Early History of Richmond
Located along the Whitewater River near the Indiana-Ohio border, Richmond has a history that predates Indiana's statehood. Quakers migrating northwest from North Carolina to the newly organized Indiana territory. Though much of the early history of Richmond was dominated by the Quakers (numerous Quaker institutions still remain in Richmond today), a handful of Jews had settled in the Whitewater Valley by the time Indiana gained statehood. One of the earliest Jewish settlers to the region, Phineas Israel Johnson, a traveling peddler, ran a shop in nearby Connersville by 1816. Of note is that Phineas's original surname was not "Johnson", but rather "Israel." He added Johnson to his surname to help avoid anti-Jewish hostilities on the frontier. His brother David Israel, and David's wife Eliza, joined Phineas in Connersville in 1818. None of the Israel family remained in Richmond long, however, as David and Eliza moved back east and Phineas left for St. Louis. It would take another decade for improvements in overland transportation, and the construction of the National Road, to allow for widespread Jewish settlement in Richmond.
Growing Jewish Settlement
The first permanent Jewish settler in Richmond was William Brady, who ran a small shop where he crafted and repaired harnesses and saddles. He arrived to Richmond in 1834, when the town was little more than 1400 people. It would not be until the 1840s, however, that a Jewish community in Richmond began to form. While traveling through Indiana and Kentucky in the 1850s, prominent rabbi Isaac Leeser noted that a Jewish community in the Whitewater Valley was taking shape and he expected that within the next few decades it would be a fully fledged community. His assumptions would prove correct, as by 1864 Reform movement leader Isaac Mayer Wise noted that there were "many Jewish families [residing]...in Richmond." In 1869, the community held their first formal High Holiday services.
Suffragettes Come to Richmond
While Richmond did not have a robust Jewish community in the antebellum period, they did have one high profile Jewish visitor in the 1840s: suffragette and abolitionist Ernestine Rose (pictured above). For reasons we can only guess, the local press did not cover her speech in downtown Richmond, but she wrote of the experience in a letter to Susan B. Anthony in 1877. Setting out from Philadelphia in 1843, Rose spent much of the next year traveling through Ohio and Indiana giving speeches and rallying activists.
Jewish Merchants of the Late-19th/Early-20th Centuries
The 1870s saw Jewish settlement throughout the Midwest skyrocket as towns and cities offered opportunities for non-agrarian life. Richmond would have a thriving community in the 1870s, but it would ebb again by the end of the decade as most Jewish residents migrated to larger cities such as Indianapolis, Chicago, and Cincinnati. The most prominent resident of this early vibrancy, and one of the few Jews to not leave Richmond during the economic depression of the late-1870s, was Solomon Fox, an immigrant from Alsace-Lorraine. Fox arrived in Richmond in 1871, following earlier relatives Sam and Simon Fox to southeastern Indiana. Brothers Sam and Simon arrived in Richmond just after the Civil War, having worked on a farm in Winchester, Indiana before the war. The Fox brothers were prominent clothing merchants in town, owning a shop at 714 Main Street. Sam would eventually break off and start his own store a block down Main Street. Both Sam and Simon would stay in for the rest of the 19th century, before retiring (Sam in 1899, Simon in 1901) and leaving the town. Solomon worked for Sam and Simon for two years before opening up a hat shop in 1873. Solomon ran his shop for about 40 years before retiring and leaving it to his son George in 1912. George would run the shop before leaving it to his son Alvin, the third generation of Foxes to run the store.
As the 20th century dawned, Eastern European immigrants began arriving in Richmond in relatively large numbers. Of these Eastern European Jews arriving in Richmond, perhaps none were more prominent than the large Fivel-Saffer-Jaffe family. In the first years of the 20th century, Morris Fivelowitz (later shortened to Fivel) arrived in Richmond with his brother-in-law Solomon Saffer. The two of them were soon followed by Morris's brother Sam Jaffe, who had adopted his mothers surname upon arriving in the United States. Morris ran a shoe store in Richmond while Solomon was a scrap dealer and peddler. Sam Jaffe would join Solomon in the scrap trade, opening his own store in the latter half of the decade. All three men had several children who became pillars of Richmond's organized Jewish community after World War I. Members of the Fivel-Saffer-Jaffe family through much of the 20th century and were active in the Jewish community for most of their lives.
The 1910s saw the arrival of yet another prominent Richmond Jewish family, the Vigrans (original Vigransky). Sam Vigran arrived in Richmond in 1913. Upon arriving in Richmond, Sam opened a jewelry, sporting goods, and luggage store. Sam's younger brother Ben arrived in Richmond in 1919, where he opened a ladies' ready-to-wear clothing shop. Harry became the third Vigran brother to arrive in Richmond, shortly after Ben in 1919. Like his brothers, Harry opened his own store, Vigran's Variety Store.
Stores and merchantry was the core occupation for many of Richmond's early Jewish residents, with many who arrived in town working for established stores before opening their own. Solomon Frankel owned Model Clothing Company; Mendle Saffer ran the King's Men Shop; Abraham Harsh owned Tiger Coal and Supply Company; and David Fehr started off working at Ben Vigran's store before opening his own store, The Style Shop.
An Organized Jewish Community Forms
By World War I, there were about 40 Jewish families living in Richmond, Indiana. With a community of this size, local Jews began exploring the potential for organized Jewish life in the city. The first local Jewish communal organization was the Richmond Sisterhood, which first met in December 1919 at the home of Millie Fox. The structure of the sisterhood was based off the Temple Israel Sisterhood in Paducah, Kentucky, even using their constitution as a guide for the Richmond Sisterhood's constitution. The following year, the sisterhood joined the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, a branch of the Reform movement's Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The Richmond Sisterhood played a significant role in developing the city's Jewish community in the early years of organization. Before the creation of a formal congregation, they held regular meetings, hosted social events, ran a Hebrew school, and organized the major communal services, including the Passover Seder. The Richmond Sisterhood thrived during the early 1920s, bringing in members from small towns across eastern Indiana and Western Ohio. In these early years, Richmond's Jews did not have the population or funds for a physical synagogue, particularly when the economic depression of the late-1920s and early-1930s hit the community hard.
Following World War II, the fortunes of Richmond's Jewish community changed for the better. The Richmond Jewish Council formed in 1948, though their constitution did not assign any specific responsibilities to the group. Instead, the Council served on an ad hoc basis to provide a base level of organization and communal exchange for Richmond's Jews. Perhaps their most important task was arranging for the services of student rabbis during the High Holy Days. Attempts by Hebrew Union College to transform the Council into a congregation in the early 1950s were rebuffed. A local chapter of B'nai B'rith chartered in 1955, taking over communal organization duties from the Council. However, by 1957, the need for a formally organized congregation and local synagogue became apparent. Spearheaded by Marvin and Betty Goldenberg, Richmond's Jews started pooling resources to develop a synagogue. These efforts came to fruition in 1963 with the opening of the Beth Boruk Congregation. The creation of Beth Boruk breathed new life into the Jewish community of Richmond. They hosted fundraising and social programs, theater parties, Hebrew school, and a youth group.