Gerald Yael Goldberg[1] (12 April 1912 – 31 December 2003) was an Irish lawyer and politician who in 1977 became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Cork.

[3] Goldberg's father was a peddler and shopkeeper, and his parents were both born in the small village of Akmenė (Yiddish: Akmian or אוקמיאַן) and part of a wave of immigrants who fled antisemitism in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century.

Louis Goldberg was very well-educated, speaking multiple languages, but worked as a street peddler in Ireland, walking on foot all over the island, before eventually opening a drapery store.

He saw the bodies of both Lord Mayors of Cork Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney lying in state, which had a profound effect on him, as did the four times he saw Michael Collins speak.

The brothers eventually ran into trouble when they refused to take part in Armistice Day events on account of the deaths of Mac Curtain and MacSwiney, and were given three lashes in punishment.

According to Goldberg's biographical entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, PBC's headmaster helped him to "overcome the reluctance of the Cork solicitors' firm Barry Galvin and Son to accept a Jewish apprentice."

"[3] During the Second World War he set up a committee to assist Jews fleeing Nazism, but encountered resistance from various arms of the government, which had discouraged Jewish immigration to Ireland during "The Emergency".

[3] Throughout his life Goldberg remained a believing and observant Jew; he was a cohen (descendant of the priestly tribe of Levi), which involved certain religious duties.

He accused Patrick Cooney, then Justice Minister, of condoning torture of those (mostly Irish republicans and other advocates of political violence) held under the Offences Against the State Act, 1939 in 1974.

[3] In 1977–1978, by which time he had moved to representing the south‐east ward, he was elected Lord Mayor of Cork by the corporation, the first Jew to hold this office.

[citation needed] His mayoralty was a source of pride to him, and he regarded his selection as a successor to MacCurtain and MacSwiney not just as recognition of his individual services but as proof that Cork rejected anti‐semitism and recognised him as "an Irishman and a Jew" (the title of a 1982 RTÉ television documentary about him which he scripted and presented).

[citation needed] Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, he received death threats[13] and the Cork synagogue was firebombed, the motivation of which he ascribed to unbalanced reporting in the media.

[3] In 1986, after his retirement from active politics, Goldberg criticised Charles Haughey's leadership of FF and was one of the early defectors from Fianna Fáil to the Progressive Democrats.

[14] In 1998, he defended the extent of the Vatican apology for The Holocaust issued by Pope John Paul II,[15] in contrast to the disappointment expressed by many prominent Jews such as Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.

Goldberg noted Pope Pius XII's stated fear of the consequences of excommunicating Nazis for their persecution of Europe's Jews, saying "These things must be brought to an end, we must put them behind us.

[17] According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, Goldberg's relationship with his wife was "close and loving, cemented by shared artistic and charitable interests".

[3] In 1964, Goldberg was honoured by the National Association of Claimants Attorneys of America and in 1987 he received a life membership of the Royal Dublin Society.

He had a fine private art collection, including glass, ceramics, silver, antique furniture and a large library of Hebrew books.