An Unlikely Home: Jews in Key West & the

Struggle for Cuban Independence

Table of Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Chapter 1: “A Brief History of Key West”………………………………………………………..7

Chapter 2: “Jewish Immigration to the United States”…………………………………..………19

Chapter 3: “The Cuban War for Independence and the Jews of Key West”……………………..31

Conclusion………………………………………………………...……………………………..39

Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………42

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...47

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………53

Introduction

From runaway slaves to Spanish conquistadors, from cattle drivers to Seminoles, a vast

array of people and their languages have enriched Florida’s cultural landscape and called the

Sunshine State home. One such group were the Jews of Key West who crossed racial and

language barriers to become influential members of Key West society and staunch allies of

Cuban revolutionaries like Jose Martí.

Interest in this topic began with a family history project and the question, “How could I, a

practicing Jew, be a fourth generation Floridian?” This led me down a rabbit hole of Florida

history and the history of Jewish immigration to the United States in the decade of the 1880s and

1890s. I chose Key West as a case study of Jewish immigration because, not only was that the

city where my ancestors settled, but because it provides a unique story of a community

flourishing amid war, natural disaster, and cultural assimilation.

The first question to be addressed is, “Why Key West?” When historians investigate

Ashkenazi Jewish immigration from the Pale of Settlement to the United States, they

immediately look to Ellis Island. While this certainly was the prominent port of entry, Jewish

emigrants entered the United States from other ports scattered throughout the South and provided

good opportunities to improve their lives away from already saturated urban centers like New

York. Rural Florida would have been especially attractive to the persecuted Jews of Eastern

Europe; land was cheap and readily available, regardless of one’s religious background.

Even though Florida was the least populated southern state following the Civil War, and

held on to Confederate sentiments into the 20th century, it was a diverse state with some

economically viable communities. Cuban immigrants were already making Ybor City the center

Goldman 1

of the cigar making universe, and the St. Augustine/Jacksonville area have been settled by the

Spanish, French, and English since the 15th Century.

By 1890 Key West, the southernmost island off the Florida peninsula, was a significant

city as its trade connections between the United States and Cuba made it the wealthiest and most

populous city in Florida.1 According to 1890 census information, 18,800 people lived on Key

West, even more impressive since Key West was located on an island only 4.2 square miles in

size. The city’s location as a stopover from Cuba and the rest of the Caribbean made wealth

easier to accumulate, another argument for why this was a perfect ground for community

development.

The Jewish community on the island began in 1884 when Joseph Wolfson was

shipwrecked on his way from Rumania to New Orleans.2 Wolfson decided to stay on the island,

though there are no written records explaining why he made that decision, he probably saw

business opportunities in selling goods to wreckers and spongers. When other Jews in Florida

and Georgia received word that there was a Jew on Key West, a few decided to move to the

island. The families of Abraham Wolkowsky (1885), Louis Fine (1887), and David L. Rippa

(1888) all came to the island to make a living as peddlers.3 Congregation Rodef Shalom was

founded in 1887, but not officially chartered until 1904. Services were held in members’ homes

until a permanent building was bought in 1907.4 As soon as a minyan, or a group of ten male

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1 Stephen Nichols, A Chronological History of Key West: A Tropical Island City (Key West Images of the Past, Inc. 2000)

2 Florida, and Florida Heritage Foundation. 2000. Florida Jewish heritage trail. [Tallahassee, Fla.]: Fla. Dept. of State, 40.

3 Florida, and Florida Heritage Foundation. 2000. Florida Jewish heritage trail. [Tallahassee, Fla.]: Fla. Dept. of State, 40

4 Congregation Bʼnai Zion. “History.” http://www.bnaizionkw.org/history.htm

worshippers,5 was reached, a community could begin establishing a Jewish cemetery, a

synagogue, and kosher butchering practices.

The Merchant Protective Association of Key West amended the city charter in 1889 to

impose a $1,000 tax on peddler’s carts.6 This tax was meant to directly target Jews, as peddling

was a common line of work for Jews in America, and furthermore, Jews made up the entirety of

the peddlers on Key West at the time.7 Theories abound as to the necessity of the ordinance,

differing accounts suggest that the carts were too competitive with permanent stores, however

most texts agree that it was rooted in anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant feelings that pervaded the

diverse city. The tax became a turning point for the community and the peddlers opened store

fronts and specialized into everything from clothing stores to grocery stores along Duval Street,

Key West’s major commercial thoroughfare.

This thesis will examine the ascension to preeminence of the Jewish community. By the

mid-1890s Jews were able to support each other and open their own storefronts for everything

from grocery stores to clothing shops. These storefront owning Jews soon became so successful

and prominent in their businesses that they owned boats to ship their goods to Cuba and across

the State, all predating Henry Flagler’s 1912 expansion of the Florida East Coast Railroad to Key

West.8 In addition to these commercial activities they were active participants in the Cuban War

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5 Florida, and Florida Heritage Foundation. 2000. Florida Jewish heritage trail. [Tallahassee, Fla.]: Fla. Dept. of State, 44.

6 Browne, Key West: The old and the new, 100.

7 ibid.

8 George Walter Born, Historic Florida Keys: An Illustrated History of Key West & the Keys (Historical Publishing Network, 2003), 47.

of Independence from Spain and subsequently the Spanish-American War, donating large sums

of money and the use of their ships to aid in the cause against Spain.

Jose Martí, the prolific writer and revolutionary activist of the Cuban War for

Independence, courted the Jewish population of Florida for a number of reasons. He identified

them as a community with money and as individuals who could commiserate with the cause of

Cuban independence. Jews were also the owners of a number of cigar making factories which

employed Cuban-Americans, places where Martí would go to drum up support and to fundraise

for his movement. Martí’s views and writings about democracy and racial equality would have

been very attractive to Jews, who were often persecuted themselves because of their cultural and

religious background.

Letters of gratitude from numerous Cuban dignitaries were sent to one Jewish community

member, Louis Fine, for his steadfast support for the Cuban people against the Spanish.9 Not

only did the Jews of Key West open up their homes and businesses to Martí and other

revolutionaries to use as home bases for strategizing and fundraising, they also engaged in

filibustering to counter the Spanish trade off of the island. Even after Martí was killed in battle in

1895, the community was still involved in the campaign. One notable Florida Jew, Roloff

Mialofsky, bought guns and explosives and led his own group of soldiers to fight the Spanish.

This was several years before the USS Maine sailed from Key West and exploded in the Havana

harbor on February 15, 1898, beginning the formal U.S. involvement in the war with Spain.10

The argument I will make for the community’s involvement in this struggle is the deep

seeded distrust of the Spanish by Jews. Since the Spanish Inquisition, Sephardic Jews have been

Goldman 4

9 See appendix, photos 4 and 5.

10 Trask, The war with Spain in 1898, 24.

persecuted by Spain. In Louis Fine’s biography, the author identifies Fine with the plight of the

Cubans under Spanish rule because of his Jewishness. This could refer to the animosity towards

the Spanish because of his religion, or, from a Biblical sense, as a freedom from slavery by

oppressive leaders. The Jews were strong allies of the Cubans because they viewed the Cubans

as being held in bondage by the Spanish, paralleling the Jewish experience of being held in

bondage in Egypt.11

Looking at Florida through the lens of Jewish influence is an area that is surprisingly

underdeveloped in historical research. Today Florida has the third largest population of Jewish

residents in the United States,12 yet little is documented as to why this came to be and how a

group of families set the framework for Jewish communities to rise across the state. Key West is

used as a case study in the thesis, though Jacksonville, Tampa, and Pensacola went through

simultaneous establishment patterns.

The conclusion of this thesis will also prove how two very diverse groups, with vastly

different language and cultural backgrounds, were brought together to fight against an oppressive

colonial poer, even before the United States government stepped in. This seemingly David and

Goliath story incorporates a tenet of Judaism, the freedom from oppression, with its real life

application. Though there are many reasons why the Jewish community became involved in the

war, I will argue that a major reason is because of the core beliefs of their religion.

Research into the establishment of permanent cultural communities is important because

it can be replicated to study other similar groups. The findings contained in this thesis can be

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11 Exodus 20:2

12 Jewish Virtual Library, “Jewish Population in the United States by State (1899-present).” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html

applied to many groups in Florida, especially the early Cuban population in Florida. Very little

has been written on this topic, so the information and research in this thesis is important and

valuable.

