56 Friday, September 12, 1975 Bicentennial Historicity (Editor's Note: The fol- lowing item by Philip Slo- movitz, editor and pub- lisher of The Jewish News, was inserted into the Aug. 11, 1958, Congressional Record Appendix by then Representative Martha W. Griffiths and is reprinted here in honor of the Ameri- can Bicentennial.) BY PHILIP SLOMOVITZ (Copyright 1975, JTA Inc.) A new field for Jewish social research has opened with the admission of the Territory of Alaska as the 49th State in our Nation. While it is known that Jews have lived in Alaska for more than 100 years, very little is known about their continuous functions as a community, or about their organizational life as a religious entity. It has definitely been es- tablished in several earlier studies that individual Jews have explored Alaska; that they have participated in the numerous gold rushes; that there were Jewish trad- ers there. But until very re- cently there were no Jewish roots in Alaska. Alaska was discovered by the two Russians, Ber- ing and Chirikov, in 1741, and was then declared a Russian possession. The Russian-American Fur Co., formed in 1799, en- couraged trade between the newly discovered terri- tory- and the United States. Alaska was sold to the United States for $7,200,000 — 3 cents an acre — in 1867. A dispute over the Alaskan-Cana- dian borders was adjusted in 1903. These dates may be very vital to Jewish historians and demographers in their search for data about Jew- ish experience in Alaska. In the 125 years of Russian control of the territory, there had begun fur trading and fishing. Jews are be- lieved to have shared in both activities. While govern- ment restrictions and dis- criminations may have cur- tailed their participation in fishing, fur trading cer- tainly is believed to have at- tracted Jewish skill. It is not to be inferred from this, however, that the Jews who were active in this trading in Russian-held Alaska were Russian Jews. In all probablility, they were mainly from neighbor- ing Canada, with a sprin- kling of American Jews. When the United States acquired Alaska, Jewish in- terest in the territory in- creased, and adventurous Jews came there by way of the states of Washington and California. The major links for several decades were with California, many Jews from the Golden State having established busi- nesses in the chief Alaskan centers — Juneau, Anchor- age,. Fairbanks and Ketchi- kan. But there was an equal 'titerest among Jews in the e of Washington. Sail- hy boat from this to Alaska having 'ged for many 4 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS The Jewish Role in Emergence of Alaska years, during the latter part of the last century, and the early part of the present, by way of Seattle. Thus, with Seattle as the final point of embarkation from this country to Alaska in the eighties and nineties, the Klondike and Yukon gold rushes were attractions for Jews as they were for non-Jews. In a sense, this new attraction to the North- west also was responsible for Jewish migration move- ments to the state of Wash- ington. A typical example of the settlers in Alaska in the late 90s was a former Detroiter, Herbert Robinson Green- berg, who died in 1957 at the age of 99. Greenberg left Detroit for California in 1896. From there he went by boat to Seattle, and from Seattle he went to Alaska on a summer boat. It took him nine months to make the trip to Alaska. Greenberg joined the Klondike gold rush and staked three successful old-producing mines. He was in the habit, on his vis- its to his great-grand-neph- ews in Detroit, to present them with gold nuggets, and he was called Uncle Nugget. One of his mines became known as Bessie Mine and was the subject of a feature article in Time magazine 20 years ago. Herbert Greenberg lived in Alaska from 1897 to 1954. He built the first Alaskan radio station and it was later taken over by the United States Army. His children now live in California — a typical re- sult of Jewish wanderings away from the small com- munities where there is danger of intermarriage because of the limited number of Jewish resi- dents- and the limitations in Jewish religious and cultural activities. The three major Jewish personalities whose names are associated with Alaska are Ernest Gruening, the former governor of Alaska; and the two California pi- oneers, Lewis Gerstle and Louis Sloss. Gerstle, who was born in Bavaria. December 17, 1824, worked his way on a boat to the United States in 1847, became a peddler in Louis- ville, Ky., was attracted to California during the gold rush days of 1848, and trav- eled by way of New Orleans through Panama to the Golden State. He opened a fruit stand, labored in the gold mines, later went into the wholesale grocery busi- ness in Sacramento, then moved to San Francisco and became a mining stock- broker. When Alaska was pur- chased by the United States in 1867, he joined two other firms in acquiring the Rus- sian-American Alaska Co., and acquired seal fishing rights. He also established a steamship line between San Francisco and Alaska. Gers- tle was active in California Jewish affairs — congrega- tional and philanthropic — and served as treasurer of the University of California. He died Nov. 19, 1902. Louis Sloss, who also was born in Bavaria, was several months older than Gerstle, having been born July 