Gerald Yael Goldberg (born in
CorkCork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1912; died Cork December 31 2003) was a lawyer and politician who in 1977 became the first
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
Lord Mayor of CorkThe Lord Mayor of Cork is the symbolic head of the local government in the city of Cork in Ireland. The first record of the office is in a charter granted to the city by Edward II in 1318...
. Goldberg was the son of
Lithuanian JewishLithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ....
refugee of the village of Akmian (Yiddish) /
AkmeneAkmenė is a city in northern Lithuania.Town became famous when geologists found large reserves of limestone and clay there and in 1947 construction work was begun on one of the biggest cement production complexes in the Baltic States...
(Lituanian), Kovno (
KaunasKaunas Kaunas Kaunas and Vilnius-Klaipėda (A1)...
) who was put ashore in Cork with other Jews and told that "Cork was the gateway to America"
He was educated at the Model and
ChristianChristian Brothers College, Cork is a fee-paying Catholic school under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers in Cork, Ireland.The college's main rivals are Presentation Brothers College...
Schools in Cork and a Jewish boarding school in
SussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
before attending University College Cork, serving as President of the University Law Society.
Gerald Yael Goldberg (born in
CorkCork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster...
,
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
in 1912; died Cork December 31 2003) was a lawyer and politician who in 1977 became the first
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish
Lord Mayor of CorkThe Lord Mayor of Cork is the symbolic head of the local government in the city of Cork in Ireland. The first record of the office is in a charter granted to the city by Edward II in 1318...
. Goldberg was the son of
Lithuanian JewishLithuanian Jews are Ashkenazi Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ....
refugee of the village of Akmian (Yiddish) /
AkmeneAkmenė is a city in northern Lithuania.Town became famous when geologists found large reserves of limestone and clay there and in 1947 construction work was begun on one of the biggest cement production complexes in the Baltic States...
(Lituanian), Kovno (
KaunasKaunas Kaunas Kaunas and Vilnius-Klaipėda (A1)...
) who was put ashore in Cork with other Jews and told that "Cork was the gateway to America"
Early life
He was educated at the Model and
ChristianChristian Brothers College, Cork is a fee-paying Catholic school under the trusteeship of the Christian Brothers in Cork, Ireland.The college's main rivals are Presentation Brothers College...
Schools in Cork and a Jewish boarding school in
SussexSussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is a historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
before attending University College Cork, serving as President of the University Law Society. He received a
Master of ArtsA Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic master degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English, Fine Arts, History, Nursing, Humanities, Geography, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a...
degree from the University in 1968 and the University awarded its famous graduate an honorary doctorate in Laws in 1993.
After qualifying as a
solicitorSolicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter apart from conducting proceedings in courts , with some exceptions. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers, and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
in 1934, Goldberg had a career in Criminal Law practice in
CorkCork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster...
for 63 years, once representing noted Cork writer
Frank O'ConnorFrank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, who was best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
. He was the first Jewish President of the Incorporated
Law SocietyA Law Society in current and former Commonwealth jurisdictions is an association of solicitors which has a regulatory role which includes the right to supervise the training and qualifications of lawyers/solicitors...
of Ireland
During the Second World War he set up a committee to assist Jews fleeing
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
persecution to have refuge in Ireland, but encountered resistance from various arms of Government, who were determined to discourage Jewish
immigrationImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
.
See: Jewish immigration to Ireland during "The Emergency".
Political life
He was elected an
AldermanAn alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions. Historically the term could also refer to local municipal judges in small legal proceedings...
to Cork Corporation as an Independent in 1967, and unsuccessfully sought the mayoralty in 1970. He accused
Patrick CooneyPatrick Cooney is a former Irish politician of the Fine Gael party. Most notable as Minister for Justice from 1973 to 1977, he was a Teachta Dála for 15 years, a senator for four years, and Member of the European Parliament for five years.Cooney was born in 1931 and was educated at Castleknock...
, then Justice Minister, of condoning
tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
of those (mostly Irish republicans and other advocates of political violence) held under the
Offences Against the State Act, 1939 in 1974.
Goldberg was among those who condemned the speech in 1970 by the then-Mayor of Limerick,
Steve CoughlanStephen Coughlan was an Irish Labour Party politician who served for eighteen years as Teachta Dála for the Limerick East constituency....
, which made justifying references to the 1904 Limerick Pogrom, which had forced Goldberg's family to flee
LimerickLimerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland,
[Information based on Central Statistics Office figures from 2006, which is the most recent census information available.] and the principal city in County Limerick...
for Cork, and had clashed with a previous Limerick Mayor on the same matter in 1951.
