Cape St. George Island Lighthouse and the Jews

Courtesy of the St. George Island Lighthouse Museum

Touristing – better known as cultural travel, especially historical travel to see the places of events, and meaning to the American experience, preferably without resentful teenagers, is great.  A fun thing to do in Florida is to visit historical lighthouses.  There are big ones, short ones, white ones, red ones, and striped ones like candy canes. The short ones are 7’, and the tall ones are 191’ – that is a lot of stair climbing. Some are out in the middle of dangerous nautical areas that only wildlife and wayward mariners ever get to, like Alligator Reef Light in the Keys.  Others are ashore, adjacent to magnificent beaches, and very accessible.  More than a few have become museums and tourist magnets.

Alligator Reef Light is not easy to get to. It sits on a dangerous offshore coral reef.  From the name you might assume the primary visitors are Alligators. There are plenty in every Florida man-made lake behind any house. 

Alligator Reef was named for the U.S.S. Alligator, an anti-Piracy schooner out of Key West that went aground on the Reef in 1822.  They stripped her of everything possible and blew the ship up so Pirates could not reclaim her.  On the other side of the same coin, Hen and Chickens Shoal light makes one wonder. Did a group of chickens commandeer a boat escaping Colonel Sanders when the bearded one showed up at their chicken coop, only they got stuck on a shoal?  What was their fate…don’t ask. Kentucky Fried Chicken does not answer emails.   

Of the 49 lighthouses in Florida, 25 are still on active duty, shining their nightly beacons of warning to ward off errant ships.  The first lighthouse goes back to the Spanish days in St. Augustine, the 1720s.  It’s long gone.  

Lighthouse viewing is a fun beach adventure.  Some Lighthouses are museums and climbable – from the inside. Outdoor scaling is not encouraged. Some have bricks/pavers that you can buy to support the lighthouse’s preservation effort. – Cape St. George Light in the Panhandle area of Florida just outside of Apalachicola Bay is one.

St. George Light dates from 1833.  St. George Light and nearby Dog Island Light, 1839, were vital navigational aids. Threading the needle to enter Apalachicola Bay was extremely dangerous.

In the 1830s, Apalachicola was a major cotton port and the third busiest on the Gulf of Mexico.  Today, a large chunk of Florida’s Oysters come from the Bay.

The Lighthouses did not last long.  The Hurricane of 1850, a big one, took both St. George and Dog Island Lights out. 

St. George Light was rebuilt in 1851-52. It toppled into the Gulf in 2005 after 153 years of service.

A group of local historical activists did the impossible and had the St. George Light rebuilt and opened in 2008. A museum is attached.  The museum sells vanity bricks with the donor’s name on them. They are placed in the walkways.

I bought a brick.   A week ago, I received an email about the brick.   

“Your paver has now been installed in Patch 42.  This is the 6^th patch on the South path to the West side of the Keeper’s Museum and Giftshop as you walk toward the beach.” 

I bought the brick for two reasons.  First to support the historical preservation effort.  The second reason was to bewilder land-lubbing travelers who will see the word Jewish and ask themselves is there a Jewish story here?  “We thought the Jews lived in Miami.” 

Don Harrison, the retired editor of the San Diego Jewish World, answers it better.  “There is a Jewish story everywhere.”

The first Jew to live in Florida trace back to Spanish control, Antonio Martinez Carvajal was a Harbor Pilot in the St. Augustine area in 1565.  He, like others after him, may or may not have been 100% Kosher Jews.  They were Crypto-Jews, Jews who were forced or chose under duress to convert to Catholicism but remained secretly Jewish in their private customs and ceremonies – a very dangerous activity.  The Inquisition kept a close eye on former Jews. Torture and burning at the stake, the Auto-da-Fe, were never far away for backsliders.

Organized public Jewish life was impossible under Spanish rule.

