TRAVEL
SPRING CRUISE SALE!
NOW
WAS
DATE
SHIP
NORWAY 4114 to 4121, Fr.$1475 00 Fr .$1180°°
SEAWARD 4115 to 4122 F,. $1370 00 F. $11500°
CELEBRATION 4/14 to 4121 F. $1325 00 F. $1259°°
HOLIDAY 4114 to 4121 Fr. $132500 ,r.$1259°°
All Inside/Outside Lowers. Limited Availability
Reserve Early For Best Rates.
Rates Per Person Based On Double Occupancy.
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111 11015,
HAMILTON MILLER HUDSON 0 FAYNE
Travel Corporation
29566 Northwestern Hwy.
Southfield, Mich. 48086-5056
313° 827 °4070
NEWBERRY SQUARE
CRUISES & TRAVEL
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TRAVEL MAX 1990 SHAPE UP
Join Us At The NEW
39530 14 Mlle Rd.
Corner of Haggerty
(313) 669.6760
AV
CANYON RANCH SPA! * *
In The Berkshires
Lennox, Massachusetts
May 19-25, 1990
* *
* *
E
4088 Haggerty Rd.
Corner of Richardson
(313) 360.4100
50%
MA DE
• Air roundtrip Detroit / Hartford,
Connecticut
L
OFF
SA VE'
NOW OPEN
IMDON
MADISON HE I G HT S
E "RE
I C I 5
U R8 8 l3
• 6 nights deluxe room
also
• All meals
ORCHARD PLACE
855-0122
vnLE- IE TAYLOR —
• All sports facilities
(Tennis Racquetball, Hiking, etc.)
FASHION RESALE
Exclusively Women's Clothing
and Accessories
Current Fashions Sizes 2-14
• Special programs and lectures
1844 S. Woodward
Birmingham
• 3 Personal Services
(Massage, Facial, etc.)
1 block North of 14 Mile Rd.
540-9548
• This group is open to couples and/or
singles
"We Pay Cash for Fine
Clothing and
Accessories"
• Escorted Group
Mon-Fri 12 noon-6 pm
Sat 11 am-6 pm
Closed Sunday
• Unlimited Fitness and Aerobics Classes
"Where You Come First"
P.P. DBL. OCCUPANCY
Kosins
Plus 17% tax I gratuities. No additional tipping allowed.
For Additional Information
and Reservations Coll
,
v
111. vie r
Our speciol six night group rote
includes:
$1158
BAY POINTE
TRAVEL
travel/
* *
851-7760 *
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Uptown
Southfield Rd. at
11 1/2 Mile • 559-3900
Big & Tall
Southfield at
101/2 Mile • 569-6930
Surprising Savannah
A Jewish Stronghold
JUDITH BRODER SELLNER
Special to The Jewish News
E
yen General William
Tecumseh Sherman
saw Savannah as a
jewel: it was the only city he
spared in his devastating
march through Georgia.
Knownin its heyday as the
belle of the South, Savannah
was one of America's first
planned cities, set out by its
founder, James Oglethorpe, in
squares interspersed with
parks. Rich in American
history, the capital of colonial
Georgia was home to one of
the earliest Jewish set-
tlements in America, more
than 250 years ago.
The second boatload of col-
onists from England, the
William and Sarah, landed in
Georgia on July 11, 1733, just
five months after Oglethorpe
had founded the colony. On
boad were forty-two Jews, the
largest group of Jewish set-
tlers to reach North America
to that time. Most were
Spanish and Portuguese flee-
ing the Inquisition, the excep-
tions being Benjamin and
Perla Sheftall, a single man,
who died within three years,
and the family of Abraham
and Abigail Minis, whose son
Philip has the distinction of
being the first Caucasian
male child born — or conceiv-
ed and born depending on the
historic source — in the
colony.
The pioneers, having
brought a Torah Scroll, a cir-
cumcision box, and other
religious articles, began
holding services in members'
homes within a month after
their arrival. They establish-
ed Kahal Kadosh Mickva [sic]
Israel, the third Jewish con-
gregation in the American
colonies — after New York
and Newport, R.I. — and the
first Jewish community in the
South. Oglethorpe had
granted them a burial ground
at what is now the median
strip on Oglethorpe Avenue
west of Bull Street, where a
commemorative marker
stands.
Two years after their ar-
rival, in July 1735, they
rented a house on what is now
Ellis Square and altered it to
accommodate religious ser-
Judith Broder Sellner, a free-
lance writer living in New
York, specializes in the arts,
travel, and Jewish lifestyle
subjects. Her articles have
appeared in national and
regional publications
throughout North America.
vices. On July 12, 1737, they
received a second Torah, a
chanukkiah, a number of
prayerbooks, the gift of Ben-
jamin Menassah Mendes da
Costa of London. The follow-
ing April they opened the
first mikva (ritual bath) in
Georgia.
From the beginning, the
Jews of Savannah enjoyed
complete equality, unlike
Jews in other American col-
onies. Oglethorpe protected
the Jewish settlers although
the colony's trustees in Lon-
don demanded their expul-
sion. Dr. Samuel Nunes
Ribeiro, a former court physi-
cian in Lisbon, subdued an
epidemic that had taken
The capital of
colonial Georgia
was home to one
of the earliest
Jewish
settlements in
America.
twenty lives (ten percent of
the population) before he ar-
rived. His heroism is credited
with gaining Oglethorpe's
support for the Jews.
The congregation proceed-
ed, with various disruptions
deterring the construction of
a synagogue: a schism
created by newly arrived
Ashkenazic Jews unwilling to
identify with the Sephardim;
the approach of a Spanish
fleet in 1742 causing the
Sephardim to flee to cities in
the North; and British oc-
cupation of the city in 1778.
Nevertheless, informal and ir-
regular services took place. In
1786 the congregation elected
officers and rented a house on
Broughton Lane from a Miss
Ann Morgan. On November
20, 1790, Governor Edward
Telfair granted a state
charter to the first Jewish
congregation in Georgia. To-
day, almost 200 years later,
B.H. Levy, Jr., a ninth-
generation direct descendant
of Benjamin Sheftall, has
been president of the con-
gregation for the past two
years, and descendants of the
Minis family also remain ac-
tive members.
Dr. Moses Sheftall, Ben-
jamin's grandson, and Dr.
Jacob de la Motta led the
movement that resulted in
the consecration of the firth
synagogue in the State of
Georgia on July 21, 1820. The
wave of German Jews that
started around 1840 reached
c