Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities - Belzoni, Mississippi
Overview >> Mississippi >> Belzoni
Overview
Belzoni (pronounced "bel-ZONE-uh") is the seat of Humphreys County and claims the mantle of “Catfish Capital of the World.” A wealthy New Orleans planter secured ownership of the area in 1825 and established a landing on the Yazoo River. In 1828 he gave it the name Belzoni, in honor of Giovani Battista Belzoni, an Italian-born circus performer and adventurer who was famous for removing Egyptian artifacts from archaeological sites and transporting them to England.
The community of Belzoni grew slowly and still lacked schools, churches, and other institutions in the mid-19th century. The river landing was still a part of Washington County at the time, but a lack of infrastructure isolated Belzoni from larger towns such as Greenville. Development accelerated following the Civil War, as the Mississippi Delta attracted formerly enslaved farmworkers and landowners alike. (Black residents have comprised a majority of the local population since before the Civil War.) Increased settlement drew new businesses, and mercantile operations began to proliferate along the Yazoo River. The first Jewish people arrived in the area by the 1880s. Jewish-owned stores in Belzoni bore names such as Cohn, Davidow, and Goldberg for a number of years, but better infrastructure and more promising business opportunities led Jewish families to relocate, often to larger towns in the Delta.
The community of Belzoni grew slowly and still lacked schools, churches, and other institutions in the mid-19th century. The river landing was still a part of Washington County at the time, but a lack of infrastructure isolated Belzoni from larger towns such as Greenville. Development accelerated following the Civil War, as the Mississippi Delta attracted formerly enslaved farmworkers and landowners alike. (Black residents have comprised a majority of the local population since before the Civil War.) Increased settlement drew new businesses, and mercantile operations began to proliferate along the Yazoo River. The first Jewish people arrived in the area by the 1880s. Jewish-owned stores in Belzoni bore names such as Cohn, Davidow, and Goldberg for a number of years, but better infrastructure and more promising business opportunities led Jewish families to relocate, often to larger towns in the Delta.
Early Jewish Settlers
In Jews in Early Mississippi, Leo and Evelyn Turitz mention two Jewish families by the names of Livingston and Morris who operated stores and owned farm land in or near Belzoni shortly after the Civil War, but their sources are unclear. By the 1880s, however, additional families from Eastern Europe began to arrive in the growing community.
Morris Cohn was born in 1849 in Thorn, West Prussia (Torun, Poland). Cohn immigrated to New York City with his family and then found his way to the Mississippi Delta around 1875. He established a shop in Burtonia Landing (a short distance south of Belzoni), and his family joined him there within a few years. After an 1888 fire destroyed the Burtonia settlement, the Cohn family relocated to Belzoni, which was known at the time for its disreputable saloons. Despite a lack of amenities, Belzoni—like many other tiny Delta towns—attracted its share of Jewish families, who found a niche for themselves in a local economy based on sharecropping and the cotton trade.
Cohn bought a tract of land and established Messrs. Cohn & Company—his store being the first or second to open in Belzoni. Cohn became very successful and accumulated both significant wealth and a good reputation. His retail profits allowed him to explore other ventures, including banking, insurance, and oil. Cohn’s sons J.D. and Abe eventually joined him in the family business. Morris Cohn also looked after the business interests of a Morris Levy, a duty he shared with Levy’s brother Aaron.
Shortly after Morris Cohn moved his family to Belzoni, he employed a 19-year-old Catholic man, Stephen Castleman, who married Cohn’s daughter Pauline and served as mayor of Belzoni during the 1890s. Castleman earned the title “Builder of Belzoni” because he acquired a state charter for Belzoni, which led to the creation of a council of aldermen, a district school, and, by 1895, a railroad line. J.D. Cohn served as an alderman and a school board member.
Whereas Stephen Castleman attained professional success and civic recognition, Morris Cohn’s other son-in-law, Solomon Davidow, did not enjoy similar prosperity. Davidow was born in Šakiai, Lithuania, (“Shaki” in Yiddish) in 1859 and immigrated to the United States in 1880. He started his new life as a peddler, selling goods down the East Coast and later spending time in Pulaski, Tennessee, and Yazoo City, where his brother Marcus lived. He moved to Belzoni in 1890 and married Frieda Cohn a year later. Davidow operated a store next to the Cohn & Company. A 1903 newspaper article indicated that Davidow once carried a “handsome line of goods,” but had fallen on hard times after extending too much credit to customers. Although Davidow participated in business ventures with the Cohn-Levy-Castleman group, his fortunes never improved. On top of his financial struggles, his wife, Frieda Cohn Davidow, died in 1914 at just 44 years old, leaving Davidow “a heartbroken man,” according to family history.
