Jewish Lightning according to Telemachus Thomas Timayenis (1853-1918)

From The American Jew: An Exposé of his Career (1888)


They began life in the New World as itinerant venders of cheap notions. For their petty stock in trade, consisting of pencils, pens, stockings, pocketbooks, and of all manner of odds and ends, they were trusted; but every night they were obliged to make returns of sales made to the one who had supplied them with the goods. Gradually they increased their little capital, and next they became receivers of stolen goods; and, to this day, it is the Jews who control this peculiar industry in all our cities. They established pawnshops, made advances for which an exorbitant rate of interest was charged, exercised every manner of usury, and introduced crookedness and theft in all transactions. They established petty stores, stocked them with an insignificant amount of cheap goods, insured them far beyond their actual value, and shortly afterward set fire to them, collected the insurance, and repeated this crime from time to time throughout the country. Thus they grew rich.

This crime of incendiarism, previous to the advent of the Jews, was with us, comparatively speaking, unknown. The Jews mulcted the insurance-companies of vast sums of money before the companies became aware of the fraud practised upon them. It is a matter of record, that many of the leading insurance companies to-day hesitate, and often refuse, to insure the stock of anyone having a Jewish countenance or a Jewish name. Recently the president of a large insurance-company telegraphed to his agent in Chicago, “Look carefully before taking any risks offered by men whose names end in ein, ky, or kie.” Good advice, indeed!
[...]
The list of Jews who have been sent to prison during the last twenty years, for setting fire to buildings so as to fraudulently collect the insurance-money, is a startlingly long one. The records of the NewYork fire-marshal’s office show that a large percentage of the persons arrested for arson are Hebrews, and that two-thirds of the fires yearly occurring in the city of New York are in buildings occupied by Jews. Many of the insurance-companies arbitrarily and systematically refuse to issue policies to Jews. This is a statement which is readily susceptible of verification.

The Jew “fire-bug” is a very hard bug to convict.* Long before he applies the lurid torch, or sprinkles his premises with inflammable oil, he has plenty of “witnesses” of his accursed race, all primed and fixed to prove an alibi, to swear that the “fire-bug” was out of the city, or mayhap prostrating himself before the tables of the law in the synagogue, at the time the fire broke out in his place.

It is a matter of much difficulty legally to prove a case of arson, under the existing condition of the law; and a large percentage of Jew incendiaries. who are brought to trial manage to escape conviction. The law should promptly be changed, with a view to specially meeting the case of the Jew incendiary, the criminal who does not hesitate to consign the sleeping inmates of a household, men, women, and little children, to a horrible death, for the sake of fraudulently collecting a few hundred or a few thousand dollars of insurance-money. What form of crime can be conceived more monstrous than that of the Jew incendiary?
In spite of the difficulty there is under the existing condition of the law in most of the States of the Union, in satisfactorily establishing a case of arson, a large number of Jews have in recent years been convicted of this heinous crime, and suitably punished. In the various States-prisons throughout the country, there are numbers of Jews serving out life sentences or long terms of imprisonment for this offence. To enumerate any thing like all the cases of this character for which Jew criminals have been responsible in, let us say, the last ten years, would make a tediously long list. Let it suffice to detail a comparatively few cases, occurring within the period named in NewYork City, and let these instances serve as a sample of the whole.

A most fiendish case of arson was the attempt, made one stormy night in November, 1878, by three Jew “fire-bugs,” to burn the tall, double tenement-house at No. 11 Ludlow Street, in order to fraudulently collect the insurance-money. In the carrying-out of this attempt, these Jew devils endangered. no less than one hundred and twelve human lives. The fire was very similar to others which had occurred shortly before on the East Side of the city, some of which had been attended by fatal consequences; and the Police had come to the conclusion that these fires were of incendiary origin.

The persons suspected were three Jews, named Isaac Perlstein, Charles Bernstein, and Abraham Freeman. The footsteps of the trio were dogged night and day by a young fireman named Perley, who had been assigned to the detective work by the commissioners, at the request of the fire-marshal. Perley was eminently successful. He discovered that these men made their headquarters in an EastBroadway saloon. They held long conferences together, and also with strangers. The latter, as was proved later, were a clique of Jew firespeculators, who pointed out to Perlstein, Bernstein, and Freeman, the premises on which they held large insurances, and which they desired to have burned up.

