Sam Blumenthal
Sam Blumenthal was raised in an Orthodox home, and his family's arrival in America shaped his lifelong reflections on Jewish identity and adaptation. He recalled how his father, upon settling in Detroit, adopted the surname Blumenthal, borrowed from a well-known local furniture company because it was easy to pronounce, and took the first name Charles after a customer found it simpler than his given Hebrew name. Blumenthal also described how relatives and others fled Europe to escape service in the Russian army and the disabilities imposed on Jews there, bribing border guards and marrying young in order to leave.
As a young man Blumenthal spent time at the orphans home in New Orleans, where he absorbed the spirit of Reform Judaism through contact with members of Reform congregations. He decided to study at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati with the intention of becoming a Reform rabbi, but by the time he was to matriculate in September 1913 he turned away, troubled by the anti-Zionist spirit he found there. He then went to New York to pursue social service work. After coming to Dallas and becoming affiliated with the Federation, he found himself, as he put it, on a teeter-totter, trying to be favorable to both the Orthodox and Reform elements of the community.
Blumenthal was a devoted member of Congregation Shearith Israel, which began as an Orthodox congregation in 1886 and gradually became Conservative after moving. He attended morning services regularly and lamented the decline of Jewish study, recalling the Chevra Mishnayos group that met every Shabbos for decades. He was outraged by an incident in which a visiting woman reciting Kaddish was asked to sit outside the chapel, and he wrote to the congregation's president in protest. He kept a strictly observant kitchen in memory of his mother, and he championed preserving the memorial plaques honoring Shearith Israel's founders, including one to Charlie Goldstein, as well as rescuing old prayer books from the demolished original synagogue.
Full Transcript
Sam Blumenthal and this is Ginger Jacobs and he's telling me about his own development from orthodoxy to conservatism and what happened in the interim. Okay. Yeah, when you were talking about how you came in contact with reform after being brought up in an orthodox home and your contact with reform Judaism in New Orleans when you were with the Orphan's Home? Well, while I was in New Orleans at the Orphan Home, I was thrown directly with the members of the community who were affiliated with reform congregations. And the spirit of the Orphan Home was reformed. And so I absorbed that spirit and to the point where I decided I would continue my studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.
With the intention of eventually becoming a rabbi in the reform movement. but by the time it came to matriculate in September of 1913 I decided that I did not want to become a reformed rabbi because so much of the spirit of the Hebrew college was anti-Zionist and very little pro-Zionist, if any. That was my deciding factor at the time. So then I decided to interest myself in social service work, which was the reason of my going to New York. after I came to Dallas and was associated, affiliated with the Federation, I was thrown in contact with both Orthodox and Reform in the community and so and trying to be favorable to both I was unfavorable to neither it's the way it turned out what about the leadership of the Federation at that time that you were found the leadership who was mostly in the roof there were members of the reform of the temple but many of them who were the leaders there were who were sons and daughters of orthodox parents their parents attended share of Israel but they were the leaders of in the temple Emmanuel Henry S Miller is one the middles mr.
Middenthal's father is present to share this with his pictures in that presence gallery and others never thought it was beneath their dignity let anybody know that the that their parents were members of Sharath Israel really almost a letdown no no no we had no we have no for the affiliation with sheriffism it was a peculiar psychosis in the community at that time that drifting between Orthodox reform it was at the time when to mention Palestine mention Zion was a madame when one of the board members tried to get to the Hadassah on the budget of the Federation just not only a stir but laughter such a wild idea we should contribute support Hadassah that Zion is almost ridiculous that was a spirit 50 years ago it's hard to understand that now they all on the bandwagon what do you credit this to Israel No I talking about in the 1920s these board members coming from conservative and orthodox families.
