A Philadelphia Jew on the Sunken Titanic
This article was published in the Yiddish-language Forward on April 19, 1912.
His name is on the list of the missing — Just last Monday, his wife received a postcard from him saying he was on his way home.
Nathan Goldsmith was a passenger aboard the unfortunate ship, the Titanic, which sunk. His name is on the list of the missing from Philadelphia. His wife, Soreh, and their two children, who are 11 and 4 years old, live at 2027 S. 7th Street there.
The unfortunate wife told a Forverts representative yesterday that her husband was a shoemaker who had traveled to Johannesberg, South Africa two years ago. From there, he used to send her funds every Monday, but he had decided to come home, and he had written to her about his decision. Only last Monday, she received a postcard from him from Southampton saying that he would be arriving on a ship called the Titanic. In a letter that she received a day ago, he had written that he wanted to come directly to Philadelphia, but because of the coal strike, he explained, he had to travel with the Titanic to New York. His letter and that last postcard were written lovingly to his wife and children.
Goldsmith was 37 years old. He was born in Kreidburg, Courland and was married 14 years ago in Panevezys in the Kovno region of Lithuania. Five years ago, he and his family immigrated to America, and two years ago, as we mentioned, he left for South Africa. Mrs. Goldsmith and her mother, Dineh Mett, are in a frightful state of despair. They don’t have any energy left for weeping, and furthermore, one of the children is sick and there’s no money with which to buy even a crust of bread for the children or themselves.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
