User:Sawyer-mcdonell/History of the Jews in Madison, Wisconsin

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19th century[edit]

First German Jewish community & Gates of Heaven[edit]

The first Jewish residents of Madison were German-speaking immigrants from Bohemia who began arriving in the area in the 1850s.[1] Many of the German-Jewish immigrants to Madison became involved in the clothing and dry goods business, and others were grocers, tailors, or clerks. They were generally secular, liberal, and assimilated well into broader society.[2] Samuel Klauber, an itinerant peddler from Muttersdorf, Bohemia, became the first Jewish resident of Madison when he immigrated to the city in 1851. His brothers and others from Muttersdorf followed throughout the 1850s. The German Jews of Madison lived throughout the downtown, and many became successful businessmen; Klauber ran a clothing and dry-goods store. By 1861, Samuel Klauber and Marcus Kohner were the second- and third-wealthiest residents of Madison.[3] The German Jews lived and worked throughout the downtown area.[4]

In 1856, the German Jews decided to establish a synagogue, and in 1863 the Gates of Heaven Synagogue was built. J.M. Thuringer, a member of the congregation, invited his brother to act as the service leader in 1866, but Gates of Heaven never had a full-time rabbi.[5]

The German Jewish community was in decline by the 1870s. With only six remaining attendees in 1878,[3] the congregation rented out Gates of Heaven to the First Unitarian Society in 1879, and began meeting in members' homes. They later rented Gates of Heaven to, successively, the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union[[, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, and the English Lutheran Church. They sold the building in 1916, and formally dissolved the congregation in 1922.[cite Swarsensky]

Russian Jewish community & Agudas Achim[edit]

In the 1890s, a larger wave of immigrants from Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire began arriving in Madison. Most of them came from a single village in modern-day Belarus, Kapule. They spoke Yiddish and were religiously Orthodox, and had strained relations with the German Jews. They worked as peddlers or in the junk business, and some opened stores.[3] The Russian Jewish community was heavily concentrated within a few blocks located in the Triangle neighborhood, then a part of the Greenbush area, forming what Leslie Goldsmith calls a "ghetto" based on Louis Wirth's study of the phenomenon.[6]

The Russian Jews established a synagogue in 1904, named Agudas Achim, which became the social, educational, and religious center of the community.[7] In 1908, the Jews of Madison founded a chapter of B'nai B'rith and in 1915, a local branch of the Workmen's Circle was established, which provided aid to the recent immigrants from Eastern Europe.[8]

20th century[edit]

University life and Zionist activism[edit]

In 1911, a branch of the Menorah Society (see: The Menorah Journal) was established at the University of Wisconsin (UW) following efforts the previous year to organize a Jewish society. The second attempt was successful due to initial support from two members of the faculty, Louis Bernard Wolfenson and Horace Kallen, and the group saw financial support from Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald the following year to help establish an essay prize.[9] Kallen had been an early member of the society at Harvard University and was described by Isaiah Leo Sharfman as "a source of inspiration and a pillar of strength" to those in the UW group.[10] Among the students involved were Marvin Marx Lowenthal, who became a prominent Zionist author and activist,[11] and Johan J. Smertenko, who served as vice chairman of the pro-Zionist American League for a Free Palestine.[12][13]

In March 1917, a branch of Hadassah was founded to campaign for the Zionist cause within the city,[14] the fourth oldest chapter in the country.[15] Those associated with the group included Horace Kallen and branch founder Rachel Szold,[16] the wife of Joseph Jastrow and sister of Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold.[17] Members of Madison's Jewish community continued to involve themselves in wider Zionist circles, sending Saul Kasdin as a delegate to the Zionist Organization of America's 1919 national convention:[18] he had served as president of the Zionist Society of Madison during the 1910s.[19] William Linn Westermann, a professor at the Univeristy of Wisconsin, was a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace and later helped lead celebrations at UW following the Mandate for Palestine in 1920.[20]

World Wars[edit]

21st century[edit]

