THE GERMAN IMMIGRANTS: 1850 to 1880


Passport Photo
(Collection of Harold and Sonya Davids)

The earliest Jews known to have settled in Waterbury arrived in the middle of the 19th century as part of a larger influx of German immigrants. Many of these immigrants were affluent and educated, seeking opportunities for economic success and religious tolerance in America.



The first of these immigrants in Waterbury are believed to have settled in the Brooklyn neighborhood and the Canal Street area of Waterbury’s south side. Benjamin Girtski operated a clothing store in a rented shop at Exchange Place as early as 1853. Many of the earliest arrivals were merchants. Adolph, Philip and Joseph Pollack, who came from Karlsbad in Bohemia, opened a framing shop on South Main Street. Isidore Chase, who arrived from Prussia, operated a millinery shop also on South Main Street. The Hollanders, Mendelssohns and Levis were merchants, as well.

Ad from the 1878
Waterbury City Directory
(Collection of the
Mattatuck Historical Society)

 


Miriam, Jean and Dora Gutowitz
(Collection of Ira Rubinstein)
By 1875, there were approximately 15 Jewish families living in Waterbury, all German immigrants. The earliest arrivals had traveled to New Haven to attend synagogue, but in 1872, Temple Israel was organized, and holiday services were conducted by visiting rabbis in halls rented in Waterbury for the occasions, including Way’s Hall. Melchizedek Lodge of the Independent Order of B’Nai Brith, a Jewish fraternal association, was organized by 75 people in Waterbury in 1873, and the Melchizedek Burial Association bought land for a cemetery in 1875. The Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society, a charitable organization, was formed in Waterbury in 1876.



I think the Pollack family was the third Jewish family in Waterbury, …they all knew each other and came from the same general vicinity as my great grandfather, from Karlsbad which was then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
-Gloria Strauss Bogen

Postcard
(Collection of Harold and Sonya Davids)





 
© 2002 The Mattatuck Historical Society