l i n k s Children: Alfred Wormser Harris Herbert Wormser Harris Ernest Wormser Harris Lewis Wormser Harris Born: 1812, Stuttgart, Germany Died: 1 Aug 1876, Dublin, Ireland Occupation: Bill-broker and Financier Lewis Wormser was born in 1812 in Stuttgart, Germany. As a young man in 1821 he arrived in Ireland and took up residence with the family of Mr. Charles Harris, a Dublin watchmaker. Soon thereafter, Lewis adopted the surname Harris. In about 1836 he married his first wife - Caroline Ellen Picard. His second wife was Juliette Joseph whom he married circa 1857. She died in 1908 and was the last member of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation to be interred in the Jewish cemetery at Ballybough, Dublin which had been in continuous use for 190 years. Lewis Wormser Harris became a prominent member of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation. He was three times its President: 1847-48, 1851-52 and 1860-63. He was one of the founders of the Stafford Street Synagogue in 1853. A most successful businessman, he carried on business as a bill-broker and financier at 19 Suffolk Street, Dublin and was renowned for his commercial integrity and as a generous philanthropist. He became a British subject in 1852 by Royal Warrant. He was universally admired by the people of Dublin and in 1874 they elected him as an Alderman of Dublin Corporation (the city council) representing the South Dock Ward. He thus became the first Jew to be elected to public office in Ireland. On 1st August 1876 he passed away after a short illness just before his appointment as Lord Mayor of Dublin. If he had lived he would have been Dublin's first Jewish Lord Mayor. Eighty years later in 1956 Alderman Robert Briscoe (1896-1969) became Dublin's first Jewish Lord Mayor.

Generated by GenDesigner FreeWare made by Morten Salthe 1998