History of the Jews in Alaska
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The history of the Jews in Alaska began prior to the Alaska Purchase, when Jews from Imperial Russia lived there periodically as fur traders, and there has been a permanent active Jewish community since the 1880s. The Klondike and Nome gold rushes brought Jews to Alaska to seek fortunes as miners and businessmen, and resulted in the first organized Jewish communities. In the Nazi period, Jewish refugee resettlement in Alaska was seriously considered by the government, but after facing backlash, never came to be. Alaskan Jews have been prominent in business and politics before and after statehood, and include senators, governors, mayors, judges, and more. Today, there are Jews in every urban area of the state.[1]
Early history
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Dawson_Yukon_1899.jpg/220px-Dawson_Yukon_1899.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Dexter_Saloon%2C_Nome%2C_Alaska.jpg/220px-Dexter_Saloon%2C_Nome%2C_Alaska.jpg)
In the 1850s and 1860s, during the time of the Russian America colony in Alaska, Jewish fur traders from Russia working for the Russian-American Company had commercial ties with the San Francisco Jewish community. After the United States purchased the Alaskan Territory from Russia in 1867, some Jews from San Francisco who worked as miners, merchants, fur dealers, and traders moved up to Alaska.[1] At the formal transfer of sovereignty in Sitka, Jewish soldier Benjamin Levi (Levy) was the one who took down the Russian flag and put up the flag of the United States.[2] Two Jews from San Francisco, Louis Sloss and Lewis Gerstle, were involved in the founding of the Alaska Commercial Company in 1868.[3] In 1885, the first permanent Jewish settlers, Robert Gottstein and his wife, moved to Juneau.[1] Their son Jacob, who settled in Anchorage soon after it was founded, started a successful business that would later merge with Carrs and his wife, Anna, was a teacher who eventually helped found Alaska's first Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).[3]
When the Klondike Gold Rush took off in 1897, a number of Jews were among the businessmen and fortune seekers. At one point during the gold rush up to 200 Jews were living in Dawson City,[3] and the first Jewish religious services in the territory are thought to have taken place there.[1] Sid Grauman of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre was among the Jews living in Dawson during the gold rush, and spent his youth there with his family.[4] A Jewish cemetery in Dawson that was created during the rush, Bet Chaim, was rediscovered in 1998.[5]
Jews also ventured to the Nome Gold Rush that began not long after, and in 1900 Sam Bayles, brother of prominent Alaskan pioneer businessman Isadore "Ike" Bayles, arrived in Nome with the first Torah in Alaska.[6] After hearing about the discovery of gold, 19 year old Max Hirschberg biked 1,100 miles from Dawson to Nome in ten weeks, despite freezing temperatures and extreme weather.[7] Famous frontier lawman Wyatt Earp and his Jewish common-law wife Josephine Earp earned a fortune running a successful saloon, The Dexter, in Nome during the peak of the rush.[8][9] Some 60 Jews attended Rosh Hashanah services in Nome in 1900.[1]
The Jewish community in Fairbanks was first organized by immigrant Robert Bloom in 1904.[6] Between 1904-1910 during the Fairbanks Gold Rush, there were enough Jews to have regular High Holy Days services.[10] In 1908, the Fairbanks community formally organized Congregation Bikkur Cholim, and the Clay Street cemetery still has a Jewish section dating back from this period. Following the gold rush, there were few Jews remaining in Fairbanks other than Robert Bloom and his wife, Jessie, who came from Ireland in 1912. They continued to be the driving force in the Fairbanks community, Jewish and otherwise, for decades.[10] Jessie Bloom started the first Girl Scouts chapter in Alaska in 1925.[6] Robert Bloom was among those who helped establish the base that became Fort Wainwright, and was among the founders of the University of Alaska. When World War II brought a number of Jewish GIs to the Fairbanks area, the Blooms acted as “unofficial chaplains” and opened their home to many servicemembers.[11]
Leopold David became the first mayor of Anchorage after it was legally incorporated in 1920.[1]
1940s - 2000s
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Ernest_Gruening_%28D-AK%29.jpg)
In 1939, Ernest Gruening was appointed Governor of the Alaska Territory, a position he held until 1953. Often called “the father of Alaskan statehood”, he lobbied and advocated intensely for Alaska to become a state and when it did, he became of the first U.S. Senators.[12][13]
