 Of all the lively altercations between "Rabbi" and "Congregation,"
commonplace in the mid-nineteenth century, caused by Minhag America versus Minhag
Ashkenaz, none in the East reached the high pitch of excitement as in that "Wild
West" gunfight between Minister Moses May and officer A. [Abraham?] Waldman, of Beth
Israel, Portland Oregon.Founded in 1859, a succession of ministers followed. In 1860, 28-year-old Hermann
Milton Bien of San Francisco served but a year. He removed to Virginia City, succeeded by
a Reverend Herman P. Bories. In 1863 Dr. Julius Eckman of San Francisco was elected. He
ministered for six years and returned to the city by the Golden Gate, succeeded by a Dr.
Isaac Schwab who after two years was succeeded by Moses May.
Worship was conducted in the Orthodox manner. A visitor from New York described to
Reverend Samuel Myer Isaacs, editor of the Messenger, how the services in
Portland's Beth Israel were conducted "in the orthodox style, so that
our correspondent fancied himself back again in Wooster Street Schul [Shaaray
Tefila; Isaacs minister]."
Not rehiring Schwab split the community; seceders, possibly the Prussian element who
preferred Minhag Polin, founded Ahavai Sholom [Lovers of Peace]
congregation.
The hiring of May further exacerbated the conflicts within Beth Israel. Until
the arrival of May the prayerbook Minhag Ashkenaz had been established as the form
of worship. May opted for Minhag America, while the members were divided between Minhag
Ashkenaz and the one created by the Board of Directors of Beth, Israel, Minhag
Portland.
The Orthodox, favoring Minhag Ashkenaz sought to oust May, but for the moment he
and Minhag Portland prevailed. The Orthodox, in seeking to fire May, accused him of
referring to the married women of his congregation as ladies
of easy virtue, casting aspersions upon his own wife in public which received the
"condemnation of Jew, Gentile and heathen" (heathen, referred to the Indian);
outrageously slandering and blackmailing several members of the Congregation; condemning
himself, by his own actions, as an immoral man and an unbeliever in the doctrines of Holy
Writ; acting as a libertine and rake during a visit to San Francisco; calling the officers
and members of the Congregation outlandish names; threatening to join the Unitarian Church
in the event Mr. Philip Selling [Orthodox] were re-elected President; opening mail
belonging to others for the purpose of slandering the authors of the letters; and when he
was called a liar, black-guard, scoundrel and villain, he offered no word for his defense
but walked away and therefore gave rise to the belief that he felt himself guilty of these
charges....
The Reform-minded Board of Directors absolved May of all charges. May, now determined
to introduce Minhag America, created an atmosphere in the community, explosive, not
merely figuratively.
A. Waldbaum of Beck & Waldman, President-elect of Beth Israel, a strictly
Orthodox man, opposed the officers on the issue of changing the Minhag Ashkenaz
worship, but he directed his sharpest barbs against minister Moses May. Arguments between
President and Rabbi had been ongoing throughout the decade of the seventies, ever since
May's arrival in 1872.
The climax in the struggle between May and Waldman erupted in a fist-fight and
shoot-out beneath the window of the magnificent Esmond Hotel in the center of town where
President Rutherford B. Hayes was staying during his visit to Portland.
Fortunately, the U.S. President was not out on Front Street that Friday morning,
October 1, 188o, at 9:30 a.m. Minister May was conversing with Isaac May, possibly a
relation. The May's, Isaac and the Reverend Moses, standing beneath the suite of President
Hayes, were on Front Street in front of May's store, Hexter & May, located on the
ground floor of the hotel, facing Front Street, adjacent to the store of Beck &
Waldman.
A. Waldman of Beck & Waldman, president of the synagogue, approached from behind.
He grabbed minister May by the collar, pelted him in the eyes, smashing his spectacles.
The rabbi whipped out a pistol from the folds of his frock coat, and shot wildly at the
heart of the president of the "House of Israel." He missed the mark but his
second shot came closer, tearing through Waldman's coat. As May reloaded, one Morris
Isaacs rushed forward and restrained the rabbi before he could replace the bullets and
fire a third time. Different versions were given to the press; each contestant presenting
his version of the encounter.