(scratchpad)[edit]

list of synagogues in madison

  • Beth Israel Center (conservative, originates with Russian Jewish immigrant community)
  • Chabad houses (one on regent, one on campus)
  • Congregation Shaarei Shamayim (reconstructionist, meets in First Unitarian Society of Madison, named after Gates of Heaven but unrelated)
  • Temple Beth El (reform, led by Swarsensky for many years)
  • UW Hillel presence
  • Gates of Heaven (not used except for special occasions, oldest synagogue in the state)

some notable people

Random sources what I found[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Historic Madison 2002, pp. 323–324.
  2. ^ Goldsmith 1977, pp. 31–32.
  3. ^ a b c Historic Madison 2002, p. 323.
  4. ^ Goldsmith 1977, p. 34.
  5. ^ Historic Madison 2002, p. 324.
  6. ^ Goldsmith 1977, pp. 38–39.
  7. ^ Goldsmith 1977, p. 37.
  8. ^ Goldsmith 1977, pp. 37–38.
  9. ^ Hurwitz & Sharfman 1914, pp. 128–129.
  10. ^ Hurwitz & Sharfman 1914, p. 81.
  11. ^ Klingenstein, Susanne (February 2000). "Lowenthal, Marvin Marx (1890-1969), writer and Zionist organizer". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1602394.
  12. ^ "Smertenko Wins Menorah Medal". The Capital Times. January 26, 1920. p. 3. Retrieved February 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Johan J. Smertenko, 86, Dies; Author and Activist for Israel". New York Times. May 5, 1983. p. 20. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  14. ^ "Clubs and Organizations". Wisconsin State Journal. January 20, 1918. p. 5. Retrieved February 26, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Goldsmith 1977, p. 38.
  16. ^ "Raise Fund to Save Holy Land". The Capital Times. January 28, 1918. p. 8. Retrieved February 26, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Heinze 2004, pp. 111–112.
  18. ^ "Local Zionists to Get Report". The Capital Times. September 27, 1919. p. 6. Retrieved February 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Where and Whom to Join". The Maccabaean. 19 (1): 212. July 1916. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  20. ^ "Jewish Home Land Subject of Meet". The Capital Times. May 24, 1920. p. 2. Retrieved February 27, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Tenenbaum, David (September 15, 2016). "A century on, celebrating the first Yiddish-language college course". University of Wisconsin–Madison News.
  22. ^ Barnes, Bart (April 11, 2023). "Rabbi Max Ticktin, Yiddish and Hebrew literature professor at GWU, dies at 94". The Washington Post.

Sources[edit]

  • "Jewish Immigrants and Their Descendants". A Biographical Guide to Forest Hill Cemetery: the Ordinary and Famous Men and Women who Shaped Madison and the World. Historic Madison, Inc. 2002. pp. 323–343. ISBN 0-9728665-0-7.
  • Goldsmith, Leslie H. (1977). "German-Jewish and Russian-Jewish Immigration: Assimilation and a Ghetto in Madison". The Journal of Historic Madison, Inc. of Wisconsin. 3: 28–44.
  • Heinze, Andrew R. (2004). Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century. Princeton University Press.
  • Hurwitz, Henry; Sharfman, I. Leo (1914). The Menorah Movement: For the Study and Advancement of Jewish Culture and Ideals. Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
  • Swarsensky, Manfred (1955). From Generation to Generation: the Story of the Madison Jewish Community 1851-1955. Madison, Wisconsin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Cronon, E. David; Jenkins, John W. (1994). The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1925-1945, Politics, Depression, and War. Vol. 3. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299144305.
  • Cronon, E. David; Jenkins, John W. (1999). The University of Wisconsin: A History, 1945-1971, Renewal to Revolution. Vol. 4. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299162907.

[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Wisconsin|Madison]] [[Category:Historic Jewish communities in the United States|Madison, Wisconsin]] [[Category:History of Madison, Wisconsin|Jews]] [[Category:Jewish-American history by city|Madison, Wisconsin]]

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