In 1906, Fairbanks resident Abe Spring, himself a Jewish immigrant from Russia, proposed that Jewish refugees fleeing Russian programs be settled in Alaska and the idea was rejected by the U.S. Congress. Decades later, in the face of Nazi persecution of Jews in Germany, a similar idea was considered. Following Kristallnacht, the Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes proposed a Jewish settlement in Alaska with the aim of both building up Alaska and its industry and creating an opportunity to allow in more German Jewish refugees. The result was the Slattery Report and the introduction of a bill to make the idea possible, which was roundly reject by the Alaskan public who did not think that such “aliens” would fit in well.[14][15] The bill died in subcommittee in 1940 and the plan never came to fruition, but the subject garnered fresh interest in 2007 with the publication of the bestselling novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.[7]
During World War II, Jewish GIs were among the tens of thousands of servicemembers who were stationed in Alaska. The Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage retained a Jewish chaplain between the 1940s and 1980s, changing every two years and rotating between Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox leaders.[10] In 1974, Alaska’s only mikvah was established at Elmendorf Air Force Base for the Jewish chaplain’s wife and the broader community.[16] These chaplains often ended up serving the entire Jewish community in Alaska, travelling to cities, small towns, and outposts for a bar mitzvah or to offering a learning opportunity.[17][10] From the 1940s through the 1970s, Jewish military personnel outnumbered Jewish civilians in Alaska.[3]
Zachariah “Zach” J. Loussac was the mayor of Anchorage from 1948 to 1951. A Jewish immigrant from Russia, he became a local philanthropist after selling his business and contributed greatly to Anchorage’s first purpose-built library. While the library building he helped make a reality no longer exists, the main branch of the Anchorage public library system is still named in his honor.[18]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/Jay_Rabinowitz.jpg/220px-Jay_Rabinowitz.jpg)
The largest congregation in Alaska, Beth Sholom in Anchorage, was first formed in 1958 and became affiliated with the Reform movement in 1960. The congregation’s small first synagogue was built in 1964, and was used for religious school classes and Shabbat services but not for the High Holy Days when larger facilities were required. As membership grew, a new larger synagogue was required and was opened for the congregation’s 30th anniversary in 1988.[19]
Jay Rabinowitz was a Justice on the Alaska Supreme Court for over thirty years, from 1965-1997, and was Chief Justice for 12 of those years. His tenure began during the first years of statehood, when much of Alaska’s constitution was untested, and many of the over 1,200 opinions (along with 200 dissents) he wrote while on the court have defined the legal structure governing Alaska. The Rabinowitz Courthouse in Fairbanks is named in his honor. [20]
Avrum “Av” M. Gross served as the Alaska Attorney General from 1974-1980 while Jay Hammond was Governor, despite their differing personal politics.[21]
The Jewish Congregation of Fairbanks was incorporated in 1980, started its summer rabbinic intern program in 1989, received a full-size Torah in 1991, and in 1992 purchased a synagogue building and became known as Congregation Or HaTzafon. In 1997, the congregation became officially affiliated with the Reform movement.[10] It is possibly the northernmost permanent synagogue in the world.[22]
Chabad emissaries, or shluchim, Yosef “Yossi” and Esty Greenberg arrived in Alaska in 1991 to set up a Chabad center in Anchorage and soon started prayer services and a preschool.[16]
In the 1990s, the popular TV show Northern Exposure centered on a young Jewish doctor moving from New York to a fictionalized small town in Alaska.[7]
A demographic study of Jewish Alaskans was conducted between 1994-1999 by Professor Bernard Reisman of Brandeis University. It found that contrary to popular assumption, the Alaska Jewish community was more, not less, affiliated on average than other Jewish Americans in the “Lower 48”.[23]
In 2005, Congregation Sukkat Shalom in Juneau opened its first synagogue after years of meeting in member’s homes.[24]
Present day
There are an estimated 6,000 Jews in living in Alaska,[7] most of whom reside in Anchorage, followed by Fairbanks and Juneau and many smaller communities such as Sitka and Ketchikan.[3] The Jewish community often refers to itself as the “Frozen Chosen”.[25] There are presently two permanent rabbis in the state, both of whom are in Anchorage, Michael Oblath of Congregation Beth Sholom and Yossi Greenberg of Chabad.
