Shalom and top of the morning to you

By Roberta Sotonoff

I told a friend of mine I was doing a story on the Jews of Ireland.

“Are there more than a dozen?” she laughingly asked.

Well, when you think of Ireland, shamrocks and leprechauns come to mind—not Jews. But the truth is that they have dwelled in Ireland since biblical times. In fact in 1555, a Jew, William Annyas, was mayor of Youghal in County Cork.

Many Irish Jews are of Lithuanian descent.  Funny how they got there. Between 1864 and the early 1900s, they emigrated for the usual reason–to escape the pogroms. They were off to the Golden Medina, America, when the boat stopped at Cork. They didn’t speak English.  When they heard Cork, they thought they were in New York. They got off the ship and that was that.  

Good they did. The Emerald Isle can lay claim to some legendary lansmen.  

“Ireland is the birthplace of a famous Jew that never existed,” says Debbie Briscoe of Dublin’s Irish-Jewish Museum.

She is referring, of course, to Leopold Bloom, the protagonist in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

A non-fictional one, Chaim Herzog, served as the sixth president of Israel. Shortly after he was born in Belfast, he moved to Dublin’s Liberties neighborhood His father, Yitzchak HaLevi Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland (1936-1959). Herzog never forgot his Irish heritage. During his presidency, St. Patrick’s Day became an Israeli holiday.  Irish UN forces soldiers would come from Lebanon to celebrate.

And let’s not forget Dublin’s Lord Mayors, Robert Briscoe, who served two one-year terms in 1956 and 1961and Ben in 1988. Just like Chicago’s Richard Daleys – both father and son mayors and both Irish.

During World War I, Robert Briscoe was interned in Germany. A bishop got him sprung if he promised never to fight for the Brits. An easy promise for an Irishman to make. On his way back, he befriended Éaman de Valera, who served as both president of Ireland and head of the IRA. Briscoe helped secure arms for the organization.

Debbie and Carol Briscoe–daughters-in-laws of the late Robert and sister-in-law and wife of Ben–greet us at the museum.  Located in a non-descript building on Walworth Road, the delightful facility houses a mishmash of memorabilia—posters, pictures and letters here, a menorah there and everywhere objects relating to Jewish life –bris(circumcision), bar mitzvahs, holidays  and weddings. My favorite things are a white satin kepah (skullcap) decorated with shamrocks and a can of Guinness with Hebrew writing.  

We climb upstairs to the old Walworth Road Synagogue, which is no longer used, except with special permission for weddings and bar mitzvahs. It too contains artifacts including a collection of ark covers.
The sanctuary confuses me. Though most of the Irish Jews came from Eastern Europe, the bima (alter) is in the middle like a Sephardic shul. Women are separated from men (orthodox tradition) but there is an organ (more likely found in a Reform temple). Most practicing Irish Jews consider themselves Progressive – like the synagogue, a goulash of tradition and customs.
The museum, located in the old Jewish area known as “Little Jerusalem” or Portobello in the Liberties section, was bounded by Clanbrassil Street, the Grand Canal, Camden Street and South Circular Road. Most of the shops were located on South Circular Road. In the day, those stores were a boom to Christian Sunday shoppers. None of their shops were open. Today, it is no longer a Jewish neighborhood.

“Irish Jews have not assimilated, but integrated,” says Debbie Briscoe.

That is a good thing. Over the years, there have been few cases of anti-Semitism. When the Jews came, they were very poor and sold wares from door to door. They made friends with rural peasants with who they could identify because peasants were also persecuted.

In 1846, with the help of Daniel O’Connell, the renowned champion for Catholic Emancipation, the British “De Judaismo” law, stipulating that Jews must dress in a certain way, was repealed.  A few years later during the Potato Famine, the biggest charity givers to Irish plight were Jews, the Baron Lionel de Rothschild family.

The two worst episodes in the 20th century include a small pogrom that emerged in Limerick in 1904. Father John Creagh, a fire and brimstone orator, urged his congregation to boycott Jewish businesses warning, among other things, that the Jews were usurers preying on the poor. The priest was later banished to the Philippines but the Jews left Limerick anyway.

The second began right before World War II, Charles Bewley an anti-Semitic, Irish envoy to Germany made the Jews feel unwelcome.

He was afraid if more immigrated to Ireland, they would live off the land like many Irish did and take their jobs. Untrue. The Jews were mostly merchants and moneylenders. Even so, most Irish were indifferent to the Holocaust.

On the whole, Jews and gentiles always got along well. They often lived next door to one another. On the Sabbath, a Christian kid would be hired to turn off the stove, lights, or whatever needed to be done.

Like other Irish, many of the young people have migrated to places like the U.S., Canada, England and Australia.  But, non-practicing Jews seem materialize around Passover. This year, over 200 showed up in Cork– I guess a good bowl of matzo ball soup brings people out of the woodwork.

The population of Irish Jews is declining.  When Stuart Rosenblatt of the Jewish Genealogical Society talks about dwindling Irish Jewry– which now numbers only about 1,100– he relates a minion story. (Jews must have 10 men, a minion, for prayer services.) 

“Every morning a man would come to the shul.  Instead of praying, he would read the newspaper. The eight others complained about his unacceptable behavior to the rabbi.”

“The rabbi thought for a minute and said, ‘If I talk to him and he gets mad, he won’t come. Where will that leave you? No minion.’”

“There will always be a (Jewish-Irish) community,” Rosenblatt adds.

At least enough for a minion.

IF YOU GO:
The Irish Jewish Museum is located at 3-4 Walworth Road (off Victoria Street), Dublin. It’s two blocks south of South Circular Road, just east of Victoria Street. Hours: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday 11.00-3.30, May thru Sept and Sundays only 10.30-2.30 throughout the winter. For group tours which should be arranged in advance or for information, call +353 857 067 357.

For Irish-Jewish walking tours, contact Pat Liddy’s Walking Tours of Dublin, Ltd.; tel: 353 87 252-6701; website: www.walkingtours.ie:  email: info@walkingtours.ie.

To contact the Irish Jewish Genealogical Society, tel: 353 1 677 3808; email: masterc@medianet.ie