Alexander Jarmulowsky (1840-1912), better known as Sender Jarmulowsky, was a Russian banker who founded the Jarmulowsky Bank on the Lower East Side in 1873.

Life

Jarmulowsky was born in the town of Grajewo, Russia (present-day Poland), in 1840 to Moszko Jarmulowsky and Fejga Zeligson.[1] He was orphaned at a young age and then raised by the Rabbi of Werblow.[2] He later attended the Volozhin Yeshiva and was ordained as a rabbi.[3]

Jarmulowsky moved to Hamburg in 1868 and started a shipping business selling ship tickets.[3] He moved to New York City in 1873, where he opened his own bank at Canal and Mott Street.[4] Located in the Lower East Side, Jarmulowsky's bank advertised itself to newly arrived immigrants (primarily Eastern European Jews) who were ignored by larger banking institutions in the city.[5] As well as providing bank accounts and loans, Jarmulowsky's bank built on his business background in Hamburg by allowing immigrants to purchase steamship tickets for their relatives back in Europe.[6]

In addition to his business activities, Jarmulowsky also served as the first president of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, during which he helped raise the money to construct its 1887 building.[3] He served as one of the twenty-five members of the New York Kehillah (Jewish Community) executive board, representing the interests of Eastern European Jews.[7]

Jarmulowsky's bank was successful enough that he was able to construct a new bank building (the Jarmulowsky Bank Building) in 1912. Although his business and clients were based in the Lower East Side, Jarmulowsky moved uptown in 1889 to East 60th Street, and later moved to 16 East 93rd Street[8] on the Upper East Side, living near the Felix Warburg mansion[9] (present day site of the Jewish Museum).

Legacy

In his memoirs, Louis Lipsky testified to the high regard for Jarmulowsky among Eastern European Jews in New York, writing that "so far as [Jarmulowsky's] immortality is concerned , he remains in the memory of thousands of American Jews as the man who freed them on the soil of the United States".[10]

After Jarmulowsky's death in 1912, he left an estate valued around $500,000, a lower sum than had been assumed.[11] The Bank was entrusted to his sons Meyer and Louis Jarmulowsky. During World War I, in 1917, customers attempted to withdraw money to send overseas to their relatives. The bank lacked the necessary funds, since its finances had been invested in Harlem real estate.[12] (As part of his real estate investments, Meyer had funded the construction of Harlem's Lafayette Theater in 1912).[13] After an ensuing riot, Meyer and Louis were indicted for banking fraud and the Jarmulowsky Bank was closed.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Tobias, Michael (January 2010). "Grajewo Births, Marriages 1834-43, 52-53, 55-57 Deaths 1834-43,45,52-53,55-57". Jewish Records Indexing - Poland.
  2. ↑ Kobrin, Rebecca (2018-12-14), "Jewish Immigrant Bankers, New York Real Estate, and American Finance, 1870–1914", Doing Business in America, Purdue University Press, pp. 49–76, doi:10.2307/j.ctvh9w101.7, ISBN 978-1-61249-559-0, retrieved 2023-04-10
  3. 1 2 3 Polland, Annie (2009), Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue, Yale University Press, doi:10.12987/9780300142839-003
  4. ↑ Polland, Annie; Soyer, Daniel (2015). Emerging Metropolis: New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, 1840-1920. NYU Press. p. 107. ISBN 9781479811052.
  5. ↑ H., Jaffe, Steven (2014). Capital of capital : money, banking + and power in New York City, 1784-2012. Columbia Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0-231-16910-3. OCLC 882985050.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Moore, Deborah Dash; Gurock, Jeffrey S.; Polland, Annie; Rock, Howard B.; Soyer, Daniel (2020). Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People. New York University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9781479802647.
  7. ↑ D., Sarna, Jonathan (2005). American Judaism : a history. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10976-8. OCLC 1037503490.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Gray, Christopher (2007-02-25). "A Wave of Change for a Quiet Block". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  9. ↑ Kobrin, Rebecca (2013). "Destructive Creators: Sender Jarmulowsky and Financial Failure in the Annals of American Jewish History". American Jewish History. 97 (2): 105–137. doi:10.1353/ajh.2013.0010. ISSN 1086-3141.
  10. ↑ Lipsky, Louis (1975). Memoirs in profile. Jewish Publication Society of America. ISBN 0-8276-0069-0. OCLC 1313739026.
  11. ↑ "ONLY $501,053 LEFT BY JARMULOWSKY; East Side Banker Had Been Reputed to be a Multi-Millionaire". The New York Times. 1913-08-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  12. ↑ "Ticket to Riches". סגולה. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  13. ↑ Gray, Christopher (1990-11-11). "Streetscapes: Harlem's Lafayette Theater; Jackhammering the Past". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  14. ↑ Gray, Christopher (1991-05-26). "The Unmaking of a 'Landmark'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
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