Ernest Goldstein

b.? – d. 1944, on the ship Mefkure on its way to Palestine

Teacher of Hebrew at the Israelite High School in Timisoara

;

Home > Personalities 

The photo appears on the picture of the graduates of the Israelite High School Timisoara 1943-1944

Little information about Ernest Goldstein comes from the testimonies of his former students and from the archives of the Israelite High School. The young man was a very enthusiastic teacher and a convinced Zionist.


Following anti-Jewish laws, Jewish students were expelled from schools and continued at the Israelite High School. Because they had gaps in Hebrew and knowledge of Judaism, the director of the high school, Dr. Iosif Marcus, instructed Professor Goldstein to take care of the students' education in these subjects. He fulfilled his mission with great dedication, said the former student, the physicist Bernhard Rothenstein.


From the very beginning, high schools encouraged Zionist organizations that recruited members from among the students. In a letter from November 1940, the Transylvanian Zionist Organization announced that they would send 242 books, after talking with Professor Goldstein. "These volumes were chosen - for the Jewish youth - by Prof. Goldstein and contain the most valuable and representative works of Palestinian literature" (Timisoara County National Archives Service, Fond 39, Israeli Theoretical Confessional High School for Boys Timisoara 173, p. 90)


In 1944, Ernest Goldstein perished on his way to Palestine on the Mefkure, sunk by a Soviet submarine, along with more than 300 passengers hoping to build their country, where they would no longer be persecuted for racial reasons.

Editor's note. According to recent research, it appears that a Soviet, not a German, submarine sank the Mefkure.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Mefk%C3%BCre