1819-1821, Florida was sold by Spain to the United States.  Jews were finally able to openly live in the “Sunshine State.”  The St. Augustine community grew to a handful of Jewish merchants. Raphael Moses, a fifth-generation South Carolinian Jew tried his luck in Tallahassee.  It did not work out.  He eventually moved to Columbus, Georgia, and became the father of the Georgia Peach industry.

Not until 1898 did St. Augustine’s Jewish community grow large enough to build their first house of worship.

The title for the first permanent Jewish House of Worship in Florida belongs to another small Jewish community to the west, in Pensacola.  The second Jewish historical marker that JASHP ever did marked the site of Temple Beth El, 1876. 

http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/alabamakansas/pensacolaflorida.html

Why Pensacola? 

Jews relocated from New Orleans to British West Florida when New Orleans was transferred to the Spanish in 1762 from Louisiana’s colonial founders, the French. The changing landscape of European wars traded American territory like cards.  Jews understood full well it was not healthy to live under Spanish rule.  The French did not enforce their Code Noir, the Black Code, against Jews much.  The Spanish were different. They had a thing about Jews living in their territories.   

Jews arrived in West Florida, the area from Apalachicola to Pensacola, with the British session in 1763. 

It was, however, the American purchase of Florida from the British in 1819 that got the Jewish presence going.

Jews settled and opened commercial enterprises across Northern Florida by the 1830s.  They did not venture to deep South Florida.  Few people wanted to live in the malarial, gator-infested swamps of Dade County (Miami).

Central Florida is about 150 miles S.E. from the JASHP brick at Cape St. George Light. An incredible, little-known, Jewish story happened near the tiny village of Micanopy.

JASHP placed a State of Florida marker in the little town of Micanopy for Moses Levy.

http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/alabamakansas/micanopyflorida.html

The text reads:

MOSES ELIAS LEVY

“Moses Elias Levy (1782-1854), a Moroccan born Jewish merchant, came to Florida after its cession from Spain to the United States in 1821. Before his arrival, Levy acquired over 50,000 acres in East Florida. In 1822, Levy began development on Pilgrimage Plantation, just northwest of the future town of Micanopy. The plantation’s main commodity was sugar cane, which Levy had reintroduced to Florida. Levy and his partners, including the Florida Association of New York, helped to draw Jewish settlers to the area with the goal of creating a refuge for oppressed European Jews in a communitarian settlement, the first on U.S. Soil.  Levy’s efforts sparked significant economic development, spurring the growth of Micanopy from a small trading post to a bustling town. Pilgrimage was destroyed in 1835 during the Second Seminole War, but Levy’s reform efforts continued. He promoted free public education and served as one of the territory’s first Education Commissioners. He was also a vigorous advocate for the gradual abolition of slavery and the humane treatment of enslaved people. Levy was the father of David Levy Yulee, one of the first U.S. Senators from Florida and the first U.S. Senator of Jewish heritage in American History.”

Jews like to claim David (Levy) Yulee was the first Jewish U.S. Senator.  That is a bit of a stretch.  To get elected, he had to change his name from Levy to Yulee.  Levy was too Jewish.  Levy and his son became estranged.  Levy was an abolitionist.  Yulee was an ardent slaveholder. Yulee rejected his heritage. He married a nice non-Jewish girl. Years later, he arranged their burial in Washington, D.C. under a Cross.  Yulee had converted. 

Jewish life in Florida never became big until the 20^th century.  Shvitizing vs. air conditioning was a big factor. The Fontainebleau hotel, South Beach, easy rail, and air travel from New York helped a lot. 

Jews had a big impact in Key West and the Cuban revolution against the Spanish.  That is a story a long way aways from JASHP’s brick at the Cape St. George Lighthouse.

Maybe I’ll tell it another time.

Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

www.JASHP.org

Woke intolerance and the cancelling of the father of the Georgia peach industry, Major Raphael Moses

Major Raphael Moses

National Public Radio reported a story that was frankly, flabbergasting, a big word meaning – you have got to be kidding.

