JEWISH WORLD

8 JEWISH WORLD • JUNE 14-20, 2024 work at Fahys. He met Stefanie Spiegel, also a Hungarian Jew. Ste- fanie’s sister, Ernestine, had married into the Spitz family, Hungarian Jews who owned Spitz’s Furniture &Appliance Store on Main Street in Sag Harbor. Members of the family also worked at Fahys. Temple Adas Israel, which de- scribes itself as the oldest synagogue on Long Island, was founded in 1896 as Temple Mishcan Israel. It changed its na me in 1948 when it became Conservative after many years as an Orthodox congregation. My wife Janet and I are members of Adas Israel, where she was long a member and secretary of its board. In the museum here, which Janet arranged , are the synagogue’s origi- nal memorial plaques, on one of which is the name of my Grand Aunt Ernestine Spitz, who died in By KARLGROSSMAN B elow is a condensed version of a presentation by Mr. Grossman at a program or- ganized by the Sag Harbor Histori- cal Museum and held at Temple Adas Israel. Sag Harbor has long been a cen- ter for Jews on the East End of Long Island. Jews came to the town in sub- stantial numbers after Joseph Fahys opened a watchcase factory here in 1881. He recruited Jewish engrav- ers from Hungary where engraving was a fine art among Jews. He or his representatives would go to El- lis Island and bring them straight to Sag Harbor. My grandfather, Herman Gross- man, came to Sag Harbor in 1902 to The 1ewish 7resence In :ag /arbor A rabbi and a writer tell a surprising tale The opening of 1oseph FahysWatch Case Factory in 1 1 attracted /ungarian 1ewish engra]ers to :ag /arbor. 1928. Now a wrinkle in the Sag Harbor Jewish story for those who might be unfamiliar with it: the deep division for years between the Hungarian Jews and the Jews of Sag Harbor with roots in Russia and other Euro- pean countries. (I explore this divide at the start of a TV documentary I made as chief investigative reporter at WVVH-TV, ‘The (Unusual) Jew- ish History of Sag Harbor,’ which can be viewed on YouTube.) When Hungarian Jews began ar- riving in Sag Harbor to work at Fa- hys’ watchcase factory, they didn’t get along with other Jews already living in the town. In her well-re- searched work, Yankees in Yarmul- kes: Small-Town Jewish Life in Eastern Long Island (1986), Helene Gerard, a librarian from Eastport, writes that in 1890 the Jewish Cem- eteryAssociation of Sag Harbor was formed “with six trustees, all of them Russian Jews. This is signifi- cant,” she goes on, because in Sag Harbor “there were two distinct Jewish communities. “The Jews from Russia and those from Hungary brought with them European social antagonisms and refused to worship, socialize, or be buried together.” And so “The Hungarians formed their own Independent Jews Ceme- tery Association of Sag Harbor in 1899” right next to the the Russian Jewish cemetery. “A fence…was erected between the two which still exists,” writes Gerard. In the documentary, I comment “how dopey it was” that this divi- sion between Jews in Sag Harbor existed, especially because Jews By STEPHEN J. KOTZ T he journalist Karl Grossman and Rabbi Daniel Geffen teamed up in the spring for an open house at the recently reno- vated Temple Adas Israel, an event sponsored by the Sag Harbor His- toric Museum. Before an audience of approxi- mately 40 people, Grossman spoke about the Jewish presence in Sag Harbor and elsewhere on the East End, while Geffen displayed the synagogue’s Torahs and lovingly discussed the building’s Romany Kramoris-designed stained glass windows, which, he said, represent- ed the congregation’s openness to the surrounding community. Geffen showed off two of the synagogue’s four Torahs, one of which was donated to the fledgling congregation by then Colonel Theo- dore Roosevelt after his Rough Rid- ers were quarantined in Montauk after the Spanish-American War, and the other, which had been res- cued from the Nazis by the Memori- al Scrolls Trust. Temple Adas Israel was founded in 1896 as Temple Mishcan Israel, and Geffen said it held its first High Holy Day services in 1898. Al- though the synagogue is thriving today, Geffen told the gathering it had been a largely seasonal house of worship for much of its first century, and that he became only its second full-time rabbi. Grossman, whose Hungarian Jewish grandparents Herman and Stefanie Grossman were met and were married in Sag Harbor after Herman arrived in the village to work at the Fahys factory, like many other skilled engravers who were re- cruited right off the boat. The couple later moved to New York City, where Karl Grossman was born and raised. He eventually moved to Noyac with his wife Janet. In the post-World War II years, Grossman said, Temple Adas Israel was kept afloat by a small group of congregants, includ- ing Donald and Ger- trude Katz, her moth- er, Nettie Rosenstein, and uncle Max Katz, David Lee, Irving and May Kelman, and Arthur and Lou- ise Spitz, among oth- ers. A turning point came when Leon Morris, who had be- gun as a part-time rabbi, assumed the position on a full- time basis. He re- mained the congregation’s leader until 2014, when he and his family moved to Israel, where he is now the president of the Pardes Institute. Another turning point, Grossman said, came with the expansion and restoration proj- ect that was launched in 2021, ran into the COVID-19 pan- demic, and was completed last May when the members of the c o n g r e g a t i o n held a joyful march back to their spiritual home from their temporary quar- ters at the Sag Harbor Presby- terian (Old Whalers’) Church . Stephen J. Kotz is a reporter for the Express News Group. .rossman told of 1ews In :ag /arbor while Rabbi Geffen spoke of the synagogue. INTRO :ag /arbor! ( 1ew 3ooks )ack An expert lovingly tells the story of a special place C6=,9 :T69@ Karl Grossman with a photo of his grandparents, Herman and Ste- fanie Grossman, Hungarian Jews who met and were married in the town, ca. 1902. Rabbi Daniel Geffen of Tem- ple Adas Israel.