By Donald H. Harrison

LONG BEACH, Calif.— Some of you have seen the slogan on the homepage of jewishsightseeing.com, that "there's a Jewish story everywhere." Of course, I'll never be able to completely confirm this hypothesis, because I can't physically visit everywhere.  But after spending a day here in Long Beach, I couldn't help but feel even more confident that the saying is true.

I am not talking about seeing Jewish things in Long Beach.  That would be too easy. Many people know that the Queen Mary, today anchored as a museum and hotel  in the bay of Long Beach, once boasted a kosher kitchen and its own synagogue. One can simply Google the combination "synagogues, Long Beach, California" to be led to the websites of Temple Israel, Temple Beth Shalom and Mikveh Yisroel-Lubavitch, each a place where Jewish stories continue. 

Prof. Arlene Lazarowitz, director of the Jewish Studies program at California State University at Long Beach, hosted on Sunday and this morning the 12th Annual Western Jewish Studies Association Conference, bringing together faculty, students and independent scholars to discuss a variety of Jewish topics.  I was there to tell the story about San Diego's first Jewish settler, Louis Rose, on a panel titled "Jewish Communities in the West," and, to tell the truth, I couldn't wait to stop talking in order to hear the other panelists who had tales to tell about Jewish pioneers in places like Montana, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Arianna Margolin, a student at the University of Montana, traced the life of Joseph Soss, a German-born Jewish entrepreneur, who built the state Capitol building in Helena, Montana. One of Soss' Jewish chums was Henry Frank, an early mayor of Butte, and another was businessman Ben Hager, who supplied building materials from his quarry.  The Capitol was dedicated on  July 4, 1902.

Prof. Noel Pugach of the University of New Mexico outlined the lives of the Herzstein and Moise families of eastern New Mexico. Morris Herzstein was a merchant in Liberty, New Mexico, so named because the town was the only place within a short distance of an Army fort where soldiers could go off duty.  They visited a brothel, a saloon, and Herzstein's general store.  But unfortunately, soldiers were not his only visitors:  the train robber, Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum, and his gang came by, scooping up the cash in the process.  When Morris' brother, Levi, gave chase—apparently not knowing who they were—it was Levi's last ride.  His body was found riddled with bullets. Another family member, Simon Herzstein, was elected to the school board in Clayton, New Mexico—which, Pugach informed us, is the smallest town in the United States to have its own Rotary Club.

In Santa Rosa, N.M., there is a Moise Memorial Library.  Sigmund and Julius Moise both were mayors of the town. The family started as merchants, later became bankers, and then, just naturally, became ranchers because their customers often would pay them in land and cattle.  Morris Moise chaired the Union County Democratic Party.  

Prof. Jack Sanders of the University of Oregon told of Samuel Rothchild, an original member of the City Council of Pendleton, Oregon.  As this Rothchild traveled to the United States in steerage, it's unlikely he bore any relation to the famous banking family of Europe, who spelled their names with an "s" in the middle—Rothschild. 

But sans-S Rothchild wasn't anyone's economic fool. He paid something less than $2,500 for 640 acres of land, and sold the same parcel for over $9,000.  He was involved in the local publishing company, invented an improved harrow, served as the worshipful master of the local Masonic Lodge, and, in 1880, drafted the articles of incorporation for the City of Pendleton.  In the election that followed,  only one of the 188 voters in town refused to vote for him.  That was Rothchild himself, out of a sense of modesty.

Another panel at the WJSA Conference further buttressed the "Jewish story everywhere" thesis.  Titled "Hostile Times/ Jewish Responses," it featured Profs. Victoria Khiterer of the University of Central Arkansas; Holli Levitsky of Loyola Marymount University, Matthew Washawsky of the University of Portland, and Leila Kiknadze, of Tbilisi State University in the Republic of Georgia.

Khiterer, a Russian, described the tussle in the early 1900s between the Czar's government  and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt over Russian refusal to honor the terms of an 1832 commercial treaty, in which each country had agreed to honor the passports of the other's citizens. When Americans filled out Russian visa applications, they were asked their religions. Those who answered "Jewish" were denied a visa.  In Khiterer's view, although the Czar Nicholas II was anti-Semitic, he still wanted Jews to live in his empire because they helped to spur economic growth.  In the czar's palace in St. Petersburg, there was concern that the Jews might be lured away—especially by other Jews who were members of their families, or former residents of their towns, and who had made financial successes in America.  Frustrated, Roosevelt eventually canceled the commercial treaty in protest.

Kiknadze, from the neighboring nation of Georgia, said Jews were well established in her country for centuries before the advent of Christianity.  The tradition of the Jews of Georgia is that they are descended from the "Ten Lost Tribes" of  Israel, the Northern Kingdom in the Bible.  Another tradition is that they migrated to Georgia during the time of the Babylonian exile, around 587 BCE.  Jews were well entrenched in Georgia some two and a half centuries later when the land was conquered by Alexander the Great.  

A tradition holds that a Georgian Jew, Elioz, traveled to Jerusalem in time to witness the crucifixion of Jesus.  A convert to Christianity, Elioz is credited with transporting  the robe of Jesus to Mtskheta, Georgia, where a cathedral stands over the robe's burial place.  A Jewish tombstone dating to the 2nd century CE provides physical evidence of the longtime Jewish presence, according to Kiknadze.

Levitsky related the story of Sarah Nomberg-Przytyk, a Polish communist functionary from Lublin, who survived Auschwitz but simply could not adjust to the dismemberment of the communist system in Eastern Europe. She ended up moving to her son's hemp farm in the Canadian province of Quebec, and later onto Israel, where she died.

Washawsky described the tribulations of Tomás Treviño de Sbremonte, who was burned at the stake in Mexico City by civilian authorities after being found guilty of "Judaizing" by the Inquisition.  Refusing to repent, Treviño was burned at the stake without first being put to death by garroting. Washawsky said more than 500 pages about Treviño were compiled by the Inquisition.  The scholar noted that in the records, Judaism never was referred to as "Judaism," but rather as the "Law of Moses."  Interestingly, Treviño did not lead a life committed to the practice of Judaism, he wavered back and forth between the crypto-Judaism of his mother, and the Christianity of his father. 

Treviño was a wealthy merchant, who made much of his fortune in the sea trade between Acapulco, Mexico, and Manila, the Philippines—two more venues where there are Jewish stories..