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FOUR A Leader in Birmingham, 1895-1920 Even as Temple Emanu-El's Jews were building their new temple in 1912, events in Birmingham were making the position of Jews somewhat anomalous. With the takeover of TCI by U.S. Steel in 1907, Birmingham's economy began to expand less rapidly than it had before, adversely affecting Jewish merchants, "who depended on the healthy wage earnings of area workers to keep their trade going." In the next decade, the number of Jewish establishments decreased and only the strongest survived. Financier Burghardt Steiner and Otto Marx left for the greener pastures of New York, while Ferd Marx's Dry Goods Company closed in 1913.' More significantly, the political and social status of Jews in the years 1910-1920 was affected by the annexation of Birmingham 's suburbs in 1910 and the subsequent change in the city government in 1911. The shift to a three-member city commission elected at large had a "predictable effect on the influence of ethnic or religious minorities in city politics." Election of the commission by a citywide vote meant that the concentration of certain groups in particular wards was no longer a factor in city politics. Consequently the political clout that had been enjoyed primarily by Catholics and Jews was dramatically diminished.2 The development of Greater Birmingham had still more far- 57 BIRMINGHAM LEADER 58 reaching effects. Annexation brought a large number of pietistic Protestants from areas like Woodlawn and East Lake into the city electorate. As a consequence, the city was divided throughout the decade into two groups that called themselves the "Moral Elements" and the "Liberal Elements."3 As Leah Atkins has noted, "they fought over prohibition, prostitution , and Sunday blue laws." The pietistic Protestants pushed hard for antisaloon legislation, strict antiprostitution laws, and prohibition laws. The liberal elements of the city opposed the pietists heartily on their stands and usually lost. In 1908 liquor was prohibited in Birmingham, but three years later the law was repealed. By 1915, however, a statewide prohibition law had been passed. In 1918, too, 54 percent of Birmingham voters chose to prohibit Sunday movies in a referendum, owing to the Supporters of the prohibition amendment marched along Twentieth Street on Sunday, November 28, 1909, the day before the vote. Photo by the Birmingham View Company. (Birmingham Public Library / Department of Archives) successful mobilization of a pietistically minded Committee of Fifty of the Pastors Union.4 There was one attempt, by the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce , to bring together the disparate elements at the "Potlach" of 1913. The Chamber of Commerce publicly wanted the hostile BIRMINGHAM men to overlook their differences. Invited were Alfred J. Dickin- LEADER son, pastor of the First Baptist Church; city commissioners Culpepper Exum, A. O. Lane, and James Weatherly; park commissioner John Kaul; Birmingham News editor Frank P. Glass; and other prominent citizens. Although these men were Morris Newfield's friends and acquaintances, there is no evidence that he attended too. But the differences between the two groups were not resolved, and animosity remained.5 We could argue that these differences represented difficulties On November 29. 1909. a crowd gathered at the Jefferson County Courthouse to support or oppose the prohibition amendment. Photo by the Birmingham View Company. (Birmingham Public Library / Department of Archives) 59 BIRMINGHAM LEADER stemming from a continuing era of transition for Birminghamians. Because the city had grown so quickly with the 1910 legislation, disparate elements competed not merely for control of the city's political structure but also for the power to determine the cultural values of the city. Although Birmingham Jews in this period found that their population of 3,500, or H percent of the total community, kept them decidedly a minority, they had developed a leader in Rabbi Morris Newfield. His influence as a liberal grew steadily throughout the entire community. He accomplished his aims in a number of ways: first, he formed close working relationships with fellow ministers such as Dickinson and Henry M. Edmonds of the Independent Presbyterian Church; second, he joined various groups such as the Howard College faculty and the Quid Pro Quo Club, an intellectual circle consisting of leading businessmen, ministers, and politicians in Birmingham; and third, he began to speak out publicly on the social issues of the day, especially the 1918 controversy surrounding Sunday movies.6 Rabbi Newfield offered religious and social leadership to both Jews and Christians, proposing ways of reconciling and accommodating both groups. In searching for...

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