“An office within the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work says it is removing the term “field” from its curriculum because it may have racist connotations related to slavery.

The newly renamed Office of Practicum Education, formerly known as the Office of Field Education … is making the change in order to be more inclusive, according to a memo sent out to faculty and students this week and obtained by NPR.

“This change supports anti-racist social work practice by replacing language that could be considered anti-Black or anti-immigrant in favor of inclusive language,” the memo reads. “Language can be powerful, and phrases such as ‘going into the field’ or ‘field work’ may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigrant workers that are not benign.”

 I sympathize with improving language and communications by removing intentional and unintentional cultural language that is vague, imprecise, or intended to cause injury.  Banning the word “Field” because it may cause emotional distress to someone who might have had links to American Slavery that ended 158 years ago seemed a bridge to far. A horrific civil war, almost 500,000 dead, was fought that ended the abominable institution, American chattel slavery. 

To be fair, I had to consider it. Perhaps the Office of Practicum Education was correct.  Maybe the word was offensive or intended to be offensive.   

I quickly listed words that were linked to Field and asked myself are they offensive or intended to be offensive? Should they be banned?

Field of dreams

Killing Field

Cotton Field

Flower Field

Elysium Field

Football Field

Ball Field

Field Hospital

Field Work

Being a sensitive individual, I am considering writing to the Office of Practicum Education at USC and demand that very offensive words to me be removed from use. 

My parents were imprisoned Jewish slave laborers for the Nazis during WWII.  My father had been sold by the Germans to the French to work in the fields.  My mother had been sold to a Polish factory owner in Lodz.

After being worked to near death they were sent by train for relocation to the East, to a camp where gas was part of the Final Solution.  

Words like train, gas, relocation, and camp can be extremely painful to me, to many Jews. Maybe the USC’s Social Work school will be sensitive to our concerns.  Maybe the Office of Practicum Education will change its approved language to mechanical moving device, hydrocarbon, non-environmentally friendly propulsion system fuel, and alternate accommodation facility instead of train, gas, relocation, and camp.

Two days later, the U.S.C. higher ups convinced the Office of Practicum Education, after an avalanche of anti-woke mockery embarrassed the school deeply, to change directions.

Wokeness manifests itself in different ways.  Sometimes not very peaceful ways.

Recently, JASHP had the unfortunate experience to have a historical marker that had been fabricated and ready for installation turned down by a small Georgia historical society that was partnering in its placement. 

Three years ago, the Jewish American Society for Historical Preservation began working to place a historical interpretive marker to reflect on the life and impact of Major Raphael Moses in Georgia.  Moses, a fifth generation South Carolinian Jew, moved to Georgia for economic opportunity in the 1840s.  He was an attorney by profession but also an agriculturalist who experimented with a local waste fruit of Georgia, peaches. 

Peaches have a very short ripening time between harvesting and needing to be marketed.  Moses figured out a storage and transportation method in the early 1850s to preserve and ship peaches in Champaign baskets long distances.  Moses’ peaches were shipped to New York where they became a sensation.  He proved that peaches could in fact become a major export industry for Georgia.

Moses’ business grew by nearly tenfold as the Civil War Year of 1861 began.  His need for slave labor to service his peach crops grew commensurately.

Moses’ Northern peach market collapsed. He joined the Confederacy, as did many who associated with their region and state. Moses became the Chief Commissary officer to General Longstreet. 

After the War, Moses returned to his law practice and worked to rebuild his devastated life. He did not return to the peach industry. Moses was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives becoming a major political leader in the state.  He faced, confronted, and challenged blatant antisemitism when it arose.  And through his law practice represented and defended freed slaves who needed legal help to protect their rights. 

The agreed upon text for the marker was short. 