Goldberg had previously attended a symposium on the Limerick Pogrom in 1965, which also attracted local opposition. However this faded during the reading of the first sermon of Father Creagh, who along with other members of the clergy, including the then local bishop, had motivated his Roman Catholic parishioners to carry out the 1904 pogrom.
Lord Mayor
Goldberg joined
Fianna FáilFianna Fáil – The Republican Party , shortened to Fianna Fáil is a political party in the Republic of Ireland. It is the largest party in both houses of the Oireachtas, Ireland's bicameral parliament, and the leading party in a coalition government with the Green Party, which also has the support...
in 1970, and
the CorporationCork City Council is a local government organisation in Cork City, responsible for providing services to citizens in the areas of: Housing & Community, Roads & Transportation, Urban planning & Development, Amenity & Culture, and Environment.Cork City Council has 31 democratically Elected Members...
elected him Lord Mayor in 1977. He toured the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as Lord Mayor where he was given the freedom of several cities including Philadelphia,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Dallas.
As Lord Mayor of Cork he was styled "The Rt. Worshipful, Lord Mayor Gerald Yael Goldberg of Cork".
During his term of office he opened the
TrinityThe Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Each of the persons is understood as having the one...
pedestrian bridge. Named after an adjacent church, local wags nicknamed it "the
PassoverPassover is a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Hebrews' escape from enslavement in Egypt....
." The bridge is also close to the local
synagogueA synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer....
on South Terrace, where he had been President, and is approximately a mile from Shalom Park, near the traditionally Jewish area of the City (Monarea Terrace).
Author
Goldberg had a keen interest in history, especially local history of Cork and published a number of books including
The Adventurers of Cork;
A History of the Jews of Cork and
Johnathan Swift and contemporary Cork. He also contributed the article on the Jews of Ireland in the
Encyclopedia of Ireland and a chapter on Cork to the
History of the Jews in Ireland.
Later life
Following the
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i
invasionThe 1982 Lebanon War , , called Operation Peace for Galilee by Israel, and later also known colloquially in Israel as the First Lebanon War, began on 6 June 1982, when the Israel Defense Forces invaded southern Lebanon...
of
LebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of Lebanon
[Republic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies...]
in 1982 he received death threats and the Cork synagogue was firebombed, the motivation of which he ascribed to unbalanced reporting in the media. He considered leaving Ireland, but chose to stay.
In 1998 he defended the extent of the
VaticanThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
apology for the Holocaust issued by
Pope John Paul IIPope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death almost 27 years later. His was the second-longest pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer...
, in contrast to the disappointment expressed by many prominent Jews such as Israeli Chief Rabbi
Yisrael Meir LauYisrael Meir Lau is the Chairman of Yad Vashem and Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Israel. He previously served as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1993 to 2003.-Biography:...
. Goldberg noted
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as the 260th Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
's stated fear of the consequences of excommunicating Nazis for their persecution of
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
's Jews, saying "These things must be brought to an end, we must put them behind us. Could the man have said more?"
Goldberg's life was featured in an
RTÉ-Organisations:* Raidió Teilifís Éireann , the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland* Réseau de transport d'électricité, the French Transmission System Operator -Computing:* Real Time Enterprise...
documentaryDocumentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
,
An Irishman, A Corkman and a Jew.
He married his wife Sheila in
BelfastBelfast is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom. It is the seat of devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly. It is the largest urban area in the province of Ulster, and the second largest city on the island of...
in 1937 and they lived their married lives at their house "Ben Truda" on Cork's Rochestown Road. His passion for collecting antiques was highlighted by the auction of his collection in 2004 consisting of pictures, bronzes, antique furniture, silver, porcelain and glass. He had been formerly on the Board of Governors of the
National Gallery of IrelandThe National Gallery of Ireland houses the Irish national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on Clare Street. It was founded in 1854 and opened its doors ten years later...
and was purported to have had one of the largest private Jewish libraries in Ireland. As a patron to the arts he was deeply involved with the Cork orchestral society, Irish Theatre ballet and the lunchtime concerts in the
Crawford College of Art and DesignCIT Crawford College of Art and Design is one of the leading colleges of art and design in Ireland. The college is a school of Cork Institute of Technology...
. He was said to have been delighted at the announcement that Cork had become the
European Capital of CultureThe European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one calendar year during which it is given a chance to showcase its cultural life and cultural development. A number of European cities have used the City of Culture year to transform their cultural base and,...
2005.
In his latter years he welcomed and tutored students of Irish-Jewish history from University College Cork in his home. He died at the age of 91 at Cork's Marymount Hospice, receiving a Civic Funeral on January 4 2004. His sons John, Theo and David survived him.
External links