By Charles Bowden
Citizen Staff Writer
The Drachmans dug the cellar at night, and then
they carefully spread the soil outside so that no one would
notice.
They wanted to keep their two sons out of the
hated Russian army. For months, Philip, the older boy, hid
under the floorboards of the house in the damp hole. His parents
told the Russians he had run away.
When he and Sam finally got out, they went first
to England, then to the United States and finally to the Southwest.
Philip passed through Tucson in 1854. He needed a dry climate
to combat health problems from the months spent in dampness.
Know Philip and Sam Drachman are footnotes to
560 S. Stone Ave., where the first synagogue in the Arizona
Territory, Temple Emanu-El, was built in 1910.
On Sunday at 2 p.m., there will be ceremony dedicated
a trilingual plaque recognizing the historical importance
of the building. The structure eventually will be made into
the Museum of the Southwest Jewish Heritage.
It will be a place to store yesterday.
Albert Steinfeld came on the night stage in 1872
in order to avid Apache attacks. He found Tucson dry and barren.
There was no telegraph. There was no railroad. Goods shipped
from San Francisco took 60 days, from New York four to six
months.
People used candles for light because kerosene
was too expensive. One man made the town's soap, another its
furniture.
Steinfeld went into the dry goods business with
his uncle, Louis Zeckendorf, and soon he was manning a small
store and mill at Quitobaquito 140 miles west of Tucson on
the dreaded Camino del Diablo.
The native Papagos had been driven away form this
winter hole by the outlaw Cipriano Ortega, who sought a fabled
silver mine. |
Within two years, Steinfeld was back in Tucson
at the Zeckendorf store. One night some Apaches crept into
town and stole horses. They were trailed, and one was killed.
His scalp was displayed for years at the store, and customers
would stare at the hair and skin.
Isodore Gotthelf arrived by wagon I 1880.
" When the High Holy days came," he
recalled, "I got a list of all the Jewish citizens of
Tucson, and with my brothers, Jake and Dave, appealed to them
to help us form a congregation."
They got Alex Levin to lend them a hall at Levin's
Park, a local beer garden and amusement park. Gotthelf gave
the services and sermon. Sam Drachman helped.
For years services were held at Julius Wittelshoefer's
house, and in 1892 the tiny congregation got a Torah. The
temple came in 1910, backed by the Steinfelds, the Drachmans,
Dave Bloom, the Mansfeld family and others.
The cornerstone was laid June 20 of that year
by the local Masonic grand lodge. Inside they stuffed copies
of the Tucson Citizen and The Arizona Daily Star, foreign
coins, Masonic Badges, a copy of the rules and bylaws.
Gen. Thomas F. Wilson, a Mason since 1855, gave
the address. Masonic corn, wine and oil were poured over the
stone.
Then the music played.
When spring came in 1869, the mining boom at White
Pine, Nev., went bust, and Jacob Mansfeld decided to leave.
He thought he might go to Arizona and start a newsstand and
bookstore because no such business existed in the entire territory.
He headed out but finally stopped in southern
Utah because Indian wars blocked his path. So he cut over
to San Bernardino and then to San Diego, where he hooked up
with and old acquaintance, Jim Cornelius, who drove a team
regularly to Tucson.
They made the 30-day crossing in party of five.
The town was, and Mansfeld noted "the outlook for literary
business was not very encouraging." But he went ahead
with his plan. |
He sold
the New York Herald, Times World, Tribune, Harper's, "as
well as the best magazines in the United States." The
lending library featured Dickens, Trollope and Dumas.
Mansfeld prospered and was elected to the first
Board of Regents of the University of Arizona.
In a photograph of Mansfeld in his store, garlic
strands can be seen hanging from the ceiling, and books, newspapers
and stationary supplies lie heaped about.
Mansfeld's descendants became prime movers behind the Temple
Emanu-El.
He noted in his recollections [page 2C] of early
Tucson that "No lines were drawn in society; society
in fact did not exist … the pioneer whether Catholic,
Protestant, Jew or infidel gave freely to help others not
asking any questions about religion or nationality."
Mansfeld found Tucson a place to sink roots.
"It is true," he reflected, "that
men have a right to go where they please, but it is also true,
that a man owes something to the country and to the people
among whom he has made his fortune and nothing is more discouraging
to those who remain here, as to see the rich men of the country,
pulling up stakes."
Everything grew and many prospered. In 1949, the
temple moved east to Country Club Road, many of the original
members of the congregation became names on the department
stores, real estate, businesses, stores, schools, streets.
The past fell into a hole as the city sprawled
away from its ancient core. No more night stages arrived dodging
Apache warriors. No more scalps hung on exhibit. The libraries
were public and big, and the synagogues were manned by rabbis
who now handled the Holy Days.
On Sunday, people will gather to bring the past
back into the present. They will go to the old synagogue at
560 S. Stone Ave. where General Wilson poured Masonic corn,
wine and oil over the cornerstone. Then they will go to the
Arizona Heritage Center for a reception.
They will look at an exhibit of Jewish pioneers
in Arizona.
Maybe, they will hear Philip Drachman's cough
from the months spent hiding in a damp cellar in Russia. |
