The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1916-11-10
THE JEWS IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Contributed to Southern Christian Ad-

ulSlOIy Ol Tic jews III NO0Lu SoAS
lima or what a vital part they have
taken in our history. Many people
carelessly lump all Jews as self-seek-
ing small tradeSmen engaged in SELL
ing "coats from Dakota, vest from
Vest Virginia, and shoes from Shuru-
salem" to unsophisticated rustics by
gathering up the spare material in
the back with tht assurance that ut
fits zhust like de paper on de vail;
and after growing reasonably pros
porous in this fashion, becoming posi-
itively well-to-do by fortunate fire
or failu.e. Rabbi Elias Jews OF
South Carolina" (J. B. Lippincott Co.,
Philadelphia; 1909 g worthy contri-
button to our history, the reading Of
which will suffice to correct any such
ideas. Few races can show such a
large proportion of distinguished
names. Ornaments not only to the
Jewish race, but to mankind, as Sarah
Bernhardt, Heine, Spinoza, Mendels-
sohn, George Brandeis and Judge
Brandeis, Karl Marx and Lasalle, the
socialist economist, zamenhof, the in
venter of Esperanto, Felix Adler, Dr.
Ehrlich, the discoVerer of salval san
or $685." Hoffkine, the discoverer of
incubation against bubonic plague
Mendeleiff the discoverer Of periodic
lawa in chemistery, Lilienthal, the
first man to fly, Max Nordau, Michel
son the measurer of the velocity of
lisbt Bergson, the most eminent OF
contemporary philosophers, Neander,
the great theologian and Church his
torian, Disraeli (de-Israel-D the ora
tor and statesman, not to mention
long line of fnanciers from Baron
Rothchild. and Jacob Schiff down.
There are two distinct bodies OF
Jews in South Carolina. There are,
first, the older group, in many IN
stances going back as South Carolin-
ians before the Revolution. They
came generally from England, whose
free institutions and humane laws af-
forded an opportunity for the Hebrew
to develop the roble possibilities OF
his nature, which we're so often beat
en- into obscurity by persecution III
1 ..
were largely of Spanish ancestry, anu
to some extent Portuguese; and the
! Spanish Jews have been notable for
centuries as eminent for intelligence,
fine appearance and attainments'
Other stocks of Jews have shown
great worth of ability, which are not
! reflected upon at all by remarking
upon this interesting and unusual con-
nection between South Carolina and
Spain. The names of many OF our
, older South Carolina Jewish families
proclaim their Spanish (or sometimes
Portuguese) ancestry, as e. G., Agul-
lar, Avila, aEededo. Carhalho, Depaz'
Gutteras, De Mendes, Cardozo, Cor
'tissoz. DeCosta, De La Motta, De
Leon, De Palacacios, De Vega, Lopez,
Lindo. Marques, Melhado, Molina, Oh
ivera. Ottolingui, Pimento, Pinto, Pix
ieto, Prado, Rodriguez, Salvador, Sar-
zedas, Saspostas,, Suares and Torres
The second bory Of Jews consists
of more recent immigrants, largely
from Germany first, but later from
Poland and Russia. The latter have
been beaten down for centuries and
bear yet the marks, OF their suferings.
The different stocks differ markedly
in face, form, features, suggesting
that there must have been some appre-
ciable intsrmingling with the back;
ward, Slav, the stalwart German, or
the proud, 1.-the Spaniard.
In 1900 and for sometime after the
Jews of South Carolina, then almost all
in Charleston, were the most numer-
GUS, cultured, and wealthy Jewish
community in the United States.
There were about $500 in the entire
country at that time, a mere handtui
to the 2.935, 900 today out OF the thlr-
teen and q quarter million Jews OF
the whole world. Every fourth per-
son in the city of New York today is
a Jew. One-thirteenth of all the
Jews Of all the world are there, larg-
er number of Jews than ever in hu-
nan history have been congregated
in one place.
Not only did the movement for the
intellectual and spiritual emanclpa-
tion of American Jews from mediae-
7alisf in thought and religion orig
mate in Charleston, but from this
State came also many scientific and
intellectual leaders. DR.. Simon Ba-
ruch, after leaving Camden for wild
er opportunity of practive In the
North, diagnosed the first case of ap-
pendicitis successfully operated upon
and earned the praise in the NeT
York Academy of Medicine of placing
humanity and his profession under
deeper obligations in this department
OF surgery than any other man. Sew
eral Jews were among South caro-
lina's most gifted ante-bellum writ
ers, as Ludwig Wewissohn Is among
those of today. Barhamville, the
celebrated school for young ladies
near Columbia, was conducted BY
DR.. Elias Marks, Jew converted IN
childhood, it is said, by his old negro
a1ifnr