“Maj. Raphael Jacob Moses (1812-1893), a fifth-generation Jewish South Carolinian, settled in Columbus in the 1840s. A Plantation owner, he was the first to develop the Peach Industry as a major Georgia export.  

Moses and his three sons served in the Confederate military.  He was a trusted friend of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Chief Commissary Officer to Gen. James Longstreet.  President Jefferson Davis turned to Moses to carry out his “Last Order,” distributing the Confederate Treasury to hospitalized and impoverished returning soldiers. 

Moses was later elected to the Georgia House.”

The marker was ordered, fabricated, and paid for by JASHP.  It was delivered to the historical society.  Before it could be installed the George Floyd tragedy and riots occurred nationally. 

The historical society asked to wait before installing the marker.  Then they declined to install the marker at all. 

Their concern was one word in the text – plantation.  They did not argue the historical accuracy of the word.  They, I believe, feared something else.  The Woke mobs had turned violent.  The small historical society feared a marker with their name on it, as well as JASHP’s, with the one offending word would cause violence, hatred, property damage and raging intolerance. 

The marker was never installed. 

William Murtagh was a historian and the first “Keeper of Records of the National Registry of Historic Places” in 1966. He wrote about the necessity for honest memory. He wrote about the destructive nihilism of woke/cancel culture before the term was invented.

“It has been said that, as its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.”

David Oliver, a diversity, and inclusion reporter for USA Today warned its readers about using culturally sensitive words that may be harmful to people of other cultures, January 14, 2023.

One of the harmful words is the Hebrew word Shalom, meaning hello, goodbye or peace.

I seriously doubt Oliver has ever been to Israel.  Israelis have been culturally appropriating words from all over to rebuild the Hebrew language.  Some like to use Shalom, many prefer simply Hi or Goodbye. They generally use Shalom for their most heartfelt wish – Peace.

Small wonder antisemitism is rising again globally.  The Jews are appropriating cultures.

Jerry Klinger is the President of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation.

www.JASHP.org.

A sign of history

Sullivan County’s Borscht Belt era honored

A joint project of the Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project and the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation

The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project seeks to reflect on the region’s vibrant history while considering the era’s impact on American Jewish life and the legacy of the Catskills.

By Patricio Robayo

https://www.scdemocratonline.com/stories/a-sign-of-history,73411?utm_source=pocket_reader

FALLSBURG—Marisa Scheinfeld has made it her mission to preserve the memories and history of the Borscht Belt era, where resorts, hotels and motels once filled the mountains and valleys of the Catskills.

In some time after 2016, after publishing her book, The Borscht Belt, a book of documentary photography that explores the remains of the hotels that came to define the Jewish American history in the Catskills, she was connected by way of Sullivan County’s Historian John Conway  with Jerry Klinger, who is the head of the Jewish American Society, about the potential of placing historical markers throughout Sullivan County.

And after years of planning and conversation, two of the first historic place markers will be installed in the Town of Fallsburg next summer.

“The Borscht Belt is really one of the most important chapters in Sullivan County history, and it deserves to be celebrated,” said Scheinfeld.

While Scheinfeld wanted to work on this project sooner, the birth of her first child and the worldwide pandemic halted any movement on the project.

As she was raising her son, Scheinfeld said that during 2021 and 2022 she would get emails from Klinger about other markers being placed in different parts of the country. She told herself the time was right for her to get involved and make the historical markers a reality.

Scheinfeld’s connection to the Catskills and the Borscht Belt is strong. Her grandparents met in South Fallsburg during the height of the era, and her parents honeymooned at the Nevele Grand Hotel. Scheinfeld herself worked as a lifeguard towards the tail end of the era at the Concord Hotel.

During the period, Sullivan County had hundreds of hotels that hosted many celebrities, comedians and athletes. As air travel became more popular, however, fewer folks came to the Catskills for vacation, which led to a steep decline in the industry.

Out of the hundreds of hotels that once spanned the landscape of the Catskills, very few remain, and those that do have been repurposed by different organizations, while other hotels are laid in ruin or have been demolished.

