This is the first ever book written about the Jewish men and women
who came to Central Louisiana to settle as early as the 1830s in
Avoyelles Parish. Far more than a genealogy, the author takes the
reader on a journey through time from the earliest beginnings of
the parish, through the Civil War, and two World Wars, and finally,
to the last man standing who practices Judaism today in this mostly
agrarian section of the state. These families, their triumphs and
tragedies, are treated within the context of the development of
Avoyelles, as well as, to a lesser degree, Winn, Rapides, St.
Landry, Evangeline, and Grant Parishes, where some moved on to find
better opportunities. Formerly from Alsace, Bavaria, and later,
Poland, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, these Jews were merchants and
farmers, slave owners and Confederate soldiers, jayhawkers and
prisoners of war, mayors, constables, aldermen, and builders and
owners of shortline railroads. They founded towns, ran sawmills,
discovered oil, and ginned cotton. For the earliest Jewish
residents who often married out of their faith, this was a story of
assimilation and loss of their religious identity. For the
post-Civil War arrivals who, more often than not, came with wives
and children, this was a story of the constant struggle to remain
Jewish. The lives of the earliest immigrants: Maurice Fortlouis,
Adolph and Charles Frank, Abe Felsenthal, Sam and Alex Haas, Simon,
Leopold and David Siess, Isaac Lehmann and Leopold and Lazard
Goudchaux, who intermarried with the Porch, Bordelon, Gaspard,
Aymond, Guillot, Marshall, Cole, Blount, Chatelain, and Cochrane
pioneer families of Avoyelles Parish, are analyzed in the context
of the external forces of history which shaped their lives, the
major event being the Civil War. The conflicts between Union
sympathizers and Confederate loyalists in Avoyelles Parish, the
catastrophic consequences of the Red River campaign, the fall of
Fort DeRussy, and the Union army's final march through Marksville
and Mansura, may now be seen through the eyes of the immigrants who
lived through them. These first Jewish men were followed by
numerous postbellum arrivals including the Levy, Karpe, Wolf,
Weill, Weil, Moch, Hiller, Kahn, Bauer, Weiss, Gross, Anker, Rich,
Warshauer, Elster, Goldring, Rosenberg, Schreiber, Schlessinger,
and Abramson families who, along with the sons and daughters of the
first Jewish immigrants, continued to shape the destiny of the
parish during the difficult years of Reconstruction, which brought
with it the brief specter of anti-Semitism. These Jewish families
continued to prosper well into the twentieth century. Their
leadership in the development of Louisiana's lumber and petroleum
resources, their contributions as physicians, dentists, and
politicians, as well as their innovations in the retail
ready-to-wear clothing industry, have given them a place of
importance in the development of Central Louisiana, which can no
longer be forgotten. Hardbound, 2012, Biblio., Illus., Index,
610pp.
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