Goldman 6

Chapter 1: A Brief History of Key West

The Florida Keys’ first recorded contact with European explorers was by Juan Ponce de

Leon in 1513, as his ships sailed South along the perimeter of the Florida peninsula. For the next

nearly four-hundred years the Spanish would control much of the land in South America and the

Caribbean, and their armada would dominate both shipping and naval warfare throughout the

world.

The Straits of Florida were the fastest moving waters along the frequented water-highway

between Spain and its American colonies. The narrowest point in the Straits is the stretch of 90

miles between Key West and Havana, Cuba, which would sweep ships across the shallow and

rocky reefs out into the vast Atlantic Ocean. This route became the preferred one because of the

nature of the currents and was used not only by the Spanish, but the French, English, and later

the Americans whose boats would carry goods from the Caribbean or the ports along the Gulf of

Mexico back North to the larger American cities and Europe.13 The currents from the Atlantic

Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Pass, between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula,

move westward and would carry empty ships to the Caribbean, ready to be filled with the

treasures of the new world. The Gulf Stream between Key West and Cuba run eastward and

northward, thus catapulting returning ships back to their home bases in the upper Atlantic.14

The origin of the island’s name, Cayo Hueso, is steeped in legend. Years before the

Spanish arrived, indian tribes on Florida’s mainland began to fight, and the Calusas, who once

stretched across Southwest Florida and into the upper keys, were driven down to the

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13 Fryman, “ Theme Two: Key West in the Colonial Period of Florida History (1512-1821)” Historical Study for Proposed Key West Museum. 1974. (2)

14 Gyory, “The Florida Current” http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/atlantic/florida.html

southernmost island. The tribe was apparently followed by the stronger northern tribes to the

island where they were massacred.15 Bones of the Calusa warriors were strewn across the shores

of the southernmost key, inspiring the Spanish to name the island “Cayo Hueso” or Bone Key.

The few remaining Calusas escaped on canoes to neighboring Cuba.16 Archeological evidence

suggested that the island was never inhabited for very long by any indigenous people, possibly

because of the island’s isolation and frequent run-ins with hurricanes.17 Despite Key West’s

undeniable beauty and warm, tropical environment, the island has always been a notoriously

difficult place to live.

Cayo Hueso remained in the hands of the Spanish until the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which

passed the Spanish Florida holdings to England as one of the stipulations to end the Seven Years

War.18 Havana, Cuba was restored to Spain, and would remain under Spanish control for another

135 years. It was after this transfer that the small, underdeveloped island becomes referred to in

English as “Key West.” Though the origins are uncertain, the theory that it derived from the

corruption of its Spanish hands name into English is widely accepted.19 However, true to the

name, “Key West” today remains as the southernmost point in the United States as well as the

westernmost island in the Florida Keys.

Over the next fifty years, ownership of Key West was disputed, passing from Spanish to

English, back to Spanish, then in 1822 the island was bought by an American merchant, John W.

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15 “Early Key West History” http://www.floridakeys.com/keywest/key-west-history.htm

16 Stubbins, City of Intrigue, Nest of Revolution: A Documentary History of Key West in the Nineteenth Century. xvii.

17 Browne, Key West: The Old and the New. ix.

18 Kitchin, The Present State of the West Indies.

19 Stubbins, City of Intrigue, Nest of Revolution: A Documentary History of Key West in the Nineteenth Century. xvii.

Simonton for $2,000 from Juan Pablo de Salas of Spain.20 Simonton then divided and sold

portions of the island to two other prominent merchants, John W.C. Fleming and John

Whitehead. The last portion of the island was bought and sold until eventually falling into the

hands of the permanent owner, Pardon C. Greene. The four developers of the island pushed the

U.S. Government into surveying the island by touting its proximity to Cuba as a potential

military outpost. Thus set in motion the transformation of this swampy, relatively untouched

island into a prosperous and thriving economic and naval defense port.21

Outlaw Key: A long tradition of Piracy and Wrecking off Key West

Pirates long traversed the Florida Keys to wreak havoc on the ships full of materials from

the Caribbean on their way back to Europe passing through the popular Florida Straits route. The

infamous Captain Kidd, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), and Black Caesar all have been cited as

attacking ships from the string of islands. Black Caesar, an escaped African slave, used Key

Largo as a home base for his exploits in the upper keys between 1705 and 1715 before joining

Blackbeard’s crew. Caesar was quickly captured by the British in 1715 and sent to Williamsburg,

Virginia to stand trial and be hanged in 1715.22 Now the dominant power in the Caribbean, the

British cracked down on piracy and would hold very public and gruesome trials and hangings of

pirates in their realm. Though the classic Golden Age of Piracy would end in 1725, piracy would

remain a nuisance to the shipping industry well into the next century.23

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20 Browne, Key West: The Old and the New. ix.

21 Browne, Key West: The Old and the New. 52.

22 ibid.

23 Condignly, Under the Black Flag. xvi-xvii.

Small scale piracy continued around the island until 1822, when Simonton, the private

proprietor of the Key West, called upon the U.S. government to survey the island for a potential

fort location. The Secretary of the Navy at the time, Smith Thompson, sent an investigative crew

to look at the island with orders, “To take possession of it in the name of the United States.”24

The commander of the ship did this, and in the following years military occupation of the island

ensued. One of the first orders of business was to send Commodore David Porter to Key West, to

form the West Indies Anti-Piracy Squadron. A notorious pirate hunter, Porter successfully fought

the Barbary pirates at Tripoli during the War of 1812 and Jean Lafitte and his crew in New

Orleans.25 Within a year, the Anti-Piracy Squadron removed the threat of piracy from the Florida

Keys to Isle of Pines in Cuba.26

Once the fear of piracy was erased after Commodore Porter’s successful missions, Key

West became a prosperous port for shipping and for those making their living off of the more

devious profession of “wrecking.” The Florida Keys are essentially the above-water portions of

an expansive rock and coral reef train, situated along the fast moving Gulf Stream. From the Dry

Tortugas to Key West, the Gulf Stream picks up speed and power as the Straits narrow between

Cuba and Florida, making the Florida Keys rocky obstacles along the treacherous current.27

The poorly mapped coral reefs off of Key West coupled with the inadequate number of

lighthouses caused many ships to wreck just off shore. Inhabitants would watch for these

unlucky ships and quickly take their “wreckers,” or scavenging boats, out to take any salvageable

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24 Simontonʼs memorandum, December 7, 1821, to Treasury Department. Territorial papers, 22: 411-12.

25 Ogle, Key West, 14.

26 Stubbins, City of Intrigue, Nest of Revolution: A Documentary History of Key West in the Nineteenth Century. xviii.

27 Ogle, Key West, 11-12.

cargo from the damaged or sinking ship. Prior to 1825, the individuals who made their living on

“wrecking” off of Key West would take their plunder to Havana or Nassau to sell. As an example

of just how profitable this industry was, in just one year, between 1824 and 1825, $293,353

worth of wrecked property was transferred between Key West, Cuba, and the Bahamas.28

The massive amount of money associated with the wrecking industry attracted the

attention of Congress, and in 1825 a federal law was passed requiring all wrecked property to be

taken to a port within the United State’s jurisdiction. Hence, Key West flourished on the lucrative

business of salvaging and repairing ships until the mid-1840s.29 But this practice of looting

wrecked ships off of the coral reefs of Key West would not be sustainable, or tolerated, as the

U.S. began to utilize the island as a military base in the wake of President James Monroe’s 1823

Caribbean policy in the Monroe Doctrine.30 Businesses like restaurants, bars, and supply stores

opened to accommodate the hoards of wreckers who flocked to the isolated island looking to

“get rich quick” off of unsuspecting cargo ships.

