By Gabriel Rom
A century ago Leo Frank, a Jewish industrialist and native son of New York, was strung up from a tree in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta and lynched by “a cruel hand, a heavy hand,” as Abraham Cahan, the editor for the Jewish Daily Forward wrote just days after the event. This past week Queens and city officials as well as Jewish civic leaders from across the borough, gathered near Frank’s resting place at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Glendale to remember that painful centennial.
Frank’s death, which galvanized the American-Jewish community and helped lead to the creation of the Anti Defamation League, followed a specious criminal trial in which he was convicted of the murder of child-laborer Mary Phagan, who worked at Frank’s pencil factory. The conviction is widely believed to have been based on faulty evidence and a lack of due process.
After failed appeals in the Georgia and U.S. Supreme Courts, Frank entered a plea to the Georgia State Prison Commission that his death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Georgia Gov. John Slaton granted the plea. A vigilante mob of over 25 armed men then raided the prison where Frank was being held and abducted him. He was taken more than 150 miles outside of Atlanta to Marietta, where they lynched him. Onlookers took photographs beneath Frank’s hanging body to memorialize the occasion.
Frank did not have any children, but his extended descendants grew up largely ignorant of his case and his fate. Catherine Smithline, Frank’s grandniece, only found out about his murder, on Aug. 17, 1915, when she was 18, while her mother was told at the age of 19, after watching the 1937 movie “They Won’t Forget,” which is based on Frank’s trial.
“After mom found out, she was told never to speak of it again. Just mentioning the topic made people uncomfortable, there was a conspiracy of silence,” said Smithline.
Officials at the memorial insisted that these types of commemorations, small as they are, must help end such insidious silence.
“Frank was just a Jew and often that’s all the world needs. He was not famous. When we remember Frank, we must remember all acts of injustice and acts of racism and bigotry,” said City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows).
The speakers mentioned the increased levels of anti-Semitism in New York, in the United States and throughout the world. Anti-Semitic incidents are up 29 percent in the first five months of the year in New York, while hate crimes in general are up 20 percent in the city, according to NYPD Compstat numbers.
“Despite progress made, anti-Semitism and bigotry still live. I’ve seen swastikas drawn in Borough Park and Crown Heights,” city Public Advocate Letitia James said.
Crowley echoed the sentiment.
“While our country has come far since that day in 1915, we still have much more work to do. We must continue to educate others on the value of people’s differences, and emphasize they exist so we can learn from one another,” City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Glendale) said.
“Leo Frank’s story is one of anti-Semitism and justice denied, stories that ring true even to this day around the globe,” said Queens Borough President Melinda Katz. “His story is one that must not be forgotten, and memorials like this remind us of how far we’ve come and how much further we must go.
The ceremony concluded with a singing of “El malei rachamim,” a Jewish funeral prayer, with the lyrics altered to include mention of Frank.
“As a rabbi, I say yitzkhor —remember,” said Rabbi David Pollak.
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
