Fun Facts About Jews In Ireland, Part I

3. There are two Holocaust survivors in Ireland, Tomi Reichenthal and Suzi Diamond. Both were at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. According to Tomi, it is a coincidence that they both ended up in Ireland. 

For a long time, we believed that only two Irish Jews died in the Holocaust – The Nazis never got to Ireland, but Esther Steinberg was in Belgium in 1942 when the Germans rolled in and she and her sonwere killed. A memorial to her stands at Malahide Community School as well as at the Irish Jewish museum, both in Dublin. Recently, in 2019, Dr David Jackson’s research found that three more Irish Jewsare also known to have perished in the tragedy. He believes that as we do more research, more deaths will be uncovered. There is also a survivor of Farhud (an antisemitic pogrom in Iraq in 1941 fueled by Nazi propaganda) living in Cork. 

4. Israeli president Chaim Herzog had an Irish accent. He was the son of Rabbi Herzog. In Ireland there’s a park named for him. Israel has a forest named after Irish President Eamon DeValera.  Many Irish Jews took an active role in Israel’s early life, including the founder of Michlala College for Girls, Rabbi Yehuda Cooperman.  

​A Jewish IRA member was involved in the founding of Israel: Robert Briscoe, before he became mayor, was a senior member with the IRA during Ireland’s struggle for independence in the early 20th Century. He was chief agent in weapons smuggling for legendary IRA leader, Michael Collins and he later taught Jabotinsky the tricks he learned from the Irish struggle. Briscoe also urged Menachem Begin to disband Irgun, Stern Gang and other Jewish militias lest they turn on each other, reminiscent of British divide and rule. Ireland and Israel were both British colonies that got independence through armed insurgency against the same Empire – a fact that was not lost on the early revolutionaries of the Irish Republic.