REX NELSON: The centenarian

They came from across the Delta on a hot, humid Saturday earlier this month to celebrate the 100th birthday of legendary Helena attorney David Solomon. Some came from even farther away. Stopping on the way east for my favorite barbecue sandwich at Craig's in DeValls Bluff, I ran into Helena native Dick Hatfield, who starred alongside his brother Ken on the great University of Arkansas football teams of the early 1960s. He was making the trip from his home in Fayetteville for the reception.

Before the day was over, hundreds of people had made their way to the block of old buildings in downtown Helena known as Biscuit Row. A banner hung across the street wishing Solomon a happy birthday. In a stuffy, crowded room, Solomon sat for more than two hours, greeting a steady stream of visitors.

I thought back to a far quieter, cooler day in October 2010 when I spent the better part of a Friday at the home of David Solomon and his wife, Miriam, who died the next year. It was a civilized affair with David mixing drinks before lunch and Miriam making sure everyone was comfortable before lobster shipped in from Maine was served. Their Helena home was filled with books and art, symbols of a cultured life lived well. The Solomons had been married 68 years at the time. Both were born in Helena--Miriam was three years younger--and became stalwarts of the Jewish community. Jewish culture once thrived on both sides of the river from St. Louis to New Orleans.

At the time of my visit, David Solomon would still put on a suit and tie each morning and head to his office on Cherry Street, which once had been among the busiest commercial streets in Arkansas. In recent decades, Cherry Street has seen its buildings empty out and begin to crumble. With Temple Beth El closed by the time of my 2010 visit, the area's remaining Jews had begun gathering in the Solomon home for Friday night services.

Beth El was built in 1916. The building still has its original organ, purchased for $4,000 by the congregation's Ladies Benevolent Association. It was a regional congregation, serving Jews not only from Helena but also from smaller farm-oriented communities such as Marvell and Marianna. In 2006, with fewer than 20 members remaining, the synagogue closed and the temple was donated to the state's Delta Cultural Center to be used as an assembly hall. The loss of thousands of sharecroppers due to the widespread mechanization of agriculture following World War II led to the loss of the once ubiquitous Jewish merchants in towns up and down the river. The first Jews arrived in Helena in the 1840s. In 1867, 65 Jews formed Congregation Beth El.

The thing I've always found interesting about David Solomon, who received his bachelor's degree from Washington University at St. Louis and his law degree from Harvard, is that he never expresses a longing for the past or a sadness at the decline of the Delta's Jewish population. He simply views it as things having come full circle. The Delta Jews, after all, met in homes in the 1800s. By the 21st century, they were meeting in private homes once again.

"I relate everything back to economics," he once told me. "It's not just the Jewish population that's being affected in the Delta. All of the mainline Protestant religions are feeling the effect. It's simple. People are going to go where the jobs are."

The three Solomon sons, all highly successful, are a case in point. None of them stayed in Helena. David P. Solomon went on to become executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. Rayman Solomon was dean of the Rutgers Law School in Camden, N.J., for 16 years and now serves as dean emeritus. Lafe Solomon is an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., and served as its acting general counsel from June 2010 until November 2013. For the elder David Solomon, the equation was simple. Jews came to the Delta in the 1800s when cotton was king because there were jobs. They left in the late 1900s because those jobs had disappeared.

The Delta long was known for its diversity. Blacks came in bondage as slaves and stayed on as sharecroppers. The Irish, Italians, Chinese, Syrians, Greeks and Lebanese were other groups who came up the river from New Orleans or down the river from St. Louis, settling in communities along the way. The Delta was perhaps the greatest American melting pot outside a major city. In an effort to preserve the state's Jewish heritage, Solomon established the Tapestry Endowment for Arkansas Jewish History. The endowment helped create a home at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies in Little Rock for Carolyn Gray LeMaster's extensive body of research on the history of Arkansas Jews. The fund's name is taken from the title of LeMaster's book, A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the Jewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1900s.

David Solomon's grandfather arrived from Germany shortly before the Civil War and had eight children--six boys and two girls. That second generation eventually would own a department store, shoe store, wholesale dry-goods operation and cotton farms. Miriam Solomon's father, Charles Rayman, operated the Helena Wholesale Co. After his graduation from Harvard Law School, Solomon applied to be a tax lawyer at a large firm in Memphis. He wasn't chosen and came home to practice law. Memphis' loss was the Arkansas Delta's gain. The crowd along Biscuit Row on that steamy July Saturday was testament to that fact.

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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial on 07/27/2016

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