Spring 1995, Issue 36

Article Abstracts and Supplements

Jewish Life in Alabama: The Formative Stages
by Henry Marks and Marsha Kass Marks

Beginning in the 18^th century, Alabama and other Southern states attracted a significant number of Jewish immigrants, many from the Germanic states, who came in search of the social, economic and political freedom that had long been denied them in their homeland. Many migrated to small towns along the rivers, where they became a vital and highly respected part of their communities. This article, by historians Henry Marks and Marsha Kass Marks, chronicles the lives of pioneering Jewish families in the state and the hardships and challenges these immigrants faced.



The Moseses of Montgomery: The Saga of a Jewish Family in the South
by Kenneth Libo

This article tells the saga of a remarkable Jewish family who established the most successful real estate and insurance business in the state and built the tallest building (six stories) in 19th-century Alabama. "The Moses Family," writes Libo, curator of American Jewish History at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage, "became part of a new generation of lawyers, farmers and merchants who replaced the old landed aristocracy in positions of power." One brother, Mordecai Moses, was elected the first Democratic mayor of Montgomery after the Civil War, and another brother, Alfred, almost single-handedly founded the city of Sheffield.



The Moseses and the Lehmans: From Montgomery to New York
by Kenneth Libo

The Jewish Community in Demopolis
by Anna Jacobs Singer

Images of Southern Jewish Life: A Jewish Road Trip through Alabama
by Marcie Cohen

In shorter articles and sidebars, our Spring issue traces the lives of other Jewish immigrants to the state. Among these is the remarkable career of the Lehman brothers from Bavaria, who began as peddlers in Mobile, established a cotton brokerage firm in Montgomery, and opened a branch of their business in New York in 1858. That business today is known as Lehman Brothers, one of the most powerful investment banking firms in the world.



Redecorating the Beast: The Life and Death of Captain Henry Wirz, CSA
by Christopher Mohney

Dubbed "The Butcher of Andersonville," Wirz oversaw the infamous Georgia prison camp throughout its 14-month existence. During his command, nearly 13,000 Union prisoners died from malnutrition, disease and exposure or were murdered – more deaths than at any single Civil War battle. From the beginning, Swiss-born Henry Wirz was a staunch supporter of "the Southern cause" and enlisted in the Confederate army early in the war. Author Christopher Mohney, whose great-great-great-grandfather was a Union army private who died at Andersonville, outlines the military career of Wirz, highlighting his fateful March 1864 assignment to the newly constructed prison camp. Wirz, notes Mohney, one of the Civil War’s "last victims," vehemently proclaimed his innocence until his execution for war crimes in 1865.

DEPARTMENTS

ART IN THE SOUTH – "William Bullock Inge" by Robert O. Mellown

THE NATURE JOURNAL – "Chestnut Blight" by L. J. Davenport

REPORT FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION – "Need Help Revitalizing Downtown? Try The Alabama Main Street Program" by Alta C. Hodgson