Thanks for this. This is a lesser known part of Jewish history - but a part that's particularly important to me, as my great great grandparents were part of the 1885 group that journeyed to Cyprus. My great great grandfather died there in 1885 or 1886 and was buried in the Lanarca Jewish cemetery (although there are no gravestones or records pre-1900 so I may be wrong).
I'm particularly interested in
1) a list of the people who moved to Cyrpus in 1885. They moved from Piatra Neamt or possibly Tirgu Neamt. This is important for me as although I know my family moved to Cyprus I don't know if the whole family moved there as I also suspect the two eldest sons went to what is now Israel and became founders of Zichron Yaakov.
2) Michael Friedland who was the son of the important Rabbi Natan Friedland. Michael Friedland was also a Rabbi and had written a book (available on HebrewBooks.com) on the laws of Kashrut. He was associated with Elizabeth Finn who had missionary connections and so it is feasible she convinced Michael Friedland to convert - and hence the con mentioned where he defrauded the Romanian immigrants. I've tried to find out what happened to him after - one possibility is he returned to Judaism and became a Rabbi in Alexandria in Egypt where he died. However I'm not certain of this. Perhaps that was somebody else and Friedland remained an apostate.
Interesting, thanks.. I didn't know that Friedland was a rabbi. You may know this article by John Shaftesley (former Jewish Chronicle editor), which I used as the basis for the piece; if you haven't seen it it may help with your research. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29778771
I do know the Shaftesley article - and there have been more recent ones too. However most work seems to have been on the Russian colony / Latakia. There were 25-30 Romanians that followed - among them my great great grandparents and most of their children. I'm still trying to find out more - as the two oldest seem to have gone to Israel in 1883/4 where they were founders of Zichron Yaakov, as I mentioned.
One of my aims is to visit the UK National Archives as there are records there - I've looked at the 1883-1884 records but not yet the 1885-1887 ones.
The first successful oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania one year before the Civil War.
Perhaps if slavery had not been outlawed it would have died a natural death as machines replaced slaves.
In the South, slaves were more valuable than the land itself. Put yourself in the shoes of a Plantaton owner faced with having to give up his expensive "farm equipment" and replace it with newer equipment all at once. It would have ruined them financially and that is why they opted for secession.
Sympathizing with a slave owner is not a popular sentiment, but it is worth doing for the sake of historical perspective.
In the end, more advanced people knew that machines would replace slaves and the carpet baggers were ready to pounce when the war ended. Many Southern families still harbor bad feelings over the loss of great grandpa's plantation.
The advance of civilization can be cruel. Ask the Native Americans.
Thanks for this. This is a lesser known part of Jewish history - but a part that's particularly important to me, as my great great grandparents were part of the 1885 group that journeyed to Cyprus. My great great grandfather died there in 1885 or 1886 and was buried in the Lanarca Jewish cemetery (although there are no gravestones or records pre-1900 so I may be wrong).
I'm particularly interested in
1) a list of the people who moved to Cyrpus in 1885. They moved from Piatra Neamt or possibly Tirgu Neamt. This is important for me as although I know my family moved to Cyprus I don't know if the whole family moved there as I also suspect the two eldest sons went to what is now Israel and became founders of Zichron Yaakov.
2) Michael Friedland who was the son of the important Rabbi Natan Friedland. Michael Friedland was also a Rabbi and had written a book (available on HebrewBooks.com) on the laws of Kashrut. He was associated with Elizabeth Finn who had missionary connections and so it is feasible she convinced Michael Friedland to convert - and hence the con mentioned where he defrauded the Romanian immigrants. I've tried to find out what happened to him after - one possibility is he returned to Judaism and became a Rabbi in Alexandria in Egypt where he died. However I'm not certain of this. Perhaps that was somebody else and Friedland remained an apostate.
Interesting, thanks.. I didn't know that Friedland was a rabbi. You may know this article by John Shaftesley (former Jewish Chronicle editor), which I used as the basis for the piece; if you haven't seen it it may help with your research. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29778771
I do know the Shaftesley article - and there have been more recent ones too. However most work seems to have been on the Russian colony / Latakia. There were 25-30 Romanians that followed - among them my great great grandparents and most of their children. I'm still trying to find out more - as the two oldest seem to have gone to Israel in 1883/4 where they were founders of Zichron Yaakov, as I mentioned.
One of my aims is to visit the UK National Archives as there are records there - I've looked at the 1883-1884 records but not yet the 1885-1887 ones.
The book Friedland wrote is here: https://hebrewbooks.org/31914
The first successful oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania one year before the Civil War.
Perhaps if slavery had not been outlawed it would have died a natural death as machines replaced slaves.
In the South, slaves were more valuable than the land itself. Put yourself in the shoes of a Plantaton owner faced with having to give up his expensive "farm equipment" and replace it with newer equipment all at once. It would have ruined them financially and that is why they opted for secession.
Sympathizing with a slave owner is not a popular sentiment, but it is worth doing for the sake of historical perspective.
In the end, more advanced people knew that machines would replace slaves and the carpet baggers were ready to pounce when the war ended. Many Southern families still harbor bad feelings over the loss of great grandpa's plantation.
The advance of civilization can be cruel. Ask the Native Americans.