Economic Development

The year 1845 holds significance in both Florida and Key West History; as Florida made

its entrance as the 27th state to the Union and construction began on the first military base on

Key West, Fort Zachary Taylor. The following year the island was devastated by the Hurricane of

1846, which destroyed all but eight of the city’s six-hundred structures.31 Reconstruction began

Goldman 11

28 Maloney, The History of Key West. 12.

29 Stubbins, City of Intrigue, xviii

30 Message of President James Monroe at the commencement of the first session of the 18th Congress (The Monroe Doctrine)

31 Ogle, Key West, 42.

immediately and work on Fort Taylor became more necessary than ever as a tactical point in the

Mexican-American war. Since the town now served a military purpose as a Naval Port, there was

a vested interest in keeping ships from hitting the dangerous reefs. A lighthouse was built in

1848, making the passage between Key West and Cuba safe for ships and effectively ending the

wrecking industry.32

As the wrecking industry ended, cigar manufacturing took its place as the key to

economic growth in Key West. This industry would forever change the cultural and racial

makeup of the island. Cuban factories held the monopoly on cigar making until a German-born,

Jewish business man named Samuel Seidenberg established a 500 person factory on Key West

called La Rosa Espanola in 1868.33

Seidenberg’s cigar factory was wildly successful for a number of reasons, first the lower,

protective tariffs laws in the United States incentivized domestic manufacturing. Secondly, the

cost of materials remained low because tobacco leaves from Cuba were easily acquired through

the short boat ride between the two islands. Finally, the quality of cigars did not diminish once

Key West became the center of manufacturing because Key West and Cuba shared the same

warm and humid climate essential to cigar-rolling. Both locations had nearly identical

conditions, however, the center of the cigar making world quickly shifted to Key West as

political stability deteriorated in Cuba in the mid-19th century.34 By 1890, there were over 200

Goldman 12

32 Lighthouse and Keeperʼs Quarters. http://www.kwahs.org/visit/lighthouse-keepers-quarters/

33 “Our Cigar Factories,” The Daily Equator-Democrat, Trade Edition, Vol. 9, March 1889.

34 Obituary, Tobacco Leaf. January 12, 1924

cigar factories on Key West producing one million cigars a year; the island was considered, “the

cigar capital of the world.”35

A Multicultural Community

Despite the secession of Florida from the Union in 1861 to join the Confederacy, Key

West largely stayed out of the Civil War, and was decidedly different in culture from peninsular

Florida. One in four blacks on the island were free before the Emancipation Proclamation and

roughly half of Key West’s white population was foreign-born, as the small island was home to

many individuals from across the world creating a unique multicultural community.36 Spanish

was far more widely used than English, due in large part to the island’s close ties with Cuba and

the large number of Cuban immigrants to the cigar factories. Its location as a port city in the

Caribbean meant that, along with Spanish and English, one would have heard French, Dutch,

Creole, and even Yiddish spoken on the streets.

A Brief History of the Spanish Occupation of Cuba

Cuba has been an incredibly important territory of Spain ever since Christopher

Columbus landed on the island during his first voyage in 1492. Throughout the next twenty years

the Spanish began moving in troops to Cuba and Hispaniola to establish both as agricultural

colonies. Many massacres took place as the native Taino and Ciboney tribes were consolidated,

enslaved, and subsequently victims of European diseases like measles and smallpox.37 Ferdinand

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35 Key West Historic Marker Tour http://www.keywesthistoricmarkertour.org/Cigar_Anatomy.php

36 United States Census Office, Population of the United States in 1860. 54.

37 Gott, Cuba: A new history, 32.

II of Aragon issued a decree in 1513 that would put into place the encomienda system of land

settlement in the New World as pertaining to conversion of native peoples.

Encomienda was the legal system that assigned a specific number of natives to a Spanish

official, who would in turn assign a leader among the tribes to manage the labor and education of

tribe. The Spanish official given the “tribe” was to protect it from attacks by other native tribes

and to convert the natives to Catholicism and teach them Spanish. The official would have full

control of the natives to exploit them for labor, precious metals like gold, or other crops. Not

technically slaves, the indigenous people were now Christian, they were still treated harshly

under encomienda. Though the system would be abandoned when the Spanish began bringing

African slaves to the colonies, the paternalistic ownership of the individuals living under Spanish

rule in the colonies would perpetuate for hundreds of years.

According to the mid 16th century accounts of Bartolome de las Casas, the indigenous

people of Cuba were already cultivating agriculture like yucca root, cotton, maize, sweet

potatoes, and most importantly to the future of Cuba: tobacco, a Taino word.38 The native people

showed the Spanish how to roll the tobacco into cigars, which would soon be a major industry in

Cuba, and one that would ironically finance the forcing out of the Spanish from the island.

Cuba was the ideal location for Spain to place its sugar and tobacco plantations, and was

the hub for the production for the Spanish Empire. Slavery, the driving force behind the sugar

industry for much of the island’s history became increasingly contentious in Cuban society. The

issue of slavery was probably the most divisive and violent issue of the second half of the

Nineteenth Century. While the United States was in the midst of a Civil War over the “necessity”

Goldman 14

38 Historia de las Indias, 81-101.

of slavery to the Southern economy, Cubans were fighting against it for the same reason. The

British Empire banned the import of African slaves to their Empire in 1807 and the Spanish

banned slavery completely in 1811, except in Cuba and Puerto Rico, where sugar cane was still

very labor intensive.39

Innovation in sugar production made the process safer, cleaner, and requiring of

machinery instead of man power. These improvements were welcomed by the Cuban sugar

plantation owners as they made the process quicker and cheaper; no longer would large numbers

of slaves need to be housed, fed, and cared for. Cuba was a multicultural society with Catholic

roots, and thus many took issue with the practice of slavery on religious and moral grounds.

Even after the slave trade was banned, the Spanish were lax with its enforcement, which led to

an influx of African slaves to the island, adding to the further discontent of the Cubans with their

Spanish rulers.

There were a few small revolts against the Spanish government in Cuba in 1826, 1830,

and 1834, all shut down and those involved executed. The ruling government in Madrid sought

to punish the people of Cuba by passing decrees that persecuted Cubans. One such decree that

angered the upper class plantation owners was passed in 1828 which required all students

studying abroad to immediately return to Cuba. Any individuals educated in the North would

have to submit themselves to police questioning and surveillance, all in an effort to quell

uprisings.40 As the oppressive laws continued to be passed in Madrid and harsher Governors and

officials were sent to execute the laws in Cuba, more and more Cubans immigrated to the United

Goldman 15

39 Hobhouse, Seeds of Change, 111.

40 Velez, History of Former Cuban Wars, 23.

States, settling mostly in Key West and Tampa to work in the cigar factories.41 The immigrants

never forgot how they were treated by the Spanish and the greatest monetary and tactical support

for the revolutionary uprisings came from the refugees and sympathizers in the United States.42

The Cuban Ten Years War for Independence spanned from 1868 to 1878, marked by

guerrilla attacks, famine and disease, it was unanimously deemed unsuccessful. The Spanish

government sent General Martinez Campos to Cuba in 1878 with orders to end the revolution

using whatever means possible. A compact known as the Pact of Zanjon was drawn up to end the

war which cost Spain approximately $700,000,000 and 200,000 men.43 The compact promised

more representation of Cuba to the Cortes Generales, the legislature of Spain, and the freedom of

all slaves. However, the Pact of Zanjon was never enforced, nor did Campos ever submit it to the

Cortes for official review.44 The conditions in Cuba reverted back to that of before the Ten Years

War, as if it never happened.

The next twenty years was a period of incubation for the Cuban Revolutionaries, which

will be described in further detail in Chapter 3. Jose Marti, a central figure to the War of Cuban

Independence, was actively recruiting and raising money from New York to Florida, and would

find the friends and allies in the Key West Jewish Community. This investigation would be

incomplete without the inclusion of the critical turning point in Spanish expulsion from Cuba:

the Spanish-American War.

Goldman 16

41 ibid.

42 ibid.

43 Miller, Spaniards in Cuba, 586.

44 ibid.

The Spanish-American War

Several proclamations by U.S. Presidents, beginning with President Zachary Taylor on

August 11th, 1849 warned U.S. citizens that they would face heavy penalties if they became

involved in helping the Cuban revolution arise. He stated that, “It is the duty of this

government…to prevent any aggression by our citizens upon the territories of friendly

nations.”45 At the time, the United States was comfortable and even preferred de facto Spanish

Rule of Cuba out of fear of a revolution close to home.46 But as the atrocities of the Ten Years

War became known, public opinion about the Spanish shifted toward Cuban revolution. When it

became clear that Spain was losing its grip on Cuba, the United States made moves towards

intervening.

The motives of entering the Cuban-Spanish conflict may never be clear, but one such

theory was to prevent another Haitian Revolution so close to the mainland. Reconstruction

efforts were failing in the American South, and with overt racism and lynchings becoming

increasingly prevalent, it is clear that the U.S. wanted to avoid a racial revolt.47 The critical

moment, at least in swaying public opinion towards war, was the explosion of the USS Maine on

February 15th, 1898 in the Havana Harbor.48 Americans quickly blamed the Spanish for the

sinking of the ship, which gave Congress enough ammunition to declare war. On April 20, 1898

Goldman 17

45 Taylor, Proclamation 51.

46 Hennessy, The Crisis of 1898, 66.

47 ibid.