Was Sheriff Israel originally orthodox? Oh, yes, sure. It was orthodox until they moved up here on the hill. Then the original charter was that of orthodox? Orthodox. Orthodox, sure. Now, many of the members now don't like the idea. It was a sort of a sudden metamorphosis, a transition. They didn't know when the transition took place. It was a gradual outcropping from Orthodox into conservative, whatever you call it, conservative, whatever that means. I still don't know what it means I don't see what's that to me orthodoxy means being grounded in Hebrew lore that's all it means the method or manner of worship is immaterial to me secondary not that I take it lightly but i can condone anyone who's not follow through all the orthodox precepts because after all we're in living in a country where we have to adjust ourselves to the manner of living in the early days it was sin to ride to shul in fact the synagogue in savannah georgia beautiful institution when it comes Friday evening there's a chain drawn across the driveway no entrance to
the beautiful parking lot so through Shabbos the parking lot is vacant if anyone does come to shul Saturday morning he parks in front of someone's home on the side street and the neighbors complainers what's the matter with you Jews you got a beautiful parking lot and you put a chain in front and you park in front of my house go explain that to people so people don't go to shul what so what do you do you just keep the chain there and keep them from coming to show if they live too far out or you let the chain down and let them drive in on
the parking lot and let them come to Shul you know there families there from the old time or five and six generations back whose parents parents and grandparents were strictly Orthodox and they are the ones who maintain that practice complete elimination of parking on the on the parking lot call that orthodoxy in those days you had to you had the on span and their favorite so that was that was labor but today you you step out the gas that's labor don't see the point my friends are our rabbi weren't it actually she walks to and fro so it's not convenient to come always come twice
a day to comfort for minchim ma'ar on shabbat in fact the new rabbi rabbi Friedman he lives in the village here there at Royal Meadow Royal Lane we're in the village or later Preston oh it's about a mile so he walks a shoulder in the morning and we see him at 12 o'clock in the end of the day he's walking on Preston and no sidewalk but he was walking on the grass but it's hot so he doesn't come from mince and marv twice a day is just too much so of course he has to follow through the precepts of orthodoxy excuse me and the way
he was oriented I guess but he doesn't want to go contrary to the opinion of the some people that come here but everybody else comes to shul in the car and only the rabbi the assistant rabbi you shouldn't be seen and the chazan mustn't be seen writing on Shabbat is grouch of me. No rhyme or reason. That's what my attitude. Now Jenny tries to It's very hard to avoid riding, especially on Yonda. So that's why the Russian and Yom Kippur, the family goes over here to Tifereth, Israel, causes him walking distance. Russian and Yom Kippur, once a year, don't ride. And we got it convenient here anyway, so why not obey yourself of it?
that's the attitude trying to keep a strict home out of respect for the memory of parents especially mother this kitchen here is is exactly the way mama wolf conducted it every detail and bars has she got an eagle eye and a hawkish eye don't do mix oh you know how did this one get in this drawer it belongs in the middle of the place of course here it's easy to get mixed up with but Harry he didn't have that kind of a bringing up the kind of home he came from back in Tennessee when he first married friends he didn't know what is all this
about a little figure and for years it was hard to really adjust his mind to it he wasn't born into any atmosphere like that he didn't have an orthodox home he didn't have a reform home it was he had jewish parents and that's all they knew who were very lackadaisical you know small town in tennessee with no jewish contacts so it was it just creates a little friction you did this this part belongs here not over here to me it's I go along with it because I don't I don't present it but it's part of my bringing up too we had it we had that
kind of a home too but what's the sake of fairness what happened you get fairly you mustn't touch the handle of this top with the handle of that then then you break the whole thing and it wide open and it just a question is a fridge here that you heard that only had a rabbi here in the some few years ago would permit you to use a telephone answer he locked lock put a lock of the telephone and it an orthodox congregation they presented you can use a phone on Shabbos takes a lot of readjustment there for instance I had a an application left last
summer here at Sherath Israel don't like to repeat it to all but that the I'll tell you about the situation was for about three years I was coming regularly every morning to shoppers last summer wherever nagran I went on vacation so we had to have a substitute on Monday and Thursday for someone to read the Torah, to read the Torah a few sentences twice a week so I don't know who engaged in presumably a Reverend Ardahl asked Rabbi Yalper Roberts of the Akiva to officiate on the Thursday to read the Torah well he's a little out of the bar which are ready after I would
say he's strictly Orthodox like I said if you could if there's such a thing as strictly Orthodox anyway he that's his his dictum but he no women must sit in the congregation when he's there this is conservative congregation we do sit so with it when you hire a reader he suddenly becomes the dictator and he his victim prevails so there was Dori Goodman was saying Kaddish you know Dori Goodman she must sit out in the hall it was on a Monday morning he tells one of the machers there and Mr. Leach tells her he gets a chair and puts a chair outside the door in the hall outside the chapel she agreeable so she sat out there But Thursday she didn come The following week a strange woman came She comes to the market the gift market They have a gift market for a week.
