Tuesday, May 13, 2025

The Galveston Movement

 The New York Times had an article about a new book involving the Galveston Movement, which reminded me of an old book written by a friend.

The new book, which I plan to read, is Rachel Cockerell’s Melting Point. The old one is Henry Cohen: The Life of a Frontier Rabbi by Jimmy Kessler.

Cohen, a native of London, was rabbi of Temple B’nai Isreal in Galveston, Texas from 1888 to 1949. Jimmy was named rabbi of the same congregation in 1976.

Jimmy, who received the first Ph.D. in Texas Jewish history, was on a mission to help people understand the Galveston Movement.

Long before the state of Israel, Jews were fleeing Eastern Europe. People who’d left their property behind and fled for their lives piled up on Manhattan’s East Side. The poverty and crowding were horrific, and people realized the opportunities were better in the heartland.

A plan was put in place to steer immigrants to the Midwest and Southwest.

Galveston was the point of entry, and Rabbi Cohen was the friendly face who met the refugees on the docks, offering food, train tickets inland, places to rest and Yiddish newspapers.

From 1907 to 1914, 10,000 people came through Galveston. Jimmy said that if you looked at thriving Jewish communities in places like Dallas, Kansas City and Denver, you’d find families that had come through Galveston.

It grieved Jimmy that the story wasn’t better known and he sometimes prevailed on the local newspaper to help him spread the word. He said that when he got to the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati to do research, he found 30 boxes of index cards on New York City. After a search, he found two index cards on Texas.

Jimmy retired from B’nai Isreal just before I retired from the newspaper. He died in 2022. Were he alive, he’d rejoice at news of Rachel Cockerell’s book. I rejoice with him.

• Sources: Marc Tracy, “A Jewish Promised Land in … Texas? Rachel Cockerell Had to Know More.” The New York Times, May 9, 2025. It’s here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/books/review/rachel-cockerell-melting-point.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Jimmy Kessler, Henry Cohen: The Life of a Frontier Rabbi; Austin: Eakin Press, 1997.

Rabbi Henry Cohen II, Kindler of Souls; Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

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