On Block Island, a congregation is born

Joseph Marcus, far right, and family on Block Island. /COURTESY | RHODE ISLAND JEWISH HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

BLOCK ISLAND, R.I. – Though it seems unlikely that a Jewish community took root on this very small island 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, many years ago it did. A uniquely beautiful oasis that calls to travelers, Block Island has been a mecca for tourists – Jews and others – from the latter half of the 19th century.

The Rhode Island Jewish Historical Notes states, “It is of interest that a Jewish family resided on Block Island as early as 1893.” The same source also notes that “two days before [his] 21st birthday,” Peter Marcus, a Providence jeweler and watchmaker, and his wife Anna, who married on June 2, 1882, honeymooned on the island.”

What those newlyweds would have found as they entered Old Harbor on the ferry is pretty much what we see today – a series of Victorian hotels and buildings, striking with their Mansard roof lines and hints of a more elegant age.

We’re told the couple fell in love with the island and subsequently returned summers, with Peter eventually establishing a branch of his employer’s jewelry business on the island.  

Though not a blood relative, Peter Marcus became indirectly connected with long-time island resident Shirley Kessler, current vice president of Congregation Sons and Daughters of Ruth. Of Marcus, Kessler says, “One of his sons, Joseph, married my mother’s sister Julia.”

Kessler’s mother and her sister “were inseparable,” and when her aunt and uncle had two children, Kessler says, “I became like a third daughter to [them].”

Part of the package

Kessler was just an infant when her parents first came to the island, staying in the home left to the family by Peter Marcus.  “Aunt Julia and Uncle Joe had the house for the summers, and I was part of the package,” Kessler recalls.

She feels she was privileged to spend her summers on the island, while her working parents returned to the mainland.

Many years later, she introduced her future husband, Sanford Kessler, to the island, and in the 1950s they took up residence each summer.  In the ’70s, they bought the building that previously housed the Primitive Methodist Church. In the 1990s, when they both retired, they moved to the island permanently.

On the way to the island

Longtime congregant Bobbi Maxman recalls that she and her husband Al first came to the island in 1976 as guests of Marvin and Joan Salzburg. As a fellowship student at Bank Street College of Education, in New York City, Bobbi had met Joan, and later Marvin, who was a composer and music professor.

Bobbi notes that the Salzburg home was “a little, tiny house without running water and with an outside toilet.” 

The Maxmans found that first trip to the island memorable. Reaching the airport in Waterford, Conn., five minutes late, the attendant announced, “We’re not flying.” Bobbi laughingly says, “We didn’t get it. Al said, ‘We’re only five minutes late!’ But it was the weather, and we didn’t get it. They weren’t flying.”

So there they stood, she adds, “loaded with bagels, lox and cream cheese” for their island friends until a “short woman with a shopping cart” tried to get them a private boat, which didn’t work either.

The Block Island factor

When they finally arrived on the island, Bobbi recalls that Marvin quipped, “Oh, you’ve met up with the Block Island factor,” referring to the  weather. She adds, “I immediately loved it [because] it reminded me of [parts of] Israel,” from which she had emigrated in 1952.

The Maxmans soon learned that Marvin was determined to find them a house, but they were surprised when he asked them back to look at one. “It had tiny rooms and a foyer, and it was then I learned I was claustrophobic – it was left over from a long time I spent in hiding during the Holocaust,” Bobbi says.  

She adds, “The idea that we were buying a house on an island was a joke” because they frankly couldn’t afford it.  However, against the advice of their accountant, the couple soon found themselves with a house on the island.

An eclectic congregation emerges

Soon after they took occupancy, Bobbi says, “We were greeted by a Jewish delegation: Herbie, Robbie and Rose Marks, and Haida Ginsberg stood at our door.” Haida’s husband, Harry, was a fisherman and gardener who owned a hardware and tackle shop in the heart of the Wall Street financial district in New York City.

Harry, who was also a pilot, often flew to the island. Many years before the Maxmans arrived, a real estate agent showed him an old farmhouse on a hill and Harry bought it on the spot – then phoned his wife to let her know.

The Ginsbergs’ home would later become the site of the earliest services held by the yet-to-be-formed congregation.

Of the Marks family, Kessler recalls that Robbie was a horticulturalist able to “identify every plant and growth on the island.” His brother Herbie collected historical artifacts and documents, and both were on friendly terms with old island families. 

Herbie contributed generously to the local Historical Society, in exchange for which “they often gave him a room,” Kessler says. The Marks’ father had run a tailor shop on Dodge Street on the island during the early 20th century.

The Salzburgs were also instrumental in bringing Richard and Micheline Weisbroat to the island in 1972. Richard, a lawyer, notes, “I closed title for Marvin on his island house.”

The Weisbroats’ introduction to the Jewish community on the island was through Haida, Herbie and Robbie. Accomplished at davening and leading services, Richard was asked to hold a yahrtzeit service for someone needing to say Kaddish, which he did, meeting at the Ginsbergs’ home.

An ecumenical environment

Weisbroat found the island community welcoming to Jews and an ecumenical spirit among the clergy, especially the Rev. Rick Lanz of the Harbor Baptist Church and Father Ray Keough of St. Andrew Catholic Church. 

Once, when Rosh Hashanah began on a Sunday evening, Weisbroat recalls chanting Jewish melodies and prayers with Reverend Lanz’ congregation. He sang “Yerushalayim Shel Za-hav”, “Ma-Tovu,” and “Mi Chamocha” at a morning service.

Weisbroat officiated at services here and there, including some Bar Mitzvahs and weddings. When the congregation materialized, he alternated with Elliot Taubman to lead Friday evening Shabbat services during the summer.

Arriving in rain and 5-foot seas

Taubman, a lawyer, and his wife, Jennifer, first came to the island in 1973, from New London, Conn., on a small sailboat “in rain and 4-to-5-foot seas.”  Elliot says, “We fell in love with the island in the rain.”

While they never got to the beach that rainy first visit, he says they discovered four acres “high and dry, with a small water view” that were for sale and reasonable. Though quite young, they were so drawn to the island that they bought the land.

A decade later, they settled on the island full time, bringing with them their young daughter, Becca, who grew up on the island and attended the Block Island School. The Taubmans felt very comfortable on Block Island and found strong ecumenical bonds between people and groups. Taubman has long been a member of the Ecumenical Council and Choir.

As the Jewish community emerged, so too did the notion of forming a congregation. Bobbi says, “At the time, most of our friends out here were intermarried,” and they wanted a congregation that would welcome their partners.

In 1987, Congregation Sons and Daughters of Ruth was conceived, drawing on the story of “The Book of Ruth”– a tale of emotional and spiritual bonding between Naomi and her widowed Moabite daughter-in-law.

If you ask the Taubmans, the congregation’s name aptly reflects its membership and their devotion to an ideal of welcoming all. Taubman explains that the Biblical story is one of a voluntary conversion, with the spiritual conversion taking place before there is even a future spouse for Ruth in the picture.

To Jennifer, the emphasis on sons and daughters is very important as well, since it underscores the valued status of both men and women in the life of the congregation.

Clearly, the history of the island’s Jewish community is rich, if at times idiosyncratic.  While some of it is archived, we are fortunate that much of it is stored in the very vivid memories of congregants. In sharing their stories,  they testify to the vitality of Jewish tradition on the island and the ongoing desire to embrace it.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in an occasional series on the Jewish community of Block Island.

GLORIA REDLICH, a full-time resident of Block Island, is a reporter for The Block Island Times. She can be reached at gloryb311@gmail.com.