Date (happened)
  • 1918 (possible)
    field_clip_date on the media item: CWB filename date (bare year in filename), Greenfield-Daily-Recorder1918jewishnegro.jpg
  • 15 August 1918 (probable)
    article's own dateline: 'Camp Upton, Aug. 15,--American citizenship was granted to-day'
The Greenfield Daily Recorder reports that Count David Ben Isaac de Kell-scritta, described as a Jewish private who speaks 27 languages and claims blood relationship with the late King Menelik of Abyssinia, was naturalized in the court held by Justice Morschauser at Camp Upton, N.Y. Filed as general background in the Abdullah research strand's press coverage of self-styled Abyssinian/Ethiopian Jewish figures; no connection to Neville Goddard or to Abdullah/Guillaume is stated in the source. A fuller New York Herald wire account (dateline Camp Upton, Aug. 15) adds that he was born in the section of Abyssinia known as Italian Somaliland and had previously been naturalised as a subject of Italy; that his command of languages was tested in court by interpreters across English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Polish, the Scandinavian languages, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Turkish, his Hebrew being especially strong as he had once studied for rabbinical orders; that he might be transferred to the intelligence service from the medical detachment of an engineer regiment; and that his home was given as 410 Fourth Street, Milwaukee (OCR-truncated in this scan as 'Milwa)'). Spelled here 'David Ben Isaac de Keliacritta' / 'Private Kellecritta'. The Courier-News account adds that he had attended a function for Camp Dix at the Plainfield high school some months before his naturalization, and that he was engaged in government service touring the various army camps to interpret for foreign-born soldiers, write letters for them, and generally help harmonize soldiers of different nationalities. Witness note: the four article nodes on this story resolve to three newspapers, not four — the Greenfield Daily Recorder (nodes 4131 and 4346) and the Courier-News (nodes 4156 and 4302) were each scraped twice, alongside the New York Herald (node 4154). The 15 August 1918 date on this event comes from the Herald copy.