And she comes every year to this gift market. somewhere in the east or the north. I've seen her several years coming there. So she came there on a Monday morning. I welcomed her. We've seen her there two or three times in the previous years. Every time she came she always lent a donation with Mr. Jacobs. She entered into service and she recited Kaddish, the art site or whatever it was. So Rabbi Eleanor Robinson tells her, she can't sit here. So Mr. Leach goes up to her. He says, I put a chair out in the hall, if you don't mind. The rabbi won't proceed with the woman in the congregation.
She gets up and she looks at that chair out in the hall. You want me to sit in that chair? I said, so he nodded his head. Huh, she walked out, never to return. That was terrible, terrible. That's not orthodox. Imagine what you did to that woman. It was her habit to come here once or whenever she's down to come for a morning service and you drove her out with a whip. Well I was so burned up. After the service I raised my voice. Randonsky was there at that time. He had the outside and a few others. I raised my voice. I says, it's a shund in the harbor what happened here this morning.
This lady comes here every year when she's in Dallas. And we insulted her. She doesn't know why she was insulted. She cannot understand grasp what the whole idea prevails here And she will never come back again I said that a terrible sin and a disgrace I says and this is a conservative congregation Do we take our orders from outside or do we have our own set of rules so Mr. Lee says don't holler at me I said I'm not hollering at you I said I'm hollering at the whole congregation that put them in a situation like this I came home and immediately I wrote a letter to Edward Rosenberg who was president telling in detail what happened that morning and he called me up as soon as he got the letter he says we've made arrangements for someone to read the Torah oh yeah in my letter I says his congregation is so bankrupt that we don't have anyone in the congregation who can read from the Torah nobody in the congregation can read you have to hire somebody mehud's law so he covered me up on this we've made arrangements so Mr.
Risman was recently was called which was good proper thing it could have been done in the first place we have our own talent why do we have to hire somebody and I'm sure everybody didn't do it for love of uh... of... there must have been somewhere so anyway so that brings up the subject of degree of orthodoxy how you can run amok by carrying it too far without any rhyme or reason because that incident would remain in my mind to the end of my days. I was very wrought up that whole day. Jenny, when I came home, Jenny said, what is the matter? I said, I got to write a letter.
I wrote a letter. Tell me about this plank at the cemetery now. Out at the shared digital cemetery there is a bronze plaque. dedicated to five early members of Sherry There's a congregation who constituted the Hebr Kedisha. I beg pardon. Hebr Mishnayis. That's something else. Hebr Mishnayis, which is the study of the Torah. This plaque is out there on one of the outhouses on the cemetery and should be placed on the walls of Sherr's Israel congregation where we are now located. The five names on this tablet are Rabbi Kleinman, Mr. Aronoff was the grandfather of Dr. Aronoff that's what I said help me out I didn't get all the names Aronoff, Kleinman, Goldman the father of J.
Goldman. Wasn't Mr. Arlowitz there? No, I don't think so. That's three we got there. What? Goronzig, Arnough, Kleinman. I once had it in my mind but it's faded out now to what years you'll think of it in a minute when did they study from what years to what years you know it's a Torah group did they study on Shabbat afternoon how was it since the inception of congregation shared to Israel in 1886 to about 1920, 1925. If any of them survived after that period. Papa Garanzi passed away in 1925. The climate probably just before that Sorry enough over just about that a period of 40 years we might say They studied every week?