48 Trask, The war with Spain in 1898, 24.

President McKinley signed a congressional resolution to allow the United States to intervene in

Cuba to drive out the Spanish, and to establish a stable and independent government in Cuba.49

Chapter 1 sets the stage for the discussion and interpretation of the Jewish involvement

on Key West and Cuba. Key West has attracted society’s outcasts and downtrodden for hundreds

of years, from pirates, to wreckers, to immigrants looking for an escape from persecution, all

found a home and a lifestyle amidst the coral reefs. The inhabitants were isolated from the

politics of the mainland United States, which came as both a blessing and a curse. The

independence provided a perfect atmosphere for a multicultural and multilingual community to

form, even during the throws of Civil War. As idyllic as the tropical island sounds, that solitude

came with a price. There was no escape from pummeling hurricanes and engulfing fires that

quickly stretched the length of the island, destroying property and life without regard. Yet Key

Westerners remained, and more and more immigrants flooded to the city as Cuba-Spanish

relations dissolved.

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49 Gould, Spanish American-War and President McKinley, 1.

Chapter 2: Jewish Immigration to the United States

The Jewish diaspora is of both religious and historical significance to this paper, so in

order to understand how a prosperous and influential Jewish community developed in the

southernmost island in the Florida Keys, we must start, “In the beginning”50 with the origins of

Judaism. The biblical history, names, and beliefs as outlined in the Torah and by Jewish

traditions, especially of the slavery and exodus motifs, are key to understanding the actions taken

by the Jews of Key West from a religious perspective.

Judaism began with Abraham, a Hebrew man in the Fertile Crescent, near Canaan. The

central theme of Judaism is the idea of “One G-d51” and became the basis of Islam and

Christianity. Tradition states that Abraham’s son Isaac, and grandson, Jacob, and their decedents

made up the Children of Israel. Jacob and his twelve sons, which made up the Twelve Tribes of

Israel, wandered out of Canaan during a famine and settled in Northern Egypt.52 It was then, as

tradition states, that the Egyptians enslaved the Children of Israel for 400 years, until a prophet,

Moses, led them out of Egypt in 1280 BCE.53 Beginning the “wandering” and searching for a

homeland pattern which continues throughout Jewish history.

The 40 year period of wandering in the desert and Moses’ ascent to Mt. Sinai to receive

the Ten Commandments from G-d is known collectively as the Exodus. The Jews then came

back to Canaan around 1400 BCE where they lived in a monarchy until 587 BCE when they

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50 Genisis 1:1

51 It is disrespectful in Judaism to fully write out the name of G-d, thus, since the author is an observant Jew the abbreviation “G-d” will be used from here on out.

52 Scheindlin, “A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood.” 7.

53 Scheindlin, “A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood.” 2.

were conquered by the Babylonians.54 This began the Jewish Diaspora, as many Jews moved

throughout Babylonia, near modern day Iraq, and spread out across the Middle East and

Mediterranean as the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans conquered one another. In the first

century CE Jews settled in all areas of the Byzantine Empire, including Southern Italy, the first

known presence of Jews in Europe, signifying the beginnings of Ashkenazim.55 Jews remained a

permanent presence in all societies, often left alone to live their separate religious lives, while

still engaging with gentiles in secular business.

In 1095 Pope Urban II united Christian Europe by declaring the First Crusade to take

back Jerusalem from the Turks.56 Jews still lived in the Middle East and fought along side

Muslims to protect the ancient city of Jerusalem from the Christian Crusaders of Europe. The

Jewish involvement ignited propaganda against the European Jews which led to their persecution

throughout Western Europe, prompting many to move south to modern day Spain and North

Africa or east to modern day Russia.

Jews were given freedom to practice and live traditionally on the Iberian Peninsula

during the reign of the Muslim Moors, but when they were conquered a militantly Christian rule

ascended on the area and Jews again faced discrimination. There were two previous Inquisitions

chartered by Pope Innocent III and Gregory IX, but they focused more on Christian heretics than

on Jews or Muslims. The more infamous Spanish Inquisition began in 1478 by the Catholic

rulers of Spain, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, was much harsher. Ferdinand

Goldman 20

54 ibid.

55 Scheindlin, “A Short History of the Jewish People: From Legendary Times to Modern Statehood.” 97.

56 Pope Urban II orders first Crusade. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pope-urban-ii-orders-first-crusade

and Isabella wanted to ensure uniform, Catholic orthodoxy across Spain, because they felt the

Pope was not going far enough to cleanse the country of heresy.57 So in 1492 the Jews of Spain

were exiled, most fleeing to Portugal, until tribunals were set up in Lisbon, then many Jews

moved to the New World for refuge.

The Jews of Northern Europe were also experiencing more and more government

infringement and anti-Semitism, and thus began to withdraw deeper and deeper into Eastern

Europe. Formerly, Jews would be both active members of secular society as traders,

shopkeepers, and bankers, while still maintaining close-knit and separate communities. Seen

primarily in the Ashkenazim, the Yiddish speaking Jews of Europe, the communities would be

structured along the Talmudic laws into a self-governing settlement called the kehillah. Most

secular governments in Europe would recognize the kehillah and treat the Jews within their

domain as a corporate group and would give them autonomy in collecting taxes, administration,

and civil law.58 The Jewish communities of France and Germany operated in this way with little

intervention until the rise of Christendom in the regions, when the anti-Semitism erupted in the

Rhine Valley in the wake of the Crusades.59

The Christians of the Middle Ages saw the Jewish communities as outcasts and created

folklore that painted Jews as “demons” and “Christ killers.” Jews were driven out of England and

France in the 13th and 14th centuries, and moved east to Poland and Russia where most of the

Ashkenazim would remain for the next 500 years. The mass migration to eastern Europe from the

west and the beginning of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition signified the end of peaceful,

Goldman 21

57 The Inquisition. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Inquisition.html

58 Golden and Rywell, Jews in American History, 5-7.

59 ibid.

communal living between Jews and gentiles.60 By 1600, nearly 500,000 Jews lived in eastern

Europe and had established local kehillah within a larger framework of Jewish courts, councils,

and legislative government in Poland.61

The uprising of the Ukrainian Cossacks in 1648, the ending of the Polish state in the 18th

century, and the increasingly involved governments of Prussia, Austria, and Russia tried to push

the Jews out of their borders into the Pale of Settlement, an area created by an imperial decree

that required all Jewish inhabitants of Russia to live in the 386,000 square mile partition between

Poland and Russia.62 The 1897 Russian census counted approximately 5,000,000 Jews living

inside the Pale with roughly 200,000 Jews living elsewhere in the Russian Empire.63 Life in the

Pale was restrictive and defined by oppression and intimidation by non-Jewish Russian and

Polish citizens.64 Kehillah self government was abolished and the people forced into the packed

land were subject to heavy taxes. The imperial ukase of 1827 forced Jews into conscription into

the Russian Army, and would mandate them to serve for 25 years, children as young as 12 years

old were kidnapped to serve.65 From 1881 to 1884 anti-Jewish violence, called pogroms, erupted

in the Pale of Settlement after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II for which, some believed,

the Jews were responsible.66

Goldman 22

60 ibid.

61 ibid.

62 “Pale of Settlement, Jewish” http://www.search.eb.com/ebi/article-9332366

63 ibid.

64 Goren, The American Jews, 8.

65 Goren, The American Jews, 9.

66 Belch, “Jewish Chronicle,” Eyewitness to Jewish History.

The harsh conditions and unpredictable pogroms sparked the mass migration of Jews

from the Pale of Settlement began flowing into the United States through ports from Ellis Island

in New York to Savannah, Georgia. Exile, slavery, and wandering are symbolic and recurring

themes throughout Jewish history. Jews would again become exiles from Europe and move to the

land that promised freedom and liberty; the United States.

