Early New Mexico’s “Five Jewish Families”
Values Codes I – E – L
Mexico prohibited Jews from settling while it was under Spanish rule and after it became an independent state.
In 1846, when the U.S. took control of the area it called New Mexico, entrepreneurial German-Jewish immigrants searching for trading opportunities were among the American settlers who entered the territory.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, New Mexico’s Jewish community was dominated by five prominent Jewish political families whose members won half of the territory’s seventy-eight Jewish elections: the Seligmans and Spiegelbergs in Santa Fe; the Grunsfelds and Ilfelds in Albuquerque; and the Jaffas in Santa Fe, Roswell, and Albuquerque
Bernard Seligman (1837-1904) was a territorial legislator, county commissioner, commission president and Territorial Treasurer.
Two of Bernard’s brothers were Santa Fe county commissioners.
Bernard’s son Arthur Seligman (1871-1933) was county commissioner and commission chairman, won election as Santa Fe mayor in 1910, won the governorship in 1930 and was re-elected in 1932.
Arthur Seligman
Brothers Solomon Spiegelberg (1824-1898) and Lehman Spiegelberg (1841-1904) served six terms on the Santa Fe County board of commissioners from 1876 to 1883.
Left to right: Emanuel Spiegelberg, Lehman Spiegelberg, Solomon Jacob Spiegelberg, William Spiegelberg, Levi Spiegelberg, Santa Fe,NM, 1860’s, #WS0446
In the Albuquerque area, Alfred Grunsfeld (1852-1921) was county commission chairman for twelve years and members of his family held five other offices.
Henry Jaffa (1846-1901) was elected Albuquerque’s first mayor in 1885.
His nephew, Nathan Jaffa (1853-1945), was Territorial Secretary for five years, acting governor over 250 days in that period, and mayor of both Roswell and East Las Vegas (NM).
Nathan Jaffa
Nathan’s brother, Joseph Jaffa (1870-1936), was mayor and county commission chairman in Roswell.
Other family members achieved equal political success in Trinidad, Colorado.
Three members of the Ilfeld family held city and county offices in Albuquerque and Las Vegas (NM).
Source
- Mark Rutzik, Breaking New Ground: The Untold Story of Early America’s Jewish Electoral Pioneers – 1788 to 1920, 2025.
Mark Rutzick is the curator of this Jewish Families exhibit.