The Borscht Belt historical markers will highlight significant areas throughout Sullivan County and provide insight into the history and impact of the resorts on the county and country.

Scheinfeld is not working alone. Along with Klinger, she is working with other historians and visual makers to help bring this project to life, such as Louis Inghilterra, Kelli Huggins, and Scott Eckers.

Inghilterra, a senior interior architecture and historic preservation student at Colorado State University, said he had been fascinated with the Borscht Belt since he was very young after discovering photos of the abandoned Pines Resort on the internet.

“Since then, I have been captivated by the amazing history of the area that deserves to be recognized and celebrated. The history of the Borscht Belt is not just a story of Jewish heritage from the New York City Region, but it relates to so many other aspects of life during the 20th century, such as architecture, music, comedy, sports and family dynamics,” Inghilterra said.

The first two (four) markers are planned to be installed and unveiled during the summer of 2023, one in Mountaindale and the other at the intersection of Old Falls Road and Route 42.

Mountaindale was one of the first stops in Sullivan County on the O & W railroad system and was a bustling hamlet once. The marker will speak of that history and the many hotels in the hamlet.

At the same time, the Old Falls marker will speak about the history of the hotels and bungalows that once lined the road.

Fallsburg’s Deputy Supervisor, Sean Wall-Carty, said, “The town is happy to support this initiative. It’s a historical reminder about the heritage of Fallsburg.”

The Jewish Historical Society will fully fund the markers, and the cost to the town would be for the installation. Scheinfeld said she is developing a volunteer team that would be needed to help maintain the markers once they are installed.

Scheinfeld said they hope to have 10 to 15 markers placed throughout Sullivan County, which will help create a trail guide where tourists can drive around and discover the history.

Scheinfeld said she hopes one day there will be an actual Borscht Belt museum in Sullivan County that will bring together all the memories and artifacts from the era under one roof.

Furthermore, the markers will offer information about the area and be interactive, where visitors can learn more just by scanning a QR code with their cell phones.

Inghilterra said he plans to create a digital extension to the marker project that would include an interactive digital map with photos and each resort’s history. Using his architecture software skills, Inghilterra will create a digital recreational model of the iconic buildings from the era.

“With the Borscht Belt Historical Marker project, we can finally pay homage and celebrate the history of the resorts, hotels, and bungalow colonies that made up this region,” added Inghilterra.

Scheinfeld said once multiple markers are placed throughout the county – with other locations being in Monticello, Liberty, Loch Sheldrake, and more – she plans to develop an audio tour that can include stories and songs from the era.

The audio driving tour will help guide visitors to the markers and give an oral history of the area as you cruise down the road.

The markers themselves will be 30 inches high and 42 inches wide and can include up to four images of maps and/or logos placed on existing public lands.

By using public lands, Scheinfeld hopes this will attract foot traffic from residents and tourists who will not only engage with the markers but also support the local business, shopping and restaurants.

Scheinfeld said that Sullivan County Historian, John Conway, would act as the official co-signer for the markers project to ensure accuracy.

She added, “I think now in this new era, this new chapter of Sullivan County with this renaissance happening, there’s a lot of interest now to celebrate the past.”

For more information, visit: https://borschtbelthistoricalmarkerproject.org.

I am entitled to reparations and restitution

Official Medalion from the British Anti-Slavery Society, 1795.

(Article republished from the Times of Israel – April 6, 2019)

Almost every American Democrat Candidate for President has signed on to the demand that American Blacks are entitled to reparations for the original sin of slavery.  I began to wonder if I might be entitled to reparations and even restitution too, only I am not Black.

My father was a slave. He was an Austrian Jewish refugee who “escaped” to France.  He was sold to the Vichy French as slave labor in Southern France.  He built the roads, the beautiful corniches along the Mediterranean that so many tourists ride along today bringing billions of dollars to the French economy.  After working on the roads, and being beaten severely for his unpaid efforts, he was sold to the French Winemakers in and around LaGrasse in Languedoc.

