A Little Bit of Fargotstein Family History (and probably not 100% correct)

I am leaving this exchange in my blog as what the Fargotstein family may consider interesting tidbits about the history of the family. I may have some of the history wrong, and I am sure that someone will correct me, but this is better than nothing. Shep

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Letter from a University of North Carolina Graduate Student studying history of Jews in the South received by Shep Fargotstein on 05/27, 2015. He found the family through Molly via Facebook. (Josh.parshall@gmail.com)

Shep,

Thanks so much for getting back to me. I only have a couple questions right now, but more might come up as the project moves forward.

All of the below would be very helpful to know:

1. The hometown of Sam Fargotstein in E. Europe

2. Why/how the Fargotstein's initially settled in Galveston

3. When/why the Fargotstein's moved to Memphis (some stayed in TX, right?)

4. Whether members of the Fargotstein family were ever involved with the Memphis Workmen's Circle

In the text I was looking at last week, by a woman named Frieda Weiner, Sam Fargotstein is listed as a significant leader of the Galveston Workmen's Circle/Arbiter Ring: "My branch, 307 of Galveston, was the second [in the state] when it was founded in March 1912 by two intellectuals, Sam Fargotstein of Galveston and his friend Joseph Keeper from the nearby city of Houston." Weiner goes on to describe how Fargotstein was instrumental in helping the Weiner family move to Galveston after Frieda’s husband, Isaac was laid off from his job following a lengthy illness.

Really, any information on the family history and the various professional/social/religious paths of Sam's descendants would be interesting to know.

Best,

Josh

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May 27, 2015

Dear Josh:

The Fargotstein family came from Warsaw, Poland. Many of our family members are buried there in the Jewish Cemetery (Sec 59 row 12 plot 38 + section 74 row 23 plot 7). The name in Poland was Fargotstein, then Fargutzstajn. The story goes that my great, great, great grandfather – Mordechai Fargotshteyn – a grocery merchant - was killed by thugs one day simply for wearing a beard and Yarmulke. At the time he was married and had one son – Shalom, who married a woman named Perla. Shalom and Perla had 5 sons – David (my great grandfather a cigarette merchant) was one of the 5. The 5 sons left Poland, not sure when, but it was in the late 1800s. Here it gets a little fuzzy. My understanding is that they ended up in Mexico City hoping to make their way to the USA where they had connections that would help them get settled - everyone had a connection, even if it was a friend of a friend, and nobody entered illegally. After a period of time, they got antsy and one brother went to Argentina. One brother went to Australia. My grandfather, David and Shepsel his brother made it to the states eventually with them both settling in Galveston which geographically is near Mexico and had a port where they probably came on a ship legally.  The  other brother made settled in New York state.

Shepsel was a watchmaker and evidently he was close to my great-grandfather. I was told that once the boys (Sam and all) were old enough, David went back to Poland and died there. They owened a pawnshop in Galveston and my grandfather, Sam, ended up running and owning the store. Sam eventually married Sally, my grandmother –and they had 3 sons and a daughter. One of the sons was my father, Max. The others were Jack, Eddie and Becky. Sam had an opportunity in the early 1900s to move to Memphis to buy a watch parts company call J.H. Mednikow & Sons. He also had sinus issues and heard that Memphis didn’t have a lot of pollen and thought it would be healthier for him (we have lots of pollen). Eddie ended up staying in Galveston and ran the pawnshop until shortly before his death in the 1970s.

My father Max and Becky ended up running the family business that was renamed S. Fargotstein & Sons in Memphis for close to 50 years. It was extremely successful as a wholesale watch parts and then jewelry business. The company had a national customer base and was the first company in the jewelry/watch parts business to put in a toll-free 800 watts line. It would be the equivalent to being the first to market with a website. The business was sold around 1985, right before the wholesale industry nationwide went sour. The success of wholesalers was because they had the regional business cornered. Once the highway system was built their reach was extended and they made tons of money, but when businesses went nationwide in the 80s it harkened a new day. Federal Express and overnight mail made regional wholesalers obsolete. The Internet either killed the rest off or enabled them to prosper.  

