EXHIBITS

100 Years of Congregation Brith Sholem: Honoring the Jewish Community in Ogden, Utah: Joseph and William Benowitz and Family

Array ( [0] => SCA student )
Jump to...

Joseph and William Benowitz and Family

DNO-0127_Joseph and William Benowitz with family - Eileen Stone book.jpg
Image of brothers Joseph and William Benowitz with their families, circa 1900s. Pictured from left to right: Joseph Benowitz (father of Joseph and William), Marion Benowitz (daughter of William), Mollie Benowitz (wife of William), Lillian Benowitz (wife of Joseph), Evelyn Benowitz (daughter of William), and William Benowitz. From Eileen Hallet Stone’s book, A Homeland in the West: Utah Jews Remember.

Brothers Joseph and William Benowitz, born in 1878 and 1880, immigrated to the United States in 1891 as young boys with their mother, father, and siblings. They fled Czarist Russia for anti-Semitic reasons like the atrocious and deadly pogroms. Also, their parents feared their sons would be captured to fight in the Russian army, which young male Jews became a prime target for, many never returning home.

The Benowitz family landed in New York City, where Joseph began working in a factory making hats. Joseph became dissatisfied with the work he was doing, as he was not making ends meet. He was also not fond of the city, believing New York to be rather expensive. Joseph headed west with a friend to Galveston and Waco, Texas. Success was not their friend in Texas, as both Joseph and his friend could not find decent labor and struggled to make ends meet. Both returned to New York.

 Joseph heard great things about St. Joseph, Missouri, and decided to try his luck in the growing manufacturing city. He got a job working at the St. Joseph Hat and Cap Company.[1] This may have been the time Joseph met his wife, Lillian Berger, who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 1, 1889, and raised and educated in St. Joseph, Missouri. She married Joseph on February 21, 1913, in St. Joseph, Missouri, although they were living in Ogden, Utah, at this time.[2]

[1] Stone, A Homeland, 175–176.
[2] “Lillian B. Benowitz,” Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), January 21, 1957, 23.
[3] Stone, A Homeland, 176.
[4] Stone, A Homeland, 176.
[5] “Benowitz,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), July 22, 1961, 9.
[6] “William Benowitz,” Telegram (Salt Lake City, UT), October 8, 1950, 33.
[7] “Benowitz,” 9.
[8] “Clothier Opens Second Store,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), November 14, 1973, 28.
[9] “News Will be Seen on Board,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), January 12, 1936, 5.
[10] “Personals,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), June 11, 1939, 18.
[11] “B’nai B’rith Sets Installation,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), January 13, 1946, 8.
[12] Becky Cairns, “80 Displaced Businesses Finding New Homes,” Examiner (Ogden, UT), August 10, 1978, 18.