The Chief Rabbi's Funeral: The Untold Story of America's Largest Antisemitic Riot
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On July 30, 1902, tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of New York’s Lower East Side to bid farewell to the city’s chief rabbi, the eminent Talmudist Jacob Joseph. All went well until the procession crossed Sheriff Street, where the six-story R. Hoe and Company printing press factory towered over the intersection. Without warning, scraps of steel, iron bolts, and scalding water rained down and injured hundreds of mourners, courtesy of antisemitic factory workers, accompanied by insults and racial slurs. The police compounded the attack when they arrived on the scene: under orders from the inspector in charge, who made no effort to distinguish aggressors from victims, officers began beating up Jews, injuring dozens.
To the Yiddish-language newspaper, The Jewish Daily Forward, the bloody attack on Jews was not unlike those many remembered bitterly from the Old Country. But this was America, and Jews were now present in sufficient numbers, and possessed sufficient political clout, to fight back. Fed up with being persecuted, New York’s Jews set a pattern for the future by deftly pursuing justice for the victims. They forced trials and disciplinary hearings, accelerated retirements and transfers within the corrupt police department, and engineered the resignation of the police commissioner. Scott D. Seligman’s The Chief Rabbi’s Funeral is the first book-length account of this event and its aftermath.
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Adults $12
Seniors $10
Students $8
Scott D. Seligman is a national award-winning writer and historian with a special interest in the history of hyphenated Americans. He is a former corporate executive who holds an undergraduate degree in American history from Princeton and a master’s degree from Harvard. His first Jewish-themed book, The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902, won gold medals in history in the Independent Publisher Book Awards and Reader Views Literary Awards and was a finalist in the 2020 National Jewish Book Awards. He lives in Washington DC.
About the Museum at Eldridge Street
The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark that has been meticulously restored. Opened in 1887, the synagogue is the first great house of worship built in America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Today, it is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public who wishes to visit Jewish New York. Exhibits, tours, public programs, and education tell the story of Jewish immigrant life, explore architecture and historic preservation, inspire reflection on cultural continuity, and foster collaboration and exchange between people of all faiths, heritages, and interests.
Image Credit: "The Chief Rabbi's Funeral," Scott D. Seligman, 2024 bookcover.
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