Yeah, every Shabbos. That was a habit. It wasn't Shabbos unless you came to study. What kind of shul is this? You don't study Mishanias. Who studies Mishanias now? We've got beautiful books there. in the chapel no one ever opens that's that's our car soon those books are good our Torah our Torah is in the ark all those scrolls are archives the way they read it without any rhyme or reason the way it's read it's really it's disturbing to a person who really wants to get some gist out of it the whole congregation don't even follow in the text use we have supplied with plenty of texts no one follows it maybe if you agree the English translation or read the commentaries but you turn around and look at the congregation see who is reading it who oh yeah oh is our what you think you think our list all right well bless his soul he was a darling old man so there was the sorrows and mr.
from yeah that's what that's five order with his granddaughter is the wife of Rabbi Robert Kahn of Houston you know they're always family and they lived on Peabody so that's and they memory should be preserved and another tablet there is a marble tablet it's on the outside of the building this tablet is on the inside where nobody sees it but there's a marble tablet on the outside of this outhouse there is a supply house when you're talking about an outhouse you're talking about a supply house supply house yeah supply house with what supplies they got there I don know what do they keep there anyway
on the outside on the outside wall is a marble tablet commemorated to Charlie Goldstein back in 1886 one of the founders if not the founder of share with Israel and his memory that that tablet certainly belongs that is certainly a piece of archive belongs on the wall of the lounge or wherever you please if someone would say I'll give you $300 to put it on that wall it would take it for $300 you get your name on the wall there's hundreds and hundreds of names here on the wall for all the way from 100 to 300 whatever whatever the price range has been through the
years. And they're still putting more tablets on the walls, if you know. They've got room for that, but room for a little tablet that size. In fact, when the old share of Israel was raised to make way for the Thornton freeway. Sheriff Israel was level to the ground. There were over 50 Sephorim left with the bricks and mortar on the ground. Did I ever tell you this? And a boy came to me. He said, this is a Jewish book, isn't it? Yes, where did you get it? there where they're tearing down that that church there's any more there yeah lots of them I'll give you a 10 cents for everyone you bring me I had no idea how many would I thought maybe six eight ten He brings me 50 books.
I gave him five dollars. I kept my word. I was like, give me ten cents. It was the machzerum from all the holidays, sephorium, and chomoshum. and we were left there in a pantry in a back room of the place of matters of the chapel in which it was under the you remember the big steps in front well this was like a tunnel under from the base of matters into under the steps where they stashed away things that they get them out of the way so these books were stashed away and were left there when they tore the building down all the bricks went on top of it when they tore down those steps the steps was on top of all the way and these boys are rummaging through the thing without
kids our urchins so I ransomed these books put them in a box and I wrote rather I sold them after we were over here this incident these urchins these books he says bring them to the shore we'll find a place for them so I brought them to show there was no one there at the time so I put it outside his door and what became of it I don't know but I know they buried them at the cemetery there's no sign of it anywhere they don't need it because it was we don't use those textbooks anymore in the service if you remember the old time
your daddy had them so you know what I'm talking about they don't use them that's we're conservative now so they they have what they call the Geniza they bury old books old Talasim and so on that better have served their day so books that were brought from Europe a lot of these these books had names of old-time families here books that were with with the name to the families and and they were brought from Europe as your dad had them, the other family. So there's no use for them here. There's no place for them in the sheriff. Who wants them? So you bury them, which is I guess the proper thing to do.
You have no use for them. Did you save any of that as much, sir? I have a few. I gave away most of them. I gave some of them to this rabbi in Corsicana. When I showed him, I said, here in the Tri-Cities, the Hebrew school is on the budget. You know what Sam was saying? He said to me, the wash should be unwashed. And they always turn the budget down for the Hebrew School and Federation? And he said a remark like that, you see who was running the Federation, the un-washed. That was an insult to his own parents. That's right. He didn't realize it.
He was a man already in his 60's when he said that. He was older than Nathan. Nathan was in his 50's at the time. Oh, I'm talking like an old man. You remember what happened, you remember how it was. So many things happened. And I had to be, you know what a teeter-totter is? is I had to be in the middle of the theater taller one foot on this side one foot on that side keep a balance until to the point sometimes once I got filled up and I spoke myself too loudly Mr. Hexter of JK Hexer sat me down fast for that remark. I remarked about certain things, they were making a new budget and the JCRS was getting five thousand dollars, called JCRS and now it's the American Medical Center.
