Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from Don Harrison’s presentation on June 22 at the San Diego History Center about the status of pioneer Jews in San Diego County. Other speakers included Joellyn Zollman, curator of the exhibit at the Center on the Jews of San Diego; Mary Ellen Stratthaus and Phil Shapiro, who both spoke about discrimination against Jews in La Jolla; Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League; and Gangadeep Kaur, who told of the experiences of the Sikh community.
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — From the beginning of San Diego as a city, Jews have been entrusted with elected offices.
Looking back more than a century ago, a spot check of the membership of the San Diego City Board of Trustees includes Louis Rose (1853); Marcus Schiller (several years, 1860, 67), J.S. Mannasse (1865, 67, 68); Simon Levi (1889-1899); L.A. Blochman (1905-1907). There may have been others, whose names did not “jump out” at me.
Louis Rose, by virtue of his membership on the San Diego Board of Trustees, also served on the very first County Board of Supervisors. At different times, he also was a school trustee and a postmaster.
J.S. Mannasse was on the Board of Trustees that voted to sell most of today’s downtown at auction to Alonzo Horton.
Marcus Schiller was one of the trustees who voted to set aside for recreational use the land we now call Balboa Park.
Over the years, San Diego Jews have occupied other positions as well. In modern times, there have been Jewish mayors, city council members, state Assembly members, a police chief, sheriff, district attorney, members of Congress from San Diego, and numerous school board members.
Jews in the western United States achieved public office earlier than Jews in the eastern United States, which at first glance may be surprising because Jews arrived earlier in eastern cities such as New York, Boston, and Baltimore. For the most part, they initially arrived as communities, or in the case of immigrants, soon were absorbed into traditional Jewish synagogues and organizations.
The Jews who traveled to the western United States, either by ship or wagon train, generally arrived as individuals, or in small families. Finding no Jewish communities to speak of, they soon became involved in the general community. For the most part, Jews were literate, which made them invaluable in the west where many people could neither read nor write. Many Jews were merchants, whose stores became meeting places, where not only goods, but town gossip, was traded. As trusted proprietors, Jews were recognizable candidates for public office.
And Jews were active in the Masonic Order, a fraternal organization that produced many of San Diego’s civic leaders. Marcus Schiller was master of Lodge No. 35 in 1860 and 1864 and Simon Levi served in the same position from 1882 through 1884. Other Jews, including Louis Rose, were members of the lodge. Rose’s daughter, Henrietta, served as president of the Eastern Star affiliate in 1901.
Jewish “insiders” left their names on places of interest around San Diego County. For example, Roseville, Rose Canyon, Rose Creek, and the Robinson-Rose House in Old Town were named for Louis Rose. Temecula, which once was part of San Diego County, has the Wolf Valley, named after Louis Wolf. Among visitors at his and Ramona Wolf’s home was Helen Hunt Jackson. No, her famous novel “Ramona” was not named for Mrs. Wolf, but in the novel there is a general store patterned after the Wolfs’ store.
Those of you who are interested in real estate prices today would be interested to know that J.S. Mannasse and Marcus Schiller at one time owned all of Rancho Encinitas and Rancho San Dieguito, a swath of land stretching from Solana Beach to southern Carlsbad. And Simon Levi’s brother, Adolph, also had an eye for real estate, purchasing much of Mission Valley, Grossmont, and Lakeside. Two of those properties are still owned by Levi’s descendants today. Adolph also operated the first store built of bricks in Julian. A plaque there commemorates the fact.
During pioneer days, these Jewish “insiders” also were “outsiders” in the sense that they were subject to scorn and derision in the columns of the old San Diego Herald, especially those written by George Derby, the Army lieutenant who wrote what were considered humor columns under such pseudonyms as “Squibob” and “Phoenix.”
Derby on one occasion made up a letter from a fictitious “Moses Bendigo, ” transliterating what Derby imagined was a slurring Yiddish accent. The gist of the letter was that there were so many Jews in San Diego, the town ought to be renamed Jerusalem.
Another entry was a poem by Derby about San Diego, in which he lampooned almost everybody, including Jews. He accused them of selling their goods at over inflated prices – a classic anti-Jewish canard.
I wouldn’t want anyone to get the idea that Jews were the only people to be picked upon. The frontier was a place where rough ethnic humor was commonplace. Everybody seemed to enjoy insulting everyone else. And Jews were not immune from what today we consider politically incorrect behavior. The foreman of the first Grand Jury was Lewis Franklin, an English Jewish immigrant, who wrote a report excoriating the condition of San Diego. In that report, he denigrated three groups of people—Indians, African Americans, and Mexicans. I should remind everyone that this was the time before the U.S. Civil War. California remained part of the Union, but San Diego, which was the terminus of the southern transcontinental trail, was very much a secessionist city. Not everyone—Louis Rose was a strong supporter of the Union– but most were Confederate sympathizers.
My favorite story from the pioneer times tells of what became known as the “San Diego Incident.” The date was Yom Kippur, 1859, and the county grand jury was meeting in the courthouse to consider a routine assault and battery case. Were there any witnesses to the incident, the jury asked. Yes, replied someone, Moses Mannasse saw it. Well where is Moses? – came the question, once asked in Biblical times.
He’s at the Franklin Hotel attending some sort of Jewish meeting, came the reply. The deputy sheriff was dispatched to fetch Moses to the grand jury proceeding so that he could testify. However, Moses declined to accompany the lawman back to the grand jury, explaining that it was the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and Sabbath as well, and that ten men were needed for communal prayer. There were only ten men there, meaning if he left, communal prayers could not be said.
The deputy sheriff returned to the grand jury and explained the situation. The jurors were unsympathetic. Bring him back anyway, they instructed. So the deputy sheriff returned to the Franklin Hotel, two doors away, climbed up the stairs to the meeting room, and tried to force Moses to join him. Moses resisted, so the deputy sheriff again returned to the grand jury. Form a posse, they instructed. Now a number of men trooped up to the services, took Moses by the arms and marched him down stairs, to the grand jury hearing, and sat him down in the witness chair. They asked what he knew about the alleged assault.
Moses folded his arms over his chest, and refused to answer – until the sun went down. The Yom Kippur holiday at that point was over, so Moses told what he knew.
The story doesn’t end there. Lewis Franklin, who some years before had been the foreman of that first county grand jury, and was the owner of the Franklin Hotel, considered the interruption of the Yom Kippur services to be the greatest affront to Jews perhaps since Romans sacked the temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D.
He wrote letter after letter to Jewish publications across the country complaining of the incident, and thereby sparked a debate among Jews. Had Moses done the right thing by refusing to testify on Yom Kippur? Or perhaps should the Jews simply have recessed their prayer service so Moses could testify, and then returned to their prayers? Answers were far from unanimous. Even today, if you get a crowd of Jews, there will be disagreements, over what obligation takes priority.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World and Western States Jewish History. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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