Temple in Paradise

Ebenezer Townsend, supercargo of a New England whaler, noted in his diary on Aug. 19, 1798 that Hawaii's King Kamehameha I, had "a Jew cook." If the cook remained in Hawaii, added Townsend, "I think it will be difficult to trace his descendants, for he is nearly as dark as they are."

Ebenezer was right. The descendants of the king's "Jew cook"--the first Jew to be mentioned in Hawaiian history--have never been traced. But some of them perhaps took part last week in the dedication of Hawaii's first permanent Jewish place of worship, the $365,000 Temple Emanu-el in Honolulu.

The 115 families, mostly from the mainland U.S., who make up the Reform congregation are a sizable community compared to Hawaii's eight or ten practicing Jewish families before the war. One of Temple Emanuel's most popular members is the Honolulu Advertiser's nightclub columnist, Eddie Sherman, who recently dramatized Hawaiian Jewry by giving a luau (a Hawaiian outdoor dinner) and calling it a Jewau. The menu included such succulencies as bagel breadfruit, pineapple-flavored matzoth balls, and a renamed local wine, Mogen David oke.

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