J.
Swartzenberg, L.
Weil, N.
Winter, A.
Wolf, E.