History of the Jews in Baltimore

As an immigrant port of entry and border town between North and South and as a manufacturing center in its own right, Baltimore has been well-positioned to reflect developments in American Jewish life.

The most substantial of these merchants apparently was Benjamin Levy, probably the same mentioned in the "Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society" (i.

[4][5]In 1781 Jacob Hart, father-in-law of Haym Salomon, headed a subscription of £2,000 ($10,000) loaned to Lafayette for the relief of the detachment under his command.

One of the items is "The Jews burying-ground, 1 small lot enclosed", situated in Ensor's Town, near East Monument street.

According to the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia:On the testimony of a resident close by, the last tombstone was removed, surreptitiously, presumably for building purposes, as recently as from forty to fifty years ago.

In the first directory of "Baltimore Town and Fell's Point", also published in 1796 – the year of the incorporation of Baltimore as a city – there are, in addition to the above, two Harts, three Jacobs, Philip Itzchkin, – Kahn, Benjamin Lyon, Solomon Raphael, and Isaac Solomon; and in the lists of letters remaining at the post-office occur the names of Hhym Levenstene and Benjamin Myers.

Both families acquired an enviable reputation for integrity and business tact; and their members were honored with offices of trust, by corporations and in the city government.

This bill proposed "to consider the justice and expediency of extending to those persons professing the Jewish religion the same privileges that are enjoyed by Christians".

Immediately upon its passage, and its ratification in the legislative session of 1825–26, it was applied practically in the election of Solomon Etting and Jacob I. Cohen, JR., to seats in the city council of Baltimore.

Almost coincidentally with the removal of civil disabilities occurs the first of a series of regular meetings for religious services, whose continuity has been uninterrupted.

The incorporators were Moses Millem (Mulheim), Joseph Osterman, John M. Dyer, Louis Silver, and Levi Benjamin.

[5] The first rabbi of the congregation was the above-mentioned Abraham Rice (Reiss), whose piety and character have left a lasting impress upon the community, especially through his influence upon the youths he taught, some of them later becoming its leaders.

Other rabbis of the congregation have been: Julius Spiro, in conjunction with Mr. Rice (1846–47); Henry Hochheimer (1849–59); B. Illoway (1859–61); Abraham Hofman (1868–73); Maurice Fluegel (1881–84); A. S. Bettelheim (1886–90); and Adolf Guttmacher (1891).

[5] Rabbis of the Fell's Point Congregation, later worshiping on Eden street, have been: Aaron Günzburg (1848–56); Henry Hochheimer (1859–92); W. Willner (1892–94); Clifton H. Levy (1894–96): and M. Rosenstein (1896).

[6] A similar desire for a revised liturgy, but along more conservative lines, led to the formation of the Oheb Shalom Congregation in September of 1853, on the part of a number of dissidents from the original body.

Rabbis of this congregation, whose new synagogue on Eutaw place and Lanvale street was considered one of the most beautiful structures in the city, have included the following: – Salomon (1854); S. M. Landsberg (1856–57); Benjamin Szold; and William Rosenau (1892).

[5] Since then, in the organization of twenty other congregations in Baltimore – only eight of which having a house of worship of their own – the determining factor, in a few cases, has been convenience of locality, but more frequently the bond of national affiliation brought from European countries and reinforced by conservatism in religious sentiment.

[5] An attempt was made in 1856–59 to hold services according to the liturgy of the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardim, of which Solomon Nunes Carvalho was the chief promoter.

Each of five congregations, the Baltimore Hebrew, the Fell's Point, the Har Sinai, the Oheb Shalom, and the B'nai Israel, had a cemetery of its own.

Besides, there was a small cemetery, now disused, on the Philadelphia road, which was formerly maintained by what was called, for unknown reasons, "Die Irische Ḥebra".

In the latter year was founded also the Hebrew Ladies' Sewing Society, which, though an independent body, has always adapted its activities to those of the general organization.

[5] In 1955, Kappa Guild, a charity run largely by Jewish women began raising funds to support children's health and welfare, providing medical equipment and resources to pediatric hospitals and programs across Maryland.

The organization known as "The Maccabeans" maintained an evening class and a library for the use of boys and young men; continuing in a measure the work begun by the Night School, existing from 1889 to 1899 under the auspices of the Isaac bar Levison Hebrew Literary Society, and supported in part by the Baron de Hirsch Fund, for the purpose of teaching English to immigrants.

Myer Block was judge of the Orphans' Court in Baltimore; Jacob H. Hollander was secretary to the International Bimetallic Commission, and the first treasurer of Porto Rico under American jurisdiction.

Several of the largest department stores were conducted by Jews; and as financiers they bore an enviable reputation for probity and for a spirit of far-sighted and cautious enterprise.

The following Jews have been connected with Johns Hopkins University in the capacity of professors and instructors: J. J. Sylvester, Fabian Franklin, Abraham Cohen, Maurice Bloomfield, Cyrus Adler, J. H. Hollander, Simon Flexner, Caspar Levias, William Rosenau and Rabbi Samuel Rosenblatt.

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "[a] company of militia composed entirely of Jews was formed, with Levi Benjamin as first lieutenant; but it is not probable that it saw active service".

Leopold Blumenberg served as brevet brigadier-general, United States Volunteers, Fifth Maryland Infantry (see S. Wolf, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen, pp.

In the "Occident" of Dec., 1856, an anonymous correspondent put the number of Jews then residing in the city at 8,000 – an exaggerated estimate according to the Jewish Encyclopedia.