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Other Jews settled in Beaumont during the 1890�s, but the writer often cannot furnish the exact arrival year. Among them were Louis Mayer, merchant;³⁰ Bernard Deutser, who operated the Lone Star Furniture Company;³¹ A. Flaxman, merchant; Joe and Leon Rosenthal, merchants;³² E. Szafir, stationer;³³ and Gus Well and L. Perl, racket store owners. Mayer also became vice-president of the Neches Oil Company. Others were Jake J. Nathan, department store owner, who arrived in 1896, and H. and S. Nathan, the city�s first pawn brokers, who came from Galveston in 1899.³⁴

Other early arrivals, dates unknown by the writer, were Jake and Sol Gordon as well as Alex Feigelson, each of whom was to contribute substantially to Beaumont�s cultural and economic progress.

In September, 1895, the Jewish citizens organized Congregation Emanu-el, now Temple Emanuel, with officers as follows: S. Lederer, president; L. Schwartz, vice-president; H. A. Peristein, secretary; M. Hecht, treasurer; M, Alschwang, Jan. (?); and L. R. Levy, H. Hirsch, L. Schwartz, S. Feinberg, and R. M. Mothner, trustees.³⁵ They immediately engaged Dr. Aaron Levy as the town�s first resident rabbi.³⁶ By 1895, temporary quarters were occupied variously in the Goodhue Opera House, Deutser�s store, and the Harmony Club until the first synagogue was erected in 1901 at Broadway and Willow streets.³⁷

³⁰See photo and ad of L. Mayer, Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1908-1909, pp. 99, 187, 189.

³¹Biography of Bernard Deutser, Sabine Pass News, May 5, 1900; see also �Emerald of the Neches,� p. 544; biography of B. Deutser, B. C. C., Souvenir, Beaumont, Texas, 1903, p. 12; photo and ad, Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1908-1909, pp. 108, 205; and photo of Deutser Fur�niture Company, Beaumont: The City Awake, 1906, p. 6.

³²Before moving to Beaumont, A. Flaxman was one of the earliest Jewish merchants in Orange. See Orange Tribune, Sept. 12, 1879. See also Blum et al., �Founders and Builders,� p. 4; B. C. C. Statistical Review of the Progress of Beaumont for 1925, p. 73; photo, J. Rosenthal, and ad, Rosenthal-Deutser Dry Goods Company, Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1908-1909, pp. 99, 194.

³³Photo, Szafir�s Stationers, Souvenir, Beaumont, Texas, 1983, p. 8; also photo and ad of E. Szafir, Standard Blue Book of Texas, 1908-1909, pp. 100, 206.

³⁴5ee biographies of Jake J. Nathan and H. and S. Nathan, Sabine Pass News, May 5, 1900. See also �Emerald of the Neches,� pp. 411, 527, 538-539, 542; biography and photos, J. J. Nathan, self and store, Oil Exchange, Advantages and Conditions of Beaumont and Port Arthur Today, 1902, p. 80.

³⁵�Organization of Temple Emanuel,� Galveston Daily News, Sept. 22, 29, 1895; photo, A. Feigelson Wagon Works, B. C. C., Beaumont, The Twentieth Century City, 1912, p. 46. For a history of the Gordon families, see also F. Weinbaum, Shalom, America.

³⁶Biography and photo of Dr. Aaron Levy in Oil Exchange, Advantages and Conditions of Beaumont and Port Arthur Today, 1902, p. 72; Blum et a!., �Founders and Builders,� p. 9.

³⁷Blum �Founders and Builders,� p. 9. A photo of the first Temple Emanuel synagogue, built in 1901, appears in B. C. C., Beaumont: The City Awake, 1906, p. 16; B. C. C., Beaumont: The Twentieth Century City, 1912, p. 2.