A letter by Dr. Gary S. Cohen in the Feb. 27 Chronicle expresses disappointment over The Chronicle’s omission of notice of the recent death of Gerald Yael Goldberg, a former Lord Mayor of the city of Cork in Ireland.
I share his disappointment. Indeed it is unique for a Jew to be selected to serve as the chief public official in Ireland, an almost completely Catholic country.
Some Jewish people in Milwaukee with good memories will fondly recall an extraordinary time in the fall of 1957 when Robert Briscoe, then Lord Mayor of Dublin, came to visit us.
He spoke at a fundraising event for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation (then called the Milwaukee Jewish Welfare Fund) at the Brynwood Country Club, and met with and inspired young people in the community leadership development program.
Most memorable of all was a reception at the Jewish Community Center to which several thousand Irish people came, including Catholic dignitaries and countless priests and nuns.
Those present may remember the jubilant spirit of the Irish people meeting a Jew, Lord Mayor of Dublin, wearing the chain of office around his neck.
The feeling of great warmth had a deeply religious fervor — Irish Catholics honoring a Jewish Lord Mayor of a most important Catholic city. Catholic-Jewish friendship was served on that uplifting day in Milwaukee history.
Jews have lived in Ireland in small numbers for 1,400 years. A synagogue was created in Dublin in 1660. In the 18th century, Cork had a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery.
When, in the 1880s, the laws of Russia forced Jews to seek asylum in the west, resulting in a large immigration to the United States of Jews escaping pogroms, refugees knocked on any door open to them, including Ireland.
Common destiny
Some 4,000 Russian Jews found homes in Dublin, others in Cork, Limerick and Waterford (famous for its crystal). They came from Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, etc. bringing an intense Yiddishkeit with them just as they did to the United States.
As in America, they brought with them knowledge of use of second hand material, became rag traders and merchants, were artisans, and lifting themselves up by their own boot straps, become an important minority contributor to their new found land of residence.
But Goldberg was not the only Jewish Lord Mayor in Ireland. Briscoe, the first Jewish member of the Irish parliament, became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin.
Briscoe was a leading member of the Irish Republican Army fighting for Irish independence. An active Zionist; he had a role in raising money and in smuggling thousands of Jews into Palestine. Later, his son Benjamin Briscoe served as Lord Mayor of Dublin, after which he was elected to parliament.
What is even more startling is that Sir Otto Jaffe served recently as Lord Mayor of Belfast in Northern Ireland, a city of great tension between Catholics and Protestants. In that city of conflict, Ronnie Appleton, a Jew, only recently retired as Chief Grand Prosecutor.
Some of Israel’s most distinguished citizens came from Ireland. Chaim Herzog, a president of Israel, was born in and retained a close relationship with Ireland.
His father Rabbi Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Ireland, was invited to succeed Rabbi Kook as Chief Rabbi of Palestine. With the creation of the state he became Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi for the state of Israel. Now Chaim Herzog’s son Isaac serves in the Knesset.
Jews of Ireland have influenced the Irish. Many Protestants are Christian Zionists and members of pro-Israel Christian groups.
About 40 years ago there were 16,000 Jews in Belfast, now it has only 600. Yet there are seven active synagogues in Dublin, Cork and Belfast; a Hebrew speaking group in Dublin, and a Jewish-based school in an area of Dublin known as Little Jerusalem.
Jewish people come great distances to get kosher food from BA Erlich, a beef and poultry store there.
We Jewish people feel a strong sense of identity with each other. The problems of the Jews of the Soviet Union became the problems of the Jews everywhere. Prejudice against Jews manifested in recent times in France, The Netherlands, Belgium etc., deeply concerns Jews in Britain, United States, Australia, everywhere.
We Jews constitute a small minority of about 13 million people in the world’s population — a mere trickle in a flood of humanity. But we are a significant minority, bound up together by a common past, beliefs and destiny.
Melvin S. Zaret is executive vice president emeritus of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
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