Fun Facts About Jews In Ireland, Part Il

Special note: this article was originally to be 5 fun facts but after talking to the community, they had acquired the Irish ‘gift of the gab’ and were very chatty. To read Part 1 click here.

1. Corned beef and cabbage may be considered the most iconic dish on St. Patrick’s Day. But, the dish really came from the Jews!

Jewish, Italian, and Irish immigrants lived side by side in many of the poorer New York neighborhoods in the 1800s. Back in Ireland, there was a traditional dish of bacon and cabbage, but when Irish immigrants saw the corned beef that Jewish butchers were selling – because bacon is not kosher – they substituted it. Over time, this became associated with Irish celebrations and has been exported back to Ireland today.

2. A common profession among Jewish immigrants in the late 1800s was as ‘vicklemen’ (Yiddish for weekly man); They were door-to-door peddlers, selling household items, trinkets, holy pictures etc and their rounds would take a week to complete. They’d usually sleep in ditches or barns on Friday and go for Saturday Shabbat and return to their rounds. Over time, their descendants went on to become doctors, lawyers, engineers etc. and the profession died out.

The first person to die in the Easter uprising of 1916 was a Jew – this was one of the most significant uprisings because Irish independence came shortly after in 1922. However, not all Irish Jews were sympathetic towards independence, one Israel Sagarsky was killed by the IRA for allegedly spying for the British. Also, in the North, the Jews there were more likely to support the UK rather than those in Dublin or south.