Podcast Summary: New Books Network

Guest: Scott D. Seligman
Book: The Chief Rabbi's Funeral: The Untold Story of America's Largest Anti-Semitic Riot (U. of Nebraska Press, 2024)
Host: Geraldine Gouttefin
Date: October 8, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Geraldine Gouttefin interviews historian and author Scott D. Seligman about his new book, The Chief Rabbi’s Funeral, which uncovers the story of America’s largest anti-Semitic riot, triggered by the funeral procession of Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph in New York City in 1902. The episode explores the intertwining narratives of the rabbi's life in America, the events of the riot itself, and the Jewish community's response and subsequent organization. Through vivid storytelling and detailed archival research, Seligman brings to life an episode largely forgotten in both American and Jewish historical memory, situating it within broader contexts of anti-Semitism, policing, and immigrant community dynamics.

Key Discussion Points

1. Scott D. Seligman’s Authorial Trajectory

• Background: Seligman describes book-writing as a “second career,” pursued after early retirement from corporate communications (02:16).
• Early Focus: Started with Chinese American history, authoring several books on the subject, and later explored African American history.
• Shift to Jewish History: Inspired to write about Jewish American experiences, particularly after reading Paula Hyman’s work on the 1902 kosher meat boycott. Discovered untapped sources, especially digitized newspapers, which deepened the narrative (03:34).

2. Chief Rabbi Jacob Joseph: Context and Legacy

• Arrival and Role: Invited in 1888 by Orthodox synagogues on the Lower East Side to serve as 'Chief Rabbi', responsible for kosher supervision, presiding over the religious court (bezdin), and education (07:07).
  • “There was no such thing as a chief rabbi of New York... The Reform congregations weren’t interested in an Orthodox overlord...” – Seligman (07:19)
• Challenges:
  • Language and cultural gaps; inability to connect with American youth.
  • Seen as an “old fogey,” facing resistance even from those he was meant to serve.
  • Efforts like the 'plumba' seal for kosher poultry unintentionally mirrored Russian taxation, generating further resentment (09:10).
• Decline and Death: After a stroke and failed tenure, Joseph died destitute and relatively ignored—until his death catalyzed a massive communal response (12:45).
  • “It was as if the community wanted to give him the honor in death that they had denied him in life...” – Seligman (13:23)

3. The 1902 Funeral Riot: Events and Dynamics

• Funeral Plans: Procession through the Lower East Side due to lack of any synagogue large enough to contain the crowds (13:45).
• Scale: Crowd estimates exceeded 100,000, possibly many more (14:22).
• Crisis Point:
  • At the RH Hoe printing factory, procession faced hostility; factory boys hurled verbal and physical abuse, escalating to projectiles, water hoses, and violence (14:37).
  • Jews, unable to escape the crowd or protect themselves, eventually retaliated by throwing objects back.
  • Police called in, led by an inspector known for anti-Semitic hostility, who ordered officers to “club the life out” of the crowd (17:00).
    • “He simply ordered his policemen to, and this is a quote, ‘club the life out [of them].’” – Seligman (18:07)
  • Riot resulted in numerous injuries (but no deaths), with police violence compounding the harm.

4. Community Response and Legal Fallout

• Court and Legal Aid: Jewish lawyers from both uptown German and downtown Russian backgrounds—historically divided—rallied to represent arrested Jews.
  • “They all understood they were part of the same tribe.” – Seligman (21:06)
• Ad Hoc Committee and Political Action:
  • Emergency meeting formed the East Side Vigilance League for defense and coordination.
  • Community leaders pressured Mayor Seth Low—who owed political debts to Jewish voters—resulting in a mayoral commission (24:09).
  • Dual investigations: initial police whitewash, but mayoral committee (with prominent Jews Lewis Marshall and Nathan Petcher) “exonerated the Jews” and condemned police/judicial bias.
  • Some police were transferred, others forcibly retired; the police chief and anti-Semitic assistant commissioner were dismissed.

5. Jews, Police, and Ethnic Tension in New York

• Police Hostility: Chronic corruption and ethnic animosity in the NYPD, particularly against Jews and other minorities.
  • “The New York Times wrote... ‘The Jews of the Lower East Side are not only not protected by the police, they are in need of protection against the police.’” – (28:09, Gouttefin quoting NYT, 09/16/1902)
  • Irish domination in the police, and the shift of ethnic scapegoating from Irish to Jewish immigrants.
• Comparisons: Seligman, who had written about Chinese immigrants, notes the police treated the Chinese “even worse.”