The Daily Standard of Portland, Oregon, carried the story under the headline PASTORAL
RELATIONS and subheadline, How Rabbi May And Brother Waldman Serve The
Lord.
Friday morning at 9:30 the hilarious pop of the little pistol
was heard on Front Street. People who rushed in that direction saw the Rev. Rabbi [M.] May
and Mr. [A.] Waldman, of Beck & Waldman, engaged in a melee which resulted something
in this style: The Rabbi shot twice at Waldman, and tore a piece out of his coat, and came
near killing an honest man, and Mr. Waldman put a pair of beautiful rings about the
Rabbi's eyes....
It seems that while Rabbi May and [a] Mr. May, of Hexter &
May, were standing on the street engaged in a close conversation. Mr. Waldman walked up to
them, unnoticed by either and, grabbing the Rabbi by the coat collar, struck him two
severe blows in the face, smashing his spectacles and injuring him severely. The Rabbi
then dived for this temporal ammunition and fired at Waldman twice ... He was then knocked
down by Mr. Morris Isaacs, and he voluntarily threw his pistol into the store of Hexter
& May. Waldman then bounced [pounced] on his adversary and administered a severe
castigation before they could be separated....
Waldman ... a well known and highly respected citizen ... was
arrested in the afternoon by Constable Sprague and taken before Judge Bybee and fined for
assault, but, as far as can be learned, Rabbi May was not molested.
A reporter of the Daily Standard visited both parties and obtained their
statements.
Waldman said "that for a long time trouble had been brewing in the congregation
over the doings of the Rabbi, who was not only deficient mentally, but also morally, and
who would have long ago been kicked out of his charge but for the sympathy which was
expressed for his family . . ." He added: "It is reported, though I cannot vouch
for its truth, that the Rabbi fired at his wife one day, indeed, the marks of the bullet
can be seen in his own house . . ."
May told the reporter that "he was called a liar by Mr. Waldman ... received an
anonymous letter threatening that he would be killed with the same pistol which an evil
and false report said he had once fired at his own wife He added: "In religious
matters Waldman annoyed him continually, interfering with him and wishing to teach the
religion of Waldman instead of that of Moses [May?], and because he did not, has been
trying to ruin him by setting adrift reports about the moral standing, which the Rabbi
characterized as false, shameful, and hollow."
Concerning the altercation, May said that while engaged in conversation with a friend
he was grabbed roughly from behind and received two terrible blows in his eyes. His
glasses were smashed. Not knowing who assailed him, he drew his pistol and dazed and
blinded, fired in the direction of the blows.
I would have killed if I could," said the Rabbi,
"and would have done so to even my father or brother had they treated me as this man
Waldman did...."
The Daily Oregonian likewise reported the tale of the gun-totin' rabbi and
editorialized: "Fortunately, neither shot took effect. Parties interfered and
separated the belligerents. . ."
Reports of this confrontation between Rabbi and President, soon reached the eastern
United States.
Isaac M. Wise writing under the caption A VERKEHRTE WELT [A Topsy-Turvy
World] noted: "Mr. Waldman was not hurt, but the rabbi was soundly thrashed for being
such a poor marksman . . ." As for May, Wise concluded, "though not recognized
as a rabbi but merely tolerated, on account of relationship, as a shatz matz
[religious factotum] ... and we can not understand how a man of a family can take his life
in his own hands, especially when he knows as little how to pull a trigger as he knows of
the Shulchan Aruch [the standard Jewish code of laws]."
Wise concluded: "There is of course, a vacancy in the Portland congregation, and
poor May will either have to go to peddling or join the shooting Baptists. It is a pity
that Israel should have produced a shooting clergyman, and still more a pity that the
Christians in Portland believe that May is a high priest in the synagogue . . ."
Wise was ungrateful. May's fray came as an immediate and direct result of his attempt
to introduce Wise's prayer book, and he fired his six-shooter in favor of the American
Way—The Reform prayerbook Minhag America.
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