One of Frieda and Solomon’s children, Dave Hirsch Davidow, attended Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport and later moved to Greenville, where he lived from 1938 to 1986. His son Fred Victor Davidow, a Greenville native, received his rabbinical ordination in 1973 and has written on his family’s history and their experiences in the South.
Morris Cohn was born in 1849 in Thorn, West Prussia (Torun, Poland). Cohn immigrated to New York City with his family and then found his way to the Mississippi Delta around 1875. He established a shop in Burtonia Landing (a short distance south of Belzoni), and his family joined him there within a few years. After an 1888 fire destroyed the Burtonia settlement, the Cohn family relocated to Belzoni, which was known at the time for its disreputable saloons. Despite a lack of amenities, Belzoni—like many other tiny Delta towns—attracted its share of Jewish families, who found a niche for themselves in a local economy based on sharecropping and the cotton trade.
Cohn bought a tract of land and established Messrs. Cohn & Company—his store being the first or second to open in Belzoni. Cohn became very successful and accumulated both significant wealth and a good reputation. His retail profits allowed him to explore other ventures, including banking, insurance, and oil. Cohn’s sons J.D. and Abe eventually joined him in the family business. Morris Cohn also looked after the business interests of a Morris Levy, a duty he shared with Levy’s brother Aaron.
Shortly after Morris Cohn moved his family to Belzoni, he employed a 19-year-old Catholic man, Stephen Castleman, who married Cohn’s daughter Pauline and served as mayor of Belzoni during the 1890s. Castleman earned the title “Builder of Belzoni” because he acquired a state charter for Belzoni, which led to the creation of a council of aldermen, a district school, and, by 1895, a railroad line. J.D. Cohn served as an alderman and a school board member.
Whereas Stephen Castleman attained professional success and civic recognition, Morris Cohn’s other son-in-law, Solomon Davidow, did not enjoy similar prosperity. Davidow was born in Šakiai, Lithuania, (“Shaki” in Yiddish) in 1859 and immigrated to the United States in 1880. He started his new life as a peddler, selling goods down the East Coast and later spending time in Pulaski, Tennessee, and Yazoo City, where his brother Marcus lived. He moved to Belzoni in 1890 and married Frieda Cohn a year later. Davidow operated a store next to the Cohn & Company. A 1903 newspaper article indicated that Davidow once carried a “handsome line of goods,” but had fallen on hard times after extending too much credit to customers. Although Davidow participated in business ventures with the Cohn-Levy-Castleman group, his fortunes never improved. On top of his financial struggles, his wife, Frieda Cohn Davidow, died in 1914 at just 44 years old, leaving Davidow “a heartbroken man,” according to family history.
One of Frieda and Solomon’s children, Dave Hirsch Davidow, attended Gulf Coast Military Academy in Gulfport and later moved to Greenville, where he lived from 1938 to 1986. His son Fred Victor Davidow, a Greenville native, received his rabbinical ordination in 1973 and has written on his family’s history and their experiences in the South.
A Small Jewish Community
While Jews became very prominent in both the political and mercantile realms of Belzoni around the turn of the century, the small community was never large enough to have a functioning synagogue or Jewish cemetery of its own. By the 1890s, Belzoni Jews held prayer services in private homes, but Jewish burials and other life cycle events took place in other towns or required a rabbi to travel to Belzoni. Owning a store in a small Delta town did not lend itself to strict observance of the Sabbath or kosher dietary laws. Nevertheless, Belzoni Jews observed major Jewish holidays. As the marriage of Stephen Castleman and Pauline Cohn indicates, intermarriage was fairly common in Belzoni, as it was in much of the rural South.
