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Jewish Los Angeles
9781467105491
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
The first known Jewish resident of the Mexican Pueblo de Los Ángeles arrived in 1841. When California entered the Union in 1850, the census listed just eight Jews living in Los Angeles. By 1855, the fledgling city had a Hebrew Benevolent Society and a Jewish cemetery. The first Jewish congregation and kosher market were established in 1862. Meanwhile, Jewish merchants and business owners founded banks, fraternal orders, charities, athletic clubs, and social service organizations. Jewish property owners developed vast areas of Los Angeles and beyond into the neighborhoods and cities we know today. By 1897, the city's Jewish population was large enough to support its own newspaper. The 20th century brought waves of Jewish immigrants and migrants to Los Angeles, where they built the motion picture and television industries, Cedars-Sinai and City of Hope medical centers, the Jewish Home for the Aging, urban and suburban synagogues and Jewish centers, and other institutions. The foundations laid by these enterprising pioneers helped transform Los Angeles into a major metropolis.
Jewish Gold Country
9781467104814
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma on January 24, 1848, initiated one of the largest migrations in US history. Between 1849 and 1855, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in Northern California hoping to find gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The rapid population growth and economic prosperity led to boomtowns, banks, and railroads, making California eligible for statehood in 1850. An international cast of gold-seekers, merchants, and tradespeople arrived by land and through the port of San Francisco, which was transformed from a small village to a cosmopolitan metropolis. Jewish pioneers, many of whom had been merchants in Europe, opened stores and businesses in small towns and mining camps in and around the Mother Lode. They established benevolent societies and cemeteries, founded synagogues and companies, held public office and positions of influence, and contributed greatly to the multicultural fabric of the Gold Country.
Jewish San Francisco
9780738546834
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
In San Francisco, the "instant city" of the gold rush days, Jews were pioneers among pioneers. Some came as immigrants directly from Europe, others as resettled adventurers from the East Coast, and still others as scions of southern Sephardic families. Out of this mixed multitude emerged a community with synagogues and institutions to care for the needy and the sick, along with a dignified social fabric. New immigrants following the Russian pogroms of 1883 were absorbed, and the ashen ruins from the 1906 earthquake were rebuilt. The city's cultural treasures and social needs were enriched, and the city's Jews were nurtured by civic commitments. Today's 70,000 San Francisco Jews, standing upon the shoulders of pioneering giants, continue to build and rebuild.
Jews of Oakland and Berkeley
9780738570334
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
From the time the Jewish people of Oakland first settled in that city, they have developed their own institutions and style. Starting with the purchase of land for a cemetery in the 1860s, they created a robust and unique lifestyle. Throughout the 20th century, Jews in Berkeley have contributed both cultural and intellectual elements that resonate through American Jewish life. Building on the work of the founders and expanding from a local society to a regional population, the Jews of the East Bay continue to serve as a model for Jewish life through their innovative programs and commitment to service.
Jewish Community of Solano County
9781467132084
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
This book contains images and stories of some of the Jews who have impacted Solano County. It is not a record of every Jew to pass this way, some of whom may have come intending to shed their Jewish identity by changing their names or converting. Wonderful stories emerged about extraordinary people who made their marks here with few suspecting their Jewish roots, yet they were traceable often because in death they chose to reclaim their heritage. Others came to live as Jews and built an enduring community. The story within these pages travels from the Old World to the edge of Gold Country, where there lives a tenacious, though often invisible, Jewish community.
Napa Valley's Jewish Heritage
9780738588988
Regular price $24.99 Sale price $18.74 Save 25%
As the world rushed in to profit from California's gold strike of 1848, many Jews joined the throng, not necessarily to mine but to sell merchandise to prospectors. Some settled in Napa Valley, a basin of rich agricultural land nestled between two mountain ridges. These pioneers conducted business, making significant contributions to the development of the Valley. Participating in cultural life, holding public office, and leading organizations, many also made fine wines, something perfected thousands of years ago as commanded in scripture. They continue to do so, and this is their story told through photographs.
