Posted on 03/16/2006 4:58:33 PM PST by SJackson
'Oh, gosh, no!" said Joan Finkel, a Dublin Jew, when asked if she wears green on St. Patrick's Day. Neither does she paint a shamrock — a symbol of the Trinity — on her face, as many St. Patrick's Day paraders do. In fact, when asked about what Irish Jews do on March 17, the day Ireland celebrates its patron saint, Finkel was fairly unequivocal. "Not a lot," she said.
Today, approximately 1,000 Jews live in greater Dublin, 500 in the rest of the Republic of Ireland and 350 in Northern Ireland, mostly around Belfast. There are six synagogues in Ireland. Except for a progressive synagogue in Dublin, all the rest are Orthodox. Then again, Irish Orthodoxy is not terribly orthodox. "People often park around the corner and walk to synagogue," said Zalman Lent, an English-born rabbi working in Dublin.
Irish Jewish history stretches over more than a millennium. According to the Annals of Innisfallen, a medieval chronicle, five Jewish families, most likely merchants from France, arrived in 1079, but were swiftly turned away. A second group of Jews, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition, made their way to Ireland in 1496 — and were allowed to remain.
Portuguese Jews established Ireland's first synagogue, opposite Dublin Castle, in 1660. No more than 350 Jews lived in Dublin up until 1880. Eastern European pogroms then lead Dublin's Jewish population to reach 2,000; the Jewish population of the whole of Ireland rose to 4,000. Jewish immigrants fanned out across the island — to Belfast, Cork, Derry, Drogheda, Dublin, Limerick, Lurgan and Waterford. Much of Ireland's present-day Jewish community can trace its roots to this immigrant wave.
According to Larry Tye, author of the book "Home Lands: Portrait of the New Jewish Diaspora," Jews ended up living in Ireland quite by accident. "Ireland," Tye told the Forward, "sounded so much like heymland, the Yiddish word for destination or homeland, that many Yiddish-speaking Russians thought they had reached America when they stopped off in Dublin, while Cork sounded all too much like New York to those unfamiliar with English." Fred Rosehill, a Cork resident whose family has been living in Ireland since 1903, offered a slightly less fanciful explanation. "They were America bound," Rosehill said of his Russian ancestors, "but stopped in the port of Cork for rest and supplies — or were seasick and ill from the voyage — [and so formed] the basis for the Cork Jewish community."
Using English tangled with Yiddish and Russian, many Jewish immigrants became countryside peddlers, selling knickknacks, picture frames, blankets and cheap clothes out of donkey-drawn carts. As the century wore on, Jews entered the middle class and became doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, writers and businesspeople. "The newly arrived Jews placed great emphasis on the importance of learning and education," writes Dermot Keogh in his "Jews in Twentieth-Century Ireland." "Within a generation, children from those families were counted among the most brilliant of their time in law, medicine and the academic world."
Relations between Jews and their non-Jewish countrymen were for the most part amicable. According to Gerald Davis, an Irish Jew who has written about Jewish resonances in James Joyce's "Ulysses," "Ireland has been good to the Jews and we, I suppose, have done Ireland no harm. In Leopold Bloom, James Joyce merged the dual identities of Jew and Dubliner and gave us the unique amalgam that has become one of modern literature's best known protagonists."
When asked why he chose Bloom as the novel's protagonist, Joyce said, "Only a foreigner would do. The Jews were foreigners at that time. There was no hostility towards them, but contempt, yes the contempt people always show for the unknown."
Such contempt notwithstanding, Irish Jews have been remarkably well-represented in the field of politics. Belfast has had a Jewish Lord Mayor, Sir Otto Jaffe, as has Cork (Gerald Goldberg), and Dublin has had two — Robert Briscoe and his son Ben.
Ireland's Jewish population reached its peak — 5,500 Jews — after World War II. After that, the numbers declined. Like their Catholic countrymen, Jews left for economic reasons — to America, to Canada and to Israel after its creation. (Israel's sixth president, Chaim Herzog, was a Belfast native who moved to Palestine in 1935.) But as Dublin has become one of Europe's high-tech capitals, its Jewish community has grown. According to Rabbi Lent, some 15 to 20 families have recently fortified the city's Jewish population.
While most Jewish Dubliners resist the urge to don green on March 17, the Irish Jewish Museum sometimes gets into the spirit — with green bagels. "A lot depends on how close St. Patrick's Day is to when the museum is open," said the museum's curator, Raphael Siev. In March, the museum is only open on Sundays, and if the holiday falls two days before or after, then green bagels are offered. "But if Purim falls at that time, then everyone is involved with that," Siev said.
For some, the proximity of the two drink-filled holidays can pose a unique set of problems. "I remember a couple of years ago when St. Pats fell on the day after Purim," said Steven Jaffe, a Jewish Belfast native now living in London. "There followed the mother of all hangovers in many an Irish Jewish home."
Sarah Shey has written for The New York Times, Time Out New York, the Philadelphia Inquirer and This Old House. She is the author of the children's book "Sky All Around."