On the night of the Ludlow-street fire, these three men were tracked to the rooms of a Jewish confederate, named Joseph Levy, in the big Ludlow-street tenement. The occupant was, of course, absent while the “fire-bugs” were at work in his place. They scattered oil over the floor and furniture; and very soon after they had quitted the building, the flames broke out. It was lucky, indeed, for the inmates of this great human hive, that two firemen were at the heels of these Jew fiends. The two fire-laddies burst into the rooms, and held the flames in check until the steamers and hook-and-ladder companies, which had been called by telegraph, arrived. After the fire had been extinguished, the four confederates, Perlstein, Bernstein, Freeman, and Levy, met at the appointed rendezvous in the East Broadway beer-saloon, and were overheard cursing the activity of the firemen, whose prompt action had defeated the hellish work, and prevented the total destruction of the building. These Jew “fire-bugs,” who were responsible for over a dozen incendiary fires in the densely populated Tenth Ward, were arrested together with Joseph Levy.

Perlstein, Bernstein, and Freeman were indicted for setting fire to the Ludlow-street tenement, and Levy as an accessory before and after the fact. The four men were tried before Judges Cowing and Barrett, and convicted. They were sentenced to State’s prison for life. A Jew named Cohen Davis, who swore to an alibi for Freeman, was arrested on a charge of perjury. He was tried before Judge Gildersleeve, found guilty, and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

The cap manufactory of Julius Samer, at No. 68 Greene Street, was mysteriously and suspiciously destroyed by fire one windy December night. The Jew proprietor was down in the fire-marshal’s books as a “suspect,” and a searching investigation was instituted. As a result, Sarner was indicted for perjury in swearing falsely as to the quantity of stock he had on hand at the time of the fire. Samer’s trial, which lasted fifteen days, terminated in a verdict of guilty. He was remanded to the Tombs prison to await his sentence; but before the judgment of the court was pronounced, this Jewish “fire-bug” and perjurer had gone to a higher tribunal to receive the punishment of his crimes. Seeing a long term of imprisonment looming up before him, Samer swallowed a dose of Paris green, and died in his cell.

In the cellar under the barber’s shop at No. 2349 Third Avenue, a fire broke out one night in July, 1879. The place was occupied at the time by Rudolph Levi and Fritz Levi, who lived on the premises in the back of the shop. The flames spread so rapidly that a servant-girl in the house nearly lost her life. She was found hanging from a window-sill when the firemen arrived, and they with great difficulty rescued her. The fire, investigation developed, had been started in several places in the kitchen; and next day the Levi brothers, who passed under the name of Andre, were arrested.

They gave bail; but when the trial was called, it was found that they had fled the city. Rewards were offered for their capture, and the fugitives were ultimately arrested by the criminal authorities of Berlin.

The state department ascertained that these Hebrew “fire-bug” barbers were Prussian subjects, and could not be extradited; but that they were amenable, under German law, for offences committed beyond Prussian territory. A certified copy of the evidence in the case, together with diagrams of the premises that had been fired, the oil-cans, and other evidences of arson, were submitted before the German consul. The two Jews were tried in the city court of Berlin; and Fritz Levi was convicted, and sent to prison for two years. His brother was ordered to be placed under police surveillance. After his sentence, Fritz confessed that he had committed the crime in order to obtain the insurance-money.

A month after the Levi fire, a Jewess named Emma Orlok scattered oil about the premises No. 1142 Second Avenue. The fire was attended with fatal results; and as there were strong proofs of incendiarism, the woman was arrested. She was tried, convicted, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.
A fire broke out in the cigar-factory at No. 10 Hester Street a few weeks later. Suspicion pointed to Israel Rosenbaum and Lewis Harris as the fire-bugs who had set fire to the premises, and they were arrested. The authorities were unable, however, to procure sufficient evidence to secure a conviction, and the prisoners were released; but Aaron Harris, a lying Jew witness in the case, was indicted for perjury, and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

An incendiary fire took place at 253 Stanton Street, in September, 1884. Bernard Goetz, a Jew, who occupied the premises, was arrested as being the author of the fire. The crime was clearly proved, and he was sentenced to ten years in State prison.