When he was not worth much to the French anymore, they traded him to the Germans for a French imprisoned soldier.  The Germans send him to Auschwitz where he worked as a slave laborer at a sub-camp, Pieskowische, for an electrical contractor building communications for the Nazis.

The Germans next sent him to nearby Blechammer to work as a slave at the giant chemical plant that Allied bombers attacked regularly. The bombers were never quite able to target the rail lines to Auschwitz fifty miles away.  Eventually, he was liberated in Buchenwald.

My mother’s story as a German slave went from Poland to Bergen Belsen. My mother certainly was entitled to restitution.  Before the War, my grandfather had extensive real estate holdings in Lodz, Poland. Long after the War, the Poles offered to return the property provided my family returned to live in Lodz.  There was an intervening problem. Poles killed Jews who survived the Holocaust who had the nerve to return to claim their former property. She chose not to return to Lodz. My mother’s family filed claims and received nothing.

Neither was ever paid any reparations for their having been slaves.

My mother did get some restitution payments because her health had been ruined.  She spent the remaining years of her life a paranoid schizophrenic. She believed the Germans were coming to finish the job, to kill me, to kill my cousins. Beware the white powder she would warn.  The Germans stored a white powder poison to lace the food at Belsen. They planned to give it to the Jews before the British liberated them.

My father died shortly after the war from injuries he sustained as a slave. Yad Vashem does not count him as a Holocaust victim. He did not die during the War years. By Yad Vashem’s definition, he was not a Holocaust victim. His name cannot be entered into their records of the 6,000,000

I never thought of being entitled to reparations or restitution because the horrors of the Holocaust affected my parents directly and me only with the secondary smoke of history. I grew up free and healthy in America with my White Privilege, looking over my shoulder lest the Long Knives come. As a young person, I knew I could live anywhere I wanted in Washington, D.C. so long as it was not in posh Chevy Chase because the real estate covenants said No Hebrews. I could go to the beautiful beaches on the Chesapeake Bay so long as I avoided the ones with the signs that said no Dogs and Jews. I did not have to worry about restricted schools because I went to a Yeshivah.

With all the Democrat Presidential talk about reparations, I wondered, and now I am feeling entitled to reparation payments to me because my parents were slaves not just for the Germans, but for the French. Using P.C. victim logic, Americans owe me for not liberating my parents soon enough, as does the Church, and the world for anti-Semitism that continues to this day again rising from the never dead, dead.

Should my children be entitled to reparations? They too, as third generations, and my grandchildren as fourth generations, have been affected by the smoke of the Holocaust, slavery and historical antisemitism?

Am I not entitled to reparations from Minister Farrakhan for his perpetuating the hate that led to my family’s slavery?  Perhaps, U.S. Congresswomen, Reps. Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar, promoting anti-Semitism, owe me reparations through the American government for stirring anti-Semitism and making me insecure as an American?

Do I owe compensation to the American soldiers for injuries they sustained or to the children of the soldiers who died to liberate my parents?

I must admit being confused how this reparation thing will work.  Do I owe reparations to American Blacks for slavery?  Do I owe restitution to American Native Americans for their lost lands?  Do American Blacks owe restitution or reparations to the Union soldiers who died to end slavery?

Do Jews owe Arabs reparations or restitution for returning to their once Jewish homeland as refugees from certain death only to be turned away by Arab pogroms?  Can I say that to the millions coming to America’s Southern border today mostly seeking economic opportunity are entitled to reparations?  Do Arabs owe Sephardic Jews reparations and restitution for having expelled 650,000 Jews from Muslim countries?  What about India and Pakistan who expelled, uncompensated, millions of human swapped pawns in population exchanges? Do not the Muslims and Hindus have claims?

