Kesher Talk

Jews in Ireland don't celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but in their diaspora from the Emerald Isle, many Irish Jews feel a twinge in their hearts come March 17. "The Jewish sons of Ireland celebrate [St. Patrick's Day] much more in America," said Reuben's mother Ray Rivlin, author of the new book Shalom Ireland: A Social History of the Jews in Modern Ireland (Gill & Macmillan).

Shalom Ireland is the latest history of an organized, observant Jewish community that - some would argue - is breathing its last sigh. Jews have been in Ireland since the Anglo-Norman invasions of the 13th century, but it wasn't until the late 19th century that large numbers fleeing pogroms in Eastern Europe began settling in earnest.

In her book, Rivlin discusses the Dublin Jewish Board of Guardians that brought relief to Jewish immigrants. She talks about Jews who opened up businesses in Cork, Limerick and Belfast. She mentions Jews who entered politics and fought alongside their countrymen in the Easter Uprising of 1916. (Robert Driscoe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, fought with the independence movement leader Eamon de Valera and ran guns into Ireland from Germany.) Rivlin recreates Clanbrassil Street, once a thriving Jewish enclave of kosher butchers, fishmongers and merchants that James Joyce chose to make the birthplace of his Irish Jewish hero, Leopold Bloom. A century ago, during Clanbrassil Street's heyday, Jews from all over Dublin went to the haberdasher, the drapery store and the baker there, and Yiddish - inflected with an Irish brogue - was chattered in the street.

posted by Judith @ 3/17/2004 03:26:38 PM