American Jewish History

The first documented Jews to arrive in what is now the United States came in September

of 1654, refugees fleeing the Portuguese Inquisition in Brazil.67 The group of 23 Jews moved

from Brazil, originally a Dutch possession, to New Amsterdam, later to become New York, in

hopes of freedom and a better life.68 Immigration to the United States during the colonial period

was small, numbering only 1,500 Jewish individuals total in the country in 1790.69 Most of them

were Sephardim, Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Jews, escaping the Inquisitions continuing

on the Iberian Peninsula and in the New World colonies.70

The new United States was comparatively welcoming to Jews, noting the variety of

religions represented in the country already and by Thomas Jefferson’s precedent setting letter on

the “Separation of Church and State.” George Washington visited Congregation Yeshuat Israel in

Newport, Rhode Island on August 17th, 1790 and was told of the harsh discrimination the Jews

had faced before settling in America. President Washington was so touched by the meeting that

Goldman 23

67 Gordis, Jewish Life in America, 11.

68 Golden and Rywell, Jews in American History, 1.

69 American Jewish Yearbook, 77.

70 Golden and Rywell, Jews in American History, 2.

he wrote a letter to the Congregation in response which read, “The Government of the United

States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, and to persecution no assistance, requires only that

they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all

occasions their effectual support.”71

Between 1830 and 1860 the Jewish population in the United States exploded from 6,000

people to 150,000, then again between 1880 and 1900 from 400,000 to 1,058,000 people,

comprising over 1% of American society.72 The periods of migration correlate to the hardships in

Europe during the same times. Most of the immigrants during the 19th Century were from

Eastern European, known as Ashkenazim. Xenophobic sentiments in America rose as immigrants

from Europe poured into the United States and quota systems were implemented to decrease the

number of people coming in, particularly of those perceived to be of ‘less desirable’ ethnicities

such as the Irish, the Italians and the Eastern Europeans.

Yet, despite the increased xenophobia, America continued to be an attractive place for the

persecuted Jews of Europe. It was still seen as the land of opportunity where one could earn a

living, raise a family, and be left to practice Judaism in peace, free from official government

sponsored interference. By this time there were well established Jewish synagogues and social

groups in the large cities and manufacturing centers up and down the East Coast. Florida was a

wild frontier in the deep South; a home to Native Americans and escaped slaves driven to the

Everglades, full of vicious animals, and frequently devastated by hurricanes and tropical

diseases. Yet Jews made the ends of this Earth their home, including this harsh frontier. The rest

of the chapter will focus on Florida then specifically on Key West.

Goldman 24

71 “Letters to the Jews of Newport” Washington Papers

72 American Jewish Yearbook, 77.

Jewish History of Florida

Florida has been home to Jews for over two-hundred and fifty years, with records that

show they owned property in Pensacola in the 1760s, and Spanish census information from 1785

definitively cites a hide store in St. Augustine being run by a Jew. 73 Yet, between Florida’s

discovery and its acquisition as a territory by the United States, very few open and practicing

Jews were present in historical record, not large enough to form a minyan for worship.74

Once Florida was acquired as an American territory, roughly fifty Jews settled in the

swampy frontier, including Moses Elias Levy in 1821, a Sephardic Jew from Morocco before

making his fortune in Cuban lumber and sugar plantations.75 He bought 52,000 acres of land to

establish an agricultural colony and Jewish settlement in Micanopy, a Zionistic inspired

community which he called New Pilgrimage.76

Levy wanted to provide Jewish immigrants from Europe a homeland, away from

oppression and violence, and his plan was for Jews to study Hebrew and Torah while working on

the self sufficient plantation (much like the modern day kibbutz).77 Though swampy and desolate,

the Florida frontier was seen optimistically as a safe haven for those escaping persecution. The

Jews of America were far better received than they were in Europe or Spanish controlled South

America, but Anti-Immigration and Anti-semitism was widely felt in the Northern port cities, so

Goldman 25

73 Proctor, Index to Florida Jewish History in the American Israelite 1854-1900, ix.

74 Korn, The Early Jews, 32 and 278.

75 ibid.

76 Green and Zerivitz, Jewish Life in Florida, 9.

77 ibid.

the vast and rural lands of Florida were a magnet for settlement. Unfortunately, despite Levy’s

familiarity with the Caribbean landscape, his architectural and agricultural plans did not

withstand the climate of Central Florida so most of the Jewish families in Micanopy moved to

Jacksonville.78

Moses Levy was a staunch abolitionist, and it is accepted that the credit for those beliefs

are rooted in Judaism. Noted by a friend, “Mr. Levy has by his conduct and discourses at

meetings of Jews and Christians over… His plan for the abolition of Negro slavery, made his

name so well known as to render any further introduction of him to public notice unnecessary.”79

As will be further discussed in this thesis, the Jews of Florida were often influenced politically

by Jewish thought and tradition.

Moses Elias Levy’s famous, and much less religious son, David Levy Yulee, became the

first U.S. Senator for Florida in 1845 when the state was admitted to the Union, and was known

as the “Florida Fire Eater” for his championing of antebellum states rights.80 Yulee tried to

distance himself from Judaism to establish himself among his Protestant counterparts in

Washington, and as a way of doing so he changed his name to “Yulee,” which many believe was

“Levy” spelled backwards.81 He married a Christian woman and raised his children in the

Christian faith, but there are no records of his conversion to Christianity and he kept Levy as his

middle name, perhaps signifying that Judaism was still a part of his heritage.82 Known as the first

Goldman 26

78 Liebman, Malvina W. and Seymour B., Jewish Frontiersmen, 11.

79 Forester, Letters Concerning the Present Condition of the Jews, 56.

80 Monaco, Moses Levy of Florida: Jewish Utopian and Antebellum Reformer, 4.

81 Green and Zerivitz, Jewish Life in Florida, 9.

82 Monaco, Moses Levy of Florida: Jewish Utopian and Antebellum Reformer, 4.

Jew to serve in Congress, James Madison referred to him as “The Jewish Senator from

Florida.”83 In another stark contrast with his father, Yulee aligned himself with the Confederacy

during the Civil War.84

Movement to Key West

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations in Philadelphia noted that of the 9,000

people living in Key West in 1877, fifty of which were Jews.85 This was compared to the state’s

largest Jewish population of 130 residents in Jacksonville, Florida.86 But in a matter of thirty

years this would change dramatically with the influx of Eastern European Jews fleeing the Pale

of Settlement in the 1880s. At the highest point of Jewish immigration to Key West in 1893, the

Key West city directory listed 400 “Jewish-sounding names” out of a population of 23,000.87

The focal example of Key West Jewry in this thesis will be the Fine family, for a number

of reasons. The first is that the patriarch, Louis Fine, was similar to the dozens of others who

followed the same path to becoming successful and prominent businessmen on the island.

Second is that they, like many, became intimately involved in the Cuban War for Independence.

Third is because Louis Fine was at the center of Jewish life on Key West. He was a yeshiva

brocher, or Jewish Scholar, and thus became the de facto religious leader of the island before a

Goldman 27

83 Green and Zerivitz, Jewish Life in Florida, 9.

84 ibid.

85 Statistics of the Jews of the United States, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, (Philadelphia, 1880.)

86 ibid.

87 Hill, The Jewish Traveler: Key West, https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=twI6LmN7IzF&b=7897859&ct=11518609&notoc=1

rabbi was acquired and formal synagogue was built.88 His son, Joseph Fine, remembers his

father’s involvement in the Jewish Community, “He married them, he buried them, and he had

them in shul, too.”89 The Fine family owned, “Louis Fine’s Choice Groceries” at 1121 Duval

Street, and would hold shul in the room above their shop for Key West’s Jewish residents before

a rabbi or a formal synagogue was built.

Last, and most pragmatically, the Fine family records were the most thorough and

accessible to this author as a direct decedent of the family, which was of particular importance

because of the lack of codified records of the Key West Jewish Community.

Louis Fine was born in 1866 in Vilna, Pale of Settlement in Lithuania where he married

his wife Cadie [Katy] in 1887, just before leaving with her for America. They first arrived in

Vyseport, Pennsylvania, where Fine worked as a peddler and as a volunteer shochet, someone

who would supervise the cutting of meat to ensure it was done within the confines of kosher law.

Three years later, Louis, Cadie, and their two children Joseph and Ida, left to live with family in

Galveston, Texas. However, upon their arrival, the Fines learned that their family had all died of

Yellow Fever, so they began their search for a new home. Louis and Cadie met Louis Wolfson on

the boat from Vilna to the United States, and knew he had made his residence on Key West, so

they contacted Wolfson about joining him.90

In 1884, Louis Wolfson was on a boat headed for New Orleans when it was shipwrecked

off the coast of Key West, he was apparently so taken back by the beauty of the island that not

Goldman 28

88 Goodkind, Prominent Jews of America, 75.

89 “Interview with Joseph Fine” Sue Searcy Goldman, Marcia Jervis Kanner; May 22, 1969.