Current Anchorage mayor Ethan Berkowitz is the third Jew to become mayor of the city.[26] Democrat Les Gara and Republican Jay Ramras are two other Jews prominent in state politics.[7]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Mountain_Ripinski_Alaska.jpg/220px-Mountain_Ripinski_Alaska.jpg)
In 2013, Chabad’s Alaska outpost, headed by Yossi and Esty Greenberg, opened a new campus in Anchorage that services the Alaskan Jews as well as visitors. The state’s only mikvah is also on the campus, built after the one at Elmendorf Air Force Base was demolished in 1999.[16] In addition, the Chabad center houses a preschool and the Alaska Jewish Museum, which showcases the ways that Jews have made an impact in Alaska and explores Jewish history, culture, and the Holocaust.[27]
In 2016, Captain Michael Bram became the first Jewish chaplain at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson in 25 years.[28]
There are at least four mountains named for Jews in Alaska, Mount Ripinski after Solomon Ripinski (Ripinsky), Mount Neuberger after Richard L. Neuberger, Mount Applebaum after Samuel Applebaum, and Mount Gruening for Ernest Gruening.[2][8] Additionally, the Gerstle River was named for Lewis Gerstle.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "The Jewish Community of Alaska". Beit Hatfutsot Open Databases Project. The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot.
- ^ a b Postal, Bernard (1960). "United States: New States" (PDF). American Jewish Yearbook. 61: 165–169.
- ^ a b c d e "Virtual Jewish World: Alaska, United States". Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
- ^ "History of Jewish presence in Klondike on display at MacBride Museum". CBC News. CBC.
- ^ "Jewish Cultural Society of Yukon to research Gold Rush history". CBC News. CBC.
- ^ a b c Johnson, Kaylene. "Strength in Low Numbers" (PDF). Alaska Inside.
- ^ a b c d e Rosen, Yereth. "Alaska's Jewish community predates US settlement". Anchorage Daily News.
- ^ a b Friedman, Gabriel. "8 Facts About Jewish Alaska". The Forward.
- ^ Brooks, James. "Alaska state archive digitizes Wyatt Earp papers". Juneau Empire.
- ^ a b c d e "About Us". Congregation Or HaTzafon.
- ^ "1921-1925 Robert Bloom". UA Journey. University of Alaska.
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: Missing or empty|url=
(help) - ^ "Earnest Gruening". UA Journey. University of Alaska.
- ^ Green, David B. "This Day in Jewish History - 1887: Alaska's First Governor Is Born". Haaretz.
- ^ Kizzia, Tom. "Part 3: 'Alaska wants no misfits' Sanctuary- Alaska, the Nazis and the Jews". Anchorage Daily News.
- ^ Berman, Gerald S. (Summer–Autumn 1982). "Reaction to the Resettlement of World War II Refugees in Alaska". Jewish Social Studies. 44 (3/4). Indiana University Press: 271–282.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: date format (link) - ^ a b c Sue, Fishkoff. "Moose in the mikvah is no sweat for Alaskan Jews". J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
- ^ Marcus, Jacob Rader (1989). United States Jewry, 1776-1985, Volumes 1-2. Wayne State University Press. pp. 76–77.
- ^ Musgrave, Jackie; Stockert, Clare. "Our History 1917-2011" (PDF). Anchorage Public Library.
- ^ "Beth Sholom History". Congregation Beth Sholom.
- ^ "Jay Rabinowitz Public Service Award". Alaska Bar Association.
- ^ Hsieh, Jeremy. "Avrum Gross: Gov. Hammond's 'long-haired hippie' ally, attorney general and in-house antagonist". Alaska Public Media.
- ^ Danailova, Hilary. "Alaska's Far-North Jewish Culture". The New York Jewish Week.
- ^ "Alaskan Jews trying to connect, says study". J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
- ^ Carroll, Tony. "Alaska town dedicates synagogue". Ynet.
- ^ Staub, Molly Arost. "The Frozen Chosen". The Forward.
- ^ Gloster, Rob. "Anchorage's Jewish mayor is one of the 'Frozen Chosen' — and an S.F. native". J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
- ^ "Alaska opens first Jewish museum". The Times of Israel.
- ^ Doogan, Sean. "First Jewish chaplain in 25 years settles in at JBER". Anchorage Daily News.
External Links
- Congregation Beth Sholom, Anchorage
- Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska, Anchorage
- Congregation Or HaTzafon, Fairbanks
- Congregation Sukkat Shalom, Juneau
- Alaska Jewish Museum
- Alaska Jewish Visitor Information