It was not a surprise to me that Sam was considered an intellectual and a socialist/communist in his younger days.  I had heard that before, but never knew he was a leader in the Galveston Workman’s circle. With that said, he morphed into a capitalist in Memphis and became a reform Jew. To the best of my knowledge he was not involved in the Memphis Workman’s circle but I am going to ask the Temple archivist to check out the organization and see if the can come up with something. Sam is buried at Temple Israel Cemetery in Memphis along with his son – my father – Max Fargotstein.

I have a family tree on the Geni website. If you can get onto it you will see most of this. If you can’t access it I will give you my email and password but you have to keep it to yourself.

Shep Fargotstein

901-240-8102

smfargo1@gmail.com

Obama’s Foreign Policy Has Boxed Him Into A Corner

The Obama administration’s next major test in the Mideast comes from an Iranian cargo vessel heading, accompanied by two warships, for the Yemeni Red Sea port of Hodeida and scheduled to dock Thursday, May 21. According to Tehran, the ship will unload 2,500 tons of humanitarian aid for Yemen, and the hundreds of passengers who disembark are Red Crescent medical relief workers.

The Saudi, U.S. and Egyptian Navys have imposed a sea and air blockade on Yemen to prevent Iran providing the Yemeni Houthi rebels with fresh arms. Saudi and other regional intelligence agencies are convinced that the “paramedics” are in fact Revolutionary Guards officers and instructors in disguise, sent to strengthen the Houthi revolt.

Washington, Riyadh and Cairo have all vowed to stop the Iranian flotilla from putting into port in Yemen and said that its vessels will be forced to submit to inspections in a Yemeni government port to make sure no illicit weapons are aboard and to confirm the passengers’ identities. Tehran, for its part has threatened to treat any such inspections as an act of war.

There is little doubt that the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier and strike force, which have been monitoring the Iranian flotilla’s movements, will NOT be ordered to intervene against the Iranian ships reaching the Yemeni port. The last thing President Obama wants is to upset Tehran when he is in dire need of the Iraqi Shiite militias controlled by Iran to stand up to ISIS before its columns reach Baghdad - AND - his need to seal the nuclear deal with Iran (no matter what Iran does or says).

Without the US, it is unlikely – but possible, that Saudi and Egyptian warships could directly engage an Iranian naval force and risk a major military conflagration. With that said, Obama just gave his word to the Saudis at Camp David that he would “have their backs” in the instance of Iranian militant belligerency against them. If I were the Saudis, I would be suspicious that Obama might have a “knife against their backs”.

Is Mel Brooks running Obama's foriegn policy?

If Mel Brooks were to write a play on a buffoon of a President hell bent on fixing the world’s problems assisted by his divine vision and intervention – only to cause the world to implode with a series of funny mess-ups I would love to see it. Unfortunately, that actual scenario is unwinding before our eyes and it isn’t funny at all.

Obama wants to legitimize Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while ignoring Iran’s exporting of terrorism/mass murder against the Sunni Arab states AND overt calls for the destruction of Israel - or support for Israel enemies. In the upcoming meeting with Gulf Arab leaders at Camp David this week, Obama will try to placate these rightfully insecure Arab leaders by assuring them the USA has their back (another broken redline on the way?) and will protect them if Iran threatens them – but he won’t sign a formal agreement. Furthermore, Obama is going to offer to sell the Gulf states the most modern arms – including the new F-35 jet as proof that he takes their security seriously.  This offer of 1^st tier arms - until this point were unavailable to the Arab countries by Congressional dictate in order to assure Israel of qualitative superiority in the region. Conversely, Israel is committed not to sell their 1^st tier arms to China or other countries that the USA deems “hostile”. Obama is breaking that agreement with his offer of F-35s, and other arms to the Arab nations.

Any casual observer can see that the “Obama Strategy” is exacerbating an already violent region and assuring decades of instability in the Muslim world. Furthermore, it will add another layer of insecurity to Israelis who already don’t trust Obama. Let’s be clear: Obama is committed to unwinding 60 years of US Mideast policy, throwing every ally under the bus, and reaching out to Iran as if it were his only friend in the world. If he is allowed to continue this path for the next 14 months, the consequences may be irrevocable and our children and grandchildren will suffer for generations, and the unseen consequences of his actions are yet to even be imagined.