By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO – Among the subscribers to San Diego Jewish World are a few readers in the Slovak Republic. I would like to address this article to them, as well as to anyone else who might be able to throw light upon the subject of Judge Jacob Weinberger’s early life.
Weinberger’s name graces one of the federal courthouses in downtown San Diego, and it also has been paired with that of zookeeper Belle Benchley at the Benchley-Weinberger Elementary School in the San Carlos neighborhood of San Diego.
Many people remember that Weinberger was a California Superior Court judge based in San Diego, who moved to Los Angeles to serve as a judge in the federal court. He made frequent trips back to San Diego to hear cases until finally it was decided that there should be a resident federal judge in San Diego. Weinberger was chosen to be the first U.S. District Court to be stationed here.
Before serving on the bench, attorney Weinberger was an influential elected member of the San Diego City School Board. He had a distinguished legal career both in California and in Arizona. In fact, before settling in California, he had served as a delegate from the city of Globe to the Arizona Statehood Convention in 1910, which drew up Arizona’s State Constitution.
One of the provisions of the proposed 1910 Arizona Constitution was that the electorate had the right to recall judges in an election —a provision that angered U.S. President Howard Taft, who later became a Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Taft vetoed the proposed Arizona State Constitution, saying that Arizona must remain in the status of a U.S. Territory until its lawmakers agreed to eliminate the judicial recall provision, which Weinberger had pushed for. Overpowered, Arizona lawmakers acquiesced to President Taft’s demands – but only temporarily. After Arizona statehood was approved, and Arizona had the right to determine its own internal affairs, without interference from the federal government, lawmakers amended its constitution and re-inserted judicial recall.
So what does all this have to do with our readers in the Slovak Republic?
I’ve been collecting information about Judge Weinberger for several years, for the purpose of writing either a biography of him or a full-length historical article. Much of the judge’s early life is wrapped in mystery. He was born in 1882 as the sixth of 12 children to brewer Herman Weinberger and his wife Nettie. According to biographer Leland Stanford, the Weinberger family owned an estate near a village that was known during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Hedrei. The village name also has been spelled “Hedri.” The family lived there until approximately 1889, when Jacob was seven. At that point, the Weinbergers immigrated to the United States.
Hedrei/ Hedri was located in what later was known as Czechoslovakia, and since 1993 has been known as the Slovak Republic. Along the way, the village’s name had been changed from Hedrei or Hedri to Hendrichovce. Located in the northeastern portion of the Slovak Republic, it is quite a small village with approximately 230 residents.
I’m very interested in learning what Hendrichovce is and was like. Are there any interesting features of the village that would have been known to Jacob Weinberger as he was growing up as a young boy? Landmarks? Old buildings? What were the important issues discussed by village leaders during the time that Weinberger was growing up? How were the relations between the village’s Gentiles and Jews?
I’ve written without success to the municipality of Hendrichcovce seeking information, but perhaps because of the language barrier my inquiries have gone unanswered.
So dear English-language readers from the Slovak Republic, I turn to you. Can any of you (or anyone else reading this column) supply me with information about Hendrichcovce, formerly Hedrei or Hedri, that would help me envision what young Jacob’s life was like before his family’s immigration to the United States? I’d be most grateful for the information, and I imagine that many San Diegans who admired Weinberger’s contributions to this city would be very interested as well.
Please, if you have any information to share, contact me at the email address just below.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com. This article was corrected and updated December 21, 2015, to give the correct location of Hendrichcovce (northeastern Slovak Republic) and to identify it as a village.