No doubt, the P.C. police, especially the Tribal ones, will confirm I am confused.

Will a one-time payment make everything O.K.?

A few virtue dollars changes nothing.

The forever obligation to fight bigotry cannot end.

If ongoing racial hatred, prejudice and discrimination is the standard for reparations–Jews are entitled to a forever stream of payments from the world for anti-Semitism?

J.K.

Philip Freeman – Jewish Firewatcher – Killed in the Wartime Exeter Bombings, 1942.

A continuing project(s) in recognition of Jewish Heroism, Patriotism and Honor.

Philip Freeman was too old to enlist in the regular British Armed Forces during World War II. 67. Yet, he felt compelled to do what he could. Freeman or Friedman, his name is spelled both ways in records, lived in very modest housing at 131 Magdalan Road in Exeter. His father was Hyman Freeman of Chapelton, Leeds. 

Philip Freeman was a patriotic, Jewish Englishman. He volunteered to become a Firewatcher. Firewatching was an extremely dangerous and exposed job as the German Airforce were firebombing British cities with a focus on those without any military value. Exeter was selected for saturation bombings in April and in May 1942 specifically to target English cultural and historical centers. The German High Command chose Exeter from cities mentioned in a “Baedeker’s” Travel Guidebook.

The bombings became known as the “Baedeker Raids.”

Freeman’s job was to rush to sites of German bombings and attempt to put out fires, rescuing the living even before Fire Fighters could arrive. The regular Fire Fighting service was stretched thin. Firewatchers were very poorly equipped.

It was imperative to prevent fires from spreading. The job fell to volunteers on the ground, like Freeman, arriving as soon as possible and at the most dangerous moments during and after bombings.

Freeman suffered a heart attack trying to save others. He was taken to a hospital. The fires and terror of the bombings reached the hospital that Freeman had been taken to. The rescuers were unable to evacuate the hospital in full. 18 patients died. Freeman was one.

He was buried in Exeter’s Higher Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Unknown except to God. His only family far away in Leeds.

Martin Sugarman, Archivist for the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, and Director of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation’s U.K. Branch, discovered his unmarked and forgotten gravesite. He arranged through JASHP, to fund a marker of memory to one of the heroes of those terrible nights, during the inhuman Nazi air attacks.

Philip Freeman/Friedman is unknown, forgotten, no longer.

Freeman’s gravestone was installed December 5, 2022.  The site of his interment was difficult to find, there were no grid stones anymore though it was known he was buried in section ZD, number 0250.

His stone is inscribed simply:

(Here Rests – Hebrew Acronym)

In Memory of Philip Freeman/Friedman

Jewish Exeter Wartime Firewatcher

Age 67

Who was killed in the German

bombing raid, 4 May, 1942.

Till 2022, his grave was unidentified

Hebrew Acronym

(Samuel, 25:29, “May his soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life.”)

Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, U.K. Branch, Association

of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women

How antisemitism helped save the American Revolution.

M.P. Edmund Burke to the British Parliament – 1781 

“If Britons were so injured, Britons have armies and laws to fly to for the protection and justice. But the Jews have no such power and no such friend to depend upon. Humanity then must become their protector.”

Parliament did not care about Burke’s protestations…

November 29, 1947, the United Nations Partition Resolution began the birthing process of the reborn Jewish State.  May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion proclaimed the independence of the State of Israel.

Never again would mean never again.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/how-antisemitism-helped-save-the-american-revolution/

The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis to General Washington, at Yorktown, Va.

1947 United Nations Partition Resolution Memorial

November 29, 2022, N. Netanya, Israel.

Conceived, funded, and facilitated by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, in cooperation with the World Zionist Organization, the City of Netanya, and noted Jerusalem sculptor Sam Philipe, a major interpretive memorial to the U.N. 1947 Partition Resolution, was dedicated.

The Resolution commemorates the central birthing event for the modern State of Israel.

