Title:The Jews of Long Island 1705-1918
By Brad Kolodny
Excelsior Editions, 511 pages
A cursory glance at contemporary Long Island Jewish life might lead one to conclude that Jewish life begins and ends on Central Avenue. As West Hempstead, Great Neck and my beloved Plainview continue to grow, the Five Towns of Nassau County on the South Shore represent the dominant and center of so much of Jewish life on Long Island – an explosion that took place toward the end of the twentieth century when second- and third-generation Jewish immigrants left the urban centers in Brooklyn and Queens for the greener suburban life of Long Island. Enter Brad Kolodny, who in his engaging The Jews of Long Island 1705-1918 offers a fascinating glimpse into the earliest days of Jewish Long Island.
The earliest Jews of the nascent United States chose peddling as their primary profession. Collecting goods from the big cities, they carried their wares to the sundry smaller communities arising across the United States. It was the Jewish domination of this profession that led Ulysses S. Grant to expel the Jews from Mississippi and Kentucky during the Civil War, as the general assumed that Jewish merchants surreptitiously financed the southern cause. Lincoln recalled this antisemitic edict, but none argued that peddling was not a Jewish profession.
The growing American communities of East Nassau and Suffolk County stretching as far as Riverhead attracted merchant Jews who set up shops selling general items, cigars, liquor, and furniture. Soon after their shops were set up and some even formed department stores, they took the task of building institutions of Jewish life. Kolodny’s book is filled with stories of the foundations of Hebrew societies, synagogues and Hebrew schools. These institutions became even more significant with the influx of immigrant Jews to the New York area in the 1880s who were escaping Russian pogroms.
Kolodny explores Nassau and Suffolk community by community. He escapes the dryness of history by zooming into the unique experiences of individual members. Learn about Myer Michael, the first Jew born on Long Island in 1760, as well as his mohel Abraham I. Abrahams, or Babylon’s Leo Fishel who in 1899 pitched for the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds while attending Columbia University, only to give up baseball – “at the urgence [sic] of his parents” Kolodny speculates – to become a lawyer. The Guggenheims settled Sands Point in 1847; it was Solomon, one of eleven Long Island children, who created the foundation that founded the museum.
A number of appendices serve as valuable complements to this book. Surprisingly fascinating is the list of community members that conclude each chapter of the book. I found myself sifting through the names and their occupation in an exciting game of Jewish Geographical Bingo. The pictures and newspaper clippings had me smiling and sometimes laughing out loud. The more intrepid among us can use this book as a guide for day trips and expeditions to historic areas of Jewish significance on Long Island.
In all, The Jews of Long Island is an enjoyable read that explores an often ignored area of American Jewish history. While technically an amateur historian, Kolodny goes about his work with thoroughness and an infectious love of his topic. His passion has produced the Long Island Jewish Historical Society and plans are in the works for a museum. This is a great read for the summer or any time.