Okay. You remember Jewish Consummate Relief Society, Dr. Spielberg, and they reduced it from five thousand four thousand dollars and nobody made any explanation why or anything I says I was some early incense over I says this is arbitrary giving him give an example you know there's just an example that I brought up with it does help the transition from this early generation to the latter generation it's transition changes of names and changes in attitudes towards the Jewish problems interests you told your own story though how did your name change the place of others I presume that my father came to this country with that name but when they came to Detroit people how
do you spell it so he found that it was a barrier trying to get people to pronounce his name so in Detroit there was a prosperous furniture store Blumenthal furniture company and they had billboards all over town your credit is good at blumenthal's furniture company that's a nice name it's easy to pronounce and people won't ask how to spell it because it's on the billboards all over town it's very simple besides it's a it's a good name to be associated with it augurs well for the future so he became blumenthal it was he is a pronounced and he is it for his citizenship papers bears
the name Blumenthal Charles Blumenthal Charles was also an adopted name when he was in his early days and trying to make a living calling out people to sell his wares one woman asked him when he approached that knocked on the door after he had made it several sales he she wanted what is what is your first name could go tell her my name is Alma Menachem she's all right Charlie she called she she did this traveling that's a good place today's name so he became Charles Charles ever since adopted name Charles easy to pronounce it you had talked about some of the people changing their
names because of the Russian grant well it it convenient that those who the wits and ski mean nothing in this country why should we be burdened with the why should future generations be burdened with with a name that really has no meaning had meaning in Europe but not here why shouldn't we nothing wrong make it simplify it it's it's convenient so so miss Williams what was her name you know miss Williams oh yeah Hannah Williams yes it was my son I presume or some such name was dollars Williams but you see the name in print you would know she was Jewish it's a disguise I
guess why does why do we have to absolutely show definitely let the world know that that we are of Jewish persuasion this isn't important especially an item in the newspaper that has nothing to do with your religion so so with Sophie would name his Williams it's okay do you think this was conscientiously done I don't know what the most I don't know what the motive was it at the time must have been some reason for it to avoid the anti-semitism in a small town if you're living in a town if If you're a merchant, if some prejudiced person sees a Jewish name, he won't walk
into the store. It's a Jew store. But if it's Williams or Smith or Jones, we had a Smith here, and I presume that was their name all the time. And you know the Smith family, they came from Ireland, or at least Mrs. Smith did. I don't know what her name was there. but so what so Smith so so maybe it was Schmidt so what so Schmidt is a German name so what the difference whether it a German name or an English name it not a Jewish name you gonna tell you can just anglicize the name so what wrong with that nothing wrong unless it's it's a cover-up now for instance here's an episode in Savannah Georgia there was a young man by the name of Matthew Levy after he graduated University of Georgia and he as a lawyer he went north he settled in New York City and became prominent in political circles and he became a justice on
the Supreme Court of the state of New York Matthew Levy so one day a petitioner comes to the court whose name is Cohn he wants it to change change it to a more Americanized sounding name and Justice Levy asked him why do you want to change your name he says he says my name Cohen is a detriment in my business he says if I had a name that didn't sound Jewish I could fare better in my business he says petition not granted my name leaving didn't prevent me from getting from sitting on this bench that's what that's a Libby told him you got a Libby
he rose to be president of the universe all to their credit they didn't change their names you read if you read the sport page would you say then the people are not worried about their identity so people are not covering up their ancient identities now as reason there's a sort of a feeling of pride now we stand for something now we're not outcasts in the in the immigrant was a rag peddler junk peddler pants peddler now we're in all the professions high in political circles so that a foreign name isn't isn't a derogation we had a postmaster with a friend with a with a Polish
name what was his name and in a ski he's still living postmaster is about 20 years ago he was in Texas here recently for one of the big political organizations his name ends in a ski we had Janowski or recently you know in all this Watergate Genossi Polish name he changed his name it's that there's no detriment to him you it's yeah you had started to say about people's changing and are people changing their name in Europe before leaving are that about that to protect themselves against the the draft and being thrown into the that the contemptible Russian army who wants to serve it serve
the Russian government for what you didn't get their parents lived in misery it's third-class citizens every civil disability the confronting them had no voice no vote so why serve in the army if you get out of it they run from it there's time to go before the time to go to the army you skip the country so you you get married and you're and go that's the way my folks came bribe the guard at the border and he turns his back and you walk over into the next country make bribe your way till you get here