Another Jew, a tailor, named Morris Goldstein, was sentenced some time before to four years imprisonment, by Judge Sutherland, for setting fire to the building No. 15 Varick Street.
Yet another Jew, one Morris Heyman, was found guilty of having set fire to the premises No. 11 Thompson Street, and was sent to prison for three years by Recorder Hackett.

A fire broke out on the premises No. 256 Bowery in August, 1878. The occupant, David Goldberg, with an eye to the favorite Jewish alibi, went to Troy, N.Y.; and on the day of the fire he called at the telegraph office, and inquired whether any message had come for him. None had been received up to that time; but soon after he had left the office, a telegram addressed to David Goldberg arrived. It contained the information that his store had been burned. Later on, Goldberg called again at the office; and when he was told that a message had come for him, he remarked that he knew what it contained, that it was the news of his store having been destroyed by fire. Goldberg and his wife Lena were arrested. They got out on bail, where upon they fled the city. They are still fugitives from justice.

Before Judge Sutherland, in the court of general sessions, a Jew named Louis Roseman confessed to setting fire to the building at No. 126 Bowery, at the instigation of a Jew named Josephs, who was the proprietor of the place. Roseman, as a reward for the betrayal of his confederate in giving State’s evidence, escaped with one year imprisonment; but his testimony did little good to the cause of justice, for Josephs fled the country to escape imprisonment, and is unfortunately still outside the jail-bars.

Louis Werbin, yet another Jew, set fire to his rooms in the tenementhouse at No. 51 Ludlow Street, in December, 1880. The evidence against the Jew scoundrel was conclusive, and he was sentenced to four years imprisonment.
Leo Gertig and Albert Rudrick, both Jews, were arrested in October, 1884, on suspicion of having kindled an incendiary fire at No. 234 Rivington Street, which resulted in loss of life. Owing to certain flaws in the evidence, however, they were, not prosecuted, and are to-day at large.

It was Max Goldberg, a small Polish Jew, with a forehead about an inch high, who on April 12, 1888, set fire to his shop at No. 706 South Street, Philadelphia, in order to collect the insurance-money. In this fire Mrs. Anne Schuberg, who lived next door, lost her life. In the course of the testimony adduced at the coroner’s inquest, it was shown that the Queen and the Royal Insurance Companies had each refused to issue a policy to Goldberg, but that after repeated efforts he had succeeded in securing a policy in the German-American Fire Insurance Company for $1, 500, although he had at the time less than $250 worth of goods in his possession. It was further shown that Goldberg had saturated all his store and stock with kerosene which he had bought on the day before the fire.

Again, it was Moses Zygus, a Polish Jew, who set fire to No. 210 Delancey Street, in the city of New York. Twenty families at the time occupied the building: a large proportion of the people were children of tender age. The firemen who first broke into Zygus’s room were struck by the fact that the man’s family was entirely dressed, ready to escape, while two boarders in one of the rooms were yet asleep in ignorance of their danger. Varnish was found spilled on the windows and door-sills and in the halls. In the Essex Market Police Court, Zygus admitted that he had policies amounting to $500 on his furniture, which was probably not worth, all told, $50.

After looking over even this partial list of the incendiarisms committed in the recent past by Jews, and considering the facts therein set forth, can it be wondered at that fire-insurance companies hesitate, and think twice, before issuing a policy to a Jew applicant, and that many of these companies make a rule of never issuing, under any circumstances, a policy to a Jew?

Wise companies, who adopt this course! They will save many dollars unto themselves in the long-run.

As a receiver of stolen goods, as before stated, the Jew figures with aggressive prominence. The famous colony of “old-clo’” men in Baxter Street, New York, is nearly entirely composed of receivers of stolen goods. They buy the plunder of low-class burglars and sneakthieves. Many of the latter haye been caught going into the Baxterstreet shops with plunder in their possession. The “old-clo’” men avoid arrest by betraying small criminals to the detectives, thus carrying out the role originally created by that perfect Jew prototype, Judas Iscariot.

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Pub: 17 Jul 2023 12:41 UTC
Edit: 17 Jul 2023 12:53 UTC
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