The Stern Affair

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William’s most singular experience with a Jewish person was his anguish upon learning that his first wife Regina had a sexual affair with Louis Stern. Fourteen separate Diary entries, from 1876 to 1882, refer to “the Jew Stern”.

* “On going to Steinway Hall with Tante Johanne see the Jew Stern, pass rapidly by in Irving place.”(Diary, 1876-07-03)
* “proceed with Chas. Krauss to 848 First Avenue, he goes up on the 4th floor, and finds Augusta Appel, now the wife of Eduard Krauss, I immediately go up and elicit from her all the details of my wife's adulteries with the Jew Stern, she promises to come to me Tuesday next at half past 12 oclock, and to testify in the afternoon before the referee. I am overjoyed in thus having found the all important witness.”(Diary, 1876-08-04)
* “R.R. was away to Paris with Dachauer for a month, and that she was sent for by a lawyer (evidently by the Jew Stern, though pretending for relatives)”(Diary, 1877-03-01)
* “on coming out see the Jew, Stern, walk in front of me.”(Diary, 1878-07-15)
* “Concert at Steinway Hall, Rummel plays very finely, my enjoyment much marred by the sight of the Jew Stern among the audience.”(Diary, 1879-01-04)
* “Notice the Jew Stern in lobby”(Diary, 1879-10-24)
* “See Jew Stern on L train”(Diary, 1881-08-27)
* “A letter from Tretbar apprises me that the infamous fiend, the Jew Louis Stern, first became insane, then was taken to Wards Isl and said to have died there”(Diary, 1881-12-10)
* “the Jew Stern was still alive at the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, raving with softening of the brain & could not recover.”(Diary, 1881-12-16)
* “with Paula to Arion Concert at St. Hall tell her briefly about Jew Stern”(Diary, 1881-12-17)
* “Death of Jew Louis Stern”(Diary, 1881-12-19)
* “the Jew fiend L. Stern died last monday at Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum and will be interred at the Machpela Cemetery near Cypress Hills, Brooklyn from 74. East 125th str. at 1 P.M today.”(Diary, 1881-12-21) [For good measure William pasted a newspaper notice of Stern’s death notice into this page of his Diary.]
* “Hogan … has obtained a picture of the Jew, Louis Stern.”(Diary, 1882-02-09)
* “meet Hogan who hands me … a picture of the Jew Stern.”(Diary, 1882-03-23)

Regina’s affairs – she had other lovers besides Stern, starting in 1868 – were a severe trauma for William. After learning of her infidelities in September 1875, he heard many sordid details over the ensuing months until the couple divorced in August 1876. During that year he recorded his misery in his Diary numerous times, confessing to such feelings as “sinking under my terrible grief” (Diary, 1875-11-11), “all enjoyment of life is forever gone” (Diary, 1875-12-31), “sinking into a state of utter hopelessness” (Diary, 1876-01-13), “wildest paroxysms of despair” (Diary, 1876-03-07).

By May 1876, although aware of Regina’s other lovers, William was focusing his anger on Stern, who was the apparent target of this Diary entry: “… thoughts of revenge fill my heart against the Judas who destroyed the happiness of my life & that of wife and children, and corrupted and contaminated her forever.”(Diary, 1876-05-21)

William’s anguish finally ended on August 22, 1876, when his attorney “to my unspeakable joy informs me that Judge Donohue this morning signed the divorce decree, forever freeing me from the outcast who has consigned me to a living death and become the curse and blight of my darling innocent children.”(Diary, 1876-08-22)

One possible interpretation of Regina’s affair with “the Jew Stern” is that it might have been the trigger for anti-Semitic feelings in William. Of the 64 Diary entries referring to Jews, only two were recorded before his first reference to “the Jew Stern” – and these, as noted above, were benign and anonymous, when William sat with some unnamed Jewish girls in 1870 and sang for a Jewish audience in 1875. Only after the first mention of “the Jew Stern” did William identify other named individuals as “Jews”.

On the other hand, William referred to Stern just by his name (“Stern,” “L. Stern”, or “Stn”) 20 times, vs. only 14 times as “the Jew Stern”. And 10 of the name-only references were during the time when William knew or suspected the affair with Stern, and before his first usage of “the Jew Stern”. The name-only references continued with the same frequency even after William began “the Jew Stern” usage. And one of these concerned an almost explosive encounter, almost two years after the divorce: “…walking up on the East side of Bdway, I suddenly meet L. Stern in front of the Herald building, I grow into a terrible rage & advance upon him, & he gets out of the way, fast.”(Diary, 1878-04-03) The absence of the term “Jew” in this entry is noteworthy.

On balance the Stern affair does not seem to have been a particular motivator of anti-Semitism for William. All of his references to Stern were focused on that one man, and none included any broader criticism of Jews. Furthermore, some of his notable positive actions toward Jews occurred during the same years. In light of the obvious and understandable emotional trauma caused by the wreckage of his marriage, it seems that William’s description of Stern as “infamous fiend” captures his feelings better than “the Jew”.