90 “Interview with Lois Goldman Cowan.” Jenna Goldman; March 24, 2014.

only did he stay, he sent for family and friends from Europe to join him.91 Wolfson, along with

Abraham Wolkowsky and Mendell Rippa were among the first Jews to bring their families to

live permanently on Key West.92 In 1887 they founded Rodef Shalom, a charitable and religious

group that provided support to Jews new to the island, with membership, “open to all Hebrews

who believed in and subscribed to the doctrines of the Hebrew religion.”93

The Jews of Key West had a host of careers on the island, beginning with Samuel

Seidenberg who first began, “clear Havana” cigars, Cuban cigars made in America to avoid extra

tariffs and taxes, made in large factories by Cuban workers.94 Seidenberg’s cigar factory model

would be copied by dozens of others in Key West, and after fires and labor strikes on the island,

the center of large cigar manufacturing moved to Ybor City in Tampa in the early 1900s.95

The Eastern European Jews often began in the United States as peddlers, pushing carts

door to door and down the street selling cloth and trinkets. With so many Jews moving to Key

West and beginning to peddle, a group of shopkeepers established the Merchants’ Protective

Association in 1889 to protect their businesses from competition from the peddlers.96 It was in

1891 that the association amended the city charter to create a license tax of $1,000 ($30,000

today) on each peddler’s cart.97 Instead of driving the Jews out of Key West entirely, they set up

Goldman 29

91 Hill, The Jewish Traveler: Key West, https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=twI6LmN7IzF&b=7897859&ct=11518609&notoc=1

92 Florida Jewish Heritage Trail, 40.

93 ibid.

94 ibid.

95 ibid.

96 Browne, Key West: The old and the new, 100.

97 Browne, Key West: The old and the new, 100.

storefronts, “And are now among the most prosperous and progressive citizens of Key West.”98

The ordinance did the opposite of what it was meant to achieve, and as of 1912 when Browne’s

book was published, he states that, “Of the dry goods merchants who were in business at the time

the Merchants’ Protective Association was organized, not one has a store today.”99

Jews were a permanent fixture on the island and lived and worked among members of the

U.S. Military at Fort Tyler, among the Cuban immigrants in the cigar factories, and with the

multicultural crews and traders from across the Caribbean. Yiddish language newspapers were

published, but nearly every person spoke Spanish, Louis Fine’s children spoke English, Yiddish,

Spanish, and would have had a comprehensive Hebrew education as well.100 Jewish children on

the island attended the only school, a Catholic School, and Joseph Fine recalled the friendship

his father had with the nuns and priests and how accepting they were of the Jewish student’s

beliefs.

The first Jews of Key West were committed to building their own community so that they

could hold services, keep kosher, observe holidays, and establish a Jewish cemetery. Not only did

they focus on Jewish community building, but they worked along side their non-Jewish

counterparts to make Key West a hospitable place for everyone passing through. Here we have a

thriving community, seemingly content to keep to themselves and their businesses. So why did

they become so particularly active in the Cuban War of Independence? This is the question that

the next chapter will investigate.

Goldman 30

98 ibid.

99 ibid.

100 “Interview with Sue Searcy Goldman” by Jenna Goldman

Chapter 3: The Cuban War for Independence and the Jews of Key West

The Jews of Key West worked closely with their Cubans employees and customers on the

small island. The influx of Cuban immigration to the island coincided with the immigration of

Eastern European Jews to the United States and to Key West specifically. Jews, like Samuel

Seidenberg, owned the cigar factories Cubans worked in and the shops and grocery stores in

which they shopped. Because the tariffs placed on Cuban cigars applied only to the finished

product, factory owners would buy the Cuban tobacco leafs and employ Cuban workers who fled

the country after the Ten Years War to make the cigars. Therefore the factories on Key West were

able to make the same quality cigars at two-thirds of the cost of importing them from Cuba.101

The remarkable parallels between the two groups are what brought the unlikely allies

together. An underlying theme in Judaism is oppression; forced into slavery in the land of Egypt,

violence from their neighbors in Europe and the Middle East, and outsiders in America. The Jews

of Key West related to the struggles of the Cubans, forced to leave their homeland to another

country, having to learn a new language and a new culture. The fact that the Cubans were facing

a Spanish oppressor only added to the solidarity. Cubans were treated like second class citizens,

compared to the native Spaniards who were given far more rights and privileges in Cuba. Just

like the Eastern European Jews in the Pale of Settlement, and really throughout the Diaspora

history, Jews were treated in a similar way; as less than equal.

In Prominent Jews of America, a collection of biographies and interviews published in

1918 of the most influential living Jews in the United States, Louis Fine’s excerpt read: “While

he lived in Key West he played a prominent part in the Committee which sought to create the

Goldman 31

101 Ogle, Key West, 87.

independence of Cuba, sending men and ammunition out of the United States, and he lost one of

his trade vessels on this occasion. He saw in this a part of Jewish vengeance against Spain, the

old persecutor of the race.”102 The excerpts were self submitted biographies of those invited to

submit information; a yearbook of sorts. This is perhaps the most explicit evidence as to why

Louis Fine put so much time and money into the cause for Cuban Independence.

Jose Martí

After the failure of the 10 Years War, many revolutionaries fled to the United States,

where they spent until the 1890s drumming up support and recruiting volunteers for future

planned uprisings. Guerilla warfare erupted sporadically, but the revolutionaries had neither the

ammunition nor the funds to take on the Spanish who were severely cracking down to extinguish

any potential uprisings. Because of the limited freedom of assembly and harsh punishments, the

most famous Cuban activists moved to the United States to drum up funds and support for their

cause; a war of independence from Spain.

Jose Martí was a poet, an orator, a journalist, and a revolutionary whose life’s work was

devoted to the cause of Cuban Independence from Spain. Called the Apostle of the Cuban

Revolution, he was sent to a political prison in 1870 for his writings, sent to Spain, Mexico, and

finally to the United States to continue his writing in safety. He travelled all over the United

States to spread his message and to gain momentum for the next revolution in Cuba.103

Martí touched the Jews of the United States because of his unwavering support for human

rights and cries for equality among the races. Cuba was a multicultural society of white

Goldman 32

102 Goodkind, Prominent Jews of America, 75.

103 Martí, http://www.biography.com/people/jos%C3%A9-mart%C3%AD-20703847#personal-life

immigrants from Spain, former black slaves, and mulattos, or mixed race people, whom Marti

sought to unite against their common enemy. He wrote, “No man has any special rights because

he belongs to one race or another.”104 possibly more controversially, “There are no races.”105 At

the time Jews were seen as a race, and would have most certainly identified with Martí’s

ideology. Martí purposefully drew similarities between the Jews and the Cubans to gain

sympathy and support for the cause of Cuban Independence. Pulling from the central struggle of

Judaism, he said, “We are Jews in point of fortune…and we hope always for a Messiah who

never comes.”106 Then he calls to action, “There is only one way to see the Messiah come, and

that is to sculpt him with your own hands.”107

Martí’s study of Jewish history, Zionism, and Hebrew is evident in the series of speeches

he gave in support of the Jewish people, and likening the Cuban plight to that of the Jews. He

made reference to the Spanish Inquisition in a 1881 speech in New York, and discussed the

Russian Jews’ struggle during Alexander III’s enforcement of the highly discriminatory “May

Laws” which formally restricted Jewish commerce and citizenship. He wrote (of the Russian

Jews) that, “They have been expelled from Russia and chased through the countryside like wild

animals.”108 The appeal by Martí to American Jews, especially those living in Key West, made

all the difference to the fight.

Goldman 33

104 Martí, “April 1, 1882,” Obras Completes de Jose Marti, Vol.9, p. 288. (Translated by Arlo Haskell)

105 Martí, “My Race,” April 16, 1893, Selected Writings.

106 Martí, “April 1, 1882” Obras Completes de Jose Marti, Vol. 9, p. 288. (Translated by Arlo Haskell)

107 ibid.

108 Martí, “Carta de Nueva York” Vol.23, p. 149.

The Fine family lived at 1121 Duval Street, right next door to Cuban Revolutionary

Theodoro Pérez, a cigar factory owner and personal friend of Martí, who lived at 1123 Duval

Street.109 When Jose Martí came to speak at Pérez’s home, Louis Fine rallied the Jewish

Community behind the cause and helped to raise funds for the war. They were present in this

famous photograph (see appendix) of supporters in 1891 listening to Martí’s speech.110

The proximity of Key West to Cuba naturally made it a hub for revolutionary planning

and filibustering aimed at the Spanish in Cuba. Máximo Gómez, the commander in chief of the

Cuban revolutionary army, called Key West a, “Ark” or a safe place for Cuban refugees fleeing

Spanish rule in Cuba.111 Over and over again biblical analogies were evoked to persuade

individuals to support the cause, which after nearly a century of unsuccessful uprisings, support

for yet another revolution would be difficult. The support given to the War for Independence by

Cubans living in Key West seemed more obvious; Cuba was their homeland and most had family

still living under Spanish oppression on the island. The Jews had a much looser connection, yet

they were remarkably involved in the fight.

