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Pioneer Jews: a New Life in the Far West

1987; University of Iowa; Volume: 49; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.17077/0003-4827.9239

2473-9006

Harriet Rochlin, Fred Rochlin,

Jewish Identity and Society

Pioneer fews is a person-by-person account of the Jews who settled from the Rockies to the Pacific (plus west Texas and the Black Hills of South Dakota) from the sixteenth century to 1912.The coffee-table size book contains 180 impressive historical photographs and representative ephemera.Authors Rochlin and Rochlin divided the book into eight chapters which are both chronological and thematic.Pioneer fews begins in the sixteenth century with a description of the lives of Iberians of Jewish descent in the Spanish New World.Chapter two, "Gold and Other Discoveries," is a chronicle of Jews who went west during the California Gold Rush.The middle four chapters illustrate how Jewish pioneers dealt with problems of family, sectarianism, romance, business, and politics.The most entertaining chapter, "Humdingers," relates anecdotes about unique characters in the West such as: Wyatt Earp's Jewish wife who witnessed the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral; Emperor Norton I, the self-proclaimed monarch of the United States and protector of Mexico; and "Jew Ida," a madame in Butte, Montana.The final chapter describes the development of religious leadership and institutions, including burial associations, mutual aid societies, and places of worship.The growth of social and cultural institutions is also portrayed.Pioneer fews concludes with an epilogue entitled "1912," the year the territorial period ended when New Mexico was granted statehood.Pioneer fews reads like a well-annotated family photograph and ephemera album.Like a family album, however, it has no footnotes, and it contains no analysis of the subject.On the other hand, it is indexed and written with the warmth of a family document which has many interesting anecdotes.This book is recommended for those who are interested in local as well as Jewish history.