GALVESTON, Texas – Greater than a century in the past, this busy Gulf Coast port and longtime trip vacation spot 50 miles southeast of Houston welcomed so many European immigrants – together with some 10,000 Jews – it earned the moniker “The Ellis Island of the West.”
At the moment, the few remaining descendants of Jewish immigrants from that point interval nonetheless dwelling on the island are decided to protect and nourish the story of the Galveston Motion, a largely forgotten however pivotal chapter in Jewish-American historical past.
Galveston, an island-city of 53,000 residents, is the fourth-busiest cruise port within the nation and the birthplace of the Juneteenth vacation, which commemorates the tip of slavery in america. With 32 miles of brown-sand seashores, a captivating historic district with quite a few well-preserved Victorian-era houses, and a few 80 festivals held year-round, the island yearly attracts 8 million vacationers.
It additionally presents guests a number of websites associated to the Galveston Motion and what was as soon as a strong Jewish neighborhood that produced 5 mayors, distinguished enterprise leaders and two extremely famend rabbis.
A 5,000-square-foot mural in downtown Galveston illustrates the journey of Black People to freedom. Galveston is taken into account the birthplace of Juneteenth, which commemorates the abolition of slavery. (Dan Fellner)
The Galveston Motion, additionally referred to as the Galveston Plan, was a humanitarian effort operated by a number of Jewish organizations that introduced Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia and Japanese Europe via the port of Galveston between 1907 and 1914. Most arrived in Galveston on steamships from Bremen, Germany, a transatlantic journey that took two to 3 weeks.
A latest guide by English historian and journalist Rachel Cockerell — “Melting Level” — has helped reignite curiosity within the Galveston Motion. Cockerell, whose great-grandfather David Jochelmann performed a key position in organizing this system in Europe, spoke this month at Galveston’s Temple B’nai Israel as a part of a U.S. tour selling the guide.
“As quickly as began studying in regards to the Galveston Motion, I form of went down a rabbit gap from which I didn’t emerge for 3 years,” Cockerell informed a gaggle of greater than 100 Galvestonians, Jews and non-Jews alike. “I used to be completely transfixed by this wonderful story of Jewish immigration within the early twentieth century.”
“I find it irresistible,” says Shelley Nussenblatt Kessler, 74, of the heightened consideration on the Galveston Motion. Kessler estimates she is one in all 25 to 30 “BOIs” — shorthand for “Born on the Island”) — nonetheless dwelling in Galveston who’re descendants of the Jewish immigrants who got here to America as a part of this system. Her grandmother and grandfather immigrated from what’s now western Ukraine to Galveston in 1910 and 1911.
“Not solely am I very proud to be a descendant of two of those immigrants, however I can’t assist however consider how fortunate I’m to be right here,” she mentioned. “I’m in awe of what my grandparents did and the way they acquired right here, and the sacrifices that they made.”
By the late Eighties, hundreds of Jews started fleeing their houses within the Russian Empire to flee antisemitic insurance policies and violent pogroms. Many immigrated to New York and different East Coast cities, leading to overcrowding and poverty.
Jacob Schiff, a New York banker and philanthropist, financed the Galveston Motion as a option to blunt an anticipated wave of antisemitism on the Japanese seaboard, which could result in immigration restrictions. Schiff sought to seek out appropriate different locations within the American South for the inflow of Jewish immigrants.
B’nai Israel’s authentic synagogue – inbuilt 1870 – was the religious launching level for the Jewish immigrants who had been a part of the Galveston Motion. It’s now a non-public residence. (Dan Fellner)
Charleston, South Carolina, which had a long-established Jewish neighborhood, was thought-about however metropolis leaders there solely needed Anglo-Saxon immigrants. New Orleans was additionally within the combine however there have been considerations about periodic outbreaks of yellow fever.
Enter Galveston, a port that checked the entire bins. It had a deep-water harbor that would accommodate giant ships and an in depth railroad system obtainable to move immigrants to different cities and cities.
“Actually the aim of Galveston was to channel the immigrants into different elements of Texas and up the center of the nation west of the Mississippi,” mentioned Dwayne Jones, a historian who’s CEO of the Galveston Historic Basis.
Jones says there was one other key motive Galveston was chosen: There already was a effectively established Jewish neighborhood that was thriving within the metropolis’s enterprise and political circles. In reality, Galveston had elected its first Jewish mayor — Dutch-born Michael Seeligson — way back to 1853.
“It was a extra tolerant neighborhood with a depth of variety you didn’t see elsewhere,” Jones mentioned. “It additionally had an extended historical past of Jewish management and actions in Galveston.
The primary Reform congregation in Texas, Galveston’s Congregation B’nai Israel, was established in 1868. Twenty years later, London-born Henry Cohen, who was solely 25 on the time, turned the congregation’s rabbi. Cohen led B’nai Israel for a outstanding 64 years till his loss of life in 1952. It’s believed to be the longest tenure of a rabbi on the similar congregation in U.S. historical past.
