Abraham Surasky

{{short description|Jewish-American peddler killed in 1903 near Aiken, South Carolina}}

{{infobox person

| name = Abraham Surasky

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = 1873

| birth_place = Knyszyn, Congress Poland

| death_date = July 29, 1903

| death_place = near Aiken, South Carolina

| occupation = Peddler

| spouse = Mary Levy

| relatives =

}}

Abraham Surasky was a Jewish-American peddler who was the victim of a 1903 antisemitic murder in rural South Carolina.

Life

Born in the shtetl of Knyszyn, Poland in 1873, Surasky was the youngest of the three Surasky brothers.{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishsouth.org/system/files/sjh_v._8_2005_mason.pdf |title=Southern Jewish History |publisher=Southern Jewish Historical Society |access-date=2022-05-16}}

On July 29, 1903, at the age of 30, Surasky was attacked and murdered by gun and by ax. The murderers were Lee Green and George Toole, both white Christian men. Surasky was working his route, about 15 miles from Aiken, when he was attacked by Lee Green while Surasky was attempting to help Green's wife Dora carry goods from her wagon into the house. Surasky's body was left in his buggy in the woods after being shot several times and axed twice in the head. An African-American teenage girl named Mary Drayton was hired by Lee and Dora to clean up the evidence of the crime while another person was hired to dispose of the body. According to Drayton's sworn affidavit, Lee Green had a long-standing hatred of Jewish peddlers and had previously shot at and attempted to murder another Jewish peddler named Levy three weeks prior. Another witness claimed that Green "was going to kill ever [sic] Jew peddler that came around and get shed of them.” Dora Green testified that Surasky had tried to sexually assault her and that her husband was a southern gentleman defending her honor. According to Drayton, the Greens had concocted the story after the fact. The court acquitted Lee Green of murder. Lee Green was convicted of murdering another person several years later.{{cite web|url=https://jhssc.org/suraskys-and-poliers-the-old-world-meets-the-new/ |title=Suraskys and Poliers: The Old World Meets the New |publisher=Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina |access-date=2022-05-15}}

Surasky was buried in an unmarked grave at the Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, Georgia. He was survived by two daughters, Dorothy and Mildred, who were raised by their uncle Sam Surasky and his wife Mary. In 1993, 90 years after his murder, a tombstone was unveiled at Surasky's grave. The grave had been located by Stephen Surasky, the grandson of Abraham's brother Solomon.{{cite web|url=https://www.asourceoflight.org/the-suraskys |title=The Surasky Family |publisher=Adath Yeshurun Synagogue |access-date=2022-05-16}}

References

External links

[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142344344/abram-surasky Abram Surasky] at Find a Grave
[https://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:86549 Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Mordecai Persky], Lowcountry Digital Library

Category:1873 births

Category:1903 deaths

Category:People murdered in 1903

Category:American Ashkenazi Jews

Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Christian terrorism in the United States

Category:False allegations of sex crimes

Category:Jewish-American lynching victims

Category:Lynching deaths in South Carolina

Category:Murdered American Jews

Category:People from Aiken, South Carolina

Category:People from Knyszyn