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<\/a>Two weeks later, Pickholz had not materialized in Butte, so Fried prodded Jonas, and Jonas in turn prodded the IRO. He explained: \u201cMr. Fried called on me today, stating that you had refused treatment to Mr. A. Pickholz for the reason that he is an Austrian and not a Roumanian. Will you please inform me w[h]ether such is the facts in the case.” [see below<\/em>]<\/p>\n The disdain of the IRO\u2019s New York leadership for the quarrelsome yokels of Butte was evident in their stiff reply. Not even bothering to paraphrase Fried\u2019s accusation correctly or to sign his own full name, the IRO\u2019s assistant manager sniffed: “I cannot help regarding Mr. Fried’s statement that we refused to send Pickholz to your city, because he is a Roumanian and not an Austrian, with some amusement. We make absolutely no distinction in the treatment of our applicants, because of difference of nativity.” [see below<\/em>]<\/p>\n This prickly exchange offers a surprising glimpse into Jewish economic life in Butte, a fast-booming mining city whose Jewish population numbered a few hundred in 1904.\u00a0<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Jonas himself would report to the IRO eight years later that it was \u201c[v]ery hard to find employment for our people [in Butte] as mining industrie [sic] predominates. Our people [i.e. Jews] are limited only to such trades as tailors\u201d \u2014 Jonas\u2019 own occupation \u2014 \u201ccobblers, painters, watchmakers, clerks and peddlers.”\u00a0<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Both academic studies and contemporary community histories of Western Jewish life in Butte and beyond have similarly emphasized Jews\u2019 commercial employment rather than their participation in extractive industries like mining.\u00a0<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0But Max Fried\u2019s offer of a mining job to a fellow Jew provides a counter-example, demonstrating that Jewish men were among both supervisors and wage laborers in Butte\u2019s famously dangerous and exploitative copper mines. The IRO\u2019s response, meanwhile, illustrates their willingness to facilitate Jews\u2019 labor as miners.<\/p>\n In fact, Max Fried was not merely the \u201csuperintendent of a mine,\u201d as Jonas described him. My dissertation research has revealed that he was a central figure in Butte\u2019s vicious copper politics as a close lieutenant of Augustus Heinze, one of the powerful \u201ccopper kings\u201d battling for financial and political monopoly.\u00a0<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0Nor was Fried simply any Butte Jew: he was the co-founder and longtime president of Butte\u2019s sole Orthodox synagogue.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n As his challenge to the IRO suggests, Max Fried was not one to shy away from a fight. My dissertation traces how and why this pugnacious political power broker, synagogue president, landlord, and soon-to-be mine investor soon stood at the center of an explosive controversy over Jewish involvement in Butte\u2019s infamous sex industry, starting around 1909. Five years earlier, however, Max Fried successfully irritated the IRO\u2019s New York leadership all the way from Butte, Montana, in the process nuancing our understanding of early twentieth century Jewish labor and politics in a Western mining city.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 21, 2024 By Cassandra Euphrat Weston, 2023-24 Lapidus Graduate Fellow Jews in the Mines: The Industrial Removal Office Contends with Butte, Montana In January 1904, Henry Jonas of Butte, Montana, wrote to the Industrial Removal Office (IRO) in New York, asking for their help sending a man named A. Pickholz from New York in order to work in Butte\u2019s booming copper mines, at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[185,41,1298,1299,880],"class_list":["post-4458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-post","tag-american-jewish-historical-society-collections","tag-american-jewish-history","tag-butte-montana","tag-copper-mining","tag-industrial-removal-office"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4458"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4521,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4458\/revisions\/4521"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.cjh.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/IRO_Box51_Folder17_Set4-632x1024.jpg\")
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