100 YEARS AGO IN THE SARATOGIAN

Thursday, March 21, 1918. “Probably the largest crowd that ever attended a session of the City Court sees the factions of Congregation Shaara Tfille vie for control of the snyagogue’s financial documents, The Saratogian reports.

Samuel Gold, onetime vice president of the congregation, seized the documents at a March 3 meeting. Two days later, a deputy city marshal seized them from Gold pending tonight’s replevin action.

“Every seat in the court room was filled and the ‘standing room only’ sigh was out before the jury was selected,” a reporter writes, “There was a large crowd in the hall outside the door which could not gain admission to the court room.”

Inside, Jacob Caplan describes Gold’s initial seizure of the documents. Both men were members of a special committee appointed to review the books.

“Everything was peaceful until we started to go home,” Caplan testifies, “Then when we started to go home, after the books was all looked over, Gold said, ‘What’s your hurry? Why don’t you sit down a little bit?’ So then we sit down a little and Gold took the books and hugged them up against himself and says, ‘I’m goin to keep the books.’”

During the ensuing argument Caplan “got maybe a little excited and tore up the paper I had made the figures on and threw the pieces into the stove.” Testifying for Gold, witness Meyer Lavine says that Caplan’s face “turned red, white, blue, all colors.”

Gold’s attorney, Alexander F. Walsh, insinuates that Caplan and the followers of synagogue president Ignatz Berkowitz wanted to destroy the documents before Gold and fellow committeeman Max Roggen had a chance to check them against the congregation’s checks and vouchers. They hoped to account for a discrepancy of about $300, according to Mrs. Gold.

Many members are the congregation are immigrants who speak heavily accented “broken English.” The reporter clearly tries to transcribe their testimony for comic effect, while one of the witnesses, Philip Seigle, says of himself that he “talked like a vaudeville act.”

The whole affair seems comical to the reporter, who’s most amused by witness Nathan Schwartz, who tells jurors, “I vill make my story short for if I says too much you von’t get avay in times for breakfast. Since I comes to this city, I don’t vight mit no Jews. I vant peace all the time.”

Despite all the testimony, the jurors have no real alternative to recognizing Berkowitz as the legitimate owner of the seized documents. They do so after only fifteen minutes of deliberations, assessing $12.50 in court costs to Gold. Walsh vows to appeal the verdict in county court.

— Kevin Gilbert