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| Nathan Straus |
American Jews, in the beginning dominated by the Sephardim, have maintained a connection to the Land of Israel since the mid 18th century and through America’s early years. Then when the German Jewish community became dominant in the mid 19th century, this connection continued.
Another aspect that both groups had in common was slavery.
Jewish participation in the slave trade was miniscule, but that didn’t mean
that no Jew participated in some aspect of it. There were German Jews, as well
as Sephardi Jews who had slaves. Some were hypocrites – they opposed slavery even
though they themselves were participants. Among this group was Lazarus Straus, a
merchant and patriarch of the wealthy Straus family who came over from Germany
and settled in the town of Talbotton GA. When the Southern states voted to
secede from the Union, he refused to vote for secession. During
the Civil War, Jews had experienced anti-Semitism in both the Union and the
Confederacy, and even though Jews fought loyally on both sides, they still
suffered accordingly. Because of this, the Straus family eventually had to leave
Talbotton in 1863 and they settled in Columbus, about 35 miles to the west. After
the Civil War, because of the financial ruin of the south, the family settled
in New York where they engaged in business investments and enterprises. In
1888, Lazarus, including his sons Isidor and Nathan, acquired a general partnership
with Macy’s Department Store. Five years later, they bought a dominant interest
in the Wechsler & Abraham store and changed its name to Abraham &
Straus. Eventually, Macy’s and Abraham & Straus merged into 1 entity – Macy’s,
which later became owner of Bloomingdale’s. These business dealings made the
family very rich which allowed Nathan to embark on philanthropic activities. Among
these activities, assisting Jews in the ancestral homeland was not a very high
priority but upon touring the Mediterranean with his wife Lina in 1904, the
couple made a stop in Palestine, expecting it to be but one stop of many. But
the country made such a deep impression on them, especially as Jews, that he
and his wife decided to focus their philanthropic activities there. During the
period 1912 to 1917, Nathan set about building soup kitchens for the aged and
the blind and the physically disabled. He supported workrooms so that unskilled
laborers could find employment. He built health stations that ministered to the
victims of malaria and trachoma. But in
the midst of all this, fate intervened. On a visit to Israel in 1912, he had
intended to later join his brother Isidor and his wife on the RMS Titanic. But
while in Israel, he broke his leg and couldn’t join him.
In 1927, he provided $250,000 for the establishment of the Nathan
and Lina Straus Health Center in Jerusalem for the Hadassah Hospital, which
opened 2 years later, and also made possible the founding of a local branch of
the Pasteur Institute. In 1929, the city of Netanya, established to the
north of Tel Aviv, was named in his honor. Rehov Straus in Jerusalem,
which was Chancellor Avenue during the British Mandate, was also named for him.
Nathan Straus had lived 2 more years to enjoy the legacy he left behind but
died in New York in 1931 at the age of 82.
