By Mark D. Zimmerman
MELVILLE, New York — Donald Trump just completed a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, where they discussed the Russia-Ukraine war.
Alaska had an indigenous population for thousands of years, but was first settled by Russians in the mid-17th century. While Spain also claimed Alaskan territory in the late 1700’s, Russia ultimately took control of most Alaskan territory until the sale to America in what was known as Seward’s Folly in 1867.
The first Jews in the Alaskan territory were likely Russian fur traders, with the first organized Jewish communities appearing in the 1880’s. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 and the Nome Gold Rush of 1899 saw significant numbers of Jews arriving to seek their fortune.
As many as 200 Jews lived in Dawson, Alaska at that time, including Sid Grauman, who went on to found Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Around the same time, Wyatt Earp and his Jewish wife Josephine opened a highly successful saloon, the Dexter, in Nome.
A number of Jews were successful in Alaska politics, including Ernest Gruening, the state’s first senator, Leopold David, Anchorage’s first mayor, and Jay Rabinowitz, a member of Alaska’s Supreme Court for more than 30 years. It is estimated that there are now about 6000 Jews in Alaska, mostly in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau. What Alaskan landmark is named after a Jewish person?
A. The Gerstle River was named for Lewis Gerstle, a Bavarian Jew who eventually settled in Alaska. In 1868 he and his partner Louis Sloss obtained the “Alaska Lease,” Alaska’s first fur concession, and he went on to found the Alaska Commercial Company, which still operates retail stores in 37 Alaskan rural locations.
B. Fleischman Medical Center in Cicely, Alaska, was named after Dr. Joel Fleischman, a doctor who took an internship in Cicely to help pay off his medical school debt. Dr. Fleischman went on to found a major hospital in this isolated northern Alaskan town.
C. The Mendenhall Glacier, a popular tourist attraction near Juneau, was named for meteorologist Abraham Mendenhall, a German Jewish immigrant. Mendenhall, who was the superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, first explored the glacier in 1879 on a trip accompanied by naturalist John Muir.
D. Mount Ripinski was named after a Polish Jew, Solomon Ripinski, who came to Alaska in 1884, after working as a merchant in Shreveport, Louisiana, an oil painter with a studio in Sacramento, California, and a colonel in the Oregon State militia. He helped establish a United States Government School in western Alaska, worked with the Pyramid Harbor salmon cannery, and was a charter member of the Juneau Men’s Igloo, an Alaskan fraternal organization.
E. The Schwartzman Porch, named after builder Arnie Schwartzman, who lives in Wasila, Alaska. Schwartzman built the porch on Sarah Palin’s house which she stood on whenever she wanted to see Russia.
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Link to answer: https://rrrjewishtrivia.com/alaska-answer.html
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Mark D. Zimmerman is an author and freelance writer based in Melville, New York.