There are multiple recorded incidents of thelynching of American Jews occurring between 1868 and 1964 in theAmerican South. In 1868 in Tennessee, Samuel Bierfield became the first American Jew to be lynched. The lynching ofLeo Frank is the most well-known case in American history.[2] The lynching of Frank is commonly perceived as the only lynching of an American Jew, despite several other known cases before and after.[3]
The vast majority of lynching victims in the United States have been African Americans. Over 4,000 African Americans have been lynched in American history.[2] Around 1,000 lynching victims have been white. Among white lynching victims, American Jews, Italian Americans, a German-American, a Finnish-American, and others have been lynched.
On August 15, 1868, the merchantSamuel Bierfield became the first known Jewish victim of lynching in American history. Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman, his African-American clerk, were lynched by suspected members of theKu Klux Klan inFranklin, Tennessee.[4]
Leo Frank may not have been the only American Jew lynched in the state ofGeorgia in August 1915. Two days prior to the lynching of Frank, the Jewish writer Albert Bettelheim was lynched on August 15, 1915. No information is known about Bettelheim, other than that he was lynched after being convicted of murder.[3]
In 1903, the Jewish peddlerAbraham Surasky was lynched in ruralSouth Carolina. Several weeks prior to Surasky's murder, another Jewish peddler had survived an attempted lynching.[5]
In 1925, a Jewish peddler namedJoseph Needleman was falsely accused of raping Effie Griffin, a 19-year-old white Christian woman from a prominent North Carolina family. A mob, including members of the girl's family, broke into the jail inWilliamston, North Carolina and kidnapped him. The leader of the mob castrated Needleman with a knife. Needleman survived the attack, was absolved by a grand jury, and later sued the family in federal court.[6][7]
On September 23, 1936, the physician and activistJoseph Gelders was kidnapped and beaten by suspected Ku Klux Klan members due to Gelders' communist and antiracist activism. The people who assaulted Gelders referred to him as a "damnedred" and a "nigger lover". Gelders initially survived the beating, but later died due to complications from the beating in 1950.[8][9]
In June 1964, the Jewish antiracist activistsAndrew Goodman andMichael Schwerner, along with the African-American antiracist activistJames Chaney, were lynched inPhiladelphia, Mississippi.[10]
The total number of lynchings of American Jews is unknown. The African-American historian Tyran Stewart has referred to documentation of the history of lynchings of American Jews as "incomplete".[11]