---------------------------
MOSES RI-TOORAL-I-AY
The policeman walked out, oh so proud on his beat
When a vision came to him of stripes on his sleeve
"Promotion," he whispered "I'll try for today
So come with me Mr. Ri-tooral-I-ay"
"Come tell me your name" says the limb of the law
To the little fat man selling wares on the straw
"What's that sir? Me name sir? Why, 'tis there on display
And it's Moses Ri-tooral-I-ooral-I-ay"
The trial it came on and it lasted a week
One judge said 'twas German another 'twas Greek
"Prove you're Irish" said the policeman "and beyond it say nay"
And we'll sit on it Moses Ri-tooral-I-ay"
The prisoner stepped up there as stiff as a crutch
"Are you Irish or English or German or Dutch?"
"I'm a Jew sir, I'm a Jew sir, that came over to stay
And my name it is Moses Ri-tooral-I-ay"
"We're two of a kind" said the judge to the Jew
You're a cousin of Briscoe and I am one too
This numbskull has blundered and for it will pay"
"Wisha, that's right" says Moses Ri-tooral-I-Ay
There's a garbage collector who works down our street
Who once was a policeman, the pride of his beat
And he moans all the night and he groans all the day
Singing "Moses Ri-tooral-I-ooral-I-ay"
by Tommy Makem
I've always particularly liked that song, since my grandfather was Morris Turow.... His Sephardic ancestors fled east, rather than north.... But given the Sephardic origins of Ireland's Jewish population, this may be based on a real Jewish name.
Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.
Happy St. Paddy's day!
8^)
5.56mm
Roses are Reddish.
Violets are Bluish.
A leprechaun told me
St. Patrick was Jewish.
I would've gotten beat up for wearing that. She was just under six feet tall, an all-state soccer player, and got away with it.
Well, his real name was Succat, wasn't it?
Wasn't Eamon De Valera, the first president of the Irish Repbulic, a Sephardic Jew of Spanish Heritage?
God Save Ireland, God Save Israel, and God Save the USA!
" (Israel's sixth president, Chaim Herzog, was a Belfast native who moved to Palestine in 1935.)"
Fascinating. I didnt know Palestine was Israel or that it was a country.
L'Chaim of the Irish be with ye...
For the first half of the last century while under the Brits, Palestine was the Jewish homeland, and Palestinians were the Jews that lived there. With statehood, it became Israel, and in the 60's Arafat and his cronies adopted the name.
“Look at the paper, a Jew is mayor of Dublin.”
“Only in America!”
Well Dublin has had a couple of Jewish mayors in recent times, as has Belfast, I wasn't aware of de Valera, but it's possible.
Ian Paisley:
"I know for a fact St. Patrick was a Protestant!"
Irish related ping.
I've heard it credited to Yogi Berra, but that could be wrong.
lol
To be honest, I don't care what the Jewish Community do on St. Patrick's Day!
I know what I'll be doing. Celebrating being Irish - not Catholic, not Protestant, not Jewish, not Muslim - just IRISH, and all that entails.
And I'll be having a good time, thank you very much! :-)
Today I celebrated St. Urho's Day!
Finns figured out a way to get two holidays in a row!
Good for you!
Today, I celebrated my birthday! :0)
Happy birthday Happy - great to hear from youa again!
On the Jewish question he was a riddle, he did guarantee the rights of Jews in the Constitution, but also sent regrets to the German Minister in Dublin on Hitlers death.
Uh, "stole" would be the correct word.
Was it Ireland where the potato knish originated? ;) :)
Roses are red
Paisley is orange
To be a Jew in Belfast
Took a small bit of courage
It just came into my head..
'twas a place in 1935, modern (State of) Israel wasn't created until after WWII. The Brits ran Palestine then and it was called that.
I am writing this reply while wearing my favorite green holie sweatshirt. My Father's family came through Erie around 900 c.e. and left about 900 years later. They were macLorcains then until Cromwell changed it to Larkin. They lost their Hebrew religion and most of the culture, as soon as they landed here the religion was the first to go. I am the first Rabbi in the family in a ton of years. Elvis Costello wrote a beautiful song about "Green, White and Gold Bled Into Red, White and Blue"...it will make you cry like a baby if you love Ireland or the USA. I am just as proud of my Irish heritage as my Hebrew heritage.
"A second group of Jews, fleeing the Spanish Inquisition..."
Not The Spanish Inquisition?
Ok... LOL!!
Guiness does that..
It does... though I have quit drinking. I used to switch between Guinness and Smithwicks.
Nothing wrong with that.
Thanks for a great anecdote.
That's great. I'd do that on Purim, another drinking holiday, but it's hard to find a Jewish bar. :>)
Check your records again. The Celtic church had tenuous connections with Rome at best in the days of St. Patrick. This is the era known to historians as the "Old Catholic" or "Celtic Christian" church in the British Isles. Celtic Christian missionaries were sent all over continental Europe without permission, guidance, or connection to Rome, and besides that in 400 AD the Roman papacy had not asserted itself as it later would in the high middle ages.
The Celtic churches had their own calender, requirements for clergy (they were allowed to marry), and other marked independent features.
The English, Scots and Irish churches were not under the formal control of the Roman see until AD 664...long, long after St. Patrick died and went to Paridise. It's revisionist history (though long accepted) to claim Patrick was Roman Catholic.
I didn't know that, thanks for the information. I'm surprised I didn't know it, cause I think I'm well informed on these matters!
Wikipedia's article on the British Mandate has no mention of Eretz Yisrael - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_of_Palestine (may not be all that surprising cause many of the contributers are lefties), but this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eretz_Israel details it. thanks again.
Hi I think you sent this to me by mistake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.