13, 1824. Upon his arrival in the United States in 1845, he, too, be- came a peddler, in Mocks- ville, Ky., and later also went to California where he met Gerstle and they became partners, their business association last- ing 50 years. He was active in philanthropies and was treasurer of the University of California for 17 years. He died June 4, 1903. Gerstle and Sloss were married to two sisters, Han- nah and Sarah Greenbaum. The career of Gruening is now a matter of record. It was due mainly to his val- iant and untiring efforts that the campaign for Alas- kan statehood materialized. DR. RUTH GRUBER her department in Alaska. She prepared voluminous reports on the Territory and she envisioned' Alaska as a The language of a nation is its tongue. The press is its voice. In no country in the world can the press exist without the service of a news agency. The largest newspapers in the United States, Britain, France, Germany and other countries maintain their own correspondents in lands abroad. Nevertheless, they must subscribe to the serv- ice of news agencies. A great interest was taken in Alaskan possibili- ties as an immigration center for Jewish refugees by Miss Ruth Gruber (then Mrs. Philip Michaels, of New York and now Dr. Ruth Gruber Rosner), the well-known writer, traveler, and lecturer. Miss Gruber, as a mem- ber of the staff of the late Secretary of Interior Harold L. Ickes, in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, did most of the research for Among the early Ameri- can Jews who came to Alaska was the fur-trad- ing merchant, Jack Gold- stone, who was believed to have inspired the purchase of Alaska by the Uni 4 States. There are no known ures of the number of Jews in Alaska. It is believed that there are less than a thou- sand Jews there. There is no organized Jewish commu- nity but with the formation of servicemen's groups there, the Jewish Welfare. Board established its serv- ices and organized congre- gations for the men in uni- form as well as for the residents in the major cities. 'Between You . . . and Me' BY BORIS SMOLAR Ernest Gruening, like his father, Dr. Emil Gruening, earned a medical degree from Harvard College. But, upon receiving his doctor of medicine degree in 1912, he turned instead to journal- ism and held numerous im- portant editorial posts in Boston, Mass., and Port- land, Maine. He served as editor of the New York Tri- bune and the Nation. Then he was given major federal appointments. As governor of Alaska, Gruening formed the first Alaska National Guard in 1940, and during the last war was the organizer and commander of the Alaskan Territorial Guard. He was a member of the commission that supervised the con- struction of the great high- way connecting Alaska to the United States. Gruening died in July 1974. family still continues the Juneau mercantile business and may be known for a long time among the great pioneering families in Alaska. Boris Smolar's (Editor-in-chief emeritus, J.T.A.) (Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.) LATE ERNEST GRUENINg place of settlement for may thousands of Jews who were compelled to escape from Nazism. But her idea never materialized. Only about 35 years ago, a Jewish merchant was one of the leading citizens of the Alaskan city of Juneau. Isa- dore Goldstein was a popu- lar merchant there and was highly -honored for his hon- esty and integrity. He was elected mayor of Juneau six times. His parents, Robert and Anna Goldstein, came from California and established a mercantile business in Ju- neau. Their son, Isadore, acquired that business. Isa- dore vas married to Miss Carol Kahn, of San Fran- cisco. He enlisted in the United States Army in World War II and temporar- ily left "Uncle Sam's Attic" to serve overseas. But his „ou For the Jewish press throughout the free world this function is being ful- filled by the Jewish Tele- graphic Agency — the only existing worldwide Jewish news agency. The JTA serves the Jew- ish press on the six conti- nents — the daily and weekly newspapers — in various languages. Jewish publications in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, French, Spanish, German; Por- tuguese are each provided by JTA with information in the languages of the country in which they appear. The JTA issues daily news bulletins in New York, London, Paris, Jo- hannesburg, Buenos Aires and Lima. 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In addition, the JTA has bureaus with full-time cor- respondents in Paris and London, and has part-time correspondents and strin- gers in every major city in Western Europe, in some East European capitals, BORIS SMOLAR Canada, South America, South Africa and several cities in the United States. The international head- quarters of the JTA is in New York. Its various bureaus and correspondents are linked worldwide by wire service transmission facilities op- erating 24 hours a day and carrying some 15,000 to 20,000 words of news each day. Heading the Jewish Tele- graphic Agency is its presi- dent William M. Landau, a young and energetic Ameri- can Jewish leader who is also very active in the United Jewish Appeal and in other national organiza- tions. Chairman of the JTA Board is Robert H. Arnow, former JTA president who is well-known for his deer interest in Jewish educe tion. 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