Judah Touro.
The prominent figure of the philanthropist Judah Touro (b. in Newport, R. I., 1775; d. in New Orleans, 1854) looms large in the early Jewish history of New Orleans. Touro was educated by his uncle, Moses Michael Hays (1739–1805), who had become an eminent merchant of Boston, and was later employed in his counting house. Touro came to New Orleans about a year before Louisiana was purchased by the United States from France in 1803. He opened a store and built up a thriving trade in New England products, and soon became one of the wealthiest and most prominent merchants of the growing city. He gave liberally to many charities and public spirited enterprises in New Orleans and elsewhere, at a time when large gifts for such purposes were not as common as they are now. When he donated $10,000 towards the erection of the Bunker Hill Monument in 1840, those interested in raising the necessary funds had almost given up their project in despair. Though the cornerstone was laid in 1826, on the fiftieth anniversary of the battle which it was to commemorate, Amos Lawrence’s generous offers of aid met with no material response, even when aided by the eloquent appeals of Edward Everett (1794–1865) and Daniel Webster (1782–1852), until Touro privately offered to duplicate Lawrence’s donation, provided the remaining necessary $30,000 would be raised. On the dedication of the monument in 1843, when Daniel Webster was the orator of the day, the generosity of the chief donors was praised in the lines read by the presiding officer, which became very popular at that time.[29] At his death he left, among many other bequests, a large sum in trust to Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) for the poor Jews of Jerusalem. His name is connected with the oldest and largest Jewish institutions in New Orleans, while Boston, Newport and other communities have benefited by his generosity.
Alexander Isaacs and Asher Philips were also among the arrivals at New Orleans early in the last century. Morris Jacobs and Aaron Daniels were the Senior Wardens, and Abraham Plotz, Asher Philips and Abraham Green, the Junior Wardens of a benevolent society named Shaare Chesed. In that capacity they bought the first Jewish cemetery in New Orleans, which was located just beyond the suburb of Lafayette, in the Parish of Jefferson, fronting on Jackson street, where the first interment, that of Haym Harris, took place on June 28, 1828. The first congregation adopted the name of the benevolent society, and worshipped in a room on the top floor of a building in St. Louis street. The oldest existing synagogue, the Shaare Chesed Nefuzot Judah, commonly known as the Touro synagogue, was organized in its present form in 1854. The other congregations belong to a later period, which will be described in a subsequent part.
Another prominent Jew, the greatest in American public life—Judah P. Benjamin—also lived in New Orleans in this period. But he took no interest in Jewish affairs, and his career belongs to the chapters in which the participation of Jews in the dispute about slavery and in the Civil War will be described.
CHAPTER XIX.
NEW SETTLEMENTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST AND ON THE PACIFIC COAST.
Increase in general immigration—Estimated increase in the number of Jews—The natural dispersion of small traders over the country—Chicago—First congregations and other communal institutions—Indiana—Iowa: Polish Jews settle in Keokuk and German Jews in Davenport—Minnesota—Wisconsin—Congregation “Bet El” of Detroit, Mich.—The first “minyan” of gold seekers in San Francisco—“Mining congregations”—Solomon Heydenfeldt—Portland, Ore.
The tide of immigration, which began to rise still higher than before in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, now consisted to a considerable part of Germans, and a goodly portion of them were Jews from Germany and the surrounding countries. The official figures for the number of immigrants who came to the United States in 1826 are 10,837; for 1832, 60,482; in 1842 it rose to 104,565. The rise was very unequal, with marked recessions sometimes to less than half in the intervening years; but when measured by decades the increase was constant, and after 1845 there were only two years—1861 and 1862—in which the number of immigrants fell below 100,000. While there are no figures obtainable as to the number of Jews which came in those years, it is certain that they soon outnumbered many times the few comparatively small communities which existed before that period. The estimates made by representative Jews at various times, giving the number of Jews in the country in 1818 as 3,000, in 1826 as 6,000, in 1840 as 15,000 and in 1848 as 50,000, are merely guesses, but they give a fair idea of the estimated ratio of increase in those thirty years. The experience of to-day is that whenever actual figures are obtained they prove to be in excess of the estimate made by communal leaders, and it is probable that the same results would be disclosed in the former times, too. On the other hand, care must be exercised to guard against exaggerated estimates, made for various reasons, but mainly for political effect.