Freemasonry in America gives $1,500,000 a day to charities. That’s right. One and a half million dollars a day. It’s also particularly nice to report when the same organisation uses its efforts to remember religious minorities and bring them unobtrusively into their celebrations. This is about to happen in Charleston, South Carolina.
    In Charleston on May 31st 1801, eleven gentlemen founded the masonic organisation called the Scottish Rite. Consequently, on May 31st 2001, members of the Rite will be celebrating their bi-centenary. We know that four of the founding eleven were Jewish and the organisers wish to recognise their efforts. Their names are Israel De Lieben, Emanuel De La Motta, Abraham Alexander and Moses Clava Levy - all members of the same synagogue. The Jewish community of Charleston is the oldest in the States, founded not long after the founding of the colony of Carolina. At first, records show that they worshipped in each other’s houses until the number grew too large. They then founded the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue in 1749 and acquired their own cemetery in 1764.
    Isaac De Costa, a merchant, conveyed in trust to the congregation a piece of land that he had purchased in 1739 as a private cemetery. (Most cemeteries in America are private). The plot is about an acre in size and at the time of the donation it was outside the city limits. Owing to the passage of time, during which the city spread, the cemetery is now in the centre of a tenement district. Some 600 tombstones are visible. Many more have been lost, while the inscriptions on a very large number are now illegible.
    In the true style of the Sephardic Jews, most of the stones lie flat, although some are raised on bricks and others upright. Some are engraved in the style of the Prague Jewish cemetery, with bunches of grapes or other pointers to the occupation of the life of the deceased. Most of the inscriptions are in English, with a good sprinkling not only of Hebrew but many quotes from the Bible. Most of the tombstones date from the latter part of the 18th and 19th centuries, up to and including the civil war.
    One of the four graves of the Jewish founders of the Scottish Rite cannot be adequately identified. It is for this reason that a plaque containing all four names has been erected on the wall of the cemetery. The Scottish Rite wishes to remember its founders. The plaque will be officially consecrated on May 31st 2001.
    The chief source of fascination for this old cemetery lies in the passing down of its rich historical legacy through generations of American Jewry, a legacy not fully understood by those of us from other countries. Here lie the remains of many notable Jews of the community, a community which, from the time of the American Revolution to about 1820, grew to be the largest, the most cultured and the wealthiest Jewish community in America.
    One of the founders, Abraham Alexander, served as minister of Beth Elohim from 1785 to 1805. He was a learned London-born Jew who acted in a voluntary capacity for some 20 years. Only in America could you find a Minister to act for 20 years for free!
    Alexander was a scrivener and sofer (a writer of Jewish manuscripts). At the start of the American Revolution, he left his work and enlisted in the army where he acted as a cavalry lieutenant of dragoons in Sumpter’s Brigade and in Col. Hill’s regiment. One of his sayings, a particularly appropriate one, became the centre of a First World War ballad: “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.”
    Alexander died in 1816 and is buried in the “Coming Street” cemetery in the heart of Charleston. But what happened to the synagogue? Well, it is still there but it has changed from Orthodox to Reform, and is reputed to be the first Reform Synagogue in the States. It became Reform due to the intransigence of the lay ministry at that time. They refused to have any English in the services - even a translation of the page numbers in the service. The story is quite interesting but now is not the time to tell it.
    Today in Carolina stands a memorial to Man’s first attempts to fly. My wife (Paula) and I stood on the bronze plate which marks the spot, said to be the actual take-off point of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s pioneering glider flight in 1900 at Kitty Hawk. We loved the few days we spent there. The hospitality and understanding of our ‘Jewish requirements’ were unparalleled in any of our travels.
    Paula and I have received an invitation from Herbert S Goldberg 33° to be present at the bi-centenary celebrations and the dedication of the plaque. Time will tell if we are to go. Neither of us is getting any younger! We only pray that we may get older! These decisions are not in our hands.
    My thanks are due to Herb for saving me the research time for parts of this article. We have now become good friends due to the internet. We have managed to trace two of his cousins in London. One of them will have just turned a 100 by the time this article appears. He had a shop at Tally Ho Corner in London for many years and has a son who I am told is now seventy-four - and the other cousin who is in her late eighties. Her family was a household name for many years. When I telephoned I first spoke with the butler who put me through to her secretary who transferred me to the personal maid before I was allowed to speak with her. The family is now in contact with each other. We are looking forward to seeing them all on May 31st 2001!