"Street Scene, Belzoni, Miss." (detail), c. 1920s, Cooper Postcard Collection, Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The "Shapero" sign (center) likely hangs outside the business of Russian-Jewish immigrants Charles and Sadie Shapero. |
Jewish families continued to operate general goods establishments and clothing stores during the early 20th century. Goldberg’s Department Store opened in 1916 and remained open under the family’s ownership into the 21st century. By the mid-20th century improving road conditions made it easier for Jewish Belzoni residents to travel to Greenwood, where they worshiped at both Ahavath Rayim (Orthodox) and Beth Israel (Reform).
The Decline of Belzoni’s Jewish Population
In 1937, fewer than 40 Jews lived in Belzoni. The town’s population peaked at just over 4,100 in the late 1950s or 1960s, and most Jewish families did not settle there for more than one or two generations in the town.
Many Belzoni Jews moved on to larger Delta towns like Yazoo City, Greenville, and Indianola, and the Belzoni Jewish population was closely tied to other Jewish communities in the area. Others, such as Lawrence and Charlie Gordon, ventured farther afield. Their mother, Natalie Ostrov, was born in Yazoo City in 1914, and her family ran “The Famous,” a popular retail store. In 1932 she married George Gordon of St. Louis, and the couple initially made their home there. They relocated to Yazoo City around 1935, however, and moved to Belzoni, where George ran a furniture store, by 1940. Lawrence Goldman, born in 1936, graduated from Tulane University and then briefly attended the University of Mississippi Law School before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. Although his father once urged him to return to Belzoni to take over the furniture business, Lawrence continued to build a career in Hollywood, and his younger brother Charles eventually joined him in the movie industry. Lawrence served as president of 20th Century Fox in the mid-1980s and produced or co-produced dozens of films. Among their other credits, the brothers co-produced Field of Dreams, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
By the time that the Gordon brothers headed West, the peak years of Jewish life in Belzoni were over. As in other market hubs in the Mississippi Delta and other parts of the South, the outmigration of rural farm laborers and changes in the agricultural economy reduced the market for small retail stores. Humphreys County epitomized the general trends of Delta life in the late 20th century, with persistently high poverty rates and one of the largest population declines of any Mississippi county.
Many Belzoni Jews moved on to larger Delta towns like Yazoo City, Greenville, and Indianola, and the Belzoni Jewish population was closely tied to other Jewish communities in the area. Others, such as Lawrence and Charlie Gordon, ventured farther afield. Their mother, Natalie Ostrov, was born in Yazoo City in 1914, and her family ran “The Famous,” a popular retail store. In 1932 she married George Gordon of St. Louis, and the couple initially made their home there. They relocated to Yazoo City around 1935, however, and moved to Belzoni, where George ran a furniture store, by 1940. Lawrence Goldman, born in 1936, graduated from Tulane University and then briefly attended the University of Mississippi Law School before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film. Although his father once urged him to return to Belzoni to take over the furniture business, Lawrence continued to build a career in Hollywood, and his younger brother Charles eventually joined him in the movie industry. Lawrence served as president of 20th Century Fox in the mid-1980s and produced or co-produced dozens of films. Among their other credits, the brothers co-produced Field of Dreams, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
By the time that the Gordon brothers headed West, the peak years of Jewish life in Belzoni were over. As in other market hubs in the Mississippi Delta and other parts of the South, the outmigration of rural farm laborers and changes in the agricultural economy reduced the market for small retail stores. Humphreys County epitomized the general trends of Delta life in the late 20th century, with persistently high poverty rates and one of the largest population declines of any Mississippi county.
Last updated August, 2022
Selected Bibliography
Fred Victor Davidow, various writings, including “With Strings Attached,” (1992), manuscript, ISJL History Files; and “Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies,” online at the Museum of Family History.
Rick Cleveland, “Native Mississippian Larry Gordon Lives a Dream with Field of Dreams,” Mississippi Today, 18 August 2021.
Leo E. and Evelyn Turitz, Jews in Early Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995).
Fred Victor Davidow, various writings, including “With Strings Attached,” (1992), manuscript, ISJL History Files; and “Jews in Small Towns: Legends and Legacies,” online at the Museum of Family History.
Rick Cleveland, “Native Mississippian Larry Gordon Lives a Dream with Field of Dreams,” Mississippi Today, 18 August 2021.
Leo E. and Evelyn Turitz, Jews in Early Mississippi, (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995).