Table Of Contentpioneer
jewish
texans
P i o n e e r
J e w i s h
T e x a n s
texas a&m university press edition
u u
Natalie Ornish
Foreword by sara alpern
Texas A&M University Press
College station
Copyright © 1989, 2011 by natalie ornish Library oF Congress Cataloging-in-PubliCation Data
Manufactured in the United states of america
all rights reserved ornish, natalie.
First Texas a&M University Press edition, 2011 Pioneer Jewish Texans / natalie ornish ; foreword by sara
alpern. — 1st Texas a&M University Press ed.
This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso Z39.48-1992 p. cm.
(Permanence of Paper). includes bibliographical references and index.
Binding materials have been chosen for durability. isBn-13: 978-1-60344-423-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
isBn-10: 1-60344-423-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
isBn-13: 978-1-60344-433-0 (e-book)
The author is grateful to the New York Times Magazine for isBn-10: 1-60344-433-5 (e-book)
permission to reprint parts of “The University of Texas strikes 1. Jews—Texas—Biography. 2. Texas—Biography. i. Title.
oil” by owen P. white. Copyright © 1925 by The new York F395.J5o76 2011
Times Company. reprinted by permission. 976.4'004924—dc22
2010053385
To my father and mother,
in appreciation;
and
to my ancestors,
who first came to Texas
to visit and trade in 1843
and
who came to settle in 1863
Contents
Foreword to the Texas a&M University Press edition,
by sarah alpern ix
introduction to a People xi
1. the adventurers 1 10. siGniFiCant mer Chant Families 173
Conquistadors and the Search for Freedom Laying the Economic Foundation for Texas’ Future
2. the soldiers 21 11. the eduCators 209
Jews in the Battles for Texas Independence The Paul Reveres of Education
3. the Colonizers 47 12. the artists 227
Opening Texas’s Lands West Vanguards in the Arts
4. the statesmen 63 13. the doCtors and other healers 241
Constructing a Republic and a Nation From the Alamo to the Nobel Prize
5. the ranChers 71 14. the l awyers 259
Giants of Texas’ Great Cattle Herds Justice for All
6. the FinanCiers 87
New Frontiers in Banking afterword 269
acknowledgments 271
7. the wildCatters 113
From Pipes to Oil Leases appendices 273
notes 291
8. the humanitarian 123
Galveston and the Gateway Immigration Bibliography 319
Movement
index 333
9. the Great mer Chants 133
Some Called Them Princes
Foreword to the
texas a&m university press edition
sara alpern
in 1990 scholars susan Groag Bell and Marilyn Yalom recent books on Texas history. in Beyond Myths and
edited the book Revealing Lives: Autobiography, Biog- Legends (2009) there is only one mention of the Texas
raphy, and Gender. They wrote, “in an age of daunting Jewish population, saying it had increased from its
machines and awesome bureaucracies, when family, origins in the spanish era to 15,000. The most recent
work, and community patterns are undergoing diz- book, Beyond Texas Through Time: Breaking Away from
zying transformations, it is reassuring to look into a Past Interpretations (2011) has scant information about
human face.”1 This need to remember individual lives Texas Jews. in the chapter entitled “Deconstructing
and the impact they had may be even truer in 2011 Texas,” historian Carlos Kevin Blanton does a superb
than it was almost twenty years ago. natalie ornish’s job of including many groups who have tradition-
book, Pioneer Jewish Texans, originally published in ally been left out of Texas history. he includes Jewish
1989, captures the lives of many fascinating Jewish Texans in his discussion of immigrant Texans. his
Texans. she was determined that Jews not be stereo- brief treatment includes harold hyman’s Oleander
typed; the biographees were from different walks of Odyssey: The Kempners of Galveston, Texas, 1854–1980s
life, ranging from the famous humanitarian rabbi (1990) saying, “[it] offers the compelling story of a
henry Cohen to a wildcatter to a football player to Jewish immigrant who fled czarist oppression in the
a scientist. she selected the biographees who valued 1850s to build a Texas family fortune.” he also cited
their double heritage of being Jews and being Texans three books by hollace ava weiner. 2 since Pioneer
and particularly those who had an impact on Texas. Jewish Texans has been unavailable for some time, it
some of Texas’s most successful families were Jewish. is not cited in this new chapter to address the “other”
This book includes vignettes on many of them, such Texans.
as the Marcuses, the sakowitzes, and the Zales, to Thus, it is time for Pioneer Jewish Texans to
name but a few. intent on not writing hagiographies, reemerge as a source for current readers and future
she let the history unfold through the people who scholars. The book is in the good company of Lone
made it. Stars of David: The Jews of Texas, compiled and edited
The book has been unavailable for some time. by hollace ava weiner and Kenneth D. roseman and
Thanks to Texas a&M University Press, Pioneer Jew- published by Brandeis University Press in 2007. That
ish Texans is republished in a new, updated format. it book built on the work of another book on Jewish
has been redesigned for a fresher, more contemporary Texans that had gone out of print, Deep in the Heart:
look that is easier to read. ornish spent twelve years of The Lives and Legends of Texas Jews . . . A Photographic
research to produce the book. The text is intact, with History, published by ruthe winegarten and Cathy
accompanying photographs for each of the chapters. schechter in 1989. Lone Stars of David: The Jews of
The need for this book is clear, as some of the stan- Texas has a different format from the ornish book
dard books on Texas history have little to no informa- although it does include some of the same Jewish
tion on Texas Jews. This is the case even in the most Texans. it contains essays from various writers on the
