SALON EL ZAGUÁN
Historic Santa Fe Foundation presents Ron Duncan Hart on Early Jews in New Mexico
December 10, 2020 at 3pm • REGISTRATION Required
Historic Santa Fe Foundation presents the December Salon El Zaguán with Ron Duncan Hart on Early Jews in New Mexico. The talk is scheduled for Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 3pm via Zoom.
REGISTER FOR THE ONLINE SALON HERE
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
The early history of Jews in New Mexico is a two-pronged history. The first to arrive were crypto-Jewish families, probably as early as 1598 with Onate. We have little documented history about those early groups because they were “crypto” or hidden Jews with no formal history. The second branch of Jewish history, which is documented, began with the German Jewish merchants in the 1840s. Solomon Jacob Spiegelberg seems to have been the first, and he became a supplier of the troops under the command of General Kearny, probably in 1848, after the troops were established in Fort Marcy. He opened a store on the plaza and later built the house at the corner of Palace and Paseo de Peralta that still stands today (Peyton-Wright Gallery). Not long afterwards the Staab family began their mercantile store and in time built the house on the opposite corner from the Spiegelberg house, today La Posada. Other German Jewish merchants arrived, most notably Charles Ilfeld, who established his business in Las Vegas. He was joined by a relative, Max Nordhaus, who later would become the director of the company and move its central operations to Albuquerque. From that beginning more than a dozen core families with various branches settled throughout New Mexico from Clayton and Raton to Deming and Silver City, including the Wertheim, Moise, Spitz and other families. Most worked as family groups, beginning with dry goods stories, then branching out into ranching, lumber, mining, real estate, and banking. Later, they would move into the professions, and a number became active in public life, including Willie Spiegelberg, Mayor of Santa Fe. . For further information on this subject, see the book Pioneer Jewish Families in New Mexico, edited by Noel H. Pugach and Richard Melzer, published by New Mexico Jewish Historical Society and Gaon Books.
There is no charge for admission for members and the non-members entry fee is $10. Refunds for non-member tickets/reservations will only be issued if canceled within 48 hours. Registration is required.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Ron Duncan Hart, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute for Tolerance Studies in Santa Fe, NM, which provides adult education through lectures, print, film and the Internet. He is also President of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico and for many years he served as the Program Director of the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society. He is a cultural anthropologist with a Ph.D. from Indiana University and postdoctoral work in Jewish Studies at the University of Oxford. He is a former University Vice-President and Dean of Academic Affairs, who also worked in South America for twenty years with UNICEF, the Ford Foundation and other international agencies. He has awards from the New Mexico Jewish Historical Society, National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Fulbright among others. Hart has written a number of books on Jewish life and cultural history, and the more recent ones are Crypto-Judaism: The Long Journey, Jews and the Arab World: Intertwined Legacies, Judaism, Sephardic Jews: History, Religion and People. He is author and co-editor of the award-winning book Fractured Faiths: Spanish Judaism, the Inquisition and New World Identities. In recent years he has been an invited lecturer on Jewish life and culture for the New Mexico History Museum (Santa Fe), Neustadt Lecture (Oklahoma City University), Berry College (Rome, Georgia) Xinjiang University (Urumqi, China), the National Labor Relations Board (Washington, D.C.), Anne Freeling Schlezinger Annual Lecture (Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, Maryland), and New Mexico Jewish Historical Society among other venues. Questions about the lecture, contact Melanie McWhorter at HSFF 505-983-2567 or melanie@historicsantafe.org.