The gravesite of Rabbi Henry Cohen, one of many founders of the Galveston Motion, is seen in Galveston’s Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery, together with a number of hundred different Jews. (Dan Fellner)
In 1900 Galveston was decimated by a storm referred to as the Nice Galveston Hurricane. It stays the deadliest pure catastrophe in American historical past, with an estimated 8,000 fatalities, about 20% of its inhabitants on the time. Two-thirds of the island’s buildings and houses had been destroyed. Cohen and different Jewish leaders performed a serious position within the reduction and reconstruction efforts that adopted.
“Jewish management took a extremely highly effective position in rebuilding the island,” says Jones. “With out that management, I don’t assume Galveston would have come again because it did.”
Seven years after the hurricane, the primary ship that was a part of the Galveston Motion – the S.S. Cassel — arrived from Bremen with 86 Jewish passengers. Cohen – who was proficient in 10 languages — was the humanitarian face of the motion, assembly ships on the Galveston docks and serving to information the immigrants via the cumbersome arrival and distribution course of.
The arrivals had been processed on the Jewish Immigrants’ Data Bureau headquarters in Galveston, which gave the immigrants rations and railroad tickets to greater than 150 cities in Texas and different locations west of the Mississippi River.
The Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on Sept. 8, 1900, within the metropolis of Galveston, Texas, killing an estimated 8,000 folks, making it the deadliest pure catastrophe in U.S. historical past. (Historical past/Common Photographs Group through Getty Photographs)
Not like a overwhelming majority of the immigrants who had solely a quick stopover in Galveston earlier than settling in different communities, Kessler’s grandparents determined to stay on the island. Her grandfather was a portray contractor whereas her grandmother labored as a housekeeper.
Adjusting to life in Texas proved to be a wrestle for a lot of immigrants. Kessler’s grandparents determined they might be happier again in Europe, even shopping for passage on a ship so they might return to their homeland. However World Battle I broke out, canceling their journey.
“The harbormaster informed my grandparents to carry their tickets till after the conflict, and if you wish to return, we’ll redeem them,” Kessler mentioned. “Thank God, they didn’t return.”
By 1914, declining financial situations and a surge in nativism and xenophobia — a forerunner of in the present day’s anti-immigration local weather — introduced an finish to the Galveston Motion. Nonetheless, this system resulted in an estimated 10,000 persecuted Jews discovering new houses within the American hinterland in locations few had imagined.
The Galveston Historic Seaport Museum chronicles the immigrant expertise in an interactive exhibit referred to as “Ship to Shore.” The exhibit features a distinguished picture of Henry Cohen. Pc terminals allow guests to seek for info taken from ships’ passenger manifests pertaining to their ancestors’ arrival in Texas. The Galveston County Museum, situated contained in the county courthouse, additionally options artifacts associated to the Galveston Motion.
Kessler’s late husband Jimmy, who died in 2022, was one other key determine in Galveston’s Jewish historical past. Jimmy Kessler served as B’nai Israel’s rabbi for 32 years till his retirement in 2014. He additionally was the founder and first president of the Texas Jewish Historic Society, which is now 45 years outdated and has greater than 1,000 members.
Jimmy Kessler was dedicated to telling the story of the Galveston Motion, writing three books in regards to the space’s Jewish historical past, together with a biography of Henry Cohen referred to as “The Lifetime of a Frontier Rabbi.” The road on which B’nai Israel is situated was renamed Jimmy Kessler Drive in 2018, honoring his service to the congregation and the larger Galveston neighborhood.
“I’m married to a avenue,” joked Shelley Kessler, including, “Jimmy, with what he did to protect Texas Jewish historical past, stored all of this [the Galveston Movement] within the forefront.”
B’nai Israel, which now has a membership of 125 households, relocated to a brand new constructing in 1955, named the Henry Cohen Memorial Temple.
The congregation’s authentic synagogue – inbuilt 1870 – was the religious launching level for the Jewish immigrants who had been a part of the Galveston Motion. It nonetheless stands on Kempner Avenue (named after a distinguished Jewish household that included Mayor Isaac Kempner) in downtown Galveston. The constructing is now a non-public residence. Galveston additionally has a small Conservative synagogue, Congregation Beth Jacob, that was based in 1931.
Robert Goldhirsh, 75, former president of Congregation B’nai Israel and one other descendant of immigrants from the Galveston Motion, has been the caretaker of the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery for the previous three a long time. A number of hundred Jews — a few of whom got here to America within the Galveston Motion — are buried within the cemetery. Henry Cohen is also interred there.
Each Goldhirsh and Kessler say that regardless of perceptions of deep-rooted intolerance in Texas, they’ve encountered little to no antisemitism in Galveston.
“Most people I do know, it makes no distinction that I’m Jewish,” Goldhirsh mentioned. “We’re simply Galvestonians.”
Certainly, Goldhirsh says the most important menace to Jewish life on the island comes from Mom Nature. With local weather change a contributing issue, latest years have seen a big rise in weather-related disasters in Texas. As an illustration, Hurricane Ike in 2008 led to widespread flooding on Galveston Island and triggered water injury in each synagogues.
“Throughout one of many Excessive Vacation companies, there was a hurricane headed this fashion and we needed to cancel for concern that the congregants could be caught in a nasty storm,” he recalled. “You need to hearken to the climate reviews. If they are saying ‘depart,’ you higher depart.”
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