The Drachmans of Arizona
by Floyd S. Fierman
From: American Jewish Archives* Vol. XVI, No. 4 (November 1964), 135-160
Lost in the Desert
To survive on the frontier, the pioneer had to inure himself to the conditions that he found and to seize upon the opportunities that he discovered. The Jewish pioneer had the impulse not merely to survive, but also to survive as a Jew. And he wanted his children to do so as well. Judaism, however, is not only an inheritance; it is also a maintenance. The solidarity of the Jewish family is dependent upon the soil of religious observance, and the Drachman brothers failed at the task of educating their children to keep the Jewish "tree of life" alive.
The soil of Arizona was unlike the soil of their native Petrikov. The Southwest's lack of formal Jewish institutions or even one rabbi before 1899 presented insurmountable obstacles. Many of the newcomer Jewish families could perpetuate their faith at first through the arroyo of marrying into the families of other Jewish settlers, but for those born and bred on the frontier, the waters of faith obtained from the arroyo proved unreliable. Their Jewish identity dried up and became lost in the sands of the desert.
What happened when one of the family married out of his faith is incisively recorded by Moses Drachman. In traditional Judaism, intermarriage is construed as the first step toward apostasy. If a Jew takes nuptial vows with somebody outside of the faith, a breach is opened. And so, as Moses wrote:
My marriage [to Ethel Edmunds, a non-Jew] did not please the rest of my family. We were Jews - not very strict Jews, but they thought that I should have married a Jewish girl. Strange as it may seem, not one of them married a Jew and only one of my sisters married a Jewish man . . . . So I decided to locate in Phoenix until the clouds rolled away.
The fears of Philip and Samuel Drachman were well founded. All their descendants were to abjure Judaism.
A pioneer has the advantage of being in a new settlement before others are there in large numbers. The Drachmans were in many places before competitors could establish themselves. There were many economic opportunities, but presumably the reins slipped out of their hands and the gold nuggets fell through their fingers. They were persistent in their search, tireless in their efforts, and astute in finding opportunities, but Samuel and Philip Drachman never attained the state which they sought. We are fortunate, however, that the newspapers of the day, the urge which impelled the Drachmans to write of their past, and the records of the National Archives could be pieced together to give us a glimpse into this family that played so prominent a part in the history of Arizona.
Contents | Arizona Jalapeños | Philip Drachman | Samuel Drachman | Government Contracting | Lost In The Desert