6. Lasting Effects and Reflection on Anti-Semitism

• Little Short-Term Change: Police reforms slow and limited until much later; Tammany Hall’s grip on city administration limited lasting improvements (32:29).
• Historical Memory: Both the kosher meat boycott and the funeral riot faded from collective memory for decades—possibly due to the obscurity of their working-class female and immigrant protagonists and the fleeting nature of the episodes (33:37).
  • “Both of these things were... flash in the pan... the people behind them went right back into obscurity.” – Seligman (34:14)

7. Methodology and Use of Sources

• Primary Sources: Heavy reliance on digitized historical newspapers—English and Yiddish—with advanced search capabilities (36:27).
• New Access: Tools like the National Library of Israel’s press repositories and the Library of Congress’s “Chronicling America.”
  • “...You can do sitting in your study in a week what it would have taken you months and months hunched over a microfilm reader in my day.” – Seligman (04:57)
• Challenges: Variability in name spellings and transliteration required creative search strategies (43:30).
• Genealogical Research: Used sites like Ancestry.com to find descendants, adding color and depth to the historical record (44:05).
• AI in Research: Considers AI a powerful but unreliable tool—useful for leads and synthesis but always to be verified (“AI hallucinations” acknowledged) (39:14).

8. Human Side: Characters and Stories

• Abraham Saracen: Headed the East Side Vigilance League, dedicated and tireless in pursuit of justice (47:19).
• William Travers Jerome: Non-Jewish district attorney who moved to the Lower East Side as promised and was sincere in pushing for reform and justice even while urging immigrants to Americanize (47:19-49:38).
• Lewis Marshall: Influential Jewish leader/lawyer, the subject of Seligman’s future research.

9. Looking Forward: Upcoming Work

• New Book: The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906 (due November 1), on Jewish resistance to Christian proselytizing in public schools, boycotts, and enduring issues of religious diversity in public space (51:12).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was as if the community wanted to give him the honor in death that they had denied him in life.” (Seligman, 13:23)
• “He simply ordered his policemen to... ‘club the life out’ [of them].” (Seligman, 18:07)
• “They all understood they were part of the same tribe.” (Seligman, 21:06)
• “These unhappy Jews are not only not protected by the police, they are in need of protection against the police.” — New York Times, quoted by Host (28:09)
• “The police were equal opportunity head bashings... but the Jews really got the brunt.” (Seligman, 31:29)
• “Both of these things were... flash in the pan... the people behind them went right back into obscurity.” (Seligman, 34:14)
• “My rule is I will never take a sentence wholesale from any AI source and put it into one of my books. I will not do that. I'm the author and they're not the author.” (Seligman, 40:26)
• “You can do sitting in your study in a week what it would have taken you months and months hunched over a microfilm reader in my day.” (Seligman, 04:57)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:29] - Show introduction & Seligman’s background
• [06:28] - Overview of Rabbi Jacob Joseph’s U.S. career and his impact
• [14:08] - The funeral procession and the escalation to riot
• [17:00] - Police intervention and violence (“club the life out”)
• [20:00] - Aftermath: Legal response and Jewish community organizing
• [24:09] - Political advocacy, mayoral commission, and outcomes
• [28:09] - Host presents NYT quote, discussion of police brutality
• [36:27] - Deep dive into sources and methodology
• [39:14] - Reflections on AI in historical research
• [47:19] - Discussion of memorable characters from the book
• [51:12] - Introduction to Seligman’s upcoming book

Tone and Style

The conversation is rigorous yet accessible, blending storytelling, historical analysis, and personal reflection. Seligman is personable, deeply informed by research, and candid about both the possibilities and limits of new technological tools in scholarship. The discussion is attentive to nuance: recognizing the heroism and failings of historical figures, the intersectionality of ethnic experience, and the stubborn persistence (and forgetting) of prejudice and solidarity in American life.

Takeaways

• Historical Amnesia: Even significant episodes of anti-Semitism in America can disappear from public memory, underlining the importance of recovery work by historians.
• Solidarity in Crisis: Moments of external threat can unite otherwise divided communities—in this case, uptown and downtown Jews.
• Enduring Issues: The riot’s story resonates today, echoing contemporary debates on police brutality, bigotry, and the responsibilities of civic leaders.
• Method Matters: Seligman’s approach demonstrates the transformative power of digitized archives, multi-lingual research, and creative use of technology—tempered by skepticism and critical rigor.

Further Reading and Future Work

Seligman teases his next book, The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906, exploring the fraught intersection of religion, public education, and legal rights—a case study as relevant today as in 1906.

This episode is a compelling entry point into the underexplored history of American anti-Semitism, community mobilization, and the messy realities of immigrant civic life at the turn of the twentieth century, brought vividly—and accessibly—to light by Scott D. Seligman.