Jews to the aid of the Cubans

The Jewish community would often outfit a donkey with baskets and lead it through the

streets of Key West to collect donations from locals towards the cause for independence.112 But

the Jews of Key West did much more than merely donate money to the guerilla fighters; they

Goldman 34

109 Langley, Key West: Images of the Past, 46.

110 Liebman, Florida Frontiersmen, 13. Appendix

111 Alpizar Poyo, Cayo Hueso, 19.

112 Liebman, Florida Frontiersmen, 13.

were directly involved in the smuggling of essential aid from the United States to the Cuban

forces, and some, like Sol Schwartz, volunteered to fight directly in Cuba.113

Louis Fine donated a ship, the Competitor, with ammunition and a 40 man crew to the

cause of Cuban Independence which was captured just off the Cuban coast by the Spanish on

April 20, 1896.114 The ship was previously used as a merchant vessel by Fine in his grocery and

shipping business between Cuba-Key West- and mainland Florida. The crew was freed but the

ship was destroyed, and he immediately bought another ship, of the same name, and it made

successful strikes against the Spanish.115

Louis Wolfson was also involved in successful arms-smuggling missions using his

trading boat, the Three Friends,116 between March and June of 1896.117 Marcos E. Rodriguez, a

friend of Louis Fine118 and a Cuban filibusterer, used the Three Friends in an unsuccessful

mission to smuggle weapons like machetes, rifles, guns, and dynamite from Key West to another

ship, the City of Richmond, destined for Cuba.119 The Three Friends was the name of Napoleon

Bonaparte Brossard’s filibustering ship that made numerous trips from Jacksonville to Cuba from

1896 to the start of the Spanish-American war in 1898.120 This brings about the issue with using

oral history, that specific facts and names may not be entirely accurate. However, so long as facts

Goldman 35

113 Levine, Tropical Diaspora, 13-14.

114 “Interview with Joseph Fine” Sue Searcy Goldman, Marcia Jervis Kanner; May 22, 1969.

115 ibid.

116 Kanner, “Interview with Mitchell Wolfson,” 1970.

117 “Chronology of the Cuban War of Independence.” http://latinamericanstudies.org/1895/chronology.htm

118 See photo on next page; Goldman-Fine Collection, Photograph thanking Louis Fine for his help.

119 “Cuban Filibusters Caught,” New York Times, 1896.

120 “Three Friends” http://www.jacksonvillemaritimeheritagecenter.org/Exhibits/ThreeFriends.aspx

are checked and disclaimers are issued, the merits of using first person accounts and interviews

far outweigh the drawbacks. The interviews add an invaluable human touch to events that seem

sterile and distant, effectively bringing history back to life.

When the Jews of Key West became involved in the mid 1890s, the United States was

still at peace with Spain, so the efforts of the community would have had to be especially

secretive to avoid government detection. Only once was Louis Fine’s grocery store on Duval

Street investigated by the United States government, “Louis’ wife Katy refused to allow the

police to enter and search the store for weapons, she fended them off with a butcher knife.”121

The Fines briefly relocated to Tampa after the incident possibly to avoid the United States

government’s suspicions of Louis’ illegal smuggling activity, but soon returned to Key West.122

The Competitor again set sail for Cuba on a smuggling mission carrying rifles, dynamite,

38,000 cartridges of ammunition and forty-eight men on the night of April 20, 1896. Intercepted

by the Spanish, three men were killed in the fighting and many others were captured including

American citizen and captain of the ship, Alfredo Laborde.123 Laborde was sentenced to death by

a Spanish military court but was freed after President McKinley’s administration stepped in on

his behalf.124 It was with this event that the United States government could not longer ignore

their southernmost island’s involvement in Cuba and the potential for conflict with Spain.

Cuban Independence and Jewish Movement to Miami

Goldman 36

121 Interview with Lois Goldman Cowan, March 15, 2015.

122 ibid.

123 “A Filibuster Captured: Schooner Competitor Overtaken…” New York Times, 1896.

124 U.S. Senate, Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations Relative to Affairs in Cuba, 1898.

Key West had been a center of filibustering and revolutionary activity for three years

before the United States government became involved in the political activity on the island. The

United States government demanded Spain grant Cuba Independence after the sinking of the

U.S.S. Maine, and when then Prime Minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta refused, and on April 21st,

1898, Congress declared war on Spain.125 An important stipulation to the declaration of war were

the Teller and Platt Amendments which acted as a formal disclaimer that the United States would

not claim Cuba as a territory but still maintained the right to intervene to ensure an independent

Cuban government, respectively.126 These amendments were important because they reflected

the American distaste for imperialism, while still balancing the necessity of influencing their

neighbors. On June 16, 1900, Cuba held its first elections which the Cuban National Party swept,

but it took another two years for the United States to fully leave Cuba and on May 20, 1902

President Tomas Estrada Palma was sworn in.127

Due to a series of fires, a lack of space in Key West, union unrest in the city, and the

completion of Henry Plant’s railroad to Tampa, Vincente Martinez Ybor moved his cigar factory

to the Tampa area in 1890, and the rest of the cigar industry followed suit.128 With the movement

of the cigar factories and the ending of the Spanish-American War, Key West became less

relevant as a major port and place of commercial development. Most of the original Jewish

community, including Louis Fine’s family, moved to the up-and-coming town of Miami on the

Goldman 37

125 Trask, “The Spanish-American War.”

126 ibid.

127 Sierra, “The War for Cuban Independence.”

128 “The History of Ybor City” http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/51ybor/51facts1.htm

mainland of Florida.129 Louis Wolfson’s son, Mitchell, left Key West for Miami in 1915, would

become a very wealthy businessman and the first Jewish mayor of Miami Beach.130 Not all left

Key West, as David Wolkowsky, grandson of Abraham Wolkowsky, a dress and furniture store

owner and pioneering Key West Jew, is the island’s most famous developer and still resides on

the island at the age of ninety-six.131

Congregation B’nai Zion, the congregation started above Louis Fine’s store, is still in

existence and boasts the title of, “South Florida’s Oldest Jewish Congregation: Established in

1887.”132 Most of the Jews of Key West moved to Miami during the first 40 years of the 20th

Century because of the collapse of the cigar and sponging industries and the Great Depression of

the 1930s, but with the reopening of Fort Taylor during World War II Jewish service members

were stationed on the island, and a few stayed after the war, yet again establishing a

community.133

Goldman 38

129 Lehman and Rappaport, The Jewish Community of Miami Beach, 8.

130 ibid.

131 “David Wolkowsky: ʻG-d wasnʼt on duty one day.” The Blue Paper. October 10, 2014.

132 History of Congregation Bʼnai Zion, http://www.bnaizionkw.org/

133 ibid.

Conclusion

The Cuban War for Independence is often overshadowed by the more well known Cuban

Revolution started in 1953 which eventually led to Fidel Castro and the Communist Party

overthrowing the Cuban government and President Fulgencio Batista.134 The recent discussions

to end the United States embargo on Cuba may signify a drastic change in the relationship

between the two countries. Today Americans think of Cuba as a communist state, run by the

Castro dictatorship, with closed off borders that have allowed few Americans to visit.135

Americans forget about the island’s tortured history with Spain, with the sacrifices of the Cuban

people for independence and the Americans who aided in their fight.

One of the foremost reasons I explored the topic of the Jewish influence on Key West and

in the Cuban War for Independence was because I could find very limited literature on the

subject. This led to many more questions about why this could be? Growing up I heard stories

from my grandmother and aunts about their parents’ upbringing on Key West, about how our

family escaped the Russian pogroms and eventually ended up as successful merchants on the

southernmost small island of the Florida Keys. Soon my questions outpaced my grandparent’s

knowledge of our family history so I decided to conduct my own investigation.

Census data from the time clearly showed that Jews were living on Key West, and this is

further evidenced by laws passed by local government that targeted Jewish businesses. Jose

Marti frequently thanked his Jewish colleagues for their support in the Cuban war for

Independence. It is undeniable that Jews were living and working on the island, so why are they

absent from the history books? As a direct descendent of one of the most influential Jewish

Goldman 39

134 “26th of July Movement” Encyclopedia Britannica.

