Civic Leaders and Jewish Professionals 1929, Podmore

SOME LEADERS IN CIVIL LIFE

Most of the early Jewish settlers in Trenton were of German extraction, the outstanding exception being the Naars, whose remote ancestors came to the West Indies from the Iberian peninsula in very early days. Besides the Naar family who came to Trenton in 1856 and their contemporaries, who incorporated the Mount Sinai Cemetery and founded the Hat Sinai Congregation, the pioneer Jewish group included Isaac Wymann, Daniel Piexotto, Marcus Marx, Samuel Rosenthal, Julius Schloss, Emanuel Kahnweiler, A. Rosenblatt, David Manko and Marcus Bohn. Practically all of these are representatives of the ‘5o’s and ‘60’s.

The Jewish colony here naturally attracted others of the race to the city, and in the ‘70’s a considerable number of Jews of various extractions made Trenton their home. These may be classified as members of a second Jewish group. The third and largest group, which came here in the years following 1880, mainly comprised members of the race who came from Russia to escape the Czarist regime. Then three groups define, generally, the Jewish immigration to Trenton.

It was the members of this third group who established the Jewish com­munity in South Trenton with its Orthodox synagogues, Hebrew School and Sheltering Home. Their descendants constitute the majority of the present Jewish population. The others are German, Austrian, Hungarian and Roumanian Jews and their descendants.

The early Jews were mainly merchants. Among them may be mentioned Simon Kahnsweiler, who was the first Jewish manufacturer (bricks) and also one of the prominent merchants of his day in the city. His brother, Emanuel, operated a soap factory near the Assunpink bridge on South Broad Street.

S. E. Kaufman, for many years the proprietor of the Kaufman department store, is a native of Trenton. He was one of the leaders of Trenton's Board of Trade, now the Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the interstate bridge commission and the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America.

Joseph Rice came to Trenton in the '5o's. He established a clothing business on South Warren Street, and later removed to North Broad Street. His sons, Alexander and Jonas, succeeded him in the business. Joseph Rice was a director of the Mechanics National Bank.

Bernard Tobish, who has conducted a men's furnishing shop hem for nearly half a century, came to Trenton in 1877 and opened a store on State Street. He is one of the earliest members of the Har Sinai Temple. Associated with him in business are his son, Abram, and his brother, Joseph. Another son, Theodore, was at one time county engineer.

Other merchants were: the Fuld brothers, Jonas A., Manus A., and Louis A., who came to Trenton in the '90's; Sigmund Kahn, who was senior member of the firm of S. Kahn and Sons in the old Washington Market Building; Simon Samler, who was in the clothing business on the same site; Isidor Levin, who conducted a department store at the "Five Points," as did Isaac Goldberg on South Broad Street; Morris and Paul Urken, who now have a department store in Chambersburg, as do Israel Kohn and Solomon Urken; and Henry Wirtschafter, who maintains a large department store on South Broad Street.

JEWISH PROFESSIONAL MEN

One of the first Jewish professional men in Trenton was Moses D. Naar, lawyer and journalist, who came to Trenton in 1856. His brother, Samuel Grey Naar, studied law in his office and was admitted to the Bar in 1880, becoming a counsellor in 1894. Later he was assistant prosecutor and at one time was a city police justice.

Among the lawyers admitted to the Bar during the present century are Henry H. Wittstein, J. Irving Davidson, Maxwell Kraemer and William Reich. Philip Forman, who was appointed United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, was admitted to the Bar in 1917, and became a counsellor in 1920. He was appointed assistant United States district attorney in 1923, He is a Major in the Judge Advocate General's Department of the New Jersey National Guard, and was commander of the American Legion, Department of New Jersey, in 1923-24.

Dr. Samuel Freeman, the first Jewish physician in Trenton, began his practice in 1900, and the first dentists were Dr. James S. Miller and Dr. William Julian.