It is the visible Kesher between Galut and Israel then, today and for tomorrow.

https://fb.watch/h9Qh8ictw3/

https://fb.watch/h9Qh8ictw3/

Lt. Marcus R. Bloom – British Secret Agent

Historical Marker for Lt. Marcus Bloom, S.O.E. unveiled.

“The amazing story of the unlikely British Jewish spy who loved swish apartments, expense accounts and beautiful women but fooled the Gestapo for years before he was gunned down in a Nazi death camp.”

The Memorial marker was placed by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and AJEX U.K. at the building he lived in before deployment in 1943.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9202345/The-British-Jewish-spy-fooled-Gestapo-years-gunned-Nazi-death-camp.html

Louis Jacobs, R.N. Historical marker unveiled

Louis Jacobs R.N.

Historical marker for Louis Jacobs, Royal Navy unveiled in London. Killed in Action at Gallipoli, 1915. His story indirectly links to Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.

Louis (Lewis) was born on 29th September 1891 in Whitechapel, son of Barnett, a tailor, and Kate, nee Marks. He was one of 8 Children and attended Stepney Green Jewish Primary School, when living at 47 Stepney Green Buildings, now Stepney Green Court. Later the family moved to No. 66. It is believed his father was the school-keeper of the school. Louis also joined the local JLB (Jewish Lads Brigade) when a teenager.

In 1909, having been a kitchen porter and fishmonger after leaving school, Louis enlisted at Chatham in the Royal Navy aged 18 and attested as Jewish, having ‘dark brown hair, and grey eyes, standing at 5’4” ’.

He served on several ships and bases including HMS Ganges, Magnificent, Pembroke and others, always achieving good reports on his service. Finally he was posted to HMS Lord Nelson in 1913.

In the spring of 1915 HMS Lord Nelson took part in the tragic landings at Gallipoli and Louis was deployed in rowing troops from Nelson to the shore at V beach, one of the designated landing zones, in a rowing boat naval cutter. It was the first day of the landings, April 25th. The Turkish gunfire was intense and every man in the boat was killed or wounded until just Louis was left, standing and attempting alone to pole the boat ashore, when he too was cut down.

His bravery in staying at his post until the end, was witnessed by several high ranking officers on the bridge of Nelson, who recognised Louis and as a result of his courage he was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches (LG 16/08/1915). His body was sadly never found and he is remembered on the Chatham Royal Naval Memorial.

The Zion Mule Corps, organized in Alexandria, Egypt, under Col. John Henry Patterson was the first independent Jewish fighting unit in 2,000 years since the fall of Israel to the Romans. The Corps was being rowed ashore, at the same time, in the type of cutters that Jacobs died defending. The corps would distinguish itself at Gallipoli.

The Zion Mule Corps, still under Patterson, evolved into the Jewish Legion (the Royal Fusiliers) who later fought under General Allenby liberating Jerusalem from the Turks.

Patterson became a strong supporter of Zionism and a close friend of Ben Zion Netanyahu, secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky fought at Gallipoli under Patterson.

The Ben Zions named Patterson as the Godfather of their first son Yoni (Jonathan). He was the brother of Benjamin Netanyahu, later Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Marker Text

“Mentioned in Despatches Star of David lived at 66 Stepney Green Court/Buildings. Killed in Action at Gallipoli, 1915, WWI, refusing to abandon his cutter, gallantly rowing soldiers ashore in full view of the enemy. He has no known grave.

Be strong and of good courage (Joshua 1:9)

Hebrew

(Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, U.K. Branch, AJEX, U.K.)

The Silent Shofar

Jerusalem Post

The Silent Shofar – the Jerusalem Post

Far too few Israelis and Diaspora Jews know the meaning of November 29. For that matter, barely half of Israeli youth know much about Theodor Herzl, except that he is the metal cutout on the water tower in Herzliya. Without memory, they probably will not care.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-723197