135 Gomez, “Senators seek end to economic embargo on Cuba.” February 12, 2015. USA Today.com

families at the time, I wanted to ensure that this community and its contributions to Cuba and

Florida would never be overlooked or forgotten.

This project is a series of parallels. The parallels between the history and traditions of

Key West, the parallels between the Jewish people and the Cubans, and how all of these roads

intersected to explain the motives for the unlikely allies. Economics certainly could have played

a part in the pairing, but it seems more likely that the Jewish businessmen would have benefitted

from the stability of Spanish rule with regards to a steady supply of raw materials for cigar

making and goods for trading. Cubans were fleeing to Key West to work in the cigar factories

and increasing the population and economic viability of the island, important to factory owners

and shopkeepers alike. If the Spanish were forced out of Cuba those who fled would have

returned to their families, leaving their jobs and home in Key West behind.

The Jews of Key West did not begin with a vested interest in Cuba, they were immigrants

trying to make a life in their new country amid continued anti-Semitism. Needless to say, they

had their own problems. There is no evidence indicating that the Jews involved in the war for

independence benefitted monetarily or politically from the War’s success. Louis Fine was offered

a position in the new country, but declined the offer in order to maintain his American

citizenship.136

The purpose of the paper was to answer the question: Why did the Jews of Key West

become involved with the Cuban War for Independence? This difficult question was probably

different for each family who donated money or each individual who took up arms and fought on

the foreign soil for a cause most of them never heard of as they fled the violence of Eastern

Goldman 40

136 “Interview with Lois Cowan” March 15, 2015 with Jenna Goldman

Russia. We will never truly know their motives, but I surmise that they were motivated by their

faith and identification with the struggle of the Cubans against the Spanish, and their desire for

independence and autonomy.

Through my research and with the help of Rebecca Jefferson, the librarian of the Judaica

Library at the University of Florida, I was able to get in contact with Arlo Haskell, a writer and

archivist on Key West who had the same questions that I did. Mainly, what did Key West look

like in the years before the turn of the Nineteenth Century, and where were did Jews fit into the

story? Mr. Haskell is writing a book on the topic and so graciously helped me gain access to

sources from Key West and use his manuscripts as a resource.

My hope is that this thesis will be used as a springboard for others to pursue research into

early Florida Jewish history, and on Key West in particular. This thesis is by no means exhaustive

or comprehensive of the entire Jewish history of the island, from the very first known Jews

passing through on ships to the modern day, but merely discusses a small chapter of a greater

story.

Goldman 41

Appendix

Photo 1: Louis Fine, circa 1890, Goldman-Fine Collection, HistoryMiami Archives.

Goldman 42

Photo 2: Revolutionary Juan Barcello Marcos,1895, postcard thanking Fine for his help,

Goldman-Fine Collection, HistoryMiami Archives.

Goldman 43

Photo 3: Marcos E. Rodriguez, 1896, postcard thanking Fine, Goldman-Fine Collection,

HistoryMiami Archives

Goldman 44

Photo 4: Lois Fine’s Grocery Store, Goldman-Fine Collection in HistoryMiami Archives

Goldman 45

Photo 5: Martí speaking from the balcony of the home of Teodoro Pérez, 1891, Monroe County

Public Library

Goldman 46

Works Cited

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Browne, Jefferson Beale, and Floridiana Collection. 1912. Key West: The Old and the New. St. Augustine: The Record Company.

“Cuban Filibusters Caught,” New York Times, June 25, 1896; “More Filibusters: Perch Torres Gets a Force Safely Away.” JKW files.

“David Wolkowsky: ‘G-d wasn’t on duty one day.” The Blue Paper. October 10, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2015: http://thebluepaper.com/article/david-wolkowsky-god-wasnt-on-duty-one-day/

“A Filibuster Captured: Schooner Competitor Overtaken…” New York Times, April 29, 1896. Retrieved on April 2, 2015: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C0DE7D8123EE333A25753C3A9629C94679ED7CF

Forester, John. 1829. Letters Concerning the Present Condition of the Jews. 56, fn.. 28: London.

Goldman-Fine Collection. 1890s-1987. Fine and Goldman families papers and photographic prints, 1890s-1987. HistoryMiami Archives: Miami, Florida. Photographs taken by Jenna Goldman, October 2015.

Goodkind, S.B. 1918. Prominent Jews of America: A Collection of Biographical Sketches of Jews who have distinguished themselves in Commercial, Professional, and Religious Endeavor.

“Interview with Joseph Fine” Sue Searcy Goldman, Marcia Jervis Kanner; May 22, 1969.

“Interview with Lois Goldman Cowan” Jenna Goldman; March 24, 2014.

“Interview with Lois Goldman Cowan” Jenna Goldman; March 15, 2015.

“Interview with Sue Search Goldman” Jenna Goldman; March 25, 2014.

“Interview with Mitchell Wolfson,” Marcia Jervis Kanner; 1970. Private collection of Susie Savitch and the Jewish Museum in Miami.

Kemble, John Haskell. 1899. The American-Spanish war: a history. Norwich, Conn: Charles C. Haskell.

Kitchin, Thomas. The Present State of the West Indies Containing an Accurate Description of What Parts Are Possessed by the Several Powers in Europe ; Together with an Authentick Account of the First Discoverers of Those Islands, and the Parts Adjacent ... Also Their Principal Bays and Harbours ... Microcard ed. London: Printed for R. Baldwin, 1778.

Goldman 47

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“Letters to the Jews of Newport” 18 August 1790, Washington Papers, 6:284-85.

Marti, Jose. “Carta de Nueva York” Obras Completes de Marti. Vol. 23, p. 149. Translated by Arlo Haskell.

Marti, Jose. “April 1, 1882” Obras Completes de Marti. Vol.9, p.288. Translated by Arlo Haskell.

Marti, Jose. “My Race,” April 16, 1893, Selected Writings.

Miller, Joseph Dana. 1898. The Spaniards in Cuba. Goody’s Magazine, Volume 136. New York: The Godey Company.

“Moses Sierras on behalf of Congregation Yeshuat Israel, to George Washington, 17 August 1790,” 1986. The papers of George Washington: Presidential Series. University Press of Virginia: 6:286n.1.

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Schwartz, Sol, Seymour B. Liebman, and Sue Searcy Goldman. 1980. Man of the frontier: biography of Sol Schwartz. Miami Beach, Fla: Jewish Historical Society of South Florida.

Simonton’s memorandum, December 7, 1821, to Treasury Department. Territorial papers, 22: 411-12.

Union of American Hebrew Congregations.1880. Statistics of the Jews of the United States. Philadelphia.

United States Census Office. Population of the United States in 1860. Tables 2, 3, and 4 on page 54.

U.S. Senate, Report of the Committee on Foreign Relations Relative to Affairs in Cuba, 1898.

Velez, Carlos Garcia. 1899. Chapter I: History of Former Cuban Wars. London: Chas. C. Haskell & Son.

Zachary Taylor: "Proclamation 51 - Warning to United States Citizens Against Participating in an Unlawful Invasion of Cuba," August 11, 1849. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=68061.

Goldman 48

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Goldman 49

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Goldman 50

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Goldman 52

Acknowledgements

Writing this thesis would not have been possible without the guidance of the incredible

professors and librarians in the University of Florida Department of History and Smathers

Library. I want to give a special thank you to Dr. Jessica Harland-Jacobs and Ralph Patrello for

directing our thesis writing course and for always being available to answer questions and

provide support throughout this process. I also want to thank the head of the Price Library of

Judaica, Dr. Rebecca Jefferson, for her invaluable assistance in locating books and materials in

UF’s massive collections. Dr. Jefferson got me in touch with Key West writer Arlo Haskell, who

is currently writing a book on the Jewish community of Key West in the 19th and early 20th

centuries. Thank you to Mr. Haskell for taking an interest in my thesis, sharing his research,

being my contact on Key West.

Of course I want to thank my advisor, Dr. Steven Noll, for constantly checking in,

reading and rereading drafts, and for challenging and encouraging me these last three years as his

student. I owe you a new red pen! Thank you to my parents and sisters for always supporting my

endeavors and for listening to me talk about Key West for an entire year. Also thank you to

Elaine Marlin for accompanying me, against her better judgement, on the Miami Metro Rail to

the HistoryMiami Archives. You were right, it is terrifying.

This thesis is dedicated to the most inspirational teachers and historians in my life; my

grandmother, Sue Searcy Goldman, and my great-aunt, Lois Goldman Cowan. Not only did they

pass down the stories that inspired this thesis, but they passed down their love of history and

learning, for which I am eternally grateful.

Goldman 53